JANUARY 2026

 NEW YEAR'S DAY WITH THE MAUGHANS
We met up with the Maughans at the church to wear out chair soccer and lightning.  We didn't end up playing any board games for some reason.  Some of us sat and chatted a little and there were lots of snacks the whole time.  It was fun.  It was definitely a different hang out without most of the old kids!  No Charity, Kelly, Rachel or Josh.  But we managed to have some fun I think.  1-1-2026

JACK WAS ORDAINED A TEACHER!
This was really neat!  I think Jack was really looking forward to it and the thought of moving up in the Priesthood.  He likes passing the Sacrament and still does it sometimes, but I think he was looking forward to preparing it.  He likes that he now has control over the Chex and getting them on the tray without cross contamination.  So we all met in the Deacon's room and Noah got to ordain Jack to the office of Teacher.  Pretty sweet.  I loved hearing what Noah blessed him with and knowing that Noah was just there, he would know the concerns and be in tune to what Jack will need for this position.  It's just so cool to see my boys bless each other's lives.  So cool!!  1-4-26

DAVID
We took everyone to see David on Monday- we were off for school, which was awesome.  It was a really cute movie!  We loved it!  I kept wondering where the movie would end- like in the life of David- if they would do it all, but they stopped before Bathsheba, or just didn't tell that part.  Kinda cool still.  I think it's important to recognize that even good people sin.  But it was a fun time with everyone.  1-5-26

JACK GOT BRACES
The day came!  He was excited, not excited.  Kinda wild.  It's so crazy that Jack is now, officially a teenager with his cute brace-face :).   He did so well- unfortunately, I wasn't able to be at the orthodontist with him, Nate went- but he did so well and hardly complained about pain at all.  We did stock up on yogurt, pudding, soft foods, etc.  Here we go!  1-6-26

PLAYING WITH KELLY
I got to go down to Salt Lake to spend some time with Kelly while she nannied.  I met Ollie- super cute little guy!  He loved it when I pushed him on the swing :).  It was a really nice time with Kelly.  I wish I had the energy I need to be more fun and wish I could be more helpful and fun.  But I loved being with her and feeling her energy and brightness.  We need to hang out more often.  1-7-26

NEW BUNK BEDS FOR SADIE AND MOLLY!
We did it!  We finally bought a new bed for the little girls.  Sadie's bed broke and has been at a 45 degree angle for the past... really long time.  We chose a triple bunk bed so that they could use the bottom area for toys and fun.  We still need to work on that.  But I spent the entire day Thursday putting the bed together.  It took forever!  It was really hard!!  But I did feel pretty awesome when miraculously I got the top bunk placed on top of the bottom two!  ALL BY MYSELF!!  I'm still not sure how I did it.  Must have had some unseen help.  But I am also really proud of myself.  It was a lot like my recent Lego sets where I just felt good accomplishing something.  I like those things.  The girls loved it!  They have little stairs that go up to the top- they can both use those.  No slide unfortunately, we decided a slide would be too short to be fun and also take up too much room.  They filled the bottom with their stuffies and "reading nook" supplies.  The shelves are all covered.  I think it was a good change.  I hope they actually like it.  No more watching movies in bed for Sadie and dad, which was a total bummer for Sadie, but she handled it well.  1-8-26

BIRTHDAY TABLES WITH SADIE
It was July birthday tables on Friday!  So much fun!!  Sadie had her two friends Caroline and Austin come up with her and that was awesome.  We loved being with her.  She got Chick-fil-a and Pretzel Bites.  We got to share some of the pretzel bites with Molly and that was fun.  She was very quick to pack up and leave- which was funny, but she did hug us and love us goodbye.  1-9-26

GREENLAND DATE NIGHT
Nate and I decided that we needed to watch Greenland for our date (there are NO good movies out right now) so we went to dinner and then came home to watch Greenland.  It was funny how many of the kids wanted to join in- even Kelly and Devan joined us.  A bunch of Brad's friends came.  It was so fun!  We let Sadie and Molly watch a movie on the laptop.  Fun time though!  We need to do this more often.  1-9-26

GREENLAND 2 WITH ALL THE BIG KIDS
I mostly thought of this idea as like a celebrating Noah kind of activity- for his birthday- but we never sang to him or did anything birthday related, so I don't know if it still counts as such.  But anyway.  We planned it all out, had grandma come watch the girls.  We had to go  before Nate has work, so it was an 11:50 show.  We were all pretty excited for this!  I think the movie was pretty good- we all thought it was more of what the first one was about.  Pretty crazy to think about though and very entertaining.  We loved the first one, so we were pretty easy to please.  It was super fun to have the Hollists and Brenchleys with us too of course.  Good times!  1-10-26

NOAH'S 18TH BIRTHDAY!
He did it!! He turned into an adult!  I watched it happen.  I think Noah had a pretty good day.  He loved the sign we all slaved over.  He got to go to church and do all the Sunday things all day.  I mean, it was  a pretty great day overall :).  We had grandparents over the next day, for brownies and ice cream and spoiling Noah with cards full of money.  So that was pretty fun too.  It was fun to see Noah spoiled and happy.  I mean, he's usually happy, but I do think he deserves a little extra spoiling once in a while.  He was very gracious.  I tried to talk him into doing something with his friends like dinner or sushi or something, but nope.  We also got to take him to Tucanos a couple of nights later for some yummy tummy-filling food- he loves Tucanos, so that was fun.  It's crazy he's already 18.  I have very fond memories of just holding him in the rocking chair when he was a newborn.  Great idea being born in January where the world slows down.  I literally would just lay there with him next to me for pretty long periods of time.  He was super snuggly.   I loved the peace that came with Noah.  It was a huge blessing at that time.  Cool that his name means rest or peace.  Fit him so well.  But here we are- filling out mission papers, thinking about college and doing an internship with Mountain Land PT.  He's really doing it all.  All grown up.  I'm really proud of him and all that he has ahead and the life that I am certain he will live.  He's a pretty amazing kid.  He's gonna do some amazing things.  1-11-26

NOAH PHYSICAL- TB TEST
Noah's just got a few more things to do before he can submit his papers, so we went and got another physical- the sport one wasn't enough- and they inserted the TB test stuff.  Kinda fun.  Just one of the milestones.  11-13-26

LUNCH WITH BARBARA FARNES
Barbara and I headed up to Applebees this week.  She was worried about me after I said this past year was hard.  I reminded her that I am just a big baby so she need not worry.  She had just had some dental issues so she was missing a tooth while we ate, kind of distracting, but also fine.  1-13-26

FROZEN PLAY WITH MOLLY AND SADIE
This was one of the gifts we gave the girls this year- tickets to see Frozen at the Hale Center Theater.  This ended up being SO COOL!!!  I was actually extremely entertained the entire time!  And so were the girls!  We loved all the special effects!  We got to learn about how they do a lot of it when they had "question time" aka: the stuff wasn't working.  The girls loved the quick dress change during Let it Go- we still don't know how they did that!!  So cool!!  The characters were so fun and the props.  It was a lot of fun.  We need to do something like that again.  1-14-26

PELVIC FLOOR PT
Had my second appointment.  It was not as bad as the first and she said I have improved significantly!  Which I was very proud of- I've been doing the breathing really well.  1-15-26

SHOPPING AND LUNCH WITH DAD
We went to our usual- Olive Garden- for lunch, and then shopping for my birthday gift!  I was thinking bed sheets, so I wanted to go to the Home store right there by Olive Garden, but when we pulled up we learned that it was closed for good!  So dumb.  So we went to Michaels and there was nothing there.  Then we decided to go up to Kohls.  I found some really pretty white striped white sheets.  I guess I should put them on my bed, but I am really excited about them.  It was a nice time with my dad too.  It's nice to hang out.  1-15-26

DATE NIGHT/TEAM DINNER FOR ERIKA
We got to do the team dinner with Emily on Friday.  Nate made pulled pork.  We took that and some coleslaw and buns.  Super easy.  I still can't believe they eat in the locker room.  I think it went okay though!  Erika has been playing really well lately and getting to dress for JV or Varsity a few times- so much fun!!  I'm happy they finally see it!  We brought the food, watched Erika play, went out on our date to a cool place where you cook your own food, found out Erika was going to dress for JV, went back, watched a lot of the JV game and then took all the leftovers home.  Big night.  1-16-26

COURTNEY!!
We finally got our families together- sort of- she came over with Briggs and we all talked and the kids played with Briggs.  It was a lot of fun!  We earned ourselves a babysitting job for Tuesday night!  1-17-26

NORTH COTTONWOOD PARK
We tried out the new Farmington park on Saturday!  This was a great idea that a LOT of people had at the same time.  It was super busy.  But the park is really awesome!  We totally loved it!  Super cool- super TALL slides, the cool 40 yard dash, the ninja course.  The kids had a blast.  The boys tried out the basketball courts and Molly and Jack tried out the little trail.  It's really nice!!  I'm excited for it!  Weird warm weather lately.  1-17-26

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY
This was kind of a bust.  I had plans that I thought were kind of fun, but with the timing and then people not really caring about it- Bring your own bucket day was a nope.  It was fine.  We still got to go out to Daybreak for some TIOs with Grandma Ruthie and Jen.  That was a lot of fun.  She was so nice to pay for it all.  We were happy to get the Brenchleys there.  Charity had to work.  But the rest of us were there as well.  On our way home we stopped at Claire's house!  It was her dog, Skylar's birthday the next day so we celebrated her birthday with her :).  That was pretty fun.  Claire is always fun to chat with.  We of course overstayed our welcome, but it was awesomse.  1-19-26

CAKES
I've been making a lot of cakes lately- well two I guess- for other people.  That's been kind of fun.  REally simple ones, so that's good.  I did a panda one for Lacie Desmond and Tuesday I did a KPOP one for Addie Barth.  I got to help set up for her party a little and hopefully took a little off Marianne's plate.  I like doing those kinds of things.  Brad helped me :).  1-20-26

ERIKA AGAINST LAYTON
Erika had her most amazing game on Tuesday!  She's had a lot of good ones lately that I kept calling her game, but this- THIS was her game!!  She did SO AWESOME!!  She was our energy, our momentum shifter, she was incredible on defense!  She stopped the other team for the three last quarters.  We out scored them all three.  Unfortunately, she didn't get to start the game, so it was over before she started, but I really loved it just because she did so amazing!!  I'm fine losing if Erika is playing that well!  She got to dress for JV and Varsity at the Friday game because she's been so impressive lately!!  So proud of her!!  1-20-26

JACK ENDO
Well.  This was a huge let down.  We went to Jack's second appointment with this amazing Endo- Brett- we got from the Sanchezes, and after our amazing appointment where he really did some good things with Jack's doses, we learned that he is no longer going to be seeing patients.  UGH.  So we are now in the market for a new Endo.  Again.  This is a hard thing for Jack and I.  We are going to be tough and not let it get us down.  1-21-26

BREAKFAST WITH KRISTA
We really need to hang out more.  I love spending time with Krista.  She's awesome.  We squeezed in a breakfast at Kneaders and it was awesome.  1-22-26

LUNCH WITH STEPHANI
We went to Applebees this time.  It was great.  She is such a sweet friend and I feel like we are able to talk and get things done when we hang out.  So grateful for her listening ear.  1-23-26

PLAY DATE WITH LAYLA
Hunter's sister, Talia let us come up to their house so that the girls could play with Layla- and Lamont of course.  It ended up being a really fun little playdate for all us adults (Charity and Hunter joined us there.  Jack even came.), I don't feel like the little girls had the time of their lives, but maybe they needed a few more hours :).  Just kidding.  They played pretty good once they got out the playdough.  I loved visiting with Charity and Talia- so much fun.  1-24-26

WARD CONFERENCES
We're back at it- can't believe it's been a year!- I went to two wards this Sunday, Columbia Heights and Sego Lily.  Things went well.  The way Martha invited the young men to join up, and then assigned everyone a spot to speak, we are only going to teach twice the entire time.  Kinda weird.  I can't help but wonder if Martha just doesn't want us to speak.  She keeps making plans that make it so we don't.  It's strange.  But whatever.  We also had our Youth committee meeting and then an adult youth conference committee meeting.  It was a very long Sunday for me. I'm struggling a lot with all the committees and hooplah for Youth Conference.  It's crazy.  I've gotta some how get over it all.  1-25-26

SOMETHING HAPPENED
So I'm not sure what it was yesterday, but something happened.  I was in a dark hole.  I was feeling really down and discouraged about everything.  It was really hard.  I don't know how my mind can go there so quickly.  I took like two naps, didn't shower, didn't do a lot of the things I needed to do- although, I did wash the dishes- took me about 45 minutes less than I had invisioned for some reason.  It was wild.  I did end up putting on a  new patch last night and maybe that's why the darkness faded, I feel much better today.  It was just so hard.  I hope I can figure out a way to snap out of those or just not get there again.  It's weird.  1-26-26

LUKE'S PHONE CALL
I feel a little bad, I'm so bad at updating my blog that I am not recording all of the phone calls with him.  This week was a really good one.  He told us about his freezing temps and being stuck in his apartment.  That's been a challenge I bet.  And he told us about Cody and how his mom was pretty rude to them on the phone after they called her "sister ___".  At least she's letting him get baptized.  I hope!!  And he and Brad got to plan Brad's visit.  I can't believe his president is letting him visit!!  So cool!!  1-26-26

CHILI'S
Brad, Erika and I got to go to Chili's today for lunch!  Lots of funny and fun conversation.  I love my kids.  They are the best!!  1-27-26

ERIKA
Basketball has been a lot of fun this past week!  Erika has cranked up her game so well!  Some serious defense and even scoring has gone up!  I think she scored about 15 points in her game.  And she was our main defender.  It was a pretty exciting game- she had the young women there watching, grandma Hatch came and Bishop was there to watch her play on the sophomore game- that was the good one and then on the JV game as well!  Pretty cool  Erika got to dress for Varsity and JV- she played for a few minutes in JV.  It was a little weird because they put her out htere with the girls she plays with on the sophomore team so kinda weird, but she did great!  It was a lot of fun!  I'm really proud of her!!  She's doing it all while putting up with her knees hurting a ton.  1-27-26

WEBER GAMES
Erika's been asked to play up so much lately, it's been so fun to see her play a few times.  It's been a lot of fun to just sit there with Nate and cheer on the Varsity and JV teams too.  Date night!  Sadie and Molly have been so patient and accommodating.  We drove up and back from Weber High an obscene amount this Friday going back and forth with different people and so that we could sneak in a dinner and driving kids around.  Fun stuff.  1-30-26

DECEMBER 2025

LUNCH WITH KATHY AND HOLLIE
I meat up with them at JOhnny ROckets and we got to have a fun lunch together.  It was fun to chat and joke with the waiter.  Just really chill and a good time.  It's nice that they want to get together and will text me when they're down here.  12-3-25

LAX PARENT MEETING
We had gotten so stressed and worked up about this meeting before it came.  Luckily, everything went really well.  Minus that Devin (Williams) was glazing Piper- but there was no riot, no ambush from Meredith- I would say it was uneventful.  Kind of a relief.  It's fun that Kelly is going to coach.  I just wish she was the Varsity coach- assuming Erika makes varsity.  But so fun- I'm looking forward to the spring season!.  12-3-25

SADIE
Sadie had such a rough morning.  She and Molly both were on one.  It was very frustrating and in an effort to get control of things I grounded them.  It wouldn't have even worked if it wasn't Jeffrey Radik's birthday party that day, but I did the unthinkable and made her miss it!  It was so sad!!  She was so distraught.  "That was going to be a really fun place!"  Lots of tears.  But honestly, I think it worked.  We haven't had a morning like it in months (yes, I am typing this about two months out!!)  12-4-25

ERIKA'S BASKETBALL SEASON
It's been a lot of fun watching Erika play on the High School team this season!!  She has done amazing!!  I wish they hadn't kept so many players- she might get more playing time, but we are happy with what she does when she's out there- SO proud actually!!  I think she's also having some fun with it.  They have won about as many as they've lost, I would have to blame the coaching for a few of their losses, but she has a really new coach and we are trying to be patient with the whole situation.  Erika is amazing though!!  Fun season.  12-4-25

BABY SHOWER, BALLOON ARCH, WINTER'S DANCE DINNER
Shoulda titled this- "sorry our kids destroyed your garland", but I'll get to that.  We helped Kelly with Maddie's baby shower in the morning- making a cool balloon arch.  Near the end, I realized it was the perfect colors for Erika's group's dinner that evening.  So I told Kelly to leave it up :).  I think the shower went well.  We then went over before the dinner to finish setting that up and the balloon arch was ruined!  We spent some time fixing it and set up the food.  This dinner went really well.  Nate catered and then a bunch of parents brought food later- kinda funny we didn't know there was going to be more food.  But Erika looked so beautiful in her green dress.  She took Keaton.  It was a great night.  We should mention that Noah also went to the dance.  He went with Natalie who he was no longer all that interested in.  It was almost funny that he had to go spend a whole evening with her.  But he survived.  Had a good time with the group.  12-6-25

ICE CREAM FOR LARSENS

This was kind of funny.  For one of the things we wanted to do to serve a family in our ward- we chose taking Nielson's to the Larsens.  It was really funny getting the ice cream- driving with it melting all over the place cuz we got concretes with no lids.  But we eventually made it home and cleaned everything up and then ran them over to their house on our way out of town.  They were fun to surprise.  I think they liked it.  we loved their bells on the porch.  Hopefully they felt the love.  12-8-25

CHRISTMAS IN COLOR
We did our drive thru lights again this year!  I keep saying we're done, but then everyone talks me back into it.  It's true that the little girls still love it, so we keep going.  We met up with Charity and Hunter at a church nearby and then drove all together through the lights.  It was a lot of fun but also felt really long this year for some reason.  But we loved it!  Then afterward we stopped at Swig for some hot chocolate.  That was a fun time too- just being with everyone is really lightening up my life.  It's been so crazy with all the construction.  12-8-25

PHYSICAL THERAPY
Well.  I did it.  I went to my therapy appointment.  This was interesting.  To say the least.  Who knew.  I hope it ends up helping.  Til next time.  12-9-25

 LUNCH WITH MOM
My mom and I finally got to go to lunch.  Took a lot of rescheduling.  We went to a little cafe on 5th south.  I am drawing a blank what it was called now.  Super cute.  Yummy food.  We completely spaced going to Deseret Book- she had wanted me to pick out some gifts for myself.  We ended up meeting up the next day or something.  All was well.  12-9-25

RELIEF SOCIETY PARTY
This was pretty chill this year.  Just food.  I enjoyed it though.  I of course got to sit with RIchelle so that made it all worth it.  12-9-25

A CHRISTMAS CAROL
I was given free tickets to Hale Center Theater when I did the concessions at the Elementary school, so Nate and I got to go see A Christmas Carol.  This was a lot of fun.  I actually really enjoyed it.  I really loved the connection to Christ that they must have added on their own.  So good!  I was grateful for Brad babysitting.  He's awesome.  12-10-25

COPPER HILLS GAME
I've had a lot of fun hanging out with Brad at all the basketball games.  A lot of the time it's just him and me.  This one at Copper Hills was.  We had fun talking and joking about the refs.  It was almost as bad reffing as the Skyview refs.  He spent a lot of time visiting with Waddoups, that was fun for him.  She loves him.  We were bummed we didn't get to watch more of the JV game since ERika got to dress, but I needed to get back for my date with Jack.  12-11-25

DATE WITH JACK
This was a really fun date idea.  We grabbed some dominoes for Jack, some legos from Walmart for both of us, and then headed up to the Layton Hills Mall food court to put our legos together and to eat our dinner.  I got Chick-fil-a of course.  It was so much fun!!  I loved it! I love that Jack is not too cool to hang out with me.  I loved talking and loved that he will spend time with me.  12-11-25

POPCORN AND POSTERS
We went around to all the YW presidents this Saturday.  Took us about two hours to deliver them all.  Kinda nuts.  It was nice though.  I really wish we got more time with the leaders and the yw in the stake.  It would be so nice.  This was good though.  Martha is hilarious.  12-12-25

MOVIE DOME WITH THE FURNISSES
This was really cool!!  I wish we'd been able to hang out a little more, but we were a little rushed, but we got to go to the cool dome theater up at the U that Dolores's son was part of and watch the old Willy Wonka movie!!  This was incredible!  I really loved it.  I think I liked the screensavers almost as much as the movie, but really, I've seen the movie so many times and to still be interested in it all was pretty impressive.  12-13-25

MOLLY'S LAST GAME
This was kinda sad.  It was her last game.  Nate had to work so Brad coached- he did a fantastic job and they played really well.  It just kind of caught us all off guard that it was the end of the season.  Molly was bummed.  She played SO WELL the whole season though- she should be proud.  12-13-25

JACK AND BRAD'S ROOM
We were able to put Jack and Brad's bunk bed together this Sunday.  It was much harder than I thought it was going to be, but we did it!  Their room was really spacious until the next day when Brad brought in a couch.  Interesting choice, but whatever.  HOpefully they like it.  12-14-25

NOAH'S PATRIARCHAL BLESSING
This is always such a special moment!!  Huge mom paycheck day.  And Nate I'm sure :).   Noah's turn did not disappoint.  He was SO prepared.  Patriarch Morrell even kept saying that.  It was so cool.  I was really proud of Noah and really excited for the life he has ahead.  He is just the sweetest.  I hope he is able to turn to his blessing as much as possible and that he is able to receive the comfort and guidance he needs through it as well.  Such a neat experience and such a testimony of the power of the Priesthood.  Good stuff.  12-14-25

GRAMMY WONG'S CHRISTMAS PARTY
We had one of the best times we've ever had at her house this year :).  Direct quote from some of the kids.  We did have a lot of fun.  She had asked Erika to bring some game ideas so we played Psychiatrist.  It ended up being so much fun!!  So much laughter and so many smiles.  She had yummy food too.  It was just a really great night.  Everyone loved the white elephants and we all just enjoyed our time there so much.  12-15-25

LUNCH WITH PAPPY
We were really happy to be getting this in during the holiday season.  It was much needed.  We had a great time and ate lots of yummy breadsticks.  12-16-25

CONSTRUCTION
I haven't said much about all the construction going on in our house for the past month and a bit.  We discovered a leak from the bathroom to the family room on October 23rd.  The insurance guys came and then the demo guys the day before Halloween.  So from that point on we've had construction and workers in and out of our house nonstop.  It's been pretty stressful if I'm being completely honest.  The insurance company decided they would cover new floor in the family room, new paint for the whole family room, the repairs on the torn out wall, new glass in the doors, the wall in the kitchen to be repainted, new flooring in the bathroom, new toilet, and one coat of paint in the bathroom.  So since we were having so much done already- why not do some upgrades.  So we decided to throw in new doors, not just new glass, new vanity in the bathroom, different paint color in the bathroom and some cabinet/built-ins in the family room.  We really thought this was all very doable.  For some reason, it wasn't.  There were so many hang ups.  Wet dry wall in the drive way that they almost put in our house, the back door being cut out and THEN finding out the new door was too small, the nails in the sewer pipe, the mold everywhere, them putting on the old toilet and having it leak through their freshly mudded drywall.  UGH.  Like too much to really talk about.  And all the while they left huge messes and dust and everything everywhere.  It was so annoying.  The cabinet guy was awesome.  We loved him- Johnny.  I had a fun conversation with him about our map and planes one day.  He did a great job.  I just wish the guy he got to paint was more reliable.  So at this point in the whole thing- we were waiting on the one crew to finish up the last things- a couple of thresholds, some touch-ups with paint, getting the tape marks off the trim outside, etc.  And the doors on the cabinets need painting, but we decided it was good enough for the moment.  12-16-25

PUTTING UP CHRISTMAS
We were finally able to put up our tree!!  We'd gotten the family room back in order- the nativities looked amazing on the new shelves which I love, we just didn't have painted doors on the cabinets which is fine.  So anyway.  We finally got our tree, the night before at Home Depot- that was pretty fun- and then at 9:00 on Thursday night- we broke out the ornaments.  I feel like it went really well.  Everyone was happy :).  The Hollists were so fun to join us.  They've come up so much lately, and we love it!  It was fun to have the lights up and FINALLY be feeling like it is Christmas.  It hasn't felt like Christmas at all this season.  I've been so grumpy about the construction.  But this was nice.  Got me in the mood for sure.  12-18-25

NOAH'S WISDOM TEETH
He did it!  He got his teeth out!  This was pretty uneventful for about an hour- ever since then he's had nothing but trouble and lots of pain!!  He handled the surgery well though, got some ice cream after.  It was pretty good for the moment.  He was not as fun as we all wanted him to be after the anesthesia, but he was really talkative and I hope I never forget his "broken heart" spoken through rolled up gauze when I asked him why he doesn't seem like himself lately.  He was ready to tough this process out though.  I was proud of him.  12-19-25

THE GRINCH- Or I mean, HOW THE GRINCH STOLE CHRISTMAS
Molly's class did a reader's theater and invited the parents.  It was super cute and fun to be there for Molly.  Nate came with me.  We were sitting in the worst possible seats to see her- may have been her doing, but we heard her on her parts and she did fantastic!!  It's always fun to be part of these things!  We love our Molly!!  12-19-25

CHRISTMAS SHOPPING
Nate and used our date night to do some much needed Christmas shopping.  I had bought a lot on Amazon, but we were getting so close it was time to get out and get real.  This was a very productive night!  We had some fun.  12-19-25

WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY
This was a teensy bit stressful at the last minute thanks to my procrastination with printing.  I needed to print off some face paint ideas for Kelly and Devan and of course the printer was not going to comply.  But we got there, with the casserole I warmed up, and all was well.  The Hollists and Brenchleys came- Kelly and Devan did an amazing job on the face painting- they were painting the entire time.  So cool that they were willing to do that.  I was able to visit with our family for quite a while and then made the rounds to try to mingle a little.  Ended up sitting and talking to Emily.  Doesn't happen much anymore. But it was nice.  The kids had a blast!  There were so many fun games and prizes.  They were in heaven.  I loved that there was so much for them to do.  Fun party.  12-20-25

MAYNES FAMILY CHRISTMAS PARTY
This was kind of thrown together at the last minute and rubbed a few people the wrong way with the way they handled the dinner- catered from Olive Garden- but it ended up being a really good time.  Everyone was mingling with each other by the end, so that was fun.  It was interesting to hear Brad's take on the older kids finally treating them like they exist :).  I'm glad they get along now and have things to talk about.  Kinda fun.  We did some games and a while elephant game.  Molly was not too happy with the wrapping paper she got so Hunter Maynes offered her $10 for it.  PRetty cool cousin if you ask me.  Kelly and Devan had to leave early and that was a bummer.  CHarity and Hunter were not there.  BUt we did manage to have a great time.  We helped clean up and dragged ourselves out of there.  12-20-25

CHRISTMAS SUNDAY
We loved having Nate home all morning.  I was able to go early to run through the songs with the choir.  I was in the choir, Brad was the narrator, Molly said the opening prayer and Jack said the closing prayer.  Noah blessed the sacrament, Jack passed it, and ERika was a door greeter!!  IT was a full on Maynes SUnday!!  SO fun.  I actually really loved this program!  NOrma did a fantastic job.  I loved all the music and the narration was awesome.  The Spirit of Christmas is finally here!!  12-21-25

OUR FAMILY PARTY
This was a new one :).  I hope it becomes a tradition.  Maybe.  I think everyone had fun.  Brad invited Pierce, Aubrey and Victor and Jack had Will, Sadie had Owen and MOses for part of it.  The Hollists and Brenchley's made it.  It was a full, fun house!  We ate Meatballs and Mashed potatoes for dinner- they even stretched!! Then it was time for games.  I had asked everyone to come prepared to do a game.  We did Plinko first so the little kdis could play and then go home :).  That was fun- Nate had gotten some gift cards for everyone to win- worked out great!  I only wish everyone could win the cool prize- ya know.  Then Charity did a game where we had to guess all the Christmas scents.  Then a fun candy cane game where we passed candy canes down the line- she didn't love how that one went.  For Kelly and Devan's game we played Hungry Hungry Reindeer- with cups on our hands we had to grab marshmallows and put them on our plate- this was funny!!  I loved stealing Nate's plate and him unknowingly using Noah's- Noah was so surprised.  So funny!  We did Four on the Couch for Noah's game.  Then I got everyone to do a game where they each created a piece of the nativity with legos.  I feel like they did pretty good!  Super fun!!  It was a really fun night.  I think next year I want to do a theme.  We'll see.  12-22-25

CHRISTMAS EVE
We had a lovely Christmas Eve.  I was a little busy making Molly's gift still (took forever to get parts for it), but everyone cleaned up the house and things were running smoothly.  We headed out around 2:00 to pass out the rest of our neighbor gifts- this took an hour!  We need to remember how long it takes to pass out neighbor gifts.  It was so nice of Nate to take that on and do his Chex Mix!!  Then we rushed down to Grammy Wong's.  We were able to give them their gifts, they gave us theirs, and we quickly hugged and were on our way to Nate's work.  We enjoyed talking with santa a lot this year.  Kelly and Devan brought his little sister Avaya too.  Santa was lots of fun.  Talking with Noah about his mission and wisdom teeth, praising Erika on her basketball, reminding Jack to take care of Cheeto, complimenting Molly on Seussical, and reminding Sadie to take care of Misty and CHeeto.  SO cute!  I thought it went really well.  We hurried on up to Grandpa's house for Christmas Eve :).  We were so glad that Kelly and Devan could be there for a little of it- we had moved the time up for them.  Chcarity and Hunter were there.  It was great!  Grandpa spoiled us all with goodies and yummy food and then later with gifts.  SO much fun.  He really nailed it on the gifts this year!  Sadie's will come Monday, but she and Molly got to play with the little keyboard clicky fidget toys.  Jack got a cool lego car.  Erika got a really big, nice blanket.  Noah got a nice quarter zip sweater.  Brad got a nice sweater also.  Kelly got some throw pillows.  Devan got a nice plaid jacket.  Charity got some markers and Hunter got a nice jacket also.  I got a huge Yeti!!  I was very excited about that.  It was a lot of fun!!  Good times with Grandpa and Steve.  We were bummed Tai didn't come.  But it was a great time.  We were very happy to have Nate with us ALL day!!  I worked on Molly's gift while everyone watched a movie and then at about 11:30, Noah was still writhing in pain, so I finally texted the Dentist.  He actually agreed to meet us at the office at 11:30 on CHristmas Eve!!  So amazing.  He helped a lot!  I was glad Noah was able to sleep.  The kids all slept in the basement/Noah's room and seemed like they had some fun even though Kelly and Charity were sadly not there.  12-24-25

CHRISTMAS MORNING!!!
We had such a good Christmas!  Everything was very smooth and comfortable and everyone seemed mostly happy the entire day.  We woke up a little later than usual. I think we were finally downstairs with the stockings at about 8:30. They loved stocking time.  We started on breakfast where we all worked together to make Creamed Eggs on Toast and then we ate while they all spoiled me with birthday gifts.  SO fun!!  I got a Lego Delorean from Back to the Future from Nate, a candle from Erika, some pretzels from Noah, a Chili's gift card from Brad, a really beautiful blanket from Molly, and some snickers from Sadie.  So fun.  We went down for Santa gifts.  Sadie got her beloved kitchen that she has played with nonstop ever since.  Even all morning, she just couldn't get enough of the ice dispenser.  She was anxious to make her friends jealous of the ice dispenser til we talked about that concept.  Molly got a long skinny box full of clothes, hair things, a giant pencil- just a weird random collection of stuff she loves :).  She does look so cute in all her new clothes.  Jack got Legos- a Bumblebee one and an Avengers one with a bunch of cool characters for his stop motion stuff.  Very cool.  Erika got her very own Lacrosse stick!  She seemed to love it- she was seen swinging it around and testing out the cradle about every five minutes all morning long- I was pretty happy she liked it as much as she did.  Noah got some tricep dip attachments for the weight rack.  They were the wrong size so that stinks.  We will be getting some replacements.  Poor Noah can't really do much anyway because his mouth is still hurting so bad with the dry sockets.  Brad got his beloved White board roll.  This was very exciting.  I don't know if I've ever seen him this excited for a gift :). So cute.  I'm glad he liked it.  We moved on to the rest of the gifts (usually we do the homemade ones then, but we wanted to wait for the Brenchleys and Hollists).  Everyone was good and spoiled!  I think they all liked what they got.  I think Sadie spent most of her time with her kitchen, but she did bring up the doll bed and took care of her baby while she cooked for us.  She took little breaks to play with the LPS too.  Molly's favorite gift was probably the pencil :).  She was funny about that.  Jack played with the engraver a lot after finishing all of his legos pretty quickly and trying to do some of his marble maze.  Erika relaxed a lot of the day.  I think she liked her scentsy and lights for her room too.  Noah worked on his legos.  It was fun to see him all into that again.  Brad was busy all day, but I am not sure with what.  He did like his smart pen- hopefully that's as useful as we want it to be.  Brad was super adorable giving all the gifts to everyone else.  I loved watching him spoil everyone.  He is a lot of fun.  Makes me smile.  Once the girls got here, we were able to do our homemade gifts.  Sadie had Brad.  She made him a sweatshirt with a llama on it and painted him a jewelry box :).  He loved them.  Molly had Nate.  She painted him a bird house.  I loved that the girls were able to mostly do things on their own this year.  Jack had Devan.  He gave him a hoodie with a picture of the two of them from the wedding on the back!  SO fun.  Erika had Charity.  She made some cute jewelry dishes from clay.  They were so cute!!  Charity loved them.  Noah had Kelly and his gift was a big hit this year.  He made Kelly a clock with photos from their formals on it.  It turned out REALLY well.  I was so happy for him and for Kelly.  He worked really hard on it all while feeling like garbage.  Luke had Hunter.  He got him a retro Spiderman hoodie.  Super cool.  Brad had Erika.  He presented her with the hoodie he had made for her.  That he contracted out to Dolores :).  I only wish he could have made the one he planned to make.  The one he gave is adorable of course tho.  Kelly had me!  She gave me the cutest little Lighthouse themed nativity!  It's so stinkin cute!!  I love it!!  Charity had Jack.  She got him a custom lego set of him standing in front of the big shark jaw at the Dinosaur place they took him to- it was such a fun and thoughtful gift.  Jack loved it.  I had Molly.  I gave her the miracle I made- a cute crossbody back that turned out WAY better than I would have imagined.  I was pretty happy with that thing.  She seemed to like it for a few days- she didn't take it off!  Nate had Luke.  He framed the picture he drew of the crown of thorns with the scripture intertwined.  So cool.  I am sure Luke loved it.  So that was that.  We all hung out, slept, played games, worked on stuff, and slept some more.  I seriously felt drugged that day!  It was a nice day though.  My mom and Simon showed up, I got a call from Brent and Sarah's family, Steve came, my dad came... it was a pretty exciting evening.  Nate cooked some delicious hamburgers for us all- so yummy- and surprised me with my all-time FAVORITE CAKE EVER1!  The ice cream cone cake!!  I was so happy tosee that thing :).  All my dreams have come true!  Good stuff.  12-25-25

WINGS AND THINGS WITH THE BARTONS
We had our fun little hangout with the Bartons.  This was a lot of fun.  I was surprised at how much fun we had.  We ended up getting BWs wings instead of Nate's because he had a last minute catering job, but they were tasty.  We ate, played lightning and then the kids insisted that we play chair soccer.  I had a lot of fun visiting with Katelyn.  It was hard that Nate had to leave before we were done, but all was well.  It was a fun time.  12-27-25

SPEAKING IN CHURCH and VICTOR'S HOMECOMING
Well.  I did it.  I didn't read my talk.  I just had some major ideas and then spoke from my heart.  I think it went okay.  I always have to second guess everything and feel unsure about it all, but overall I think it was fine.  I am really glad to have it over with but also glad that I am pointed in a direction of seeking the newness the Gospel and Christ can bring.  I needed that.  Nate did an amazing  job.  It was like Maynes Sunday take 2 I guess :).  But so good.  We got lots of nice compliments.  I hurried out of there and went to Victor's homecoming.  He was hilarious.  And I loved his pure testimony.  ERika and I dreaded our meeting but it went really well.  12-28-25

OUR BEST STAKE YOUTH COUNCIL MEETING YET
The Pohlmans couldn't make this one, and may I say, it was my pleasure.  Things went really well.  Everyone was talking and offering things.  It was nice.  Hopefully Annie can deliver on the invites.  She is awesome.  12-28-25

SALT LAKE LIGHTS 
We followed my directions from last year and went downtown after Christmas again.  This is way better.  It is way less crowded.  We were so happy that Charity and Hunter were meeting us there, and Kelly and Devan were able to come on the train with us!  Everything is more fun with everyone there.  We got down there, looked around for a while, to kill time waiting for Charity and Hunter.  The area around the temple is basically done and looks so good this year!  It's like having an old friend back kinda.  Things are a little different, but I really like all the changes for the most part!  Looks really nice!  We made our way over to the food court while still waiting for the Hollists cuz we were starving.  Not literally.  The lines were not too bad, but we got our food just as Charity and Hunter showed up.  So we were able to eat dinner with them and then we all went and looked at a lot of the same things we had already looked at :).  It was a lot of fun though.  We love the candy windows, temple square, the conference center felt like a new addition this year.  We don't always make it over there.  I propose that next year we try to hit the church history museum.  Or maybe we make that a separate trip on the train during a different time of the year.  I don't know.  We had fun though!  I love spending time together.  The laughing and reminiscing about years past was a lot of fun.  Traditions look a little different these days, we did not find any hot chocolate this year for example, and we saw that JB's our old hot chocolate place is out of business, but we still love the memories and making new ones too.  12-29-25

EL MATADOR WITH ANDREA
I saw on the schedule that we were playing Timpview and thought it would be the perfect excuse to get together with Andrea, and then after making plans I noticed it was a home game.  So that was funny.  We still ended up meeting at El Matador for lunch!  Brad and Victor had some stuff to do down there- I think they were getting couches cuz we had the trailer hooked up- so they dropped me off so they could have the van.  Super funny when I got their text a couple hours later because they had been hanging around in Bountiful the entire time thinking I would be done soon and get a ride.  I did not tell them to wait for me, so I felt bad, but also thought it was funny.  And now every time I see the video of Victor walking up to Cal Ranch (across the street from El Matador) with his empty pizza box, I just feel bad!  But anyway.  We ended up eating lunch at noonish and then stayed and talked for about five hours!  John's reaction to the amount of time we spent together was hilarious.  It was funny to watch the waiters and waitresses turn over and the lunch crowd leave, get slow and quiet, and then pick back up for dinner.  It was a fun time.  I love hanging out with Andrea.  We could really talk for days I think.  We still have so much in common.  It's nice.  I wish we could get together more often, but I'll take what I can get.  I've been running into her mom at the basketball games because she's dating Hadley Chamberlain's grandpa, so that's fun, and nice that she and her mom are talking now.  So anyway.  Nate picked me up a little while later and we stopped at Taco Bell with the kids for dinner.  Kinda fun.  12-30-25

NEW YEAR'S EVE!!
We had a really fun New Year's Eve this year!  Especially because the Hollists and Brenchleys joined in for so much of the fun!!  We did our hourly balloon popping.  We got a little off schedule at one point, but still managed to get everything in.  It was a lot of fun.  I think this is what I did in the balloons:
12:00- Lunch and walk around the ponds (this was nice.  I kind of wanted to do the boardwalk thing out west, but this was a close second.  It was cold!)
1:00- board games (draw straws to see who gets to pick the first game)
2:00- make the molten lava cake-- we made the cake and had it on warm instead of hot, and we didn't notice until dinner time so we started it then and it was ready around 10:00... kind of a bummer, but worked.
3:00- gingerbread house baseball and hot chocolate-- so fun!
4:00- scavenger hunt at station park
5:00- minute to win it games
6:00- wings for dinner- dessert lava cake
7:00- New Year's resolutions and 7:25 zoom with Luke-- this was pretty cool- we got to sit with Luke's mission and talk about miracles!  Kelly shared hers and we got to watch Luke the whole time- pretty special!!
8:00- Buddy time-- everyone loved this, but wished we'd had more time and earlier in the day.  Possibly during a meal.  So I'll have to remember that for next time.  Nate and I were magically buddies!  We drove up to the Bountiful temple and back.  Nothing was open so this was tricky.  Charity got Sadie and they went to the pet store and somewhere else... I'm drawing a blank.  Kelly got Molly.  They hung out with Devan and Erika who had each other.  I think they all went to the Layton temple.  Hunter and Jack played minecraft at home.  We missed Brad and Noah during this.  Good stuff. though.  
9:00- paper airplane race-- still fun for some reason :). 
10:00- board games (the winner of the paper plane races picks the first game)
11:00- studio c and get ready to ring in the new year!

It was so fun to have Nate with us for most of this as well. and he bought some really fun noise makers for midnight- that was a lot of fun.  He let off one of Jeff's loud fireworks and Sadie cried, but good stuff!!  I loved watching Devan and Hunter's video of them kicking pops- HA!  We missed Brad and Noah at the end of the night.  

November 2025

MOLLY'S FIRST BASKETBALL GAME AND FOUR POINTS!
We were all pretty anxious for Molly's game this Saturday.  So many basketball lovers who also love Molly and wanted to support her- she was pretty nervous since she "doesn't know how to play".  So she had a pretty big cheering section which was a lot of fun.  We were happy to be able to watch her play but didn't realize just what a treat we were in for!!  She did SO WELL!!!  She made all four of the points her team got.  They won by two.  She looked so good out there.  Stealing, dribbling so well, and helping her teammates out.  So fun!!  Brad, Noah and Erika were all beaming!!  As well as her dad/coach :).  We can't wait for the rest of the games! 11-1-25

 ADULT SESSION OF STAKE CONFERENCE
We had a really awesome adult session.  I really liked it.  This conference was right before the stake realignment, so most of the talks the next day were about that and it didn't really apply to us as much, so that was almost annoying.  But the Saturday session was SO GREAT!!  I loved it.  They had the Watts who are serving in the Transition Branch in West Jordan with all the people who are in between prison and life (or who simply cannot go to regular wards because of the crimes they committed).  They gave such interesting talks!!  The wife read off several things they have read from their journals or just said in their testimonies over the pulpit and that was really interesting.  They had some really cool thoughts.  Very remorseful and humble for most of them.  But also feelings of healing and renewal.  It's crazy how the atonement works even on really bad things.  They talked about how they cannot take the sacrament, so they don't do the sacrament in their "worship service", but they've asked if they can read the prayer, so they do read the prayer every week.  Very cool.  Makes me realize what a blessing it is and what a gift being able to take the Sacrament is.  I hope I am always worthy of that blessing.  They talked about how we have covenanted to bear one another's burdens and pointed out that that doesn't just include the burdens that accidentally fall upon us, but the ones we cause ourselves.  Those criminals deserve to be mourned with and that is part of our covenant.  So interesting.  There was another talk from a woman who had been divorced.  I really liked her talk as well.  I think she talked about forgiveness.  It's weird because I was staring right at Pres. Larsen (Brad was with me and chose the second row on the left side of the chapel :) ), and I kept thinking about the things I keep trying to forgive him of.  It's been a road for sure.  But I think it's okay to just keep forgiving when it comes to my mind.  I don't have as much control about how often I think about it, I can control how LONG I think about it, or who I talk to about it too much, but I don't have control about when it pops in my head, so I need to use my agency to control what I do with those thoughts and I think it's perfectly fine to just keep forgiving him every time.  It was a good meeting.  I wish Nate had been there.  11-1-25

STAKE CONFERENCE
I got to go to the training meeting in the morning with Nate and Brad.  It was mostly about the wards realigning.  So kinda lame.  Then the general meeting with the kids.  That one was also very focused on the changing wards.  We were glad our ward wasn't changing at all, but it was kind of boring to hear about it all.  I liked a lot of the talks though!  So many good things.  I like that we have our spot on the stage now :).  I think it's been a few times now.  The kids did great.  Nate had to get to work, so he only stayed for a few minutes of the realignment meeting, then took the kids home.  I stayed so I could give hugs after.  It was a crazy shift with new ward names and everything.  I almost think our ward could have used a little shake up, but I also don't want to have to go through another split.  Should be interesting to see how this goes for all the young women presidencies.  11-2-25

NO MORE PLASTIC AND ZIPPERS!
They okayed our leak mess Monday!  Took down all the plastic and got rid of all the fans!  It felt so quiet all day.  We learned that we will might get to remodel some of the spaces in our house and that we have a ton of money in the bank at the moment, so that's kinda nice!  Since we're in a shut down and have missed about three paychecks.  Heavenly Father finds the coolest ways to bless us.  I like it.  11-3-25

APPLE SUPPORT
I had called Apple the other day to fix my phone, it's been crapping out on me because it's full, and they were not able to help me on the phone.  I finally made the appointment on Thursday and got in there to Restore it.  The guys there were super nice and fixed it so fast!!  I was so happy!  It is now only using about 30%.  So that's nice.  And it feels almost like a new phone, still getting used to that.  HOpefully those guys were wrong and I can keep using my phone past January.  We'll see.  11-6-25

DEVAN'S BIRTHDAY
We got to see Kelly and Devan for a few minutes on his birthday- that was fun.  I can't remember why.  But then Friday I spent a lot of the day making his Tron cake :).  Kelly had requested it and designed one on ChatGPT.  I don't think I'll ever allow a fake design again, but it turned out pretty good if I do say so myself.  I only wish I could figure out how to prevent that marbling when I freeze the cake.  It was really marbley and frosty for some reason.  Kind of a bummer.  We went over to the Brenchley's Friday night for some cake and ice cream and games.  I was shocked at how similarly they celebrate birthdays as us.  Kinda cool for Kelly and Devan I guess.  They do bunt cakes though, so we just looked at the Tron one :).  We had so much fun playing all the games- the Name one and then Psychiatrist.  Pretty fun stuff.  Happy Birthday, Devan!  11-7-25

CRAWL SPACE AND EXTRA ROOMISH
I finally did it!!  I bent over and reorganized the crawl space!!  It was well overdue.  Molly helped a little til we found some boxes with clothes for her and Sadie.  My knees and back are not happy about things, but 2 and a half hours later I was bringing up the garbage bag.  It's not completely done- we need to go through the totes of toys to find out what we want to do with them, but it's organized at least.  I had no idea we had left some games down there and even less idea that the kids had just dumped some of them out into the room.  That was annoying.  But we're getting closer.  11-8-25

TESTIMONIES
We had our first testimony meeting since Elder Bednar suggesting just bearing a pure, simple testimony.  I was planning on it after my training meeting and then I heard that Bishop had encouraged all of Ward Council to do the same and so the first five or so testimonies (including Nate's) were JUST testimonies!  Nothing extra.  It was SO INCREDIBLE!!  The Spirit was SO STRONG!!  Sadie and Molly both closed up their coloring books and just wanted to listen- they were totally feeling the spirit.  Brad, Erika and Noah all got up as well and did the same- they had spaced theirs out a little which was cool because there were some extra ones in between that totally changed the vibe, kind of disappointing, but this was a really neat experience.  I hope we can have that again soon.  11-9-25

PREP FOR LIFE- EMIL HARKER
We went against what the youth had chosen in our council and got Martha's therapist to come speak to them.  It ended up being SO AMAZING!!  I was so glad we had that right before Erika's tryouts.  She's been getting really stressed and full of anxiousness lately and this just hit the spot.  He taught us about LIFT- Living in faith today.  He taught that if you are following the laws, you will be happy- just like if you follow the laws of nature you can create lift.  It's as simple as that.  Looking in the great and spacious building is not where you will find happiness.  Then he talked about how if a thought is not PSE- Positive, Supportive or Encouraging, that it is coming from the devil.  He taught how to change those thoughts and make them PSE.  I loved that.  All the negative things we think about ourselves and the things that bring us down are from satan.  Don't listen to them.  I liked how he said to schedule the life that other people would want to live.  Very interesting and "Be your own butler".  Catching things ahead of time and being prepared for what's to come- very cool.  He said the way to overcome anxiety is to take time each night to plan out tomorrow.  Think through everything you have to do that day, feeling good and happy through all of it and just basking in the good that you will feel and then praying to Heavenly Father to help you feel the way you felt as you were imagining it.  I LOVED this!! Just a really good message the whole thing.  I really loved it!  The kids seemed to really love the rolls too!  They were a huge hit!  I couldn't believe Christa wanted to get 144 rolls for our 30ish (that's what we had been getting) kids.  But there were almost 50 kids this time and they all ate a LOT- 143 rolls to be exact!!  So crazy!  Fun time.  11-9-25

MONDAY
I planned out my day last night and it has been SO PRODUCTIVE!!  It's been really nice.  I haven't done everything exactly how I planned, but pretty close!  It's been awesome though!  I really need to do this everyday!  This week was a good one to do this on cuz it's packed!!  It's been a great day so far though!  11-10-25

LUNCH WITH BECKY
Becky invited me over for some lunch and chatting.  It was such a good time.  I always love spending time with Becky but this was extra special for some reason.  She got us Firehouse subs.  It was just a really nice time.  I hope I always remember it.  11-11-25

ERIKA FAMILY PARTY
We just had Erika's party here at home in our torn apart house.  Grandpa Hatch, Grandma Hatch and Simon came.  It was a pretty chill party.  We didn't do much.  Erika chose to have an ice cream cake.  It was a pretty good time :).  Erika was waiting to hear back about tryouts for the basketball team the whole time, which I felt a little bad she had to stress about that at the same time as her party.  But she found out she made the team, just not which team until the next day, but she was relieved :).  11-11-25

DATE WITH NOAH
Noah and I went to Chick-fil-a for our date this time.  We had a good time.  I sure love Noah.  He is a great kid and has such a future ahead.  I really can't wait to see what this kid does.  He is a blessing in my life.  11-12-25

MOLLY THE WHO!!!  IN SEUSSICAL JUNIOR
Molly did such an amazing job in her musical!!  We were all so proud of her!!  Everyone got to see it, so she had people to watch and cheer her name really loudly at every show!  She knew the words to every song, all the actions perfectly, she looked so great up there with her hair and makeup just so :).  I think she may have even had some fun.  We all loved watching her get into it and being part of the project she has worked on SO HARD this past couple months.  She did amazing!!  We love Molly!  11-13-25--11-15-25

CONCESSIONS
It came!  We had Seussical and did the concession stand for all three nights.  This year was a lot smoother than past years, it almost felt like we had fewer customers.  Some of the cool things we sold were inflatable monkeys- which didn't really sell until Molly sent one to her friend Jayne who said her mom doesn't send candy grams to her ever :).  Then they were a big hit.  I made some Cat in the Hat cakes- small mini loaf cakes with red and white stripes, super cute- they all sold out.  We had bags of green eggs- square pretzels with a white chocolate melt and green plain m&ms on them- people loved those!  I sold some jungle animal stuffy keychains, some "clover" pens and feather pens.  I thought we did a great job!  They did the volunteers a little differently this year, three ladies for each cast and they were all there every showing of the opposite cast.  So they were not brand new helpers every night.  I liked this so much better!  I hope they do that again.  If I do concessions again.  We had all the usual candy, popcorn, roses.  I had Erika's help a couple of the shows, Molly was usually there helping.  Noah and Nate and Brad helped haul everything in and out and Jack was there a few times.  It was a successful week!  I actually kind of like doing it.  I'm not sure why.  But hopefully they let me do it again.  11-13-25--11-15-25

MISSIONARY MOM BREAKFAST
We did a breakfast instead of lunch this time.  We went to Kneaders.  It was a nice time, just Emily, Cathie, Shar and I.  11-14-25

ERIKA'S DRIVER'S LICENSE!!!
This was very exciting!  Erika passed her test the day before- even with Agnello!!  I was so glad she was able to chat with him about Track and Nate doing the meat for Davis Invite and all the other things they were able to talk about.  She did a great job!!  I checked her out for lunch and we went and got her driver's license and then some lunch.  It was so great!  She's a driver now!!  11-14-25

ERIKA'S FRIEND PARTY
We had to race out of the Elementary school from the last performance and our mad dash to clean up concessions and hurried home for Erika's friend party!  This was so much fun!!  Erika had about 15 friends meet up here at our house, we drove everyone (all of us except Jack and Noah) in four cars down to The Call Tower.  Chris was SO NICE to meet up with us there and host us.  The kids all had a blast!!  I loved watching Easton golfing the whole time- haha!  Kate spent a lot of time playing with Sadie on the ping pong table.  The kids loved having ice cream sundaes and were so enthusiastic singing happy birthday.  I think Erika had a good time, which was all that really mattered to me.  I loved being part of it all with her.  11-15-25

PRIMARY MISSIONARY ACTIVITY
The girls (well, and Brad, Nate and Jack) LOVED this activity!!  The Primary leaders did an amazing job!  MIssion calls, Molly got called to South Korea, Sadie got called to Australia.  Brad got to teach some things about Peru and Preach My Gospel.  It was great!  I wish I could have seen it, but everyone loved it.  11-18-25

DINNER WITH CLAIRE
WHile everyone was at the Primary activity, Claire and I went out.  We decided to try this new place called Nacho Daddy.  The atmosphere sucked.  The music was too loud, they put us under a tv with trashy music videos, everyone there was from the abc club and had piercings, tattoos or colored hair or all three.  We probably looked like we fit in almost.  I got Enchilada nachos which were AMAZING!!  But I don't think I'd ever go back there.  Maybe to go.  But Claire and I got to talk- that was nice.  She's such a great friend.  We need to get together when she can bring her dog soon.  11-18-25

DR. KAREN BRADLEY
This was a MUCH anticipated appointment for me.  We talked all about my perimenopause symptoms.  I will be going on estrogen, progesterone, and some physical therapy.  Should be good- we will see.  11-19-25

LUNCH WITH PAPPY
Does it seem like I go out to eat a lot?  I think that's fairly accurate.  I got to go out with my dad for our usual.  We went to Olive Garden, ate what we always do.  It was a great time.  I'm really grateful for my dad and that he makes time for me.  11-20-25

DATE NIGHT AND TWO CARS KAPUT
We had to move our date night to Thursday for Luminaria on Friday.  As we were leaving for our date we got a call from Erika that the Forerunner wasn't starting.  We assumed it was the battery so we went and jumped it and were on our way.  We went to Zupas and then to see the movie Now You See Me Now You Don't.  While we were at the movie Nate got texts from Noah saying that Nate's car he was using was also not starting.  So after the movie we went over to the stake center to try jumping the white car.  It didn't work.  This was a little more frustrating and we finally just ended up towing it home.  Can you believe we had two cars call it quits on the same night!!  So bizarre.  Right after paying the guys who will be working on our house.  11-20-25

ERIKA'S FIRST GAME OF THE SEASON
Erika did such an amazing job in her game!  She even got to play quite a bit.  We were all there, cheering her on :).  Such a great game even though we lost.  11-21-25

LUMINARIA
We hurried out of Erika's game and raced down to Thanksgiving Point trying to get there by 6:00, but no later than 6:30 (because that's when I thought we were supposed to be there), but ended up stuck in traffic for quite a while, arriving at 6:25!!  I was so panicked running to the entrance.  Surprise though, we didn't need to be there til 7:00, 7:30 at the latest!  And we ended up standing around waiting for Charity and Hunter til even later :).  Which was totally fine, we just got ditched by the rest of the family.  This was a fun night though!  I didn't think it was too cold (course if I'd been in just a hoodie like Noah, I would have been colder, poor Noah left his coat in his car back in Kaysville).  We got to see everything.  Grandma got us all hot chocolate and churro bites.  We got to hang out with the Taylors through a lot of it.  The lights were beautiful.  We loved the Book of Mormon display with the Lehi's Dream display- very cool!  I loved spending that time together.  We missed Luke and Erika. It was nice of grandma Ruthie to plan that and spoil us all.  11-21-25

GIRLS NIGHT
The girls and I have gone to Nutcracker together for the last few years as kind of a girls night tradition and we wanted to do something again this year, but not really feeling the Nutcracker, so we chose to go see the Davis High Musical- Catch Me If You Can.  I wasn't sure how I would like this, even though I love the movie so much, but it was REALLY FUN!!  Such a high energy, FUN, colorful show!!  The girls and I loved it.  We decided to go to Zupas for dinner after.  This wasn't my favorite part because we need to work on manners about where and what we eat.  But I loved being with my girls and having that time together.  We all got a good laugh while Sadie was performing for us all :).  11-22-25

THANKSGIVING DAY
This year was pretty chill.  There wasn't a lot to do or anything to cook really, so we pretty much just chilled all morning.  We were able to go up to Grandma Ruthie's for dinner though and Nate was off, so that was awesome.  We had dinner with her and just a few other families and then as per her request, we did not do gingerbread houses.  Kind of a bummer, but she had some fun games for everyone to play- minute to win it style.  It was a lot of fun.  We loved being with everyone too.  I was happy that the Hollists and the Brenchleys made it :).  Feels weird putting it that way, but that's their names and it's easier than writing out all four names.  11-27-25

WHITE FRIDAY
This didn't quite go as planned.  There were no appointments, but we've been able to get in lately without at the Bountiful temple, so we risked it.  They didn't seem to happy with us being walk-ins.  We had so many of us too.  But they eventually let us in and let us do confirmations.  It's fun to have so many melchezedek Priesthood holders with us.  Nate stayted home with the little girls.  I still love just being in the temple.  Especially the Bountiful temple.  11-28-25

GINGERBREAD HOUSES
We ended up doing gingerbread houses with the Taylors afterall- they came all the way down to experience this tradition with us.  So nice.  We had a lot of fun.  Everyone got into it and had a lot of fun.  It's cute that they love this tradition so much.  I'm glad.  It is always fun to be with the Taylors.  The guys of course played basketball when we were done.  Claire made a guest appearance as well.  That was fun.  She had something up this way and decided to stop by.  We still need to see her cute doggie.  We all went to Mod Pizza (or whatever it is down there on 2600 S.  Yummy stuff- and they have gluten free.  This was the night that Sadie told the Taylor's cousin that she wanted to kiss him with her tongue.  So funny and so awkward.  Poor kid.  11-28-25

ZOOTOPIA 2
We've been hating being at home so much with all the construction and such, so we've found lots of things to go and do.  Saturday it was Zootopia 2!  This was a LOT of fun.  We were lucky to get seats.  I LOVED hearing the kids laugh- even Noah :).  The movie was adorable.  I think I liked it better than the first.  Maybe.  SO fun!  The kids were all happy- first movie in a while as a family that wasn't torture.  11-29-25

MUSIC THING
Our ward did this cool music thing.  I guess they did it last year too.  I had no idea.  The choir had been asked to sing in it, so I had to go, and I dragged everyone with me.  It ended up being pretty cool.  Not a huge turnout, but so much talent.  I really want to try to put something together for it next year.  Maybe me and Luke and Charity could do something??  That would be cool.  11-30-25

October 2025

CRAMPS OF DEATH
This is not an exaggeration AT ALL!!  I felt like I was being ripped apart and my insides were on fire.  So torturous.  I was not able to function for about 24 hours!!  Thankfully, it was mostly over by mid Thursday.  Came back for a few minutes on Friday and then gone.  I took lots of ibuprofen and tylenol, which I don't love, but needed to do.  10-1-25

PARENT/TEACER CONFERENCES
We had our conferences this week!  So great!!  Sadie was first.  She is doing wonderfully!  Ms. Smith loves her!!  She did mention that maybe she could use less ice packs :).  Which made us laugh a little.  But she was very happy with Sadie's progress and her attitude in class.  And her frenemy Caroline :).  Molly was next- she is doing fantastic as well!  It was such a wonderful time, hearing about how good she is doing academically as well as with the friends.  Her teacher loves her.  They both got to pick out books in the book fair!  I got to talk to Emily Hansen and all was well when we got home.  10-1-25

MINISTERING
Erika and I did it!!  So fun to talk to Karen and we didn't over stay our welcome this time! 10-2-25

BREAKFAST DATE WITH CHARITY
Charity has a very busy schedule now that she's married :).  So we squeezed in a little breakfast date Friday morning.  It was really nice!  I was so glad Nate was willing to let me go and did the morning stuff.  Charity and I get to talk to our hearts' content and change from subject to subject whenever we feel like it, with no breaks in between :).  So great!  Love that girl.  10-3-25

DATE NIGHT WITH THE DESMONDS
We got to go out with the Desmonds this week!  That was fun!  Texas Roadhouse and chatting the entire time.  So fun.  I love hanging out with them, it's always so chill and the conversation is just so relatable.  10-3-25

GENERAL CONFERENCE
We really thought they were going to do a solemn assembly this weekend, but because Pres. Nelson has not been buried yet, they are waiting.  It's a little strange to feel like we don't have A Prophet.  But all is well.  It has been a really powerful conference so far- still only two sessions in.  I have loved it!!  I'm excited to study these talks mostly!  10-4-25

JACK'S TYPE 1-IVERSARY
We never did decide what we wanted to do for his one year anniversary, but it's here.  He's had Type 1 for one year officially.  So crazy to think that it's been that long, I still feel new.  He's doing so good!  We are getting the hang of things and it goes pretty well.  I've been so proud of Jack and so happy for all that he is able to do along with this challenge.  You got this Jack!!  One year down :).  10-4-25

THE REST OF CONFERENCE
We got to have Charity and Hunter here for the Sunday sessions of conference, that was fun.  They came Saturday night actually so they were able to enjoy Creamed Eggs on Toast with us and all the sleeping in that we all do :).  It was a great day for conference.  Some really awesome talks.  I loved Elder Holland's mention that sometimes our prayers are answered or miracles are performed with the plainest materials.  So interesting.  It was fun to hear form President Oaks even though he's not technically the prophet yet.  Kinda crazy that they had to wait til after, but I'm a go along girl.  I'm sure it was for good reason.  I have faith that the Leaders of the Church are running things the way the Lord would if He were here.  10-5-25

BRAD'S FIRST BREAK UP AND PRESIDENT NELSON'S VIEWING
I don't know if I've said much about Kayden, Brad's first girlfriend.  She was around a little and it was fun to meet her and get to know her a little.  I am so proud of Brad though.  He had seen some red flags - she was making it hard for him to stick with his habits and keeping all of his yesses and nos from the lists he made and so he was starting to feel like they should break up, but was also torn because of the fact that she is a very good person.  I was so proud of him for praying about it, including the Lord and thinking about it during conference.  I'm so grateful he got the message that he did and that he had Heavenly Father's help breaking things off.  I'm sure it wasn't hard.  He did the right thing though.  I'm really proud of him.  10-6-2025

FHE
Molly did our lesson, we played Sadie's game hide and go seek and then ate yummy Swedish candy for Nate's treat.  It felt a little forced this week, kind of hard to get everyone to focus.  Better luck next week.  10-6-25

BRAD'S 21ST BIRTHDAY!
I kept wanting to do more and then I would get reminder that he is an adult.  He doesn't need me babying him for his birthday anymore and that he needs to move away from birthdays being like they are as kids.  So I did a little, but tried to hold back too.  We did slave over a cute sign for him the night before- just Erika and I.  It looked SO GOOD!  He came on my walk with me which was super fun.  We ran into Bradon's mom and got to talk to her for a minute and then the soccer field line drawing robot's owner was sitting there and so we had to ask him some questions too :).  It was a great walk.  WE didn't go to lunch much to Brad's dismay, but we had a nice day.  In the evening everyone (and I mean everyone!) showed up for Brad's family party.  He had invited a few extras: The Wolsey's (he was trying to sell them window cleaning and became best buds with them of course and invited them- pretty sweet that they came) and Pierce.  Then Grandpa, Grandma and Simon, Grandma Ruthie and Jen, The Taylors (most of them) including Sierra and Matt, even Evan and Hannah showed up!  It was a good time!  Nate made delicious hamburgers and we used beans and salmon from his recent catering order leftovers.  It was great!  We all ate and visited and then we headed over to the park for a big game of kickball!  It was so much fun!!  So many joined in, it was great!  Hopefully grandpa is feeling okay from his slide on the grass.  It was so fun to have everyone there and celebrating Brad.  He deserved a nice time.  We gave him our gift- calisthenic bars.  He got some money, treats, cards, a gift card to Nike.  So pretty spoiled :).  I'm just so prpoud of this kid.  I am so excited to see what he does with his drive and discipline.  He's really goign to do awesome.  I don't worry about him at all.  Happy Birthday, Brad!!  10-7-25

KELLY AND DEVAN ARE HOME!!!
We had the pleasure of being Kelly and Devan's first stop coming home from Alaska today!  What a sight!  It was very unreal, but we were so excited!!  They came home, we loaded them back up in our car and we all went and got some Mo' Betta's for lunch with the highschoolers.  It was SO GREAT!!  They got to hang around with us a little til the evening- Kelly's fan club were very pleased with her presence and so grateful for the time they gave us!  We picked up the Elementary kids and headed over to the Sugar Moose for some candy.  Everyone was so happy.  Such a relief to have them back!!  10-8-25

KELLY AND DEVAN'S COUCH WITH BRAD
Brad and I got recruited to pick up a couch from the DI and take it to their new place on Thursday.  That was pretty fun.  Any time with Brad is a good time.  Add Kelly and Devan and you're set.  We waited out the afternoon until they were able to get the keys from the Lasts and then we moved the couch and all their other stuff up to their new place.  I was very relieved to get so much of it out of the crawl space :) and it was fun to see Kelly with all of her things and know that she will finally be able to unpack their little space and enjoy that part of newlywed-ness.  I'm happy for her.  10-9-25

DRESSER FOR ERIKA
I found a cheap dresser on FB marketplace and had to have it for Erika- her teal one is on it's last lap... might even have just given up on the race entirely, so it was time for a replacement.  It ended up being a really nice, sturdy one!  I am really happy with it actually!  It has a couple stains on the top, but I think we might try to find a cute way to cover that.  Stencil and paint maybe?  Anyway- I think Erika likes it.  I liked being with Nate to pick it up.  Got distracted driving there and then were sent to the wrong place at first.  Good times.  10-10-25

DATE NIGHT
There was a bit of a mad dash before our date this week.  I was taking a dresser up to Kelly and Devan with Brad, dropping him off to sell up in the almost Mueller Park neighborhood.  And rushing back to Nate being done with what he had going on.  It was a little nuts for some reason but I'm drawing a blank why at the moment.  Nate and I went to The Habit again :)- no coupon this time, but always delicious.  Then over to the movie theater to see Soul on Fire.  Pretty good movie about John O'Leary who burned 100% of his body playing with fire and almost burned his house down.  It was interesting.  Kinda low budget, but still really good.  The annoying part was the dumb lady sitting next to us- can't really call her a lady, she was just RUDE- who couldn't handle us talking during the commercials!  Not even the previews, but the COMMERSIALS!!!  And just had to tell us, "We can hear you!"  DUH!!  We don't care.  I tried extra hard to be annoying for a few minutes and then got bored.  Still annoys me thinking about it though.  10-10-25

LAST SOCCER GAMES OF THE SEASON
We had a great soccer season!  Our games that were supposed to be during conference were rained out so we had them this week, which was a total tender mercy for sure.  Everyone played really well.  Noah and Erika's' game was at 8:00 am and they killed the other team.  There was a weird little instance with Quinton crashing into a kid, and the other coach getting all bent out of shape and then the rest of the game that coach owned the ref, which sucked, but it was fine.  We've loved having Noah and Erika on the same team!  Molly had slaved over her team treats- some cute little mini loaf cakes with green frosting to look like grass and some candy soccer balls on top- she did such a great job and they looked so cute!  She determined that since they were so cute there was no need to bring a drink with it. She also played really well, tried for several goals, they just had a really good goalie.  But she looked great out there! 10-11-25

BRAD'S MISSION REUNION
This was good :).  He had a great time.  I was worried he would have to deal with a bunch about him and Kayden breaking up, but he said it wasn't too bad.  So that was nice.  He had rode the train down and didn't love that and then luckily got a ride up from Charity and Hunter on their way here.  Kinda funny.  First reunion in the books.  10-11-2025

GIFTS
I'm not sure where to start with this post.  I guess I'll go back a little, give some context.  For the past week, probably because I didn't do my estrogen cream (so gross, I wish I could get a different form of estrogen), I have been dealing with some pretty heavy symptoms.  Perimenopause has gotten the best of me this week and I'm ashamed to admit I gave in.  I am trying, but didn't try hard enough.  So Saturday was kind of the peak of my frustration and I was really losing the battle most of the day.  It was really rough.  I had all but talked myself into skipping church today.  It was funny because I kept having the thoughts that I deserved a break and that maybe the rest from life would help me out and then I remembered what I had thought when Barbara Farnes said that when she was depressed she had times where she felt prompted or felt like it was okay to miss church or not go to the temple and immediately I had the thought that NO!  That is satan trying to keep you down.  Heavenly Father would never prompt us to NOT go to church or the temple.  So I was recognizing that I shouldn't give in to those ideas.  I hadn't settled on the decision, but it was totally an option in my head this morning when I woke up.  I really did not want to get out of bed.  Took me a good hour to do so.  But.  I did.  I got up and showered.  Which seems to be really helpful for me- showering- it really seems to pull me out of my slumps.  After the shower I was on my way- took some extra thought to sound happy waking people up and I tried to muster up some energy for everyone all morning, which was uncomfortable, but I was glad I could.  I was smiling.  It was fun to talk with Noah about how quickly the house gets messy and his fun night and Brad's mission reunion.  I was feeling like a normal person all morning.  Everything went pretty smoothly and we got to church on time without too much trouble.  It was fast and testimony meeting and it was great.  I really loved a lot of the testimonies.  I was grateful Diane had mentioned the times when we feel like we're "doing all the things" and yet not feeling the peace or the growth, just like what Erika had said this week.  Felt inspired.  There were a few other things that stood out- testimonies about loved ones who have passed on being answers to prayers.  It was a good one.  Then, during the closing song, we got to sing the song "I Need Thee Every Hour"- one of my favorite hymns.  One I needed to sing at that moment.  It was so great.  It then hit me that Heavenly Father had helped me a TON this morning.  That he had made my morning go more smoothly and had been carrying me to church so that I would not miss.  I was so glad I made the decision to go and I was so glad that I didn't have to do it on my own.  Then a flood of the blessings he had given me and things he had blessed me with came to my mind.  I realized Molly had not put up a fight at all.  First Sunday in a very long time that she did not cry and throw a tantrum about going to church.  Sadie and Molly both let me do their hair without too much trouble.  We were on time.  The kitchen (and most of the house for that matter) were mostly clean- thanks to Noah the night before.  We sang songs I liked.  The girls were entertained during Sacrament and getting along.  It just felt good.  Doesn't always feel like that.  What a blessing.  If it had been hard at all this morning, I don't know if I would have had the stamina.  I am so grateful.  It reminded me that I don't have to go through menopause on my own.  Then I got a message from Kelly asking me how I'm doing and hoping we can talk about things together.  I got a voice mail from Claire, just checking in on me and my "peace".  So inspired.  I got a text from Becky asking if I wanted to do lunch sometime soon.  When I think about it, it feels like Heavenly Father is in "relentless pursuit" of me at the moment.  Kinda cool.  Gives me so much hope.   I don't have to dwell on the symptoms and the hard things that are happening in my body, I can focus on the ways that Heavenly Father and his helpers here on earth are there for me and lifting a burden.  It will take some practice and I might still mess up, but I don't want to let perimenopause get me.  I want to beat it.  I was grateful for the Relief Society lesson also.  Talking about gifts from God.  I was reminded of my Priesthood Blessing from Brad Wilcox in the hospital.  What a blessing that was.  It has carried me so many times.  Good reminder that maybe I need a blessing to help with all of this as well.  But the bottom line, and like I said to my mom, "Perimenopause might kill me, but it's not going to be today" :).  10-12-25

LUNCH WITH STEPHANIE
I cannot express how nice this new friendship has been.  Not just for the diabetes, but for a lot of other things.  Stephanie is so easy to talk to and we have so much fun together.  She chose Robintinos this time.  It was nice!  I actually really liked the food I got.  It was yummy.  We stopped at her parents on the way home so she could use their bathroom and it was so fun!!  They are still just so entertaining to talk to.  I remembered that feeling too well.  So great though.  I am just so glad to have Stephanie in my .life.  10-13-25

FHE and FAMILY TALENT SHOW
We had a quick FHE lesson with Jack reading Luke's email that was really great this week.  Then we played four corners and went to Dairy Queen to kill time til Charity and Hunter could get here.  It was time for the Talent show.  I was not aware this was in the making, but Kelly and the kids had planned it for family night this week.  It ended up being SO MUCH FUN!  Nate did one of his magic tricks.  I played the piano.  Charity and Hunter sang a really pretty song.  Kelly recited the first part of Tangled and had Devan and Erika act it out.  Devan did a cool trick with the soccer ball.  I was so relieved he didn't break anything :).  Noah did a card trick.  Erika counted acted out Kelly's thing.  Jack showed us some of his art.  Molly did a cool trick out on the front lawn with her soccer ball and Sadie did a few little somersault things climbing up Noah's front :).  Super cute!  It was a lot of fun, perfect excuse for Kelly, Devan, Charity and Hunter to come over- good job Kelly.   10-13-25

RELIEF SOCIETY NIGHT
I needed to make some soup for this, so I knew I was going and didn't do the usual, talking myself out if it business.  But I was really struggling to get into it for most of the night.  I was mostly just tired I think.  Richelle was kind enough to sit with me and I love her.  Then Tammy and Margie and Karen Richardson joined us at our table which was fun.  But I really didn't move from my spot at the table.  There were some cute crafts and ideas around the room but I didn't make it to anything.  Much to Rebekah's dismay.  But it was a good time.  I need to remember to take my hard drive to Star West Computers like Richelle suggested once we have money.  10-14-25

FALL BREAK
We had a really great fall break despite not going anywhere big like we had originally planned.  With the government shut down, we're trying to be smart.  But we really made the most of it and I think it was a nice, relaxing and also fun time.  We had a couple big things planned for each day to look forward to.  Nobody really gave me any others, so we just did what I thought of for the most part.  Wednesday night we stayed up really late, knowing we didn't have to get up early!  That was awesome.  We all slept in pretty good Thursday, too.  By about lunch time the little girls were getting a little restless, so they thought of going to the mall for the playground and some pretzel bites, so we squeezed that in before going to Jack's doctor appointment.  After that we came home and got ready for our BUDDY DATES!!  This was probably the highlight.  And I thought it went really well.  We grouped everyone in couples and everyone went on a date.  Noah had to work Friday which was when we were going to do buddy dates, so we switched it with Alphabet dinner and that made it so that the older girls couldn't come.  Super bummer, but we decided we'd rather have them with everyone than not.  So we had Nate and I together, we went to Applebee's after dropping off Erika and Molly at the Layton Hills Mall.  Brad and Jack were together.  They went to Boondocks and spent a small fortune on the arcade games there.  Brad has the funniest video of Jack coming out of Boondocks carrying his FOUR big bouncy balls one between his legs, one under each arm and one between those two.  It's hilarious.  They seemed to have a great time!  Noah and Sadie were together.  It sounded like their date had the potential to be a lot of fun, but Sadie was in one of her moods.  They went to Carls Jr., the Pet store and then to the Creamery!  Noah went above and beyond, not sure what Sadie's deal was.  Erika and Molly were together and went to Melty at the mall for dinner and then wanted to go to Bath and Body Works and Claires, but both were already closed!  So crazy!  So we picked them up at drove them over to Station Park for the rest of their date.  Kinda fun.  We should really do this more often I think.  It was a lot of fun. 
Friday we had planned to do baptisms.  The older kids and Nate all took off and Sadie, Molly and I went to baseball park :).  It was a nice time.  The weather has been so perfect!  We stopped at Wendy's for lunch even though Nate had picked us up food from Five Guys on his way home- oops.  It was a fun time though.  We went and played chair soccer at the church for the afternoon and then veged at home for a while before having our Alphabet dinner.  It was pretty late by the time we went to Walmart for meal stuff.  We split everyone up into couples for four parts of the meal.  Nate, Kelly and Devan were a group, they had the main dish and the letter J.  Brad and I were a team, we had side and E as our letter.  Erika and Sadie were on Appetizer and had R.  Jack and Molly had dessert with the letter P.  We did all the shopping- waited for each other for an obscene amount of time before realizing we were waiting for each other.  Then came home and prepared food.  Appetizer: Ramen with a different way of seasoning.  Main dish: Jambalaya with Jasmine rice and Jalapeno Sausage (too bad this took Nate out for the rest of the night.  He is still needing to be careful what he eats).  Side: Everything on everything (everything bagel seasoning on lots of different veggies that almost all started with the letter B.  It was delicious!  We found a way that Jack will eat broccoli!  Dessert: Parfaits!  Such a good time.  I really liked this and wish we were doing these things more often.  Jazz game for the rest of the evening. 
10-16-25

CLC MEETING
This was the coolest meeting!  I hope I never forget the things I learned there.  Elder Bednar was presiding.  Elder Amos and Elder Hymas from the 70 and President Taylor of our area were all there.  It was more of a giant group discussion than talks, but it was SO GOOD!!  I loved it!  I loved what Elder Bednar said about teaching kids all three parts of baptism- baptism, confirmation and sacrament.  Emphasis on the confirmation.  He talked about how we have become a performative church and that we need to do more through the spirit and less planned out.  He said it's not going to look perfect and can be messy, but that's okay!  I really liked that.  He talked about letting the youth do things- they are capable!!  Teach them the doctrine so they can be trusted to teach and lead.  He talked a lot about ministering and the purpose of the Gospel being to bring souls to Christ.  Name/Ordinance.  I really want to focus on this and focus on individuals rather than whole groups.  It was such a good meeting.  I am going to try to get our family to read the Book of Mormon every night after study time.  Then I am also going to try to revamp our family night lessons so that they are more purposeful.  We do  need to work on studying though.  It was so good!! Afterwards, while waiting in Martha's car in the parking lot, we talked about how we can help the wards who will be all shaken up in the plans they have for the stake soon.  I'm relieved our ward isn't having any changes, but also a little bummed. 10-18-25

DATE WITH KELLY
After my meeting I hurried and changed and headed down to get Kelly.  We went to the Downtown market.  It was a half hour from closing so not the most opportune time to go, but we walked all the way around and got to see most of the stuff, I think.  EVERYTHING was SO overpriced!!  That was nuts.  I really couldn't believe how much it was.  But we had fun browsing and Kelly bought me some roasted nuts.  Then we ran across the street to Bruge's Waffles for some yummy waffles with strawberries and cream and nutella on the side.  SO DELICIOUS!!!  We had such a great time talking!  It's nice to have a buddy with the perimenopause/menopause stuff to talk about.  It's unreal that she did it all before me.  How dare she beat me to it really.  But we had a great time.  I'm very grateful for Kelly!!  She is a blessing in my life.  10-18-25

CARS THEMED DINNER
When I got home from my date with Kelly we started on our Cars dinner.  Nobody really wanted to help, so I did it myself :).  It was pretty fun though.  We had Mac Grilled cheeses (I hated the thought of throwing away crusts and so much of the sandwiches so I just pressed the truck shape into them.  They looked dumb, but it was fine) dipped in Tow Mater Soup (I made tomato soup from scratch for the first time ever- SO DELICIOUS!!) With Bugles (Sally's Cozy Cones), Chick Hicks Salad (just a salad that was green and nobody likes it so it goes with Chick Hicks).  Then Luigi's tires and some Pistachio Ice cream for dessert :).  Very fun!!  I think the kids liked it.  I wish Molly hadn't gotten so worked up about the labels.  She and Erika did a fantastic job on those and they looked amazing, but Molly was being too hard on herself for some reason.  It was fun though!  We watched Cars 2 after!!  We had everyone but Noah and the girls for dinner and then just a few of us for the movie.  But so fun!!  Again, we need to do this stuff more often!  It's just easy fun!  10-18-25

GRANDMA AND SIMON
We had a pretty easy going Sunday this week.  Nothing after church except choir, so we relaxed!  I made Brad and Molly dry dishes while I washed so that we could make dinner.  I was glad I had plans for dinner when Grandma and Simon showed up!  They had some cute little pumpkin buckets for the kdis filled with candy and fun toys, so we invited them to stay for Pasta Alfredo.  It was actually a complete dinner with roasted veggies and garlic bread and corn on the cob, so that was nice :).  It was fun to talk with them a little.  My mom wanted me to play my songs on the piano for her.  It's been a while!!  Good times though.  10-19-25

FAMILY PUMPKIN CARVING
This was a major highlight of the season.  The Hollists and the Brenchleys both made it!  We all went to Bowman's together to pick out our pumpkins, talked with Cathie and freshly returned Molly (Tony was there too) Nybos, thenbarreled our way through the store for a mini one for Devan and a few other random things.  We can't go to Bowman's without Molly asking for one of the small, glass bottle, drinks, in the fridges by the registers- so she did that and I said no.  We paid for our stuff and headed out!  I had gotten a really yummy broccoli cheese soup all ready to go and finished that up while everyone started on their pumpkins.  I felt so dumb when I remembered that Hunter doesn't like broccoli!!  Ugh.  We ate it anyway.  I think Hunter found some leftovers.  Everyone had fun carving.  We may need a bigger space for this activity in the future.  It was a little crowded.  Gone are the sheet on the kitchen floor days.  Even with the table moved over.  It's fine.  But everyone carved their pumpkins happily- I think Kelly had some hangups, Hunter's stem busted off, Sadie needed some help, Jack tried a few different designs before settling on one, Molly struggled to pick her idea, Nate didn't use real twine this year, and I didn't do my usual!  It was so much fun though.  I hope we can keep this tradition alive.  Maybe next year we do it at the church and finish it off with some chair soccer or basketball?  hmmm.  10-20-25

FAMILY HALLOWEEN PARTY
We were all looking forward to this and I think it was a success.  We had the Hollists and Brenchleys both again!  Twice in one week- pretty awesome! STEVE also came!Everyone brought a Halloween treat.   We played some Eyeball toss to get started- Steve was going all out trying to bribe people with his loads of money.  So funny.  Nobody made it in the cauldron- we shouldn't have played that game without Luke, it's just not the same.  We ate Tater-Tot extravaganza (tater tots covered in ham and bacon and cheese- pretty good- looked amazing! but mostly just because it was cheap and what we had).  I can't even remember what else.  Kelly made some awesome salmon dip at Nate's request, that was yummy.  After lunch (this was in the middle of the day so that Nate didn't have to miss out), Steve took off and then we played the "candybar" game.  We had a few extra cool things in there, cheez-its, takis, big stuff, ya know.  That was fun.  I only put $22 spread throughout, we're on a tight budget right now with the shut down so no going overboard.  This went pretty well.  It's always funny how some people end up with a lot and some with very little.  Nobody seemed to share, but then everyone just left there stuff out for everyone to eat.  Interesting.  After that we played the donut eating game.  This was pretty fun.  Always is.  We got gluten free ones for Jack and Erika.  It seemed like new people won this year.  I think Charity won her group.  Maybe Noah won his?  I shouldn't even try to guess.  Sorry, I don't remember, it's been two weeks.  But we had a good time.  We didn't want the party to end, but it did.  It's always fun to have everyone over.  We really need to come up with more of these kinds of things to get everyone together.  Good times.  We did forget the slimy pumpkin grab and Noah had requested Twister but I totally spaced it- sorry, Noah!!  Next year!!  We've got to shake it up a little I think.  We'll see if we can.  10-24-25

JACK CCR
We went to Jack's CCR appointment.  This was nice because I have not met the new counselor.  She was really nice.  Riley Plott.  She was helpful and it was good to get a refresher on some of the things we talked about.  10-28-25

DRIPS, PLASTIC AND ZIPPERS
We found a leak from the upstairs bathroom down to the family room back on the 23rd.  It was pretty bad, caused a really big bubble, just above the book case and back door area.  Nate woke up to an inch of water that morning.  It was pretty crazy.  We set a bowl down and waited for the insurance company to do their thing.  Well, Thursday morning, right on time, some guys came to look at it.  After a short little talk and me signing some documents, they went right to work, demolishing the area.  They tore out the wall between the door and the kitchen, the ceiling there, some of the kitchen wall up to the bathroom, leaving a wide but short hole that we could look through and see the bathroom.  Kinda funny.  They found mold on the family room floor area.  Then they went up to the bathroom and tore up all the tile, the toilet, made some more holes.  It was kinda nuts.  So much noise and then by the end, which really cut into Nate's Friday meal time, our house was sectioned off with plastic walls with long zippers in them and about 20 fans running all at the same time!!  So noisy!!  We were all pretty annoyed with the overstimulation I think, but we did pretty good!  I was proud of us.  The really strong, gross mold smell eventually went away too, which was nice.  I think that answers our question whether we have mold or not.  I'm certain there is mold in other places as well.  But unexposed is better I think.  So anyway- fun surprise.  We had the fans and zippers til Monday!  10-30-25

PRESIDENCY MEETING- CAFE SABOR
This was a really nice change from our usual.  We needed to talk about the Stake split and all the YW presidencies.  It was good to get together as well and chat a little.  I liked it.  I cannot believe tacos are only $6!!  10-30-25

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!  
Awesome Halloween this year!!  It never really felt quite like it was Halloween for some reason.  Molly and I both didn't feel like it ever was.  But it was still wonderful.  The girls were excited to get in their costumes.  Molly was herself riding a giraffe- one of those blow-up costumes that kids can't resist.  She loved it.  She had picked out a princess one a week earlier and loved it, but once she had it on she kind of realized that she wasn't as comfortable in it.  In her words, "I can't wear this to school, everyone will judge me!"  So we got the giraffe one.  But she seemed to really like it, brought extra batteries to keep it running all day :).  Sadie was a bat!  She had heard that Charlotte was going to be a bat so she wanted to do the same thing.  She LOVED her costume as well, especially after we cut off the five or six inches off the bottom of the legs.  She looked adorable.  We got the girls to school and then Nate, Brad and I headed over for the parade.  Every year we manage to stand by the Stolpps!  Every year.  It's so funny.  So we stood and talked.  They are really fun to talk to.  Jessica somehow remembers all of our kids' names.  I don't know how.  The parade was great!  Sadie was flapping her wings as she walked by and Molly tried to not see us :).  Just kidding.  She looked amazing though!  It was fun to see all the wardies and their costumes.  Finn was hilarious- Weird Al as Michael Jackson- HA!  We scooted up to the concrete and watched the sixth graders do their Thriller dance- so funny with the abducted kid/alien costume on the front row- I was dying laughing.  It was a fun little morning.  We ran to Bowman's to get the donuts for Molly's class party and came home to veg.  We're so good at relaxing on the couch these days, watching Brad work!  At noon we went over to the school for Molly's party!  This ended up being a lot of fun.  We didn't do the eyeball toss- kinda crazy- but Molly had requested the donut eating contest game :).  With the hanging donuts.  So we brought our donuts, mop pole and a sheet along with our big cauldron bowl full of prizes (cool pens I found at Bowmans along with random candy from our treat cupboard and fruit snacks- oddly enough someone chose a fruit snack over all those other things.  Fruit snacks do not even compare).  The kids seemed to like this game.  A lot of them never came close to eating the whole donut which was funny.  Molly had played it twice and done really well at our family party, so I knew it wasn't too big an ask for these 4th graders.  Some of them weren't really into it.  They didn't like that I only let the kids who won get a prize.  This game was so new to us that we didn't know how much time it would take, so we had Ivy's mom do her game with ours in the same station so after they ate their donut they went on to toss rings onto rootbeer bottles.  Kinda fun.  I think if we had just had six stations instead of five, a little less time at each, this would have filled the time just fine.  We could have done them in smaller groups and they could have had more chance of winning.  Just making notes for next time.  It was a lot of fun.  The class seemed really well-behaved, that was nice.  We came home and spent some time trying to relax but with all the fans and stuff, it wasn't super relaxing so we took a drive up to Grandpa's house and visited him until it was time for trick-or-treating.  We ate nuts and talked.  It was a good time.  Too bad he was evading the police at the moment and seemed somewhat distracted.  But his impression of the cops banging on his door was unforgettable.  Hopefully some people forget about it soon.  We came home and got some food in our tummies and vey slowly got ready to trick-or-treat!  Charity and Hunter were so fun to come with us.  Along with Erika and Jack for about 10 minutes before running off with Will.  But I thought it was fun for Molly and Sadie to have such a crowd to cheer them on :).  We didn't go crazy and only did part of the ward.  We made it over to Park Lane with all the real food- that was fun.  But overall, it was just a pretty chill night.  Not cold, mind you, it was really nice weather!  I think I stayed warm enough in a hoodie!  So that was also nice.  The ice cream was still a little too cold to eat then, but it always is.  We came home, Jack got home around the same time and we all just sat in the living room (the only room we could sit in) and looked at the kids' candy and talked.  It's sure not ideal just having the one living space to congregate in.  Kelly and Devan's plans changed a few times that night so they were not able to make it, we missed them, but it was all good considering there was nowhere for them to sit.  Everyone wanted to watch a movie.  I can't remember what we watched.  Good times though.  On to November.  10-31-25