DECEMBER PHOTOS

 

DECEMBER 2021

 INDEXING

My old indexing addiction has returned.  I'm not sure if it's a good thing or not.  I need more help with knowing when I should and when I shouldn't index.  But it is fun.  I indexed a Harry Carey this week :).  12-1-21

ON MY MIND    

So, I'm not sure why, but I've been pretty fixated on this moving the boys upstairs idea.  It's pretty much all I can think about.  It's really starting to make me crazy I think.  And right in the middle of all the Christmas preparations.  I need to figure this out before it's something less manageable.  I did talk Nate into the idea, we ordered the triple bunk bed, now I'm just doing whatever I possibly can to get each room ready.  Brad and Jack are going to take the craft room (sniffles and tears).  Noah and Luke are going to have Sadie's old room as soon as we move her in with the girls.  The current game room will become the toy/sewing machine room and the boys' room will be our new game room!  We're hoping to put the ping pong table in there and everything.  I think it will be fun.  I hope.  Let's see if I can actually pull it off.  I've already done the impossible and found space (pretty much all over the house) for my craft stuff, and that was the hardest part, so we'll see.  I hope this is a good idea.  12-1-21

SHOPPING

Nate and I (along with our little stragglers Sadie and Molly) went shopping on Thursday!  Got a LOT of it done!  That was nice.  It was a fun time too!  12-2-21

CHURCH BALL

It's here!  In full swing!  We all got to go to Noah's Deacons' game.  It was somewhat painful to watch because the other team had some really good deacons along with a couple really good teachers who probably shouldn't have been allowed to play.  We have some very new players, young, and short, so we kinda got killed.  They played so hard though and gave it their all the entire game!  I was really proud of Noah's stamina!  PLUS Noah was wearing some kind of bad luck charm and couldn't sink almost any of his shots- it was so sad!!  I don't know what it was- they all looked good!  He did have a pretty tall kid (one off the teachers) who was right on him every time he went down for a lay-up.  Poor kid!  But he kept at it- his euro fake was amazing and I couldn't believe how high he was jumping to get the rebounds!!  We've gotta market that skill somehow!!  Very cool!  I missed the older boys' game this week because Miss Sadie was milking her rocking session for all it was worth, but I heard all about it and it sounded like they played really well to a team that wasn't that great being reffed by THEIR coach who was making up his own calls and being pretty ridiculous.  I wouldn't have liked him, according to Luke.  So I'm glad they're having fun!  We've got a few more weeks of it!  Pretty fun!  12-2-21

ME AND JACK

Everyone wanted to go to the church to play basketball last night except Jack.  So he and I stayed home and I let Jack choose what we would do- he chose watching Ant Man and the Wasp :).  He likes that one a lot, picks it all the time, it's super cute.  I was glad that the spirit prompted me to get off my indexing and spend that time with him.  I want those kinds of moments.  More of them in fact.  So I'm glad I did that.  We had fun laughing and talking about the movie together.  12-2-21

BRADLEY DATING

I don't know if I've even mentioned how good Brad is at going on dates :).  He and Brandon go pretty often on group dates- I think it's awesome!  Last night he was asked to go out with Anna Branchley's cousin in a group with her and some other cousins.  He was pretty brave to venture out into the blind date arena- he's done this before with Brandon's girlfriend's friend, but he did it!  I'm really proud of him for being so outgoing.  He didn't have the greatest time- she was kind of a bratty girl in his opinion, but he still had a smile on and he came up to hug me goodnight, so that's all that mattered :).  When I came down this morning, I saw some running things with a poster asking Bradley to Sweethearts!!  ALREADY!!!  Christmas dance isn't til tomorrow!!!  Which he's not super thrilled about that date either.  She's super shy and according to Brad, the kids in the group are not that great to be with.  I'm glad he recognizes those kinds of things.  I think this is the perfect exposure to help him see what he will look for in the future.  But so funny that he's been asked already!  I wonder who it is!!  12-3-21

CHRISTMAS DEVOTIONAL

I really got into the First Presidency Christmas devotional this year.  It was really uplifting, I always love the focus on Christmas.  There were some really great talks.  I am confused why President Nelson didn't speak, but he likes to be creative and shake things up a bit.  I like that.  I think the best part was when we watched the choir, the choir was not wearing masks :).  I had just had this big dramatic choir practice that morning over mask wearing and stuff.  So it just iced the cake so nicely.  I hope we can talk our choir director into not wearing them in the performance.  So grateful for our leaders though and all that they teach us.  I loved it.  12-5-21

KELLY UPDATE

Finally got the results from Kelly's heart monitor.  What a crazy few phone calls it's been with the Internal medicine specialist's secretaries.  Not super impressed with anyone there.  I may have overreacted a little about them stating that they want to have Kelly follow-up on her "depression and mimgraines" duh.  Since when did Kelly have depression and migraines?  And I was really worried they had put that in her chart somewhere or something.  We'll have to see what comes of the cardiologist referral.  I just don't know if it's worth it. 12-5-21--12-8-21

FHE

Because of basketball practices being on Monday night, we had to move FHE to Tuesdays.  It's a little tricky with Nate going on visits with the Bishop, but we made it happen this week.  I gave a lesson on the Articles of Faith and how we can use them to answer questions about the church.  We played a little King Pig with scripture signs, after Nate left for work, for our activity and then had snickers for the treat.  12-7-21

MOLLY BEA'S PARTY

Molly got to go to Classic Skating for Bea's party Wednesday.  That was pretty fun.  She went like a pro- didn't even ask me to stay!  She really is growing up!  12-8-21

CHURCH BALL

We're loving church ball this year again.  It's been so fun that everyone wants to come watch.  Well, minus chasing Sadie around the whole time.  But lots of fun.  12-9-21

TRIPLE BUNK BED!

The bed finally came!  It was supposed to come the day before, so we had to wait a whole day longer.  It came just as we were getting Molly ready for school, so as soon as I got back from taking her, I was able to put start putting it together.  It was nice that it was such a good quality bed!  I was worried, buying it from Walmart and all, but very impressed while I was putting it together.  Only took me three hours.  Would have been a little less if I hadn't accidentally grabbed the wrong screws near the end.  Luckily!  Well, and really this was a tender mercy from the Lord.  I was able to narrow down which parts I may have used the wrong screws and had only about eight to undo and look at but ended up finding the right ones on only the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tries!  All three of them that quickly!  Such a blessing.  We finished the girls' room!  Well, mostly.  Still a few changes in their closet, but for now.  Looks really good.  Molly was really happy with her new bed.  Sadie says she's happy with her bed until it's time to actually go to sleep.  This will be a transition I'm afraid.  It was sad putting down the crib.  But I'll admit, with how much work this dumb room swapping idea has been, I was just anxious to get it out of there.  Maybe that's a good thing.  I don't know.  Baby season has passed.  I need to wrap my head around that.  12-9-21

BUSY FRIDAY

Friday was packed for me.  I spent a good two hours moving Brad and Jack's bunk beds up to their new room, FINALLY!  Poor Jack had been anxiously awaiting this change, and sleeping on just a mattress in there for a whole week.  It wasn't hard, but took a while.  Glad to have Nate's help for part of it- just wish he hadn't hurt his back in the process.  Then it was time to go do centers with Molly and then I had to head out to drive the Student Council for their service project after that!  Then it was kind of a mad dash to move all of the toys and crib from Sadie's room down to the game room and crawl space to make room for Luke and Noah's bed which frankly, I'm not sure how that thing has been standing!  None of the screws are tight anymore.  They are all just sticking in the holes.  Kinda weird.  We may need to look into a new bed for them.  It was crazy.  And with the crazy time putting Sadie to bed and getting all the boys home from their friends' houses, it was a rough evening.  I needed to change my attitude.  I was having a lot of pain still from whatever is wrong inside of me, my ovary or something, not sure.  But I could have done better.  12-10-21

STUDENT COUNCIL SERVICE PROJECT- ERIKA

Me and my huge van got to take the student council up to the senior living homes up behind Bennion Craft on Friday.  What a fun time that was!  Mrs. Badger is hilarious, reminds me of me- trying to find the most efficient way of doing things the entire time, switching it up, confusing the kids and basically just nagging them the whole time :), but we had a lot of fun!  We put cards the students had made, on the doors and then went out to the middle of the group of apartments and sang to them.  It was cool :).   I enjoyed spending the time with Erika.  She's a good girl.  12-10-21

WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY

As usual, Nate was not able to join us for the ward party.  Kind of a bummer and always hard for me to get past.  But we managed to have a little fun even without him.  We sat by the Maughans.  Brad was super helpful with Sadie most of the time he was there, but he did have to leave after the food to go on a date.  I ate a bunch of stuff I wasn't supposed to eat.   Then we had a little sing-a-long with some Christmas songs and Cal Carlson asked the kids and youth to come up and help lead it, so Noah, Erika, Molly and sometimes Sadie went up and sang.  It was good that they joined in.  I was proud of them.  Then they did a little nativity with some of the Primary kids and then it was over!  It was a good time though.  I got to talk with the Barbaras for a few minutes before leaving.  Love them.  12-11-21

WARD CHOIR

Choir practice reached a new low today.  She showed up without the music, but wanted to kill time with the songs we know, before having a few minutes to run through the one she invented but still doesn't have the accompaniment.  It's been so crazy!  Lots of tension and frustrated people.  All she cares about is who is wearing masks.  Hopefully she has the accompaniment on Saturday so we can run through it a few times before Sunday.  That should be interesting.  We're all very grateful for Greg and that he is willing to speak for us all.  I only wish Brad was coming with me still.  12-12-21

GRANDMA RUTHIE PARTY

Grandma Ruthie planned a little party for BEFORE Christmas since Lynn's thing he planned is after.  We all went up to Grandma Ruthie's house for dinner- delicious soups and rolls.  I love things where I don't have to cook.  Then had the lesson.  Then we had a white elephant exchange.  I think this is the most chaotic white elephant exchange I've ever been a part of.  But it happened and we all traded for what we wanted at the end.  Well, except some of us.  It's always hard when the kids are hot and tired and overstimulated.  I think it makes it hard to deal with the disappointment of not getting the toy they want.  Kind of a bummer.  But we survived.  I loved talking with Ausstin and Kelly about missions.  It was good to see everyone.  12-12-21

LUNCH WITH DAD

My dad invited me to lunch on Monday.  We ended up at Olive Garden.  Lots of big stuff to talk about and his Oregon trip.  It was a lot of fun.  I really enjoy being with my dad.  Thanks to my mom for tending the kids!  12-13-21

CHARITY COMING DOWN FOR THE DOC

Charity had an appointment with Dr. Thackeray on Tuesday, so Monday night I went and picked her up.  I really loved being able to visit with her for a while.  Such a good girl.  I'm so proud of her and all that she is doing.  I can't believe we scheduled that the week of finals.  That was my fault.  (or "salt" if you ask Sadie)  She had to work on a math test all night, online that she ended up doing pretty well on.  It was a good time with her.  Love my Charity.  Her appointment went well.  Glad it didn't seem too alarming.  12-13-21

LUNCH WITH KELLY, CHARITY, AND GRANDMA HATCH

My mom has been wanting to go have lunch up in Logan, so we had her ride up with Charity and I and met up with Kelly at Great Harvest and had lunch together.  Funny drive up with my mom and Charity.  They both don't enjoy my driving.  But we all had a good time and it was a nice chat with my mom all the way home.  We got the bad news about what Heidi is doing to Simon right now when we got home.  Very surprised.  Not sure what to think.  12-14-21

RELIEF SOCIETY PARTY

I was only able to go to an hour of this, but it was nice.  The food was too good.  I got to talk with a bundh of my friends, Leslie, Brooke, Shar, Melissa, it was nice.  Jami came over to chat for a few minutes before I needed to leave for Noah's concert and that was nice to get to talk to her.  I was able to ask her.  12-14-21

NOAH'S CONCERT

A few of us got to meet up at Noah's Orchestra concert on Tuesday.  It's really fun to watch his concerts and know that the beautiful bass line is him!!  Especially on Carol of the Bells!  I love that song!  No wonder he's been getting that song stuck in my head everyday.  He sounded awesome!  12-14-21

SNOW TWO HOURS

We didn't get a whole snow day like some districts, but we did get a two hour late start for the little kids.  The older kids already start late on Wednesdays.  We got a good 8 or 9 inches of snow!  Pretty fun!!  I was glad the kids got out and played in it.  I felt bad that we've put off buying boots again.  I let the kids sleep in a little, had study time later than usual, but still had time to take advantage of the two hours!  It was nice!  12-15-21

GET AIR JACK ACTIVITY DAYS

I was volunteered to drive the boys to Get Air for their activity.  It ended up being pretty fun.  Emily Leix came too so I talked to her the whole time.  But I loved being able to do that for Jack and his friends' moms.  I had to do a sprinting shopping trip for a few friend gifts in between taking them and picking them up, and it wasn't all that productive, but we made it back in time even with ditching Erika at the church in the dark by herself to wait for her class to meet to go to the temple.  Jack had a great time!  12-15-21

HOLIDAY SINGALONG

We missed the singalong this year.  Such a bummer.  Erika was pretty proud of hers.  They did drummer boy.  I loved hearing about it all month as they practiced.  Jack did a song that he can't remember and didn't seem to want to sing it for me.  Molly did Santa Claus is Coming to Town that they've been practicing all month and did it with lots of cute actions!  So fun!!  Just sad I missed it.  12-16-21

MINISTERS

We have awesome ministers who painstakingly scheduled a visit with us through our busiest week of the year.  They are so nice to make time for us.  We had a few minutes before I needed to take Luke to his concert. 12-16-21

NOAH'S CONCERT

Nate and I met up at Luke's Choir Concert.  He was not excited about this concert.  He looked and sounded so good though and I am so proud of him and the sacrifices he makes in his life.  It's been a challenge to have a lot of kids with special needs in the choir.  Seems like Luke has a lot of opportunities to show love to the kids with special needs.  12-16-21

CHURCH BALL

After Luke's last song we rushed off to church ball.  WE missed Noah's game (which sounded intense with Dave coaching and giving Noah a hard time, I wish we had been there), but watched Brad's team totally dominate.  12-16-21

POLAR EXPRESS

Molly got to have her beloved Polar Express party on Friday.  For some reason I was not able to help with that.  I don't know why I had it on my calendar, but Mrs. Piper didn't.  Molly had a great time!  She got to have hot chocolate, watched some of the Polar express, made her elf ears and hat.  It was a great time!  I loved hearing abll about it after.  12-17-21

SHOPPING

Nate and I (along with Molly, Sadie and on Friday Jack) got almost all of the shopping done!!!  I'm so happy about that!  Hasn't been easy!  HA!  12-17-21

ERIKA AND THE TEMPLE

Erika has been to the temple a lot lately!  It's been so awesome that she's had that opportunity!  Twice in one week!  She got to go to the temple Friday with Morgan!  I'm glad she chooses good things to do with her time.  12-17-21

NOAH AND SPIDERMAN

Noah got to go see the new Spiderman movie on the opening day!  Pretty lucky!  It was nice of Jacob to take him.  He didn't give me too much info about it.  But it sounded long :).  I can't wait to see it!!!  12-17-21

"SMOKIN'" CHRISTMAS

Nate had the awesome idea to make pulled pork for our neighbor gifts.  I loved the idea.  I only wish we had chosen a different day to do it.  Nate was working, so he got the meat all ready to go and bought all the rolls.  It was the night that all of the kids were out doing fun things with friends.  Brad was at Brandon's birthday party, Luke was at Jaxx's house, Noah was with Jacob and Erika was at the temple with Morgan.  Luckily, Kelly was down.  We were able to get all the meat boxed up and the rolls in bags with ribbon, Sadie even helped with bagging up the rolls, that was adorable.  Kelly, Jack and Molly helped me as we passed out over half and then I was able to get a hold of Noah to come help us so Kelly could go play with friends.  Noah was super good to step up and help and covered for Molly when after she slipped on the ice and skinned everything.  It was a crazy night.  Took us 2 hours to get it all pasesed out.  I need to remember that for next year.  We need to start before 6:00.  We got a lot of compliments and fun comments from people about it being such a great gift idea, so that was fun.  Maybe we'll do it again next year just make sure it's on a night that everyone can help!  12-18-21

CHRISTMAS PROGRAM

I would call this the choir program, but it was hardly that.  I have so many complaints about the ward choir this year.  Mostly the director, but anyway.  It was not a choir program.  The one song we sang was really weird and we had only practiced with the accompaniment for a day.  Then she added all of these non-Christmas songs which was just so sad.  The only time of year to sing Christmas music and we missed it.  But whatever.  Just a disappointment.  But I'm glad we can at least have choir.  12-19-21

GRANDMA HATCH PARTY

We gathered with Steve at my mom's for a little party on Sunday night.  Ate some yummy food, then played with all the toys and visited.  Simon liked the tie we gave him and my mom waited to open the slippers.  I think the best part was listening to Noah and Luke's duet on the little bells of Carol of the Bells!  So fun!!  Everyone had a good time!  12-19-21

CANDLELIGHT CHRISTMAS

We finally got to go up to This is the Place Monument Park and participate in the Candlelight Christmas with Grandma Ruthie and Aunt Jen.  That was a lot of fun.  We tied a scrap of fabric on a garland- I seriously want to make some of these sometime.  We rolled a bees wax candle.  We saw how tin can be shaped.  We ate gingerbread cookies.  We got a chocolate coin in the bank, and had fun square dancing at the end.  Lots of fun.  It was really cold that night.  Probably should have bundled everyone up a little more.  Grandma treated us all to some Jersey Mike's subs (Red Robin was not allowing groups bigger than 8) after.  12-20-12

CHRISTMAS IN COLOR

We had our second annual drive thru the lights out in South Jordan's Christmas in Color.  That ended up being a lot of fun.  Charity and Kelly made the trek down and got here just in time for us to get down there only an hour late!  HA HA!  Just kidding.  We were probably only 45 minutes late.  And it was fine.  We still waited in line for 45 more minutes.  It was a lot of fun though! Sadie was adorable through the whole thing.  She sat up in the front with us and talked about EVERYTHING.  The other kids loved watching Sadie I think :).   I wish we'd been able to get hot chocolate first, but whatever.  We all loved the tunnels.  Sadie loved seeing Olaf and the reindeer!  We had a rough time getting home and deciding to let Charity and Kelly drive home that late at night, but it all worked out.  They both had to work in the morning.  We had fun though.  I like this tradition.  12-21-21

AT THE CHURCH

Emily and I planned a little outing to the church gym for the kids on Wednesday.  It ended up being a lot of fun!  They played chair soccer.  We talked.  It was great!  Perfect way to pass the time as we all got more and more anxious for Christmas.  12-22-21

HANNAH AND ISAAC

We got to have Hannah and Isaac over as they took a pit stop on the way home from a wedding.  I had a lot of fun talking with Hannah and we enjoyed the company in the morning before they left.  It was short, but sweet.  Good kids.  12-22-21--12-23-21

GRANDPA HATCH AND CHRISTMAS EVE

While Hannah and Isaac were here I got a text from my dad telling me that his flight home from Oregon had been canceled so he was probably not going to make it home for Christmas Eve.  We were so devastated!!  I started frantically looking for flights or bus routes or something so we could talk him into coming.  Luckily he sensed the urgency and found a flight home.  He was able to get back to his house around 8:30pm on Christmas Eve!!  12-23-21

GIFTS FOR THAT FAMILY IN THE WARD

This month for our family service, we decided to do Christmas for a family in our ward.  It was fun to take their list shopping and for the kids to be able to think about each of the kids and find things they might like.  I thought we did pretty good.  I loved hearing Sis. Littledike's explanation of how they reacted to the gifts.  Pretty fun.  We might have to do this again sometime.  12-23-21

SHOPPING WITH BRAD FOR GRANDPA

So because my dad wasn't here, he wasn't able to do his Christmas shopping.  So he asked me if I would.  I was glad when Brad offered to come, because I didn't want to do it all myself.  So we went from store to store trying to pick out gifts grandpa would give everyone.  That was a lot of fun.  We did a pretty good job too!  Found a lot of cool things I hadn't thought of before.  And I LOVED spending the time with Bradley.  We are a good team when it comes to shopping.  12-23-21

CHRISTMAS EVE

We had a nice Christmas Eve.  Only a little bit of last minute shopping.  I needed to get something for Bradley and Alyss from my dad and then there was a lot of cleaning up and getting ready for the big day!  We were all a little on pins and needles wondering if Grandpa was going to make it home in time.  We still weren't sure if his flight would be canceled or not.  Stupid COVID.  So a lot of anxious energy.  But we planned to go up to my dad's a little early to hang out with Heidi and Steve.  That was fun. I was so relieved that Charity and Isaac had changed their plans and she was allowed to come with us. Steve went all out with the food for Grandpa.  We were able to eat and play.  And wait :).  I LOVED everyone's reactions when Grandpa came in the door!  Like actual cheering!!  HA!  Felt like a surprise party for a minute.  I loved it.  I think Grandpa loved it too.  We didn't mess around and got right to the presents.  Everyone seemed mostly happy with all the gifts they got!  I was happy about that.  In fact, their reactions were a lot of fun and then good for Grandpa too :).  I like feeling helpful.  Steve seemed to like the microphone and Grandpa set his delorian up on his mantel :).  We had a great time!  And then it was time to go.  This is the first Christmas I had almost all of the wrapping done before Christmas Eve.12-24-21

CHRISTMAS DAY!!!

We had a really awesome Christmas!  Felt like we covered all of our traditions and were comfortable with how the day went.  The kids woke us up at 6:30 as requested.  We slowly made our way downstairs.  We dumped out our stockings, that was fun.  Everyone was happy :).  We made and ate our Creamed Eggs on Toast.  Everyone spoiled me with gifts- lots of fun puzzles and some amazing hammock swings on custom made stands!!  Nate always goes all out!!  I feel so loved!  Then we moved down to the family room for PRESENT TIME!!  This is always so much fun.  Everyone is happy to open and watch each other open gifts!  So patient and excited for each other, that's my favorite.  We did Santa gifts first.  Sadie got a Baby Shark button thing.  Molly got a fitbit watch to keep track of her steps.  Jack got a Carnatore.  Erika got her moon chair.  Noah got a new ripstick.  Luke got a cool music synchronizer.  Bradley got a panini maker.  Kelly got an electric toothbrush.  Charity got a book with some gift cards to Old Navy.  Then we did our gifts for the people we drew names for.  Noah had Sadie.  He made her a tent!  So cute!!  She loved it.  Climbed right in and looked out and said, "Hi guys!"  Nate had Molly and he drew her a picture of a horse!  She of course loved it.  Charity had Jack and she gave him a dinosaur digging pit!  So cool!!  Such a creative idea!  Kelly had Erika.  She gave her the cork board she had decked all out in goal planning station and cute pins, a place for quotes, calendar, etc.  Really cute!  It was funny when Erika said, "That's where it went!"  She had asked me where her cork board was and I said I got rid of it in the bedroom switch.  Kinda funny.  Bradley had Noah.  He gave him a hot sauce challenge game.  That was cool.  Very creative.  Erika had Luke and made him 3D sand art.  Such a cool idea!  I was so glad we pulled that off!  I had Bradley.  I had made him some fly tie pins.  Those turned out so cool!  I was happy about that.  He seems to like them.  Sadie had Kelly.  She and I made Kelly some gnomes.  One for each month of the year- until June :).  HAHA!  We thought it would be okay since she's going to be going on a mission by then.  She was almost in tears, so that was great :).  Luke had Charity and made her a planter to hang from her ceiling.  She loved it!  Was totally impressed with it.  Jack had me.  He made me a little nativity picture out of rocks!  It's the coolest!  I really love it!!  Molly had Nate and made him some bird feeders!!  He was very happy with this one.  We went on to the rest of the gifts under the tree and everyone loved all the things they got!  It's always fun to hear everyone's excitement and gratitude.  I love it.  We bummed around for most of the day.  Didn't go anywhere, didn't do much, it was great!  We had visits from Becky Widdison, Grandpa Hatch, Grandma Hatch and Simon, Steve, and Emily :).  It was a fun day!  Lots of junk food- unfortunately I ate way more than I should have- and lots of naps and playing.  I finished two of my puzzles and got them glued.  I think we're going to hang them up in the toy room!  So fun!!  Great day!!  Here's to the next one!  12-25-21

LAST SUNDAY OF THE YEAR

This was our last 1:30pm Sunday.  I feel really grateful to have that over.  I think 9:00 is going to be better for so many reasons. The Primary kids got to sing their song in Sacrament meeting today.  I loved watching Jack and Molly.  After church we ran a gift down to Uncle Ken that we had put off taking on Christmas Eve and then the rest of the evening was fun and games.  Reverently of course :).  The kids got out Noah's hot sauces that Brad gave him and had a little hot sauce challenge together.  That was hilarious.  I loved watching them all having fun together.  Kelly won, surprisingly :).  We watched the Chosen to top it off.  12-26-21

MANIS AND PEDIS

For my birthday, Christie took me to go get manis and pedis!  This was a lot of fun.  I loved it really.  It was nice and relaxing, and a good break from the norm.  The kids were good to hold down the fort while I was gone.  12-27-21

SPIDER-MAN: NO WAY HOME

My mom was kind enough to sacrifice her Monday evening to watch Molly and Sadie while the rest of us went to see Spider-man.  I let some of the kids invite friends because we had some extra tickets.  So Brad invited Katelyn, Luke had Jaxx and Noah had Zach.  Kelly had planned on Dallin coming and we were planning on Charity and Kelly when we bought the tickets, but this worked just as well.  I LOVED the movie!!  We all thought it was great!!  We were watching the "sqwall" come in as we went into the movie and then saw all the snow that came from it when we got out.  Pretty crazy.  Although not near what I would have suspected given all the phone alerts.  They are definitely over using those.  12-27-21

RIDING THE TRAIN DOWNTOWN

Wednesday was our big ride the train to downtown day!  This was exciting!  I was really happy the kids were all for it and things went really well!  We did it a little differently this time, left here around 1:00pm grabbed some Subway and then causally got on the train.  We only had to wait about five or ten minutes and we weren't rushed until the very last second when we learned we were on the wrong platform.  So that was crazy for a milisecond, but all was well.  We ate our Subs on the train.  We haven't usually been able to see much on the drive in years past, but this time it was light out and we saw the whole drive down.  We made our way to temple square which was a total ghost town at this time of day.  We loved how they decorated the construction site around the temple with cool quotes about all the symbolism with the temple and the improvements.  I thought that was so cool!  We had a fun time watching the workers and seeing all the things President Nelson talked about in his talk.  Then we headed over to the JSM building to look around, watched The Christ Child, saw the Jade and Empire rooms :).  Talked with the sister missionaries.  Then went over to City Creek where the giving machines were.  This is a fun new addition to our tradition.  The kids like picking out what we are going to give.  We went to the toy store for a while, checked out the little kid area at the food court over some frieds, then on to the Fernwood chocolate store, and then we headed back to the train.  We had only seen 3 homeless people to give socks to, so that was kind of a disappointment, but hopefully they were all in a warmer place, it was SO COLD that day!!  Like beyond cold!  We met some nice ladies who work at the Church History museum and they helped us get on the right train that we were already going to get on :).  The ride back was pretty uneventful and then we stopped at Panda for some take out for dinner.  It was a really fun evening!  I really loved the time together and the all the reminiscing.  12-28-21

KELLY

We have loved having Kelly with us all week!  She is so much fun for everyone and makes things so pleasant.  

NEW YEAR'S EVE

New Year's Eve day was great!  Nate and I got to spend time together picking up Charity and we were so happy to have her down for the night!  We got home and the kids had totally outdone themselves with the cleaning up!  The house looked great for our party with the Maughans!  Our house this year!  We just had a few finishing touches, but were totally able to take it easy and visit with the kids while we waited for time to pass :).  We played some games, got out the Oculus which everyone totally loves and fights over.  We set up all the food we got on our Costco run, and all was set!  Our party ended up being a lot of fun!  We had the Maughans and then since it was Marco's birthday, we had a bunch of Kelly and Bradley's friends here for fun and food.  It was a loud, full, very fun and exciting house!!  I hope the Maughans had fun.  I loved playing Banangrams, Compatability, and watching everyone play the JackBox games and the Oculus.  Lots of fun!  I ate way too much stuff that I shouldn't have but it was a great night!!  I loved watching all the kids banging their pots and pans and the fireworks were fun for sadie :). She still thinks she likes them.  We were up WAY after midnight, for some reason, but finally crashed around 2:00.  It was a lot of fun!  Erika had Kate, Noah and Luke had Josh, Jack, Molly and Sadie had Will and Jonah!  It was great!!  I was glad Brad had friends to go up to Froot Loops with to watch fireworks, and that Kelly had made it safely up to Logan to hang out with her new friends up there.  A very successful night!!  I even did awesome not worrying about what people think of our house the entire time :).  I'm getting better at that!  12-31-21