December was a great month – we celebrated Christmas all month long, enjoyed the beginning of the ski season and spent some great time together as a family. Now that it’s January we are preparing for the birth of our baby boy in mere days!

“I can’t remember all the times I tried to tell myself to hold on to these moments as they pass.”

Welcome to “Moments” here on JoyFoodSunshine. At the end of every month I share a recap of our family’s favorite moments!  So here it is for December 2020! 

Life with my tribe

December was a great month – we celebrated Christmas all month long, enjoyed the beginning of the ski season and spent some great time together as a family. Now that it’s January we are preparing for the birth of our baby boy in mere days!

Baby 38 weeks (2 to go)!

We’re getting SO close to holding our baby boy in our arms. I am still feeling GREAT – which is such a gift. I had maternity photos taken for the first time and wrote an entire post as a 36 week pregnancy update, so check it out!

I put the bassinet in the stroller stand and set one of baby boy’s little outfits inside. I keep it in my closet (where he will sleep for a week or two until I can go up and down the stairs easily), and glance at it about 100 times a day. I may have even put the 3D sonogram photo of his sweet face in there too – just to help myself get excited about what is to come! 

Preparing for labor

I’ve been doing my usual pre-labor rituals to try to help ensure a smooth delivery in any natural way that I can. I drink copious amounts of raspberry leaf tea and take evening primrose oil.  I eat dates in the form of these date energy balls, and am just trying to mentally prepare for what’s to come. 

I’m a huge advocate for exercising up until the very end of pregnancy. At this stage for me it means mostly long walks and modified workout videos (Fitness blender is my favorite). Giving birth is the most intense physical experience you will ever have in your life – “training” for it by exercising helps the process go smoothly. 

Ski Trip

I planned a little family getaway to Deer Valley months ago – and I’m so glad that we had the chance to enjoy some time together before life becomes focused on the new baby. We love visiting the resort opening week- it’s not crowded and it’s decorated beautifully for Christmas. 

This year they didn’t offer ski school for N and M (even though they usually would) and I obviously couldn’t ski (pregnant). So just B and G attended two days of ski school, then on the third skied with Ritch while I hung out with the littles. We had a great time just relaxing and breaking from our normal routine in such a beautiful place. 

Last year I wrote a post all about our first time at ski school and I even took a private lesson later on in the season to learn. I highly recommend lessons – my kids fell in LOVE with skiing and feel confident in their ability without frustrations that would’ve come from a less-than qualified parent teaching them – hahaha. This year a refresher was necessary because we didn’t get to practice last winter once everything shut down. But I’m hoping Ritch can take them up more often this year so it’s really a skill they master!

Naomi Skiing

Our good friend and neighbor has been a ski instructor for quite some time, and he agreed to take Naomi up onto the slopes and teach her! So  we got her some ski gear of her very own and she went up with him while Ritch took B & G during the week after Christmas. I feel so blessed to live in a place where we can just head into the mountains to ski for the day – and I hope to be a ski family for years to come! 

Keilah – 23 Months

This photo perfectly captures the essence of Keilah. A little sweet, a little sassy, 100% cute. I feel like a broken record, but she has grown so much this month. She is communicating so well and is just the best. 

She was SO sweet on Christmas and thought it was magical. We got her a little cozy coupe (not sure how we made it through 5 kids without owning one yet) that she still rides around in all day long. The girls are really into playing how so she got her own babies and dog to play along. Look at that smile! 🙂 

The biggest milestone, and one that I put off until the very last week  I could, was transitioning her out of her crib and into a “big girl bed.” I always start by moving the kids onto a mattress on the floor in their own room to train and teach them how to stay in a bed without walls. Then I move them in with a sibling. She didn’t love it at first, and would sit and point at her crib and say, “I baby,” “my bed,” etc. But that only lasted for one day after lots of talking up her “big girl bed.” One morning I found her under the crib playing with the noise machine way earlier than she normally wakes up, but I explained she had to stay in bed until mommy came to get her, put her back on the  mattress, and she fell back to sleep for another 1.5 hours. 

We decided to have Bethany share a room with Keilah. One, because B loves K and really wanted to share with her. And two because we just felt like it was the best match, since Naomi and Mara are two little peas in a pod right now. We prefer to have our kids share rooms, so it will be great for these two to get to experience that together. 

Christmas

We begin reading an advent book in the beginning of December and read it through Christmas morning. These snuggly reading time are one of my favorites – as long as the two littles can occupy themselves long enough so I can hear the story. We began with a book called Jotham’s Journey (my favorite) and have all the books in the series over the last four years (one each year). Ritch reads it so well using different voices for each character, and I really miss this once Christmas is over. 

We had a great Christmas. Our Christmas Eve service was beautiful and was the perfect way to begin our Christmas celebrations. 

I picked out some Christmas jammies for the kids this year, wrapped them and put them under the tree while they were loaded in the car to go to church on Christmas Eve. Then when we got home they opened them! Can you feel the excitement in this photo? 😉 

Christmas Day was great. We slowly opened presents, ate some Cinnamon Rolls and enjoyed time together. 

Then we had our good friends over for dinner, sang happy birthday to Jesus (with this Nativity Cake) and talked about the real meaning of Christmas. I’m so grateful for friends to do life with, especially during the holidays. 

A few of my favorite things…

Here are a few products and other things I have loved in December!

• I am obsessed with these elderberry gummies. They taste amazing and help boost immunity! 
• Naomi said she wanted a bible that she could read for Christmas. We are all loving this Easy Readers Bible! She hasn’t stopped reading it since Christmas day. It’s just easy enough for her to understand and at the same time difficult enough to help her grow in her ability to read challenging words. I LOVE IT! 
• This Wipes Dispenser is really great! I had just been using an old plastic Huggies box for years (haha) and I decided to buy this wipes dispenser and I’m so glad taht I did! I love the insert that holds the wipes package down making it easy to pull them out! 

Recipes I’m Making on Repeat

Here are a few recipes we enjoyed in December, as you can imagine – it included lots of sweets!

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Pretzel Bread

Puppy Chow

Chocolate Chip Cookies

The best homemade Chocolate Cake EVER

Cut-Out Sugar Cookies

More December Snapshots

The first time it snowed even a little bit the kids ran out to play in it. Somehow they collected enough snow to make this snowman! I was so impressed. I had to wash ALL the snow gear because it was full of mud (haha) but they had a blast. 

B and G had their piano recital. It was Gabe’s first recital ever and they both did an amazing job! They love their new piano teacher this year and often fight over playing time! 

Took these 3 on a walk at Deer Valley for a little fresh air and sunshine. 

38 weeks! 

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