DECEMBER 2022

 TWO HOUR LATE START
We got another two hour late start!  I was so proud of Brad this time, getting over to Christie's to shovel before school.  Good boy!!  Noah had done it the last time.  These late starts are so nice!  I could really get used to this.  12-1-22

PICKING OUT THE TREEI
 loved our tree shopping experience this year!  We wandered around quite a bit, trying to find the perfect tree with enough character.  We were anxious to let Brad pick one since it's his last time for a while.  He picked out one and we took a picture with it and then we noticed a lot of the branches were dead inside, so we picked a different one completely and took a picture with it :).  Kind of funny.  Brad did approve of this one, so that was okay too :).  It's a good one.  Has a funny little extra clump of branches near the top that I keep trying to describe what it looks like, but can't.  Funny stuff.  That's it's character.  Can't wait to decorate it tomorrow!  12-1-22

  

ERIKA BASKETBALL
It's been fun to hear about all of Erika's practices and see her pushing herself to go to practices after school and before school on Friday.  I think she likes it and she hasn't complained one bit, but does seem like it's wearing her out a little.  I think she'll get the hang of it soon enough.  So proud of her and all of her effort!  12-2-22

PUTTING UP CHRISTMAS
This was a big deal this year!  Big enough for the girls to come home!  Everything we do this year is "our last time" before things change soon.  It's been sobering.  I hope we have done enough for these kids that they want to come back and do them after they leave.  I was happy that Charity and Kelly wanted to come back for putting up the tree.  They sacrifice a lot of their time for our family still and that means a lot to me.  I got most of the nativities out and displayed, Nate helped with all the box moving.  The girls came home, we waited for Brad to get home from indoor track, and then rushed through our ceremonial process :).  Brad helped me with the lights.  Probably our last time- almost made me tear up, but I decided not to show it.  Pictures of the first ornaments, putting up the ornaments one at a time savoring all the sentimental ones :).  It's really a special thing.  I don't think anyone else would understand how much we love it without being there.  We said goodbye to Brad and Noah before we were done- both had parties to go to.  It was Sadie's turn and first time putting the angel on the top.  Brad had left before we could have him hold her up there- that had been the plan since this was his last Christmas in a while.  The cool thing is he will get back the year that it is his turn again!  Hopefully he will be here for that!  Then we got pictures with the holiday specs and then sat in the glow of the tree!  Then Nate and I took off for our date!  12-2-22

DATE NIGHT
We went to Chili's this week, complained about Rachel and the paint job for a while.  Then enjoyed the rest of the date.  We had to stop at the store for the food for Charity's work party Nate was catering the next day.  We always have a nice time together.  12-2-22

WARD BREAKFAST
We had a great time at the ward breakfast this year.  It was nice it was on Saturday morning, so Nate could be there.  We had Charity and Kelly here as well!  So much fun!  It was super simple, good food, the primary sang songs for us.  We sat by Barbara Farnes and talked all about Christmas together.  I loved it!  12-3-22

UTAH STATE FAIRPARK LIGHTS FROM ANDREA
Andrea texted me around 4:00 asking if we'd like to go see the lights at the fairgrounds at 6:00 because they had an extra ticket!  We had been sitting around recovering from all our germs all day, some of us didn't make it to all of church even.  So we were happy to have an excuse to get out and go see some lights!  It was a pretty fun little drive thru show- like our Christmas in color one we do every year.  Maybe not quite as good, but very cool.  We loved it.  Wished Nate could have been there, but he was working his butt off to make some money for Christmas!  12-4-22

BASKETBALL SEASON 

We have officially started basketball season!  Pretty exciting!  Not just rec ball, but our boys church ball as well.  12-5-22

MARSHALL'S HOMECOMING
We were all looking forward to Marshall coming home and being able to hear him speak.  I was bummed when I realized I wasn't going to be going because I had a sick Sadie home with me.  Everyone else was able to leave from Sacrament meeting and head up there.  Unfortunately, they got off to a late start and were not able to get there in time for his talk.  Such a bummer.  But they did get to hang out at the house and have food.  Good times.  It's fun to Marshall home!  12-11-22

ERIKA'S FIRST KJH GAME

We've been very excited for this game!!  Couldn't have been more excited to watch Erika play!  We drove through the blizzard (two separate cars even) so that I could get there early and Nate could come with Jack, Molly and a still pretty sick, Sadie- right before hers started.  It was at Millcreek Jr.  I loved watching the varsity girls play- getting excited for Erika to be on the team next year and then LOVED watching her play!  She did so awesome!  You could feel the nervousness and she was a little off just getting used to her new team, but she did AWeSOME!!  SO great!!  I loved it!  12-13-22

ORCHESTRA CONCERT
We had some added chaos Tuesday leading up to the concert, with Noah forgetting to get his bass before track and me calling Mr. K and trying to figure out how to get the one from the junior high or whether or not he could get one from the high school.  It was this big awkward mess since I was in Bountiful at Erika's game, but when we showed up to the Junior high to pick up Erika from the bus ride back, Pola was there and was needing to get her bass as well!  So thankfully she came over and asked which one Noah had gotten and I was able to send Erika in the school with her to get one!!  It was awesome.  A little Tuesday night miracle.  We made it to the concert without too much trouble.  In the black shirt Erika had picked out the night before :).  They both played so well!  I was so proud of them! I got to sit with Becky Widdison and chat with her for a while before.  That was nice.  I took off with Erika when they were both done and then we went back and got Noah when the whole thing was over.  Erika hadn't been able to go home and eat before so she was starving.  Fun crazy night!!  I was ready for school to be over at this point.  12-13-22

SHREK JUNIOR

Jack was very anxious to do the school musical again this year!  He was gearing himself up for the auditions and was totally pumped after the parent meeting on the 14th.  He went and tried out on Friday with the song, "A Whole New World" did amazing!!  Was totally nervous, but did amazing!  He even said it went really well.  He was suprised to learn that he didn't get any of the parts he wanted, but got the two parts, "Young Shrek/Jack in the Beanstalk"!  Pretty exciting!!  I am really proud of him and that he is sticking his neck out there to do this!! Cool kid!  Practices start on the 10th!  12-14-22

KELLY HELPING

We decided we want to get Jack a kitten for Christmas and I found a really cute orange one up in Logan.  Kelly had offered to get him for so she went and picked him up on the 15th and is going to take care of him until they come down for Christmas.  So far she has sent me a bunch of pictures of her, Charity and their friends all passing him around and loving on him.  Seems like a cutie.  I hope Jack is excited!  12-15-22

CELLO DUET

Janeel Juncker asked Erika to play a cello duet with Kate Cutler for the ward Christmas program on Christmas day!  She was willing and hopefully able to do that.  We started practicing with Kate tonight and it went really well.  Much better than Erika's run through before Lindsey had fixed the mess ups on the music.  It mmight actually happen!  Pretty proud of Erika and her willingness to try something like this, so last minute!  12-16-22

DATE NIGHT
We had to go a little later because of Erika's practice, but it was a great night!  We went to Texas Roadhouse and did a little Christmas shopping too.  12-16-22

LUKE WITH STEVE
Luke decided to try making a cutting board for Nate for Christmas and so he and I went up to Salt Lake to get the wood at the place Steve recommended and then to his house to work on it.  Luke got a lot done while we were there, but the glue needed to dry so we paused work on it and will go finish it next week sometime.  Looked pretty good!  12-17-22

NEIGHBOR GIFTS

They went much more smoothly this time, then last year, but still took a while.  Nate cooked up some pulled pork and the kids and I packaged it up and delivered it all! We couldn't find any rolls that were reasonably priced so we just did the pork.  That was fine.  Hope they all liked it!  12-17-22

WEST POINT VS. KJH

Erika had another away game, this one was a little more comfortable, but she was still pretty nervous.  We got to go watch her and she did awesome!  I was so proud of her!  She's really doing so well!  12-19-22

HOBBY LOBBY SHOPPING

Everyone needed to get supplies for their homemade gifts, so this was the perfect day to do it!  Got lots done!  Super happy about that!  12-19-22

LUKE'S CUTTING BOARD

Things went really well with the cutting board!  Luke was able to sand it and cut it with a lot of help from Steve.  It turned out so cool though!  I was really glad we thought of that!  Bradley had come with us this time so we got to chat with Steve a lot.  He was pretty bummed from getting let go from work the day before, but it was good to see him again.  12-21-22

CHRISTMAS IN COLOR

We were really happy to have Charity and Kelly with us for this!  Turned out to be a lot of fun again!  Sadie really loved it and really wanted to see the talking snowman from the first one we saw this year, but didn't get to.  She seemed to like the other one better, but this one is a lot more synced with the lights.  I like that better :).  We had fun everyone together.  Got some hot chocolate at the end.  12-22-22

CHRISTMAS EVE

We had a really packed Christmas eve this year!  We finished up on delivering friend gifts in the morning, I got some more of the wrapping done while the kids all went to the church to work on Charity's gift to me.  We crammed as much as we could into that morning and then headed up to Grandma Ruthie's for some fun- we taught her the paper bag game and played her candy cane and gift card games.  It was fun to spend some time with her and Jen.  We brought our gifts for the family.  Nate had Sierra (car detailing kit), I had Meg (the cool succulent planter I made), Charity had Bailey (disney hoodie), Kelly had Caden (speaker), Bradley had Grandma Ruthie (a coupon for some service), Luke had Hunter Maynes (candy), Noah had Jen (comforter), Erika had Samantha (beads), Jack had Ashlyn (candle), Molly had Becky (she made some hanging planters for succulents), Sadie had Ainsley (book and toy).  It was a good time with them there, laughed a lot.  Said our goodbyes and headed to Nate's work to talk to Santa!  This was a fun year, just having everyone there one last time probably.  We loved going.  Santa seemed slightly distracted or busy this year.  Not as much time with each kid.  But we loved it!  Then we drove to Grandma Hatch's house and gave her and Simon their gifts and got some from them.  That was fun for a minute.  We felt a little rushed, but it was a good time.  We made our way up to Grandpa's house for some more gifts, food and fun!!  Heidi and Porter were there, we had a great time!  It's always fun.  The kids had gone shopping with Grandpa so they all knew what they were getting but still very anxious to open their gifts and it was hard to wait til we could :).  So that was fun.  Lots of fun!  Then we came home, opened our pjs, took our pictures and the kids all headed downstairs for their favorite tradition, sleeping together in the basement!  So fun!!  Nate and I had more fun ahead, picking up the kitten from Allan's house and meeting him a little before going to bed at an actually kind of reasonable time.  12-24-22

CHRISTMAS MORNING!

We had kind of a different Christmas this year.  Christmas was on Sunday so we had church and Nate needed to leave for work at 1:30 so we decided that in order to get through all of our traditions and presents we needed to get up at 6:00 am.  So Nate and I dragged the kids out of bed, bright and early, at 6:00!  I couldn't believe we were waking them up on Christmas!!  Never happens!  But we did it!  We got everyone up.  We groggily went through our stockings.  Everyone seemed so tired.  We got our Creamed Eggs on Toast all ready, ate breakfast and Nate and the kids presented me with my Freeze Dryer!!  Holy moly!!  Then we went downstairs to open our Santa gifts before getting ready for church.  Everyone seemed really happy with this part.  I loved watching them open them this year!  Sadie got her Gabby's Dollhouse!  Molly got Calico Critters and furniture.  Kelly may have been just as excited about this gift as she was.  Jack got his Allosaurus and Ankylosaurus.  Erika got a basketball bag and shirt with some hair things and necklace inside.  Noah got a synthesizer.  Luke got a huge HUGE box of Ramen- it was too heavy for him to carry it!  Bradley got a dart board.  Kelly got a fitbit.  Charity got some shark slides!  So fun!  Then we realized that we still had quite a bit of time so we decided to do our family gifts too!  These were extra exciting this year as well.  Everyone got really creative.  I still can't believe we are able to do homemade gifts still and haven't run out of ideas yet.  Sadie had Jack, she gave him a hand painted box with the Stack the States game inside :).  Molly gave Brad his hoodie she designed!  This was a pretty epic moment when Brad saw this hoodie!  I loved it.  She did a great job on it.  Jack gave Luke a perler bead Switch remote key chain.  Erika gave Sadie the backpack she had painted little animals on and filled with lots of fun surprises.  Sadie loved it.  Noah had Kelly and he gave her the rest of the year's worth of gnomes!  So fun!  Luke had Nate and gave him his cutting board- this was anothe really special one this year.  Nate was almost in tears.  We had to record his reaction so Steve could see it :).  Bradley had Erika and he gave her some hand crafted basketball shelves.  Like literal basketball quarters made into shelves.  So cool!  He had worked really hard on these.  Kelly had Molly and gave her some hand painted shoes with all of her favorite characters on them.  So fun!  Charity had me and she presented me with my video of the kids all dancing to the Mom song by Meghan Trainor.  I loved it!!  Cried the first like 20 times I watched it.  Then I had Charity and gave her the clock I made with all her pictures modpodged on a canvas with a clock mounted through it.  Hopefully it made it home okay.  And last but not least, Nate had Noah and he gave him a wolf drawing!  So fun!!  So by then it was time to open our church gifts- a little something to take to church, ties, socks, drawing pads, necklaces... pretty fun.  Then got ready for church!  Grandpa and Grandma both came to our ward to watch Erika perform!  That was fun.  Erika did awesome!  The youth did awesome!  The primary did awesome!  And the choir did awesome!  We had a great program!  I loved it really!  Then we hurried home and changed back into our jammies to finish our Christmas morning :).  Lots of gifts to open, lots of happiness and love.  I love Christmas!!  Everyone seemed happy with what they got!  It was a success.  Then Nate had to go to work.  That was a bummer.  Everyone took naps, we played with EVERYTHING we got.  Easy bake oven, all the little figures for dollhouses, games galore, we could hear Noah's synthesizer going all morning, Compared Jazz tickets, even got the freeze dryer up and running with some berries and skittles and a few other things.  It was a busy day!!  Lots of fun!!  I think it was a success.  The kids all sang to me and made it a wonderful birthday as well!!  Pretty memorable and possibly one of our best Christmasses. 12-25-22

DOWNTOWN LIGHTS

This year was kind of a fail on the downtown lights.  We didn't realize that the train wasn't running that day until we were on our way to Station Park.  So we just drove downtown, parked by the conference center and went on over ot see all the lights, city creek, temple square was still under construction, but we saw what we could.  We got some hot chocolate at the food court.  It was a fun time, just not our usual.  We got to walk through the toy store too :).  Good times.  Charity and Kelly were with us which was extra fun and Charity brought a friend even.  So that was cool too.  12-26-22

FRIDGE AND PANTRY

I got this inkling to clean out the pantry and fridge on Tuesday.  Kind of strange, but ended up throwing away about 6 bags of expired or gross food!  So crazy!  Felt good though.  12-27-22

DRIVING KELLY HOME

Kelly and Charity had come down together in Charity's car and she had to work in Ogden, so I drove Kelly home Tuesday.  It was like the good ol' days when we used to hang out more.  So nice.  We talked the entire way.  12-27-22

DR. WOODS- KELLY

Kelly got to go to see Dr. Woods Wednesday.  He ran her blood again, so we'll see how that goes.  Gave her some stuff for her rash, we'll see how that goes too.  Just pretty routine, but for somem reason I felt like it went really well.  12-28-22

PARTIES

Thursday was Erika's fun team party- Candy Cane Olympics and our fun day at the church with the Maughans!  So fun!  Erika had a great time and with the Maughans we were able to play chair soccer for a really long time, then some Throw Throw Burrito, Telelstrastions, Skull King, and Nertz (not everyone played all of them together).  We had some snacks and had a great time!  This was in place of our New Year's Eve party that we didn't get to have because Nate was working Saturday night.  Good stuff.  Minus Sadie peeing her pants.  12-29-22

CHRISTMAS BREAK

We had a great Christmas break.  Most of it is a blur now, but we spent a lot of time sleeping in, playing games, new and old, cleaning up, eating treats and freeze dried foods, trips to the store for extra fun, puzzles!  Nate gave me a huge box of Dowdle puzzles of a lot of the places we've been as well as the coast guard and air force.  So fun!!  I have done a bunch of them, they're a lot of fun and not too hard!  He knows me so well.  Just a lot of relaxing and having fun. 12-29-22

LUMINARIA

We went down to Thanksgiving Point with the Maynes Family for the Luminaria.  This was great especially since we had missed out on the party on Christmas (they planned the party on Christmas day knowing we couldn't be there- I'm trying not to take it personally).  It was a rainy night.  Pretty cold and wet!  But we all had a great time!  It was fun to see so many people there.  Grandma was in a wheelchair and Luke took a turn pushing her which was cool.  I liked seeing the boys hanging out with Sam and Hunter.  Kelly was with Sierra most of the night.  Jack brought Will for his entertainment.  It was great!  I wish Charity had been able to come, but it was a really nice time overall.  12-30-22

SLEEPOVER IN LOGAN

The kids all planned a sleepover for all of them (minus Sadie) up in Logan at Kelly's house.  They drove home really late and through a blizzard after the Luminaria.  It was funny when we were getting them out the door, Sadie goes, "Now we don't have to have any kids!" With her arms flying up.  Then, "It's just me, you and Daddy!" With one more pose!  I loved it!!  She was hilarious all night- taking full advantage of her undivided attention that she always has but pretended was different.  I had no idea she would react like that.  There was a moment in the evening when she asked if she could please have a sleepover someday.  So sweet.  I don't think she liked our movie Chaos Walking as much as she thought she would either.  She slowly started to hate it :).  But the kids had a safe drive up thankfully.  They stopped at Winco for some treats and then watched movies all night.  They went over to Charity's for puffy pancakes and then went bowling, shopping, toy storing, Creamery-ing, you name it- all the fun Logan stuff.  I was able to go pick them up Saturday night to bring them home for our New Year's Eve fun though!  So that was nice.  12-30-22--1-31-22

NEW YEAR'S EVE

I wasn't sure who was going to be partying with us on New Year's eve, but I filled some balloons with some fun ideas.  Turned out that the girls were of course staying up in Logan and the older boys were all going to friends' parties.  So it was Erika, Jack, Molly, Sadie and me for most of the night.  We did rope the boys into eating dinner and playing the paper plate roulette with us, so that was fun.  Everyone got their prizes and it was over and they all dispersed :).  Us at home decided to meet up with Heidi at McD's for some ice cream and hot chocolate and playing in the play place- that was fun!  It's always fun to see Porter and Alyssa especially when Porter is dancing to the music :).  We came home and blew through all the balloons we'd missed, played Pictopia, some minute to win it games and the Oculus and ate apples and dip, chips and dip and chex mix.  I gave them prizes for the games and we had a really fun time!  We had fun ringing in the new year with pots and pans and blowers and poppers.  It was so much fun!!  Nate came home shortly after and we were able to get to bed at a reasonable time.  It was a good night!  The boys all seemed to have fun except Noah.  Poor guy didn't have that much fun.  We had such a great year- I am anxious to see what 2023 holds for us!!