Christmas was a blast, all things considered! I was called to be on Jury duty one week before
Christmas, can you believe it?! I had the hardest time going. I'm not a fan of new and unpredictable things and this was one of those things and by law, I couldn't get out of it :) They do trials in a day, so I only had to go in one day and wasn't chosen. It was an interesting process though. Dan was able to get a few days off before Christmas and it was so nice having him home! We spent some time with his parents who were in town that week. We also had a lot of fun with my brothers Matt and Shawn. We put together puzzles and watched Christmas movies and ate a lot of food! All my efforts in the keep the weight off since my big weight loss last year have decided to fly South for the Winter. O-well. Christmas day was wonderful! I love having Christmas on Sunday. Hailey, Abby and I were part of the Choir for our ward and had to opportunity to sing for the program that day. It was beautifully done! It was hard after being up until 2:00 a.m. to get up early and be ready by 10:00 a.m. was difficult! I was so tired! We had decided to open gifts, which were few that morning. Charly was our Christmas gift and we got him early. Over the last few years we had decided to do a family gift instead of lots of individual gifts. We first read the story of Jesus in the scriptures and then the kids did their usual line up and we headed down to open stockings and a few gifts under the tree. Ruthie was the most fun to watch because this year, she got it. She knows what presents were all about and it was so much fun watching her. We loved having my parents be a part of our Christmas and were grateful to them for sharing it with us.
Dealing with a new dog and all that goes with it was interesting these last couple of months. He sure is cute and it's a good thing because I think he is a serious part of why my anxiety has been triggered. He has discovered how to bark and it isn't cute....at....all! It drives me insane. He also gets really whiny at times as well. He is such a baby, lol! Being a Mother, and a stay at home Mom with 5 kids, and having a whiny, barking dog is enough to put me over the edge. If it were just me, I'd get rid of him, but now there are 6 people in our house that love the dog, so it's not so easy. I do the majority of the bathing, feeding, poop cleaning because I'm home all day. Lucky me. The kids and Dan get to come home to a happy puppy because they don't do much of that stuff, nor do they do the disciplining....so he's great to them and not so happy with me. Poor dog and poor Jen. Ha! Well, after I had a great chat with a very supportive hubby we found a few things this last week that have helped with the whiny, barky-ness. I'm grateful for that. Wow, what a negative paragraph, lol.
We had so much fun celebrating Ruthie's #2 birthday! She is such a fun girl! She got a kitchen for Christmas, so for her birthday she got food to go with it, and a cute little leap from laptop computer from her grandparents Johnson. Grandparents Ballard got her a cute little shopping car and sunglasses. We got her dress-ups and dress-up shoes. She is obsessed with shoes. We sang Happy Birthday to her all day. She didn't quite know what to think of all that, but by the end of the day, she started to sing too. I can't believe my baby is 2!
Joe
Rachel
The stockings. (don't you like how none of them match?)
Charly (Our early Christmas Gift, chewing on his Christmas gift)
Ruthie and her kitchen!
Some of her toys from her birthday...
