The Pollard Place: December: Della's First Christmas, Gingerbread, Santa Mouse

December is here! We were so excited to get back to Utah and get some awesome snow to play in, and that has not been the case this year haha! There is just no snow, and it has been really warm. We are definitely trying to take advantage of the good, sunny weather though and it hasn't slowed us down in our Christmas festivities!!

December started out with a fun little surprise. So we decorated our tree and it was beautiful! Then one night Rusty and I were watching a Christmas movie and I see this tiny, adorable little field mouse prance from behind the desk to the tree. I was shocked! What in the world?! He must have come in on the tree. So we set up two traps on either side of the tree, and caught the mouse the next day. But then I found mouse poop on the pillow in my room on the floor and IN MY BED. IN MY BED. So, Rusty went back to the store and we set up no less than EIGHTEEN traps. I'm not kidding haha. And guess what? There was no other mouse, just the one. Which means that I slept with mouse poop in my bed. Yuck. Sorry Santa Mouse, you can't stay here.

The first weekend of the month Rusty had a work conference in Las Vegas so the kids and I went out and spent the weekend in Morgan. We took a trip down to Heber (I mixed up some times for an activity we were doing, oops) and had a fun lunch at a train place! Henry loved it way more than I thought he would.

Della is eyeing food hardcore these days haha

The next morning I got to sleep in (!!!!) and I came downstairs to H shoving as many sugar cookies in his mouth as possible haha. It was 8 AM and he had already eaten like four cookies, and who knows how much frosting. Yay for Grandma!

Morgan was having a fun little carnival that weekend downtown, if you can even call it a downtown haha. It was fun. They had little activities for kids to do, some SUPER yummy food, and you could visit Santa!

My ugly sweater from my mom!!

We also were so excited to go and see the lights at Temple Square this year! We went the first weekend of December, and it turns out that was the coldest weekend of the whole month haha. We bundled up super warm and got some hot chocolate at the Maverick station. It was so fun to get out there. Henry was in a bad mood, so his favorite part was the hot chocolate haha. But we had fun!

Another thing that we did was to make gingerbread houses! Next year I want to start a tradition of making the gingerbread myself, but this year with the move it was just too crazy. And maybe next year will be too haha, but I have the best of intentions. So, Henry loved this WAY more than I thought he would. Like WAY more. He just kept giggling and eating pieces of candy and had an absolute blast. It was contagious and we had a great time trying to have a little competition between the two of us. I love Christmas-time!

Hahahaha that face

After the gingerbread houses we all snuggled on the couch and watched a Christmas movie. It really is these little things that make me so happy and so grateful for my family, the time of year, and how blessed we are.

She seriously wants to be upside down all of the time!!! She is crazy!

I started getting a little bit more organized in my life (haha) and started going to some of the free activities that Thanksgiving Point has to offer. The first one we went to was the Music Makers at Farm Country. I wasn't really sure what to expect, but it was so much better than I thought! They had cool instruments for the kids to try, and then they made their own jingle bell shakers. Henry carried this around for the rest of the month singing Jingle Bells (his favorite song). It is so fun to see him getting older and participating in things like this, and also getting out of his shell. He can be so shy it kind of breaks my heart. These things let me see that he will be okay and he will adjust and play with other kids.

Then of course we got to go and see all of the animals and do the pony rides. H sure loves riding the ponies, and he really enjoys seeing the animals too. But this time a goose bit him haha. He was so concerned, and every other bird we saw he would say, "He gonna be nice? He gonna bite me?"

This little calf was born at 3 the morning that we went! It was so tiny!

Rusty's work had an Ugly Sweater Party one night, and it was fun to get everyone dressed up. They had Cafe Rio catered and then after we ate we assembled gift kits for kids in need. Henry's sweater was my favorite, and his too. He wanted to wear it all of the time. It said, "Meowy Christmas" and had kittens pulling Santa's sleigh hahaha.

My mom found something on Groupon, but then they ended up being in Idaho Falls so we couldn't go with them. It was called the Great Christmas Adventure in Heber. They had elves doing some activities like making it snow bubbles, doing some dances, building a snowman and throwing snowballs at targets. Mrs. Claus read a story and then Henry got to ride the train from Frosty the Snowman and then go and meet Santa!

One night we drove around to look at Christmas Lights. We even turned Henry around in his carseat so that he could see better. (Sidenote: nobody liked this haha. He kept kicking Rusty's seat, and later Henry told me he liked to face the other way better. I want to keep him rearfacing as long as possible because it's so much safer, so we were all in agreement and he got turned back around haha). Rusty found something cool on KSL that would tell you cool places to go in neighborhoods to see the best lights. It worked so well!

Seriously my favorite Christmas decorations ever haha

It wouldn't be Christmas without making sugar cookies! When Rusty was at scouts Henry and I started to make our cookies and it was so much fun with him! He knows all of the ingredients (maybe we make too many cookies?) and loves to watch it mix together. We played around and had a little flour fight too; I love this kid.

Another Groupon that my mom found was to do a sleigh ride to go and see Santa! Utah didn't have any snow yet, so it ended up being a wagon ride but it was SO cute! The horses were beautiful, and this was the real Santa and Mrs. Claus- not just helpers. They were awesome. And to top it off, we even got a fresh baked chocolate chip cookie after we visited Santa. Adeline was not a fan hahaha.

Another activity offered by Thanksgiving Point is Tales for Tots. We went to one at the Children's Museum and it was fun. They got to color after and do some art projects. Henry loved feeding the bunnies and playing with the bubble organ in the museum!

Finally it was time for Christmas! We opened up Jessica's presents before we left for Colorado because I knew that she gave Henry and Rusty headlamps that we would need. It was a fun little mini Christmas morning! My extended family did a big breakfast in Morgan, so we decided to go to that and then just go through Wyoming to drive to Colorado right after. This was Saturday, Dec 23. There was a little Nativity and Henry was a wise man, Della was baby Jesus, and Rusty was Nephi.

Look at that Nephi!

Baby Jesus

After the breakfast we started our drive to Colorado. All of that snow that Utah didn't have magically showed up on this one day. And our plan to drive through Wyoming so we didn't have to backtrack, was a terrible idea. We ended up getting stuck in Wamsutter, Wyoming. Seriously. You can't make this stuff up. It was tiny, and we had just stopped to get some gas and to feed Della because she was crying. I went in to go to the bathroom and get some drinks and the guy was like, "Where ya headed?" I said Colorado, and he just laughed and said "You're stuck here." I laughed my nervous, awkward laugh because I thought he was kidding and he said, "No really. They shut down the interstate." So I went and told Rusty and we started looking for somewhere to stay the night, but there is only one hotel/GAS STATION in Wamsutter. And it was full- all four rooms. So we thought about if we should just try to sleep in our car like everyone else was doing or if we should try to go the rest of the 40 miles to the bigger town with a hotel. We were told that police officers were giving $700 tickets and that later on it was actually blockaded, but we decided to take the chance. I didn't want my babies sleeping in the car. Luckily we were so blessed and found a room in a hotel that was even pet-friendly for Bailey. Such a relief!!

The next day we woke up, had breakfast and then started on the road again to Colorado. We eventually made it to Grandma Joan's for the Christmas Eve party! We had food, a gift exchange, and then headed back to our hotel. We put the kids to bed and then played a game with everyone in Desi's suite.

Actual Christmas morning we had breakfast and then went swimming really fast before we had to check out of the hotel. We didn't celebrate there, and Santa was just going to visit us when we got back to Utah. It was Adeline's first time swimming and she absolutely loved it! Before we checked out we took some quick family pictures.

We went and visited Phyllis in the new house on Dewey, and then saw Grandpa Frederick for a little bit. Then we were on our way to the cabin!

The next morning we woke up and had a wonderful day at the cabin! We went sledding, went for walks, had hot chocolate by the fire, and just relaxed. It is so beautiful and peaceful there. Henry loved it just as much as Rusty does and asks all of the time to go see the cabin in Colorado. We got a cool new sled from Levi and Kelsey, and we had gone down the hill a few times and then I went down and ran over a rock and it split in half! Hahahaha.

Then it was our Christmas Eve party, and Christmas morning! It was just us again this year and it is so nice to have it be low key and focusing on our sweet little family. We had some food, watched the Grinch, and then left cookies and milk out for Santa.

Christmas morning was so much fun and exciting! Henry was stoked about what Santa brought! He got some cars, yellow tractors (last minute requests), markers, candy, and bath color drops! Then his big present was his little scooter car! Santa brought me a trip to Machu Picchu with Rusty (!!!!) and he brought Rusty a go-pro! Woot woot! Della got a bouncer chair with some teething toys.

Other favorite present's were Della's stacking blocks, my watch and necklace and travel map, Rusty's gun case, around the world dates, and Alexa, and Henry's sink and put together airplane (which came out later haha).

Oh, and the wrapping paper haha. Always the wrapping paper.

I wanted to take some quick pictures of my adorable little babies in front of the Christmas tree in their Christmas jammies! It is so fun to have these little ones for the Christmas season, and truly they make it all worthwhile. They, and Rusty, are the reason I'm so grateful for the Savior whose birth we celebrate.

For Henry's first Christmas I took some cute pictures of him. I decided this year that I wanted to do a little photo shoot with each kid on their first Christmas. So this year, I did Della's! And Henry sneaked in at the end. :)

At the end of the month our friends the Hudsons came to town from Seattle! It hadn't been very long, but we sure missed them! It was so great to see them. When they pulled up in the morning Henry and Bennett immediately started playing together, just like no time passed. The same with the adults. We went and saw the lights at Temple Square, and then we all got the flu haha. I got it and then passed it to Rusty and then Bennett got it. So we didn't see each other until January.

Henry's Highlights

He can tell the story of Nephi breaking his bow
So excited for Christmas. "You will share this with me? Oh, that will be fun."
He loves Christmas songs, especially Jingle Bells. He sings that all of the time!
Henry is talking really well. Other people can understand him, and I know what he is saying almost all of the time. He is doing so great!
When he wants something he says, "Can I, can I, can I?"
One of my favorite things ever is that if he hears or sees me eating something, he runs in yelling, "WHAT YOU HAVING?!"
Throws ornaments at tree. "Baseball! Oh yeah, oh yeah!"
He loves hamburgers and whipped cream. Not together, but he actually would probably welcome that haha.
One day he was asking for a cookie. I told him that if he ate it he would get a tummy ache. He thought for a second then said, "I want a tummy ache."
"What Henry can have?" He says this when I am getting ready and he wants to use some of my makeup.
He loves to watch Rudolph. Like seriously loves it. He asks to watch it every day, and even though we don't he can still quote a lot of the movie. When he plays I can hear him say things like, "It's ok Fireball. It's just my nose."
He walks around randomly saying "Chubby bunny, chubby bunny, chubby bunny" haha. It has been a few months since we did that with him, so I don't know why he all of a sudden is remembering that.
He says "No way Jose"

Adeline's Adventures

She is five months!!

As I was taking her pictures, Henry grabbed my headlamp and started pretending like it was his camera haha.

She can sit up like a champ.
Scoots around on the floor while laying down, in circles.
She smiles all of the time!! Seriously, she is so happy all of the time.
Teething has begun. She gnaws on everything she can get her hands on, and has started to drool (but still less than Henry haha)
Loves to be upside down ALL. OF. THE. TIME. If you're not careful you might drop her because she just flips her body backwards.
She started eating some solid foods! She tried some bananas mashed up, peas and gnawed on an apple slice. Surprisingly, I think the peas were her favorite! This girl will always surprise me I guess. First food! Bananas. 12/03

First shower: she was definitely unsure of it. But the second time she liked it a lot more.
Went swimming for the first time on Christmas Day. The water was warm and she loved it! She would splash her hands and kick her feet, and she loved being lifted up in the air to come back to the water.
Della rolled from her back to her tummy for the first time! (12/22) She rolls really well from her tummy to her back, but this was the first time going the other way. She just stayed like that smiling for a while haha.

She giggles a lot, and it is such a perfect sound. You have to really work for her giggles, but once you get her going she will squeal and giggle and laugh.
Della kicks her feet when she is excited and slaps her right arm.
When Della is mad and in her crib and is supposed to be sleeping but doesn't want to be, she kicks her feet. She does it in a rhythm one right after the other; Rusty calls it beating the drum.

Extra Pictures:

I want to make yearly ornaments with the kids, and these were this year's. All of the heart eyes for these.

We also made this to hang up next year.

We went to Cabela's to pick up Daddy's rifle case for Christmas and Henry loved looking at all of the fish!

This girl's belly won't be contained.

We were trying to go to the Barton's for a meeting and got stuck in SO MUCH TRAFFIC

Daddy and Henry snuggling

Look at this boy!!

He was being gross and showing me his chewed up food. Then he thought it was hilarious haha

He was carrying our bag out from Target and he looked so, so old!!

We made chocolate treats for our neighbors in the crockpot. I left Henry on the counter to go talk to Rusty and said, "Don't eat the cookies, ok?" "Ok!" Then a few minutes later it's quiet and I say, "Are you eating the cookies?" "No Mommy! I'm not!" So we go in to check and this is what we find haha.