The Beeston Family

Ahhhhhh, I suck at taking pictures when it matters most! Didn't take many pictures on Christmas day. But we did go see Moana at the movie theater the previous day, and I got a picture of that!
For Christmas, Logan wanted Nerf guns, a drone, and science experiments. Taylor wanted Nerf guns and Legos. Kendall wanted a baby that eats, a doll house, and puppies.
I got microblading done on my eyebrows, and that's all I really wanted. Everything else was extra :-) We had a very relaxing day, playing with the new toys and eating food. Paul, LeiLani, and the kids came for lunch, We had grilled cheese and a mixture of cheese, meats, and breads for lunch. We had ham, mashed potatoes, a green bean casserole, and Texas Roadhouse rolls for dinner. For dessert, a Tiramisu. It was a great day, and we were lucky William had it off.
Oh, and Logan made breakfast! All by himself.

(And I'm playing catch up with these posts because I have a coupon to use by tonight, so they'll probably get shorter and shorter. Sorry.)

Alexis: 4 months

This little beauty is 4 months old. And this month I feel like her little personality has really shown. She is one determined little girl. She knows what she likes and what she doesn't like.

She figured out how to play with certain toys, like the ones from her playgym. She also successfully puts everything she finds into her mouth. She gives wet kisses. She rolls over, but then freaks out when she's on her tummy. She loves to be held, and at this point doesn't really care who holds her. She loves to go on walks in her stroller. And she loves to nap on mommy. She does not like to be in the car for too long. She also doesn't like being kissed to much (she'll yell at whoever does the kissing and attack them with her mouth). And she doesn't like being in her swing (it's not the same as being held). Church is getting difficult because sitting on mommy's lap for a long period of time gets too boring. We end up walking down the halls a lot. But still, every day, I stare at her cute little face, and I'm in awe at her beauty, at her sweetness, at her. I can't believe how blessed I am to be her mom. Why me? Do I really deserve such an angel in my life? I mean, deep inside I know one day she'll drive me nuts, like the other kids, but for right now, she's my sweet angel. I look forward to seeing her and holding her all the time, even if that means that the floors don't get mopped for a while and the sink is overflowing with dished, and I'll have to do 5 loads of laundry in one day at some point later that week. Yep, I don't get much done, and I'm totally spoiling her, but I love when she naps on me. I love the cuddle. I love feeling needed. I love feeling loved. I love the connection. I guess it's true; the youngest child always gets spoiled.

Christmas traditions

I like Christmas traditions. I feel like traditions are what kids remember as they get older. And hopefully those traditions are carried over to the next generation. I want my kids to say, "I remember doing this every year, as a kid, and I want to continue to do this with my own kids."

So, every year, we go see the temple lights.

We also make a new ornament for the tree.

We go visit Santa. (And this year, we saw him 3 times! And Alexis didn't cry any of those times.)

We drive or walk around the neighborhood to look at lights.

We drink hot chocolate.

We decorate the tree as a family.

We (and by we, I mean, the kids) sleep by the tree.

And we make cookies for Santa.

We usually decorate a gingerbread house, too, but we didn't get around to doing it this year.

I feel really blessed to have such awesome kiddos to share my love of Christmas with. I love sharing these traditions and creating these memories with them.

Next year, I want to make Christmas even more Christ-oriented. I'm thinking maybe a live nativity? Or sitting around our new piano and singing Christmas songs? That'd be fun...

Service for Christmas

Every year, I've tried to get the kids to provide service for others right around the holidays. I want to do that because I want them to think about others before themselves. I want them for focus on the birth of Christ and I want them to spread joy around them, not simply think about what they want and what they'll get.
This year, though, I found it really hard to find service opportunities, mostly because of the issue of time and having a baby attached to my boob. I don't want to make excuses, but we're so busy! Between school, homework, gymnastics, taekwondo, soccer, and basketball, there's not a lot of spare time. Sure, I could do a lot while the kids are in school, but the whole point of this, is to get them involved. Anyway, we didn't accomplish as much as I wanted to, but we did some things... (And by the way, I sucked at taking pictures of our accomplishments.)

We also:

- made puppy chow for the neighbors

- had the missionaries over for dinner

- left a surprise secret gift for a family in need

- donated some clothes to Goodwill

- made homemade cards for our cousins

- gave money to several homeless people

Thanksgiving

So, for some reason, taking pictures on Thanksgiving Day didn't cross my mind. I have zero pictures of that day. Zero! But for the record, Paul, LeiLani, and their kids came over for lunch. We had steak, mashed potatoes, and asparagus. Then we had apply pie with vanilla ice cream. By the time we finished eating, it was 4pm, and we were full. Did I mention that we had been invited by someone in the ward for lunch/dinner at 2pm? Yeah... By the time I was done cleaning and they were done prepping up for dinner with LeiLani's family, it was 5pm. I felt so bad. The Cardons had invited us over because William was working. How nice, right? And we show up 3 hours late. (To be fair, I had told her that we had lunch plans with family and that we could probably be there by 3pm.) Fortunately, they were cool. But we didn't stay long because, well, everyone was done eating, and everyone was taking off, and they were leaving early in the morning the next day for a family trip. Anyway, it was a nice, relaxing day with fortunately very little cooking for me, which was great because little Miss Alexis likes to be held. all. the. time.

Also, throughout the month, we talked about what we're thankful for, and this is what the kids came up with.

Logan

Taylor

Kendall

Elf on the shelf

Crystal is baaaack! Well, Crystal made an appearance on the 1st of December... Basically because the kids kept asking about him... Buuuuut he didn't stay... Because he's not so creative as to come up with 25 ways to entertain the kids. So he wrote them a letter explaining that he was very busy making toys in Santa's workshop and would be back in a little while. He left them with new pajamas and told them to behave. And then,...

I don't think that Crystal really helps the kids behave better than normal, but I do know that they get up in the morning excited to see what Crystal was up to while they were sleeping. And that counts. It keep me up later in the evening, but it's worth it to see the excitement in their eyes. Until next year, Crystal...