a bit of our december

we had some super nice weather in november...which was making it really hard for me to get into the holiday spirit.  and then one morning we woke up and it was beyond freezing cold...and then we got a bunch of snow!! it's beautiful...and really, really cold.  but it's just what i needed to get my booty in gear for decorating our house for christmas.  

my girls are so happy and excited to have some snow and be able to wear their snow boots to school again.  they are definitely like their dad when it comes to LOVING the snow.  

 rhett came home after work and built a snowman with the kids.

and then they came in the house and had some hot cocoa.

i love this cute, silly girl.

another day after school rhett pulled out the snowmobile and ended up giving all the neighborhood kids a ride.

we have our tiny, fake tree downstairs in the living room.  but on saturday we headed up to cut down an 11 ft tree for our upstairs living room.  this is always so fun and is probably rhett's favorite tradition that we have.

can you see rhett in this picture?

i didn't get a ton of pictures because i was mostly trying to help the kids and rhett with the tree.  we were having to jump over little creeks and climb hills in some massively deep snow.  haha, rhett always likes it to be a bit of a challenge.  

my little snow angel.

 rhett had it all figured out so all i have to do is flip a light switch to turn on all the christmas lights for the tree and up on our ledges.

 our living space is always a little cramped after we put the tree up but the kids kind of love it.  i've been catching them jumping from the table to the couch quite a bit.

 on sunday all three kids got hurt within 30 seconds...i think mostly just because they were tired.  you know how kids seem to get 'hurt' whenever they are tired? or is it just my kids?  tacey didn't end up making a huge fuss, but these two sure did.  it was almost comical.

 i don't even remember what he was looking at here, but i just love this picture.

i finally put out all the christmas books and movies so the kids could easily get to them.  

a few nights ago we lost power around 10pm.  i kind of panicked when i realized how cold it was outside.  it was like 5* and was supposed to hit around -4.  the girls sleep in the basement which is already cold so i started to head down the stairs to bring the girls upstairs and little miss tacey was already on her way up with a flashlight.  the girl has been staying up all hours of the night reading in her bed with her flashlight lately so she already had it handy, haha.  

i got all the kids snuggled in the living room so they could be by the fireplace and keep warm.  it was so cozy and sweet.  

i don't think we will ever make a habit of it though.  i feel like my kids were up all night long.  and for some reason they were up at 5am bouncing off the walls the next morning.  i was not impressed.  haha.

and i have to mention, rhett was out of town working during all this.  i had to laugh because stuff like this always seems to happen when rhett is gone.  this is the second time we've lost power in the middle of winter when rhett's been gone and during the summer our water pump was being weird and  i had no water pressure.  i told him he's not allowed to ever leave again.  haha.  too bad it doesn't work like that.  but i do remember right before rhett left out of town this last time he said, 'taryn, i hid some flashlights here by your nightstand.'  which ended up really coming in handy!!!  he does take care of me.

i LOVE this little nativity set my MIL bought us years ago.  it's my favorite.

birthday boy

my baby is three....THREE!!! 

it's unbelievable how fast time flies.  i can say that with him, and knowing he is probably our last, i have tried to soak in every single minute.  but still, the last three years have just flown by.

riggs is seriously one funny kid.  he is constantly cracking us all up and he brings so much joy to our home.  his sisters can't get enough of him and that makes him the most spoiled kid on earth.

for his actual birthday we were still at my dad's house for thanksgiving.  before we left for burley my girls each wrapped homemade presents for riggs.  it was adorable.

i was feeling super proud and excited that i literally spent less than $20 on gifts for his birthday.  and then my dad comes walking through the door with a new bike for him.  haha.  i told you, he is the most spoiled kid i know.  

when you would ask riggs what he wanted for his birthday he would mostly always answer 'tacos!' so we had mexican food about 3 or 4 times that week.

after all the birthday excitement riggs passed out in the car outside my dad's house and then he slept in my arms for two glorious hours.  it was amazing.

we sure love this three year old.

thanksgiving

for thanksgiving break my kids had 9 whole days off of school and it was the best! i am seriously going through kid/husband withdrawals. i live for times like this with my family.  halfway through our break we went to burley to hang with my side of the family.  it was a nice easy-going weekend, and i loved it.

my dad carving the turkey (i'm pretty sure he has a mouthful of turkey here) and my sissy.

we went to whitneys' house for thanksgiving dinner and this is their backyard.  i mean come on, can you even believe their view?  so, so dreamy!! that's tacey out there in 7th heaven exploring.

 as always we were horrible at putting our kids to bed on time at my dad's house. they were pooped by the time their heads hit the pillow.

thanksgiving aka riggs birthday eve

my family

so my awesome friend toni scheduled my family for pictures probably two months ago.  we were all set to go and for once i was actually super excited to have our pictures done!  three days before our family pictures rhett gets called out of town for work.  i was seriously so, so bummed.  so after church on sunday rhett tried really hard to make up for it.  we grabbed our camera and went on a little family drive.  our outfits are not coordinated and a whole lot of our pictures turned out blurry.  haha.  these pictures are nowhere near perfect or what i had in mind,  but honestly, i'm just happy we got a few to document this sweet time in our lives.  

 tacey grabbed the camera and took probably 100 pictures.  not too bad for a 9 year old.  

and oh my heck, can i just say how much i love this family of mine.  seriously, they are my whole world and make me so dang happy.

another salt lake trip

a couple of weekends ago we headed back down to salt lake to attend my little sister and her hubs getting sealed in the temple.  it was such a neat sealing.  president monson's son-in-law did the sealing.  it was so cool to listen to him talk about president monson, because he knew him personally.  it was so special seeing my sister be sealed to her husband, who a year ago was just getting baptized.  drake's conversion has been such a blessing to watch.

after the sealing we had about 7 minutes of light to take some fast pictures!! 

my mom and her fiance.

issn't my sister such a babe!

we spent the next couple of days at my mom's house and did lots of shopping at all our favorite stores.  we didn't buy much, but it was just fun browsing.

i took riggs on the ferris wheel for his first time ever at scheels.  he loved it and cried when we had to get off. haha.

as you can see, we literally shopped until we dropped!!!