Christmas Eve and Day

Christmas Eve was a busy one . . . which I think is probably good. It's probably the longest day of the year for kids!

I slept for a few hours that morning as I had worked a Monday day-shift and night-shift. We had signed Miles up to do a 2-hour drive-time with an instructor and so he was doing that from 9-11. Then we headed over to a friend's home for a brunch/lunch. There was another family there and it was a good time with some good food!

We left a little after 1 and dropped off our kids to watch the new Star Wars movie. While they were at the theater, Ben and I were home wrapping all the gifts (I hadn't wrapped a single one yet!). It was perfect. The kids came home (they all enjoyed the movie) and we got ready for dinner. We had our annual Christmas Eve dinner of Swedish meatballs. We had three missionaries over to join us and that was fun.

After they left, we dropped in at our neighbor's Christmas Eve party. We didn't stay for long, but just more of a "Hi and goodbye" thing. When we got back the kids opened up their siblings' gifts.

 Here they are getting ready, while watching Santa via NORAD.

 In their Christmas PJs. Miles hated his onesie, ha! They all looked cute, though . . . The sibling gifts were fun and sweet. They all use their own money. Miles got Jonas a knit tie, gave Emmy a drawing he made per her request, and got Lucy something . . . a hand-me-down item of sorts, I think. Jonas got books for the girls and a knit-tie for Miles. Emmy spent a lot of money, buying treats for the them all, plus a funny John Lennon candle for Miles, some awesome "manly" soap for Jonas, and some super-expensive "unicorn" lip-gloss for Lucy, as well as cute treble-clef earrings. Lucy got Miles a prism thing, Jonas some cool slime, and Emmy some earrings and a mood ring. Fun, fun!

We watched an episode of The Middle and then it was time for bed . . .

The kids all slept downstairs in the boys' room. That helps us (the parents) as we get ready for the morning! They played Monopoly for a bit and then I gave them some Melatonin (since Emmy complained sooooo much about how she sleeps horribly on Christmas Eve . . .), and then they read books and finally fell asleep. :)

Christmas morning! The kids came in at 7am and woke Ben and I up with a "Merry Christmas!"

 Lucy running down to see what Santa delivered!

 Jonas was super-surprised and happy with his phone! (A Gabb phone - one that just lets you call and text. No social media, online access, etc. So perfect.)

 Miles giving the thumbs-up for his wireless headphones.

 Emmy was delighted with her Gabb phone, too!

 The girls tried on their beautiful dresses from Grandma Dixie.

 Santa gave the boys crickets to eat. Jonas' were flavored sour cream and onion; Miles' were salt and vinegar. They ate them with friends today. Gross.

 Emmy getting her first phone call - from Dad. :)

 Lucy loving her "fake" phone and Polly Pocket toys.

 Emmy taking a picture of Dad for her contact list. He fluffed out his hair for a funny effect. :)

 Lucy loved her unicorn slippers and bathrobe!

The boys were surprised with a Stranger Things lego set. It's pretty awesome!

 Emmy and Jonas love their phones! Emmy set Uncle Derek's picture as her home screen. So awesome!

 I am pretty sure Jonas and Emmy were texting each other here. :)

 Santa didn't forget the dogs. Brigham enjoyed eating his bone thing! Bella enjoyed becoming a possessive devil over hers!

Here the boys were working on their lego set. With Miles listening on his headphones. :)

The rest of the day was spent with new toys, walking the dogs (well, for the parents), and eating a ham dinner. Jonas had the almond in his rice pudding on Christmas Eve and so he got to chose our Christmas movie (for the third year in a row). He originally chose Avatar (much to my chagrin) and ended up not liking it and so we watched Home Alone. It was only my kids' second time watching it (years ago) and so it was fun to watch it again!

Merry Christmas!

Gingerbread houses 2019

I know the week isn't over yet, but I'm sure our fun festivities are . . . :) Ben and I both work tomorrow, Emmy is babysitting at our house all day, and Ben is on-call all weekend long. So, yep, our fun is over! (But next week we are heading out to my parents' place and already have some fun plans lined up. I'm super excited.)

We used to do gingerbread houses on Ben's birthday, but then that became too much. He usually gets home after 5 on his birthday and so trying to squeeze in dinner, gifts, cake, gingerbread houses, maybe a movie, possibly on a school night, etc. - it was too much. So the new plan (maybe this is the 2nd year of the plan) is doing our gingerbread houses the Sunday before Christmas (which, as it turns out, will be Ben's birthday next year - haha).

So Sunday, after delivering toffee to a bunch of friends, (I make about 20 tins of toffee - a few are given out to teachers. For the rest of the toffee, we each pick 3 families to give to. It's fun for the kids to choose and it's pretty cool who they end up choosing . . .), we decorated our houses. As always, it was a lot of fun and I love how they turned out!

Ben's cute school house.

My house.

Miles' cabin, complete with a fire, and cool tree, and . . . 

 an outhouse. :)

Jonas' awesome cabin in the gumdrop forest.

 Emmy's sweet house.

 Lucy's fun house, complete with a snowman.

A Release . . . and Then a Call

So if you actually ready my posts (no judging here if you don't!), then you might have caught the little blurb on me getting a call from a High Councilman on my trip to Moab. The call was to inform me of my release from serving as a counselor in the Stake YW's presidency. It's a calling I have done for about 2 1/2 years. I was told to be expecting a phone call from my bishop in the near future.

The Stake YW president (she's also one of my favorite friends) was also there in Moab. After I got my phone call that Friday evening, I remembered that as we were pulling in to Moab earlier that day, that she had gotten a call from a member in our stake presidency ("Oh, hi President Nelson" was what I had overheard. :) ). So I figured it was about my release. So we were awesome and as we sat next to each other, we texted about a few things (we couldn't openly talk about it as a bunch of other ladies were there). Turns out the Kandace knew more than I did at that point. Well, perhaps I should say than I "officially" knew. 

As soon as I got the release and then was told about the bishop calling me, I was 99% sure I would be called as the ward YW president. It's something that has floated through my mind many times, especially in the past couple of months. I didn't know when I would get that calling, but was pretty sure it was in my future.

So, lo and behold, after tithing settlement that Sunday, our kids were dismissed and the bishop extended me the call to serve as the ward's YW president. Yay! Scary! I am really excited about it, though, and was pleasantly surprised and delighted that Emmy is excited, too! (Although she will miss her old YW's prez.)

My unique presidency is made up of myself and a co-president from the Spanish branch (our youth are combined), as well as two counselors. They are a great group of ladies and I'm really excited to serve with them and to love our YW.

My mom was curious about the "stats" of the YW. So, just for fun: There are 20 girls listed on the directory. I would say 8 of them are active/partly-active. We will be getting no new YW in 2020, unless someone moves in to the ward that age. Oops, I did forget the branch. I can't access them. But I think there are 2 active/partly active girls from there.

We met as a presidency last night and talked about lessons, activities, goals, camp, and more. Oh it'll be some good times ahead! (Oh, and a ton of work, of course.). Oh, I should also mention that I think the Lord truly looks out for us. How interesting the timing of me getting a new job and being allowed to quit my night job at the hospital - which would have had me gone for half of the activity nights. I'm glad that's not the case!

Alright, it's time to Go & Do!

His Golden Birthday

Well Jonas had a great Golden Birthday! We just hardly saw him! But skiing at Telluride was great and so we're glad he got to do that on his birthday. And as soon as he and Miles got home from skiing, it was ward-party time. A lot going on.

Since we had a full day on Saturday, we decided to have Jonas' birthday dinner and movie on Friday night. Jonas wanted Orange chicken . . . so I asked online for a good recipe and our neighbors came through. I had never made it before, but it turned out really good! Jonas loved it. That night we watched "Jumanji: Into the Jungle." The boys had seen it but not the rest of us. It was a pretty fun show.

Jonas and his birthday dinner wish.

Then Saturday the boys were off with Csilla by 6:45am and home around 6:00pm. 

 He had picked out this sweatshirt for his birthday and so he got that as soon as he got up. Very cool.

This was the only picture I got from Telluride - lunchtime!

We had dinner at the ward party and then headed back home. Jonas opened his gifts:

 He likes Reese's and since it was his Golden Birthday, we went big. :) He got some great clothes, a book that looks like a fun read, cash, a book to build things to blow-up our backyard, a movie gift-certificate (from his siblings), and a Garmin watch. He loves it all and the watch has been a big hit. Which is good because he's a tough one to buy for! I love that he's old enough and wise enough to figure out the watch by himself, ha. It can track his steps, distance, pace, fluid intake, stress level, tell him the temperature, etc., etc. He is able to change the background and currently has a BYU one. It's cool.

After presents we had cake and ice-cream. But since Jonas isn't the biggest ice-cream fan, we had bought milk shakes (which he does like) - peppermint flavor from Crash Burger. YUM. The cake was delicious, too.

 A Ford Mustang cake for our very own Jonas FORD, who also happens to be obsessed by cars - especially Mustangs - at the moment. :)

 It looked pretty cool with the candles!

 Ha, Jonas heard how you can snuff out a candle with your licked-upon fingers and it won't hurt . . . he was a little nervous about it (as you can see from the blurry hand being pulled away).

Ha, he finally got brave enough! He said it didn't hurt . . . :)

Happy Golden Birthday Jonas!

Dear Golden Birthday Boy,

Happy birthday Jonas! Today is your oh-so-special Golden Birthday - turning 14 on the 14th! Awesome. And to celebrate you lucked out by getting to go skiing at Telluride - the first time this season. You and Miles got season-passes for Christmas this year; plus, Csilla organized a van-shuttle through the rec center, and today was the first day going - so lucky you, indeed. I hope it's a fantastic day for you! It's a busy one - waking up at 5:45, driving up to Telluride, skiing all day, driving back, and then we have the ward Christmas party tonight . . . Might as well party hard on your Golden birthday!

It's been quite the year with you . . . we're suffering through your moody teenage years. Year? Maybe you're done with the moodiness?! Whenever I tell my friends or family how moody (or, rather, just rude!) you are in our home, nobody believes me. Which is good, I guess. You know how to act when you're not at home apparently. :) But through all the rudeness you dish out to your family (mostly siblings), we still love and adore you. I think that is one of the main reasons we are put in to families - why else would anyone put up with us through our teenage years?!

When you're not being moody or rude, you're quite delightful. You're funny, fun, and kind. Out of all my kids, you're the first, and sometimes only, sibling to buy gifts for your siblings on their birthdays or Christmas. It's pretty cool. You buys them cool things, too. Thoughtful gifts - clothing for the girls, etc. I love that about you.

You continue to be a part of the jazz band and have done really well with it. You tried out for the Western Slope Honors Jazz Band again this year (a special 2-day event) and not only made it (again) - but this year you were selected for the advanced honors band (2 honors bands - one more advanced than the others), as well as being "first chair." At least I think that's what it's called. You are excited to go up to Junction for a couple of days and a night come January. 

School is going well for you. I still think you could/should be getting straight As, but you haven't quite dedicated yourself to being an A-student.  I see more potential in you. Of course I do, I'm your mom! But you also did show me your state-test results from last year . . . and when you score in the mid-to-upper 90th percentile in math and language arts, then that's why I expect all As from you. :) You're taking spanish this year and are doing really well in it. But you won't ever speak it in front of us, ha. You have to do dialogues in front of your classmates, but refuse to do it in front of your parents. Silly kid. But that sounds a bit like me. Only a bit - the bit about not wanting to speak a foreign language in front of others. Doing well with a foreign language is not a bit like me . . .

You've got a lot of great potential and we're excited (and ready!) for you to mature in to those potentials.

I love you - indeed, the whole package of you.

love,

mom

Last weekend

Last weekend Miles and I were involved in some fun activities!

For me, it was my annual Moab Winter Sun 10K weekend. A group of us left Friday morning, went to the temple, shopped a bit in Moab (I found an awesome Athleta dress at the second-hand outdoor store), and then hung out at our awesome condo eating our traditional pre-10K dinner: homemade chicken noodle soup. Always delicious. My evening was a bit disrupted (as well as my night) by a phone call from a high-councilor in our stake, but more on that later . . .

The race has actually gone downhill since a racing company took over it a few years ago. We got the EXACT same shirts as last year. Super lame! Plus NOTHING in our swag bags. Super lame again! The post-race raffling and awards were done haphazardly. So, this might be our last time doing this race (the company might even be dropping it themselves . . . ). But Moab and friends are always a win, so it was still a fabulous weekend.

I had been pretty sick the whole week leading up to the run (getting sick the day after Thanksgiving). So I knew it wouldn't be my best time . . . and so I just decided not to check my watch (determining my pace) during the run and to just run what my body could do. Well, as I got to the finishing area, my time was waaaay slower - like 10 minutes! But, it turned out the route was poorly marked (or even that the police car in front lead the wrong way?) and we all (as in 90% or more of the runners) added a half-mile loop to the run - mostly up-hill, too! So that made me feel better about my time!

After the race (oh, I did win a hat in the raffle) we ate lunch, took a nap, and then hiked a little in Arches. That night we went to dinner (I had amazingly delicious fish tacos) and then just hung-out at the condo. We left early Sunday morning and I made it home for church. It's such a fun weekend with friends; something I truly look forward to every year. Next year we just might have to either A. Find a new run somewhere else or B. Not run, but still go to Moab! :)

 The five runners all done - yay! (Eight of us went, but five of us ran.) Nikki, Heather, Sarah, Kandace, and me.

 At Broken Arch.

It was a bit nippy out, but felt good walking around the cool arch landscapes.

Now on to Miles . . . he had his first climbing competition in Carbondale (up by Aspen and Glenwood Springs). He was able to get there on the team bus - a 3+ hour drive. He had a great first meet, as he was told by many of his teammates. He really had a great time; he really, really likes climbing. Cool! A nice mom took this picture of Miles:

That's my boy - hat and all! I'm just glad he's part of this group and gets to have these experiences. His next meet is here, so we'll get to watch him. Fun!

Our Thanksgiving Break

I think we had a pretty good Thanksgiving break. The kids had the whole week off from school. Ben and I were both working on Monday, so I "made" the kids go to the rec center after lunch - just something for them to get out and do. They rode their bikes (Lucy actually hitched a ride on the back of Miles' bike) down to the Bus Depot and took the bus to the rec center. Miles met up with some other climbing friends and spent the whole time climbing. Lucy found a friend from school and so the friend, Emmy, and she played in the pool mostly. Jonas found a couple of friends there as well and also swam for the most part. They all had a good time. I picked them up when I got off of work - around 4:30 or so.

I had to go back to work (this time at the hospital) at 10pm that night, so I slept for a few hours on Tuesday morning. I was crossing my fingers I would get called off that night and luckily I did. There was a special showing of "Frozen 2" on Tuesday afternoon and so I took all the kids (plus a friend of Lucy's) to it. It was pretty good and I think we all enjoyed it.

That night we had a special YM Program and Banquet. We had dinner, watched a slide-show of what the YM have been up to the past year, and then awarded prizes to the YM who had worked on their Rise Up O Men of God activities. It was a nice evening.

On Wednesday Ben got off early. The boys had their friend Aiden over and they worked on pumpkin pies (2 for the community dinner and 1 for us).

The boys working on the pies.

Then that afternoon we went to the newspaper building and "stuffed" Black Friday ads in to all the Thanksgiving papers. The mountain bike team was invited to help this year - the newspaper donated $500 to the team, so it was a service project of sorts. It seemed that it would take forever that first hour - the newspapers were hardly dwindling. But slowly but surely, we got it all done! It was kind of boring, kind of fun, and kind of cool. :) Seeing the printing machine was awesome - those papers were just rolling out like a roller-coaster ride. It was totally neat to see.

The boys went and saw "Ford vs. Ferrari" that night with Aiden. They really liked it!

Then it was Thanksgiving! Jonas, Emmy, and I did the local Turkey Trot. Our run was about 4.3 miles. I brought the two dogs along. Jonas started out with Brigham. Then ran back to Emmy and I and gave us Brigham, so I gave him Bella. But she was a little annoying, so I shouted at him a few minutes later to bring her back to us and so I ended up running with both dogs. Next year I hope I remember not to bring them both. It's just too many people and dogs (at least at the beginning when everyone's all bunched up together. Bella almost tripped several people! :( ). It was a great run and Jonas and Emmy did great. Jonas was a little frustrated as he wanted to run with Aiden and the dogs kind of got in his way. I'm not sure he would have been able to stick with Aiden, but I did feel a little badly for him. Emmy ran the whole time - the most she's ever run, really. We finished at 41:47 - a respectable time. :)

 My cute running partner.

 She lasted a few seconds running with the dogs. :)

 Ha, these cows got on the running path at the end. So funny.

All done!

Miles, Ben, and Lucy - and then Jonas who hopped in as soon as we got back from the run - delivered some community Thanksgiving meals to elderly/home-bound people. They only had 5 people, so it didn't take them too long. But Miles drove his car and they enjoyed it.

We ended up eating dinner around 5 - as I said it, "We put the dinner back in Thanksgiving dinner." We had a delicious dinner of turkey, rolls, cranberry salad, sweet potato/yam casserole, stuffing, and green beans. Everything tasted delicious. We watched "Peanut Butter Falcon" that night.

Then Friday morning came and Ben and I worked out at the rec center. When we came back, we got ready to go and cut down our Christmas trees (including one for the kids to put their sibling gifts under). We drove up to a spot and luckily there was some good snow to enjoy. But after about 15 minutes, it started blizzarding! It was crazy. It was windy and so it was difficult to see, etc. Poor Bella was shaking, but she did fine. :) But it was also fun and the kids had a blast. We found our trees and hauled them back to the truck.

 Jonas getting ready to chop down the kids' tree.

 The big tree for us!

 Cute Bella.

 Emmy helping haul back the small one.

 Can you find Ben?!

That afternoon, the boys went with some friends to see "Knives Out." As soon as they got back, Ben and I headed out to watch it. :) My friend Sarah and her husband came, too. I had her bring over her kids so they could all hang out together. (Aiden, their oldest at 15, was a little bummed he had to stay home and babysit his brothers. So I thought it would be fun for everyone to have them all at our house.) We all LOVED the movie. It's so good!

Miles turning in to a unicorn . . . After getting soaked with wet snow, his hair did this to him. :)

That's pretty much it. I started getting sick on Friday - sore throat, body ache, headache, etc. I felt pretty cruddy Saturday. But I think I am feeling a bit better today.

Now back to school and regular lives tomorrow! At least we had a good little reprieve.