David, Molly, Annika, Benson: December

12/6: I took Annika to Young Women in Excellence tonight. When all of the girls were sharing what personal progress thing they've been working on, Annika leaned over and said she wanted to share something. I told her it was just for the the YW to get up and suggested that she could tell Mindy what she wanted to share after the program. But she insisted on going up! I don't know where she gets her stage confidence. So we went up to the front and she shared that she's been making Christmas cards for people. She has a stack of about 15 for us to deliver. What a sweetheart!

12/16: We went to the Christmas ward party last night. I talked to Esther and Benson earlier in the day about seeing Santa. They were both excited to see him and get candy. We talked about seeing Santa again during the afternoon. And Esther said "I'm going to get Santa's phone!" I asked her what she was going to do with it and she said "watch movies." This girl is obsessed with watching movies on the YouTube kids app! She uses the speaker function and is usually successful. It's funny but also a little disturbing to see her so attached and adept with the phone. She likes use the speaker function to find spiderman, boss baby, baby bottles, and dinosaur movies. Nice variety. She's such a character. So at the party last night, Esther told Santa she wanted Christmas lights. Benson said he wanted a real phone that plays movies and Annika asked for a Barbie RV. They all loved talking to him and were not shy.
On another note, I'm almost 35 weeks pregnant! We spent last Saturday moving Annika and Benson's beds downstairs to the guest room. It was quite a project. We picked up all of the scraps of paper, beads, crayons, etc from the office floor. Annika has used it as an "art room" on occasion. She ends up doing most of her nearly daily art projects at the kitchen table. So we deep cleaned the office. Then, David moved the king size bed from the guest room and leaned it against the desk in the office. Next was a deep clean of the guest room. David even wiped out the piles of spider webs and dead bugs that were around the little window. I sprayed foam insulation all around the window and hopefully that will keep the pests out. Then we moved the kids beds and clothes down to the guest room and proceeded to deep clean the upstairs bedroom. David and I brought all of the baby equipment upstairs and I took all of the covers off to wash. So our house is now rearranged and ready for the arrival of our baby boy next month! Annika and Benson have done well sleeping downstairs. It's not ideal having our kids so far away from us sleeping downstairs. But, I'm glad we have 3 bedrooms to spread the kids between.

Zack stayed for a week after Thanksgiving and renovated Glenn and Kathy's kitchen. We love it! It's such an improvement to have new flooring, the peninsula gone, trim added around the cabinet doors, and new paint! Zack worked fast, which was much appreciated for us. He got sick in the middle of the week and slept most of one day. I'm so grateful (and so are my in-laws) that he did this. But I have to say I enjoy when he just visits us to hang much more than when he has to work while he's here.

The kids found a fluorescent light cover that wouldn't stay up on the ceiling and started using it as a car ramp. Lots of good times for Esther and Benson with that thing.

David has been taking Benson to a few high school basketball games this winter. Benson often falls asleep. But he is still excited to go every time (for the concession stands candy, I'm sure). The girls and I have movie nights while they're gone. Esther usually just watches for a few minutes. Then I take her to bed and Annika and I watch some more. Annika asked me to take this picture to send to Papi so he could see the girls and her doll all in pjs, ready to watch our movie. :)

We can't wait to meet our little boy! Not too much longer. Dr Small is out of town until I'm 38 weeks. I've never had my baby more than 2 days before my due date. But that still makes me nervous! I've called the clinic to see who is on call while dr Small is gone. There are two doctors who I really don't want in the delivery room. So hopefully baby boy will just wait until at least 38 weeks. Our top names are Tyson, Osmond (Ozzie), and Caleb. I love Ozzie. But I don't know if I like Osmond enough to name him that for the nickname.

Crazy hair day at school!

These kids were so darling holding hands at the Christmas program (Amber Stutz, Reagan Harris, Benson, and Michelle Nygard).

Annika and Leah Jensen. These two are such cute buddies. We're going to miss them when they move in a few months for medical residency.

I love this dress. But it does accentuate my pregnant belly a little more than I like :)

We went to the Zurligen's and made gingerbread houses. We ate a lot of candy.

We went to grandma's house! She went with us to the carousel near her home. They had live reindeer. I think this was our second year. We went with Keenan last year. The kids love going to grandma's and so do I. We are blessed to live near my grandparents. A few weeks before Christmas, Grandma called and said she wanted to get the kids each an outfit for Christmas (something she knew my mom would've done). I was so touched by her thoughtfulness. She picked an outfit that fit each of their personalities perfectly. Sporty for Benson, fancy for Annika, and sassy for Esther (pink fur vest).