Goodbye December, goodbye 2015

For whatever reason, I've been thinking that there were a few more days until the end of the year. I woke up this morning realizing it's New Years Eve and wondered where my brain has been? Obviously, this will be a holiday without too much excitement for us :)

This month has felt like a bit of a blur -- so much of the time I find myself feeling like the completely frazzled mother that I am; with no time, energy or $$ for fun. I have to remind myself to open my eyes and LOOK around at all that we have. Jason got me a lovely Christmas gift -- a bath gadget to cover the safety overflow valve and make the bath water deeper (something I had complained about -- gotta love a listening husband!). As excited as I am to use this, I was so struck and disgusted at my opulence ... not only do I bathe in drinking water without giving it a thought, I also have a gadget readily available so I can bathe in even more/deeper drinking water...sigh. I am so wealthy and forget so easily.

Here's the wealth of our month --

Our usual Christmas tree fiasco...tried to save money by purchasing a $5 permit to cut a tree from federal land :) Looked really pretty in the forest, but refused to stand straight once inside.

Luckily, a trip to the thrift store for another tree base and a lot of fine tuning turned it into this:

Mabel went to her first formal. A father/daughter formal put on by our church group -- complete with wrist corsage.

Mabel passed her 3 month mark and has started rolling over {which I am definitely not ready for yet!}



































We got to have Christmas morning in our home ...

 

... and then shared a belated Christmas with Jason's family after realizing one of our jeep's tires was completely FLAT on Christmas morning. This month has been the month of the jeep -- we've spent over $1000 on it between tires, unexpected repairs and some routine things we'd known needed replacing (brake pads, rotors, etc). Merry Christmas Jeep!

It has stayed snowy and chilly, making everything look so beautiful. Our house does not have rain gutters, so we have awesome icicles hanging from the roof.

Once we finally made it to Spokane, there was even more snow there which was great to play and hike in.

Luke goes snowmobiling

On our way back home from Spokane today we got to stop in at the home of Jason's long time family friends, the Sandins. They are always incredibly gracious hosts and quickly got up their sleds out and fired up the snowmobile so Luke could go for his first ride before we got back on the road.

A photo from days gone by of Jason & his sister with these wonderful friends {Jeremy & Derek} ---
















And now, the boys together ... with spouses with a few kiddos :)

"do you think we could live in a tent for the summer?"

This is the question Jason started our day with today ...

Although I know we could live in a tent for the summer, my answer of "no, I don't think so" was geared toward the fact that I really don't want to live in a tent with two small children for more than a week (if at all possible).

Jason's question may seem a bit crazy, but it comes from a good place. He knows that I am missing home after not being able to visit California for the past year & a half and has been looking for summer internships there.  One job doesn't have housing, but comes with a "free" campsite. Since we don't have a camping trailer, his next thought was to wonder about the tent.

I don't think I'm missing California quite that much :)

My adventure for today ...























.... putting both kids in carriers so I could get out for a walk. With the slippery conditions and 50 pounds of extra weight I was totting, I opted to use poles for balance and know I must have looked like quite a sight! It was encouraging to me at least that even in bad weather I might have options for exercise.

A REAL snow day

I awoke at 4:30 this morning to the sound of metal grating against asphalt ... a sound that the antique, single-pane windows in our bedroom did little to block out. As bummed as I was to be awake when my infant was actually sleeping I couldn't help but hop up and look out the window as I knew what that sound meant -- SNOW and lots of it!

Sure enough, we had about 6 inches of dry, fluffy snow covering everything. Knowing it could disappear quickly, I asked Jason if he could postpone going into work for an hour so we could have some playtime with Luke in it. SO much fun!!

South-facing window views

Moving into town this year I knew I'd miss the wonderfully peaceful view we had from our place last year.  Most days now I find my eyes resting on this pretty, but distant scene.

The {uncropped} reality looks like this -- an empty jack in the box, the UPS store parking lot and an economy hotel. Not quite so pretty.
























In addition to our pretty view from last year, I knew I'd especially miss the amazing sunsets we got to see. Unbeknownst to me, since the sun sits so far south in the winter, we actually get to see it rise and set (when we have a clear day) from the south-facing windows of our house in town during the winter months. Hurrah for south-facing windows (something I never thought growing up in California)! This morning, we had an orange glow on all our walls which was so wonderful in the midst of this dreary season.