Other things we did in the month of December!

This post is going to be about everything we did during the month of December besides Christmas!

We put a Christmas tree on my mother-in-law, Carol Anne's grave!

What was nice was the night before, we were driving around looking at Christmas lights and when we went to Winder Dairy right next to the cemetery, were Carol Anne is buried, we noticed they had paper lanterns all through the cemetery. It was beautiful! We were able to drive in and see Carol Anne at night and it gave me so much peace to see her little solar lights on. You don't get to see that because the cemetery closes at dusk. I just loved how they put those lanterns everywhere! It made me feel like they were honoring those who were buried there.

The same day we put Carol Anne's tree on her grave, we took one to Uncle Ernie!

Oh, how I miss them both.

That same day we went out to my Dad's best friend, Gary's ranch, out on the mountain near Grantsville. We were going there to sit outside around a fire, have hot chocolate and visit with each other.

I couldn't believe how the snow looked! I had to take a picture! I have never seen it look like crystals!

I left Ashlyn home and took Ayla! Here she is with my Momma!

Here is Gary getting the fire going! This man is a mountain man, I tell you! He loves to be outdoors! He even sleeps in a little cabin he built in his backyard, most of the time because he loves to camp. He was even trying to gets all to stay the night up there. I was thinking, "Are you crazy? No way!" He makes me laugh!

I couldn't believe how foggy and hazy it was that day but when we got up to the ranch it was clear skies!

You usually can see Grantsville from the ranch but you couldn't see a thing!

Here is my Daddy!
You see the tent behind him? This was the only shelter we were using that day other then our vehicles.

Gary, Mom and Marion hanging out around the fire! See how far they are from the fire? Ya, it was pretty hot you had to sit that far away! LOL!

Ayla and Dad hanging out in the tent, eating sugar cookies!

We were there for quite a while and when the sun started to go down we thought it was time to get going. My Mom decided that she would start Marion's car and get it warmed up. Well when she got out, she realized that she had locked the keys in the car. OH, NO! So we had to call my brother, Robert to go to Marion's house and get the extra key and meet my Dad out in Grantsville. Well my Dad and Gary took off to meet Robert and left us three women and a kid up on the mountain. We all didn't think it through because we were on the mountain with just a tent for protection and there were coyotes howling around the mountain. You could hear them! It made us all a little uneasy. Thank goodness we had the large fire burning. We felt a little safe because the ranch has a fence around it but animals could still get in. We were there for about an hour before we got the key. It wasn't too funny at the time but we can laugh about it now!

On another day, the last day Ayla had school, before Christmas Break. Her school had a program they put on every year, where all the grades get to sing a few songs. It was snowing that day and so my Mom couldn't make it to help me with Ashlyn. I was worried she would act out.

I guess it was so early and she is not used to being up that early, she was tired and was my little angle. She just sat there during Ayla's performance and then afterwards, I took her out in the hall, until Ayla got out an hour later.

Do you see Ayla?
She is on the top row in the center with a red dress and black belero!

It was so fun to see her be in her school program!

This is a random picture I wanted to share that I took that month! Ashlyn in Ayla's Rapunzel dress! So cute!

On another day, I took the kids to the South Towne Mall to ride the train and see Santa! Well let Ayla see Santa. I didn't even try with Ashlyn because how she was with Santa at the Festival of Trees.

The kids had a lot of fun on the train!

I love this picture because it shows what they were doing! Ayla was saying silly things to make Ashlyn laugh!

My Momma was there with me!
I am so lucky to have my Momma! She does everything with me! She is truly one of my best friends! I love her!

Here I am with my girls!
Notice, my glasses are gone? Ya, I broke them and now I have to wait to get a new pair after I am not pregnant anymore. Plus, I still can't wear makeup because my eye is still healing from when Ashlyn stabbed my eye with her fingernail back in April. Ya, it has been that long and it is still not healed. It does seem to get a little better over time. I am hoping it just heals completely without surgery.

After the train, I let the kids play on the playground they have there for a little while.

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Ayla was so cute, making sure Ashlyn was safe!

And of course it was not easy to get them off the playground.

We then went and saw Santa. I don't have a picture because they won't let you take your own and their packages start at $39. Not happening! I am so thankful for the Festival of Trees and letting you take your own with Santa or get a picture for $10!

Also during the month I did some projects!

Actually, I did this one back in November but I wanted to show it. I made 16 rice bags as presents for people! They were a hit! People loved them! I got the idea from a Super Saturday I went to at my old ward.

Aslo this was insane but seriously 2 weeks before Christmas I took on a huge project. I made 6 quilts, 4 pillow shams and a pillow for one of the shams. Ya, it was a crazy thing to do. It all started off with making quilts for my niece, Morganne and my nephew, Kurt. My mother-in-law's sister, Arloea had a ton of material to donate for the quilts. I ended up falling in love with some of the material and decided I wanted to make some for my kids. And then I thought I can't leave my niece, Brooke out! She would be the only one on the Perry side without one, so I had to make her one. It was a lot of work but it was fun and worth it. I have seen and heard the kids enjoy them. They were a gift from Arloea and me!

This one is Brooke's!

She is into "Doctor Who" and so we chose blue and white because the phone booth thing the doctor travels in is blue and white. Plus the sham had stars on it, kind of representing the Doctor travels through time.

We picked out fishes for Kurt because he had been putting blankets on the ground to pretend they are the ocean. He loves sharks! I loved the fringe on the binding of the quilt we picked out! It look a little bit like seaweed!

And This one is, Morgannes! We picked humming birds because she likes humming birds. We also picked fringe to be the binding. That way Morganne's and Kurt's quilts would kind of match. Morganne's took the longest because I couldn't sew one side of the binding on my sewing machine. It kept getting stuck on my sewing machine's foot, so I had to sew one side by hand. It took me 6 and a half hours to sew!

Oh, and don't you love the little model on the quilt?

I even made a quilt for my little guy on the way!

I tied the ties on the side that didn't have the race track so he could play cars on the one side, if he wants to!

Then I made matching "Hello Kitty" ones for my girls!

They were just small quilts for my girls. I wanted them to be small so they could have a pillow and a quilt to keep warm for watching movies. Ashlyn's is the pink one and Ayla's is the purple one! And Ashlyn's pillow I actually had to make because Arloea didn't have any more pillows. My girls love them! And it makes it all worth the work!

Oh, and don't you love my other model on the quilt?

I am proud to say, I did all this work in a week and 2 days, so 9 days!

I did have help with the first 2 quits I tied, which were Morganne's and Kurt's. My sister, Marion and my friend, Melissa helped me tie them. Then on another day my sister-in-law Suz and her friend helped me measure and get some of the ties done on Brooke's quilt. So I want to thank all of them for their help!

So there you have it! What we did during the month of December!

I hope this wasn't too long of a post!