Peppermint Candy Cane, week 2:
1: He drew minions on our bananas
2: He farted in a jar--it smelled like peppermint!
3: Played Mancala with friends
4: Cracked some nuts for us
5: Gathered some friends and hung out in stockings
6: Colored a picture for us
7: Hung out on the fridge
Peppermint Candy Cane, week 3:
1. Wrapped all the presents for me (if only!)
2. Used the empty wrapping paper rolls as stilts
3. Gave away "free reindeer poop"
4. Played Solitaire
5. Stayed up all night reading tons of books
6. Brought a birthday card and present for the twins
7. Mailed himself to Maw-maw & Paw-paw's house so he could be with the twins
Peppermint Candy Cane, last 3 days:
1. Hanging out on the Cajun Christmas house
2. The power had gone out the night before while the girls were getting ready for bed and stayed out for a couple of hours; he must have needed a flashlight when he got back from the North Pole
3. Ready to join an elf motorcycle gang? :)
12/20--My babies are 7! ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ Peppermint Candy Cane (our elf) left a present and card for them, as always--an Usborne "100 things for little children to do on a trip" (a really cute pack of dry erase cards). They also each got an Usborne Pocket doodling and colouring book and a paperback book (Thanks so much, Coralie Stokes!! Coralie sells Usborne books, which are amazing) and blank small notebooks--all for the plane ride. Makenna read her entire book on the plane. :)
For their birthday breakfast, I made pancakes in the shape of "Happy Birthday!" I still can't believe they are 7 years old!
After breakfast, we got ready, finished packing, and headed to the airport. They were great on the plane, especially since they got to play some games on the screens. Avery played a bubble game, where you have to shoot different colored bubbles and they pop if you get 3 of the same color to pop; you have to keep popping bubbles before the ceiling comes down. Makenna preferred Tic-Tac-Toe.
Avery was literally copying a book she brought with her, ha ha:
Nikki planned a girls' night at my parents house the night that we arrived. She was already doing nails with my nieces when we arrived and Avery was all about letting her cousin do hers. Makenna wasn't interested but she had fun playing with her uncles!
More birthday fun, this time at Maw-maw & Paw-paw's. Kiki and Michael went and got some cakes and Blue Bell ice cream and Maw-maw and Paw-paw gave them Belle and Pocahontas dolls. Makenna refused to put the Pocahontas doll down all night.
I'd say they had a pretty good birthday. :) I love them so much and I'm so thankful to be their mom!
12/21--Peppermint Candy Cane mailed himself to Maw-maw & Paw-paw's house. The twins and their cousin enjoyed reading his letter, where he explained that he already missed them the day before and really wanted to be with them for Christmas.
Fun day in The Big Easy with Kiki and family, Ben & his girls, and Tim.
Lunch at The Original French Market Restaurant:
Jackson Square:
12/22--It's always a fun time at Global Wildlife! There were some young giraffes, including a one week old!! It was SO stinkin' cute!!!!
The one-week old!:
Boudin balls and meat pies after Global Wildlife. Mmmmm! Ben and Bridget's cat wanted some, too.
The swamp walk after lunch:
Back at Maw-maw & Paw-paw's house that afternoon, the kids opened the "fun bags" Maw-maw put together for the kids and Makenna decided to paint her ornament:
Meanwhile, Avery and Wyatt played Trouble:
We went back to Nikki and Barry's house that night. Their dog is hilarious. He thinks he's a small dog who can walk right across everyone's lap and sit wherever he wants. 😄 He LOVED licking all over Judson and Wyatt's faces. Oh, and we were watching a kids' movie ("Rin Tin", I think) and he barked every time he saw a dog on the screen. It was hilarious!
12/24--After church on Christmas Eve:
We watched "Bringing up Baby" that evening. Avery made herself comfy on this chair:
Christmas Eve pajamas:
Hilarious elf story: My sister, Nikki, didn't know that you're not supposed to touch the elf and, as I saw her reaching for it, I yelled out and scared the tar out of her (oops!). Of course, the twins were sitting right there and saw it happen and were both upset. Makenna actually went in our room and cried. We came up with the idea that, since Santa was coming that night, he could just restore Peppermint Candy Cane's magic and take him on the sleigh with him. Makenna wrote these notes:
"Dear Peppermint Candy Cane, I'm sorry my aunt touched you. From Makenna to Peppermint Candy Cane and I gave you and Santa a gift. ❤"
"Dear Santa please take good care of Peppermint Candy Cane!" 🎅🎄😊
My 17yo nephew was sitting next to me, doodling on one of my girls' Boogie Boards, and I look over and see this. He's pretty amazing.
12/25--Christmas Morning--The girls read the note that Peppermint Candy Cane left for them: "Dear Avery & Makenna, Santa fixed me right up and restored my magic. I really enjoyed spending another Christmas with you. I'm already looking forward to seeing you next year. I love you! Peppermint Candy Cane P.S I get to ride on Santa's sleigh! Yipeeee!" [Nikki touched him the previous night (she didn't know he shouldn't be touched), so Makenna left notes for Santa).]
Belgian waffles with all kinds of fixin's for breakfast (Nutella, bananas, blueberries, whipped cream, syrup, etc.):
Makenna waiting for everyone to finally be ready to open presents :P
Ready to open gifts!
The unwrapping of gifts. The twins loved the dogs with dog carriers from Maw-maw & Paw-paw, the mermaid blankets from Kiki, and the kitty masks that Ben bought for them at the French Market. They just got some shirts and pants from me because we did our gifts and Santa's gifts with them after we got back to Utah.
The dogs and dog carriers from Maw-maw and Paw-paw:
The kitty masks from Ben:
The oven mitt we did for Maw-maw and Paw-paw:
Makenna really loved all the stuff she got!
Their first Christmas together:
Christmas afternoon--We all participated in a reading of the Christmas story from the scriptures, then had Christmas dinner.
Nikki brought over the black & while coloring puzzle she and Kiki had started at her house the night before. The kids had fun coloring it in. Avery must have colored on it for several hours!
Christmas dinner was awesome, as usual. My mom really outdid herself--literally. I think she did way too much and woke up really sick the next day. She ended up going to the dr. after we left and had a bronchial infection. Thanks for making our Christmas together so special, Mom! Sorry you got so sick from (probably) wearing yourself out! I love you
12/26: Mom stayed home sick, Nikki wasn't feeling up to the drive, and Bridget had to work but the rest of us drove up to MS to spend the afternoon at Aunt Patty's house, along with one of my uncle's family. We had so much fun and good food, as usual! Charades was especially hilarious with my crazy family! :D
On our way to MS:
In front of Aunt Patty's awesome Christmas village:
My beautiful aunt and cousin:
I love this pic of my sis and Daddy:
Kiki and Carma ♥♥♥
Charades--this was hilarious! :D
Makenna loved playing Charades--she wanted to get up with me every time I had a turn and Tim let her get up and help him:
12/27--Our last day in Louisiana, we stopped by Dollar Tree for a few things for the plane ride, then we went and ate at Raising Cane's. We need one in Utah! 😋 Our flight left at 6:40 PM, we had a layover in Atlanta and landed in SLC at just after 1 AM. We pulled into our driveway at 2:30 AM! The girls still got up by 8:00 that morning to open their presents from us and Santa. 😴
12/28--Opening Christmas gifts at our house
Seeing their Santa gifts (bikes):
Opening their stockings: Jared and I both got them fidget spinners without knowing it, so they each have two. One of them lights up.
They love balloons, so they each got a bag of them and they LOVE using bath bombs, so they each got a bag of those, too.
Bike horns!!
Have to get at least one game for Christmas! ;)
In case you don't know, it's from our favorite show together, The Walking Dead:
The each got a new shirt, winter face mask/hats, and another set of pajamas:
These are a robo turtle, fish, mermaid, and seahorse. They are actually pretty cool:
A couple of new books each--they each got one "Shine-A-Light Book" where you shine a flashlight at the back of the pages and you can see cool things through it from the other side and they each got a "Lift-the-Flap Book".
A Hatchimals Surprise with TWINS!!! :D :D :D
We activated the Hatchimals egg that afternoon and they started hatching right as one of my piano students was leaving a couple of hours later. It was so exciting for the girls! :D They carried them the rest of the day, including to Kiki's house and two Wal-marts. The twin Hatchimals do cute stuff together when they are facing each other. They are actually even cuter than I thought they would be. :D
We forgot to wrap the magnets the girls picked out for Jared from the French Market in New Orleans for when we did our family gifts, so we just gave them to him that afternoon. Makenna picked out the gator and Avery, the mask:
We also met Kiki's beautiful new Samoyed puppy today. She is so sweet and chill. She has the same birthday as me! :)
12/29--Having a blast playing with new toys this morning. :)
The twins had fun at a friend's birthday party today. We even stayed for a bit afterward to play because they were having so much fun. They played so hard they were sweating!
And they rode their new bikes for the first time that evening:
12/30--The girls are making farting noises with balloons. They are definitely Jared's kids, ha ha!
12/31--This was the first year the twins stayed up 'til past midnight; there was one year the fireworks woke them up just before midnight, so they got to ring in the new year with us, but they had never stayed up the entire time. I had to keep them busy! It was the most exhausting NYE for me, ha ha! They started to fizzle out around 11:00 when there was a lag in activities for a few minutes but I got them going again with a glow stick dance party. :D
Starting at 6:00, we popped a balloon every hour that had a piece of paper in it telling them what activity we were to do that hour. I started dinner late, then had a mishap (I did a turkey roast in the Instant Pot and must have used a bigger roast than what the recipe was for because it didn't cook all the way through), so we actually didn't eat our 6:00 "fancy dinner" until after 7:00. I made a turkey roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, and stuffing.
Here was our schedule:
6:00 Eat a fancy dinner
7:00 Make cupcakes
8:00 Play a game
9:00 Make a craft
10:00 Eat a snack (we ended up just decorating the cupcakes and eating some of them)
11:00 Glow stick dance party!!!
11:15 Go out and watch fireworks (no one was doing fireworks at that time, so we just went in a watched some of the countdown show on TV
11:45 Toast with Kool-aid and put hats on (we actually ended up using some Black Lemonade from a stash of specialty sodas Jared had). It was disgusting, ha ha!
Midnight: Give Happy New Year kisses!!! [We hung this balloon and put confetti in it!]
Finally eating dinner:
Making the cupcakes:
Licking the batter:
The game we played is called Headbanz, that they got for Christmas.
Decorating the cupcakes:
Glow stick dance party!:
Our toast for a great 2018:
Starting to peter out:
The midnight balloon, with confetti flying everywhere, ha ha!:
THE COUNTDOWN!:
New Year's kisses:
The hats--The one Avery made for me:
Avery's hat:
The hats Makenna made for Jared and herself:
We had a fun little party together! :D Here's to hoping this year brings us some great opportunities and adventures!
2: He farted in a jar--it smelled like peppermint!
3: Played Mancala with friends
4: Cracked some nuts for us
5: Gathered some friends and hung out in stockings
6: Colored a picture for us
7: Hung out on the fridge
Peppermint Candy Cane, week 3:
1. Wrapped all the presents for me (if only!)
2. Used the empty wrapping paper rolls as stilts
3. Gave away "free reindeer poop"
4. Played Solitaire
5. Stayed up all night reading tons of books
6. Brought a birthday card and present for the twins
7. Mailed himself to Maw-maw & Paw-paw's house so he could be with the twins
Peppermint Candy Cane, last 3 days:
1. Hanging out on the Cajun Christmas house
2. The power had gone out the night before while the girls were getting ready for bed and stayed out for a couple of hours; he must have needed a flashlight when he got back from the North Pole
3. Ready to join an elf motorcycle gang? :)
12/20--My babies are 7! ðŸ˜ðŸ˜ Peppermint Candy Cane (our elf) left a present and card for them, as always--an Usborne "100 things for little children to do on a trip" (a really cute pack of dry erase cards). They also each got an Usborne Pocket doodling and colouring book and a paperback book (Thanks so much, Coralie Stokes!! Coralie sells Usborne books, which are amazing) and blank small notebooks--all for the plane ride. Makenna read her entire book on the plane. :)
For their birthday breakfast, I made pancakes in the shape of "Happy Birthday!" I still can't believe they are 7 years old!
After breakfast, we got ready, finished packing, and headed to the airport. They were great on the plane, especially since they got to play some games on the screens. Avery played a bubble game, where you have to shoot different colored bubbles and they pop if you get 3 of the same color to pop; you have to keep popping bubbles before the ceiling comes down. Makenna preferred Tic-Tac-Toe.
Avery was literally copying a book she brought with her, ha ha:
Nikki planned a girls' night at my parents house the night that we arrived. She was already doing nails with my nieces when we arrived and Avery was all about letting her cousin do hers. Makenna wasn't interested but she had fun playing with her uncles!
More birthday fun, this time at Maw-maw & Paw-paw's. Kiki and Michael went and got some cakes and Blue Bell ice cream and Maw-maw and Paw-paw gave them Belle and Pocahontas dolls. Makenna refused to put the Pocahontas doll down all night.
I'd say they had a pretty good birthday. :) I love them so much and I'm so thankful to be their mom!
12/21--Peppermint Candy Cane mailed himself to Maw-maw & Paw-paw's house. The twins and their cousin enjoyed reading his letter, where he explained that he already missed them the day before and really wanted to be with them for Christmas.
Fun day in The Big Easy with Kiki and family, Ben & his girls, and Tim.
Lunch at The Original French Market Restaurant:
Shopping at the French Market--Avery picked out an owl backpack and Makenna chose a ceramic turtle with moving head and legs.
Jackson Square:
The one-week old!:
Boudin balls and meat pies after Global Wildlife. Mmmmm! Ben and Bridget's cat wanted some, too.
The swamp walk after lunch:
12/23--We went to see Nikki & Barry's house and meet their dog (and play Frisbee with him) that morning:
Back at Maw-maw & Paw-paw's house that afternoon, the kids opened the "fun bags" Maw-maw put together for the kids and Makenna decided to paint her ornament:
Meanwhile, Avery and Wyatt played Trouble:
We went back to Nikki and Barry's house that night. Their dog is hilarious. He thinks he's a small dog who can walk right across everyone's lap and sit wherever he wants. 😄 He LOVED licking all over Judson and Wyatt's faces. Oh, and we were watching a kids' movie ("Rin Tin", I think) and he barked every time he saw a dog on the screen. It was hilarious!
12/24--After church on Christmas Eve:
We watched "Bringing up Baby" that evening. Avery made herself comfy on this chair:
Christmas Eve pajamas:
Hilarious elf story: My sister, Nikki, didn't know that you're not supposed to touch the elf and, as I saw her reaching for it, I yelled out and scared the tar out of her (oops!). Of course, the twins were sitting right there and saw it happen and were both upset. Makenna actually went in our room and cried. We came up with the idea that, since Santa was coming that night, he could just restore Peppermint Candy Cane's magic and take him on the sleigh with him. Makenna wrote these notes:
"Dear Peppermint Candy Cane, I'm sorry my aunt touched you. From Makenna to Peppermint Candy Cane and I gave you and Santa a gift. ❤"
"Dear Santa please take good care of Peppermint Candy Cane!" 🎅🎄😊
My 17yo nephew was sitting next to me, doodling on one of my girls' Boogie Boards, and I look over and see this. He's pretty amazing.
12/25--Christmas Morning--The girls read the note that Peppermint Candy Cane left for them: "Dear Avery & Makenna, Santa fixed me right up and restored my magic. I really enjoyed spending another Christmas with you. I'm already looking forward to seeing you next year. I love you! Peppermint Candy Cane P.S I get to ride on Santa's sleigh! Yipeeee!" [Nikki touched him the previous night (she didn't know he shouldn't be touched), so Makenna left notes for Santa).]
Belgian waffles with all kinds of fixin's for breakfast (Nutella, bananas, blueberries, whipped cream, syrup, etc.):
Makenna waiting for everyone to finally be ready to open presents :P
Ready to open gifts!
The unwrapping of gifts. The twins loved the dogs with dog carriers from Maw-maw & Paw-paw, the mermaid blankets from Kiki, and the kitty masks that Ben bought for them at the French Market. They just got some shirts and pants from me because we did our gifts and Santa's gifts with them after we got back to Utah.
The dogs and dog carriers from Maw-maw and Paw-paw:
The kitty masks from Ben:
The oven mitt we did for Maw-maw and Paw-paw:
Makenna really loved all the stuff she got!
Their first Christmas together:
Christmas afternoon--We all participated in a reading of the Christmas story from the scriptures, then had Christmas dinner.
Nikki brought over the black & while coloring puzzle she and Kiki had started at her house the night before. The kids had fun coloring it in. Avery must have colored on it for several hours!
Christmas dinner was awesome, as usual. My mom really outdid herself--literally. I think she did way too much and woke up really sick the next day. She ended up going to the dr. after we left and had a bronchial infection. Thanks for making our Christmas together so special, Mom! Sorry you got so sick from (probably) wearing yourself out! I love you
12/26: Mom stayed home sick, Nikki wasn't feeling up to the drive, and Bridget had to work but the rest of us drove up to MS to spend the afternoon at Aunt Patty's house, along with one of my uncle's family. We had so much fun and good food, as usual! Charades was especially hilarious with my crazy family! :D
On our way to MS:
In front of Aunt Patty's awesome Christmas village:
Kiki and Carma ♥♥♥
Charades--this was hilarious! :D
Makenna loved playing Charades--she wanted to get up with me every time I had a turn and Tim let her get up and help him:
12/27--Our last day in Louisiana, we stopped by Dollar Tree for a few things for the plane ride, then we went and ate at Raising Cane's. We need one in Utah! 😋 Our flight left at 6:40 PM, we had a layover in Atlanta and landed in SLC at just after 1 AM. We pulled into our driveway at 2:30 AM! The girls still got up by 8:00 that morning to open their presents from us and Santa. 😴
12/28--Opening Christmas gifts at our house
Seeing their Santa gifts (bikes):
Opening their stockings: Jared and I both got them fidget spinners without knowing it, so they each have two. One of them lights up.
They love balloons, so they each got a bag of them and they LOVE using bath bombs, so they each got a bag of those, too.
Bike horns!!
Have to get at least one game for Christmas! ;)
In case you don't know, it's from our favorite show together, The Walking Dead:
The each got a new shirt, winter face mask/hats, and another set of pajamas:
These are a robo turtle, fish, mermaid, and seahorse. They are actually pretty cool:
A couple of new books each--they each got one "Shine-A-Light Book" where you shine a flashlight at the back of the pages and you can see cool things through it from the other side and they each got a "Lift-the-Flap Book".
A Hatchimals Surprise with TWINS!!! :D :D :D
We activated the Hatchimals egg that afternoon and they started hatching right as one of my piano students was leaving a couple of hours later. It was so exciting for the girls! :D They carried them the rest of the day, including to Kiki's house and two Wal-marts. The twin Hatchimals do cute stuff together when they are facing each other. They are actually even cuter than I thought they would be. :D
We forgot to wrap the magnets the girls picked out for Jared from the French Market in New Orleans for when we did our family gifts, so we just gave them to him that afternoon. Makenna picked out the gator and Avery, the mask:
We also met Kiki's beautiful new Samoyed puppy today. She is so sweet and chill. She has the same birthday as me! :)
12/29--Having a blast playing with new toys this morning. :)
The twins had fun at a friend's birthday party today. We even stayed for a bit afterward to play because they were having so much fun. They played so hard they were sweating!
And they rode their new bikes for the first time that evening:
12/30--The girls are making farting noises with balloons. They are definitely Jared's kids, ha ha!
12/31--This was the first year the twins stayed up 'til past midnight; there was one year the fireworks woke them up just before midnight, so they got to ring in the new year with us, but they had never stayed up the entire time. I had to keep them busy! It was the most exhausting NYE for me, ha ha! They started to fizzle out around 11:00 when there was a lag in activities for a few minutes but I got them going again with a glow stick dance party. :D
Starting at 6:00, we popped a balloon every hour that had a piece of paper in it telling them what activity we were to do that hour. I started dinner late, then had a mishap (I did a turkey roast in the Instant Pot and must have used a bigger roast than what the recipe was for because it didn't cook all the way through), so we actually didn't eat our 6:00 "fancy dinner" until after 7:00. I made a turkey roast, mashed potatoes and gravy, and stuffing.
Here was our schedule:
6:00 Eat a fancy dinner
7:00 Make cupcakes
8:00 Play a game
9:00 Make a craft
10:00 Eat a snack (we ended up just decorating the cupcakes and eating some of them)
11:00 Glow stick dance party!!!
11:15 Go out and watch fireworks (no one was doing fireworks at that time, so we just went in a watched some of the countdown show on TV
11:45 Toast with Kool-aid and put hats on (we actually ended up using some Black Lemonade from a stash of specialty sodas Jared had). It was disgusting, ha ha!
Midnight: Give Happy New Year kisses!!! [We hung this balloon and put confetti in it!]
We had a fun little party together! :D Here's to hoping this year brings us some great opportunities and adventures!
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