Elf Hunting

As always, we spent an evening at Gardner Village hunting down the elves on their scavenger hunt list. The girls were determined to find every single one. After having walked the paths two times and still missing an elf, I gave up and went into a shop to warm up and relax. But the girls wouldn't have it and kept up their search. In the end, they had to ask for help, but were able to locate the last elf and got their candy sticks. It was an enjoyable evening. I wish my picture of Sadie next to the statue carolers would have turned out. She was trying to imitate them and was being so dramatic (which isn't like Sadie) that I could stop laughing. She was just the right size to blend in with them. It was cute.

Bohman Family Christmas Party

Most families wouldn't do what we did this year for our family Christmas party. We broke from the norm and had breakfast for dinner. Only Bohmans would do that. We love breakfast food so much that all of us thought it would be great. Some of the in-laws weren't as keen on the idea, but it turned out nice. We also put on an impromptu nativity scene while Jesse read the story. Aimee happened to have a tote full of costumes. All the grandkids dressed up and put into practice their best acting skills. Kali was pretty excited to be Mary and Sadie got to be an angel. But as the story got going, we realized that we didn't have a baby Jesus, not even a doll because it was at Aimee's house and none of her boys own a doll. Thankfully Vivian was more than happy to fill in and even laid in a makeshift manger (AKA a tote full of blankets).

This was also the first year that we tried out what we called Grandma's fishing pond. This kids got to cast a reel over a blanket and Grandma and Grandpa helped them hook a present. Kali and Sadie got temple snow globes and Ashy got a sparkly bouncy ball. I think it turned out rather well. Kali couldn't stop talking about what a great gift it was.

3rd Trimester

Well I'm officially in my last trimester and I'm feeling every second of it. I don't know if it's just because I'm getting old or what, but this pregnancy has definitely taken its toll on me. At least I'm still capable of going about my daily activities, but I won't be sad when I'm no longer pregnant.

Christmas Recital #2

Sadie's recital was today and she a did fabulous job. She really is a natural. It's fun to see her enjoying herself so much.

Christmas Recital

Kali had her dance recital today. She's learning lots and doing an excellent job. She recently told me that out of all the activities we've put her in, dance is her favorite. She wants to be a ballerina.

Casey / Bohman Christmas Party

The Christmas parties have begun. Steven and Molly were kind enough to host the Casey / Bohman party this year and the group was quite large. I'm amazed at how well we fit in their house. It's always fun to catch up with the Casey family and enjoy some reminiscing too. Dad put together a slide show of old photos that were fun to look at and brought back a lot of memories, especially of Grandma and Grandpa.

The Forgotten Carols

My in-laws treated us to dinner and The Forgotten Carols. They've done it several times in the past, but this year Kali and Sadie were old enough to go. Other than Sadie's inability to whisper, they did very well. They had lots of questions during and after and even talked about different parts of the program for the next several days. It was a fun experience and Josh and I always love going.

Presents

This is pretty much a daily scene at our house. Sadie is so excited there are presents under the tree that she can hardly stand it. She has all of them memorized. She knows who is getting the big red present, the little green one, etc. And if a new one shows up, she notices. She stacks them, counts them, and plays for hours with them. The other day she was going through all of them with Kali and couldn't even keep the present she's planning on giving her a secret. She said, "This one is mine and this one is dad's and this one is yours. It's the wuggle pet." Oops, I guess it's no longer a surprise for Kali.

Ashlyn

I recently realized that I haven't written about all the fun things Ashlyn has been doing. She's at the stage where she's learning so much and is full of personality. Some days I think she's already hit her terrible two's, but as long as she's grown out of that by the time the baby comes, it's fine by me. Here are just a few of the things we love about her. She is very silly. She often tries to do funny things and then puts on this cute little smile that makes her eyes squint even though half the time she's doing something she's not supposed to be doing. Josh and I are usually doing all we can not to laugh or smile. We have the same problem when she's mad at someone. For some strange reason she uses the word "ever" and yells it as loud as she can over and over. I think I told her not to ever do something again and it just stuck. She also does what Sadie nicknamed "big eyes". When she wants to tell you something, she comes close and opens her eyes wide to say what she wants to say. Sometimes she even cocks her head down to one side and avoids eye contact, but still keeps her eyes open wide.

You might be wondering why I posted a picture of her with green beans for this blog entry, but it's because she loves to help me snap green beans for dinner and loves to eat them raw (not my cup of tea). She has an obsession with the garbage man and calls every truck or loud noise the garbage man, yet she is terrified of loud noises. She is also obsessed with tissues. She would empty an entire box in a day using every single tissue to wipe her nose if I let her. She needs a tissue to cry, a tissue to blow her nose, a tissue after she has coughed, a tissue for comfort, etc. I probably won't have to worry about her getting sick very often. She also loves chapstick. I have to hide mine from her because she'll mutilate it. Just putting it on her lips isn't enough.

She's very polite and has been from day one. She almost always remembers to say "please" and always says "kayku" which is "thank you". Hugs solve everything for her. Even if you've just gotten mad at her, she wants to give you a hug. Kali and Sadie benefit from that just as much as Josh and I do. She's a climber, yet she's afraid of heights. I don't quite know how that one works. She loves books and actually allows me to read them before turning the pages. She's a good eater and a good sleeper, as long as she can do it on her own. Try to feed her and she won't eat a thing. Try to hold her to get her to sleep and it'll never happen. She's very good at expressing herself and loves her big sisters. Ashlyn is a ton of fun and we just can't get enough of her.

Gingerbread Houses

The graham cracker, gingerbread house tradition continues. Not only did the girls get to decorate their houses with Grandma and Grandpa Smith, but Brady and Jordan were there to help out too. It's fun to see the girls getting more creative, especially Kali. Sadie is a girl after my own heart. Her entire house was mainly covered in chocolate candy. She's pretty funny to watch too. She puts a candy on the house and then a candy in her mouth, a candy on the house and a candy in her mouth. Although it looks as though Ashlyn is decorating her house in this picture, she's really just dipping her candy in the frosting that's on the house and then eating it. The only candy that ended up on her house was what we put there.