Wrapping up December {in January}

Hello, 2017!

I'm so happy it's a new year. For one, it's no longer election year. PRAISE GOD. For two, I'm flying to New Zealand this year! In 3 months to be exact, and I caaaaan't wait. And for three, January is one month closer to the return of summer :)

2016 was a really good year for us, and I can't properly move on until I wrap it up...

Presenting: December!

We picked a tree...

and we decorated it.

Jana and I went on our annual Christmas outfit shopping day (where we also finish up our Christmas shopping, eat out, exhange gifts with each other, and discuss all of life's issues and problems ;)

We had our first winter storm that left 4 inches of snow...

and we took some family pictures out in it! 

Kendall performed a beautiful music special with two of her friends at our Christmas church service,

Blake sang in the children's choir,

and we found out Cooper grew 4 inches since summer!

we had fun playing in the snow that lasted and lasted (and consequently started our kids' Christmas break earlier than planned.)

I got my first pair of sheepskin slippers and died of feet happiness.

And on New Year's Eve we celebrated with friends young...

and old. 

(Old as in long-time!) 

It was a fantastic night. 

Now here's to a fantastic new year!

'Twas Two Days After Christmas

So I figured I should recap a little.

And by recap, I mean share some pictures :)

First up: Wilson family Christmas at my parents house on Christmas Eve.

The cousins - this was the best of 10+ shots. 

Traditional siblings + spouses picture

My cousin Ben got to join us from Sydney, Australia!

Awesome games from Mike & Linley

There was food and presents aplenty, with a few fun surprises, like this smoker for my brother...

And a beautiful wedding photobook for my parents from Jay & Christine

All in all, a perfect day. 

Christmas morning we had to wake all three of our kids up to finally get things going! Russ and I cooked breakfast together and we had a nice slow morning taking our time opening gifts and enjoying everyone's reactions to everything. 

"Let's take a picture in front of the tree", I said. 

Funny thing... her gift started ringing as she opened it! We've always told our kids they won't get a cell phone until they're 16 and driving, so Kendall had no clue this was coming. We made it to 15 and a half so we decided it was close enough ;)

Mind blown!

Blurry but adorable shot of Blake crying when he got his dream gift... a pair of heelys, haha.

After finishing up we got ready and then headed over to Russ's parents for Halverson family Christmas.

The cousins

Everyone!

There were fun gifts...

funny gifts...

funny moments...

and shennanigans. 

(Yes, Russ asked for Roundup for Christmas.)

We had an awesome day, finishing up with a movie (Magnificent 7) and round two of Christmas dinner before heading home around 10pm. 

Christmas is THE BEST. Hope yours was merry and bright!

Of Sports and Thumbs {Life Lately}

I'm comin' at ya with one working typing hand this morning evening (seriously, this is taking a sweet forever) so this may not be very long! It's been a while though and things have been a happening so I thought I'd recap...

First of all, our church hosted a womens conference called IF:Gathering a couple weekends ago, and not only was it fantastic and amazing, it led to me reconnecting with an old high school buddy who used to be one of my very best friends!

K'Lynn and I catching up between lots of hugs and laughter. Oh the beauty & blessing of girlfriends!

In the meantime, Russ and Cooper were given courtside tickets to a Blazer game and had themselves a boys night!

Somehow this included a new Blazer tee and beanie for Cooper (yay for Blazer bucks!), and Dutch Bros. 

Next, Kendall talked me into taking her and her friend Hannah to the movies, and that's how I ended up crying like a baby through Storks, appropriately, since it's actually about babies. And darn cute.

But mostly what we've been up to lately is watching sports. Cooper finished up Junior High cross country...

Kendall finished up JV volleyball...

The varsity team (that Kendall swings up on) won their district tournament and are now on to State...

And we watched our neice Miranda who's playing for the Multnomah University Lions for the 2nd year (and completely dominating!)

Sports, sports, sports. It's the story of our lives these days. 

And this is what else has been going on. Remember a couple weeks ago when I wrote about my grape juicing day and mentioned I cut my thumb on a soup can? It healed up real nice. And unfortunately without any feeling. Apparently I severed a nerve, and last Friday I had surgery to repair it.

You'd think a little thumb surgery wouldn't involve full hospital garments and general anesthesia... at least I thought it wouldn't. Which is why I fully planned on attending a wedding that same evening. Alas, the doctors and nurses all laughed at me and my hopes were dashed to the ground. Not that I cared after I woke up again... hellllooooo pain meds. I pretty much slept for the next 24 hours straight.

And now I'm sporting this subtle look for the next two weeks. How many times have I had to tell the soup can story, you wonder? Way WAY too many, is the answer. 

Things haven't been all bad though. Our lovely neighbors brought us the most delicious homemade meal with flowers and a card, and Russ and the kids have taken on the household chores like champs.

And my splint didn't stop me from spending the day with these ladies yesterday, putting together 84 freezer meals to split 6 ways! (Although I definitely was the least useful woman in the room.)

It took us 7 hours and it was actually really fun! Fun and tiring. I was out by 8:00 pm last night. All that supervising wore me out! 

(Kidding. Believe it or not, I was in charge of opening all the canned goods. HA.)