JANUARY 2023

 SUNDAY SCHOOL- NEW CLASSES
We had a nice first day/Sunday of the year.  I was teaching, so I was happy we were starting at 10:30 instead of 9:00 after everyone stayed up late the night before.  They were actually a really lively bunch!  We did the ball throwing thing to talk about being responsible for our own Gospel Learning which seemed to go okay.  Greg was hilarious telling us which languages he could read the BOM in.  Kinda funny.  We were missing Luke because he had been feeling kinda crappy that morning, but overall it went pretty well.  I was glad.  It's a bigger class now!  We combined Brad and Luke's groups.  We'll see how it goes.  The kids all got new teachers too!  Well, not Jack.  He keeps Bro. Jacox and Bro. Harrison, so that is fun for him- he likes them.  Molly has new teachers- Sis. Boyd (who she sees everyday at lunch) and someone else, I'm drawing a blank.  She was pretty worried about getting new teachers before church, but was very relieved after.  Sadie who we found out the hard way and after promising she could sit with Molly is not in the same primary as Molly afterall.  Kind of a bummer.  Luckily Nate took her.  I'm not sure how that went.  She has Kelly Thaxton and Heather Harward.  She seemed to do fine.  Jaxx said that she got her fingers stuck in the soap dispenser in the bathroom which is sad, but I guess she recovered.  Didn't even tell me about it.  Erika had the Haupts- sounds like she's happy with them.  Noah has Bro. Booth and Prince- he was really happy with them.  Bro. Booth is way more fun now I guess :).  Luke and Brad have me!  I think it will be a good year for all of us :).  1-1-23

ICE CASTLES WITH GRANDMA AND STEVE
This was a fun little addition to our Christmas Break.  We planned it kind of last minute and were so relieved they let us go without having purchased tickets ahead of time, but after picking up grandma, steve, and Nate at work, we headed up there and they let us go in!  This was really cool!  I liked it!  It was super cold, wet, and very slippery- I of course fell a few minutes into it- but super cool!  Kelly came with us along with everyone else.  They had a few fun slides, we all waited in line together for the long racing ones- that was fun.  We laughed at Steve, shivered, oohed and ahhhed at the fun lights, shivered, and took lots of pictures!  It was a really fun night!  We were glad that we were protected on the way home and enjoyed our hot chocolate after dropping off Nate, Steve and Grandma and Kelly.  It was a good time though!!  1-2-23

TUESDAY- LAST DAY OF CHRISTMAS BREAK
I had all these grand plans for this last day and then they were thwarted with the dryer's incompliance.  My dumb pants took so long to dry that the morning was spent mostly bumming around.  We did manage to get out finally, around 2:00 though, and were able to go get shoes for all the shoeless people.  Not really shoeless, just needing better ones.  After a few stores we found some everyday shoes for Erika, some running shoes for Noah and finally some basketball ones for Bradley.  It was good.  Then we came home to play some games, get kids and Nate off to basketball practices, and get ready for school the next day!  Kinda crazy to think about going back already.  It's been a really nice break though!  Couldn't really ask for better.  1-3-23

BACK TO SCHOOL
Everyone did so much better than I thought they all would do today!  Tells me they don't hate school as much as... well, I do- HA! I'm kidding.  They must like it a little though.  They all got up and got ready and nobody was late!  Pretty cool!  I think they all had a pretty good first few days back.  It was a struggle for Sadie and I to get back into our routine and we spent too much time watching tv so that I could take down Christmas and get the house back in order, but we survived.  And surprisingly Sadie was not all over Cheeto the entire day like she had been planning to do.  I think he was really good at steering clear of her.  Pretty impressive for a kitten his age :).  She was very excited to not have any kids around and have Cheeto all to herself and didn't really do much with that.  But everyone is back into our routine, went to youth activities (Noah got to go to Flow Rider! Erika planned and carried out her getting to know the new girls activity and games and Brad and Luke trained the new guys)  and all is well.  1-4-23

ERIKA'S WEEK
Erika has had a very packed week (not even a whole week, just like three days) with planning her activity, basketball practices starting back up along with Musical rehearsals!  She is also planning her lesson for YW on Sunday! She's been a verrry busy little girl.  She's handling it all really well.  I hope it all eases out once her play is over.  1-5-23

BRAD'S REC TEAM
Brad and Luke had their first game of the season.  They were missing a few players, had a kid with a broken finger, a kid with no glasses because he lost his and then the other kid was 10 minutes late!  Brad and Luke were the only ones who scored but they carried the team pretty well until the very end.  You can only carry it so far.  They did great, I was really proud of them and so were all of Brad's friends who showed up to cheer them on!  Fun stuff!  1-5-23

KJH GIRLS BASKETBALL BREAKFAST
We got to provide the girls with pancakes and fruit this Friday morning!  This was a lot of fun.  They do a little breakfast on Friday mornings.  Erika requested pancakes and it was great!  I made way too many because I was thinking about the boys XC team eating like 120 of them, but the leftovers all got eaten so we're good.  It was fun to see Erika in her element.  1-6-23

DATE NIGHT
We squeezed in a date this week even though there weren't any good movies and just went to Blue Fin for dinner.  We got home early and watched a movie with the kids, I played some cards with them and it was a fun evening.  1-6-23

FIRST GAMES OF THE SEASON
We had a lot of fun bouncing around to everyone's games this week!  It was a little hectic, trying to get Nate to back to back games for Erika and Jack as well as Jack going to Bea's baptism.  That was actually made possible by Bradley!  Such an awesome helper!  He took Jack to the baptism, then to his game and even called to make sure we could bring Jack's correct jersey.  Such a good boy.  Even dressed up!  Noah was also really helpful, standing out in front of the school to give Erika her bag and then take her lunch up to her!  Good kids!  Fun stuff!  We all got to go to Noah's game later in the day as well.  We had three losses that day.  Hopefully that's not a sign of how this weason is going to go, but our kids did their best and we're proud of them!  1-7-23

CHURCH
I had a cool little aha moment that I have to document.   I can't express how much the "ask, knock, just pray for it" concept has stood out to me over the years.  It's like probably the most repeated phrase in my scripture studying past, but for some reason on Sunday it stood out to me more than usual and made a huge impact.  It hit me that I don't do this.  I don't ask.  I think it goes back to my lack of understanding of why we would ask for things if we're sure Heavenly Father is aware of our needs and will provide them for us.  But I have learned that our receiving those things that we need are sometimes conditioned on our asking.  So anyway.  At church on Sunday I realized that even on the little things, we can ask.  We can ask for help with anything.  I have been struggling with a bunch of little things lately and wishing I could have a little more help with a lot of things and this just hit me like a ton of bricks as something I need to be doing.  So starting now :).  I tried it that day.  On the way to the church to take Noah for an interview with the bishop, I was dreading making dinner, not sure what to make, etc, and so I did it!  I asked!  I asked Heavenly Father, "What should I make for dinner?"  Immediately, I was relieved with the thoughts of some of the ingredients we have and that we'd be fine if I just look at Pinterest and search those.  So I quit worrying about it.  Then as we were driving back home from the church, Noah goes, "Can I make a request for dinner tonight?"  HA!!  Can you make a request?!!!  That would be an answer to my prayers assuming we have all the ingredients :).  So he did!  Breakfast burritos!!  And since I'd bought tater tots a while ago to use for breakfast burritos but never used them, we had all the ingredients!!  Super awesome!  Such a cool answer to prayer and so quickly and perfectly!  I've tried it a few more times and every time there has been help.  It's been really cool.  I wish I was better at having that be my initial reaction, but then maybe I wouldn't notice how much help He is giving me.  It's been a cool realization.  Hopefully He can help me with my freeze dryer soon :).  1-8-23

FAMILY MEETING
We made it to the family meeting this week!  It was super fun.  Grandma made it very short and simple this week, that was nice.  She also had the whole counter filled with stuff- stuff she was giving away.  Everyone had a sticker to designate when you got to go up and pick something.  Then when you did, you were to explain how it fits in one of the three caategories: Health, Wealth, Wise.  It was pretty fun.  Bradley got some Doritos.  Luke got some lemon juice :) (he was in the last gorup with me, not much left).  Noah got a cool pen.  Erika picked a face sticker book.  Jack got some gatorade.  Molly got a bear bank.  And Sadie got a "chest" board.  This cute little porcelin chess board with pieces that opens up into a little box.  Super cute, apparently very sentimental for grandma.  I'm not sure why she let Sadie have it, I hope she doesn't break it, but Sadie was IN LOVE with this little thing!!  She kept telling me how much she loved her "chest" board and she was professing her love to it all evening.  "Oh I love it love it love it!" kissing it and snuggling it.  Super funny!  I was glad she got something she wanted, but it was super strange considering how many little kid things there were up there.  She has been keeping it close ever since.  I got some hand soap.  It was a nice time.  1-8-23

KELLY FUNCITONAL NEUROLOGIST
Kelly had an appointment on Monday.  That was nice to be back in the office with her- it's been a while.  She was sure to ask about her nose.  He gave her some little vents to help her sleep.  Not sure how they're helping, but we'll see.  She seems to be doing really well with all of that.  We still need to go see a gynecologist for her period problems.  Sadie came with us and was such a good girl the whole time.  She loved the little table and chairs and coloring.  Didn't want to leave.  1-9-23

JUNIE B JONES
This was Erika's big performance week!  Super fun!  She did a great job!  I was able to go see it on Tuesday and Wednesday nights- I wanted to see it more, but being able to see both casts was fun.  We brought the whole family and Grandpa, Jo, Heidi and her kids on Wednesday night.  So fun.  Erika had a lot going on this week, but managed to pull it all off without too much trouble.  I was really proud of her.  I don't think she loves acting, she kept talking about how dumb she felt, but she did great! 1-9-23--1-12-23

FHE
We talked a little about love languages, played Nate's made up game where everyone says one word to build a phrase that fit with the Gospel.  Pretty fun.  Brad and I ditched everyone for his basketball game up in Roy.  The family all went and got dairy queen!  Fun stuff.  1-9-23

JACK SHREK JR
Jack started rehearsals for his play this week!  He is Young Shrek and Jack and the beanstalk.  He seems to love the rehearsals.  I heard from Kayslie in the ward that he goofs off the whole time :).  So I think he's going to have a lot of fun with this one :).  I hope he enjoys it.  He's been amazing at getting up and getting ready for the 7:30 start time.  Very unusual for him, but super awesome!  1-10-23

DRYER VENT CLEANING
I bit the bullet and hired someone to come clean our dryer vents.  It's been a long time that our dryer hasn't been doing so good.  I knew it needed it pretty bad, but I wasn't sure how to do it myself.  My dad had mentioned that he bought some tools to clean his out and bragged about how well his dryer was working now, so I had to to see for myself.  I can't believe the difference!!  The dryer is done about the same time as the washer and these are pretty big loads!  Loads that would have taken hours before are getting done in 45 minutes!!  It's been heavenly getting so much laundry done so fast!  I'm loving it.  Kinda like Christmas all over again.  1-10-23

ERIKA HOME GAME
Erika had a game at home this week.  We have loved watching her games- she's been getting better and better each time.  This week was extra fun because all her brothers were there to cheer her on.  I loved their reaction to her amazing three point shot!!  She was so brave and went up and totally scored!!  It wasn't their best game, but I would say it was Erika's.  She scored four other points.  She loves the home games.  All week she had to keep rushing home from practice or games, quickly showering and then hurrying back over to the school for her musical.  It was a hectic week for her.  She did so well though!  I was proud of her.  1-10-23

NOAH'S 15TH BIRTHDAY
I think Noah had a nice birthday this year!  I was glad.  I spent an undisclosed amount of time on his sign, since I started it during the day the day before, turned out pretty cute.  Sadie helped.  He liked it.  We had crepes for breakfast.  He got to have Panda Express delivered to the school for lunch!  Then when he got home he rested a little, then we had his family party.  Grandpa, Jo and Heidi and her kids were our guests, we ate ribs for dinner- thank you Nate! and then quickly rushed through presents, cupcakes, and then out the door for Junie B Jones!  It was a mad dash, but we made it!  Noah seemed to enjoy his day.  1-11-23

KJH @ FARMINGTON
ERika didn't love this game.  She actually almost made the last buzzer beater at the end, a half court lob, but didn't get much of a chance to shoot otherwise.  I guess a girl on the varsity team was running the subs and so Erika hardly played.  It was rough game.  She did great though and was way too hard on herself after.  This is a building year.  1-12-23

BRAD AND LUKE GAME
Awesome game this week on their rec team!  I loved their energy and sticking with it!  Brad said he "kept getting hit in the balls", so he was pretty sore this morning.  Poor guy!  I got to talk with Krista Johnson the whole time though so that was great too :).  Fun night.  1-12-23

FREEZE DRYER REPAIR
Well, I finally caved and called customer support for my freeze dryer and boy was I glad I did.  I had read horror stories about people being on hold forever, or it taking months to hear back from them, and I totally hate calling tech support on anything, so I was dragging my feet.  But I caved, called, and they immediately answered, scheduled a phone call with a tech support, and we were able to get it up and running in a matter of minutes!  Just a quick software update and recalibrating my vacuum was all it took!  Kinda nice.  We're back in business!  1-13-23

NOAH'S FRIEND PARTY- FLOW RIDER
For Noah's friend party he wanted to go to Flowrider.  We learned too late that it wasn't the best choice of day since it was the last day of the term and everyone was finishing up on work, so a bunch of his friends were not able to come to the surfing part.  That was a bummer, but we ended up having a great time with the few who came!  I loved watching them!  And the great thing about there being fewer people was that they got more turns to surf!  I think Noah had fun.  He was doing so good!  I was really impressed!  We came home they had pulled pork sanndwiches, talked, and watched Uncharted.  Seemed like everyone had a good time!  I love the friends he's chosen- they all seem like really good kids.  1-13-23

DATE NIGHT
Nate and I moved our date to Saturday.  We went to Blue Fin, it was delicious as usual :).  Had a great time!  1-14-23

SUNDAY SCHOOL
My lessons are getting easier and easier.  I feel like it's nice to have some new people in the class as well.  Luke was there this time, I loved having him in our class!  1-15-23

FSY KICKOFF
This was a great meeting.  I was really happy with the information and kind of the pep rally that this was to get my kids excited for FSY.  It sounds exactly like EFY :).  1-15-23

TWO DAYS OFF!
We got a long weekend with Martin Luther King Jr. day and the end of the term, so we decided to do some fun stuff.  We were happy the girls were able to come down too.  So Monday we decided to take the whole family to FlowRider!  This was SO MUCH FUN!!!  Sadie was the only one who didn't try it.  Everyone else did really well!  I think Noah was the only one who braved standing up, but it was fun to see the improvements everyone made.  Molly got to try it on her own and with the helper.  That was fun to watch.  We got lots of fun video and pictures, luckily none of my embarrassing moment!  So funny!  Sadie had fun splashing in the water and sitting by us all.  We went to Costa Vida next door for dinner.  That was nice, but also rushed because we were in a hurry to get to Brad's basketball game at Roy High.  He had forgotten underwear so we had to make a quick stop at Walgreens, to buy the most expensive underwear Brad will ever own while I'm buying his underwear- holy moly!  Then we all went and cheered him on at the game!  Kelly's friend Logan who lives in Tremonton met up with us there so that we could meet him- that was fun.  We all looked pretty ragged after FlowRider, so that was sa bummer, but it's always fun to meet Kelly's friends.  We had to go to Cold Stone after :).  Brad did great!  Fun to have everyone there to cheer him on!  1-16-23

SADIE'S BROKEN LEG
On Tuesday, we decided a trampoline park would be lots of fun, but wanted to try out a new one.  We went all the way to West Jordan for Altitude Trampoline Park.  This ended up being the end to all our fun for this break.  Everyone was fine until about the last 15 minutes when Sadie was playing in the area with all the small trampolines that you can just walk around.  She stepped on a trampoline that a mom and her kid were jumping on, with the mom's back to her and of course the mom jumped right as Sadie stepped on and sure enough, her knee buckled.  She let out the most ear piercing scream!!  She wouldn't let any moms help her as I was making my way over to her.  I had been watching her so closely, just from a distance.  She screamed bloody murder for the next probably two hours, as we got shoes on, drove home, and deliberated over when to take her in.  I was able to get an appointment to take her to Dr. Tew right away which was kind of a blessing.  He sent us to the Bountiful clinic for the x-rays and the wait there was pretty bad, but we did get to have my old coworker and friend Kristy Muir as our Radiology Tech!  So that was another little tender mercy.  We went back up to Dr. Tew for the results, found out she had a buckle fracture in her prosimal tibia and splinted the thing up.  That splint was so annoying.  I hate ace bandages on kids.  She wasn't a huge fan.  She has handled things so well.  After a couple weeks of the splint and not being able to walk, we were able to get a cast.  The cast goes from very high on her thigh to her ankle.  She can walk, but with a limp.  She has been so tough!!  It took her a few days to get back on her feet even though she was very excited to be able to walk.  But she's pretty mobile now- she needs to keep the cast on for five weeks total, we have three more weeks!  1-17-23

ERIKA DR. WOODS
We thought Erika had a bladder infection and after testing found out she didn't!  So weird.  She was in so much pain!  Luckily, they gave her something to numb her bladder and then she was fine a day later.  Faster than the med was supposed to work, so not sure what that was all about.  Wouldn't surprise me if she was having some pre-PMS cramping.  Not sure.  1-18-23

BRAD'S SKIN DR. WOODS
Kelly got some good stuff for her rash, so we took Brad in hoping to get the same stuff.  He did and thankfully his rash is gone.  So many doctor appointments lately!  1-18-23

MARCO'S FAREWELL
We were all really excited to go to Marco's farewell.  We took everyone except Jack and Molly who wanted to go to their classes :).  Thanks to Rachel Hunsaker for taking them home for me.  So we got to his church a little early and started noticing that everyone looked hispanic.  I started to question whether this area could be that heavily populated with hispanics, or if this was a Spanish ward!  We had no idea- HA!  Sure enough, when the bishopric member got up, we learned that it was in fact a Spanish ward!  HA!! We sang the songs in Spanish, and listened to several talks and prayers in Spanish, it was actually kind of fun.  Thankfully Marco had his Aunt translate for him.  It was great!  He really gave a great talk about how he made his decision to go back to church and now to go on a mission!  Cool story!  Kelly played a big role in that.  So proud of her for sharing her light and being such a beacon for Christ.  We're all excited for Marco- hope things go well for him!!  1-22-23

PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES
Molly and Jack both had great conferences this time around.  So proud of them!!  Molly is doing great in so many areas and is above her class in reading.  She is going to switch to Boddle and Razkids homework since we suck and doing homework in our house.  Jack is doing awesome as well.  It was fun to hear so much praise from Mrs. Moncur.  So proud of our kids!!  They really are just awesome!  They got to pick books in the book fair.  1-25-23

MOLLY ACTIVITY DAYS!!
Molly got to have her very first activity days!  This was a lot of fun for her and she is just counting down the days til the next one :).  They went to Lindsey Cutler's house and introduced the new girls (Molly!) and played games.  So fun!  1-25-23

FSY SCHEDULING
This was the hugest nightmare ever!!!  I had three devices open and logged on for each kid and between getting kicked off and things malfunctioning, all the conversations with the moms in the ward and the kids' roommates moms, it ended up taking about ALL DAY to get it done!!  SO CRAZY!!!  I hope they get the kinks worked out on that some day.  soon.  1-26-23

INDOOR TRACK MEET AT THE OVAL
I wanted to see Brad and Luke run the hurdles at their meet, so I raced out to the Olympic Oval, missing Erika's game.  Kelly was with me, we were making good time we thought, but of course missed their run because we were standing in line to pay!!  UGH!!!  So annoying.  We did stay to watch Brad's 50 M.  We were able to catch the very end of Erika's awesome game and then head back up for Brad's relay at the end of the meet.  Crazy day.  1-28-23

SADIE'S CAST
This was the big day to get her cast on.  She was so excited to be able to walk (we knew it was probably going to be down to her ankle, not past that).  They did the x-ray, she did great!  They showed us the x-ray and there's just the slightest little bump on the side of her tibia, one I wouldn't have ever noticed, and I just think- how can THAT cause so much pain!!  So crazy!!  But they talked to her and sent us to the casting room.  She had planned on getting a rainbow cast- HA!  They didn't even consider her request, but rephrased that she could pick one of the colors on the swatches they had- HA!  She wasn't amused, but picked pink!  She did so well having four people yang and squeeze and wrap up her leg.  I was really proud of her.  She didn't want to walk on it right away.  It was too tight she said.  Luckily, by the next day she had decided she could walk in it and has since been getting around really well.  I have been so proud of her!!  1-30-23

SOPHOMORE ORIENTATION
Noah and I got to go up to the school to learn about high school!!  I can't believe my squishy Noah pillow is going to be in High School next year!!  This is a shocker!!  He did great, didn't seem to interested in any particular thing, so we filled out some fun/easy classes, and quickly headed out so that he could get to basketball practice.  High school here we come!  It all starts.  1-30-23

FHE
With basketball practices for two hours every Monday and Tuesday night for Nate, we have had to shorten and kind of crowd out Family nights.  That has been a major bummer, but we know it's not forever.  We've still had some great lessons, Sadie gets to sing her Sunbeam song, and we eat treats and play games :). I just don't think I could ever remember them since I am catching up so late!!  But we have been having them!  I've been really proud of us!  1-30-23