Atticus Baby Blessing

On the last Sunday of December Ashleigh and Andrew Brown had Atticus blessed. I was so happy that I could be there to be a part of it. Andrew Brown was really nervous, this being his first baby blessing, but he did such a good job and it was a beautiful blessing. The other noteworthy thing about this Sunday was this was the last Sunday Mom's ward and any ward would use this particular church building. It is an old building that the Church has decided to sell and so Atticus was the last baby ever be blessed in this building. The Bishop wanted to document this last Sunday so right after sacrament meeting they had everyone who attended the meeting gather on the stage so they could take a group picture. He wanted everyone who was at this lat meeting to be in the picture not just their ward members so Emil's family and I were included in that. It was pretty cool to be included in a small part of their history.

After the big picture we took pictures with Atticus. Andrew's family hightailed it out of their pretty quick so we couldn't get them in the pictures but we had fun posing with the handsome little guy.

The next night was New Years Eve and we were really relaxed and low-key about it at Mom's house. It was Mom, me, Erin and Heather and we went and got burgers and fries from five guys and then came home and watched Gilmore Girls while we ate and visited. I went to bed at about 10:00 and did not count down to the new year. I would much rather sleep then stay up until midnight

Warner Brothers Studio Tour

Heather always finds fun things to do and I do not know how she does it but she definitely has an ear to the ground at all times. She found out a couple months ago that the warner Brothers studio lot does tours and that for a couple weeks in December and January they were doing a Gilmore Girls popup on their tours. We LOVE Gilmore Girls and all of us girls wanted to do this tour. Kids 8 and under were not allowed to do the tour and we were worried that Ashleigh would not be able to go because of sweet little Atticus. But Andrew Brown was fine having him for ht day and Ashleigh had pumped plenty of bottles so all of us sisters and Mom were able to go on this tour!

It turned out to be a lot cooler  then any of us thought and I do not know how we have never heard of this before. When t was out tour time we were led into a little theater and watched a short movie on the history of the studio lot then we were paired up with our tour guide. She drove us around the lot and showed us different highlights of buildings, streets and scenery from different movies and TV shows. Remember in Gilmore Girls when Luke pushes Jess off the bridge? Yep, we got to see where that happened. It was fun seeing how they work the movie/TV magic and change up different areas to look completely different for whatever scene they need it for.

At one stop we got to see memorabilia from the Harry Potter movies, Wonder Woman and Flash just to name a few. Heather knew Rylee loves the Flash TV show so we took a picture of her with the costume so I could show Rylee.

They had a sorting hat and we could sit on the chair and pretend to be sorted but the hat never touched my head and I was never sorted into a house.

The studio lot was very protective of their stuff and we were not allowed to touch any of the props or displays. I was trying to take a picture of the sword from Wonder Woman and the employee standing guard kept a close eagle eye on me to make sure I was not going to touch it. I am willing to obey the rules so I pretended to hold the sword.

I got a picture of the Fuller House for Avynlea and Rylee who love to watch the show on Netflix. They built this fake one on the Lot because it would be too expensive and annoying to drive to San Fransisco where the really house is just to shoot any outside shots.

Our tour guide drove us by this apartment building facade and I didn't think much of it until she said this was where Christian Bale sang "Santa Fe" in the movie Newsies. I was very attentive and excited about this area once I heard that, I love Christian Bale and I love Newsies!

We were next taken to a different area on the studio lot where we got to see a lot of the Batman stuff. At this point I felt really bad that I didn't have my family here with me. Kefford, obviously, especially would have loved seeing all of this. I had not idea this tour was that extensive. I thought it was more like the Universal Studio tour which is ok but not too thrilling. This one had so many movie props and was really interactive. I definitely need to came back with my family at some future time.

We got to see and try how they make people look bigger or smaller like the hobbits in Lord of the Rings which was fun.

Once all of the other stuff was done we got to go to Stars Hollow, the reason for us doing the tour in the first place. We got to walk around the outside of Lorelei and Rory's house and eat lunch in their front yard. 

Then we got to walk through the town and take pictures at the gazebo. We saw where they had Luke's Diner but the facade was changed for some other production. 

Our tour time was 10:00am and we did not get back to the car until about 3:00 it was quite the long tour but it was a lot of fun and worth it to go and check out at least once. 

Atticus

I was scheduled to fly out of Boise at 7:30pm to San Juan California where I had a layover before I got on another plane to Ontario California which was supposed to arrive at 11:55pm. It was a late travel but I wanted to spend some time with Kefford and the kids before I left for my trip. When I got to the Boise airport I saw that my flight was delayed which was annoying but not too bad and as I waited in the terminal I put in my earbuds and watched some shows on Netflix. It was hard to hear the sound so I kept turning up the volume and as i was doing that the thought went into my head that maybe the sound was not coming through my earbuds. I ignored the thought and it quickly ent away and I went on watching my show. When we finally were able to board I got on and found a seat and then resumed watching my show until I needed to put my phone away. As I was sitting there enjoying my show suddenly the guy in front of me turned around and informed me that the sound was coming through my speaker and it was really loud. Mortified I quickly turned it off and then I could not look at anyone for the duration of the flight. I felt so dumb and knew all of the people I had sat in the terminal with and on the airplane with probably thought I was so stupid. Ugh, it was a shameful experience. I did not try my earbuds again until I got to San Juan and could do it without anybody around who had to listen to my TV show. I couldn't figure out what the problem was and when I texted Kefford about it he told me to turn the phone off and then on again. When I did that I was able to have the sound coming through my speakers but you can bet that I was so paranoid about it that I kept pulling an earbud out to make sure the sound was not coming out the phone speakers.

My flight from San Juan had a bunch of delays as well and when we finally got on the plane it was 12:00am. We sat on the plane for a while before an announcement was made that they had to cancel the flight because of weather related conditions. We got off at 1:00am and then stood in a mile long line waiting to talk to one of two people about getting new tickets. I was worried that by the time I got to the front there would not be any tickets left for a flight leaving soon so i went online and bought a ticket that was leaving at 7:00am and arriving at about 8:40am. The only problem was it was to a different airport that was about 45 minutes away from my Mom's. Heather was awake through all of this because she was my ride and she said it would not be a problem. The airline was offering to put us up in a hotel but by the time I got everything figured out it was about 2:30 in the morning and I knew I wouldn't able to sleep anyway and I did not want to take the chance of missing my flight so i declined and "slept" in the airport. 

I found a massage chair next to the seminal I was to fly out of and I pulled over a wheelchair to put my feet up and tried to sleep. The airport has a lot of loud noises at night and it was basically impossible to sleep. I tried the best I could but I don't think I got very much sleep, if I had to guess maybe an hour and that is being really generous

I was really happy that this flight did not have any problems and I was finally able to be picked up at the airport by Heather. 

She had a couple of presents in the car for me to open. One from Kefford which was the cutest Little Mermaid wallet. I had told him before that I wanted a new wallet and was a little surprised to not get one on christmas since that was one of only two things I asked for. Turned out he had already ordered me a wallet and worried that it wouldn't arrive on time he had it sent to California. I was so surprised and I love it so much!

I also opened a present from Heather which was the Little Mermaid seatbelt purse, it is so cute and I immediately transferred my stuff over to it so I could use it right away. I felt very spoiled and loved, it was great. 

My flight came in at the orange county airport and Heather had to be out there later that day to get tint put on her car windows so it wasn't too big of a deal for her to pick me up at the airport. We just needed to find some things to do. We went to Downtown Disney and walked around there for a while.  When the time came we dropped her car off and then Mom met us to pick us up and we went back to Downtown Disney and had dinner there. It was nice being with Mom and Heather

I had big plans of changing out of the clothes that I had been wearing for the past 24 hours but as soon as I walked in the door and saw my little nephew all of my plans went out the window and I stole him away from whoever was holding him. Atticus was born two days after my birthday and I have been dying to get my hands on him. He is so cute and so squishy and I was in baby heaven

I played a little with filters on him and he is cute no matter what filter he has. 

The next day us girls minus Stephanie went and got our nails done and then we met up with Stephanie at the movie theater to watch Mary Poppins Returns. I really enjoyed it, I thought the story was fun and I loved how Emily Blunt portrayed Mary Poppins. It was a lot of fun

After the movie we went back to Moms where I got to snuggle with Atticus a little bit more. 

Christmas

We told the kids they had to stay in bed until 7 and then they could come down with their stockings. A little after 7 no one had come down so Kefford went to get them. I think they were all awake, except Kenedy, just waiting for us to come and get them. 

They brought their stockings down and had fun opening them with us in our bedroom.

Once that was done Kefford told everyone to go brush their hair and then we would do presents. Kenedy got everyone gifts this year which was fun. She made a photo book for me that was filled with pictures of her and I together, I love it. She got Rylee a white board for her room and some bath stuff. Kefford a BYU-I beanie and RYker got a BYU-I shirt. Avynlea was given a shirt and some socks. We all loved our gifts from Kenedy and it was really sweet of her. Rylee had bought everyone gifts from the dollar store and was in such a rush to have us open them that I didn't get to take pictures. She got me a candle which was fun and she also made us all thinks out of clay and she made me a mermaid tail, it is super cute.

I bought all of the kids sherpa blankets this year. Kefford and I both have one and the kids are always wanting to use ours so I bought them their own.

My Mom sent a Lincoln kitchen towel and a sherpa blanket which was really thoughtful. She also sent me a box of chocolate because my secret person was late on my gift and I was going to get it until i got to California. Even though it wasn't her fault she felt bad that I did not have a SP gift to open snd sent the chocolates. She is the best!

Secret Person gifts: Kenedy got a Sisters sweatshirt from Kefford. Avynlea got a wall calendar and markers from Anita, Kefford got Batman cuff links ad tie bar along with crackers from Atticus, Rylee got a Jasmine Alix and Ani bracelet and socks from Heather and Ryker got a beanie and shirt from Grandma Bonnie.

After all the fun we cleaned up and then headed out to the farm to spend some time with Kefford's family. Kenedy took a picture with Maddie's new doll which Maddie would randomly have us babysit and I got to hold Garrett while he slept. It was a good time

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve morning we went to Ihop for some yummy breakfast. I had green grinch pancakes and they were so good. Ihop has flavored syrups and I really love the pecan one, it is so good and I really wish I could find it to buy or at least learn how to make it.

We invited the Ricks family over for Christmas Eve dinner and it was so much fun. We had ham, funeral potatoes, rolls and Angela brought pretzel jello salad veggies and dip and cheesecake and chocolate cake for dessert. So much good food. The Ricks have a tradition that on Christmas Eve they do plate presents. It is a small present that gets put on their dinner plates and they get to open them before dinner. They surprised us and included us in this fun tradition, Kenedy and I got soft socks, Ryker got flavored milk straws, Kefford got a pez dispenser and Avy and Rylee got nail polish.  

After dinner we visited while the kids put together a nativity. It was fun to have extra kids and they did a good job, it was a bit chaotic and badly put together but they tried. If we do this again in the future I think I will find a small script of the nativity online for the kids to use.

Cutler, Danny, Avery, Angela, Kalli, Rylee, Avynlea, Coulson, Ryker, Kenedy, Lily, Kefford and Elizabeth

After they left the kids got to open their new pajamas and ornaments. Kenedy got a BYU Idaho ornament, Ryker got a drivers license, Avynlea got a cheerleader and Rylee got a violin. 

After everyone was ready for bed we finished watching the Lord of the Rings which we had been watching throughout the day. It was a good day.

Gingerbread House

The Sunday before Christmas I let Avynlea wear her new dress and shoes and she was pretty excited to see that her dress matched her Dad's socks. Pretty fancy

After church that day we finally built the gingerbread house Rylee has been dying to put together. I wanted to wait to build it until Kenedy was home so that she could be a part of the fun. Everyone had something that they did and we all contributed to making it look pretty amazing. I made my traditional gingerbread house palm tree. I did not have my normal things to use so I scavenged around and made the trunk with chocolate miniatures i found and then cut up one of the green gummys that came with the kit for the fronds. It turned  out interesting but I was happy with it.

Rylee decorated a gingerbread girl she named Caroline and Avynlea and Kenedy collaborated on a gingerbread boy they named Thomas and called their son. Sometimes these kids are weird.

We decided to do neighbor treats this year and I bought 20 bottles of cherry 7-up and attached a cute saying to it. I thought they turned out pretty great. They were cheap and easy and that is all I wanted.