Oh mercy! Can we all take a moment to have a breath and chill? I mean...Valentine's Day is about a month away. No pressure.

And can we all take a moment to reflect on the final month of 2018? I'm happy to report we were busy, happy, healthy...and busy. Our Farmer finished up corn harvest sometime in those first days of December and we haven't stopped since. Definitely making up for time lost to farming.

Hang in there...this is a long one. Or don't. 

 It started for me with a trip to California to meet up with the wonderful gals of Pollinate. (If you're not familiar with Pollinate Media - It's a company that hires bloggers from it's community to boost brand awareness of products and services. Interested in becoming a part of the community? You can learn more and sign up here.)

Anyway, I headed to California for a four day break from my babes and enjoyed some fun company, pool time, delicious food, and an epic Mario Kart battle or three. I was so into it I was sweating from my armpits. Competitive? No...not me. Yes, me. We were treated to delicious meals and I provided some entertainment with my inability to pose for the camera. I mean seriously...can I be normal? No.


When I got back to Idaho we were experiencing some serious cold weather and about eight inches of snow. Me + driving in snow = not going to happen. I wasn't going anywhere except from the couch to the fridge back to the couch...all in my PJ's.



But, did get up long enough to force the gals into their new matching dresses. I made our bed for the first time in a month and snagged some sister pictures. I'll never tire of sister pictures. Even though it appears they might be getting too old to for them. It was so hard to capture a few that weren't blurry or when someone wasn't throwing a fit...again, I was sweating. But really...I'll treasure these forever!


The sister pictures didn't stop there. This month I was feeling particularly on top of it and got the girls dressed up again and headed to visit Santa. We managed to be third in line, which was amazing, because the line quickly grew to a two hour wait. Mom-winning all over the place. True to form, Kaye yapped Santa's ear off, Sawyer skeptically watched, and Elli tried to claw her way under my clothing for safety. Never has there been a baby more terrified of Santa. She was crying so huge I could see all of her molars.


We made the most of the day and hit up lunch (nightmare) but recovered from that with a visit to the Discover Center and the grocery store where the gals got to push their own carts...Which they ask to do at least once a week. Aside from lunch it was a wonderful day, but reminded me just how hard it can be to do a full day of adventuring solo with three children.

Holiday Bucket List item #1823747 (that never got written down) was to make ornaments. Now listen...not even in the slightest was this an idea the gals wanted to do. No. I saw these paint shaken ornaments on Instagram and said - This is what we're doing. So we did. You can find out we did it here. And I love them. And it was fun (for me). And that's that.

Next in our December we made it to Boise to celebrate a Friends-mas...second annual of the sort. (Even though last year I think we did this closer to Thanksgiving. Anyway - Good drink, good food...you know the drill. The only time I took out my phone to take pictures they turned out blurry. I blame the poor lighting. Regardless, we did realize that between the three families we have a newborn, 1, 2, 3, two 4's, 5, and a 6 year old. That's a busy six years. The best part is letting them all loose and watching them systematically destroy each room in about four minutes. Why? Why do children do this?


In the coming days everything was last minute Christmas this and that. We received the most insanely beautiful flowers from my Farmer's sister from Farm Girl Flowers. I don't even really love flowers, but I LOVED receiving these.

We snuck away from the gals the Saturday before Christmas to get our first ski day in. It was shockingly not that busy, which was good, because it decreased the odds of me hitting anyone since I didn't ski at all last year (Elli and nursing...it just wasn't in the cards).

On Christmas Eve we invited some friends over for brunch. This was a good and bad idea.

Good : Fun, yummy food, good conversation, received a miniature beer pong game

Bad : Strong Bloody Mary's, received miniature beer pong game, almost didn't recover in time to wrap the rest of the presents



But, the Farmer and I both survived (barely) and we still managed to make and decorate Santa's cookies, finish wrapping presents, write notes to Santa, and reach Christmas stories before bed.

Christmas was by far the best one yet. Santa visited and left his bootprints outside. His reindeer left half eaten apples on the deck and even smudged their noses on our windows. The girls went crazy over all their Christmas presents, but I'm thinking their favorite gift was their new suitcases. I feel like I kind of nailed it this year. (Maybe I need to do a "Gifts that Win" post?)


My parents came out for dinner and gave the girls MORE gifts (spooooiiiiillllled) which included new gymnastics leotards. Naturally, Sawyer showered us with her gift of dancing and hip shaking. Kaye cartwheeled all over and showed us her back walkovers and splits. Elli bobbed up and down and did a little booty-shaking over her own.

It was such a fun day, but I was ready to declutter and get everything cleaned up. Bah-hum-bug. Aaaand we had to get ready for a quick ski trip to McCall.


This is the first year my Farmer and I (mostly me) have felt like we could successfully get all three girls up to the hill without me losing my mind. It's a lot to get three children outfitted for snow + yourself dressed and then work out the logistics of actually getting everyone down the mountain on skis.

We pushed the easy button on the first round. We tried out the ski daycare for the very first time ever and put Kaye and Sawyer in group ski lessons...Sawyer's first time ever. We knew Kaye would be just fine. No worries there. Sawyer? Sawyer made us nervous. It was either going to be the best or worst day of her life...ever.


As it turns out...it was the very best day. Granted, Sawyer did get cold in the middle of her lesson and had to stop for cocoa. I'm going to say that's the equivalent of faking an injury in the middle of a basketball game because you need a break. So, they stopped for cocoa and she was ready to go out again. The Farmer and I creepily spied on the lesson every time we were reloading the chair to take us back up. We were pretty surprised each time we saw Sawyer and she wasn't asking to be carried. It was a wonderful day on the hill and we're headed back next week! (I'm going to do a full write-up on traveling / planning a ski day with kids / getting them outfitted next week!)


The best part - Sawyer asked to go skiing again the following day. (Jaw. Dropped.) So we did. And she did. And it was wonderful. Kaye took me over a little jump and all I can think is that in just a few short years she's going to be a way better skier than me. I'll be the weakest of the group and my family will tell me to go to the lodge on a powder day. But that's how it goes. Ha!


We made it back to the farm just before the New Year...and with no babysitter in sight, we ended up throwing an extremely last minute party. Why not? As it turns out, all you need are some balloons, food, booze, and Catch Phrase to pull a quick shindig off. We did no fewer than seven countdowns for the kids at around 8 pm...and they were none the wiser. Shockingly, Kaye and two friends managed to stay up until midnight. I'm pretty sure she's still recovering. And so am I.



And that wraps up our December! It was an incredibly busy month, but so so fun. I'm already thinking about next year and how we can make it even better with more family and friends...but by planning ahead, maybe not so stressful. (Goal : All present shopping and wrapping completed by beginning of November, because we all know things don't slow down after Thanksgiving.)

Wishing everyone the happiest and healthiest 2019!