January 26, 2019

Ainsley’s birthday celebration was pretty low key this year.  Which fits her perfectly.  Originally we had plans to do something as a family on Saturday night since she had a Sunday birthday this year, but John and Owen had a rough day skiing and Ainsley wasn’t feeling well so we ended up staying home and watching a movie.  For her birthday my parents came over and we had a lasagne dinner and over the top ice cream sundaes.  Ainsley’s main gift this year was tickets to Les Miserables.  The show isn’t until July so she will have six months to memorize the music and look forward to it. To cap off her birthday I made her watch Monty Python and the Holy Grail that night because it was on Netflix.  It definitely got a few laughs….but mostly she was in awe of the strangeness of it all.

Ainsley was lucky enough to have stake conference on her birthday.  I haven’t enjoyed stake conference for several years.  This is horrible of me to admit but our old stake president was really hard to listen to and I felt like he was always rebuking us.  We got a new stake presidency this year and I actually loved stake conference!  The stake president talked about how he knew the prophets were true.  He shared experiences from his life where he had followed their counsel and how through that faithfulness he had gained a testimony of his leaders.  I’m not sure why but the stories he shared and the words of the prophets that he testified of really touched me that day.

Emmie submitted a piece of art to our stakes’ art show, La Prima Galleria.  There was artwork displayed by children and youth in the stake ages 8-18.  Emmie submitted a piece of string art she made at school that she had worked really hard on. It was a nice evening to attend and the kids’ art was actually really impressive and move to look at.

My children (and John) are all pretty upset with me right now.  I reached my breaking point on Saturday (minutes before we had to leave for the art show)  and the Nintendo Switch, Owen’s beloved game of fortnight, and the computer password are all gone. From now until my birthday.  If behaviors and levels of obedience don’t improve by then I have threatened to sell the switch and buy myself a nice present.  Happy birthday to me!

Owen gave his first talk in sacrament meeting today.  He spoke on honesty and did a great job.  He shared the story of when Ainsley stole a candy bar and ran out of the store and into the parking lot when she was two. She grabbed a candy bar as we were checking out and ran out the automatic doors into the parking lot.  I chased her down, and embarrassed I tossed the candy bar back into the store instead of taking it back in myself. I’m weird.  It was a funny and awkward moment and the perfect attention getter for Owen’s talk.  It also caused Ainsley to be asked a lot of questions about that event today.

Ainsley and Owen have both recently been called to their respective class presidencies.  Owen was set apart as the 1st counselor in the deacons quorum last week and Ainsley was set apart as the 2nd counselor in the miamaid presidency today.  I’m grateful that they will both have opportunities to be involved and hopefully learn a few leadership skills as they serve.

Unfortunately John has to miss Owens talk and Ainsley’s setting apart due to the fact that he left this morning for a work training in San Diego.  I think he’s looking forward to a few days of warm weather and some down time.  Sadly he’ll be thrown back into the rigors of real life upon his return home.  He has to present a 2.5 hour training on Friday at work (that he just found out about) and we will be heading up to McCall next Saturday for the winter carnival with my parents. Fun and busy times!

Lately I’ve been trying to read conference and other inspiring talks.  I recently read this one and quite liked it. It was an Ensign article in the 80’s and it gave me lots to think about. So here is some food for thought.

“One Thing Needful”:
Becoming Women of Greater Faith in Christ
By Patricia T. Holland
https://www.lds.org/ensign/1987/10/one-thing-needful-becoming-women-of-greater-faith-in-christ?lang=eng

January 19, 2019

Owen had his first race up at Bogus this last Saturday.  Owen and Emmie and I went up skiing with Heather, Elsie, Clara, and Isaac.  Clara and Owen both raced in the middle school beginner division.  Owen placed 4th!  He shaved a full 20 seconds off his time from last year and it’s most likely that they’ll make him move up to the intermediate course. After a slow start to the day on the mountain with searching for kids and waiting for races, we had a great afternoon skiing.  Conditions were pretty good and it was a warm sunny day.  And I am officially the slowest skier in my family. (If you don’t count Ainsley…who hates skiing…so I don’t think she counts.

Ainsley’s big news of the week is that she invited her friends over!  All on her own accord!  I have no words.  It was fun being able to meet her friends! We learned that her friend Reagan talks a lot.  Which helps me to understand why this group of three works.  Hallie and Ainsley are introverts who rarely talk.  Which works well for Reagan.  He can talk all the time and fill all the silent gaps and everyone is happy!  They played games on the switch and then went to the stake dance on Saturday.  I’m always so happy when Ainsley gets out of her comfort zone a bit and experiences the social aspect of high school.  And on the other hand I’m also grateful that she seems to be okay with herself and is fine with the introvert that she is. If she can conquer some of her fears as she grows older she’ll be unstoppable.

Ains and Owen are both in the middle of finals right now.  It’s so funny to watch their different personalities. Ainsley has a high A in every class and is stressed and spending tons of time studying even though she could fail every test and still have a 4.0.  Owen, on the other hand, really wants a 4.0, and is confident he’ll be able to pull it off with little to no studying even though all of his grades sit almost exactly at 90%.  I hope he pulls it off!  I don’t understand how he’s not worried at all!?

We’ve had 2 weeks of 2 hour church.  I’m a fan!  The church block flies by!  I hardly feel needed in primary.  (That part makes me feel a little sad though honestly.) We are home by 11:15.  We do a little dinner prep.  Have our lesson as a family (so far they’ve been lasting about 45 minutes) and then we have long relaxing day!  I absolutely love feeling like Sunday is actually a day of rest now.

And with that, I guess that will have to do until my next update!

January 7, 2019

Christmas break has come to a close.  The kids are heading back to school in the morning.  Our holiday break was wonderful. I’m Kind of sad to see it come to a close. The night that our kids got out of school was our ward Christmas party.  The primary was in charge of the decorations this year so we were there helping decorate the night before and then early that evening.  For all the stress and worry that it caused the gym looked festive and beautiful and we had fun socializing and gearing up for the holidays.  And we learned that night that Emmie wanted colored pencils for Christmas when she asked Santa for that and nothing else.  The next day we had chocolate-polooza.  We made all sorts of dipped chocolates. And while we tried our hardest to eat most of them, I finally threw away the few that were left tonight. There were mire than enough to last us the whole break!  Saturday and Sunday night we crammed in all the Christmas movies that we could, had a Christmas devotional/lesson, and drove to our favorite neighborhood to look at Christmas lights.

We tried to make Christmas Eve a little more relaxing this year.  I decided I didn’t want to spend the entire day in the kitchen.  So we scaled back our Italian feast (my mom even ordered some of it from Olive Garden) and we took the kids to see Mary Poppins at the theater that morning.  I thought it was the perfect morning!  And I really liked the movie too. My parents joined us for dinner that night.  We’ve started a tradition of doing Christmas crackers on Christmas Eve.  Then we watched old family movies, played the Mexican Bingo Kort and I got my mom for her birthday (which Kort and Dan’s family over FaceTime), then the kids played Christmas songs on the piano and Owen on the trumpet.  We ended the night with Christmas pajamas and sending the kids off to bed at a completely reasonable hour.  Bonus for mom and dad!

Christmas Day began at 6:45. My plan to sleep in a bit by setting Owen’s clock back an hour failed and we were up early anyways.  The Christmas excitement just couldn’t be contained!  We are very blessed and the gifts were plentiful this year.  Owen’s main gift was a go-pro that he will hopefully use on the ski slopes and getting energy out doing crazy boy tricks.  Ains got the succulent terrarium she wanted.  And Emmie got soccer goals an Alexa, and the colored pencils she asked for.  We also got a new family computer.  We spent Christmas Day relaxing, eating, playing games, and visiting with my parents.  Christmas Day is my favorite!

Over Christmas vacation we went skiing two times.  Both at Anthony Lakes ski resort.  They have half price lifts tickets on Thursday’s making the 3 hour drive worth it.  I can get lift tickets for my entire family for a little more than one day pass at bogus.  The first trip there I took Owen and Emmie because John had to work and Ains opted to stay home and hang out with grandma and grandpa.  She was happy with her choice because she ended up getting to go to a movie, out to lunch, AND out to dinner.  Owen and Emmie and I had a good day on the mountain but conditions weren’t ideal and we were beat by the end of the day.  There were 12 inches of new snow and it snowed on us the whole til we were skiing.   Visibility was low and a bit of a struggle. The roads up were a little scary in my van but we made it! We drove up with the Demars and 2 of their cousins. I ski’d with Emmie most of the day.  There were a lot of tears due to the fact that she was always the last one down the mountain.  Can we say competitive?!?!  Owen’s first run was a bit rough, he  was riding up the ski lift with Clara.  On the way up he ski fell off…on a powdery black diamond run.  Owen went to find it for her while she walked down the mountain.  Owen struggled all the way down.  And never found the ski, but later was able to help Clara’s dad, Brandt, find it. Owen was beat! He was tired the rest of the day.  In the end we were all tired and worn out, but the cheap day skiing was worth it.

Our second day skiing was with the Demars, Baumgartner’s, and my favorite ski buddy Mandy and her daughter,Owens favorite ski buddy, Ava. John and Ains came with us this time and we had a blast.  We drove the truck so roads weren’t an issue.  Emmie signed a co tract that she wouldn’t whine or cry. Conditions were perfect.  Mandy coached Ainsley which is much more productive than John or I coaching Ainsley. We ski’d all day and had a blast. Owen made it down the black diamond that had worn him out the week before, and John even made it down that run as well!  Ski season is off to a great start!  Owen’s races at bogus start next week so there will be much skiing in our future.

Our New Year’s Eve was spent with the same group of people we spent it with last year.  Our friends the McCarney’s had a few families over for games and food and a white elephant exchange. I think the gift of the night was a “box of John”. There was a calendar (got guys and baby animals) with John’s face taped over all the models heads.  A charm bracelet with pictures of John in all of the openings.  A drug test.  And a pack of Coke Zero.  It was hilarious.  The younger kids played and most of the older kids went to the stake dance.  Ainsley spent the evening with her friends Hallie and Reagan playing the Switch, and then John took them over to the dance around 10:00.  It souses awesome!  It was multi stake and held at centennial.  There was food, the dance, games, and even a mechanical bull!  It sounded awesome.

I forced my family out on New Year’s Day for some “forced family fun”.  They would have been lazy and slept all day if I let them.  But instead we loaded up the van and the sleds and headed to Garden Valley for some sledding and hot springs soaking with the Demars and the Baumgartner’s. .  No one was very excited about it to begin with but it ended up being a nice day with only minor injuries.  Nothing a good soak in warm water couldn’t fix.  We pulled into our driveway at 5:00 and by 6:00 we were showered and dressed and headed to my parents for dinner and games. Except for Ainsley…she headed back to the McCarney’s for a teen white elephant and new year party.  One day I hope to be as cool as the McCarneys.

Amidst all of the holiday fun it felt like there was just enough time to relax a bit, watch a few movies, play games, finish puzzles,  take down Christmas decorations and lights, and get organized and ready to jump back into school.  It was perfect!