I’ve entered several posts tonight, so keep scrolling! Some were actually written before Christmas, but we were having picture problems yet again. I think we may have it figured out now 🙂 at least until we change it again.

Well, its official – we are dog owners now. We adopted our dog last week from an older couple who had gotten it for their grand daughter who was living with them. We have been looking on craigslist for a while now for a great dog. We found one that we really wanted, and couldn’t make it to her before she was sold. The next one we went and met, and was cute but so jumpy and rowdy. When we walked away from that dog lacey was so upset. She yelled, ‘Let’s buy HIM! I want to buy him!!!” I was a little embarrassed about how spoiled she sounded, but we talked about that later. It made the situation a little awkward and very funny in hindsight. We met another dog, and he was fun and could do some fun tricks, but was not my favorite looking dog. I thought I could live with him because he had been in a house with kids and seemed pretty well trained. The people said they would call us back because they had a few families that wanted him. Well, turned out that we didn’t qualify to have him (which I was a little relieved about :).

The dog we ended up adopting is about 2 years old, spayed, house trained, and very calm and kind to the kids. She listens well and must have been trained at least a little because she sits when we tell her to, is overall very obedient, is pretty good about going to her crate at night,  has not run out the door or even acted like she would, very gentle,  and is just a very nice little dog. The only thing we need to work on is a bit of barking when people come in the door. The previous owners had named her “Baby” which wasn’t our favorite. After considering Lady, Daisy, Mele, Muffy, and several other names,on a whim we came up with Sparkle (because we had painted Rachelle and Lacey’s nails with Sparkles) and Sparkle was the only name that everyone liked (although Chelle tells me she wants to call her Baby Sparkle now and Micah wasn’t the biggest fan at first). She has gotten more playful as she’s gotten more comfortable and we are loving her.

Christmas is the best! I love it. I’m just going to include several pictures and let them tell most of  the story. Lacey’s Preschool Christmas program, Chelle was “Mary” this year in the little nativity,  Pajamas from cousins (very late thank you’s to Gabby, Caleb, Tristan, and Brielle) and pajamas from Mamama. We badly needed pajamas and they are all worn about every other night. We had a fabulous Christmas

We received a call on Christmas day saying that Grandpa Hawley had passed away. We knew he had been struggling. He was 92 years old.  We decided after a lot of deliberation that we would drive out there as a family to be at his funeral and spend New Years Even there. The funeral went well and the graveside service was very sweet. Micah and I both learned a lot about Grandpa Hawley through the memories of those who spoke. At the end of the graveside service, all the children were encouraged to come put a flower on the casket. It was beautiful.  It was hard to see Grandma Hawley through all of it. It made me think of President Hinckley’s words. I can’t remember where it was, but after his wife passed away, he said with tears in his eyes he knew that he would be with her again, but he missed her. Its true and it helped me realize that you can miss people and hurt and still have faith.

We were glad to be there with so many of Micah’s cousins and family that we don’t see very often.

I tried to potty train Rachelle several months ago and ended up frustrated and broke. She could do it, she just didn’t want to. There were prizes involved and she would do well enough to earn the prize and then not care anymore. So I gave up after a few weeks of trying really, really hard! There was a day when she pee peed on a chair right in front of me, when I had asked her just a minute before if she needed to go. I looked at her and said, “Chelle” and let out a frustrated sigh. She looked at me and in a sweet tone and with a little smile asked, “Are you frustrated with me mom?” That was the day I decided we were done with that try at potty training. I didn’t mention it again, until one day in January she went into the bathroom, went pee pee on the toilet and came out and told me. I gave her a high five and decided we would try this potty training again. I just stuck with the high fives and it seemed to be really pleasing to her. She was very successful that day, maybe one accident as she was running into the bathroom. I did end up offering a couple M&M’s for each time with a high five. Everything just worked out this time and we are all so stinkin’ happy about it! Hooray for Chelle!

To top it all off, last week on Sunday before church we painted Chelle’s fingernails and toe nails with pink and sparkles. She loved it! After church we were sitting in the car waiting for Micah to finish up some things for his calling and we were talking about what a great job she did telling her teacher she needed to go to the bathroom. In a proud tone she exclaimed, “Mom, today, my fingers are pretty, my toes are pretty, and my underwear are pretty!” What a fabulous statement!

Its been a wonderful month full of fun! Thanksgiving was so relaxing and fun. We had the annual turkey trot in the morning relaxed for a while and then went over to Jill’s for a nice Thanksgiving feast with family. All the kids had a great time and came away happy. Its always fun to hear what the kids are grateful for – they are so sweet and think of the greatest things. Its a pretty fun time of year with Thanksgiving and Christmas right around the corner. Its just magical. We have a lot to be grateful for.

The Monday after Thanksgiving we got Jackson out of school at lunch time and headed out to Disneyland! We were needing a little break from normal school/work days to have a little family time. It was beautiful completely decked out for Christmas. What a great time to be there!

We met Santa, had a delicious breakfast each morning at the Characters breakfast, and looked at the huge Christmas tree that was in the lobby of the hotel. We all had our favorite rides, but I loved “Its a small world – Christmas style”. It was amazing! Overall it was a little more crowded than I would have liked, but probably not as crowded as the busy season. We ended up getting to do the big cars land ride with Lacey and Jackson (the others were too small) with only a 30-45 minute wait. It is a great ride – maybe not worth waiting two or three hours for, but it really is a fun ride! I’m glad they got on it, they love “Cars.” We did a few other rides in cars land and all were really fun. We met some princesses, which was the highlight of Rachelle’s trip. She keeps asking to go back and meet more princesses. We all had fun on the teacups and carousels, little mermaid, and many others. It was so fun to just get away and be together as a family to do something fun. Disneyland is such a fun place!