December Wrap Up

Last pictures of December and 2018!!

I walk to the bus stop everyday at 4 p.m. to pick up Isak and Kira.  One day it was just a beautiful sunset sky.  

Horsey rides or Bear rides?  Noah loves both!  He growls and neighs.  :)

After nap time and when the kids get home from school, the kids get to pick out a treat from the treat box.  Sofie and Noah spend a long time deciding...like five minutes!

Just practicing.

Waiting for the bus.  Sometimes Sofie will get all ready to go to.  Backpack and coat, check!

Fancy hair. check. :)

Kira lost her tooth.  December 2nd.  It was a Sunday.  She was eating her pancake and started crying. I went to get a tissue to pull it out but it fell out onto the table!  haha.  She recovered and then smiled at everyone.  At church, she smiled at the speakers and the people sitting in front and behind us.  She didn't want to color, she just wanted to show off her missing tooth.  😀  Astrid the tooth fairy visited in the night with $1 and a note.

Noah wanted to hop in the picture too.

Sofie did too, but she was crying.

Noah cries and screams at me a lot.  For no reason, that I can see.  I try to help him as quickly as possible, but it doesn't matter.  He cries and cries.  I tried to get a picture of him wailing at me, but he just glared instead.

Nels and I got to go on a date!!  The Young Women babysat all four kids at the church for free for a service activity!  Awesome.  We ate dinner at El Molcajete.  A Mexican restuarant on third street.  Great food.  I got the chicken tacos.

Nels got a burrito.

We went to Kilwin's for ice cream afterwards.  We just talked about Christmas and ideas for gifts for the kids.

It's rare to find me with one kids.  If one sits on my lap, another one comes and then another one.  We were reading a new book from the library called Rhyming Dust Bunnies.

Noah likes to be apart of it...but not too close.

Just twirling around.

Isak needs a haircut!

Sofie just wanted to be by me while I did the dishes.  :)

Play dough morning.

Playing Christmas music with some helpers.

I just thought these twins looked cute watching TV next to each other.

I got to go to the temple.  Yay!

Afterwards I ate at EggHarbor.  A restaurant on third street.  Eggs Benedict  Delicious.

Kira has started to write sorry notes when she makes mistakes.  They are cute.  This one says, "I'm sorry.  Will you forgive me mom?  I forgive you.  I still love you mom.  Do you still love me.  Sorry card!  From Kira to mom."  Of course, I forgive her and still love her!!!💕

Playing the piano again.  I keep trying even though it's hard.

My little unicorn.

The kids were playing on the stairs.  :)

Noah did it again another day for fun.

Nels's dad wrote his conversion to the gospel and printed it in a nice book.  We read it with Isak and Kira.  Loved it!  Very special time with them.  Thank you Grandpa Nyborg!

Sofie loves her bunny blanket and boogie board that she got for Christmas.

 Trying out my selfie stick.

Kira is playing the piano so well.  She memorized Jolly Old St. Nicholas.

One gift for Christmas was a box of 96 color crayons.  Probably a favorite.  This little girl loves her art supplies.

Nels got a Star Wars tie for Christmas.  He looked great wearing it to church.

Noah is getting taller.  Trying to lock the patio door.

Just hanging out by the window.

I bought this box of cereal and Noah ate about 80% of it in two days!  He loved that it had Paw Patrol on it.  

New Year's Eve party!!  We played games and made homemade pizza.  We played Uno Attack.

The babies loved to push the button!

We also played Candyland and Chutes and Ladders.

 Then we took some selfies.

 And ate our little white donuts.

 Last picture for 2018!!

We had a dance party too.  Then after the babies went to bed we watched Star Wars V.

December was a full month with lots of Christmas.

To finish up 2018.  I made some goals at the beginning of 2018.  I was pleased that I actually did most of them!!  So here are the goals and the progress I made with each one.

Here's 2018 goals:
1. Increase Temple Attendance.  Yes, we did this!  After we got our recommends renewed in March,  one of us went every month.  I think we only missed one month!
2.  Have FHE more often.  We did it a lot more regularly.  We made them super simple and short.  A story from the Friend, two songs, prayers and a game like duck, duck goose or ring around the rosy.
3.  Read scriptures as a family.  In February or March my mom encouraged us of the importance of reading aloud together from the Book of Mormon even if the kids didn't understand.  That was the encouragement I needed.  We started that night reading one page together--with Isak and Kira, after the babies go to bed.  Isak and Kira would receive help with a verse and then listen to the rest.  Sometimes we would talk about what we read and what it means.  We have shortened it a bit now, we read a column so we don't rush through it as much.  I'm grateful we added this to our nightly routine.  Maybe we will include Sofie and Noah in scripture reading in 2019.
4.  Teach kids to read.  We completed the 100 lessons on July 31.  Isak and Kira are great readers.  I'm so proud of myself for doing this.  I love seeing/hearing them read by themselves, to me and to each other.  I especially love seeing them read to the babies.
5.  Garden.  So I ended up weeding a lot and taking care of the landscape we already have.  My dad helped me plant 100 bulbs in October.  Maybe next year we will do a vegetable garden, but I'm happy with what I did and learned this year.
6.  Family History - ask Nels's parents to write their conversion story.  I did ask them and I'm so grateful I did.  Bob took it seriously and wrote it down and made it into a nice Shutterfly book for all of his kids!  It's wonderful.  I'm so thankful he did that.  I also took one family name to the temple, Gurina Olson.
7.  Read Six Non-Fiction Books.  I did this - plus one Bonus.  :)

• Smart Money, Smart Kids
• Better Than Before
• Devil in the White City
• A. Lincoln
• Hidden Figures
• Simplified
• Bonus: The Book of Mormon

8.  Date Nels.  So we definitely improved on this...anything is better than the zero dates we were doing before.  :)  We started to hire a sitter in May or June.  We tried to go out at least once a month. We went to Buttermilk, Outback Steakhouse, a mexican restaurant and two Cubs games(one was with Nels's work and the other one was with Isak and Kira...but I'm still counting them as dates. 😀)  It really helps for us to go out alone together and to Date!  

9. Increase savings and retirement savings.  We did this.  Yay!

10.  Learn iMovie and make one video.  I made a fun video of the kids at the park.  I finished making it in August.  I really enjoyed this project and I hope to make another video in 2019.  

11.  Will.  We did not do this.  We still need to get a will drawn up. 

This is probably the first time I wrote down new year goals and actually looked at them all year and tried to do them!  I hope I can make some goals for 2019 and continue to improve and learn.  

2018 was overall a great year.  It was nice to be in one place for the whole year and not thinking about a future move.  We got to have some adventures and visitors.  And that wraps up 2018.  Farewell!!!