NOVEMBER PICTURES

 

DECEMBER

 LIGHT THE WORLD- DAY 1- Giving

For Giving Tuesday, I am donating money to my favorite, local charity, Charity Maynes also known as a starving college student. You can just Venmo me if you want to donate to my favorite Charity. #LightTheWorld2020. 12-1-20

LIGHT THE WORLD- DAY 2- Love

To #lighttheworld today, I wanted to highlight my good friend Emily Schick Maughan. 

Emily is a great listener. I love that I can talk to her and not feel judged or worry about it going anywhere else. 

She welcomes my kids into her home. I think they feel more comfortable in the Maughan house than anywhere else. 

I’ve been wanting to glean her ability to let things roll off her back for years. And she always knows just what to say to talk me off my cliffs. 

She is one of the most giving and forgiving people I know and has so many times, dropped everything to serve me and my family. 

I have been the recipient of so much of her Christlike love and enjoy her carefree love of life. I’m so blessed to have Emily in my life. 12-2-20

BASKETBALL

Basketball season has officially started!  Jack's has been going a while, but the older kids started practices this week!  We're so happy!  Nate is coaching everyone!  Not sure how we ended up with that, but he has three practices, back to back on Tuesday nights!  Kinda crazy for him I'm sure, but the kids are loving it!!  Can't wait for games to start up!!  12-2-20

LIGHT THE WORLD- DAY 3- Peace

Something that brings me peace and calm is sitting around a campfire with people I love, camping, taking a break from life, just staring into the flames and then looking up at the stars... ahhhh. #LightTheWorld2020

LIGHT THE WORLD- DAY 4- Hope

I took a screenshot of this part of the video “The Christ Child” because it shows the Plan that Heavenly Father had for Mary, Joseph and Jesus’s birth- in a quiet, possibly dirty, stable. I’m guessing that’s not what they’d had in mind. In fact, knowing who she was carrying, I wonder if they expected things to go more smoothly, finding a nicer place. But it happened a different way and ended up being the perfect, most memorable, distinct, meek and humble place to give birth to the Savior of the world.

This gives me hope because I know Heavenly Father has a plan for me too. I know that when things are not going as planned, that there is most likely a better way already in play. It doesn’t always feel like a better way at first, but over time I realize the planning, the orchestration, and all that was involved to bringa different plan and blessings I didn’t know I needed.

I’m so grateful for our loving Father’s Plan. I’m grateful for our older brother, Jesus Christ, who made it all possible. So grateful for this first, miraculous, Christmas night. #lighttheworld2020 #givethanks

CHRISTMAS DEVOTIONAL

I loved listening to the Christmas Devotional this year. It really hit the spot. I loved the first lady's reference to Santa Claus and really enjoyed hearing from our Prophet. So many good things. I needed the uplift, I needed the focus on changing my attitude and focusing on the positive. 12-6-20

LIGHT THE WORLD- DAY 8- Health Care Workers

Last year when I had my last baby at IMC Hospital, I ended up with one of my all time favorite nurses. Deb. She was my nurse two of the days I was there. She was this cute older lady, had a lot of health issues that gave her an interesting perspective on life. She had two kids, grown now, no grandkids. She was THE SWEETEST lady on the planet! She was so good and SO FUN TO TALK TO. She was our discharge nurse. She loved Sadie, kept asking to hold her while she was in my room and would oooh and aww over every new, little facial expression with me. She was so sweet and kind when our eight other kids came and filled up our room and couldn't compliment us enough on how good they were. She wrote the sweetest note in the Thank You card from the hospital. She really made my day. She was just such a sweet heart. I loved her and wanted to bring her home with us, and not just because she’d been waiting on me and taking care of me for two days.

I wanted to highlight Deb because of the many awesome nurses I’ve experienced over the years. They are so selfless, so patient, kind, and have left an impression. The fact that I still think of her and the things she taught me is proof of that.

Thank you to all the health care workers out there!! You deserve extra love this time of year, especially this year!!

I don’t have a picture of Deb so I’ll just post a picture of my cute baby Sadie ツ any excuse, right? (She is 17 months old now- I did not have another baby.

LIGHT THE WORLD DAY 10- Ancestors

This is my great great great grandma Sophronia Kelley. She was one tough woman. When I read about her trials, mine suddenly seem very small and insignificant. I’ve always loved ready these stories from her life:

“Upon another occasion, my mother and her older sister, Jane, were out on a beautiful moonlight evening, sitting by a flower garden, when they heard a noise like the cry of a child. They were just girls. My mother was frightened and wanted to go to the house, but her sister wanted to stay and see what it was. As the cry came again, nearer than before, and they heard twigs breaking, my mother took her by the hand and pulled her to the house. They had just got inside and my grandmother bolted the door when a huge panther threw his weight against the door with such force as to jar the house. Failing to get in there, he climbed to the top of the house and they could hear it walking around on the low roof. It was soon at the chimney, but my grandmother had put fresh dry wood on the fire in the fireplace (they had no stoves in those days) and the blaze frightened him off.

“The next incident I must refer to was while crossing the Missouri River. My mother was driving her own team and wagon of supplies with her baby on her lap. The water was so deep the box on the wagon she was riding in floated off the wagon and tipped over, throwing her and her baby into the water. Her brother, who had crossed the river just ahead, ran down the stream, climbed out on some willows that reached out over the water. Reaching down from this position, he caught her clothes as she went under and held her until help arrived. She was unconscious as they dragged her onto the bank, but was still holding the baby.

“I cannot refrain from referring to another incident that occurred while they were living in a small log house covered with willows and straw with dirt over these. There came one of those terrible mountain winds. They had tied a blanket up by the four corners over her bed to protect her as far as possible, but the wind whistled through the cracks, through the willows, and straw under the dirt covering until the weight of the snow on the blanket became too much for the strings supporting it. They broke, and down came the snow, burying mother and babe with a mantle of snow and dirt.” #lighttheworld2020

DATE NIGHT

Nate and I got to go on what felt like a totally normal date!!  It was awesome!  We went to The Habit for dinner and then on to THE MOVIE THEATER!!  To see a MOVIE!!  We saw the movie Midnight Sky.  It was pretty good- space/future movie, but very cool.  I liked it.  It was thought provoking.  A little slow, but I was just happy to be at the movies again!!  Some normal!  12-11-20

ELDER RASBAND

The youth were invited to a special fireside for just this area!  Thanks to our stupid pandemic, I got to sit and listen to it with them :).  Well, not WITH them, they were at the church, but since it was over the internet, I got to listen in.  It was a really cool fireside.  Made me think about how strong the youth are right now.  All that they are going through and all that they are having to adapt to... I think we could learn something from them.  I think the kids enjoyed the candidness and the way they interacted with the kids in the area they knew.  12-12-20

SICK

One good thing about COVID response is that even though we had runny noses, sore throats, body aches, headaches, and just wanted to stay home, Sadie, Noah, Molly, Jack and I were still able to have  church!  We watched the talks and then when the kids got home from real church, they gave us the Sacrament!  So nice!  I don't mind that :).  12-13-20

JACOXES

The Jacoxes are so awesome.  They brought over Crumbl cookies for Heidi to tell her they were sorry for all that she's been going through!  So nice of them!!  12-13-20

ZOOM RS

I had to run Zoom for RS this week.  It went fine, I just hope it goes better next time.  Live and learn.  12-13-20

LIGHT THE WORLD DAY 15

A little shout out to my parents and my parent-in-laws who happen to be the best in-laws anyone could ever ask for.

I had the best childhood! Homemade breakfasts, motorcycle rides, treasure hunts, kite flying, clothes and doll clothes homemade with love, Piggy back rides, walks, giant snow mountains in the backyard, amazing birthday and holiday parties, memorable vacations, late night talks... love, friendship, siblings, and fun... I owe that to my parents. And they continue to bless my life in many ways.

I owe so much to my mom and dad-in-law as well. For one thing they raised the amazing man I tricked into marrying me who makes my life what it is. But they have always treated me with such kindness and love. Welcoming me into their family. I’m grateful for their examples, their family, and the love they constantly show.

Parenting is hard, but these parents have done a great job!! #lighttheworld2020

THAT'S HOW BRAD ROLLS

Tuesday night, long after I'd gone to bed, Kelly came popping into my bedroom announcing that Bradley was downstairs on the couch crying and in pain.  I knew he had hurt himself and suggested some ibuprofen, but this sounded worse.  I ran downstairs and there he was, on the small couch in the living room, intears.  It was so sad!!  This is when I got a look at his gnarly ankle.  The whole right side of his right ankle was totally bulging out.  It looked so bad!  VERY swollen.  He told me he had jumped up to block someone and then came down on their foot and rolled his foot inverted.  He was feeling okay with it until he tried to get up and go to the bathroom just then.  It did not look good.  I decided to call Brent, even though it was pretty late at night.  He talked me through it, told me to take him to the ER in the morning.  We gave him some Tylenol to go with his Ibuprofen, propped his foot up, got some ice on it, and kissed him goodnight.  He did need to go to the bathroom for which Kelly and I acted as crutches to get him up there. It was a very long night for him.  Didn't go to sleep until about 4:30.  Poor guy.  In the morning we decided to let him watch his AP Psych class and then go up to the Doctor at 11:20.  After the little check up with Dr. Tew and his funny reaction to the swollenness of Brad's ankle, we headed over to the hospital in a boot.  We saw Amanda Anderson at the reception desk, that was fun.  Then we got his x-ray.  Then we grabbed some Mo Bettas on the way home.  It was a long few hours before we finally found out what was wrong.  Which was somewhat anticlimactic.  "There is no fracture, but there are some spots that are consistent with a fracture, so we are going to treat it as a fracture, keep the boot on it for four weeks."  I wasn't a huge fan of this diagnosis.  There wasn't even an appointment to follow up.  Brent had wanted to see the x-rays, so I was doing my best to attempt to get them.  The doctor's office couldn't give them to me because they "didn't have them".  They sent me to the hospital, they told me I would have to come in and pick up a CD!  UGH!  It was so frustrating to me that they couldn't just send them to me in an email or something.  So we waited some more.  I wasn't able to go back down to Lake View to get them that night, but my dad had been willing to try and unfortunately got there after they closed.  So Nate and I went the next day.  Thursday.  We were able to get the CD, then shopped, when we got home it took some figuring out, but I was able to get the images off the CD. Not really the images, they were in a video, so I had to take pictures of them from my phone!  Then finally sent them to Brent.  This was important because I wanted a more sophisticated diagnosis.  Which I got.  He told me that it is called a distal fibular avulsion fracture.  This brought on a lot of conversation about follow-up care, and we are now in the process of getting an appointment with an orthopedic Surgeon, but good to know that he's okay to put weight on his foot.  This has been quite the adventure!  I hope we are doing the right things with it to take care of it.  12-15-20--12-18-20

NOAH'S 3RD TOURNAMENT

Noah had his 3rd tournament on Saturday.  This ended up being quite the challenge for him.  The school they had it at and the people running things were very strange.  They kept everyone bottled up in the lobby outside the gyms before finally letting them in because of sanitizing.  Then we all filed in through one tiny door to get in there.  I don't think people get the whole virus thing and how it's transferred.  Kinda makes me laugh, but mostly I get irritated.  Once we got in there and looked a schedule we learned that one of the guys he was supposed to match wasn't going to be there.  Then after completing a match with a kid who clearly has been wrestling since he was able to breathe, he found out that the other guy he was going to match wasn't there either.  So he was looking at only having the one match.  That was a bummer.  We saw some other guys asking to match with other guys exhibition style and they were letting them, so we asked for Noah to be able to do that as well.  Unfortunately, it was with the same guy he had just wrestled and then an other one who was just as good as the first.  So it wasn't a real victorious tournament in the pin department, but we all know losing a match is almost more valuable than winning.  But his medal does say 2nd place, so.... I only wish this tournament had been as fun as the other two since I had decided to skip the rules and have both Nate and I go.  Here's to another wrestling tournament.  12-19-20

THE NORIEGAS

Nate and I finally got to go out with Dave and Shar.  This was a LOT of fun!  I really enjoyed talking with them.  We went to Red Robin, put our names down, learned that it was going to be an hour wait, drove down to look at the Layton lights (Dave's idea) and then upon seeing the huge line, decided we wouldn't make it back in time, so we drove back up to Red Robin.  Kinda funny.  We only sat there for a few minutes before our ready text came though, so... It was almost a four hour date.  Lots of talking and laughing.  We did eventually talk about the trek food, so that was good.  I love some of their ideas.  It's going to be really cool.  12-19-20

ZOOM TITHING SETTLEMENT

We had our Zoom tithing settlement with the Bishop on Sunday.  That was interesting.  I think it was fine though, just felt like we were checking boxes.  12-20-20

CLAIRE

We got to have Claire over for our ornament FHE.  The ornament making fell a little flat, but Claire did not disappoint :).  She is so much fun!  It was a little different with Heidi here, but really, so much fun!  She surprised us with a bag of masks and a fun laser ping pong game.  I wish we could have talked much longer, but hopefully we can do that next week sometime.  12-21-20

ORNAMENTS

The ornament making was not everyone's favorite this year.  I made them get creative with what we had.  That wasn't anyone's favorite idea.  Charity made a U for Utah State.  Kelly wasn't here, but I think she's going to make a crown for her Homecoming Royalty night.  I can't remember what Bradley made.  Luke made a carrot.  I'm not sure why, but he really struggled with what to make.  Noah made a medal for his wrestling.  Erika made a medal with a 2 for her 2nd place race this year.  Jack made a basketball for his awesome team this year.  I'm not sure what Molly made.  And I haven't made mine and Sadie's yet.  Maybe sometime this week.  Nate was going to make one too, but I'm drawing a blank.  We'll have to catch up on these.  12-21-20

THE CHRISTMAS STAR

We got to see the cool Christmas star this week!  I can't remember all the details I read about it online because I got hung up on the fact that the planets wouldn't stay aligned for very long so it couldn't be the same thing that was in the sky on the first Christmas night.  So that was interesting.  And still really cool to look at!  I got some pictures, but they really don't do it justice.  And I didn't take the pictures, I got them from other people.  12-21-20

BECKY'S AND GRANDMA'S

Kelly had made some little chalkboard signs for Becky for her friends and she'd offered to deliver them, so leaving Sadie, Molly, Jack, Luke, Bradley and Charity at home (sick, lazy, couch potatoing, babysitting, resting, working), the rest of us piled into the Prius, and headed up there.  We actually ended up having a really good time.  While we were at Becky's we got side tracked on with some memories of the great-grandparents.  That was a lot of fun.  Talking about their grandpa's white streaks in his hair and how he got that.  Then talking about the white scarf from Nate's dad to his mom.  Their dating life.  It was super cute.  And a lot of fun to hear from Becky.  I wish I'd written things down sooner so I could get all the details right.  It was a nice visit though.  At Ruth's we got to visit with Jen and Nancy as well as Ruth.  This was a nice time too.  I enjoy the smaller groups so much better than with everyone.  Ruth told us some more fun memories about dating grandpa Russ.  Erika and Noah got to make a little ornament craft they had out from doing it with the neighbor kids.  That was fun for them.  It was a really nice visit.  Very memorable.  12-22-20

LIGHT THE WORLD DAY 22

The other day, I shared with my kids, an inspirational story from my life that happened back in 2004. Three weeks before giving birth to our third child, Bradley. My cute five year old artist drew this picture of my experience.

I love her rendition of my crunched car and even more I love the winged angels all around. When I told this story I had just one angel in mind, but it made me happy to think that there were probably lots more. All around.

I feel very blessed to know that I do have so many angels looking out for me and supporting me all the time. Earthly and heavenly angels. #lighttheworld2020

KELLY'S DATING LIFE

I don't have a lot of details, but Kelly has been a dating machine lately!  She goes out almost every night she's available!  It's been so fun for her and so fun for us to watch her go and have a great time.  She went down to Salt Lake and rode the scooters with a guy this week, someone who just turned 16, so that was fun for her :).  But she's been having so much fun!  I love it!  12-22-20

HOMEMADE GIFTS

The homemade gifts were done early this year!  I was really happy about that!  I really loved the one Luke made for Alyssa.  Really turned out!   I did a few other homemade gifts too.  I made Charlie a hoodie that said, "88 Keys 10 fingers, no problem".  I was pretty proud of that.  Lots of fun.  12-22-20

CHRISTMAS EVE AT GRANDPA'S

This year was a very different year at Grandpa's house!  It was a good different, but very different.  There were so many people there :).  Felt like a lot because it was more than just us and Steve.  Brent and Sarah drove in on Christmas eve and were able to spend it with all of us at Grandpa's house. And then to top it off, Heidi was also there with us!  First time in at least 10 years... but I think it's more.  We had lots of yummy food including Nate's pork bites.  Lots of fun presents.  It was really great!  We had started early so that we could end a little earlier and get home at a decent time.  Also, Nate had to work so we were hoping to get all the fun in before he had to leave which I think we did.  but there was a little hang up with Steve at the end that we were happy to help with, but we ended up not getting home until 10:30.  So that was kinda crazy.  Some highlights: Savannah opening her gifts before we started- HA! but loving the hair coloring chalk enough to try them out right away!  Even took out her braids!  Alvin dropping his journal off the loft missing Molly by an inch!  The look on his face was priceless.  Having everyone together again for the first time in a long time. 12-24-20

CHRISTMAS JAMMIES

I think this was the first year that everyone's jammies fit them!  I mean, some were a little big, I'll admit, but nobody's were too small!  That was a relief!  They were all so happy with them, we almost didn't have any crying in the picture!  Even Kelly liked hers :).  I need to have Brad help me pick out her shirt every year.  They all headed down to the sparkling clean boys' room for their all-night party.  Er, I mean, to sleep.  12-24-20

CHRISTMAS 2020

This was a 2020 Christmas!  It was good enough, but I get the feeling it wasn't anyone's favorite.  Since I am going to coin the phrase "2020 _________" for something that was subpar/mediocre/not what you bargained for, I figured I'd start with using it to describe this year's Christmas.  Actually, it started out really good!  The kids woke up at a reasonable time.  Or at least they stayed downstairs til a reasonable time.  They thought I had said not to come up til dad got home, so... he showed up around 7:00 and that's about when they came to get me!  I was kind of surprised they hadn't tried to get me up sooner.  Funny kids.  We opened our stockings while the eggs boiled.  Everyone seemed happy with their stockings.  It was fun to see some of them with their new toys.  Bradley wearing his hat.  Kelly trying out her sticker by number and Charity fiddling with her water bottle.  It was so good to see everyone together and happy.  Feels like we get less and less of that lately.  They decided to give me my birthday gifts and sing to me while we waited for the eggs.  I opened game after game!  It was so fun!  I LOVE board games!  These all look like really fun ones.  I am excited to play them.  So we headed up to have our creamed eggs on toast- everyone helped with cracking eggs and toasting bread.  It was a nice time together.  Very pleasant.  I love how kind and peaceful our house is on Christmas.  The creamed eggs on toast was delicious!  We loved it.  Then we went down to see what Santa brought!  Sadie got a little button toy- where you push, twist, pull or slide the knob and something pops up. She loves it- of course.  Molly got a unicorn sleeping bag!  This was a highlight of Christmas!  She spent most of her day in that sleeping bag.  I was pretty happy about that.  Jack got an art set with a sketch pad.  He really loved that.  Erika got her Fitbit.  Noah got a cool drone.  Luke got a long board.  Hopefully he didn't change his mind on wanting that, but just didn't want to see greedy about it.  Bradley got a punching bag.  His only concern was where he was going to hang it.  Kelly got a little photo printer.  Charity got a Jazz hoodie and a question book.  I think this was about when Porter, Heidi and Alyssa had joined us.  We were happy to have them with us, but there was a little shift in mood at that point.  I felt kind of bad that things can't just feel the same, but they really didn't.  It was okay though.  We were all willing to share our Christmas.  We watched Porter and Alyssa open their gifts.  Then wen moved on to the Homemade gifts!  I love this part.  Luke had Alyssa so he went first.  He had made her a cute piggy bank that had her name and weight and birthdate and stuff on it... it was SO CUTE!!  I thought it turned out really good.  So Charity had Sadie and she made her a fleece blanket.  She was really on top of things this year, buying the fabric way ahead of time.  Sadie had Porter so she gave him a homemade fishing pole and fish.  I think he liked it for a few seconds at least :).  Then Alyssa had Molly, so she gave her some frames with pictures of her and Sadie in them.  That was cute.  Molly loves that Alyssa loves her.  Nate had Jack and he had been slaving over a drawing of an incredible Megaladon for him.  He had put it in a really nice cool frame to top it off.  I loved Jack's reaction to this gift.  He really loved it.  Molly had Erika.  She had drawn her some pictures of the two of them playing together on the computer because I was going to put them into an actual book, but Molly had gotten impatient with that idea and just wanted to print it off on our printer and staple it into a book.  We also took Molly to the store and she put together a craft box for Erika as well.  The book was Erika's favorite part.  Porter had Noah he gave him a google play card.  Noah had Luke and he made him a chain reaction kit!  That was really cool.  Luke really liked that.  Jack had Bradley.  He drew him a picture of the two of them fishing.  We put it in a nice frame.  Bradley had Kelly.  He had etched the words "You are beautiful" at the bottom of a full length mirror... looked awesome!   He did a good job on that and we had fun making it together.  I made Charity a hoodie that said "I'd rather be in LOGAN" it was super cute.  She loved it even thought this made hoodie number FOUR for her this year!  Shoulda thought that one through a little better I guess.  Erika made Heidi some really pretty canvases to hang on the wall.  She had slaved over those, going through a lot of drama with losing the paint and you name it, but they had turned out so cute!  Heidi had me, but she is not done with my gift.  Kelly had Nate and painted him a record of the picture of them on the football field when she was Homecoming Royalty.  SO COOL!!  He teared up of course.  We had a milder Christmas, with money being a little tighter, but I don't feel like the kids missed anything that way.  Except maybe Bradley.  He didn't really get anything he could play with, so he didn't have much to do after present opening.  That kinda bummed me out for him.  But I think everyone needs a Christmas like that.  He toughed it out.  We opened presents til ours were done and then we left Heidi and her kids to their mountain of gifts!  They had been gifted through a Sub for Santa on top of a car load of gifts from John's aunt and mom and Heidi's friend Star, so they had a LOT of gifts to open!!  It took Heidi all day to open them.  I am really proud of my kids for being happy for them and being excited about their gifts.  It would be hard as a kid to see your tree surrounded with so many gifts knowing none of them were for you.  But they were awesome about it.  I was proud of them.  Shortly after opening gifts, we were surprised with guests.  Steve, then Grandpa Hatch, Grandma Hatch, then a little later, the Hatches showed up!  Nate slaved over a dinner for everyone and we all stuffed ourselves with amazing ham and potatoes.  My dad had brought some ribs, rolls and salad from the night before.  It was delicious, but I'm vetoing the idea of him catering Christmas dinner on zero sleep next year.  He surprised me with an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen and some Keto Cakes fudge and streussel!  Those were yummy!!  It was a chaotic, loud Christmas.  Charity, Kelly and Bradley escaped a few times getting McD's and just getting out.  Luke and I finally got to play his Catan game.  Our family room had been so full of stuff that everyone ended up in the living room and so it was overcrowded so we didn't get to any of the other games. But I guess that's what Christmas break is for.  I don't think we will forget this Christmas.  12-25-20

FAMILY DRAMA

To give my kids a little break I had wanted to get Heidi and her kids out for a bit.  So Sarah and I planned a dinner with the adult kids, Brent, Sarah, ME, Nate, Heidi and Steve.  Took us a bit but Heidi finally chose Cubby's.  We met up with Brent and Sarah as Steve dropped him off.  They had apparently had a rough time communicating and Steve was driving him all over the place like a crazy person yelling at him and blaming him for things he shouldn't.  So Brent was in a bit of a funk.  Then I got a text from my dad mad about us not inviting him.  We waited for Heidi to get there and were able to talk a little, she finally got there an hour later and things were mostly fine for us then, but what a cray outing.  Not quite what I'd planned.  12-26-20

FHE

Kelly taught us about being a good friend and how we can focus on being the kind of friend we like to have.  We watched the Jazz game and had Oreos for the treat.  Noah ran a taste test with the Oreos :).  That was fun.  

IHOP

My mom and Simon treated all of the families to IHOP today!  That was a lot of fun once we got in there and got seated and teased the waitress about the stupid COVID protocols they're running there.  I was sitting by Molly, Jack, Sadie and sometimes Nate.  I was bummed that all my big fun kids had moved to other tables to keep us far enough apart.  Kind of a drag.  But the food was good and it was fun to be with everyone.  12-29-20

GET AIR

After breakfast we all met up at Get Air.  This ended up being a lot of fun too.  I loved watching the kids play and talking and joking with Brent.  It seemed like most of us had a good time.  It would have been fun to see Steve there!  Izzy was really brave!  I was only slightly paranoid that she was going to break a leg or arm while we were there.  12-29-20

GINGERBREAD HOUSES ROUND 2

We bought some more graham crackers and made another two batches of frosting (which I did the RIGHT way this time!  SHEESH!  I don't know why I have the wrong recipe on my blog!  It's 3 cups Powdered Sugar, 2 egg whites, and 1/2 teas of cream of tartar)  We talked about having a castle competition, but never actually did the judging, but we all got really creative with them, that was a lot of fun.  Savannah went all out, drawing blueprints and everything :).  Which Molly loved so much that she copied the idea :).  Jack made his own and Brent- I mean Porter and Brent- made one as well.  It was a nice time together.  We can't wait to demolish them with the bat later this week :).  12-29-20

CHARLIE'S RECITAL

Charlie wowed us with his mad piano skills.  We got to go to Sarah's sister Emily's house to watch Charlie play on Emily's Steinway!  Pretty awesome.  He did a phenomenal job!  I really couldn't have been more impressed and with having only had two years to get there... Pretty amazing!  It was neat to be a part of it.  12-29-20

BOARD GAMES

I got lots of fun board games for Christmas so a lot of our time has been spent learning how to and playing my games.  That's been a fun little highlight for me.  I have loved every minute of it!  12-30-20

NEW YEAR'S EVE DAY

Since we were hanging out with the Hatches in the evening, we really wanted to hang out with the Maughans during the day.  So Nate and I went to lunch with Emily and Travis to Olive Garden and their kids came over here to play with our kids while we were gone.  It was a really great way to spend the day.  I loved it.  When we got home we cleaned up the house a little for the party to come.  The Hatches came, we played a couple games, ate Nate's drumsticks and a lot of other random snacks :) and talked!  I have really loved having Brent and Sarah in town- we had a lot of fun with them.  It was fun to reconnect.  If only we could see them more often.  Heidi decided she is going to go back with them so she spent most of the day packing and getting ready to go with them..  That will be really nice for her and Porter I think.  A nice change of scenery.  And a break from us :).  Time flew by really fast this year and it was 11:00 before we new it.  We turned on Onward and very quickly it was 11:58!  Nate and Brent showed up from their walk with Thor just in time to open up the sparkling cider and ring in the new year with us!!  So that was a lot of fun.  Very thrilling :).  The kids all ran out with the pots and pans and then the party was over!  It's always a little anticlimactic :).  but it was a great night!!  Kelly's friends stayed to drag the fun out a little, that was fun.  I hope we get to sleep in tomorrow.  12-31-20