2024 In Review

I truly love doing this because something I think not a whole lot happened during the year and then when I look back I realize how good and busy it really was. So here we go:

 January

-We rang in 2024 with some great football and some fun new questions. We finally got a chance to visit the ice castles (something I've been excited to do with the kids). We started the girls with Tumbling, which they've loved doing (although Lucy switched to Ballet, she still enjoyed going to gymnastics). 

We found out Home Depot Workshops are very in demand, I got a winter pedicure (very abnormal for me, but loved it still), and I started getting into Lego sets with our little activities for the month.

February

- We enjoyed another Superbowl (although this one was really boring). We had fun with Valentine's Day goodies (and bingo). The kids had fun using up some of their Christmas coupons. 

Larry came back to working from home (a HUGE relief for me), we started to get into the workshop rhythm (for Lowe's, at least), I got into puzzles, we started our Disney trip prep by watching Disney movies, and I experimented with some cleaning routines (might sound boring, but I love figuring things like that out) for our February activities

March

- Larry graduated with his Masters this month, so we drove down to Phoenix for that ceremony. We had a lot of fun celebrating St. Patrick's Day. Easter squeezed into this month and we had a lot of fun with that one as well.

For March notes and activities Pierce moved into a toddler bed (woo hoo!), Lucy became fully potty trained, Cara got a mom date, and Gwen got her 1:1s. 

April

-We celebrated Pierce turning TWO (a much happier occasion than his first birthday)! We went on our first hike of the season to a suspension bridge.

For April activities, Gwen got a date and Lucy did a sleepover (Christmas coupons) and  I got to go on a field trip with Cara (love being able to do those things). So a slightly slower month for us.

May

- We celebrated Cara turning SEVEN! We made a Summer Goals list (which we did really well with), Cara lost her first tooth, I had a pretty enjoyable Mother's Day, we went on an amazing Disney vacation (with a lot of fun prep before hand). Unfortunately, we also lost Grandma right before the trip and that really put a damper on things. I'll forever miss her!

For our mini activities for May, we were able to let our home-grown butterflies free, the kids had their last day of school, and a Lowe's workshop.

June

- We started the month on a solemn note, with Grandma's funeral, luckily we were able to pick up a little with celebrating Lucy turning FOUR! We also celebrated the amazing-ness that is Larry (Father's Day), we dumped a lot of junk we'd been holding onto (felt so great to get it out), and Larry used up his time off work to glow up our yard quite a bit (and he did a fantastic job)

For June's mini-tivities, we did a big car clean out after our Disney trip, we got a Master Bedroom screen door (haha), we got into a new craft (perler/iron beads), Lucy switched over to Ballet from Gymnastics, and we decorated our walls a bit!

July

- Our Fourth of July was VERY productive this year, we celebrated Larry's birthday as well with a trip up to Malad, and Gwen lost her first (and second) tooth/teeth, 

For July we also did swimming lessons, I figured out how to get to Home Depot in time to do their workshop, our a/c broke and took forever to fix, but we also got to celebrate 7/11 day with free slurpees, Larry got a new job, we went to a family wedding, and Cara got a new bike. Super busy and fun!

August

- We celebrated back to school season (I just love it!), I got an unfortunate injury, and we celebrated teh end of Summer and looking over all that we accomplished. 

For August, we also did our final swimming lessons, learned new card games, went out for some new Summer treats, enjoyed the rain we did get, did some neighborhood walks, and maybe celebrated fall coming a little early than we needed to, haha.

September

- We went on more hikes to Donut Falls, our backyard mountain, and to Ghost Falls, Cara was brave enough to get her ears pierced, and we found a fun Pokémon event to try out.

For September min-tivities (I like this phrase) we had a lot of Pokémon card battles, had a lot of fun looking at costumes, we went to a fun (albeit very cold) work party, spent as much time outside that we could while it was still pretty warm, celebrated the kids achievements in gymnastics and school, and tried out a new park/playground in Lehi (it was awesome and I'm excited to go again this Summer).

October

- We had a great city Halloween Town this month, we hit up the Zoo with some family, we added more kitties to the family, we went to a really fun Pumpkin Patch, and we had SO much fun celebrating Halloween (Pierce's first one going out).

For October's little notes and activities, I found a new author I liked, enjoyed my Halloween shirts, we attempted a Fall treat (that didn't turn out perfect, but worth another attempt), we celebrated our 20 year anniversary, we restarted our 1:1s with the kids again, and Larry got his Spouse Appreciation Day. 

November

- This month started out amazing with a trip to St. George for Thriller!! We got to see the Capital Christmas Tree stop in Utah on it's way across the country, we celebrated Gwen turning SIX! Finally, we had a yummy Thanksgiving with mom's side this year.

For the other November happenings we got to do 3 workshops this month, we got a new van, poor Lucy lost her first tooth (very unexpectedly), we got to join Cindy for her annual pie night, we enjoyed a lot of good Football, the girls got to have a front room sleepover, I took them out to see the new Moana movie, and we got ready for Christmas (including our usual Santa photo).

December 

- We enjoyed a December full of Christmas Programs (a fun thing on my birthday day even!), going to many Christmas Villages, having a very busy weekend before Christmas, celebrating Christmas, and celebrating my birthday (a really fun one too).

Our other activities for December included teaching the girls to work for money, taking the kids out to pick out sibling gifts (such a fun tradition), getting fun letters from Santa, spirit week, school pet sitting, getting ready for my surgery, decorating rooms, and having a fun Noon Years Eve party for the kids.

Overall it's been a fantastic year with lots of fun activities, holidays, and accomplishing a lot of goals. Now to get ready for 2025, which shall be a very interesting year: I'm getting my final surgery done and instead of a family vacation we're going to do things throughout the year that we'd normally pass on or feel we didn't have the time or money for...I'm very excited for this year of memory making. Happy 2024 everyone, I hope you had a great year!

December Activities

-Christmas messes give me such anxiety! There are messes ALL around and it gets much worse before it gets better 

Larry puts up boxes to block Roomba

Gift receipts that take over my desk

-The girls asked for money for the school Peppermint Forest and we only had a few days so I decided to give them money and then have them work it off. The best way to have them earn it was to have them scoop litter. They loved it the first day, and got sick of it as the month went on haha.

-We took the kids out to get sibling gifts. I took Cara and Lucy and Larry took Gwen and Pierce. I absolutely love making this part of their Christmas. They have fun picking things out they think the others would like. It's also really fun to hear their reasoning on why they want to get the gift they want (and tell others "if you get me this, I'll get you that" haha)

-So much Christmas shopping:

-Cara is super crafty, She made a silly football field from paper and a player from a cardboard gingerbread man I had them craft. Then for her friend's birthday party she made such a creative card for the birthday girl. I love her creativity.

She included some tic-tac-toe boards
On the back

-Kids workshops (Santa came to Lowe's and he was a GREAT Santa)

-We got our Santa response letters and they are so cute and sweet:

-Th older girls had a fun Spirit week at school and I decided I just had to get them things for it Their days were Elf/Christmas spirit day that I got them very festive dresses for (but forgot to get a pic of), Santa or Grinch day (so we got light up hats), Christmas Concert day, Ugly Sweater Day (my favorite), and then PJ day (Cara's been begging for family Christmas pajamas so I got us all some matching ones. She loved them).

-Cara got her class "pet" Penelope the pig. She wanted this pet for so long and to get it over Christmas break made her even more excited! She loves taking this thing everywhere we go (though I had to give her a separate journal to write in because she kept filling in the class one haha):

-I realized last minute we hadn't gotten Teacher gifts yet. I was stressed out realizing on literally the last day we needed them. Luckily, I am pretty clever and got the teachers a candy, gift card, bath bomb, and some Airborn, haha, from the grocery store that's close to us (for last minute I think it was actually pretty good):

-My mom wanted to take the kids to see the Nutcracker, but I was nervous they wouldn't be able to stay still for such a long show. Lucy loves ballet, but I was most nervous about how she'd do. We decided to show her the movie version on Hulu. Apparently, she wasn't into the beginning...(side note: I did show her the big ballet part the next morning and she did love that part. She also argued she didn't actually fall asleep haha)

-I had my surgery Pre-Op on the 26th. I'm feeling so excited/nervous/ready/need to do a million things all at once. I just keep telling myself "by this time next month I'll be halfway through my healing!".

-Speaking of my surgery, I've been doing what I can to get the house cleaned and getting laundry done so we don't have to worry about it right away. I'm also doing a liquid diet after the surgery so I've been making a little menu of items (so I can just pick what I feel like at the time) so I've got my grocery list filled out with the items we'll need.

-The new kitties had their surgery (getting fixed) on the 30th. They didn't love being dropped off (but luckily didn't meow until we got there). We thought this will be nice because they'll be a bit less rambunctious. Yeah, no. They've been home for a few hours and you wouldn't even know they had ANY surgery, they are still just as playful and crazy and immediately went back to attacking my feet and legs and are jumping all over.

-Back when we went to Hobby Lobby for my birthday celebration day, I noticed they had some REALLY cute room décor (specifically construction stuff for Pierce). I decided I HAD to go get the ones for his room because I couldn't stop thinking about it. With that, I let the girls pick out 2 things they'd want to put on their room walls. Gwen came with so she got to pick her own out, but I sent pics to Larry to show the girls and let them pick from those. Cara picked out a Hello Kitty light and clock, but her clock doesn't work, so we're going to take that back to exchange it (so we didn't get her pics with hers)

This light is SO bright!

-Our local library threw a Noon Years party and I've always wanted to do one with the kids so I decided to take the girls (it was during nap time so Pierce stayed back). Unfortunately, I got a headache right as it started, but tried to do my best to have fun with the girls (having ALL the noisemakers didn't make it easier, but it's fine) It ended up being a lot of fun for the kids, they had crafts, music, a balloon drop, and fireworks videos to play. They really enjoyed it.

-Kiddo pics:

Every kid needs that "sweatsuit" pic
From their toddler years :)

2024 - How'd We Do?

I really love to review the goals I set for the year to see how I did:

-Family Vacations: Definitely a big check for the year! We did Disneyland, and we had SO much fun with it! I thought I could wait 5 more years before going again, but mom and I are joking about going in another year because it's too much fun seeing the kids excitement! We also kind of did Phoenix (though that wasn't as much fun as any regular vacation) and we did St. George that was a tiny bit of fun, but nothing as big as Disney (or close to it)

-My surgery: So I got my belly correction surgery scheduled, but it hasn't happened yet, but it's the first thing happening next year (just timing wise that's what was the best for us), so I'm very excited for that. 

-Larry finishing his Masters and his graduation day: Definitely check! He finished in February and we went down to Phoenix in March to celebrate him. I'm so proud of his hard work!

-Staying productively busy: This we did pretty good on. I still find we resort to TV more than I'd like and I have a HORRIBLE addiction to social media when I should be with my kids, BUT we did set some Summer goals that got accomplished, we did do swimming lessons, we did do ALL the workshops we could (even one that was down in St. George while we were there) and did Gymnastics and Ballet so those were good, but there's always room for improvement.

-Less social media time around the kids: I did my best to catch myself with this and stop it, but I still did it and don't like it. I think that's going onto next year's list, but with more incentives to stop it.

-Stop the cussing: Um...I stopped doing it around the kids, but I definitely still do it (eesh). I've made a decision that if it's happy cussing it's not bad, it's just angry/mad cussing that's bad haha.

-Saving and spending goals: I think I'm pretty good at this one. Next year we've moved around our finances and savings next year is going to be really fun!

-Purging! UGH! This is ALWAYS on the list, it's never ending to get things cleaned and organized! I didn't even do the recipe cards part (though I did get a holder for recipe cards and I cleared out the recipes we don't really like so I can actually put the ones we do on the cards, just hasn't happened). Although I did figure out a good cleaning system that works for our house so we're not cleaning ALL weekend once a month. Usually, every Sunday we clean, but we only do one floor so that one is super clean. It doesn't mean the whole house is clean all the time, but in between cleanings it doesn't get too messy so it has worked out pretty well. But I don't think I'll ever say my house is clean all the time haha.

-Bath nights, One Wednesday a month. I did do this most of the year. It didn't happen as much as I'd like (and has tapered off the last couple months), but it is part of my monthly routine now and I do still look forward to doing them. I feel I accomplished this because it's not hard to plan into the schedule.

-Game/Date night Wednesdays. We did NOT do this one, this is probably my big failure. I should add it to the list for next year. 

-Get inside home projects done in the winter and outside home projects done in the summer! We did do about 1/3 of this, but could've done better. We do have some good ones for next year planned.

-Reading tracking! I did this and am proud that I read 20 books. Not a lot for some people, but it was so fun to see how much I could cross off! And I found some good books and some new authors I really like!

Happy Birthday To Me!

My birthday this year was such a great one! I feel I've done so good this year with celebrating the right way so my birthday couldn't be any different haha.

For my birthday day, I woke up to SO many messages (a few years ago I didn't get any messages till almost lunch time and it bothered me more than it should've, so this was a nice difference). Larry left me my present on my desk and it was in a gift bag, that's a wrapped present for Larry (normally he just gives me the Amazon box it came in.

The day went very smoothly at work and I had Christmas concerts to go to, that ended up being way more enjoyable than I realized they would be. I LOVE seeing my kids perform and how excited they get when they see me is the best!

Normally we do dinner at Leatherby's, but I was kind of over it from all the other birthdays so I decided we should try the Cubby's place nearby. The kids fought it, but then when I told them we'd go to Froyo that was next door afterwards and that cheered them up (except Gwen, at first, because she wanted bubble gum ice cream haha). We all ended up really loving dinner, too, so it was a good alternative.

Now for my celebration day, I decided today would be the best day for it since we usually have to wait until after Christmas so I chose this weekend since I'm getting my surgery next week,

Normally, we go shopping in the morning, I watch a movie during nap time, and then we go do whatever afterwards. This year I decided I wanted to go out to eat for each meal. I knew after my surgery I'd get to see so many movies during my recovery and I'd be on a liquid diet so I wanted to eat at my favorite restaurants before my surgery.

So with those notes, I chose Kneaders for breakfast, where we got 3 things of french toast (and my chocolate brownie, of course!). For lunch, we went to Cafe Rio, where I got my usual enchilada, Larry got a salad, and then we ordered Nachos for the kids to share (although Gwen ate all my rice, boo!). For dinner, we went to Red 8 where we ordered a few entrees to share. We figured it would be best to just order 3 things to share with all of us at each place. That way it wasn't as expensive and we knew the kids wouldn't eat much anyways, so we might as well do family style. It worked out the way I wanted to, we had very little leftovers, and everyone had pretty full bellies (however, I do miss my rice still haha). 

We also went to Home Depot so I could get a fix on my home renovation ideas and we found a lot of good stuff I'd love to do in our home (so now I REALLY want to do home projects even more!). We also hit up Barnes & Noble so I could grab a few books for my recovery time. I love that store (just wish it wasn't so expensive)!

Overall, it was a great day and celebration and I'm so glad I did it this way! Now to end the year with a bang before I'm down for surgery!

Christmas 2024

Christmas this year was amazing! I think I'm finally feeling the holiday spirit the way I've always wanted to (or expected to once we had kids), so it's nice. This year, we were very busy for the last little while. 

The Sunday before Christmas we spent with Marie and Cindy, such good time with family (see more here). We ended up spending more time with them than I planned and I ended up behind on laundry (no working out or cleaning either), but it was worth it. 

Christmas Eve we went over for breakfast with Mom, Will, Andy, and Rachel. Larry had to work, so he stayed home, but I was glad to see family still. The kids were being stubborn and didn't want any of the food, so that was rough, but it was yummy to the rest of us. We still fun visiting and everyone loved their gifts. I then was able to squeeze in lunch with Don and Tracy (I dropped the kids off at home so it wasn't too chaotic and decided to introduce them to Village Baker). It was REALLY nice visiting with them, we laughed a lot and caught up on a lot. They brought gifts too, which was unexpected, but nice. This definitely filled up Christmas Eve, but visiting with so much family, felt like the way the holidays were supposed to be!

After coming home from all that family time, it was time to make cookies with the kids (snickerdoodles that I accidentally over mixed and messed up and some pre-made, just separate and bake, chocolate chip ones). We then ate dinner and played bingo for our Christmas Eve boxes (Gwen was so excited, she kept saying she "LOVES playing Bingo for our gifts"). Everyone got some clothes and a book of some sort and they were all very excited. 

We then did our usual driving around to look at decorations. Once we got home we did bath night and put the kids to bed. I had to finish cutting out the coupons for the year (can't believe I still had last minute stuff with how early I started this year!), so I did that while watching Christmas Vacation. Once we knew the kids were asleep, Larry and I put the gifts out and got the stockings set up on the couch. Larry wasn't feeling great so he took some Nyquil and passed out while I finished the coupons and movie (not going to lie, it was nice and relaxing).

As for today, our morning started at 7, because that when the girls were awake, Pierce was still SO out so I left him alone (it's not worth the huge tantrum of waking him up). Everyone was so excited about the presents under the tree, which, luckily, were already organized by person so that made it SO much easier. But, of course, we always start with the stockings, Pierce woke up right as we were finishing those, so it was good timing. We then ate breakfast, Larry did dishes, and then we opened the tree presents. I figured out letting the kids go first and trying to maintain their mess first is the best way to go. We let them finish, do sibling gifts, and start to play with what they got, while we did our gifts. I got lots of books, movies, and masks so all the things I love haha. Larry got clothes, books, and some other little things he had on his list. I tried to do a couple things he didn't have on his list, but thought he would like (he doesn't have a lot on his list and so I try to leave some of those for others who are shopping for him).

Mom and Will came by to bring their gifts for everyone, they brought SO much and the kids had a lot of fun. He got the kids a tonies box and some characters, which I'm really excited for (I've always wanted to get them one, but it's pricey so I just haven't yet). Now we have something we can get for other holidays/birthdays!

We spent the rest of the day cleaning all the gifts and wrappings up. I made sure to take things out of their boxes so that we didn't need to do that later. I also put things in the areas they go to and I think the kids played with everything they got at least once. I don't feel like anything was a waste or we couldn't use. Our activity closet is FILLED up, which was my ultimate goal with gifts (to help with school breaks). We also put on our last two Christmas movies we didn't watch (the Jim Carrey Grinch and Polar Express), while kids played with stuff. I also took mini breaks to update my budget, sit and scroll social media a little bit, and go visit with Minnie so she wasn't alone. It was nice to squeeze those calmer moments in too.

At End of the day we asked everyone if there was something they wanted and didn't get. Cara said Elf on the Shelf (oh boy!), Gwen and Lucy said nothing (they were happy with it all - yay!), Larry said he couldn't think of anything. When he asked me, I said absolutely nothing. I wasn't expecting anything gift wise, I just wanted to know it was a good Christmas for all and I had so much fun visiting with family this whole week.

So overall, we had such a fun day, but so exhausting. We didn't do our regular nap time, which might be a Christmas faux pas haha (naps are definitely needed when you get up early and are go, go, go all day), but everyone was definitely ready for bed time today, so it wasn't too bad. 

Busy Christmas Weekend

Our weekend leading up to Christmas ended up being a really busy one.  Weekend before Christmas so busy:

Saturday we decided to go to the Jaker's Farm (see details about that one here). Right after going to that, I had booked a reservation at a local art studio for a kids paint day for Cara and Gwen. I knew they'd really like it (and wasn't sure if Lucy would be able to understand so I only did the older two) and it ended up being SUCH a fun experience. They did a Christmas Cactus picture and they did REALLY well with it (considering their age and it being their very first time). We definitely made plans to do that again. Larry took Lucy and Pierce to a nearby playground to have fun.

When we got home I had made some gingerbread men out of cardboard and let them decorate with all sorts of things we had in our activity closet. I think they really liked that. I liked that Cara made a football guy and a football field out of paper (she's SO creative).

Clockwise from top left is Cara's, Gwen's,
Pierce's, and Lucy's (hers has the rainbow face)

I also had to take Lucy to her Ballet Christmas Party. Leaving was a little frustrating (she was confused about why it was for ballet, but she didn't need to dress in her leotard and she's at an age where when she get confused she gets pretty upset, easily, so getting out the door was hard). But once we got there and she interacted with friends (one from her school was there) she had a lot of fun! She got to eat pizza, play some games, and got a little gift and they took a group photo. I'm glad we were able to go to that with her.

We always have Larry's family Christmas party the Sunday before Christmas as well. That's always fun, there's food and visiting with everyone. And then his Grandma or Mom will bring a box of craft kits for the kids to do. And boy do they love doing as many of those crafts as possible. I love seeing the kids get all creative as well. We then head over to his Grandma's house to open gifts and it's nice to be able to do that (I love getting the gifts we have for others out of our house so it's less clutter haha. Plus we get some fun things off our list and the kids get a lot of cute things!)

After going there, we drove up to Cindy's to exchange gifts there. It's sometimes hard to find time to get together with her and her family since we both live at opposite-ish ends of "the valley" and it isn't a quick drive to each other's homes. I figured since we were already in West Valley, we could drive a little further to see her. We got some good stuff and I was pretty excited to give them their gifts as well. The kids all seemed to have fun together!

We also have some fishies to babysit, our neighbors are going out of town for Christmas so they asked if we'd take them while they were out. I was so happy to help, but didn't realize how much the kitties would be really interested in them haha. Cara and Gwen have loved helping feed them to earn money, they love any opportunity to earn money.

And finally, football this weekend was amazing! Packers had the first shut out of the whole football season and it means we made it to the playoffs. I, of course, have to make time to have the games on whenever we can. I'm such a proud fan haha. 

Overall a fun weekend and now we can really just relax and focus on Christmas

Many Christmas Villages

So one thing I was really excited to do was fun Christmas events in our city (or near by cities) to make the most of the holidays (I've been watching a LOT of Hallmark movies and so it feels like the thing to do that doesn't add to the materialistic side of things). There was one at a park in Saratoga that had a whole tree lighting ceremony that I really wanted to go to, but we had had a busy weekend before that and I knew others were coming up so we decided to skip it. I kind of regret it because that one ended up having fireworks and it sounded like it was so much fun.

Eagle Mountain ended up having one on the 7th that we did go to. That one ended up being SO crowded. They had a Santa village set up to see Santa and Mrs. Claus, but the line was ridiculously long so we decided not to (we just saw them at Cabela's so it wasn't super needed). Luckily, they had a mailbox that we could put in letters to mail to Santa and they said we'd get a return letter so we all were excited for that. The rest of it was just reindeer that we couldn't get close to, a bunch of booths with things people were selling that I wasn't interested in, and then free pony rides that I tried to get the kids to do (only Cara and Lucy were interested though). The kids did have a lot of fun at the playground, at least.

Lehi had one on the 14th that sounded like so much fun. We had to pick up Cara from a friend's birthday party on the way so we weren't as prepped for the cold windy weather there when we got there. It was very similar to the Eagle Mountain ones, but it was SO cold we didn't stay long. This one at least had a train ride and ice skating (along with the same free pony rides from the Eagle Mountain one, this time Gwen actually rode them). The skating we didn't end up doing because of how cold and inappropriately dressed we were. So that one was a bit of a disappointment (the kids saw another Santa and Mrs. Claus and Cara and Gwen stopped to say hi to them, at least). We also had to promise we'd take the kids ice skating elsewhere because they REALLY didn't want to leave haha.

Finally, we went to Jaker's Christmas Village today (after getting those free tickets back in October) and it was definitely the best one! We had kind of an eventful trip to it, too. We were going to stop at a Tropical Smoothie location beforehand because we had a coupon for free kid smoothies that expire at the end of the month Jaker's didn't open until about 10 and we were leaving at 9 so I told Larry we needed to take our time and mentioned how I always wanted to drive down Redwood Road to see what was down there so we went down and I figured we'd go for about 15-20 minutes and then loop onto the freeway. Unfortunately, by the time we reached that 15-20 minute mark I realized the lake was in the way and we'd have to go all the way round it. At first it was fascinating, but after a while we ended up in a bunch of small/abandoned towns that were a little creepy. We finally made it (after an hour of driving and most of the kids fell asleep haha). We grabbed our smoothies and then headed to the village. I was starving so I grabbed some Swedish Meatballs (that were super delish!) and then we explored. We found some cute shops, some fun games, some animals to pet, a HUGE slide with blow up balls and foam rectangles that was supposed to be snowballs, and another Santa Village that they got to do a craft. They chose gingerbread cookie ornaments that they decorated with frosting and then ate haha. It was a huge hit and we had lots of fun. Even when the Grinch was sneaking around and came to say hi haha.

Christmas Programs

This year we had many fun Christmas/Winter/Holiday Programs. Cara had a specific 2nd grade on on the 9th that was about celebrating all over the world. Lucy came with me to that and kept singing Cara's song for days afterwards, haha. They'd sing a song and then someone would come up to a microphone to talk about the next area they were singing about. I had to sit too far back than I'd like, but it was very cute!

Unfortunately, Cara's face was blocked 
For most of the video (she's the santa hat one
Right behind the girl in the front row)

On the 18th I got the best birthday present. I got to go see Cara and Gwen's performances that were so sweet. Cara sang "Merry Christmas St. Nick by the Beach Boys. Gwen sang "I'm the Happiest Christmas Tree" by Nat King Cole. My mom came with me to Lucy's, which I wasn't aware was going to be a thing until last week, but I made sure to make time for it (I maybe hardly worked that day, but it's worth it). She sang the "Little Snowflake" by Super Simple Songs. All performances were SO stinking cute. Lucy said she happy cried when she saw we came to hers. 

Cara was SO animated for her performance

This smile was after she finally saw me :)

She was so happy during hers

Overall, I love going to these performances, I hope Larry will be able to go to them one year, but I took video to show them at dinner that night so we could all enjoy them.