Christmas: First Stop - Orem

And boy did we need that first stop!
We left Amarillo, Texas super early on Monday morning and drove 13 hours to make it to Orem by that same night. Kadee was a trooper! She did so amazingly well. Surprised me even with how well she did that whole time in the car. Sure we stopped a few times for a couple of minutes, but that little girl would entertain herself with book after book for hours. I had a tote box of books and magnets and coloring and flash cards and snacks and everything I could fit in there to keep her entertained. And it totally worked! Never traveling without an "entertainment box" again! But we were VERY happy to finally reach Grandma's house in Orem. We love staying there and visiting.

 Poor Grandma tried to lie down on the couch for a few minutes and Kadee buried her with all the pillows she could get her hands on. She did it once another time while Grandma was sitting up. Kadee piled the pillows so high that Grandma could only barely see over the top.

Kadee enjoyed reading Christmas books with Grandpa. And, as per her usual, she still has an aversion to clothing.

Christmas SURPRISE!

We had been holding onto a BIG surprise for our families for Christmas.

SURPRISE!

 I seriously hid this from my family for 4 months! We definitely surprised them all.

Our Christmas cards let other family members know. We tried to make it subtle though.

 

The missionary brothers were the last to know but they were surprised too. Elder Tanner drew a lovely stick figure picture of me.

Getting Ready for Christmas

Along with making pies, Spencer has taken it upon himself to cook dinner with a new recipe once a month. He has been enjoying the instant pot. Pretty sure he uses it more than I do.

Spencer also made some homemade cranberry jam with fresh cranberries. He made two batches to give to family and friends for Christmas.

 
Kadee is pretty silly. And she loves to read. She passes a lot of time entertaining herself in both ways.

She is not, however, a super helpful Christmas cookie helper. She mostly wants to eat the sprinkles.Although, she does do ok with putting sprinkles on too. I tried out some royal frosting for our sugar cookies this time, and I LOVED it! It was super fun to decorate with.
Not great for a diabetic to have so many sugar cookies lying around. We gave most of them away.

 

I guess decorating (and eating) cookies makes a person tired. But this girl sleeps like a weirdo. She insists on putting the coat over herself. At least this coat is big enough.

November 2018

We got a snow day early in November. Kadee just wanted to go for a walk in it. Her coat is a bit small though. First thing to do before heading to Utah for Christmas is to get her a bigger coat.

 

Our November was pretty much all about making pies.Kadee thought that's what Thanksgiving was anyway. It's for pie. Spencer tried his hand at pie making.He even did his own pie crust. He tried out two different recipes just to compare. He had a great "helper" too.

 Spencer's plantain pie.

 And this documented process of homemade blueberry pie.

Kadee has a lot of silly moments. I'm glad I was able to capture some of them.

 Yes, my child is sitting in a box eating a peach. I found her like this.

 

Here are some of her silly moments captured by Daddy.

Video also from Daddy. She just had a little bit of a hard time with her pronunciation.

 We made Thanksgiving turkeys.

 Kadee got just a little chocolate all over herself in the car.

We had Thanksgiving at the Skinner's. It was great! The only thing I did was pie. They did everything else. I have two pictures, but I actually made six pies. I had never done a key lime pie before but I was very proud of the way it turned out.

 These are our great Thanksgiving helper cleaners. Spencer says it's his job to clean up.

Kadee knew that Christmas came after Thanksgiving and she was "all packed up" and ready to go visit Grandma.