Ahhh, December. The days of frost nipping your nose, white Christmas, sleigh rides... Unless you live in the Phoenix valley. In that case it is the time to sleep with your windows open at night to enjoy the cool breeze, and eat the yummy tomatoes out of your garden in the back yard. I tell you what. Winter living in El Mirage is pretty darn nice!
The weather was so lovely we tried to get outside as much as we could. We spent one Saturday at the
Historic Saguaro Ranch in Glendale. It was really fun to tour the old ranch house and wander the grounds. There were rabbits in the rose garden, and peacocks on the lawns. It was a really fun place to spend a day.
It is also right next to the local public library, and since we can't resist a library to save our lives we walked over to check it out and spend some time play over there.
Another fun family outing we went on this month was to meet up with Nate and his kids to see the Christmas lights at the Mesa temple. The kids loved it! It was even chilly enough to justify wearing light jackets (I think the only time all winter we needed them).
December is always full of lots of little (and big) things to do, so we stayed pretty busy this month. Some of the big events though are worth mentioning. Maren turned 2! I think of all our kids the term "terrible twos" applies best to this one.
For her birthday I made her a rainbow cake and we gobbled that up and opened presents. I think she liked it all!
The baby doll and stroller that she got from us were a HUGE hit! She has loved these so much, and sleeps with her baby every night.
She does tend to use the stroller as a carry-all for anything and everything she can get her hands on. You wouldn't believe how much can fit in these little things!
Next up is CHIRSTMAS! We had a nice quiet Christmas at home this year, just us. We did stream the kids opening their presents so Grandma Paralee and Grandpa Scott could see the fun. They'd hoped to visit around this time, but it just didn't work out.
Because we were so busy with the presents I barely took any pictures. I didn't realize until later that I didn't have any of Erik. Oops.
A day or two after Christmas I got hit with the flu and spent most of the week laying on the couch wishing I could just die already. Luckily the kids are pretty resourceful, and even Maren figured out how to feed herself on her own.
We finished off the year with Erik's school program. It was Disney themed, so all the kids were invited to attend dressed as a Disney character. Erik went as Prince Eric, Sharli as Princess Sofia, and Maren just wanted to look pretty and wore her favorite Sunday dress.
Erik's class did great with their version of "When you Wish Upon a Star", and then had a lot of fun at the party afterwards. He's sure loved this school!
What a great year 2017 was for our family! We made some great memories with our Glenwood friends, moved to a new home in El Mirage, and got to see and do so many neat things.
