December - STAR WARS: EPISODE VII: THE FORCE AWAKENS

The day had finally arrived! It was finally time to see the new Star Wars movie. It was set to 

open on December 18th, but we were offered some tickets from our friends Troy & Larana 

Sales, and were able to see it on preview night, the 17th at the University Mall Cinemark.

We even got a ticket for Morri to come with us, since he was going to miss 

it the next day because of work. This is our pic before the movie started.

Then after! It was so fantastic and an emotional one too. It was everything we wanted it to be and more.

Viewing #2: The next day, the 18th, we were able to take Xander and Mara to 

see it also, this time at the Provo Towne Centre Cinemark. We went with 

Liza, Carter, Alex, Addi and Noah. The week before the movie, Mara told me that 

she wanted to have a Star Wars shirt to wear to the movie, so that morning, I 

went to Walmart and found her shirt, and a new one for me too. Sadly, Xander 

doesn't have a Star Wars shirt, but he didn't really care about having one.

Then viewing #3 was the Tuesday after Christmas Dec 29th. We got to see it, 

just us at the Geneva Megaplex! And to top it off, it was in IMAX 3D too!  It really 

made the movie enjoyable, and I was glad we didn't see it like this the first 

time, because we were able to sit back and enjoy it and not have to worry so 

much about the story and the details. I would definitely see it again in IMAX.

There have been a lot of different posters for the movie, but this is the one 

that Pat liked the most. Hopefully we can find it to add to the collection.

December - SNOW!!!!

We were so excited to wake up one morning with a bunch of snow! 

I loved being able to photograph some of it.

During Melody's nap Jaina and I made a snowman. 

The snow didn't pack well, but we made do with what we had.

Later in the day, we went outside to play before the sun went down.

Melody was in heaven and loved walking around in the snow.

Pat was cute and got out the sled and took the girls for a 

ride down the driveway, in the street and back to the house.

They screamed with delight the whole time.

Melody just laid there the whole ride, but I think she liked it.

A few days later Jaina had some friend over and they went outside to play. 

Well of course, Melody wanted to go play in the 'snowman' too. She 

was so anxious to go outside that she was mad when I took this picture.

I love this cute little Eskimo.

December - Christmas Pics & Ward Party

We didn't do too much decorating on the tree this year 

because of Melody, but it still looked pretty in the dark. 

I usually get pics of all my kids with the tree, but this year it only happened with Mel.

Now that we have a piano, the kids love to play around on it. Mara 

has asked to have lessons, so we'll see if we can do that for her.

Here's our attempt at a quick picture for our Christmas card this year.

This is the one we went with. 

Thank goodness for a tripod and a timer.

I love being able to hear Pat play. He doesn't play much, but it's better than me.

We had our ward Christmas party and all the primary kids sang for us.

Meeting santa

Melody still has claus-tophobia

We borrowed this cute dress from Lana. 

She was so cranky after church but I still got a picture anyway.

December - Reflections & New Car

I got a new camera that is waterproof and this is the first picture that I took with it.

Every morning Xander and Mara help get Jaina and Melody up for the 

day. This particular morning, this was the first thing I saw. My bookends 

sitting by each other having breakfast. It warms my heart.

I had bought a box of 2 pieces of chocolate pie for Thanksgiving, I had 

one and Mara had the other, but she didn't finish it. Melody happened 

to find it in the fridge and decided it was hers. It's so cute to watch her eat.

Mara's Reflections entry went to the district level and won an Award of Merit! There was an awards 

night at the district office where she was recognized along with all the other winners.

'

There was a slide show of all the entries.

It was really fun to be there with best friend Livvy Greer, she won an Award of Merit also.

We finally got a replacement for the Honda after looking for about a month. It's a 

2008 Hyundai Sonata with low miles (75,000) and it's in great condition. We were 

lucky and sold the Honda Civic in a few days, and for $500. We're so 

happy that we don't have to deal with all the issues of the Civic anymore.

These girls just love to have daddy read them a book before going to bed.

Melody made a mess with her cereal, but was really cute and wanted 

to clean it up all by herself. She really likes the dustpan too.

Now that we have a piano, Melody likes to sneak her hand in and play a few notes.

I just thought that she was sitting funny, with her legs up on the table, watching her favorite movie.

Thanksgiving Break - End of November

Xander was being a good big brother and helped put on a movie for Melody, and 

he decided to make a fort for her too. She was so happy to hang out in there with him.

We got out all our Christmas decorations and Melody found the box with the snowman 

kit that Liza made years ago. She loved the carrot nose and all the rocks. Imagine that.

Jaina had been asking me for about 2 weeks when we would be putting up the Christmas tree. 

I kept telling her the earliest would be the 25th, but I wanted to wait until the 27th. Well, 

the 25th came and up went the tree. We moved furniture around about 5 times, and had the 

couches, in all sorts of places. Until we finally decided to put the tree where it was last year.

Jaina had my phone and was taking pictures of everyone, but this is the best one that she got.

Here's the tree all lit! Jaina was also anxious to put on the ornaments, but we 

needed to wait until Melody took her nap. Also, I needed to make rolls for 

Thanksgiving so I worked on them off and on in between the decorating. 

During the ornament process we received a gift from Grandma June Tolman. This piano belonged 

to her and she didn't need it, so she gave it to us. Ben was coming down for Thanksgiving so he 

rented a trailer and brought the piano straight to our house. It fits perfectly under the shelf!

Here's the finished product, and we're ready for Christmas a few days early.

That night we hung out with Ben & Amber and Lana & JR and kids. It was nice to just 

sit around and talk. Afterwards we headed to Provo to have a treat at Rockwell Ice Cream.

Brent & Lisa's best friends just opened this shop a week ago and we were so excited to finally try 

it out.  Pat got an ice cream sandwich with Honey Comb ice cream in between two snickerdoodles. 

Xander and Jaina got snickerdoodle ice cream and I got Muddy Buddies ice cream. Mara was 

sleeping over at Liza's with Addi and Aubrey, so she missed out on the ice cream fun.

When we got home Melody didn't want to go to bed because she wanted to 

look at the tree. So in the morning she was so excited that the tree was still there. 

I am hoping that next year we can put ornaments on the bottom half of the tree.

It was so great to be all together with the Tolman's. With Ben & Amber here we had all 18 

grandchildren together for the first time so I made sure we documented it. It was a fiasco 

because of Jaina being in the sunlight. But considering that, it's a pretty good picture.

Thanksgiving night I met up with JD, Chris, Mom and Lindsay and got in line at Target for 

their Black Friday sale. It was so stinkin cold and windy and I was not prepared with a hat 

or scarf. We used a bobby pin to make my coat stay up around my neck!! I got there about 

4:45 and the store didn't open until 6. But we had fun talking and trying to hide from the wind.

After all our deals were purchased, we took advantage of the Starbucks and got some hot chocolate!

The next morning I came downstairs to this sight. They were all involved 

in the TV and Melody was sitting funny but didn't seem to mind.

I got an iPod touch when Jaina was a baby and it's been a great thing for the littles to play with 

when we need some calming time. But this past February, for some reason, Jaina sucked on 

the power port and shorted it out and it no longer works. So we've been without the extra iPod 

for over 6 months. Jaina has been asking ever since then if we could get a new one. It's hard 

to explain to kids about cost of items, especially apple products. So anyway, right before 

Thanksgiving, Karri gave us her old iPhone 3, since it had just been sitting in a drawer. So now 

we have a replacement, which is great and tough at the same time, because there have been 

tantrums over it. But for the most part, I'm glad to have something back to occupy these girls.

Mara and I had done some clothes shopping to get shirts to match her Christmas 

dress, and we found these cute scarves along with them. Technically they are both 

Mara's, but she let me borrow one to wear to church, and in turn she wore one 

of my sweaters. How can it be that we are already sharing stuff and she's only 9.

We finally had some snow!!! It wasn't a whole lot, but Jaina made the most of it and made a snow angel.

When she was all done, she had snow in her hair and it was so pretty!!

Melody is starting to want to sit at the table during dinner time. We were 

having french toast and bacon for dinner and she did so great and sat there 

the whole time and ate all of her food! Why is my baby growing up so fast?