The BrehiThomas Family Blog: December 2020

Christmas is such a magical time, especially with young kiddos. This is a long one with lots of pictures!

-Tasha and I taking all of the kids to the Lights Alive show; they LOVED it. It was very well done!

-Maverick running to my room, in tears, because couldn't find shelf (our Elf)

-Watching the Grinch: Maverick "did we used to live there??" (Referring to Whoville because of the snow). No, Maverick, Idaho is not Whoville. ;)

-Watching Lincoln light up when I brought home a Santa hat for him to wear when decorating/dance with while listening to Christmas music.

-Party with the Lorenc family! We were invited to watch the Christmas devotional with one of our ward families. They boys had so much fun eating sugar cookies, coloring, playing with the big boys, and of course, listening to the devotional ;) I made a nothing-bunt cake copycat that turned out pretty good!

-Remembering Maverick setting boobie traps for the Grinch last year...after watching Home Alone. We remembered this mid-way through the movie and hoped it wouldn't be a repeat.

-(I can't remember the context, but Lehi said randomly one night, "So this is how it feels to be a piece of popcorn in the microwave."

-Maverick's kinder winter performance;they got to wear PJs to school (naturally, he selected his Holiday Star Wars). Mav made his t-shirt in class and sang a few songs as a kindergarten in the lunch room.

-Tasha and I waking up at 3:00 am to go to Bath & Body's candle sale that started at 4:00 am. We then looked at the line of people, freezing their buns off, waiting their turn to be emitted to the smelly abyss. So we sat in our warm car and ordered our candles online, while parked outside the building.

-One of my friends was a sub in Maverick's primary class. She told me later that she was asking him how to spell his name and he responded. "Sound it out...." He is clearly in kinder.

-Maverick spinning a book in his hand (waiting for his book turn at bedtime) and accidentally dropping it on Brielle, who was laying below him. (In retrospect, I probably should have been more aware of what would potentially happen, but I didn't see it until I saw the book mid-air out of the corner of my eye. It hit Brielle in the head, she responded naturally--with a shrieking cry of pain. It took me awhile to calm her down, and Mav felt terrible.When it was his turn to say prayer he said, "Thank you that Brielle didn't get hurt when I accidentally hurt her." The kid really does have a tender heart.

-Maverick (I swear we have Lincoln and pay attention to him! 🤣) After sneaking into our bed one morning asking Lehi, "Why don't you like people sleeping in your bed? Because you like peace?"

-When picking his book for bed, Lincoln selecting one that Maverick wanted to read instead of the one that he really wanted. He adores his older brother.

-Pictures with Santa at Bass Pro Shop (Maverick was doing his homework on the drive there). I brought their Santa hats in case they wanted to wear them...they did). Both were excited to see Santa, Maverick had a long conversation about how sometimes Lincoln makes bad choices. It was too funny. They boys were in heaven in that store, so we did some games & explored afterwards. (Brielle was with us, but being RSV season, she hung out in her carseat with a cover).

-Maverick saving up his treasure box points in kinder so he could have lunch with his teacher, Miss Medina. He said he was the first one in his class to do it and he had his friend, Huck, join them.

-Mav came home one day with a ticket from fields that you earn for good behavior. You put your name on and for a prize drawing. Well, sweet Mav brought his home and asked me to make copies so he could put his name in a bunch! Little stinker.

-Christmas lights FHE. Since Maverick is so in love with Christmas, we let him put lights in his room during the holiday season. We took advantage of the small teaching moment and emphasize why we use Christmas lights--to help remind us that Jesus is the light of the world!

-Our ward activity focused on symbols of Christmas--it was awesome! Lots of rooms with different activities happening. You had to complete the activity to earn an ornament that helped solve riddles. It was super well planned and way fun!

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For Christmas we traveled to Arizona to join all the McDonald family. Brielle was a stinking champ on the 14 hour drive, only crying when she was ready to eat. The boys were pretty good too, a little restless, but that is to be expected.

It was pure chaos with 12 adults and 20 children (14 being under 8 years old). Luckily, we were able to sleep in a few different houses, so it was relatively quiet at night.

Tasha's family was delayed in driving up when Parker got sick with the flu & croup, Brooklynn with a fever and croup, Tayson with croup and....Mak had a double ear infection. Basically they were a walking cesspool. And my kids had been playing with them the day before Parker's symptoms showed up. With being home 2 days longer than the planned, they were debating if they should just stay home, but we all voted that they should join us. They kept their kids in a designated quarantine room until they were 24 hours fever free and then they would play with everyone else.Addie was DYING to see Brooklynn and played in the doorway with her when she arrived, passing notes and coloring on opposite sides. It was pretty stinking cute.

The day after she called to tell us Parker was sick (about 2 days before they got there) Maverick started running a pretty high temperature. So off to the quarantine room he went. The poor kid ended up being stuck in that room for most of our trip. You could tell he was sick just by looking at him. His fever was relentless. Lehi was a super Dad and spent a LOT of time with him; I tried to avoid Maverick as much as I could because I was taking care of Brielle and didn't want her to get sick, especially only being 6 week old. So we divided our parenting, me taking Linc and Brielle and Lehi being a best pal for Maverick. Christmas morning, Maverick was still sick. Since Santa delivered each families' gifts in different parts of the house, we decided Maverick could come out to see what Santa brought. He was so reluctant to leave him room--he told Lehi just to bring his presents to him. It was so sad! We eventually convinced him to go downstairs and see. Lincoln was super excited but our Mav-o was just miserable. Towards the end of our trip, he was able to leave the room and play with cousins, but he was so used to being alone, he was super hesitant because he "didn't want to make his cousins sick." Miraculously, no one else got sick.

We played lots of Nertz, drove to the Giving Machine to make donations, played in the church gym & did a white elephant exchange, played quiplash, celebrated Tayson's birthday, went to an amazing park, and had Wayne's salsa for the first time. Y'all might think that last item is not a necessary documentation, but it is because it's flipping amazing.
Also.
-I got made fun of with my pronunciation of saran wrap (I say Sa-ran-uh).
-I mixed up photogenic with the word photographic...a few times. I even had a few others thinking it was photogenic, too.
-Ronnie slapped my precious Marizpan Sees candy out of my hand, mid-bite. Don't worry, I chased it down.
-Natalie jumping up in dismay during a Nurtz game, flinging her arm into Kristina's chandelier; everyone froze (kinda waiting for Kristina's reaction)...Kaylee got out of her seat, slowly walked to the end of the table, where she slyly placed her card on the pile; we all awkwardly laughed, a few more people slowly played their cards, and then it was full speed, hands flying, card flinging -Nertz...around shattered glass.
-Kristina spent hours making rolls....and it was worth it. They were amazing!
-Kaylee was deemed the baby whisperer, since the twins warmed right up to her.
-Brielle was loved on and snuggled 24/7
-Kristina "let it slip" on Tasha's leg
-Dad orchestrated an elaborate scheme for the white elephant gift exchange, which failed on the first round. (details on the picture below)
-Kristina insisted on a jam taste-off--all of us knew which one was mom's recipe because the sugary sweetness is unmistakable. **Let it be know, Kristina's was really good, too! It just depends on what type of taste you want--strawberries or super sweet jam.
-One of the smoke alarms started chirping, so Dustin and a few kids tried to locate it...after about 2 hours of chirping, it was found...in a box, that was in a box. Ronnie said it was the best/most mean prank. How it was put in the box, inside another box, is still a mystery.

Pictures are worth 1,000 words, so here is a small novel. ;)

Cousin crew (minus twins)

This white elephant gem

Yes, that is THE salsa

Kid is quarantine, Day 1

Our elf & Tash's elf came! Zipline with candy canes

Mav heading back up for isolation

The carrots Lehi & Andrew helped the kids put out got nibbled on!

Nertzing

At the amazing park!

The jam test

They are all asleep in the back

The night before Christmas <3

My cow bone (aka white elephant); when I was little, I went on a boy scout dig and found a "dinosaur bone" aka a cow's hip bone. I thought it was the coolest thing in the world, so I kept in it my bed...under my pillow. Mom found it one day and was totally grossed out (naturally). So it went to the dump...or so we thoughts. 20 years later, when pulling out a plant in the front flowerbed, the hip bone was re-discovered!!