Meanwhile, the rest of December, including Christmas happened.

December is always a whirlwind for us.  Jakes Birthday, our anniversary, Christmas, Crystal's birthday, and New Years Eve pretty much consume the month and all of our money every year.  I'm sure we don't look very smart having two babies right around Christmas time, but we'd rather do that than live without Our only daughter and our most spirited son. They make our lives richer than Opera Winfery. So we'll take it.

So a week after Jakey's birthday celebration, Scott and I were able to get a baby sitter for the first time since we've been out here, and go on a date for our anniversary.  It was the first time we'd been alone together since mid October when we were in California and my parents watched the kids for us so we could go to Halloween Horror Nights in Hollywood.  All we did this anniversary was dinner and a movie, but it was very much needed.  We even played a game during dinner to try and tell each other stories from our childhoods that the other didn't know yet.  Since we tell each other everything, we had to dig deep in the memory box.  Sometimes one of us would start a story and the other one would finish it, and then the person telling it would be floored that the other already knew the story because they had no recollection of ever telling it.  Luckily we came up with some.  I told about a crazy date I went on once, and he told about something stupid he did with his friends as a teenager.  I didn't get any pictures of the night, like I said, the actual activity was nothing special, but it was nice to talk about the 9 years of marriage we've had and the 10 years of memories together.
 So since I don't have any pictures, please enjoy this short video clip of us when we were still dating because it pretty much sums it up for us.  Nine years to mature yet this still happens more often than I'd like to admit:



So moving on, we had a great time celebrating the Christmas season here on the East Coast.  In Scott's words, "Christmas kind of snuck up on us this year"  usually we plan Christmas at least a month in advance, but we've been so busy, distracted, and stressed that things just started happening.
I still say it was actually an easier Christmas for me though.  Last Christmas I was throwing up the whole time from morning sickness with Sammy, the Christmas before I had a 2 week old, and somehow hosted a huge family Christmas get together at my house at the same time even though I couldn't even poop without medical assistance or sit down without a doughnut because of the recent brutality of child bearing.  Also everybody got a stomach flu that year and was throwing up, which made me crazy because I was terrified that my 2 week old would get infected and die from it.  I blame hormones.  Anyway, this year was the easiest it's been for at least a couple of years, so I was pretty happy about that.   Everybody still got sick again, this time with an ugly cold/flu virus...including pinkeye instead of a stomach bug, but whatever, my kid was 5 months instead of 2 weeks, it wasn't all at my house, and I didn't just give birth this time, so I consider that a win.

We Itri's hosted an "Itri Family Christmas Party" which was a lot of fun.  There was dinner, treats, minute to win it games, getting to know you games, a white elephant gift exchange, and a photo booth.  We had a lot of fun.

Our Guests

Our fellow Itri's (The ones who were okay being photographed.)

Our selves.

Minute to win it!!!!

The white elephant part was the most fun. There were useful gifts, tasty gifts, decorative gifts, useless gifts, joke gifts, and lots of laughs and randomness.


We also went to the ward Christmas Party the very next day where the kids could meet Santa.  Brian was Santa's helper which the kids also liked.  Crystal looked pretty skeptical of the Santa who was at the chapel.  Especially because you could see the elastic band holding his beard on.  Hmmmmm.

 

The next notable event was Christmas Eve dinner.  Todd cooked the seafood pasta.  There was also gingerbread making, and home movie watching and nativity pagenting and  good times were had by all.

The kids love to play with Sammy

Jacob being his usual tackling self

Mussels

Seafood pasta

Just chillin

Nativity Scene.  Sort of.  

Brian was king Herrod!

This picture makes me giggle

Crystal was Mary, Sammy was a big baby Jesus.  Reagan and Seth took turns being Joseph.  

Lila was the Angel, appearing to the shepherds

Scott was a wise man, (More like wiseGUY) warning them to run away from Herrod.

Kelsey who's pregnant was the "before" Mary with Seth.

Gingerbread time!!!  We always buy the premade ones at Costco and let the kids just do it themselves.  They love it.

Margie made this very addictive homemade toffee

Watching Nick on old home videos.  He's talking about the accomplishments he had that year and his future goals.  Everybody enjoyed watching him.

Cake!

Jake has a master talent for finding desserts anywhere he can and stealing them.  If there is a baked good anywhere, he finds it and eats it when nobody's looking.  Always.  He's a cake ninja.

Our tiny living room.  We haven't had a living space this small since we were newlyweds.  We had to pile presents on the couch so they would fit

Mommy was a little sad that Crystal was doubting Santa this year.  (She has a lot of Jewish friends at school who don't believe in him.)  So she and daddy made sure to be sneaky and catch a photo of Santa in our living room delivering presents to them so that they could have some solid proof.  We had it on our TV screen (which we have connected to the computer) when they came in to open their presents in the morning.

We mostly take video on Christmas so that we can watch it to get excited for next year, but we did take a few pics.

Sammy's favorite present

Two years old is when they really begin to understand that Christmas is exciting.  He had the best year ever.

This is probably my favorite gift that was given to us.  Margie made a quilt out of nick's shirts for each of the boys.  I love this so much.

Everybody looking at their quilt

We had prime rib for dinner on Christmas night.  

Dinner table

What's Christmas without warming up by the fire?

The room was a disaster afterwords, but we had a great night

Santa Sammy

It was a great Christmas.


Of course, we can't just end there.  Four days after Christmas, my only daughter turned 8 years old.  I can't believe I'm the mother of an 8 year old.  She's at an age now that I can remember so clearly it makes my head spin.  So crazy.  She lost all of her front teeth this year and has been growing in new ones.  Her left tooth has already grown in.  When their teeth change they officially change from looking like babies to looking like actual kids.  She's done a great job getting used to the schools here and life in general.  She still misses her best friend back home, but she gets along with everyone at her school and is a great student.  She loves doing her homework and she loves to read books all day.  She has become my little bookworm.  She is like having a third hand as far as helping around the house goes.  She takes care of Jacob and Sammy all the time. She is amazingly responsible and a model child.  I didn't think kids that obedient existed until I found her.  I love her so much.

 

Dont laugh at my stupid cake.  She liked it even though the frosting is melted and the pan is drippy.

 

New backpack.  (Her old one started falling apart.)

 

Princess Anna from Frozen!!!  She wanted this SO badly.

 

 

 

 


We forgot my parent's gifts for her at home, so she had extra presents waiting for her when we got to the house.  She was so excited!

A stamp set...Shes way too excited to use this.  

So that was our December.  We rang in the new year at a small party with friends and family, but I forgot my camera that day.  I thought we would have to leave early for the kids, but they all miraculously behaved extremely well.  It was a new year's miracle.  We ended up staying till midnight.

It's been a good year.  An amazingly hard one, but good.  Scott and I looked back at what we were doing at the beginning of last year and we couldn't believe that it was only a year ago...with all the stuff we've gone through it felt like a lot longer.  Like a completely different time in our lives.  Nick wasn't nearly as sick, we were going on vacation in Mexico,  I was newly pregnant, we had our own home, Scott was good at his job, and I was surrounded by friends who would drop by and see me all the time just to hang out.  I could get a babysitter whenever I wanted and for how long I wanted, I had a calling I absolutely loved at my church, and everything was in control.  Pretty much all of that has changed.  It was so hard to say goodbye to Nick and see his health fail, I went from having three kids to four, and moving when my Son was only 5 weeks old, only deciding a week before I gave birth that we were going to do that.  We sold our home and are renting a much smaller, older, place for right now, Scott is stressed out every day trying to manage both of his jobs, running half of the company in Utah and running all of his Dad's company here, I didn't get to really say goodbye to my friends, I miss my family, and I miss being able to just have my parents take the kids all the time without me even asking them to.  It's been hard.  Of course the hardest of all was loosing Nick.  I honestly can't remember that much of the first three months after I gave birth because everything was so chaotic and my body and hormones were so not adjusted to what was happening.  I'm amazed I was able to do it at all.  There is a lot to be happy about though.  Nick didn't stay in the state he was in very long, he didn't suffer nearly as much as many cancer patients do.  We were able to sell our house quickly and easily.  We had a place lined up to rent on basically no notice beforehand whatsoever.  We are so blessed that Scott is able to own two companies.  We had a lot of family out here waiting for us who we spend time with almost every weekend.  There is a sense of community in the ward here, since there aren't as many members of the church, it's more close knit, and more like a family where everyone is generally concerned about each other.  I actually really like the members in our ward a lot.  I'm the mother of four kids!  I love my family!  I love my husband!  He loves me back! (Yes, that is a big deal in this day and age.)  We are so so so lucky!  Some days are still hard, some days are stressful, some days are sad, some days are crazy, but that's pretty much life anyway. Either way, we are happy.  At the end of the year I looked on Facebook and was surprised on New Years Eve to see how many people really hated 2013.  It seemed like it was a hard year for a lot of people.  Us too.  Either way, we are happy in spite of it all. We have SO much silver lining that we can't complain. We have Sammy in our family now!  We laugh all the time because we still have a sense of humor about it all, we think that this is a great life.  The hard times have brought us closer together.  It's been a good 2013.  If there's one thing this year has taught me though, it's that anything can happen and it can happen fast.  Who knows what 2014 will bring.  All I do know is that we have each other.  I love my little family.  Hope you all had a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.