Hallelujah, after this I will be caught up until Christmas! It is so much fun for me to go through all of this stuff that happened 2 months ago and remember all of the fun things we did.
First of all, we decorated our house and put up our tree the weekend of Thanksgiving. Always fun, always crazy, and always a fight about who gets to put the star on top of the tree. Magnus usually wins. Perks of being the baby. Good times.
We started out our month going to a Jazz game. Some of our kids had been to one before, but we had never gone as a family. Thanks to an amazing organization called Hope Kids, we were able to all go together. They are an organization that helps provide families of kids with cancer various activities and different experiences to try. They offer so many different things and we have enjoyed being a part of the Hope Kids family so much. We are very grateful for organizations like them that help our family reconnect and do fun things together and make great memories.
We were in the very back row at the top of the stadium. It was SO high up! We had a great time.
Another Hope Kids activity we went to was a night with Santa Claus. He read the kids books and they were able to sit on his lap and get a little gift from him.
Baron and Magnus both sat on his lap, but the other kids were too embarrassed. They felt like a letter to him would do the job well enough.
Just a visit to Primary Children's. They had an amazing display of themed Christmas trees all over the hospital. This huge Despicable Me tree was M's favorite.
Fun afternoon swimming with Liam. This was the first time we went since M had gotten his PICC line out back in November after he finished treatments. Happy day!
Decorating gingerbread houses at Grandma and Papa's house
Cute Laylah in her Chinese Dragon costume for the Nutcracker performance. I was so proud of her. She had 2 practices a week for 3 months in addition to her 2 days a week of regular dance. She loved being a part of Mountain West Ballet's Nutcracker and it was so much fun to see her on stage in such a professional production.
This is her channeling her other part as a King's mouse
And this is her actually in her costume along with the other Kings' Mice. So fun.
In Mid-December we had M's MRI to make sure his treatment had worked and that he was indeed, cancer free. We went bright and early to Primary Children's for his sedation, scan, and audiology check.
Getting an IV is never fun. There are times that I actually do miss that dreaded PICC line.
All sedated and ready to be scanned.
His scan went well and afterwards they kept him sedated for his audiology test. Radiation can cause hearing loss, so we have to have his hearing checked once a year to make sure it's stable and everything is working properly in that cute little head of his.
After he woke up we headed up to the cancer clinic to have his last evaluation done! While we were up there, they called up with his MRI results. CLEAN!! A clean scan. I could not have been more happy and I cried all the way home. So, for now, and hopefully forever, this is the end of M's cancer journey. We could not be more grateful, happy, or relieved.
We attended our ward Christmas party. It was a Country Christmas Hoe-down and lots of fun. There was a chili cook-off, cornbread, cinnamon rolls, and lots of country dancing. Unfortunately, Laylah had a performance that night so she isn't in our cute family photo.
Cutest little lady with a mustache I ever did see!
This is an attempt at a big Humphreys family photo at my grandma's traditional Christmas party. I adore my mom's side of the family and we always have a good time together. There's always a program and I remember doing the nativity at this party when I was about 3 years old. Our family has gotten so big, she thinks she may need to move it somewhere other than her house for next year. Good idea...
In December Jonah graduated from the D.A.R.E. program. He was also chosen to read his essay at the graduation. I am a proud mama! That boy has some writing talent.
Prizes for winning the essay contest.
I decided (about 5 days before Christmas) that I better get a wrapping. This was only half of it. It was a little daunting, but luckily, it got done in time for Christmas (doesn't it always?! ;)
Another Hope Kids activity we were so lucky to attend was a performance of Voice Male, an ACapella singing group. They were absolutely incredible and so dang funny! It was an amazing night. I absolutely loved it and so did the (older three) kids ;)
M and Bear fell asleep after intermission and were not too happy when I woke them up for a picture in the lobby of beautiful Abravanel Hall.
(Also... I promise my children don't always look this homeless... it had been a crazy day. We didn't have time to change into nicer clothes and comb our hair before we left ;)
I had a lady names Marcie at my old gym ask to do a fundraiser for Magnus and our family. She has a company called Scatter Sunshine Clothing and she donates a portion of her sales to cancer research or a cancer family. It was so very kind of her. She also gave us some other goodies. She came over to meet Magnus and drop off some gifts. We are so thankful for such kind, caring people that we have come in contact with since M's diagnosis.
I don't think we have ever had so many gingerbread houses as we did this year.
Baron's first grade did the traditional Nutcracker performance that our awesome elementary school does every year. It is the absolute cutest thing ever. He got the part of the Nutcracker Prince! He did such a fabulous job, I could not have been more proud. He was darling up there, reciting his lines all professionally and stuff. I could not believe our normal shy-guy and the confidence he exuded. Like I said, such a proud mama moment :)
Inviting Clara to the Land of The Sweets
Twirling Clara around the dance floor.
Final bows
Baron and his cute cousin Ella (Rachel's daughter) are both in the first grade together. She was a clown and did such a cute dance for her part.
The Nutcracker Prince and Clara
Christmas prep! Teacher gifts...
Home teaching family and visiting teaching family gifts...
Making friend gifts... ( we always make chocolate covered marshmallows and wrap them with hot cocoa packets every year. Easy and cute. Plus, the kids can do them themselves. Win win!)
The Silent Assassin has not shown his face around these parts in awhile since Magnus has been growing up. But he still appears out of the blue occasionally...
Another Joy Jar from the Jessie Rees Foundation! I love this wonderful, happy company.
A few days before Christmas we did our traditional Christmas Family Activity. We went to dinner at Tepenyaki. Our kids had never been and it was SO much fun to see their faces as they watched our chef prepare their food. They absolutely loved it. We also got some sushi rolls for them to try and there was literally not a bite of food left.
We headed downtown to the Gallivan Center to go ice-skating, but it was absolutely packed and there was an hour long wait for skates. We decided to try that another time and just head over to see the Macy's Christmas Candy windows. They were really fun.
From there we headed over to Temple Square to see the lights.
It was perfectly beautiful, as always. We also went into the visitor's center for a bit and watched some videos. I love it in there. Even though it was packed, there is such a calm, peaceful feeling. I adore visiting temple square.
Someone was a little tuckered out by the time we got home and couldn't even make it up the stairs.
But we had to finish off the night with some goodies, so donuts and hot cocoa it is!
I love December so much. We had a good one, that is for sure. With Magnus' awesome cancer news, I'd say it was the best one yet and will be hard to beat.
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