Emmie: Emmie is getting more and more self-sufficient. She spent nearly the entire month of December riding her bike to school. She prefered riding to walking even though it was COLD in the mornings! I think mostly she likes to do things on her own time table, and she hates waiting for all of the girls in her carpool to meet after school. She'd prefer to just get home quickly on her own. In December Emmie was also quite proud of the perfect score she received on her math test. She even beat the boy in her class that usually gets the top score. Emmie doesn't know this but we had a "moment" while driving in the car that brought a smile to my face. Emmie is generally happy nad singing. On this particular day she was with just me running some errands. She was so content singing Christmas songs in back seat that it made my heart happy. It was one of those moments where you watch your kids and just feel like everything in the world is right and good. Emmie had a good Christmas, her dreams came true and got a bean bag. That bean bag will possibly be the most loved and used beanbag in the history of bean bags. It's a good thing Santa decided to invest in the higher quality beanbag, because that thing is going to have to endure a lot. Emmie was also able to take a ski lesson 2 days before Christmas. I realized that Owen and Emmie were to the point where they would greatly benefit from a lesson, from someone they weren't related to. Emmie did great. Although she cried as soon as her teacher passed her off to me and said that the lesson had been horrible and she was never going to do that again. Apparently her made her go over some bumps and she fell. But in the wise words of Heather Demars, "If you aren't falling you aren't getting better."
Owen: Owen has had a busy month. He's done a lot of fun activities. He went swimming with the deacons, went caroling on a sleigh ride through the neighborhood with all the youth, helped John put up Christmas lights, went shopping with other students in honor society for families in need, started an oragami you-tube channel, went skiing with friends twice over Christmas break, enjoyed his ski lesson much more than Emmie, served dinner to the empty nesters in our ward with his sunday school class, performed in a band concert, got to go to a special band activity where the kids get a pizza party and lesson from specialists, went to his first youth dance for new years, and spent time with friends...he even walked to the village from our house to go to a movie. When he's bored and at the mercy of his feet he will still find ways to entertain himself. His dreams came true this Christmas when he got an apple watch. Although he is going to be super disappointed when he realizes that his mean parents aren't going to let him take it to school. Owen is truly turning into a teenager, with all of the positive and negatives included in that. He knows what he likes and doesn't like, he's learning to be a good friend, he knows everything...literally...just ask him. I quite enjoy Owen and his sense of humor. When I was driving the kids down the mountain after a day of skiing I can honestly say I was completely entertained by Owen. He can be a lot of fun.
Funny story from Owens band concert. The 8th grade band students were sitting in the bleachers while the other grades were performing. Owen was talking to the girl next to him the entire time. At least we thought he was talking to a girl. The whole time I was wondering who this girl was that Owen had a crush on. After the concert I asked him who the girl was that he had been flirting with the entire night. Owen’s reply was, “you mean Marcus?” I felt horrible! Owen assures me that Marcus gets called a girl all the time, maybe it’s his long hair? But boy did I feel dumb.
Ains: Ainsley has a full load at school this year. Her workload at school has increased noticeably this year. Although she is a bit of a perfectionist. She got a 98% on her AP bio test. Her mind is pretty impressive. She also went to her second debate tournament and came home with a silver award! Way to go Ains! Ains spent her Thanksgiving break making and incredible gingerbread house. It had lights and "glass" windows and everything. It was incredible! Ainsley and I also made a quick 24 hour trip down to Salt Lake with Heather Demars. We drove down on a Wednesday afternoon, changed into our dresses in the car, and got to the temple just in time for Ainsley to meet up with Olivia (who is at BYU now). Ainsley and Olivia did baptisms for the dead and looked at the lights on temple square while Heather and I did a 3 hour endowment session. Clearly the rest of the world is also wanting to visit the Salt Lake temple before they close it for 4 years. We stayed with John's parents that night and spent some time with them Thursday morning. We were back on the road by 1:00 on Thursday and made it home in time for Owen's band concert! Sadly Ainsley also had a few rough moments this last month. I could glaze over them and pretend that they didn't happen, but then this record would be very superficial. Ains wrecked her car. She backed into the neighbors' car across the street. Luckily for her I had been over the pervious week with a poinsetta in hand to introduce our family to them. I had an awkward conversation with a 20 something boy. That same boy answered the door when I went to inform them that she had hit his car. Well, technically his brothers car. They were super nice about it and said their car was a piece of junk and they didn't want us to fix. it. Thank heavens! Because Ainsley's car was going to have to be repaired. To the tune of $2200. Autobody work is a giant rip-off. Ains also had a rough night with her friend Hallie at a basketball game. Due to a series of sad events, and a bit of a negative attitude of her friend, Ains came home in tears. We are all praying right now that Ainsley will be able to find a few friends that like to go and do things. And Ainsley is so awesome that I'm sure if she puts herself out there great things will happen!
Jess: I spent the month of December shopping. And making treats. It was great. I actually finished Christmas shopping earlier than I usually do. Two weeks before Christmas I closed myself in my bedroom, turned on a Christmas movie (a super weird one from the 80's) and wrapped for hours. It was so awesome to be done so early! I think I ended the month with 20 trips to Costco, 400 trips to hobby lobby, and 25 trips to an assortment of other stores. I never mind Christmas shopping though, I actually enjoy it. My legs are finally feeling back to normal after my surgery. Although I still have hard bumps under most of the cuts. I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to the Salt Lake temple. Salt Lake was the temple John and I were assigned to go to when we were living in Salt Lake as newly weds. We rarely went there however because it was a big pain to get downtown. I was surprised at how little of the decoration and architecture I remembered. It was like a completely new experience. Over Christmas break I enjoyed skiing on the bunny hill with Ainsley and the Dowdles. I finished my christmas puzzle, watched tons of movies, played tons of games, and I got sick and was in bed for 2 days. And then I got Owen sick. Sorry Owen. I also got a new calling. I'll be a primary activity leader for the girls Emmie's age with Heather. How perfect is that?! I also had my first volleyball practice with the team I will be playing on this winter. Some friends and I joined (at the insistence of our vollyeball crazy friend that it would be fun) a non-competitive meridian rec league. Our first game is in 5 days. We've practiced once. Oh, and I have a hurt shoulder and wrist....I'm sure we'll be fine!
John: John spent some time sick recently as well. I guess it wouldn't be winter if someone wasn't a bit under the weather. John was also assigned to a murder trial. Which is good because it means he is like and respected by his bosses. It's bad because it means he gets to do a lot of extra work. John was also interviewed about Mormons in the Idaho penitentiary for a PBS documentary. How cool is that!? The episode he was interviewed for will air in Idaho in March. He absolutely loved the experience. We were going to celebrate his awesome day that evening, but that was also the same day that Ainsley wrecked the car. So we didn't. And instead we had a conversation about how crazy it is that some days can have such highs and lows. Life is a true roller coaster. John got to take Emmie and Owen up skiing. Originally we had a family ski trip planned to Anthony Lakes, but due to horrible weather at Anthony Lakes and my illness and Ainsley's low tolerance for skiing, John ended up taking the younger two kids for a day up to Bogus. I'm glad he got to go. He rarely gets to go and do things like that with the kids without me. And from what I hear, everyone had a great day. John also broke a tooth. Yesterday. He has an appointment tomorrow morning to get it fixed. Hopefully its quick and easy and painless....and cheap.
The Family: A few family activities worth mentioning...We celebrated Thanksgiving with my family. We had dinner at my parents and hung out with them and Michael and Rachelle for the day. We got together with the Demars family and made gingerbread houses and watched the Christmas devotional. We drove through our favorite neighborhood to look at lights and as luck would have it Santa was out in front of one of the houses! We went to our ward Christmas party, and I wasn't in charge of anything! It was awesome! We played a lot of games as a family. Our two new additions this year were Disney Villians and 5 Crowns. Our TV broke on Christmas morning. So we got a late Christmas present and bought a new TV the day after Christmas. The Dingers need their TV time! We also got to buy new breaks for the truck and tires for the van. Yay! We love spending money. We spent New Year's Eve with family friends. It's become a bit of a tradition to get together with the McCarneys, Demars, Baumgartners, Hansens, Wendy, and Tina. We had a nice dinner (John smoked meat) and a fun white elephant exchange. The teenagers joined us for dinner and then spent the rest of their night at the youth new year's eve activity at the high school. Ains went and hung out mainly with Clara and Owen and had a great time! Ainsley and I also went to see Little Women on NYE. I'm thrilled that Ainsley shares my love of historical fiction. We also spent time playing floor hockey at the church a couple of times with our friends. Which is always a good time.
New youth theme this year is...go and do. Today we took some time as a family to set some goals. One of my goals is to keep this blog up to date and to start getting it printed. This is completely overwhelming to me. Wish me luck. As time goes on I'll share some of the kids goals as well. I'm excited for this new program. I think that if the kids internalize it and truly try to set goals and stretch themselves it will bring about great growth and changes in them. Hopefully they decide this is something worthwhile!
And last but not least....A huge dump of pictures. In no particular order. Enjoy.
The beginnings of Ainsley's gingerbread house.
My new little skinny Christmas tree to hold the surplus of decorations that no longer fit on our big tree. Which Emmie hated. And then loved. Emmie and I made a pom pom garland (not up yet in this picture) to go around the tree.
The beginning of my Christmas puzzle. Sadly it's the only picture I got!
Emmie with Santa at the ward party.
Emmie holding our friends baby at the ward party.
Ainsley's silver award at her debate tournament. She had been at the school for 14 hours when this picture was taken. Such a long day!
Family gingerbread houses.
Family trip to a live Nativity put on by a neighboring stake.
Quick picture snapped after our session at the Salt Lake temple. I think we look tired. Probably because we were.
Owen after his band concert.
The theme for my siblings gift exchange was "treat yo-self." We took the kids to experience Mongolian BBQ. It was a hit. We all got so much food we had enough for dinner the next night as well.
Lights in front of our favorite house in our favorite neighborhood to look at lights in. They are seriously amazing.
Christmas PJ's. Notice the snarky faces, and the cute pom-pom garland.
Christmas Eve dinner at our house. Complete with Christmas crackers and chinese food. (Our dinner was 2 hours later than we planned because the chinese restaurant we ordered from was that busy...it was insane!)
Christmas morning. She got a chrome book!
Christmas morning. He got an apple watch!
Christmas morning. Check out that bean bag!
Ainsely's completed gingerbread house.
My only picture from new years eve. Sorry Katie.
