December: Deckin' the Halls

Step 1 of decking the halls chez Izatt this year was gettin' a tree. Our beloved artificial Charlie Brown tree gave up the ghost last year so we decided it was time for a real Charlie Brown tree haha. We took our tired, not dressed for the weather children to a tree lot on the boulevard and set a record for how quickly we picked a tree because... did I mention everyone was tired and cold haha?

Carma Junie was the self-appointed window decorator. She took a very abstract approach and we were thus treated to floating pieces of Santa Claus and reindeer and snowflakes every time we gazed outside.  

Grandma and Grandpa Izatt sent us a super fun Lego Star Wars advent calendar and it was so fun! We opted to bust it out every three days and let each of the boys open a window at once. 

Early in the month we also brought out our Lego Christmas sets to put together again. Perfect Sunday morning activity! 

On a different Sunday Will and Jack accepted a challenge to create their own Christmas lego masterpieces:

Ahhh Christmas lights on our house make me so happy! As does a little wreath on the front door! And a blurry lit Christmas tree! 

We (finally) made it out to Caldwell to see their Winter Wonderland Festival- soooo pretty:

I can't even imagine how much work goes into this but we sure loved it! Thanks Caldwell!

We didn't necessarily have specific plans to go see the Scentsy lights but a few nights before Christmas the kids and I were driving home from hanging out with Grandpa Braden and we made a spontaneous right turn and I'm so glad we did! It was the perfect evening for it- snow was falling and it just made it that much more magical:

 And then my ridiculous children (one of whom may or may not be a bank robber, yikes) insisted body sledding down a hill haha. I told them they could as long as they didn't whine about being cold and wet on the drive home... you can guess how well they kept up their end of that deal ;). 

December: Church (Specifically Ward) Things

There's a chance that Jack... and Carma... know exactly where the Bishop keeps his candy stash. There's also a chance that they avail themselves of it every Sunday and can often be found leading other children to it haha.

Random Sunday in December - cute Carma, cute Carma and Jack, bulletin board I made, Clyde hiding while I tried to take his picture during primary, and Amy always having my back and getting a shot of Clyde and texting it to me ;). 

Cub Scout field trip to the fire station! Always a good time:

Our Pack Meeting activity was making fun Christmas cards for the youth to take around to ward members along with little food baskets - I loved watching my little Scouts (and their families) being so sweet and creative and thoughtful.

Our ward Christmas party was super fun, as always. The Primary sang songs as ward members acted out the Nativity - I had my eye on one shepherd in particular ;).

The choir sang and then Sister Hyer led the entire room in a rousing rendition of "The Twelve Days of Christmas" - watching each section act out their 'day' was sooo funny!! 

A newer 2nd Ward tradition at the Christmas party is a piñata courtesy of the Fuhrimans - here are some cute Izatt boys taking their turns:

Jack appointed himself photographer at one point - maybe when Chuck was helping serve dinner? Also I feel like all my kids chatted with Santa, but definitely only got pictures of Carma and Will... I guess we'll check wishlist accuracies on Christmas morning?! 

I mean, sometimes it's a Sunday night and you force Karlina to do the Light the World thing with you by dropping off water at a shelter... but then their sign says they're in need of milk... so you break the Sabbath and grab milk at the gas station... and then sketchily drop the milk off at the shelter in the dark... and then your co-conspirator refuses to take pictures with you haha:

It's cool, Karlina is more apt to selfie it up with me on Sundays after choir apparently ;). Also pictured: cute Carma getting to sneak out of nursery for the last few minutes of primary and also me and Troy. That picture got sent to Dan, lucky guy hahahaha. 

Clyde and Chuck got to head up to McCall for an 11 year old Scout overnighter in December:

Of course, winter campouts are much more comfortable when your leader has a cabin for y'all to stay in ;).

Okay, so mid-November Grace said she wanted me to sing. In public. Without lots of people also singing. Just with one other person singing. Aka a duet. I laughed. And then I realized she was serious.

So I did it! Madison (who has a gorgeous voice!!) and I sang a duet at our stake baptisms the first Saturday in December. I was legit terrified but I practiced and practiced and made Grace help me practice and I did it and supposedly we sounded good. I'm so so grateful for Grace and her confidence in me and her willingness to challenge me and encourage me and teach me. She's so, so cool. Also I'm so, so glad it's over hahahaha.

Sister Hyer ambitiously hosted the members of the bishopric and families for dinner and festivities one night - the Izatt and Nelson children had the BEST time decorating cookies and possibly cleaned Janell out of sprinkles entirely haha:

 Meanwhile, the adults played Relative Finder in the other room and came up with all sorts of connections. I'm generally between 8th and 10th cousins with anyone I've tried this with - usually members of the church from this area.... which is why it was so fun to find out that Tasha and I are third cousins once removed!! That's crazy close! I mean, it makes sense considering we're a day apart from being twins... I haven't decided if I messed that up and came a day early or if Tasha came a day late ;). It was such a fun, lovely evening, and Janell yelling at anyone who tried to help with cleanup or dishes was just one of the many highlights haha.

December: School Events

Clyde's choir went big league for their December concert - it was held in the fancy high school auditorium and was combined with the other middle school and high school choirs from East Valley and Columbia. Clyde was adorable and earnest and cute as ever and he loved that Grandma Pam came!

We were so happy to go to the Park Ridge sing a long - especially since last year a snow day canceled it! Jack was so happy to show off how well he knew all of the songs from music class and Carma loved dancing and clapping and we all loved looking for Will among his classmates. Mrs. Steffler is such a fun music teacher!

Sometimes I feel more disconnected from Carma's preschool since she rides the bus and I'm not at the school often - so I loved seeing these pictures that her wonderful teacher shared on their classroom app. The last day of school before break was a pajama day and they had a cute 'snowball' fight:

Park Ridge did a caroling night in December with teachers, parents, and students. Will was at scouts, but Clyde and Jack merrily joined the crowd and continued on with them after they stopped by our house and had a way good time!

Jack was pretty psyched to see Mrs. Koeppen at our church Christmas party, so of course we had to take a picture. I love how he looks equal parts excited and hesitant about this photo op - that he commissioned haha:

Our sweet, stoic Jackers got slightly in trouble at school in December and it was slightly traumatic for him, whoops! It all started when the school nurse called me and told me that Jack was wearing shorts... and I said, "Yep. I know" hahahahahaha. The (very nice) nurse felt VERY strongly that Jack should be wearing pants, so I ran into Savers and grabbed him a pair (legit the kid did not previously own long pants) and went to the school. Jack loves following rules at school (at home, not so much...) and bless his heart, he was so embarrassed and stressed to find himself in the office. He and I talked and I helped the nurse clarify that he WASN'T in trouble and we discussed how between his looooong shorts and talllll socks that as his mom I felt he was adequately covered but as the school nurse, she felt a strong preference that he wear pants until March (we were each awkwardly overly polite as we had this discussion, it was hilarious) and the funniest part was probably when she said it was winter and he needed to wear pants and neither Jack nor I could resist pointing out that it was still technically fall ;). Jack wore pants the next day and all was well in the world.

One of the local high schools put on some cute plays and Grandma Pam took Jack and Carma and they had the BEST time ever. Also, can I say how much I love my mom? A lot. She stuck around afterwards and took pictures of a delighted Carma with a bunch of the high school actors and actresses - it warmed my over documenting heart. Thanks Mama!!

 Cute little chalkboards for teachers, cards for the bus drivers.

the rest o' November

November = hanging around the table playing games instead of being in the front yard in the evenings. Also a couple screenshots of word find against Chuck because we might be addicted to that game when one or both of us is at plasma. Also two cute boys reading my blog. Literally my main motivation to keep up these rambling travelogues of our lives - they love reading them. Will even told me the other day he'd hug me for every post I finish. Also a cute picture of Uncle Lee and Carma:

Luckily November was still warm enough for shorts/tshirts to school! Official insta caption: So fun to see how excited Will and Jack were when I picked them up after school today ☺️. I mean, maybe it was because I was 15 minutes late and they were on the cusp of just making the long walk home🤔🤷🏻‍♀️, but whatev. I'll take the love however it comes 🙌🏼.

Carma continues to get more opinionated and vocal re: her outfits and hair styling. Heaven help us all.

Ms. Tracey and Carma at her parent/teacher conference! Carma loved showing me around her preschool classroom and I loved hearing about all her awesome progress and how generally adored she is there. Ms. Tracey is so, so wonderful! 

November also = parent/teacher conferences = extra days off school which = too much time at home together haha. Luckily Nelsons invited us to join them at Circus Trix and it was the perfect chance for the kids to burn off lots and lots of energy - in a nice safe environment with lots of soft places to land:

We made it out of the house another day to the Discovery Center which is always a hit. It was all about Mythbusters which was soooo fun! I couldn't get Carma out of the 'raining on the walkway' exhibit haha.

Clyde and I sneaked out of the house for an hour to watch Seth play basketball and Will kept us apprised of all updates at home via FaceTime and text. This screenshot of our text exchange makes me laugh so so hard - it's SO WILL. "Never happened ;)"

Also so, so Will? Homophones! Which is why a patient, fun Grandma Pam wrote him this letter - he LOVED going through and circling all of the homophones. 

Speaking of Grandma Pam, I picked up Jack and Carma from her house one day and found such a cute Fisher Price Little People community in her playroom - complete with a McDonalds because I'm raising Jack right ;). My mom's playroom is legit the best.

Speaking of awesome grandparents who help out with kiddos, Carma and Jack got time with my dad earlier in November when Chuck and I cleaned the temple. Carma was all about blow drying Clifford's hair which totally stupefied us (spoiler alert: I don't own a hair dryer) until we discovered that a favorite make believe game at preschool is 'dog groomer' hahaha.

I rounded up Karlina and Shannon one evening for a DI/Target run. Good reminder to wait until all the Halloween clearance is gone before I do that again - Karlina delights in my startled screams when she pops up wearing yet another mask hahahahaha. Such fun girls and such a fun night!

My frequent shopping/errands outings totally paid off later in the month when I ran into the one and only Patti Green at Costco! Official insta caption: Random Costco reunions are the best, and this will go down as one of my favorites: the amazing Patti Green. My childhood wouldn't have been the same without her example of love and service and unapologetic boldness. I'm indebted to her for raising boys (and girls!) that were and still are fantastic friends to me, and I never think of my grandma's passing without gratitude for Patti picking me and Quinn up that morning and whisking us away and feeding us and loving us. And if seeing Patti meant I had to say hi to that scoundrel of a husband of hers, so be it 😉.

So I've never ordered school pictures but I loved that the school sent home these cute safety cards so I could see how the boys' pictures turned out! Will's looking at the camera AND smiling so Imma hire their photographer for our next family pictures and Jack's side eye/closed mouth smile KILLS me. Ahhhh I love these two.

My mom dutifully ordered all our school pictures, which means I have like fifteen copies of this shot... if my hair was like three inches longer I feel like I could have been the fourth Hanson brother. Right? This bout of nostalgia is courtesy of Emily, who texted our girls' group some HS pictures as she pondered an upcoming reunion. I immediately demanded that everyone contribute pictures and memories and we had the best day trading photos about.

Soooooo naturally I had to put together a quick photo collage to see what it would have looked like had we all been friends circa 1998-2004 and I'm pretty much obsessed with it:

 Here's everyone but Nicole at November's girls night. I feel like we all look basically the same, right? WHATEVER, 28 FREAKING KIDS TAKE THEIR TOLL OKAY? 

I will not be contributing any more children to our grand total which is good because Carma would not handle well being replaced as the baby - one afternoon I was snuggling a sweet sleeping Gideon and she insisted on being on my other shoulder haha:

Carma hit 3 1/2 in November and it was pretty fun to watch different facets of her personality continue to emerge. Here we have the 'girly girl' facet - super into hair and nail polish and eyelash curlers ;). 

She also dabbed into the arts and the written word: 

Although she continues to be interested in STEM fields: medicine, ummm space?, and culinary sciences. Could she be a cuter doctor or BB-8 or Nutella-on-a-knife-wielder??

We could do without the mood swings though - I always joked about opting for all sons because my hormonal roller coaster was enough for our house... but watch out world, here comes Carma!

Insta caption: Girlfriend has had about twelve mood swings tonight - at one point she wailed "Get it to-geth-er" when I offered her water and I was like "YOU FIRST" and then I realized she wanted us to retrieve the water bottle as a team 😑👯🤦🏻‍♀️. By the grace of God I finally figured out that she wanted her thumbs RAINBOW 🌈and her other fingers SPARKLY 💅🏼, that misunderstanding led to real tears for possibly both of us 👀😭x2️⃣🤷🏻‍♀️. The good news is that after a Nutella sandwich and me gently rubbing her legs, arms, and back (as directed, often alternating quickly I think to test my response time?), she's asleep and I'm simultaneously so grateful and so empathetic towards my husband 😂 - emotional women are not for the faint of heart 😳💃🏻🤗

Aaaaand finally, a few screenshots from the month! 

This was the conclusion of a thread about always being the one to bust out the camera at gatherings and possibly/probably annoying people by insisting on pictures. Hello, that's totally me. But he references pictures he has now of people that aren't around to photograph anymore... and over the years of my compulsive over documenting, I've loved being able to pull up a picture of someone that I miss. Sometimes I just need to see the picture, and sometimes I'm able to send the picture to someone else. Either way, I'll keep over documenting and I'll probably keep apologizing for it ;).

Okay this made me laugh really hard.

Viewer discretion recommended for these last two, as one is political and if that's going to create negative feelings in your heart towards me then feel free to skip it. The last one is the funniest thing I've ever read but also definitely has some language ;).

 hahahahahahahaha, ohhhh I love it. Peace out November!!