December and January

Now that I've finally posted about our Hawaii trip and gotten Abe sent off after Home MTC, I have a minute to put up these little bits and pieces of the rest of December and January. It's all kind of a blur to me now, but it was a happy blur! Gus had his birthday and turned TWO the day we got home. He had a happy day and didn't mind being celebrated twice—once at my mom's house, where the girls and Teddy made him a snow cake:

And once at home. Here he is reading his favorite book, The Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything, which he refers to as "Clomp Clomp."

The snow was beautiful, if a bit of a shock to the system after our trip. :)

The kids had organized a Gingerbread-House-Making activity while we were gone. I think they did it for Family Home Evening.

Seb went to the Christmas Dance while we were in Hawaii, too.

Ready for Christmas-y church. Poor Marigold was sick this day—see how pale she is? I can tell just by looking at this picture that she wasn't herself.

Another Christmas-y church day. I wore my glasses (a rare occasion!) to match Daisy.

Gus in a box

Ziggy hooting into his own ear

Clementine and me matching at my mom's Joseph Smith Birthday Party

Malachi, wearing what he likes to refer to as his Apocalypse Shirt (we brought it to him from Hawaii)

More fun in the snow

Pigs in pockets (why?)

A cute snowman on a pedestal

(With his creators)

And a hot bath to warm up afterwards!

New Years Feast. I think it gets better every year!

Abe's beautifully-arranged cracker and cheese tray.

Abe had a great time making Grandma Nielson's cat follow his little remote-control Sphero Robot

Zig sweetly "playing with" baby Clementine (his favorite thing to do!)

And a cozy nest he made for her.

Baby Yoda

BB-8 hugging Gus. They sure like Star Wars a lot, for boys who (as Sam put it) have never even seen a single Star War.

I don't know.

Licking off the cake plate

A papoose

Making Snowflakes for Family Home Evening

Another Family Home Evening where we made a huge blanket fort. It was a big mess to clean up, but oh the joy for the little kids! They loved it so much.

Game Night. We've got two games going here—Wingspan and (I think) Dune.

Some pretty winter skies

We got to go with Abe when he received his Endowment in the Temple! It was pretty amazing to have this long-awaited day come at last.

Both Grandmas were able to be there too.

I love this squinty oldest boy of mine (he had his eyes closed in nearly every picture)😄

Daisy gave a solo recital for a few people at my mom's house. She played 10 songs. It was wonderful!

Seb and Ky played a couple pieces too. Our piano teacher listed the program as "Daisy Nielson and friends in recital." Ha! Seb and Ky were none too pleased about being relegated to "and friends." Serves them right!

Sam took the older children ice skating while I stayed home with Clementine and Gus and Ziggy. They had fun and came home only a little sore and bruised. :) They got pretty good at staying on their feet after a while, though!

(Photo credit to Teddy for all these ice skating pictures. Though he never saw Malachi, apparently.)

Gus helpfully buttering some bread for breakfast

One very cold, frosty morning, I looked outside to see a huge pile of blankets and pillows on the porch swing. It was the little boys in a nest! First I thought it was only Teddy and Gus, but look closer at that back corner…