January 2022

FIRST DAY OF THE YEAR

We all slept WAY in!  That was nice!  Then Nate, Erika, Sadie and I took Charity home.  Then it was playing games and Oculus in between watching movies to kind of live up our last day of Winter Break!  It was sad that it's over, but I really feel like we made the most of it!  I really couldn't be more pleased with how it went!  And here we are!  In a new year!  2022 is here :).  I think this is gonna be our year!! 1-1-22

9 O'CLOCK CHURCH!!

We've been looking so forward to 9:00 church and all the benefits that I failed to think about how stressy it can be morning of.  Which actually, it wasn't too bad, we planned ahead and had all the showers and baths done, but it just felt too mad-dash-y.  We need to talk about a better time to wake everyone up- 8:00 was too late.  But we did okay and we were there on time.  The earlier time didn't seem to do a whole lot for Sadie.  She hadn't worked up enough of an appetite for nursery to just take off running this time.  She did let Nate take her though and did end up there by herself and only cried a little :).  I'm proud of her for trying.  She's doing good!  Everyone seemed to be okay with their new teachers across the board.  Brad is the only one who didn't get new ones.  He still has Keeley and Marjie.  Luke has Sis. Carlson and Sis. Kohler.  Noah has Sis. Tenney and Sis. Kellie Pederson.  Erika has the Farneses.  Jack has Bro. Jacox and Bro. Harrison.  Molly got Bro. and Sis. Gines!  So lots of fun all around.  We loved having Nate home a tiny bit after church before having to leave for work.  That was nice.  It was ordain the Deacons day so he was gone for a bit, but we're grateful for any little bit we can get.  I was able to take a Sunday nap which was great!  Everyone seemed pretty happy with all the extra time in the evening.  I'm not sure how long the holiness will last, this is when they get a little bored usually and get a little rowdy.  We'll see though!  I'm hoping for the best!  1-2-22

FIRST DAY BACK TO SCHOOL- VAN WOULDN'T START

I tried to stay very optimistic and not get discouraged that first day back to school, when the van wouldn't start.  It's been a very long time since we had any car trouble, I wanted to be tough :).  I think I did pretty good.  Thankfully, Emily was able to take everyone for me, there wasn't anyone needing to go at strange times.  That was a huge blessing.  I totally owe her for that.  The little girls and I made the most of the time at home.  I did try to clean off the battery leads a little with the little brush I had, but I knew it wasn't really enough.  My dad had agreed that it could be the alternator.  I was willing to wait til Nate got home to jump it and figure things out.  I really felt like it was needing to be cleaned off better.  Thankfully, Nate came home with all the stuff to clean it, didn't work to jump it, then he went to get a new battery, and the battery was fine, so he thought about getting the alternator replaced and then ended up just working on it a little longer and sure enough- it started!!  Such a blessing!  I'm grateful he was guided by The Spirit and did the right things.  We were back up and running in time for basketball practices that night.  1-3-22

SHOPPING

Walmart has been SO BEYOND UNRELIABLE these days.  I finally just went and did my own shopping on Tuesday.   We went to Smith's because I'm ticked at Walmart.  I had Molly and Sadie and we didn't have a huge list, so it went okay!  We spent about $60 more than I had in my Walmart cart, which we don't really have to talk about.  The girls enjoyed helping pick out some of the things we got.  It was funny that this felt so foreign.  Maybe it's something we should get back in to?  I don't know.  It's been at least six years, I think we started the pick-up when Molly was a baby.  We've been doing the delivery for 2 years.  So crazy.  So anyway.  Seemed worthy of a post.  1-4-22

DINNER WITH CLAIRE

Claire and I finally got to go out after rescheduling our one in December.  She picked Sawadee a Thai restaurant in SLC.  The food was great!  I think it was even on plan, and I of course loved talking with Claire.  She has her hands full with her calling and we had a lot to discuss about COVID.  She is of course sitting on the fence about the whole thing.  Defending both sides like she does :).  But I love hearing her take and being able to readjust my thinking a little.  We talked til they kicked us out and then talked in Claire's car some more.  I wish I could see Claire more often.  1-4-22

BRAD AND LUKE'S FIRST GAME

We had our first basketball game of the season.  It turned out really intense!  There was a dumb kid in blue shorts that thought he was playing football and kept tackling Brad.  Must be all his injuries we went through last year, but I find myself totally nervous about him getting injured.  It's more stressful when I see him on the ground than it used to be.  He's been working out a lot, hopefully working on strengthening his ankles like I've suggested, but I am still not sure how much he can do.  Kinda weird.  He played great though!  And LUKE!!  Two three pointers!!  It's so fun to watch them play together!  I hope we get at least one more season with them together next year.  They really make a great team.  The other team's coach came over and asked if 45 was Nate's kid and he said, "Both 45's are my boys" and he was very complimentary of them both!!  Kinda cool.  I was able to calm my nerves down after the game but I could tell the hormones were raging the entire time with Sadie and Molly climbing all over the stairs.  Thankfully, I had Jack there to help.  It was a lot of fun though!  Glad to be back in basketball season!  1-5-22    

ERIKA WITH KATE AT YW

This was Kate's first week at YW.  Erika has looked forward to this for a very long time!  They played some getting to know you games and Erika found out she knows Kate TOO well to get all of her questions right :).  Which is cute.  It was fun to hear about.  I think this will be a welcome change to how things are in YW for Erika.  She did great on her own, I'm really proud of her and her attitude every week, but now comes the reward :).  1-5-22

LAYTON HILLS MALL PLAYGROUND

Thursday, we had invited Emily and Jonah to go to the mall with us since playgroup didn't do it for us on Wednesday, but poor Jonah got sick, so he was out.  We decided to get out anyway.  Nate has his overtime shifts on Thursdays now.  Lame.  It's lame on Fridays too, let's be clear, but totally lame on Thursdays.  So we went up to Layton Hills mall and played for a couple hours on the little playground outside of Seaquest.  That was a really fun activity for us!!  And I don't know what it was that day, but Molly and Sadie both were being such good girls!  Molly was doing things right when I asked, without a fight, they were both so cheerful and fun, singing all the Encanto songs with me on the way, and they followed directions all the way there.  I loved it!!  I had to keep praising them.  It was such a nice change.  I was in the best mood.  We played for quite a while.  I loved watching Molly hide and then jump out to scare Sadie.  She's a good sport and always giggled about it.  They were adorable running around tagging each other.  Sadie loved that she had matching hair with the cute little baby that was there when we got there.  She wanted a video of her hair and her climbing up the "mountain".  She was adorable.  Molly seems a little old there now, but she was careful and got SO MANY STEPS while we were there :). HA!  She's so funny.  She learned how to run and jump onto the lion.  It was a fun time.  I love these girls.  I wish we did more of this stuff- it was motivation to do so.  Then we grabbed some Fiiz and headed home for lunch and school for Molly.  1-6-22

LAST WEEK OF BOYS' CHURCH BALL

Last games this week- the boys haven't been ordained yet, so Noah stuck with the Deacons and they played a really close game against all our friends' kids.  Noah, Van, Jacob and Derek did great!  Three on three!  We won by two points!  Then Brad and Luke had their last game.  We thought it was funny to see McKay out on the court with all those big BIG kids!  He was almost in the way- I was worried he was going to get trampled!  But they killed the other ward.  It was a really fun game.  I think they get to go on to Region now.  We'll see how that goes!  Pretty exciting!  1-6-22

FRIDAY

Unfortunately, Friday was not my best day.  Started feeling a little sick and it was day two of you know what.  So NOT good.  I think my period is taking over my life.  Which is crazy considering it's just one week of the month.  Lots of interesting happenings with it though, my sneeze at Monster Sushi, all of the ibuprofen and still no relief.  On top of that having chills and sore throat from this dumb cold I got as well.  So not cool.  But it was great to be able to go on a date finally, with Nate.  I needed that.  He needed that.  I think we got a little recharge which we both very much needed.  Unfortunate that the first part of the day wasn't much of a recharge.  It's really hard that Nate only gets one day off right now.  So frustrating.  But it was a really nice date!  I loved it!  We saw the new Ghostbusters movie.  I was very happy that they had Bill Murray show up at the end.  Cute movie.  I don't think I'd let the kids see it though.  Which is fine since they haven't seen the first one.  I loved getting out with my honey though.  1-7-22

TEAM BURNS

Erika and her little possie are making shirts for themselves and Mrs. Burns that say, "#1 Teacher [a cute bee] Team Burns".  I love it :).  We ran out of vinyl so we have to finish them today, but super cute of them.  They're so funny.  1-7-22

NOAH'S FIRST GAME

We got to watch Noah and his team play, Saturday.  That was a fun game!  We took a minute to get in a groove, but then just took off!  I was really impressed!  I loved sitting there with Brad and sometimes Erika (she was off with Morgan every few minutes).  Lots of fun to see Noah back at it!  He did so well!  1-8-22

SICK

I still feel pretty sick.  It takes everything in me to get a few chores done and then I've gotta rest.  I don't love the achiness, swollen glands, and fatigue I'm getting from this bug.  I think Sadie has the same thing I do.  Just really dragging.  Everyone else has cycled through something, but it doesn't quite seem the same.  Not sure though.  Omicron is running rampant right now.  Hopefully everyone can just get it and be done with COVID!  Yeah right.  1-8-22

GRANDPA'S HOUSE

We didn't have anything exciting to do Saturday, so we grabbed some pizzas and headed up to Grandpa's house.  Took our germs and everything.  It was a lot of fun talking with Steve and Grandpa, spending that time together is always fun.  Nice and casual.  1-8-22

ORDINATIONS

This was a big day!  I'm still mad I didn't get a picture before they all got dressed, but Luke was ordained a Priest!  And then turned around and stood in the circle along with Brad who was standing in the circle to ordain him to help ordain Noah as a Teacher!!  Such a powerful experience.  I was glad the littles were all very reverent for this and that we were able to feel the Spirit.  I love seeing my boys make these decisions and knowing that they are worthy and willing to honor that Priesthood!  I can't wait to hear Luke bless the Sacrament and Noah is really anxious to go early and help prepare!  Pretty awesome!  Unfortunately, nobody is left in Deacons with Nate.  That is a bummer, but it's all good.  I think Brad will enjoy having Luke at his activities.  Fun changes.  1-9-22

SADIE'S KNEE

So Sadie fell off of Molly's bed (the middle bunk) and somehow hurt her knee on Sunday.  Jack carried her downstairs and she cried for a very long time.  I couldn't get her to stand on it or do anything for quite a while.  We babied her for most of the evening and slowly she was able to walk and then run, but she was not able to climb up on the stool, or walk up the stairs, so I was still a little worried.  It was weird.  One of those times where I keep talking myself in and out of taking her to the doc the entire time.  My plan was to call the doc and take her in Monday morning, but as the morning went on, getting kids out the door, she was doing more and more with it.  Even hopping, so I started to wonder.  I called the doctor and they said to just help her do the things she can't do and watch it for a while.  So that is what we have done.  She's been pretty good most of the week.  It wasn't until Saturday night that she started complaining about it hurting again.  Not sure what that is all about.  Hopefully it's okay!  I hate to think about it being damaged somehow.  1-9-22

ANNIE AND LUNCH

Annie Cole and I FINALLY made it to lunch this week!  They've only been back for like four or five months!  sheesh!  But we met up at Zupas in Woods Cross and had such a great time talking!  There was a lot of catching up to do!  I was surprised with how much I hadn't talked to her about.  She had a lot of stuff going on as well.  Including Austin being in the hospital.  It was so nice to be able to hang out again.  We need to do that more often.  If it weren't for life and needing to pick up kids, I think we could have gone on for three more hours!  Thanks to my mom for babysitting and Evi's mom for taking Molly for me!  1-10-22

NOAH'S BIRTHDAY

I think Noah was really looking forward to his birthday this year!  It was cute.  Maybe he just wanted his iphone really bad :).  Erika, Molly and I stayed up late making his sign.  We had a lot of fun with this one, trying to incorporate all of Noah's hobbies and interests.  Lots of fun.  We had crepes for breakfast.  We all drew pictures of our favorite memories with Noah.  It was really nice to hear all the things everyone said about him.  He is well loved!  He went to school just like normal, even ran a mile after school for track conditioning and thought he got 5:46 which was pretty exciting, but then the next day he found out it was actually 6:27, which is still good, but not as exciting to Noah.  But he did ride on that excitement most of the afternoon it seemed.  I was able to get his Panda Express food for lunch and delivered that during the day- that was a fun little thing.  I really love birthdays and making them special.  I just hope my kisd don't feel let down later in life when things aren't like that on their birthdays.  I rained on his plans to go to an escape room as a family because of the little guys, but we did end up going as a family to Texas Roadhouse.  Grandpa and Grandma Hatch joined us as well (everyone is sick right now, we felt nervous inviting too many people).  He seemed happy with being sung to on the saddle, swinging his legs the whole time.  Then we came home for some Sketch cake and drumsticks.  Noah drew the picture on his white cake- I loved how it turned out!!  I always want to remember what an artist he is and how much I love his drawings during study time.  He really is good at it.  We had a great time spoiling him with his filament, news about getting his iphone, grandpa gave him a cool model jet to build, and grandma gave him some money.  It was a fun day!  I think Noah had some fun too :).  1-11-22

JACK ACTIVITY DAYS- NEW LEADERS

Jack moved up in Activity days and now has Sis. Johnson and Sis. Perry!  This was very exciting!  His first activity they played some get to know you games and then talked about some of their goals and what they want to do for their activities.  Pretty awesome!  He was VERY excited about this change.  I am glad he gets time with Mrs. Johnson again :).  She's so awesome.  1-11-22

BASKETBALL

Brad and Luke's team did so well on Wednesday!!  I couldn't believe how many points they were pumping out- both of them!  The steals, the fast breaks, the three pointers and lay-ups!!  It was awesome!  We killed the other team!  It was so incredible!!  I loved it!!  1-12-22

CHILDREN AND YOUTH KICKOFF MEETING

This was an awesome meeting that personified Youth Lead.  I LOVE that!!  Kara did most of it, conducted, did great!  I was happy to get to hear from Luke when he talked about physical goals.  Then we got to hear from Brad as he introduced the new deacons.  They both did awesome!  I was really proud of them.  I love the new song.  I wonder if we could use it for Girls Camp.  Also, Trust in the Lord as the theme!!  WOW!  I just love that one!  1-12-22

THURSDAY

I kept most of the kids home this day.  Everyone has been in and out of sick and it's just been necessary.  But even Jack who wasn't too terribly sick wasn't feeling 100%, so I just kept them all home.  Except Molly.  She went and had a great time.  It was nice to have them all home and spend that time together, but I hope they all get feeling better with the rest.  1-13-22

YW BASKETBALL CLINIC

This was pretty uneventful.  I had been so busy with sick kids all week I wasn't very good at getting the word out. Plus nobody likes the clinic.  But we did have three girls there.  Hopefully we can get more to the games!  Erika really liked all the reminders with all the skills.  1-13-22

CHARITY'S CAR

Nate packed up Sadie and took off as soon as the kids were to school so that he could get up to Logan and help Charity pick out a car!  This was big!  Kind of uncharted territory.  But we were very happy for her to find something she likes and was able to get it with Nate there.  Pretty exciting!  I hope this means we see her more often :).  I can't wait to go for a ride!  1-14-22

DATE NIGHT

We went to HuHot for dinner and then to see the movie American Underdog.  I really loved the food, but it was brewing up a storm during the movie.  I wondered if the weird guy next to me could hear it the entire time- HA!  Nate said he felt similarly.  Kinda funny.  The movie was great!  It felt like it took a little while to take off- but then, that's kind of the feel they want you to have- and then just really wowed us at the end.  Pretty cool.  And I had no idea it was a true story until the end when they started slipping in actual footage.  Pretty fun!!  I didn't know about Kurt Warner.  Cool underdog story.  I loved the time with Nate.  I think we are both coming to the end of our flus, so we were a little lacking in excitement, but it's all good.  1-14-22

MENCHIES

We had a pretty lazy Saturday and I kept trying to motivate myself to go do something, but I just wasn't feeling it.  Erika kept suggesting Menchies and I wasn't really in the mood to take our grumpy little Sadie anywhere, so I asked Brad to take Erika :).  Noah got in on this as well and they sounded like they had a good time.  Even though they did take a huge detour to Station Park ("I swear there's a place with like a cherry or something").  Fun kids.  I am grateful for Brad and that he will step up for these things. Even when he had plans with Brandon.  1-15-22

THREE MORE DOWN

I casually weighed myself this morning, thinking it might not have gone down since the last time I weighed was only two days before, but I was surprised to see that I have lost three more pounds!  I am six pounds away from my goal weight!!  I should be able to get those last six off pretty quick if I stay focused!  1-16-22

KELLY

Kelly showed up at church during the last fifteen minutes or so, stood out in the hall talking with Nate.   Then we got to have her home with us all day Sunday.  Kinda nice!  It was a lot of fun playing Code Names with her- we loved that.  1-16-22

MLKJD

For our day off, we decided to go up to Logan to spend the day with Charity and Kelly!  This was a lot of fun.  I was glad we made the time to go up there.  First, we picked up the girls.  We got to see Charity's new car that she had bought with Nate on Saturday and then we caravanned down to Angie's.  Charity's choice for lunch.  This was a pretty good restaurant.  Everyone's food looked so yummy!  I wish I'd had a little more self-control when it came to finishing off Jack's fries, but they were so good!  My Cobb Salad did not hit the spot.  But we had a lot of fun conversation and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves.  I was glad about that.  It felt a little chaotic, but Charity's chaos meter wasn't even going off, so I was able to scrounge up some more patience :).  After lunch we met up at the bowling alley!  This was a fun and interesting part.  We had to sit and wait for about 15 minutes for a lane, and then as soon as we got our lane we all noticed a really gross smell.  I won't say who it was, but someone had had a diarrhea accident in (well, all over) their pants.  It was a really gross smell and nobody was willing to wait it out, so I took off with Sadie and went to Old Navy to get some pants, underwear and a new shirt.  When I got back, he changed into the clean clothes in the car (since the bathroom was now out of order- gee I wonder why?) and all was well.  It was quite the adventure.  I was able to still play quite a few frames of bowling and we all had fun playing together.  I think Kelly won on their lane and Sadie won on ours.  Kinda funny.  So fun though.  After bowling we took Kelly home so she could go hang out with Dallin and then went over to the Toy Store!  This is always a blast.  I love that place.  Seemed to be missing a lot of our favorite things though.  But good times.  It was time to head home after that.  I had fun talking with Bradley on the drive there and back.  Always some good conversation.  I loved that we all got to spend the day together.  If only Nate had been there.  After that we had a movie night.  Got ready for our second day off!  1-17-22

SECOND DAY OFF

This was a much more relaxed day.  Kinda boring in fact.  But a nice day.  This was the day we got the news that we were going to be doing online school for all the Junior High and High schoolers for the rest of the week since the spike in COVID cases.  I wasn't looking forward to that, just because I'm sick of changing things and canceling things.  But whatever.  Poor Jack was feeling pretty sick most of the day, had a really bad stomach ache.  I tried to get him to get up and do things, because I wasn't sure if he was hurting because he was sitting around or what.  But then that night he was really sick.  Got up and threw up around 2:00.  I was both glad and frustrated that I had just finished my movie because I was awake to help Jack, but with his chills and waking up a lot through the night, I didn't get much sleep.  The poor little guy was so hot!  It's been a while since I felt such a hot forehead!  And yet he was shaking and shivering like crazy!  He had several blankets on including my Minky Couture one... so that tells you how bad his chills were.  1-18-22

ONLINE SCHOOL

We actually ended up having a lot of fun during our three online school days.  I loved having the three boys home even while they were in class, it was just fun to have them there.  I loved playing the Oculus with them, we did a couple puzzles, and I worked on my blog book a lot.  So I actually really loved the time.  They all have to hang around in between classes, which ends up being pretty long since they don't use the whole class period.  And that was fun to be able to talk with them a little.  Noah got to have lunch day with us on Wednesday.  It was kind of hard for Sadie and Molly to be stuck at home all day and we will definitely have to make up for that next week, but it was a good time overall.  1-19-22--1-21-22

BRAD AND LUKE'S GAME

I really loved that I got to go to this game with Noah and Sadie.  They were great company.  Brad and Luke played really well.  We started out with only four players so the other team played down a player til our fifth came, so our team was pretty tired by the end, playing their eight guys.  But they still won!  Still played great!  I was really proud of them.  Kelly showed up during the last seven minutes- that was fun of her.  It was funny that Noah, Kelly and I had expressed that we liked these refs and then that was the big complaint from Nate, Brad and Luke after the game.  They didn't agree :).  Kinda funny.  But lots of fun!  We are loving basketball season this year!  1-19-22

YW BASKETBALL

Our first game was a bust.  I was disappointed with how low our numbers were the whole time I was texting girls that day, but then when we showed up with our three, we were shocked to find out the other team didn't show up at all!  Kind of unfortunate.  But we were able to run some more drills with Sis. Fox and Annika showed up near the end and was able to get some one on one with her and that was good.  Slurpees were a must- and I found out this is actually a good selling point in the future to tell the girls- Annika says she will come every time if we get slurpees!  So wow.  I am hoping next week goes better.  1-20-22

DATE NIGHT
We've decided our date nights are CRUCIAL right now.  It was a very much needed little time out for us.  We were both pretty tired and a little quiet for the most part, but we had a great time.  We went to Red Lobster.  There was a long wait which we did a lot of people watching during.  There was this cute family that we ended up sitting next to once we were seated (or sat?) which was kinda fun to watch.  I couldn't resist telling her that they had a cute family and were doing a great job.  I loved my food there!  Salmon with shrimp on it!  May not have been within plan though- I felt it after.  But so yummy!  1-21-22

JAKE AND GRACE

Jake texted this week asking if he and Grace to stop by and stay for the night!  We felt very honored to have been chosen as people to visit :).  They got here around 9:!5 pm and Nate and the older four had already left for the rec center all night activity, so they missed them, but Me, Charity (I was so glad she was able to jump her car and that it worked for her to come down and help me entertain them!), Jack, Molly and Sadie had a lot of fun talking with them, getting the scoop on their dating and courtship, showing off our mini trampoline skills, playing the Oculus, reviewing Charity's notes on schools, it was great :).  In the morning we had Puffy Pancake and talked, they got to meet some more of the kids.  We were in a little bit of a hurry to get to Erika's basketball game, but I loved talking with them and being able to meet Grace.  She seems really awesome!  We were shocked at their age difference :), but super excited for them to start their life together!  1-21-22--1-22-22

ERIKA'S FIRST GAME AND NOAH'S SECOND

Erika had a great first game!  Scored a bunch, had a bunch of assists!  We only spent a little time being irritated at our refs thinking we needed to man on man.  But we beat them by about 10 points so good game!  Charity was there, so the cheering was top notch!  We loved Noah's game as well and won by just as much.  It was cool to see Noah do his Euro step shot!  And we sort of enjoyed watching Charity argue with the dads on the other team ;).  She's pretty good at defusing the situation though- I was impressed.  Good times!  1-22-22

PING PONG TOURNAMENT

For our Saturday fun we decided on a Ping Pong Tournament!  This ended up being a lot of fun especially with our little British accented announcers.  Brad and Erika are hilarious.  I think Noah was in line to win and then Molly woke up and came down and played him and he played on his knees and basically cheat lost :).  Pretty cute of him.  She felt pretty awesome winning!  Fun stuff.  Then we watched the new Clifford the Big Red Dog movie.  Kinda cute.  1-22-22

BIG SUNDAY!  

After I had a second to think about it I realized this was a pretty big Sunday for us!  It was Luke's first time blessing the sacrament! (Last week was his first time standing at the table, but he said the second prayer this week)  I was really proud of him!  He did so good!  Even Bro. Richardson told him that.  Then, Bradley gave a talk!  His talk was on Spiritual and Temporal Self-Reliance.  He had this topic the last time he gave a talk, which was funny, but he did a great job!  I was so proud of him!  THEN, Erika gave the lesson in her class!  I helped her a little the night before, but she did it all on her own.  I wish I could have been there!  But it sounded like it went pretty well.  She taught about Enoch and his feelings of inadequacy and how we can have help with service.  I'm sure she did awesome!  As a sidenote- I was able to leave the Nursery (they needed me to stay in there for a few minutes while Melissa and Audrey went to watch their boys get set apart, so I was in there longer than I planned) and she did pretty good again!  I think we're going on four or five Sundays of her doing it herself!  I'm pretty proud of her.  She told me last week she was "so brave!".  Love it!  1-23-22

PRODUCTIVE MONDAY!

I got so much done today!  I had this crazy motivation to get a bunch of things organized and cleaned up.  The desk cupboard, the miscellaneous cupboard at the end of the kitchen cupboards, my bedroom drawers, drawers in the kitchen, I even framed my puzzles and put them up in the game room.  It was a very full, but awesome day!  

ERIKA'S BRACES ON HER BACK TEETH

This was a pretty big change for Erika's mouth.  Lots of pain, hard to eat, pokey things and sore gums.  It was rough.  We tried to help with yogurt and applesauce, but just a rough week-ish for her.  Poor girl!  1-24-22

TEACHER DINNER

I did Chick-fil-a for dinner this time!  I'm not sure why they love it so much but they do :).

1-26-22

PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES

We had Erika's and Jack's on Wednesday and Molly's on Thursday.  We loved these!  As always!  It was so fun to chat with Mrs. Burns.  She's hilarious and we love how much she loves Erika and gets her.  They just get each other, it's awesome.  She had only great things to say about Erika and her progress, she is doing great at everything- of course.  I loved her advice to Erika to learn some organization and time management skills.  That will be very helpful when she goes to Jr. High next year!  Which I can't believe we are already here!  Jack's went well also.  Mrs. Hewett is amazing!  You can tell he really enjoys her class.  He is doing great!  Right at benchmark on everything, doing well!  I love that she mentioned he is respectful!  Such a good boy!  We love our teachers this year, it's been great so far!  We got to pick out some books from the book fair even though we were slightly disappointed that it was Scholastic. 1-26-22

BRAD AND LUKE'S GAME

They had a really fun/intense game this week.  We took all the littles- we all loved it and were sad when it was over- HA!  Just kidding!  I LOVED IT THOUGH!!  It was awesome!  Great playing by Brad and Luke as always and we won by a lot after being behind a few times in the game so pretty awesome!  1-26-22

MOLLY'S CONFERENCE

Molly was much more excited for her conference this time.  Now that she knows what it is :).  She seemed a little less shy.  A little.  Mrs. Piper was so fun- just very enthusiastic about Molly's love for learning and her progress in so many areas and just how good she is at school!  It was a lot of fun to hear all that she is doing.  She does love school.  She loves to read and loves her numbers so we weren't surprised, but very fun to hear Mrs. Piper raving about it :).  Good job Molly!  She got a book too :).  1-27-22

YW BASKETBALL

This was our first real game- last week nobody showed up.  I thought it went pretty well.  I was a little bummed by how much we lost by, and I just hope the girls had fun, but I think we will do better in weeks to come.  And really if they're having fun that's all I care about.  Slurpees all around ;).  1-27-22

NEW BEDROOM

Nate and I got the organizing bug this week, partly from my Life Book! and we rearranged our bedroom!  I was really excited about this and so happy that Nate was on board!  We moved everything except the vanity dresser.  We put our bed in the window and went from there.  It looks SO MUCH BIGGER and is SO NICE to have changed!  There's less room for messes, but more room to roam.  It feels like a totally different space!  I LOVE IT!!  We hung up some pictures in our room we've been meaning to hang up and then did the ones in the living room that we took down to paint last year.  So we're just making all kinds of progress!  I am loving it!  1-28-22

DATE NIGHT
Nate and I got to go out again, thankfully :).  We really need our dates lately.  We went up to Olive Garden and then to Spider Man 2 :).  Fun night.  I love being with Nate.  1-28-22

SATURDAY

Saturday was kind of a lazy day.  We had our basketball games, only two, but it still feels like it takes over the whole day for some reason.  We're all just anxious to go to them maybe :).  They were great!  Lots of points, both Erika and Noah's teams won.  Erika got a bloody nose and both of them are still having pain in their knees.  We need to get them to stay off of their knees for a few days.  The rest of the day was shopping and movie watching.  I think it was an okay weekend.  We need to get back into our Fun Saturdays though.  I miss those.  1-29-22

SEWING TEACHER ERIKA

Erika got our her little sewing kit to sew some fruits and everyone was drawn to it all and she ended up sitting there coaching everyone on making their own!  It was super cute!  I loved watching them all- or should I say listening to them- I was on an indexing marathon.  Six hours of indexing!  Maybe a good thing, maybe not, I'm not really sure.  But I loved listening to them getting along and having fun.  Jack's little carrot was a highlight of his day :).  His hilarious comment as he came down the stairs with his stuffed turtle to act out the attack had me chuckling all night.  He's so funny!  1-30-22

CONFERENCE TALK STUDY

We read the talk called God's Love something something from the October 2021 conference and it was awesome!  I just wanted to document Noah's comment that he had felt God's love while he was preparing the Sacrament that morning!  I was just really touched by that.  I'm glad my boys get those opportunities and that they are magnifying them.  Made my night and made me wonder if there are areas of my life I am missing out on those moments because I am too busy or noisy ya know.  Got me thinking.  1-30-22

KELLY'S PHYSICAL

She's doing it!  She's getting everything done!  I'm so proud of her!!  She just has a few more days before she can turn in her papers and we're all getting really anxious!  I was happy to print off her forms and grab her immunization record and take it to her in Layton since she slept in :).  It was the least I could do.  Pretty proud of this girl and all that she has done to get her papers done!  She's done it all!!  1-31-22