new phone, who dis?

as my sister so pointed out so kindly, I* have been greatly missed in the blogging sphere**. well no more tears my friends, I am still here; busier and fatter then ever! honestly, the reason I don't write anymore is because I only have a finite amount of computer time at night [after the kids are in bed, during our Netflix time, and before bedtime] and I'm usually writing lesson plans during that time. not fun stuff but it's necessary.

so what have I been up to? I honestly have no idea. living? breathing? surviving? that all seems quite right. here's a quick update on us [not the Christmas card edition; that business goes out to Justin's colleagues].

Justin was pretty sick the last few months of the year and took a lot of time off work [insert enthusiasm here]. because of that, a lot of house projects [aka my grass] has been on hold. however he still managed to make me a bookcases so I forgive him for being sick. he's been on a lego-craze along with my boys and bought a billion [no exaggeration] mini-figures from china so that's been fun.

Landon, my firstborn in the wilderness, has turned on me and become quite the little ....poop word... I just don't understand him sometimes. he wants my physical affection but when I give it him, he usually will bite/pinch/hit/tongue [yes, tongue] me. like, whats the dealio? when I was complaining to Justin about this, he said 'that's just boy love' and honestly that was the wisest thing Justin has ever said. I never realized that before but it's so true. he still needs me but like a typical boy, can't just give me a sweet hug. he's also been a bit of a brat with tablet time, homework, music classes. my friend said first grade is a growing year and her boys struggled then too. everything is just a fight! he used to be so obedient and helpful; now he lies and threatens to punch everyone.

porter is turning 4 next week and I'm hoping this will be the end of his growing year. that kid, he sure is exhausting. physically. he has some temper problems and can't control his emotions very well. that being said, he's also very physically needy and needs snuggles all. the. time. [which is wonderful and terrible at the same time]. I've been pleasantly surprised to see how much he's learned academically this year [he's better then some of the older kids in his class] but having me as a teacher has been rough on him. hopefully next year with a neutral teacher, he'll do better. sharing is not his strong suit. he's really taken to power like Darth Vader did. "the birthday boy gets to go first!" or "it's my special toy and I don't have to share" or "if you don't give me candy, I'll tell on you to daddy". dude, calm down.

griffin, my golden child, has gotten a bit tarnished in the past year. he's starting to realize he's spoiled more so... that's been great. it's been fun seeing his personality grow and how he interacts with his brothers and other people. he's a pretty easy kid right now [knock on wood]. I'm thinking I'll let him come to my preschool next year [to avoid babysitting charges to help him grow academically].

and me? last year was a hard year. I went off my crazy pills in anticipation of getting pregnant and despite my mother in laws rumors, I am not. that plus my school and Justin's medical needs, I've gained 30lbs. so I wear a lot of leggings and stretchy pants. I'm committed to changing my eating habits this year and I've done pretty good so far. I'm back on crazy pills [that I can take while I'm pregnant] but it's not my preferred drug so I've had some not fun side effects. I got called to young woman and I honestly don't know why. the president doesn't like me [like, openly critical of me in front of the girls] but at least the girls do. I don't feel like I'm the typical YWs leader because I don't want to lie. I am who I am. it took me long enough to accept that and I'm not going to change that for anyone. that doesn't mean I can't be an example to teenaged girls. still though, the constant meetings is a bit rough but I've survived. I cannot say the same thing about girls camp. let's just pray I'm pregnant by then and can get out of it. I still love school but it was nice having a break during Christmas. my only qualm about school is that I still don't have grass and dirt is just miserable in my house.

whew! are you sick of my complaining yet? the other day I saw something like this on instagram. that hit home. my life isn't perfect and nobodies life is. it's still pretty fantastic though. I married the man of my dreams. I have three healthy and handsome guys. I live in a giant house that I love [even if I don't have grass]. I have two jobs that make me feel fulfilled and busy. I am healthy. I have a relationship with my Heavenly Father. I have friends who'll workout with me then be up for donuts after. I have family who would do anything for me. that's pretty fan-freakin-tastic.

that being said, I really wouldn't turn down some grass***.

*I recently found out that young people turned off their auto-capitalization on their phone because it's the cool thing to do. so basically I started a trend.
**excuse some of the capitalization. I have a new computer and it automatically fixes those kinds of things. doesn't it know I have a reputation to uphold on my blog?
***real grass. like in the ground. not marijuana.

harrisons on holiday: californi-yay! part I

remember how we got legoland season passes from grandpa dave at christmas? since justin was gone from january-june, we knew he'd get a week of vacation after session ended and we wanted to go to legoland again. justin thought it would be fun to invite grandpa and kristi to come with us. that turned into a week's long vacation at a family friend's beach house they rent out on mission beach [san diego, ca]. we decided to go father's day weekend and invite kristi's parents to go with. lynsey & skyler couldn't make it because she's round and pregnant and with her new job in washington and an impending maternity leave, time off is precious.


day #0
the night before we left for our vacation, dave, kristi, justin, and i went out for some grown up time. to prepare for the storm, in a way. we all got pedicures [hallelujah!] and the girls got manicures. such a wonderful treat! they put this mystery chemical on justin's feet that basically made his calluses just melt off. afterwords we went to a delicious mexican restaurant and planned out our adventure.

day #1

kristi's birthday! we left bright and early. justin and i woke up at 4am and packed up the car. we got the kids in and of course, they didn't fall back asleep until hours later. porter didn't go back to sleep at all [and he's the one who needs the most sleep]. we stopped for donuts and to change our clothes in victorville [hello pokemon donuts! you know my son so well] then kept on trucking to san diego. we made it to the beach house well before noon. after unpacking, we walked to the boardwalk [not even 2 blocks away] and went to lunch. i've been to mission beach several times before [my sisters even tried to get me to get a tattoo there!]. it's not my favorite beach but it's definitely fun with the carnival games/rides. justin and i took the kids to the beach later in the afternoon and if you follow me on instagram, you know it was terrible.

when justin and i went to florida, we brought back landon a treasure box filled with some seashells [still the best vacation ever. because we were in florida, but mainly because we didn't have kids with us] and porter has been jealous of it ever since. so that's what porter mainly did while landon splashed in the ocean and built sandcastles. griffin was not a fan of the chilly pacific water [another reason why florida is the bomb.com] so he did a little bit of everything but mainly liked playing with balls and other people's toys. that night, dave made a trip to costco so we enjoyed the best pizza in the world that night and went to bed early.

y am sick of those perfectly posed pictures of families on beaches; looking gorgeous, tan, with happy smiling kids that look like they belong in GAP ads. maybe i'm doing parenting wrong but it was nothing like that for us. you pack so many things and plan to stay for a while and the kids just go crazy! granted, they got better after a little bit more exposure, but it's still pretty stressful. especially when you've got anxious parents and cranky kids.

day #2
the next morning was father's day and we dedicated it to taking it easy. it was also the sabbath day and while we couldn't make it to a church, we tried to play games as a family, read scriptures, and listen to church songs and hang out. after lunch and naps, we headed down to the beach with dave and kristi. that day was much better. the kids knew what to expect and so did justin and i. justin and dave played catch on the beach and it was a picture, perfect, hallmark moment. we buried dave in sand and just enjoyed ourselves. after a few hours there we came back to the house and dave grilled some food for us. after a bath, we headed down to belmont park [where all the carnival rides are] for dessert and rides. the weather was so perfect too. vegas had a huge heatwave, hitting 117 degrees [an all-time record high] while san diego was a cool 75. the kids didn't go to bed until close to 10pm but it was worth it.

day #3
monday we knew we wanted to go visit the san diego zoo. kristi has a friend who lives here and she suggested that would be a good day to visit. the zoo is not too far away from the beach house and we got there right at opening. you always hear how amazing and big the san diego zoo is and it did not disappoint. it was giant and very well maintained. justin and i are the world's best parents and we've taken our kids to several zoos in the past [sacramento, santa barbara, miami, phoenix, salt lake, and now san diego]. this was by far the nicest in the most ways. you easily could spend several days there but we crammed a lot in in one day. my fitbit clocked in almost 17k steps that day! there were lots of hills but thankfully a lot of pushers for the double stroller. my favorite animals were the koalas [seriously, they sleep 20 hours and then eat for 4. that is the life]. the giraffes were amazing as well. they had a pretty cool tour bus that gave you a good overview of the zoo and then a bus that would help cut down on the walking. the kids and grown ups were just DRAGGING by hour 7. the heat plus all the walking and sugar just wore us all down. once we were in the car, all three were out. that night we had some down time and brought some mexican in and have a nice chill night.

to be continued...

utah is for exhausted mothers

right after kayla's supersize weekend, we headed up to utah for thanksgiving. packing up to leave was somewhat hectic: i had just the craziest party weekend, justin came home early from his trip to south america because he got really sick, and the 3 of my boys had dr. appointments. we didn't end up leaving vegas until 11am. right before we left our house, we discovered that the car DVD player didn't work [after working just fine a few days before]. after a more pleasant drive then i could have imagined [thank you grandma for keeping the kids entertained!].

we spent our first two nights at my sister devin's house. she recently got new carpet and mattresses- super nice for us! my boys loved playing with ayden & bree, and unfortunately, their dogs. the first night we got there, justin and i snuck off after the kids were alseep for some dessert. tuesday we visited the imagination museum at thanksgiving point. we spent most of our day there. so much fun! i love the water section the most but the zipline and treehouse is pretty cool. landon especially love the floor game system- whatever it's called. he worked up a serious sweat! that afternoon we hung out with the kids, got some costco pizza and then snuck out again once the kids were alseep and saw 'the arrival'. justin hates movies, especially sci-fi, but even he enjoyed the movie. it was pretty good.

wednesday we drove up to temple square. i've been wanting to do this with my kids for a while and i'm so glad we did. it wasn't super enjoyable but it was nice for landon to see the special places there. they know a few names and faces so it's so cute to see them recognize Joseph Smith or our Savior. we really enjoyed the children's section at the church history museum. after a lunch at city creek, we drove up to my parent's house in deweyville [north of brigham city]. we got a hotel in tremonton with a pool which was so much fun! that night we had a delicious spaghetti dinner with my parents and sister shannon. we had to eat in a large, industrial garage room- pieced off by plastic tarp. it was freezing and uncomfortable but so much fun. i love my family and miss them so much.

the next day, thanksgiving, we had planned to play at mcdonalds in the morning but it was closed so we headed to the farm. it was freezing but fun. the kids chased the chickens, we walked the grounds, drove the polaris, and took a drive in papa's tractor. thanksigivng dinner is my favorite meal, especially my mom's. it was divine! the kids made life miserable but it was worth it. after lunch we headed to logan to see the trolls movie. [side note: logan is so beautiful!] it was so cute! i was dancing in my seat. the music was amazing but justin timberlake was some serious wasted talent. we went back to grandma's after to pack up some leftovers, have a lego party, and eat pie. then we swam with my sister devin and her family back at the hotel.

the next morning, after some delicious chocolate chip waffles, we met my mom at mcdonalds to get that play on that we missed the day before. after saying goodbye, we hoped the kids would sleep for a long time. they made it to ogden. we stopped by the air force museum [another thing that's been on our bucket list for a long time]. couldn't beat the price of FREE. landon liked it- the other two didn't care much either way. then we headed to discovery museum at gateway. now, i haven't been there in a few years but man it has gone GHETTO! so ghetto. i remember it being super nice and busy. it was black friday and no one was there! my SIL remarked that city creek took away a lot of it's business but still, gateway- step it up. clean your bathrooms! i really like the discovery museum, especially the vacuum/ball tree thing. my kids played there for several hours- at nap time. that's saying something. we were trying to stay up north because we were meeting my college friends that night and were trying to limit car time. the kids got cranky real fast and took a quick snooze in the car on our way to jungle jims in midvale. i didn't quite know what to expect. it's like a dirty chuck e cheese with better rides. landon had a blast! the rides were super fun, the food was terrible. the company was really what was worth it all. since my kids were so tired we didn't get to hang out for long. it's hard being a grown up.

the next morning we played with our cousins then headed back to vegas. traffic was pretty bad and the kids were even worse. i shouldn't say kids- porter. that kid has really been testing my love as a mother lately. i'm really hoping three is a better age for porter because two has been quite rough. no one was more happy to be home then griffin though. he just loves his home! we were all pretty tired from our crazy, fun-filled week. i feel like i never have enough time/money/patience/space for all the people i love in utah. i guess that just means you have to move to vegas!! you hear that??!

when grandma comes to town

i alluded to this instagram but my mother came to my rescue last week. justin travels a lot with work and he had a particular 3 week stretch of coming and going but mostly going that i needed help with. it came right as i was changing my depression medicine. the perfect storm. i called my mom and begged her to come help me out. despite her having two back to back trips planned in november. oh well! who wouldn't want to come hang out with me and be my personal au pair for no money? get in line people!




we had a ton of fun- well, i had a lot of fun; getting out and doing all the things i want to do but never can. my mom got in on monday afternoon and the kids were giddy with excitement. as was their mama! the first thing landon had grandma shell do was help him with some legos he got from his birthday. we had a nice family dinner then justin and i snuck out for a date!! we didn't do anything special: ice cream, goodwill, and target. well, target is pretty special. it had been so long and it was on a monday night! like young people!

our sad nevada leaf pile

tuesday morning i left the baby with grandma and porter and i headed to class and the grocery store. then i dropped off porter and the groceries then headed to landon's school to volunteer. i have to hit 30 hours a year and i've got more then half done already. i just like to go and see what he's up to and see how he interacts with his friends. luckily, his school is pretty awesome at letting parents come and go. i came for lunch and recess, then took landon out early for a trip to boulder city.

my brother and nephew recently moved there and bought a house. my mom coming was a perfect opportunity to visit. he bought a fixer upper like us and he's got his hands full, just like us! we played at the park, got slurpees, and had an early dinner together. it was quite miserable with all three kids but i'm glad i got to see my family. i'm the only one left in vegas now. how sad. that night i had a church meeting and i didn't have to drag along my cranky, tired kids! what a luxery!

getting too big for my back seat

wednesday i went to the gym and got to hit a class i normally can't go to because of griffin's nap. then i dropped off some invitations for my birthday party. i mean, hogwart's delivered some owls late this year. i am so excited! i picked up landon and his friends from school then we went to baseball practice that night. thursday i went to the temple with my friend holly after i dropped off the kids at school. i haven't quite gone once a month this year but i'm not doing too bad. afterward i tried on some bridesmaids dresses [my oldest BF is getting married in march] and got some lunch. all without kids! can you imagine?! sadly none of the dresses quite worked out. that night we had baseball again and it was a terrible, no good night. porter had sicky poo in his undies, griffin and porter bought threw up on me, and i was covered in both.

he told me he found money
it was a clothing tag

friday i stayed at home while griffin napped and got some stuff done. my mom took porter to his sports class then we went to lunch together at raising cane's. yum! that night justin got home and we went out on ANOTHER DATE!!! and stayed out until midnight like young folks! we had some me

xican food with the irelanders, cleaned the church with them and played some basketball/dodgeball, then watched youtube clips while the boys booked trains for their trip to south america.

my mom sadly left saturday morning to a lot of tears [mostly mine]. she has remarked several times that i didn't her as much as i needed a babysitter. which is true. but it's hard to eat dinner alone. it's hard to take care of three kids 24/7 without any help. it's hard not to go on a date with your husband or go to the store alone. i got so much done and i had so much freedom. my friend remarked that she hadn't seen me that happy in a long time! there was plenty of truth in that statement.

a few weeks ago i saw a sign at deseret book that i quickly bought for my mom.

home is where your mom is.

i started bawling right there and then. my mom doesn't love being far away from her kids and grandkids. she doesn't love living in a garage. but it's where she's at right now. i don't love being away from my family. i don't love having a home base. but it's where i'm at right now. and no matter where my mom goes, my home will always be.

family matters

last year, my sisters and i decided we needed to do a girls trip this summer. just the girls. well then i got pregnant and would be nursing and my sister was a human pacifier so we decided little babies could come. and then my other sister recieved a foster baby and the pacificer sister wanted to do her annual utah trip the same time as our trip. so that's when the girls trip was moved to las vegas. well my mom started to feel bad about excluding the boys and the pacificer sister had to bring her boys so the girls trip at my house became a family reunion at my house.

oy vey.

since my mom moved to utah, we don't really have a family home base. a place where we can all go to be together. everyone either lives too far or their house is too small. and my house is big and centrally located but it's not really the best option but it was really the only option. i thought this would work out perfectly because justin was going to be gone for 2 1/2 weeks in june and i would love the chaos and noise [while justin despises those things]. then his trip got cut short and my niece died so things just got more complicated. i had big plans of doing a fun zobrist olympics on my tennis court and have a day full of swimming and fun. then i got busy and depressed and lazy.

my oldest brother and sister came into town thursday night and the kids ran wild while we ate dinner. i have a 14 and 12 year old nephew/niece who loved playing with my little babies. we have some intense rounds of 'just dance' [where i was sabotaged by the 12 year old] and we all had fun. friday morning my other two sisters came into town and we went swimming at my aunt's house and BBQed. all six of my siblings came together with the 11 grandkids - something that does not happen often! sadly we didn't get a picture together because it was so chaotic [and we were all mad at one of my brothers]. that night, my mom and brother in law watched all the babies at my house while the sisters [and the brother we were mad at] went to see 'beauty & the beast' with the big kids at spring mountain ranch. again, this was going to be a girls trip thing but we had to improvise. justin was out of town in DC and there was too many kids for our brother in law to watch by himself [although he was very willing to watch 2 infants, 2 toddlers, and 3 kids. i would not be so willing]. the play was cute and it was fun to picnic out in cooler weather, but the play didn't start until 8pm and i was beyond exhausted. and i wanted to see my husband who was flying in.

saturday my extended family was having a reunion in st. george that i had previously planned to attend but due to my niece's passing, i stayed in town to attend the funeral. sunday was crazy-town hectic because my two sisters and mom came to church with us. during the summer months, our ward is usually slim pickings but this week we were at max capacity! and the night before i had been asked to do sharing time so it was a busy and crazy day! [but i must say - my 'jonah' lego into a balloon whale that they got to pop was a big hit]. night time brought popsicles and a sunday stroll to see some neighborhood animals.

monday we swam at my aunt's again [my pool is nice and warm but she has a big backyard with a jungle gym and lots of room for the kids to go wild]. after lunch that day is when the real fun begin. i took a nap with griffin and my sisters were watching my kids. porter decided then to start throwing up. and did so several times. i woke up just in time to have him throw up all over me. luckily my sisters were there to help hold the puke bucket and take a picture of me in that shining mom moment. natalie also threw up a bit and there were a few of us who were having some other gastrointenstinal problems. not fun. luckily by nighttime, most of the puke had passed and we were able to enjoy a few rounds of catch phrase [which my mom had a bit of learning curve, which was hilarious].

tuesday, wednesday and thursday were a blur. it was just my sisters shannon and anna with her brood. we swam, we did crafts, we went to the natural history museum, we went to the park. i honestly can't remember what else we did. thursday justin and i flew off our on couplecation and i didn't look back.

it was seriously so much fun to see and hang out with my family. i miss them all terribly - until they're around 24/7 and then i get sick of them. i wish my mom had a house so that we could do these kind of get togethers there [and mess up her life as opposed to mine] but that's probably never going to happen. so i guess justin just better get used to chaos.

the easter bunny pooped in our yard

did you know the easter bunny came and pooped in our yard? he did! how amazing is that? i was kind of sad to not have the typical mormon easter weekend- you know, a large family gathering, egg hunt, and dinner made by mom. because my mom abandoned me [if you're reading this mom, i hope you're feeling guilty right now]. 

my aunt graciously invited me and my boys to her easter egg hunt on saturday. we had a blast! it was everything i had been missing and then some. she sure knows how to throw a party! as landon told me 'aunt lori is more better then you mom'. the boys were beyond spoiled by their harrison grandparents and the easter bunny. which actually i know for a fact the easter bunny just recycled some eggs and candy they had recieved earlier. sneaky sneaky. he did also get griffin a new push car because our old hand-me-down sadly broke. he loves it! so do his brothers. 

at aunt lori's, porter had a great time hoarding baby eggs. we received some chalk eggs last year that they boys have obsessed with since we moved into our house. he loves collecting and building nests for 'the baby eggs' so he wasn't really interested in dying the hard boiled eggs. until he realized what happened then got his hands turned green. oh look! two mis-placed pictures. here griffin is getting ready to crawl and the two harrison boys playing with the green boys.

leading up to easter we celebrated st. patrick's day at the children's museum visiting daddy. his teacher's leprechaun was hilarious and set the bar pretty high for our leprechaun. ours hung fruit loop necklaces from the lights, turned our milk green, messed up our furniture, did some crazy stuff! oh look, here i am in my natural habitat of trying to eat breakfast while cradling two little babies. i know one day i'll be very happy they're all so close but right now it's just a lot. i feel like i'd love and appreciate snuggle moments more if they were more spaced apart. but you know what? i still love them a ton and try to soak in all the moments i can. like these two.

holiday with the harrisons 2015

if i were a better person with more time and cared more, i would make a collage but alas, i am none of these. i can barely remember christmas honestly so here i am making an attempt.

christmas didn't feel like 'christmas' because justin was out of town for two weeks leading up to the holiday. jack our elf brought our magic christmas seed the first day of december and it magically grew. and i had to carry the big and heavy tree into the house by myself. i love decorating for the holidays- it seems to go up pretty easily but takes forever to put away. we had our annual christmas ornament party with the harrisons and friends a few days into the month at our house and had a blast! we did get to do a lot of fun and silly things, thanks to our elf. we built a snowman on our door [that was a pill to take off], made christmas cookies, had our windows 'snowed' on, received christmas cereal, wrote santa letters, made gingerbread houses, went to the movie theatre to see 'the good dinosaur' [two thumbs way down]; to name a few. one of the greatest things we did before christmas was have my sister over.

anna and her hooligans stopped in vegas on their way to salt lake. landon was DYING with excitement because nicklaus is his very favorite cousin. we had so much fun with them! even though our time together was short, we had a great time. my brother and nephew came over for dinner too which was a blast. all that was missing was my mom.

*side note* my mom has been gone from vegas for a couple years now and it has not gotten easier yet. it just did not feel like christmas without her. for her present this year i made a CD of myself singing christmas songs and once again, i got her the best gift ever. TOOT TOOT! one of our christmas traditions is for my sister and me to sing songs around the piano so this was my way of bringing that tradition to her. i miss her every day and i can't imagine a life when she isn't around to call. 

landon was very much aware of santa claus and porter too! we saw him at landon's preschool party where porter refused to sit on santa's lap. landon asked for a robot, buzz lightyear set, and playground [1/3]. we also saw him on christmas eve when we visited the magical forest. i love the magical forest and i'm so glad we go every year. the boy's favorite part of christmas was jack our elf. every morning they would wake up and search for him. landon would talk to him and bring him food often. he would ask me some intense and very insightful questions about him [yikes! i'm in trouble]. porter STILL asks where jack is. we sure do love our elf!

*side note* my visiting teacher called me and asked if we needed a playset. i said yes and the next thing i know someone brought it over and set it up for us- a christmas miracle! it's older and well used but wood and very sturdy. the kids love it! i didn't think i wanted a play set because they're expensive and take up so much space but i'm glad we have it!

christmas day the boys woke us up at 4am! can you imagine? that was when we got up- they actually woke us up several times during the night + night nursing so i was BEAT! some presents that the boys got include: army costume [landon], movies, BBQ & play kitchen, play food, leap frog games [landon], leap frog baby tablet thing [porter], daniel tiger toys [porter], tv for the play room, books, games, spiderman and batman costumes, and lego men [landon]. santa doesn't give the boys a lot of gifts because i don't think they need them. we do so much before christmas and i'd rather spend money doing things together rather then more stuff. plus their harrison grandparents SPOIL the boys so much. i end up regifting or hiding most of the presents because we get so much. 

justin and i agreed not to give each other presents because we usually buy whatever we want for ourselves. plus we'd rather put money into our house. well i didn't do that this year and i surprised him with tickets to garth brooks. he's doing a world tour this summer and justin had always said he was bummed we couldn't go to his residency at the wynn [too expensive]. garth brooks is a childhood idol of his so i'm excited to go see him this summer.

one of the greatest things we did this year was continue our 25 days of christ ornaments and give a gift to christ. we wrapped a present and put it under the mini tree with the ornaments and filled it with acts of service. whenever we would do an act of service, i'd write it on a little piece of paper and we'd talk about how serving others is a way to give a gift to christ. landon loved this and still talks about service he can do for others. 

one of the greatest things i did was go to the temple. i love the temple so much but can't go as often as i'd like. what better way to give to christ then to give of our time and serve in the temple. 

one of the greatest presents we received as a family was two nativity sets. for the 12 days of christmas, we got a piece of a nativity - two sets actually, a nice ornate one and a little people one - with some scriptures/verses/meaning behind the piece. it was so exciting to see what we'd get each night and to guess who was doing it. turns out it was a person in our ward - the same one who gave us the play set. so amazingly nice!

*side note* this ward we are in is on a whole new level of amazing. the members are all active, wealthy and giving, very generous with their time and talents, and so nice. i was a little worried because it's an older ward but i'm so glad we moved here. they are all so nice and helpful. we feel so blessed.

i'm so thankful for the christmas season - for the merriment, food, and abundance of the spirit.