In Like a Lion

 Well, it appears that 2021 has decided to come in like a lion. I pray it will go out like a lamb. Not only does COVID continue to relentlessly wreak havoc on the world, this past week saw what could legitimately be called an attempted coup, an assault on our democracy. Trump, as expected, has refused to admit he lost the election and has been so persistent in his calls to upend the results and keep himself in office that his more extremist supports actually stormed the capitol on Tuesday, disrupting the electoral college vote count, sending lawmakers cowering, vandalizing, waving Confederate and Nazi flags in our capitol building and just creating general mayhem. One capitol police officer was killed in the violence as was one of the rioters. Thankfully no other staff or elected representatives were harmed and most of the rioters were unarmed but the whole thing was a shock for sure. Scary and disheartening. I do not understand how the National Guard was not called out sooner and how the rioters were able to breach the Capitol. There was certainly some misconduct on the part of those who are supposed to keep our legislature safe and there have been many that have been quick to point out the evidence of racism in the response of the capitol police to these rioters compared to their response to BLM protestors. Unfortunately, I have to agree. If these rioters were primarily black, I do believe they would have been quashed and quelled and not have been allowed to run freely through the halls of the Congress. To say it is disappointing to see this injustice revealed is an understatement and yet I have a hard time putting into words everything I was feeling as I sat glued to my Newsfeed for several hours on Tuesday evening watching everything unfold. My mother and I, in attempting to process what was happening came to the same conclusion: There are no words. Memes have definitely cropped up expressing how many of us are feeling as this new year starts: "I've had my 7-day trial of 2021 and I have decided I would not like to continue my subscription. 0/5 stars. Would not recommend." Haha. 

Although to be fair, in spite of everything going on in the world, my family is thankfully doing quite well. My parents, Papi, Nona and John (and us) have managed to stay COVID-free so far. I'm on a waitlist to get the COVID vaccine and just learned of another way I can sign up and hopefully get it before the end of January. My job is going fine and Eric and I are doing well financially. Levi and Emery continue to stay healthy and Emery is loving being a big girl and getting to be in the Flamingos class (potty-trained to 6-year-olds) at school. Levi is making great gains academically and getting closer to reading on his own and both kids are generally bright and happy. I have so much to be grateful for as this new year starts. 

Anyway, I realized that my last blog post was actually before my parent's visit and Christmas! Goodness, I just didn't let myself really believe they were coming until they had actually arrived. I guess the pessimistic side of me was just sure something would come up that would prevent it. But it didn't and they got to come! Having my parents here really made the holiday special for all of us. It would not have been the same without them! I loved seeing my kids snuggle with their grandparents and have so much fun playing with them! We got to decorate gingerbread houses, go see Christmas lights, go to the Zoo and just generally spend time together. The kids are at such a magical age for Christmas and were sooo excited on Christmas morning. It was such a delight to see them enthusiastically diving into their stockings and showing just as much interest in ours as well! And in unwrapping presents. And I really loved making some new Christmas traditions with them. We did a good job doing the advent calendar this year (up until the very end) and on Christmas eve we lit a fire in our fireplace and added some candles to our hearth and then turned off the lights and gathered around and read the Christmas story and sang some Christmas hymns. It was so peaceful and beautiful. Just what we needed at the end of a trying year. 

Came out from getting ready on Sunday morning and found Emery snuggled up in my bed "reading" the scriptures. 

Not sure why he felt the need to lean his head down so awkwardly for this picture! Haha but making the gingerbread houses together was a lot of fun. 

Dad was very pleased that his house stayed together better than Mom and mine which fell apart several times before we finally managed to make it stay together! 

Grandma is always up for fun things like playing at the park! 

Yay! Presents!!

At the zoo Emery definitely milked her hold over her father and wanted to be carried rather than walk or ride in the stroller. 

Not sure what she's doing with her hands in this picture... I think she is trying to be cute haha

I often with I had as much enthusiasm for the little pleasures in life as my children do! 

The day after New Years, Eric and I sent the kids off to Dawnelle's house and painted the office!! I was pretty intimidated going into it because I had never painted a ceiling before, but it actually went much more smoothly than I expected and we were able to finish the whole project in a single day. And I LOVE the color I chose for the ceiling. It's exactly what I wanted. 

We also got a new sputnik chandelier which I love. Now I just need to make the Murphy bed and this guest room/office will be complete! 

I am eligible to be in the first round of people to get the COVID vaccine due to my profession as a health care provider... but when I signed up this week I saw just how low I was on the list! Thankfully, I just got word yesterday that my employer is partnering with a hospital in Fort Worth and I should be able to sign up with them to get vaccinated before the end of January. I'm not too worried about myself getting a serious case of COVID but I will be very much relieved when I am no longer a threat to Trey, Patty, my parents, John, and all my little fragile patients! 

My little girl loves her sleep. She doesn't like to go to sleep, but if she happens to fall asleep during naptime she does not like to be awakened! I feel like when I go to get her up from naptime and she peeks an eye at me and then closes it again and snuggles back down with a little sound of protest I get a little glimpse of the girl she is going to grow up to be and I just love her so much! 

Christmas Bells are Ringing

 Well, we have finally arrived. I feel like I have been looking forward to Christmas and preparing for it and dreaming of it for quite a while now. And then today I woke up and realized that this is the last Sunday before Christmas and my parents come in just a couple of days! I am really looking forward to their visit and getting to have two full weeks off of work to just relax and spend time together as a family. I have been especially hard at work this past week making sure that I have less to do while on break. I've been packing my schedule at work to see as many of my kiddos as I can before I go on PTO and prepping all of the end of the month stuff since I will be gone for the actual end of the month. And at home, I've been busy buying and wrapping and cleaning and re-organizing and baking. I'm really glad we've been doing the Light the World advent calendar because I do feel like that has helped me stay focused on the Savior in spite of everything else in my life that threatens to monopolize my thoughts and efforts. I'm grateful for my nativity, the decorations around our house, Christmas lights, presents under the tree, Christmas music all the time, treat plates for us and our neighbors and ministering families, holiday tradition sharing at work, kids' pj party at school and all the cute photos and videos that came home of that and the kids' happiness and excitement about it. I am looking forward to Levi and Emery's reactions to presents on Christmas and to getting to be with grandma and grandpa. Despite coronavirus still ravaging the world all around us, there is much to be grateful for this year. 

Levi's class (Bluejays) all dressed up for their Christmas music performance!

They got to decorate and eat cookies. I had signed up to bring pink and green icing but when I put in my Kroger order for pick up, apparently the store was out of green icing so it substituted red! So the kids in Levi's class only had red and pink icing to decorate with. It was just one of the many things wrong with that Kroger pick up order. 

Levi and his very best friend at school, Jackson. I think they're pretending to be penguins in this picture. 

They also got to watch Scamper the Penguin during their quiet time which really brought back childhood memories when Levi told me about it! 

Emery also got to decorate and eat cookies at the holiday party in her class.

We found out last Friday that Emery will soon be moving out of this toddler class that she is currently in and up to Flamingos which is a primary class like Levi's. I am a bit nervous about the transition for her but Ms Faye is confident that she is ready and that it is the best thing for her at this time. 

The teachers videoed the class doing its performance and I'm so glad they did because it's hilarious. I have no idea what words they are singing most of the time but they are all very enthusiastic haha. 

Check out that single leg stand! 

Acroyoga queen on Daddy's back! 

Levi and Emery created a "city" the other morning while I was cleaning up from breakfast. Levi was very excited to show it all to me, especially the ninjas with their grappling hooks. 

One of the Light the World invitations was to do some art and share it with someone. So last Monday the kids and I spent quite a bit of time raking up the leaves in the front yard and then Levi and Emery collected their favorites and we did art with them. 

Emery wanted to just keep painting and painting. I was only able to get her to stop when I told her that the paper would start to rip and fall apart if she put any more paint on it! And even then there were some tears when it was time to clean up. I love that she and Levi both love art though. 

Christmas Jammies!

 We took these this morning as soon as I got up. No make-up, and Emery and I with our hair all a mess, and I love it. This is real. This is us.