December 2021

Paxton's 1st Voice Recital

We had Paxton in piano lessons for a couple years and he has never loved it.  So when he signed up to be a part of Suessical the Musical we decided to switch over to voice lessons since his piano teacher taught both.  He has decided to stick with it even though he still complains about having to practice.  This was him at his first voice recital.  He definitely was nervous, but he got up there and did it and I'm so proud of him!

First Snowman this winter




It's a GIRL!

We got to find out the gender super early of this baby!  When I went in for my first appointment at 9 weeks pregnant my doctor asked if I wanted to take the blood test where you find out gender and other chromosomes.  Since I'm over 35 years old I'm considered a gereatric pregnancy so the test would be covered by my insurance so I did it.  He said the results could take up to two weeks, but I got them in a week.  When I opened that email I was feeling excited to see the gender and then was even more excited to see the word FEMALE!!  I wanted to tell Rem right away, but I decided to do something a little more fun.  So later that day when the whole family was together I swaddled up one of Harper's baby dolls and put a card in it and told her to go take it to daddy.  It was so fun to watch them open that card and see all their excitement!  We are so excited to have another little girl join the family.

Ward Christmas Party

The ward Christmas party was a yummy breakfast that was catered from Kneaders.  They did an ugly sweater contest which we didn't really have anything and then they had the primary kids dress up in nativity clothing and sing a song, it was really cute.  We got some pictures at the photo op spot and the kids colored some ornaments.  It was a fun party.

New Christmas Pajamas

Harper loves Minnie Mouse so much that I couldn't resist getting her some Christmas pajamas with Minnie on them.  Buddy the elf once again found the pajamas I bought and hung them on the tree on December 1st for the kids.  My boys love the onesie pajamas so they were super excited and of course Harper was thrilled!


        

It was so fun to get lots of snow!  The kids instantly wanted to be out in it and had a blast.  And of course we always follow up with hot chocolate.

Gingerbread Houses
This year for our annual gingerbread house contest we decided to do it somewhat virtual again.  We sent out invites and set a deadline for people to send us their pictures.  Then we posted them on social media for voting and the next day had a party at our house.  It was nice being able to enjoy the company of our friends and family instead of worrying about making a gingerbread house.  I think everyone likes being able to make their gingerbread house at home on their own time.  And since we had the kitchen a mess and all the stuff to make the gingerbread houses we did a night with the kids so they could make their own.  I had fun helping Harper, I let her do most of it by herself.  She had a fun time with it and wanted to keep eating all the candy.

Desert Star Christmas Play

We had fun taking the boys to a Christmas play on the 23rd.  We went to a matinee showing so we got some lunch while watching the show.  We all loved it!

Sorenson Christmas Party
We had the Sorenson party on December 23 and pretty much everyone was able to come.  We decided to have the party at GG Hughes so she could be a part of the party since it's hard for her to have to go anywhere.  She loved having everyone over so much!  We made it easy and just had everyone pick up their own food.  We ate dinner, then did a little nativity where the kids dressed up.  Harper got to be an angel and Graham was a donkey.  Then we had a gift exchange.  Grandma Sorenson made all the kids these mini size pillows and gave them some money to go shopping.  They also exchanged gifts with cousins and the adults did their traditional food gift stealing game.  

Santa came to visit

When we got home from the Sorenson Christmas party we heard some bells outside, it was Santa Claus!  The kids were all excited to see him, even Harper this year!  After Santa left Graham was sure to tell us that that was just Grandpa, not the real Santa.  

Moss Christmas Eve Party

We went to my parents house for Christmas Eve.  We had a yummy prime rib dinner then Jamie showed us all a video she made of our recent trip to Florida.  It was so fun to watch!   Then we opened gifts, Grandma knows Harper so well and got her a bunch of Minnie Mouse stuff and a unicorn!  Graham got a bracelet making kit and a 3D pen and Paxton got a Jazz basketball jersey, they all were super happy!  I contacted an old family friend to do a painting of our family cabin that was recently sold to give to my parents for Christmas.  My parents got each family 2 electric scooters, a nice check and announced that they are going to put a pool in their backyard!  We sure are spoiled by them and can't wait for this summer to go swimming tons!  Then we went home, read a new Christmas book and put out cookies for Santa and carrots for the reindeer.  Then the kids all wanted to sleep together so we put my big U shape pregnancy pillow down in Paxton's king size bed so Harper wouldn't roll off and all three of them slept together.  Harper ended up coming in our room in the middle of the night.

Christmas Morning 

The boys were up early, but Harper was still asleep so they played video games until she was up around 8:45 am.  They read some Christmas books about the true meaning of Christmas with dad while I got breakfast started cooking.  Then it was time for presents, the kids all had the biggest smiles and were so happy with what they got.  I love watching them and seeing them so happy!  After presents we had breakfast which was a total flop, I had decided to try something new but when I first pulled it out of the oven it was still pretty doughy and so we put it back in and then all around the sides got really hard.  Oops!  The kids didn't seem to mind too much though, at least there was bacon and sausage.  My parents came around 1:00 and stayed for a couple hours playing with the kids and their new toys.  Then later that evening we decided to go see a movie.  It was a great Christmas day!

November 2021

The Five Days of Christmas in November

We decided to do part of Christmas early this year.  We were going to be leaving for Disney World in 5 days and the kids needed some new stuff for the trip and I knew they'd want to buy things on the trip and I didn't want to come home to buying more stuff for Christmas.  It just seemed like a lot of stuff they didn't really need.  So each day I put something different in the boxes with their names on it (I didn't want to wrap everything).  

Day 1:  They got carry-on rolling suitcases.  We didn't have great luggage for traveling and they actually really liked this gift, they thought it was fun.

Day 2:  They got an insulated water bottle to keep their water cold all day at the parks.  And they got some new masks.

Day 3:  They got a couple of fun shirts to wear at the parks.

Day 4:  They got a new book, some headphones for the plane and other random items to keep them entertained on the airplane.  Harper got lots of coloring things and stickers.

Day 5:  They each got a Disney gift card to buy whatever they wanted at the parks.  

We also had an extra surprise box for the family on Day 5.  They pulled it out and it was a tiny newborn outfit.  Graham first said, "Harper's clothes" no "Hailee's?" (his little cousin) no "Harper's baby doll?" no.  At that point I put a hand on my stomach to give him a clue and then he got it and surprisingly said, "our baby?!"  They all gave me a huge hug!

We're Pregnant?!

On October 29 I woke up feeling crampy and thought "oh good my period is starting.  Now it can be done and over with before our Disney World trip".  But my period didn't come that day or the next or the next, but I was still having cramps.  This was strange so I was trying to remember when my last period was since I don't keep track these day.  I just know I'm pretty regular because it comes every month.  I remembered that I had my last period when we were on vacation with the Sorensons so I looked up the dates and counted back, it had been 40 days.  Now 40 days didn't seem too crazy long because during my days of trying to get pregnant and keeping track of that it would happen every once in a while to have a longer cycle.  But it was strange that I was cramping and it did cross my mind that I could be pregnant, but really did not believe it since I've never been pregnant on my own in our 16 years of marriage.  So I decided to tell Rem about it and asked him if he thought we should get a pregnancy test to "rule it out" because there is no way that would even be true.  He told me to wait one more day and if it still didn't come then we'd go get one.

On November 2 we went to the store to buy a pregnancy test, we felt very strange doing this.  On the way home Rem told me that if the test was positive he wanted  me to tell him in a special way.  I told him there was no time for that, that he would want to know the answer as soon as I did.  So he said, "well just say GO COUGARS if it's a yes and UTAH SUCKS if it's a no."  Haha, ok.  So we got home and got the kids to bed and I went to go take the test.  The results were instant!  I was completely shocked.  How could this be?  Was I ready for this?  I literally told Rem the week before that I was on the same page as him that we were done having kids and we could now go get rid of our last 3 frozen embryos.  I was feeling all the emotions.  After staring in the mirror for a minute trying to take it all in, I went out to the front room to tell Rem.  As he turned in the chair and looked at me I said,"go cougars?!"  He was shocked, then stood to give me a hug.  I was in tears and we were both laughing.  Graham heard us and came out of his room asking what was so funny, we just said nothing and sent him back to bed.  The rest of the evening we on and off laughed about it, felt all the emotions and mostly we were just in shock.

Florida

My parents took the whole family to Florida to do Disney World.  We were so excited!  I knew this trip was going to be a lot different for me now that I was pregnant and I wouldn't be able to ride as much, but Erika was pregnant too and I could hangout with her and Jo and Harper so it was good.  Also, we had recently been to Disneyland so at least I got to ride all the rides there.

The airplane ride went well.  Harper was a little busy, but she did good.  We all got to sit together on the plane so that was fun to hangout with cousins.  Getting to Florida and checked into our vrbo was a little rough with the cleaners still there and no where to go in the pouring rain and we all just wanted to relax after a long flight.  We also weren't super thrilled with the place, it felt dirty and was stinky when we arrived, but it was themed all cute and the kids didn't mind so we just went with it.  A day later there was a flood with the washer and they ended up moving us to another house anyways.

Disney World!

Animal Kingdom

Highlights:

-announcing our pregnancy!  Everyone was confused or shocked.  My mom told me she thought Rem was going to say "just kidding".

-the safari ride and Triceratop Spin with Harper 

-seeing the huge Gorillas roaming around and eating their breakfast.

-having Grandma Cindy join us at the park

-taking my boys on the Avatar Flight of Passage ride

Lowlights:

-we missed seeing the Lion King show because of long lines

-not being able to go on the Everest roller coaster, not even my kids would go on it

-being a chilly day, but it was better than it being too hot

Epcot

Highlights:

-seeing some characters for Harper like Mickey and Minnie, Anna and Elsa, and Winnie the Pooh

-being a park we haven't been too so it was fun to explore a new place!

-Frozen Ride (even my boys liked it), Ratatouille ride-it was amazing!, and the boys loved Test Track

Lowlights:

-so much walking!

-Harper wasn't feeling well this day, she fell asleep a lot but we still had good moments with her.

-having to hold Harper a lot in line, broke our backs.

Hollywood Studios

Highlights:

-Harper and Jo in their twinner outfits and hair do's, they looked so cute and got complimented a lot.

-the new Mickey and Minnie Mouse ride was so darling and Harper loved it so much!

-Harper and I spent a good part of the day just us going to shows and hanging out.

-taking Harper to the Frozen Show and when it snowed at the end, the look on her face was adorable.

-Erika and Ben announcing they were having a GIRL!

-the grandkids got money from Grandpa and Grandma and my boys and the other boy cousins got to make droids together.  Rem and Ben had fun making light sabers.

Lowlights:

-this park had super long lines for pretty much everything!

-once again I didn't get to ride any of the big rides, but I'm glad my boys got to do Star Wars together and I loved spending time with just Harper and I.

Pool time and the house
We stayed at a super fun vacation rental house that had it's own private pool and hot tub.  It had themed kids rooms and a game room.  My boys stayed in the Star Wars room with Lincoln and Harper wanted to stay in the Frozen room with Jo, but we thought it would be easiest to keep her in our room and we just made her a bed on the floor.  It was fun that we all got to stay in the same house together so the kids could play, they even made up a small show to put on for the adults, it was cute.

Magic Kingdom

Highlights:

-we bought the fast pass for this day which helped us a ton to get on lots of rides.

-we got there for rope drop in the morning so we got on Jungle Cruise, Pirates and Aladdin's Magic Carpet ride with barely any wait time.

-Harper in her cute Tinker Bell shoes!

-enjoying several rides with Harper such as Little Mermaid, the Carousel, Winnie the Pooh, It's a Small World (even though she fell asleep before we even got on the ride) 

-the boys enjoyed some roller coasters: Space Mountain, the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train and Paxton loves Big Thunder Mountain

-Harper picked out an Ariel doll to buy, she was so excited!

-watching Harper dance to the music at dinner time.

Lowlights:

-right before we left to the park my dad gathered the family to say a prayer.  In his prayer he told us that my Grandma Moss passed away.  We were all saddened by this news, I did not think it was going to happen this soon.  I thought for sure I'd be able to see her again after the trip.  I was sad I didn't even get to tell her that I was pregnant.  My dad told us though that she'd want us to have a fun day and we should still go.  So we did and it was a busy and fun day.

-It started raining pretty good around 1:00 and just rained and rained and rained.  I did have some rain poncho's but I was least prepared for the rain this day.  We decided to go home early because the rain wasn't going to stop and we had ridden pretty much everything we wanted to.  The only thing we missed out on was the firework show.  

Wild Florida

Highlights:

-it was more of a relaxing day than the park days and it wasn't busy at all.

-the boat ride was super fun and we even saw an alligator in the water.

-seeing all the alligators and watching them do a feeding where the alligators had to jump out of the water to get their food.

-Graham got a kick out watching this lemur jumping around doing some back flips, he was cheering it on.

-we got to hold a little gator named Fluffy.

Lowlights:

-my mom stayed back at the house, she was worn out but she missed out on a more relaxing and fun day.

-we didn't see the petting zoo part of it.

-I thought we'd see more wild life while on the boat ride, but it was still fun.

Universal Studios

Highlights:

-So glad my boys were able to go on the new Hagrid ride even though I was super jealous.  

-exploring Harry Potter world and drinking butter beer

-going to the wand experience with Graham and him buying a wand.

-eating good food in Harry Potter World                                                                                                          

Lowlights:

-my parents went home early to start arranging for my grandma's funeral

-there are hardly any rides for pregnant women and short toddlers to go on so Erika, Jo, Harper and I went on a total of 4 rides the whole day.

-Harper soaked me on the very first ride we went on, but I laughed about it.

Pool day
The last day we rested and relaxed.  We went to the clubhouse pool and lasted a while, but it was a little chilly that day so we went back to the house and swam in the hot tub.  We had a super fun vacation, the kids sure had a blast and were spoiled.  I also felt like I didn't want to see another theme park for a few years!  It was a lot doing 5 parks in one trip.

My Grandma's Funeral
My sweet grandma, I can't believe she's gone.  I sure am going to miss our visits and her beautiful smile.  She always showed so much love for others and was interested in you and the things you were doing.  She sure loved the babies and always wanted to be holding them.  She was such a sweet lady and sure will be missed by many!

The day after we got home from our trip was her viewing.  That morning I met up with my cousin Lizzie who is also a hair dresser and my two aunts Heather and Carolyn at the funeral home to get my grandma ready.  I wasn't sure I really wanted to be doing this but I also love my grandma very much and I know she would have loved seeing two of her grand-daughters doing her hair.  I hadn't really had time to grieve over my grandma with such a busy and fun vacation and as I walked down the stairs it hit me.  I miss my grandma, she is gone.  Doing her hair and putting her jewelry on turned out to be a good experience and I'm glad I did it.  I'm also glad to have had my aunts and cousin with me, I couldn't have done it alone.  It was fun to reminisce about my grandma together. 

For the viewing Rem stayed home with the kids so I didn't have any distractions.  Walking in and seeing all the pictures of her and the video made me tear up quite a bit.  I had to go into the bathroom to calm down and clean up.  It was good to be there with family and see so many others that loved her.  Of course she requested a closed casket, but we had it open the next day for just the family.  My dad offered the family prayer as the casket was closed.

My aunt Carolyn, uncle Evan and my dad all spoke about their mom and the different stages of her life.  I learned some new things about her like that she eloped with my grandpa instead of going to the high school dance and then when they came home they went to their separate houses for the night and told their parents later.  We had some good laughs and Steve Knudson, a family friend and her mission president spoke as well.  It was all very light-hearted and a beautiful tribute to her.  I sure am going to miss her but she has been waiting for about 11 years to be with my grandpa and I am happy for her that they can be re-united.  It was a cold, yet a beautiful day!

Cousin Jo's birthday party

Joelle turned 3 and had a cute Winnie the Pooh birthday party.  Harper loved it so much!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving didn't go as planned this year.  We were supposed to be at my parents house with my family, but my dad tested positive for Covid just a day or two before.  So I offered to have it at my house.  Luckily it wouldn't be the whole family for dinner since both of my sisters were having dinner with their in-laws.  So we just had my brother and his family.  It was our first time cooking a turkey and it turned out super yummy!  Cooking a turkey is intimidating, but super easy once you figure it out.  Sandee was a huge help and cooked a lot of the other foods.  So between the two of us we had a full and delicious Thanksgiving dinner.  After we ate we packed up a bunch of food for my parents so they could have a yummy meal also.  Then later Jamie and her family came over for pie.  It turned out to be a great day!  I'm thankful to have such wonderful family to pull this off together and that most of us could still be together on this day.

This year we made the turkey, mashed potatoes, a salad, an appetizer and pies.

So thankful for this family of mine.

"It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas"

We always start decorating for Christmas the day after Thanksgiving.  This year Christmas went up a little slower than usual because of pregnancy sickness I felt like I could only do so much each day.  The kids helped put the ornaments on the tree and I let them do a lot more than I usually do this year.  Harper thought it was the best thing ever!  

She loved having her own tree in her room and loved decorating it all by herself!

Movie time with the Family

We got to go see "Encanto" with my entire family.  It was such a cute movie!  We tried to get Harper and Jo to sit next to each other, but it didn't last very long.

Black Friday find

I wasn't looking for a double stroller, it wasn't even on my mind that I might need one yet.  But as I was looking through Targets black friday ads, I saw this one and couldn't pass it up.  Harper loves it so much that it now lives in our kitchen area so she can play in it and get rides in it.