Holy moly! It is not a joke when people tell you time flies when you have kids! I can’t believe my little munchkin is TWO MONTHS OLD. What is this nonsense?! Tanner turned two months old on Christmas Day. He loves bath time, is smiling up a storm and finally got to announce that he’s getting a cousin in JUNE!! Woohoo!! We went to his two month check up on the 21st of December. What a big boy we have! He is 24.75 inches long and 13.5 lbs. What a chunk! His percentiles are 99% in height, 81% in weight, and 73% in head. He got his first set of vaccinations and he bawled. The 21st was a rough day for Tanner and I. I had a dysplastic mole removed in North Logan, drove to Brigham City and went to the dentist, (no cavities! –just had 3 calcium deficient spots filled) then drove all the way back into North Logan to take Tanner to get his shots. We were both cranky and tired.
On December 15th, Tanner met Santa! Santa comes to the fire station in Wellsville every year. Santa drove around town with the fire engine siren blazing to let everyone know he had arrived! We drove down to the station and got a cute picture with Santa! After meeting Santa we dropped T off at my parents’ house. Devin’s family had tickets to see Bar J Wranglers in Logan and I don’t think they would have appreciated a crying two month old. They are so good!! I honestly wish I could sing decently. I loved seeing them and hearing their versions of Christmas songs.
Christmas this year was a little bit different. Kendal was noticeably absent. While we did miss him for Christmas, my family had two visitors stay for the week of Christmas. Our friends from Mexico (who are my age) Eduardo and Leonardo Urbiola, came and stayed over for the week. They are going to school up at BYU-I and they’ve never had a true American Christmas before. Their story is really quite cool. When we moved down to Mexico, they were being taught the lessons by the missionaries. They’re mom had recently died (I think right before they got baptized?) and they didn’t have much contact with their dad. They became a big part of our family. Of course Allie and I (and later Kendal) had a lot to do with them because of mutual. We’d see them every Friday and Sunday. They ended up both going on missions (they’re twins if you haven’t guessed this already) and are now studying accounting in Rexburg. It was so much fun reminiscing about life in Mexico and being able to speak a little bit of Spanish with them. We took them to the lights down at temple square (I took my dad with me to Tanner’s appointment so we could then go and pick up a 12 passenger van! It was so much fun!!) and played board games and just enjoyed time with family.
Christmas Day: Christmas is kind of stressful sometimes for D and I. Both families live within 3 blocks of us, so it’s always where do we go first, who do we see now, are we going to offend anyone? This year went better than I thought. We opened presents with Tanner just the three of us on Christmas morning. Tanner got a new crib mobile from Santa and a bunch of books and toys from mom and dad. Devin and I got new electric toothbrushes, (yay for adulting!) Tanner got Devin a book of “dad jokes”, and he got me a new jewelry box. After we opened presents we headed down to Devin’s parents for our annual Christmas breakfast. We had crumbly toast, eggs, bacon and halo oranges. Devin got a new snowmobiling helmet from his parents and a snowmobile probe from his brother. I got a new knife set and pans from the Pioneer Woman from D’s parents and the entire F.R.I.E.N.D.S series from Derik. I just love that show!! After that we headed over to Devin’s grandparents. We opened gifts there and then played a couple rounds of Chicken Foot. (Dominoes game—so fun!)
We went down to my parents at about 2:00. We were scheduled to skype Kendal then. Oh man have I missed that sweet boy!! He finally got to meet Tanner “in person” for the first time. When dad held T up to the camera, Kendal started to cry. As you can imagine, I absolutely lost it. I had to leave the room cause I was crying so freaking hard. I really don’t get embarrassed by how much I cry anymore. I really just try my best to own it… haha! He’s doing so good. He got his presents from us and it was just so nice to hear his voice. He bore his testimony to us in Spanish. He has such good Spanish! I couldn’t believe how well he was speaking it. He loves his companion and they have so much fun together. Kendals gift to the family was very….Kendal haha. He bought it at the flee market and I honestly am not even surprised in the slightest that he bought it for us. Any guesses on what he mailed? A Taser. He mailed us a freaking Taser. It looks just like a flashlight. He sent us home videos of different missionaries (himself included) giving their consents to be tased haha. Of course as the time drew near for us to say goodbye, you could feel how heavy everyone was feeling. Kendal started to cry. I hate when he cries. Every time he cries, I CRY. I miss him so much and I am so proud of the young man that he is becoming. The people of North Carolina seriously have no idea how lucky they are.
Devin and I both had New Year’s Day off. It snowed the day before, so naturally Devin went snowmobiling. Him and his best friend Taylor went up to Dry Lake. From what I gather, they had a blast! I think he could live on a snowmobile if I let him. New Year’s Eve Devin and I went and updated our phones. We got a SUPER good deal on the new iPhone XR’s. I had to update my phone number. I’m over it now, but at first I was really struggling with it. (Thank you, anxiety!) I really love mine new phone! I got the white one and D got the black one.
Devin and I really, truly had a wonderful holiday season. We tried really hard to focus more on the reason of the season and I feel it made our holiday a little less stressful. I’m so grateful for the birth of our Savior. I am grateful that we had Tanner with us the Christmas, kids seriously make the holidays more special! No matter how old they are! I’m so grateful for our families and the time we get to spend with them.
Since grandpa's birthday was today, we did a dinner last night at Maddox. LaDawn has a younger brother, Gerald, who was adopted when he was a baby, and he surprised grandpa for his big day. Gerald is living in Oregon with his wife, Claire. I'm not going to go into much detail, but Claire is suffering from a couple of brain tumors. Due to her not being able to be left home alone for very long, Uncle Gerald flew down yesterday morning, and left early this morning. A quick trip, but it was great to see him. We missed Claire and send our love to her. 
God works in mysterious ways. Yesterday, Devin literally had no voice. He was so worried that he wouldn't be able to speak and give Tanner his blessing. His dad and brother came over and gave him a special blessing. This morning he woke up and has been talking like nothing has happened. The blessing that he gave Tanner was beautiful. He blessed him with everything a mother could want for her child. It really was just wonderful.
