Alanya and Andy Wyne: December 2012 and 2013

I realized as I was looking over my catch up post I didn't mention anything about Sammy's 9th birthday or much of Christmas. I'll cover those first before moving onto December 2013.

On her actual birthday we went to Jalapenos for dinner. It's our girls' favorite place to eat for their birthday because...

Not only is it fun, but...

They bring a sombrero and sing happy birthday in Spanish to you!

That year Sammy wanted an Elf movie themed birthday and it was a blast! We had the four basic food groups: candy, candy cane, candy corn, and syrup.

We played a version of the game Chubby Bunny. Instead of saying "chubby bunny" they had to say "I'm a cotton headed ninny muggins."

Here is one of the worst cakes I've ever made! We were trying to get across the story Buddy tells in the movie of him traveling from the North Pole to New York. It failed miserably! Everyone thought the thing on top of the cake was a whale of some sort... it's an elf shoe. Oh well, it tasted good.

Mini snowballs (Son of a Nutcracker!)

World's best cup of hot cocoa... not coffee.

This was a funny game. They had to smell the different pieces of gum and try and figure out the flavor. They thought that was hilarious! "When you see gum on the street---leave it there. It's not free candy" Santa

Around the house I had different quotes said by Buddy.

"Oh, I forgot to give you a hug!"

"I just like to smile. Smiling's my favorite."

"Buddy the elf, what's your favorite color?"

This one we left on the bathroom door. All the girls laughed at that one!

Of course we had to get a picture of Andy in there.

We decorated to make it look like the apartment with paper chains and snowflakes.

It was awesome!

Some of the girls playing the previously mentioned game.

Sammy, Sophia, Courtney, Kiersten, and Ashana in the back.

They all had a great time! Happy 9th birthday, Sammy!

After the party we went to Grandma's house for her annual Christmas slumber party. We actually had already done one, but since Ben and Kim were in town with their kids we had another one.

A bunch of the kids piled on Grandma!

The kids from the first slumber party in their new Christmas pajamas.

Porter, Katie, Ashley, Mikayla, and Sammy

Christmas 2012

I know I've said this before, but I'll say it again... I am terrible about taking pictures. These are the only pictures I have of Christmas that year.

Grandpa, Sammy, Katie, and Ashley

Under our tree looks a little bare because we decided to do something different that year. We got the girls one gift they really, really wanted and then just a few other small gifts. Sammy and Ashley both wanted Ipods that you can watch movies on as well as listen to music. We found some on Craigslist for killer deals! We bought both (16 GB in fantastic condition) for $140. And all Katie wanted for about a year and a half was a new kitchen. We found that one at Costco down in Utah for another killer deal! When I looked online for wooden kitchens I would've paid at least $200. We got that one for $100!!! We hauled it all the way home and put it together Christmas Eve. It took my mom and I about 5 and a half hours!!! It was totally worth it to see how happy she was.

Funny story about her kitchen. (Sorry if this is redundant.) Like I said it was the only thing she asked for and ended up being very protective of it. New Years Eve Corey and Hollie came over with their boys. Caden and Jacob wanted to play with it... of course... it was in the living room where all the action was going on. Caden lost interest and Jacob thought it was funny to get a rise out of Katie. She would spread eagle in front of it and yell, "No! You can't play with it! It's my kitchen!" So we got Jacob distracted doing something upstairs and Katie was watching a movie in the other living room. Andy yelled, "Katie! Hurry! Jacob is getting your kitchen!" Katie jumped off the couch and ran as fast as her legs would carry her to protect her kitchen. It was kind of funny!

Katie also got her first pair of dangle earrings. Yep! I'm kind of lame to take so few pictures.

Now onto December 2013

Here are pictures from my mom's annual Christmas slumber party. Merridy and her family moved in with my mom in September and so they were there to celebrate with us. Usually it's just Brigetta's family along with ours since it's hard for others to travel between the holidays.

Normally we decorate gingerbread (Graham cracker) trains or houses. This year we did caterpillar brownie bites. The kids had a ton of fun with them and it was a lot less messy.

Porter, Mikayla, and Brigetta... I'm not sure where Lyla was at the time and Brandon had to work.

Back row: Bryson, Merridy, Tiffany, and Brittany

Front row: Alexandrea, Conner, Tanner, and Jessica (I think Chuck was out of town)

Me, Andy, Katie, Ashley, and Sammy

Mom, Ashana, and Tanis

Our finished caterpillar

The girls opening their Christmas jammies

And showing them off! Katie's shirt made me laugh. It says, "My mom thinks this girl is awesome" with an arrow pointing up to her face.

We played a new game where we had to stretch out a blanket and blow a ping pong ball around and try not to let it fall off by you. We also played our usual hide and seek, the blanket game, and Just Dance on the Wii. After the kids settled down with a movie the adults and the older kids played Heads Up, Catch Phrase, Rook, and some other games I can't remember. We had a blast!

This was at our ward Christmas party. Sammy seemed a little uncomfortable sitting on Santa's lap. Maybe she's starting to outgrow this stage in life.

Katie was all too excited!

I had to insert this letter Katie wrote. All she wanted for Christmas was a magic wand. I kept telling her they don't exist. I happened to find a toy wand at Walmart that had right on the box "Magic Wand"! Of course we had to get it for her. And she was thrilled on Christmas morning!

Ashley was pretty excited, too, to sit on Santa's lap.

And of course we can't leave out Gracie. She came along to the party.

Yep, folks! This is all I have from Christmas... and I didn't even take the picture. This year we were severely slacking... you'll soon see why.

My brother and his family had us for Christmas this year and they decided to take our family photo we just had taken and enlarge it. Ben made the frame and Kim added a quote from the scriptures that reads, "All things are possible if you believe. Mark 9:23" I was crying when I opened it out of gratitude. I couldn't believe how thoughtful they were. And it looks beautiful above our mantel!

Sammy's birthday was super low key especially compared to the year before. She decided she wanted to go to Barnes and Noble instead of having a party. I thought, "Wahoo!" Since the girls were getting out of school early that day the plan was to go and deliver some of our neighbor Christmas gifts and then meet Andy at his sister, Mindy's, house. She was going to take Ashley and Katie so we could take just Sammy and make it somewhat special. Just before we were heading out the door Andy called and said he was feeling sick and coming home. I thought I would still take the girls and deliver some neighbor gifts and then figure out what to do once Andy got home. I went to the first house (Callahan's) and realized her next door neighbor (Robertson's) whom I was also going to go see was about to leave. I went to her house first before I missed her and then decided to put my car in reverse to go to Callahan's. Well... it was not the best idea. I was looking over my right shoulder making sure I didn't hit any cars when I heard a crunch! I knew immediately that I had hit they're mailbox. It completely took off my left mirror. This was my ghetto tape job, but it held the whole time it was broken. When people asked what happened I told them I got into a fight with a mailbox and the mailbox won! It barely---BARELY---slanted to one side. So much so that the Callahan's didn't even notice. I confessed for nothing!

The girls and I left Andy home and headed to Boise. Sammy knew exactly what she wanted and walked out of there within 15 minutes. By the time we were finished at Mindy's house snow was coming down pretty hard. It was probably the worst snow storm I've ever driven in. That's not to say it's the worst I've seen, but the worst I drove in. My knuckles were white by the time I got home and I was scared we weren't going to make it that far. My wipers had completely iced over and it was just smearing the snow. I felt terrible because I couldn't even celebrate Sammy's birthday dinner out because of the snow. So we crept home and tried to celebrate a little more the next day. Sammy didn't want a cake or anything fancy. She wanted Subway for dinner and brownies. She went REALLY low key for her 10th. Happy Birthday, Sammy!!!

To continue with the mirror... I called around to see how much it would cost to get it fixed and I about died! $500!!! I did a little searching on the Internet and happened to find a youtube video of a guy changing the driver side mirror on a 2002 Honda CRV! It looked easy enough I felt I could repair the mirror myself. Then Andy did a little searching on eBay and found a green mirror that matched my car. We saved ourselves $450 by doing it ourselves... well, really Andy did all the hard work. Thanks, Andy!!!

For Christmas we had my mom, Dale, Tanis, and Ashana come celebrate with us. They spent the night Christmas eve and stayed through Christmas. The girls were up by about 6:00 am to open presents. (Yep, I'm lame...no pictures at all!) We were able to talk to Brinton in Bolivia for about 45 minutes and then the rest of the day we ate leftovers and played games. Brigetta and Brandon joined us later on and then the next day Dallin, Brindy, and Dasttan came to stay the week.

On the 27th the girls were supposed to spend the night at Mindy's house. I met Andy there and then we headed out for a date night. We had dinner and as I was getting in my car I received a text message from Mindy saying, "Bad news. Sammy is throwing up." I went straight over and picked all the girls up. Poor Sammy threw up the whole way home. Thank goodness Mindy gave her a bowl to use and told us to keep it since it would forever be the throw up bowl. Sammy continued to throw up after we got home. We called our neighbor to come help Andy give her a blessing. We kept her isolated in our room and after the vomiting stopped then came the diarrhea. By morning she was feeling tons better, but we decided to keep her in and away from other people so she didn't spread further germs. I knew Sammy picked it up while at my mom's house, but I didn't have a choice at the time but to have her go there. It turns out that was a nasty bug! Dallin and his family all caught the bug while spending time at my mom's house as well. They were sick practically the whole time they were here. Ugh! We cancelled our usual New Years Eve party because we didn't want to risk spreading the germs further. So Brigetta, Brandon, and their kids joined us along with my niece, Kelsey. We ate food, played games with the kids till midnight, and then went out and let off some poppers. All of the kids went to our room and put on a movie. Kelsey was the only one who made her way to an actual bed and then the rest of the kids slept on our floor.

The adults stayed up way into the morning playing games and watching a movie. I crashed after that and honestly I don't even remember what everyone else did. Before sunlight I could here Mikayla try and wake Ashley! Ah!!! I quickly put a stop to that and told her to go back to sleep. Other than that the kids were awesome! It was fun to see all the kids asleep in a row on our floor. Dallin and Brindy packed up and left the following day. Hopefully the bug didn't follow them home.