*January*

January was quite lovely. It was a nice balance of big and everyday activities and I relished every moment I could relax because busier times are just around the corner. And the fact that it was unseasonably warm made January not so dreary and actually enjoyable.

Some highlights include:

Watching my darling nieces while my sister and brother in law celebrated their anniversary. I had so much fun. We walked around their neighborhood for a bit collecting pinecones. I never tired of little O urging me to find "mo pinecone" and miss C's declarations that "this is the most beautiful pinecone in her collection." We decided to head over to Wendy's for lunch and then choose a treat from the Sweet Tooth Fairy. There was just enough time for makeovers when we arrived home before mom and dad's date was over.

I was taken to the special clubhouse ( a small linen closet in the basement) and then they closed the door and talked in whispers. They sat so still and perfect for their makeovers and I was lucky enough to get my own.



Luke continued playing basketball and did pretty well. His team was terrible so it was a bit painful to watch games sometimes but Luke tried his best and had fun so that is what matters. Right?

Because of Jr. Jazz, Luke received a free ticket to sit in the boonies at the Energy Solutions Arena to watch the ants play ball. Fortunately, Justin gets tickets that are in the lower bowl from his job so he took the older three boys to the game and I toted Liam to the movie theater to see the most recent Chipmunk flick.

Dumbest. movie. ever. but Liam loved it and it was fun just spending time with my littlest man and not having other obligations pulling me every which way. When I asked him what his favorite part of the movie was, he emphatically stated "ALL of it."

We (I say WE because even though it was Andrew's project, it was really mine with Andrew's name on it) had a science fair project to see which brand and flavor of gum lasts the longest. Just so you know, it is 5 gum, mint flavor. You're welcome. Here is Andrew showing off his knowledge at the science fair and Liam had to get in on the action.



Then on Martin Luther King day since everyone had the day off we headed up to the new and improved Museum of Natural History at the U. It is pretty darn amazing. I loved it even that much more because I got in free due to me being an employee of the hospital. Score!

There are so many hands on exhibits to explore and one of the favorite sites was the underground dig that you could walk over. It was pretty funny to watch Liam tentatively step on the glass because he thought he would fall into the ground.




Of course there were dinosaurs and gemstones. I loved looking at the Native American exhibit and the huge display of butterflies. It looks like we have one that morphed into some sort of insect before we left.








After we had perused to our hearts' content, I suggested we go to the Pie for lunch. My never ending complainer son whined that everytime we go out we get pizza. For one, we don't go out that often. And two, I think we have gone out for pizza once. Like a couple years ago. And his argument is that he wanted to go somewhere good. Like McDonalds.

I ignored the complaining and said that he would love this place because there is a lot of food and the atmosphere is fun. It didn't really stop the grumbling but he reluctantly agreed.

When we walked in, the boys were a little frightened and said the place looked weird. I think they warmed up nicely once the food came out.



There was a chorus of "ahhhhhs" when the cheesy breadsticks came out and the cheese just kept coming as you pulled them apart. They loved the pizza and the never ending sodas. I think it is a keeper...even for Andrew.



And last but not least, Santa brought Justin, Nick, Andrew, and myself tickets to see Brian Regan.

We wanted to go to our favorite special occasion restaurant but they are only opened on the weekends and we ended up with opening night tickets on a Wednesday. So we ended up at another long time fave the Dodo.




We then laughed the night away in the company of, in my opinion, the best stand up comic out there. I also loved watching the boys' reactions to him and hearing their comments. My favorite was when Nick squeaked out "I can't breathe" with a huge smile on his face and tears running down his cheeks from laughing so hard.



Nick started baseball practice, there were playdates, I went on a few lunch dates, I gave a talk in Relief Society, the boys went with Justin to the batting cage, and Liam had an eye appointment in which the doctor declared that "his eyes are the best they have ever been."

What joyous and sweet music to my ears.

More to come!

*rare*

As I was sitting waiting for Nick and Andrew's recital to start, I overheard one of the most tender exchanges between these two brothers.

As I was reading over the coming program I realized that Andrew was playing the same song as one of the other students. This is not uncommon occurance so when I pointed it out, Andrew just gave me his classic shrug of the shoulders and little grin.

Then Nick piped up and told him the sweetest thing ever. He said "You will play it way better than he will."

Now, Nick is a fabulous young man but he gets great pleasure from teasing his younger brothers, unceasingly it seems at times. So I had to look at him after he had made his comment to see if he was joking around.

He wasn't.

I reveled in this rare moment of true brotherly love and listened to my boys perform wonderfully on their violins.

I am truly blessed.

*2012*

I rang in the New Year welcoming in babies and spending time with my lovely co workers.

It was super nice at this beginning of the shift and we did not have one patient on the board.

Some of us made awesome hats.


We watched the ball drop and celebrated for a few minutes with our fake wine.

After the new year showed itself, the patients decided it was time to head into the hospital. I ended up with a super cute girl who delivered the first New Year's baby at our hospital! We didn't have the first in the valley but maybe next year!

*outings*

I have mentioned before that I have been blessed with good friends. I also have been very lucky to have kept in touch with some of them over the years, although I wish I kept in touch with more.

I had fun getting together with my bestie from college over the Christmas break. She and I were joined at the hip for quite some time. I can't remember the exact moment we became friends or how we started hanging out together, but she is one of the most wonderful people I have ever known.

We were similar to the odd couple: she was sophisticated, wealthy, and classy and I was, well, not. But somehow the opposites attract principle applied to us and held us together like glue.

We lived together for a year in the Chi Omega house and helped each other navigate through some pretty sticky situations. It is also through her that I met Justin. After I had Nick, we lost touch for a while and through the miracle of Facebook, we were able to reconnect and get together when she comes into town.

The most fantastic thing about good friends is the fact that you can go a while without talking and then when you actually get together it is like time never passed. I am so grateful to have good friends like these.

This is us at a fireworks show many years ago. We look like babies. And yes, back then overalls were totally in style.



Here we are now.





I am also lucky that I can call my family my friends as well. We all met for lunch at Vento, a cute little pizza place in downtown Salt Lake, to celebrate my sister's birthday. Not only do they have amazing pizza, their gelato is superb.

Unfortunately, Justin was unable to make it and Nick had a migraine but managed to smile for the pictures. What a good boy.

*the big dance*

I loved this day.

Although Santa had arrived before I walked in the door after getting home from work, he still had a few finishing touches to finalize before the final reveal.

The boys were up in the back bedroom giggling in anticipation and wondering out loud about their treasures awaiting them. I soaked it all in.

After I got rid of the uneaten cookies and carrots



(Dear Santa, here are some cookies. From Liam)

I turned on the oven, popped breakfast in, and went in to greet my darlings.





They are absolutely delicious.



It was a good morning for all.












I took a little nap while the boys played with their presents and we pretty much hung out all day since we didn't have much to do until the evening. I loved it. I loved that we weren't rushed to be any particular place and that we could just enjoy the day together.

We spent Christmas evening with Justin's family and had dinner and opened more presents and had a great time together. We are truly very, very blessed.









Merry Christmas to all, and to all, a good night.

*more Christmas leading up to Christmas*

So I realized finally that I spend a lot of time at a little place called the University Hospital and I hardly have any pictures of my friends, my work area, and the fun and fully capable doctors that I work with.

We are kind of lame in the holiday decorating on Labor and Delivery. I mean we didn't have any decorations anywhere until right before Christmas when our unit secretary decided she had enough of our unfestiveness and demanded we all make snowflakes. It was a slow night so we hopped onto Pinterest and found some snowflake patterns and were able to create a winter wonderland.

This picture does not do it justice.


We also had an Elf party one night. Probably one of my most favorite parties we have ever had at work. It was a sugar fest complete with candy, candy canes, candy corns, and syrup. Oh and spaghetti and pop tarts and coke and hot cocoa and chocolate syrup and candy cane forest cocoa stirrers. And we couldn't forget the beef and cheese.


We made spaghetti a la Buddy and dared everyone to eat it. I have to brag that I was the brave and was the first one to try it although there is not proof. One of the residents was trying to take my picture and I turned away because I wasn't expecting it to be cold so I kind of spit it out at first but after I got over the initial shock, the actual taste wasn't that bad.

We had a couple other brave souls...




...and Ben will eat anything.


A group picture of some of the wonderful people I work with.


The next night was Justin's company party and then we made it to the Nutcracker this year without any fiasco like last year.

We went to eat at the Olive Garden and then we immersed ourselves in the genius of Ballet West.



It was pretty awesome because I bought the super cheap seats and the theater was quite empty the night we went. So we just scooted ourselves a few seats to the left and were sitting in the posh $44 seats. We felt like high rollers.



We bought shakes, made gingerbread houses, I went out to lunch with the Scott women, and we had our Christmas eve party at my cousin's house. It is always such a fun time when we get together. We visited, decorated gingerbread Santa sleighs, ate dinner, exchanged our semi white elephant gifts with a fun "left/right" story, my uncle read the story about a family who had Christmas for a dollar, and there was a ginormous pinata to top off the evening.




Miss Olive was entertaining us with her many facial expressions.





Poor Luke was sick that night (and ended up getting diagnosed with strep the next day) so here is a picture of me and a glimpse of the top of Luke's head.



I wasn't lying when I mentioned the pinata was ginormous and my aunt stuffed it so full of candy and fun little toys that the kids were in heaven.



Justin and I went on a fun date to Hale Center Theater to see A Christmas Carol which I highly recommend to everyone. Then I totally copied my friend's family's tradition of "The Night Before the Night Before" and went out as our little family to dinner and the movie "The Adventures of Tin-Tin". We all loved it--I didn't have any idea what it was about and it exceeded all my expectations. It was like an animated Indiana Jones. I loved starting this new tradition because it is a night that usually doesn't have other obligations and it was nice to spend time with just our little family.

This brings us to the next day--Christmas EVE!

We started the day at my parent's house with brunch. I did not get one picture which kills me. It was a great way to start the morning!

I was proud of myself that I was able to get all the wrapping done before today so we all went to Justin's aunt Heidi's to celebrate with his family. As always, we had a fantastic time.









One of the highlights of the evening was playing the pipes. It was so cute to see the little ones anticipate when their number would come up on the chart and then enthusiastically hit their pipe with gusto. If anyone has a pipe cutter and needs a gift idea for me, I would love a set of these babies.

Here are Justin and Mel explaining how everything works and leading the controlled chaos.




A snapshot of the Scott boy cousins with their new Utah beanies. There is one missing from the picture because the excitement of the next day caused him to have a little meltdown.


We went home, tucked the kids into bed, got out the milk and cookies for Santa and the carrots for the reindeer, helped Santa find his way around the living room, and then I headed off to work.

It is most definitely the most wonderful time of the year.