SO mad at myself for taking a "before" picture of this disastrous closet! It hooks around to the right too and all my holiday decor plus gift wrap, weights, wreaths, folding chairs, etc are crammed in here. I pulled it allll out and Travis put in two shelving units so everything is organized and easy to reach now! No more shuffling bins to get to the bottom one. Hooray! This took me two days and it felt so good to finish.
There is not much I love more than a DQ Blizzard in bed with this guy watching a comedy. Right now, we're rewatching The Office and it's been really fun! Sometimes weeks go by without a spare evening to watch together, but it's always nice when we can!
My parents are always insistent we don't buy them Christmas gifts so this year we listened and instead bought tickets for everyone to go the McCormick Train Park Christmas Light Night. We all got our own take out and met at the park to eat and let the kids play until our assigned time. It was FREEZING. I don't think any of us anticipated it being quite that cold. Other than that, it was a pretty cool light display we got to see on the train ride!
Katie and Jefferson officially asked Olive and Lindi to be their flower girls at their wedding and brought these darling bracelets with their names on charms for them. Olive lost her mind, she was SO excited!
When we were allowed into the actual train area (Covid restrictions) it looked like the carousal wasn't open. The kids were super disappointed. So Travis improvised and threw Tanner on his shoulders and ran him around the carousal, acting like he was a horse, to Tanner's delight! I just love my husband. If you've ever seen "This is Us", it reminds me of something Jack would do. Well, Della looked on, enviously, so, still winded, Travis scooped her up too and was off running again. Their giggles were the best.
Then, just after he had finished and caught his breath, the carousal opened! Haha!
They had a little shop with hot chocolate and ice cream.
You'd think we'd all have gotten the hot chocolate.
Nope.
We'll freeze to death on our bed of ice cream scoops!
Collin received the Aaronic Priesthood on January 3! We wasted no time, haha! Grateful for grandpas who could be in the circle and grandmas' love and support. Collin was so excited and I loved seeing his pureness and enthusiasm for this step in his life. He's passing the sacrament like he was born with a tray in his hand. ;)
January, schmanuary. Why not play in the water table?!
Taking the car in to get fixed and I missed my turn. But I didn't miss seeing this old friend! It's starting to look put together again!
Mama D's pink sauce recipe. Very onion-y, but I liked it! Female Foodie's blog has been full of fun ideas!
January always calls for cardamom bread! This time my yeast didn't develop and it was really heavy and doughy, which, given I only make this once a year, was quite the disappointment. Looks pretty though!
I always want to remember this! Our kids are well matched for the times they live in!
Some Prenda pics! They always start the day with a gathering game. Code Names is a favorite.
This semester I have them every week. Either on Thursday or Friday. If it's a Friday, I try to do a fun activity with them. Baking is always a favorite! Fruit pizzas!
Grandma is trying to help with Weston's rashes by doing foot reflexology. So nice of her. I want a foot rub while I watch TV for an hour!
For their Christmas present, we took Wayne and Paula on a date! First, to paint at the Art House, then to OHSO for dinner. It was really fun. I guess Paula is very perfectionistic so the painting stretched her!
Collin started a new winter session of flag football with the same team. He had some extra fans on the field for this game! The very next game he made an awesome catch in the end zone during overtime that won his team the game! It was so exciting to watch! The play wasn't supposed to go to him, but he was open and caught it! I'm definitely the embarrassing mom who jumps up and screams her head off. When he made his way over to us, super nonchalant, like nothing cool happened at all, I started excitedly greeting him and he cut me off with a dry, dismissive, "Don't cry, mom."
Little Mister was Grandchild of the Month and he got his favorite treat... Beef Jerky! Second place would be raw onions. Seriously.
Meet rat dog. She hates her baths. The boys get as wet as she does.
But ohhh so soft and fluffy afterward!!
My mom told us about this yummy, authentic Hawaiian shaved ice truck that was going to be in our neighborhood, so we had to give it a try! Really was as soft as clouds.
I did not have the mental energy to put another kid in one more activity, but Camilla begged for a friend for Posey on her volleyball team and even picked Olive up for practices so we did it. She LOVED it. She actually had Travis's cousin's daughter on her team and did practices at her house. Her coach, Brad Farr, was super nice. They had games at the church next to Longfellow Elementary School on Broadway and Gilbert which made it really convenient for Grandma to come cheer her on! She even got the ball over the net on her serves most of the time!
I am sacrificing all sorts of poundage on my hips in the name of chocolate chip cookies lately. These ones with fresh lemon zest and pecans absolutely did me in. Henbit Monster cookies. They are my love child. I made a double batch and thought I'd give plates out to friends and ministering sisters but no. I tasted one and immediately knew they'd be going into the freezer for my daily consumption. No regrets.
More reflexology! Tanner insisted on a turn and he was a bowl full of the cutest giggles the entire time.
Collin gave his first talk in church on "Becoming like Him". His dad helped him write it and he did a great job. So cute seeing them together on the stand.
My siblings and I have our own Instagram group where we send funny memes and videos back and forth. This was one of my favorite ones. David and Christopher's own take on this had me rolling!
When Sailor and Olive realized they had the same shirt from Target they planned a day they'd both wear it and have braids in their hair! Reminded me of when Shelley and I did this with Kristen in elementary school with these ruffled dresses that were pretty ridiculous, haha!
Speaking of Kristen.... Olive is going into her last semester of Let's Play Music, Orange Roots! And Kristen had fresh, garden carrots for the kids to take home on the first day. I die!
Off to Gallup for our annual, winter visit!!
We missed last year, but it wasn't going to happen again. We did our usual, leave Friday afternoon, get into town around 6pm, bring Mexican food for dinner and bags and bags of citrus. It's always such a sweet reunion! The kids spill out the front door when we drive up and there are hugs and laughter and smiles all around! It's just like the book "The Relatives Came". It was the perfect weekend to go because there was a cold spell over the region (check out the snow on the mountaintops in AZ!) and Gallup got lots of snow too! I think it might have been Tanner's first experience with snow, so it was really cute watching him pick up handfuls and be so excited about it.
Late night of talking then Megan and I dragged ourselves out of bed to meet Brinn at a High Fitness class in the morning. It was SO FUN! It always depends on the teacher and music they pick and this girl did a great job! When we got home Megan laid out a gourmet breakfast. Ebelskivers! First time for us and they were so yummy. The kids pitched in and helped and little Miss Navee did her part by overseeing and being THE CUTEST.
After cleaning up, the kids raced out the door to play in the snow while the guys went a hot tubbin'. If you know Bron you know three things. He LOVES the gospel, Little Caesars pizza and hot tubbing.
And this is the aftermath of 9 kids playing the snow. Good grief.
After lunch we packed up and drove to the Jones' cabin in McGaffey for an afternoon of sledding. There were 5 families in total: us, the Shaheens, Kings, Jones and James. When we first started there was a lot of pandemonium and chaos trying to get the kids all outfitted. The crying was nonstop, but I eventually calmed down. ;)
Man, it was COLD. A great reminder that we live in the right place, haha. The kids were in 7th heaven though and the moms all made sure to bring enough brownies and hot chocolate to make any freezing temps worth it. I loved getting to visit with everyone. We only lived here two years and yet the relationships went deep!
Lookie what I found in my snow pants pocket?! My ticket to the Empire State Building when I was pregnant with Collin!!! Who knew pants could be a time capsule.
When we got home and showered and the kids situated with pizza and a sitter, us adults piled in Michael's massive truck for a date night! Ok, this pictures just kills me with Navee prancing on top of the island! It about makes my heart stop, but she's so nimble and never falls off!
Gallup is still under major Covid restrictions with no restaurant seating indoors, so we grabbed ice cream from Safeway and take out from Fratellis and ate at the Kings house. I love these people so much! I swear, good friends are how God shows his love and we are loved BIG.
We went to church in the morning, then packed up for home. Not before Megan made us the most incredible salads for lunch though! She needs to open a restaurant. I don't know what we did to deserve the Shaheens, but we count them as one of our biggest blessings!
