Fun leading up to Christmas

The last couple of weeks leading up to Christmas break was full of basketball, chores, Christmas movies, schools parties and lots of excited for Christmas to come. 

Kayden is still completely obsessed with cars and trucks. He found these little tiny trucks at the dollar store and keeps wanting more. I told him that if he listened and behaved himself while we ran our errands that I would take him to the dollar store and get him more trucks. He was an angel while we were out and about. If he said he wanted something and I told him no he would say, "Ok Mom." and move on. It was fantastic!! Way better than he had been acting lately. So I was all for rewarding his good behavior.  He was super excited to get this packet of mini trucks. 

Hiding from his brothers as they get home from school. 

Kayden was being such a nut and sitting on the counter and scooting around while eating his cookie. 

This Christmas season I went through my candles way faster. It just smells so nice I enjoy burning them more this year so that our house smells Christmasy.

These next 3 pictures of some art work that Emmett did at school. 

Emmetts self portrait. haha 

This is Wyatt's self portrait! haha I love seeing their self portraits. 

Emmett also did this painting. He did a great job! 

We decided to take Emmett out for a surprise lunch date. Brandon and Kayden came with us and we went to firehouse. 

One morning I went and was a secret reader in Emmett's class. It was fun reading to a small group of kids in Emmett's class. Then I told Emmett I was taking him out for lunch right after and he was super surprised and excited. It is fun to surprise them for things like this. We have been really bad at doing one on ones lately. So we are trying to be better. 

This was Emmetts favorite animal list. It was so funny! I love seeing their paperwork when they are little. The things they say are always funny to read. 

Emmett also read a book to us one night. He was super excited that he could read this book from school to all of us. 

My parents were in Utah over Emmetts last basketball game. They told me to tell Emmett that they would give him a dollar for every basket he made. I should have told him after the game. All he wanted to do all game was shoot from wherever he was standing. haha He rarely passed the ball and tried so many times. I didn't even think about it until after I said it to him. Then as the game went on I knew I made a mistake. haha He made 2 baskets and was so stoked! haha He held a finger up to Brandon to tell him that he got 1 dollar after the first basket he made. haha 

We also had the Ward Christmas breakfast. 

We ate some breakfast and the primary kids sang a couple of songs. Although their singing was pretty quiet but they did it at least. haha 

They also got a visit from Santa. 

Kayden was pretty excited to see Santa again. Plus he got a candy cane from him which was cool too. 

I love watching the kids do chores. Especially when Kayden is doing more chores than he is used to. He wanted to earn more tickets for Christmas presents for his brothers. So I let him clean our sliding door. It was so cute watching him try to clean the glass. 

We also went to Scheels with the kids to let them take part in a scavenger hunt to get some ice cream .

It took them longer than anticipated. Eventually we found all of the puppies and took the paper to the cafe to get their ice cream cones. They were pretty excited to get some ice cream. 

Emmett had grinch day at school. We did not have any green hair coloring. So last minute he decided he wanted to be like the Mayor. We did our best to give him Major Maywho hair. 

I signed up to help out in Emmetts party this year. Last year I was not able to help out in his class much because I was in so much pain. This year however, I have been feeling good enough to help out. So I did. I took Kayden with me to help out and hang with Emmett. 

They had a lot of fun doing all the games and some crafts. Emmett helped Kayden do some of the crafts and I took some snacks home with us for Kayden after. Mrs. Hause loved seeing Kayden. She has had each of my boys in school and told me she has to wait to retire until she has Kayden in 1st Grade. haha He would walk up to her and take her hand and have her walk over with him to play something. She got some legos out and played with him for a little bit. It was so nice of her. I was a little occupied trying to help the kids play the games they had planned for them. I was hoping Kayden would have just hung out with me or Emmett but that didn't last for very long. It all worked out and it was fun to help out in a class activity!

The kids had school till the Wednesday before Christmas. I was super tempted to keep them out for the whole week instead. I thought it was so dumb that they made them go to school those last 3 days. Its not like they were learning much. The kids wanted to go to school though. They were excited for all the activities they were going to be doing. So I let them go to school. Sadly, Wyatt got sick that Wednesday! I got a call from the school saying that Wyatt was in the nurses office with a fever and saying his head hurt. So I had to go pick him up. 

I was really hoping that it was just going to be a 24 hour bug because we had a surprise for the kids that Friday! We were going to go to a Nuggets game and stay the night in the hotel down there. 

After the first day Wyatt felt sick he ended up throwing up and really feeling awful. When it was not a 24 hour bug I made him quarantine upstairs in his room. We moved the TV in his room and let him play games and eventually moved the tablet in his room so he could relax and watch stuff. 

It was funny seeing Kayden try to play twister with his brothers. 

We did not think we were going to have a white Christmas this year. However, 3 days before Christmas we actually got some snow. Not only that but it was going to be below 20 for the rest of the weekend. So the snow was going to stick around for Christmas! Yay!!! 

Trying to enjoy the start to the boys time off from school. They were enjoying playing games together and got out "Pie Face" again. We don't play this very often. So it is always funny when they do. Kayden is still not a fan of whip cream. We tried to get him to try but he was not about to do it. haha 

Poor Wyatt was freezing in his room. So he was sitting with his blanket over the vent. For some reason the heater was not going on very often and it was not warming his room up. It was an ice box in his room. So I even tried to put our tiny space heater in his room to warm it up a little bit. Thankfully, when we finally got the movies to work on the TV that warmed up the room. So he was finally warmer and able to lay in his bed. He looked so miserable every time I checked on him. He just did not feel good at all. Poor Kid!  

Sadly, Friday came and Wyatt was not better. I was really hoping that he would wake up Friday and be feeling a lot better. He was not! Which made me sad because yet again we had a sick kid that got in the way of fun plans. So Brandon texted Tyrel to see if they were busy that night. I ended up staying home with Wyatt and Brandon took the other 3 boys down to the game. I was crying a lot that morning. One reason was because I was looking forward to a fun evening with the kids. The second reason I was so sad was because I felt bad for Wyatt. I knew he would have wanted to go. So that made me sad too. In fact, when it was time for them to get ready to leave Emmett went to get changed and grab his clothes and when Wyatt asked what he was doing Emmett told him that they were going to a Nuggets game. Wyatt was then sad. We had not told him that that was the plan. In fact we were not sure if we wanted to tell him. However, the secret was let out and Wyatt was super bummed. When I went up to talk to him he told me that he thought he was feeling good enough to go. I told him that it was not going to happen. The last time we tried sending him to something fun when he had been sick and he tried to tough it out did not end well. We did not want another "Dude perfect" experience for anyone. Plus it would have been no fun for Wyatt if he was feeling awful. Especially if he ended up needing to throw up again. So he was sad and super bummed as was I. But, we do what we have to do sometimes. 

Then the boys were off. I sent Wyatt down for a nap and the rest of our family made their way to IN N OUT. 

Then they went to the game where they met Tyrel and Tate. 

They got to see Santa again too! 

They had great seats!!! Which was also a bummer that me and Wyatt were not able to go. They had great seats and made it on the JUMBO TRON! So fun!!

By the end of the night Kayden was laying on the floor because he was so tired! haha 

Wyatt took like a 3 hour nap and after said he was feeling pretty good. I ordered us some Chick Fil A and it got delivered right before Wyatt woke up. We also had a garage door guy come because our garage door spring broke. So that was fun... 

Wyatt and I spent the evening eating our Chick Fil A and watching a Hallmark Christmas movie together. Wyatt told me this year that he loves watching the love movies with me. So I figured it would be a good night to do is since we were on our own. Wyatt barely ate any of his dinner. Then he said he wanted some Hot Chocolate. So I made him some Hot Chocolate and and we finished watching a movie. Then I sent him off to bed. I laid by the fire and watched another Hallmark movie before heading off to bed. I was sad to be missing out on the fun with the rest of my boys but I also was glad we didn't try to have Wyatt tough it out. It would not have ended well. Plus it was a freezing cold night and walking across the parking lot to the hotel in that cold temp would not have been good for him either. Or staying up late for that matter. So Wyatt and I enjoyed a quite evening in the warmth of our house. Brandon and the boys ended up having a rough nights sleep and finally made it home around 10:30 the next morning so we could have fun doing our Christmas Eve festivities!