Post Christmas events.

WELLLLL... these first two are right before we left for Christmas, but I didn't get around to posting them, and I love them too much to ignore. Dan reading to our kids each night by the tree.

gosh, this is also before Christmas. I really didn't title this post very well. 

This is Dan dressed up for a mutual activity. He is the second counselor in the YM, and the activity was "Where's Waldo." All the leaders dress up in disguises and stand somewhere in the mall, while the kids try to find them. He sat at a bench looking at his phone; had a group even come up to him, look at their picture of him from their list, then back at real life him and decided it wasn't him haha. The goal for dan was to dress up like everyone else at the mall as to blend in better, and it totally worked. Bishop dressed up like Santa Clause, and that was also a good one. As Dan was leaving, Stori asked, "Why is Dad dressed up like uncle Jonny?" haha.

 The day school should have been canceled. 14" in one day and night. Luckily the next day it was cancelled, and we had so much fun! (speaking of school, SDR started his LAST FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL EVER today!!!)

The next set of pictures were taken at 8pm. it is SO light in Provo when it's overcast and snow on the ground. It feels more like 5pm. Dan shoveled while the kids played and played. I opted to stay inside and work on dinner.

 Since Dan has been losing weight, we decided we needed to take him to get a new pair of pants for school.
He dropped 4 pant sizes!! The pants he had been wearing were literally falling off of him, even with a belt. I can't wait until I have pants that fit...haha.
But this is how we would shop with the kids. they made bunkbeds and pretend played for at least an hour at one of the stores.

my cute little SUNBEAM and adorable little CTR 5. BFFs for life

 finally a picture of me with baby rad 3. 29 weeks and living in sweats.

A 'Christmas Series of Unfortunate Events.'

You could definitely say that we struggle with Christmas luck. Last year we left all of our Christmas presents at home in Provo (we were in WA).
We also got stranded on the road for an extra 9 hours because of closed roads.
The year before that we had to take Stori to the ER on Christmas eve morning because she was so sick and weak.
The year before that Dan had ALL his camera equipment stolen from our car.
The year before that I had to go to the ER to get fluids pumped into me because I was so sick and couldn't take anything because i was pregnant.
This year just might take the cake though... (hope the trend isn't that things progressively get worse)
There are also some GREAT things about Christmas, so I'll get to those first

Yay for being with family for 2 straight weeks! It was COLD outside (hence the frozen face on SDR after his morning run), but luckily my mom has a great house for entertaining kids, and a plethora of cousins.
Zoning out to christmas movies one night. Sylvie and Ryder together again.


Games, games, and more games! I love that Stori is really getting into card games, and is actually quite good at them too. Also glad she has cousins to play them with, because I get burned out doing them all day haha.


The nativity this year was quite hilarious... I need to get the video from meg! haha. This is a pretty good picture though---makes it look like it went off without a flaw!

A christmas story lesson from aunt Meg


Christmas eve jammies. We always do a scavenger hunt with clues that lead to their new jammers, and this year was so fun to have Stori be able to read all the clues. She is getting so big!
We also attempted the pyramid because there weren't that many grandkids there this year... attempt was the key word haha. Im holding Sylvie up in the back just as the pyramid came crumbling down.

Our traditional Christmas Eve walk (and freeze) in the snow!

Each year we make name cards so that santa knows where to put the presents. This is Stori's that she made 100% on her own. She asked me later why she wrote the word raptor on her picture, because she actually wanted a raccoon haha. your guess is as good as mine sister.

CHRISTMAS MORNING!! oh it was so much fun! the girls are at the perfect age to get so excited at such small things. Our rule is that they get to ask Santa for 3 gifts (to represent the 3 gifts given to Jesus by the Wisemen), but our girls could only think of one thing they wanted. Stori wanted Rocco the Raccoon beanie boo, and sylvie wanted a tent. 

^rocco and the tent.

we also have the tradition of opening presents from family in the evening. Started that because my Dad used to work Christmas Day and we would wait for him, but now it's just fun because it makes it last longer. Plus it allows us to play with the stuff from Santa all day. Both girls got pretty good at the hover-board that Maizy got.

the girls also got: mermaid tails, puzzles, toy bird and cage, and some art stuff.

Okay, here is where I tell the bad news.

After Santa presents, we went to church, then back home for a big breakfast. Well it had snowed probably 14 inches in 2 days, so the roads in Lewisville were practically a field; no snow plows, and not a car to be seen. well... there was at least one car, and dan managed to find it! He had taken Megan and Joels snowmobile out for a quick trip before the plows came, and when he got to the road right by my moms house, he collided with an SUV. He went flying over the hood, landed on the windshield, and then slid off. The woman in the passenger side (where dan hit) was freaking out, probably assuming that Dan was dead. (understandable, because he very well could have been). The snowmobile was completely totaled. It was so lucky that dan wasn't injured. The sides where his legs "should" have been, was completely destroyed, yet he was untouched. He should have shattered his legs in 100 pieces, but for some reason, he didn't even get a bruise. He said it took him 20 minutes to get the courage to walk in and tell Joel that he ruined his snowmobile. He also spent most of the day crying from stress---wondering how we could afford $2,000 to fix their snowmobile. Megan and Joel were absolute angels about the whole thing, and totally understanding. And another miracle came through that night, when 'by chance' we were able to find almost the exact same snowmobile within driving distance, that had a blown engine, but a perfect shell. which was opposite of joels; broken shell, but perfect engine. So dan and Joel drove to Montana the next day and bought that snowmobile.... SO LUCKY!!

Also that night, my mom's septic tank flooded her basement, Sylvie started throwing up, and how about we just add: strep throat for all 4 radfords, Stori, then me, and then Dan also getting the throw ups, my moms garbage disposal breaking, a broken fireplace, and a windstorm that crushed my mom's siding. phew. that sounds exhausting. 

(the next day Sylvie casually walked down the stairs talking to herself saying, "I ruined Christmas. I ruined Christmas and I ruined the potty." Poor little girl must have overheard Dan and I talking about how crappy the day was. After that we tried to emphasize all the good stuff going on instead).

In an attempt to cheer up depressed little Daniel, we decided to take a trip to Jackson for him to take as many pictures as he wanted, of as many things as he wanted. I only lost my cool twice... really, another picture of a deer? oh what, like we've never seen a hawke like that before? 

I secretly saw a lot more animals than he knows about so that we didn't have to keep stopping haha. He did get some good ones though.

I love taking pictures of him taking pictures.

dans parents moved to Rigby, so we got to see them over the holidays too. I loved this picture of Dan totally unamused of his 5 year old sitting on his shoulders while in mid conversation with his family.

one of the boys made a tripod out of napkins and oreos, so this was the only picture of our high school/college friend reunion party. It is so not flattering of anyone, but the night was a blast!

See, not all of christmas was a bust, but next year we are hoping for a boring uneventful holiday!