We had a pretty good week. Nathan worked till 11pm or later every night, I got a lot of Christmas shopping done (using gift cards from last Christmas which I'm so grateful for), and Madalyn submitted her BYU application. The weather was in the 30's and smoggy, so that wasn't fun, but otherwise things were good.
Sunday: We were trying to take a picture of Talea for Kylie, wearing the same dress Kylie wore when she was one. My mom gave it to her and it's kinda sad that this is our last girl to wear it. Talea kept grabbing the hat off and we needed to get in the car to go to church, but we sent Kylie these pictures anyway.
Selfies waiting for church to start.
I came downstairs to see Madalyn playing the piano beautiful Christmas music and wanted to capture this moment.
The most perfect tree we've ever had.
It probably cost an arm and a leg; we've always gotten cheap-o ones. But we sure love this one!
While Nathan and the older kids were at choir I hung out with Samuel, Anderson, and Talea and they were being so cute.
The boys were cutting their own apples and so proud of themselves.
We got 4" of snow on Saturday.
Handsome Spencer playing (with Talea on his lap.)
Someone took this of Talea stepping on Tom's cello.
And playing the headpiece of a flute.
And sitting in front of the tree.
We took this because we have one just like it with Kylie wearing this dress pointing to a Christmas tree at a med school party in Dallas. It's hard to believe how fast the years have gone. Sometimes I wish I could go back and relive those days of having our first baby because it was so special.
Makenna and Kaitlyn wanting their pictures taken in front of the tree.
Tuesday: We watched 5 extra kids (from 3 different families) from 8-1. This is Kaitlyn and her baby cousin David who she helped take care of a lot.
Eating lunch with the extra kids.
Cousin David and our neighbor Ruth.
Wednesday: Talea was cute climbing the stairs after Spencer's orchestra concert.
Thursday night: Lexi and Madalyn were teaching Talea how to pose with her chin in her hand. Madalyn got a lot of good photos on her phone but by the time I saw what they were doing and grabbed mine this is all I got.
Friday: Finally decorating the tree. It went un-decorated for a week because I had to buy some lights first and I also got a tree skirt. It's the first time we've ever had one. I usually use the sheet off my bed but something in me wanted a real skirt this year. Maybe it was the beautiful tree. It needed a beautiful skirt instead of a ratty sheet.
The kids at Kylie's first harp concert. She's wanted to play since she was 3 so I'm thrilled she finally gets to fulfill that dream.
Afterward she treated us to Taco Bell with her food card. Alexis remembers eating at Taco Bell as our tradition on the way to pageant when she was little but the rest have never eaten there before so it was fun (but terribly unhealthy--I don't miss fast food at all. I only had a couple of bites of Talea but that was enough for me. I'm so glad we've trained our taste buds to like real food now.)
After dinner we went to my brother's house and got to see his 3 week old baby for the first time.
He's absolutely perfect.
Saturday: I walked by the tree and had to take a picture of it all finished and standing beautiful and peaceful after the little kids were in bed. There's something special about seeing trees at night when it's calm and quiet. They look even prettier and make life seem ok if you know what I mean.
