Back to December.

A huge THANK YOU to my sweet girl, Britt, for taking the time on this very important day (Bill's birthday, Lynnea's birthday, Presidential Inauguration Day) to send me pics from my point-and-shoot. I can now move forward with catching up.

But first I must get a cake in the oven for Bill...

...funny how that doesn't take long when you're reading this. Needless to say, the German Chocolate bundt cake is in the oven, the coconut pecan frosting is cooling on the counter, and the dishes are done. That wasn't fast.

Back to December.

And Sister Syddall's return from her service for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the England London Mission.

I have to admit, I'd been (and continue to be) a bit {scattered}, so when the big day rolled around, I didn't have an awesome banner printed and ready to go as I had intended. Since I had asked a couple of family friends (the Weeds and the Kennedys) to join us in welcoming Shi at the airport (feeling like Bill, Mar, and I were a bit anti-climactic), I asked my neighbor Mace if she would be willing to whip out a couple of signs for the big event. She agreed {phew}. When Saturday night rolled around, we gathered to wait.

 I was thrilled to also see these adorable signs Kate and Grace Kennedy made to welcome Shilo home.

We have video of her arrival... somewhere. I will post it here when I find it (still a bit scattered).

We were so happy to hug this girl again!

 A few years back, Shilo told us that if anything ever happened to Bill and me, the Kennedys would adopt her. I told her she's an adult and wouldn't need to be adopted. Her response: "They would adopt me as an adult child." Most likely it's true. So grateful for the love and friendship (and tons of belly laughs) this family has given her!

 The Weeds have been some of the best neighbors and friends we could ever ask for. Blair and Mist happened to be flying in about an hour before Shi's arrival, so we brought their kids with us and all met up at the airport. Their daughter Mace made those awesome signs for us.

 It was a lovely welcome home, thanks to the help and support of these wonderful people.

We stopped by a Chick-fil-a drive thru, unloaded Shi's luggage from the car upon arriving home, visited for a few brief moments, then gathered in our living room with our Stake President. It was a fantastic hour as he asked some specific questions that caused Shi to reflect on her entire mission. She cried when he released her, I cried giving a closing prayer.
It was the sweetest experience.

A few days later we started welcoming friends and family to CO.

Grandma and Grandpa G came first.

We thought it would be fun to take them to a nearby park in our town that has a nice light display.

It will be fun, we said. The weather should be nice, we said. I don't need to layer, Shi said.

It WAS fun, but it was sooooo cold. We stuck around long enough to snap a few pictures, for memory's sake.

Next up, Britt, Scarlett, and Michaela arrived.

These girls had a good time being reunited...

...and taking silly pictures.

I loved having Scarlett to wake up to!

 Grandma and Grandpa Syddall drove in on Friday, and Lex flew in late that evening.

On Saturday we had a belated Thanksgiving feast. It was fun to have so much family there.

 Following dinner, we all headed to Mar's Christmas recital.

 On Sunday Shilo was talking in church. She did a fabulous job, even if she didn't shed tears (she and I had a conversation about that later). She joyfully shared her message, which was perfect. 

She had such great support from her friends... we HAD to get a jumping pic afterwards.

 Followed by a nice normal pose.

We took a lot of pictures that day, but this is one of my faves:

 (I told the girls I like candid shots, but they always like to pose. I think I may have staged this a little by saying something like, "Laugh and talk amongst yourselves..." All I can say is, "See?? It's cute!")

 Later that night, the friends gathered at our house to hang out (like the good ol' days). It was super fun to have the gang (+ 1) back together again! Hailey's boyfriend (the +1) had served his mission in the Denver North Mission, which is the mission we live in (for the past 9 months or so, due to a boundary change; we used to be in the Colorado Springs Mission). How cool is that??

We had a big fondue party for the group. Well, maybe not a "party"... more like a cheesy gut-filling dinner that you eat standing up hahaha.

 Lex was supposed to fly back to UT Sunday evening, but her flight got cancelled (don't even get me started on the crazy Frontier Airline fiasco that weekend), so she climbed in with Grandpa and Grandma S to head back to UT on Monday.

Grandpa and his truck ain't afraid of no snow.

Grandpa and Grandma G stayed one more day (although stressed about their flight being cancelled, too) to play games and hang out with us. We loved having the grandparents stay with us!!

When it came time to say so long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, goodbye, we gave them a proper send-off. Grandpa really enjoyed his haha. Thankfully, their flight, although delayed, was not cancelled.

Austin flew in to spend the rest of the Christmas holiday with us. On his Denver bucket list: eat at Wahoo's Fish Tacos. Scarlett was on board, since rice and beans are her fave.

 I seriously can't get enough of this girl.

The next evening we went to see the lights at the Denver Zoo. That was on MY bucket list, as we have never been before. They were impressive, although admission is a little pricey (no free SLC Temple lights here). And it was a bit chilly. And the Denver Zoo is soooooo big (I forgot... I haven't been there for a few years, and never in the winter haha).

We were able to see a few of the attractions... this guy (his name was Billy) definitely gave us a show. In more ways than one haha. Let's just say this is the only semi-modest picture I have.

On Christmas Eve we snapped a few family pictures...

...then had the Sisters for dinner and a simple Christmas Eve reading.

We had Pavolova for dessert... Shilo's request (she'd had it in England). Yum!

We opened our Christmas Eve gifts...

...then tried mightily to get a good jumping picture with the point-and-shoot on timer.

I failed every time.

Christmas morning was super fun with Scarlett. We had 9am church that morning, so everyone got mostly ready before heading downstairs to the tree.

That girl loved unwrapping presents. She was happy to help any and all. 

I had the grand idea to make the girls tee shirt quilts, but I didn't start on them until about a month out, so I was scrambling to get them finished, quilted, and bound.

After unwrapping like crazy, we all got dressed up and went to church. Scarlett was pretty darn reverent, but clapped her hands and shouted hooray when church was finally over.

After church, Austin put together her bike.

And we changed back into our lounge wear.

Returned missionary + Christmas 2016 is in the books.

Phew! That was a long post.
There's more where that came from.

She's here.

This is just a little quickie post to say I'm back. And boy howdy, do I have a lot of catching up to do.

For now, let it be known that she's here

and she's here.

Obviously there is a lot to 'splain about both of these events (plus Christmas and New Years and birthdays), so hopefully I can find a little time in the next few days to update. I'm also hoping I can get BigMac to boot up, as apparently he thinks he's DONE. Kaput. Finished. (Thus no fun pictures of Lo actually arriving... here.) Not to mention I left my trusty point-and-shoot on Britt's counter (right next to the refrigerator), and she lives a good 8-hours away. Bummer. 

So much to share, so few working and available resources. 

Hah! Happy 2017.

Counting my blessings.

Wow. It's been a week FULL of anxiousness, stress, worry, busy-ness, and so forth and so on.

I went to the temple on Wednesday evening to pray and find peace.

It was there.

It was a super cold day, and it had snowed the day prior, so the temple was a little s l o w. When I arrived, there was no one else outside, and the temple glowed in the darkness of the evening. The words in my mind at that moment were literally "peace on earth."

Bill was out of town all week, running flying like a crazy man from one place to another. He got home last night (or I should say this morning) at 2am, then had to be out the door this morning by 8. It's been a little stressful and hard to be a single parent this week as I have worked diligently to prepare the house for Sister Syddall's return and the ensuing company, while also attending to the schedule and needs of Mar + Bishop wife responsibilities + worrisome grandbaby news.

Tuesday night was the Bishop's Bash, which the Bishop didn't attend... but it was at his house, so I guess that counts hahahahaha. Not trying to be over-anxious or anything, but I'm hoping this is our last Bishop's Bash EVER. Out of the past 9 years, I believe only twice we have not had this exciting youth activity at our house. {Can I be done already???} It started way back when I was in YW and our Bishop lived across the street from us... little did I know how many years I would clean and decorate my house in order to host tons of wet/snowy-shoed youth ready to party it up. As Bill patiently listened to my soul's complaint about it this year (since he was going to be MIA), he said, "But the youth LOVE this activity." 

This year those who planned it added a few new activities like caroling and cookie decorating + hot chocolate. And Bill is right, the youth LOVE it. I'm just glad it's over haha.

Mar had tryouts for the Spring musical on Wednesday, and she had practiced incessantly for several days to have her "16 bars" prepared. She stressed and worried for the 3 days prior that she was getting sick and would not be able to sing (and breathe, for that matter). At her designated time, I drove her to the school and sat outside and waited. When she came back to the car, she said, "I don't want to talk about it or I'll cry, but I bombed it." I asked her how she thought she bombed it (obviously ignoring her first request). On her list: forgot some words to the song (don't ask me HOW, since she had been singing the same 16 bars for dayssss), hit a transition note wrong throwing the rest of the selection off, and took two breaths where there should have been none. AND, because she was so stressed at the other mistakes, she didn't do half the expressive actions she had intended. 

Sigh. I gave her my best mom advice... "whatever is supposed to happen, will happen, and you learned some valuable lessons for the next time you tryout."

Today she texted me "I MADE IT IN!!! I'm a female villager!"

So so happy for her! And glad she's not a male villager haha.

Seriously, perfect. It will require less time than a larger part, but will give Mar some great experience.

ALSO on Wednesday I received word that my almost full-term granddaughter might have a little complication. Something a little concerning was seen on an ultrasound, and they wanted Nae to come in for some more tests. I quickly googled the complication and was sick to see what devastating possible outcomes there could be. But I loved Nae's sweet text that said "Just trying not to stress about it and put our faith in the Lord that everything will work out for the best."

Wednesday was hard, so a perfect day to go to the temple.


Yesterday (Thursday) I received a friend request on FB from someone I didn't know. Usually I don't respond, but I clicked on this person and saw that our other mutual friend was one of the senior Sisters that Shi had served with on her mission, so I accepted the request. Within a few minutes, I had a message from my new friend that she lived in the ward where Shi is currently serving (for the whole 10 days she served there), and Shi's companions wanted to surprise her at their zone meeting the day before she was going home with a video clip from me, and would I be able to make a brief video and share it with her, then she would make sure the Sisters had it for the meeting. I've said here many times that I am NOT tech savvy (which I also mentioned on the video), so it took some time to figure things out, then almost the entire day to find a way to get the video to send. I'm not sure if it wouldn't send over FB due to international regulations or what, but I ended up having to put it on youtube to send it. This sweet, amazing new friend went above and beyond to get this message to Shi.  Because I know that not many people (hardly any strangers) read my blog, I'm going to share it here for memory's sake and your viewing pleasure (***Warning... I'm an ugly crier***)

I'm still not sure if it's what Shi's companions wanted (did they want something longer? something funnier? something more entertaining?), but it was still fun to send her a message. I'm excited to hear how it all went down. My new friend messaged me this morning that the Sisters got the video in time, and that Shi was probably now on her way to London to spend the evening with President and Sister Stevens before they send her off tomorrow. LOVED HEARING THIS TODAY.

Also today, news that baby E looks good!! What a relief. 

I'm counting my blessings today.

27 1/2 hours until Lo is home. I hope I can sleep tonight!

Neighbor gifts 2016: I want candy + 25 ways in 25 days.

I'm diligently trying to check off my to-do list so I'll have time to focus on my family during the season. What to give for neighbor gifts is always a struggle to figure out. I decided {again} to do homemade candy, and since I wanted to get it delivered EARLY, had the idea {inspiration, prompting} to add the #LightTheWorld challenge (the perfect reason to deliver goodies on Nov. 30th).

I tried out a couple of new candies this year (I've been in candy mode... probably because I have been trying to cut the sugar in my life hahahaha). Some were more successful than others, but, honestly, I think they were all delicious (I HAD to try them before gifting, you know).

These are a new favorite... Big Hunks. Yum. (Recipe here)

I call these Weeping Martha Washingtons... since mine were weeping hahahahaha. (Recipe here)

(They looked better once they were trimmed and packaged up.)

White Chocolate Cranberry Fudge (Recipe here)

Almond Toffee (I'm getting better at making it). I don't really have a functioning candy thermometer, so I was going by sight and intuition... turned out yum. (This is a friend's recipe that I've had for years... I will post it on my recipe blog... soon.)

And of course I'm already on my third batch of Mrs. Allen's Candy. (Recipe here)

And I almost forgot (since I had no pictures), I also made homemade Butterfingers. These are super yummy, but they are a bit of a mess to make, with a lot of flaky waste that I ended up throwing away. This recipe is NOT the one made with candy corn, which apparently does not have the same crunch as true Butterfingers. This recipe has the same crunch as the real thing PLUS they taste better (made with real peanut butter). I will also post it on my recipe blog... soon.

I packaged it all up in the perfect white boxes I got while in CA on Spring Break at my favorite Smart & Final (wish I had one here!).

I ran out of my perfect white boxes, however, so I grabbed my little tin beauties I had picked up at the Dollar Store (for taking meals to people) a while back. They were pretty perfect, too.

Because I really wanted to get these things DELIVERED without seeming too sickeningly early for neighbor Christmas gifts, the #LightTheWorld advent challenge was the perfect addition... slightly simplified (with scripture references included) for our non-member AND member friends.

I switched a couple of the days (shhhhh... don't tell) so that the gratitude day was on our garbage day, just in case people wanted to thank the garbage men. Seriously, we've been giving them a card with a little cash for years and they BRING OUR GARBAGE CANS UP TO THE GARAGE EVERY WEEK. Every week, people. That's a lot o' extra steps for those busy guys, but it just shows me how much they appreciate the kindness.

Once everything was assembled, Bill and Mar took them all out.

I have a couple other things I need to get/take to a couple neighbors (one family follows a very strict diet, so I figured they wouldn't love the candy), then I can call it good. The goal is to have it all done by tomorrow.

9 more days.