January 2022

January was a bit of a blur. The month started off with a youth activity I drove to in Nampa where we saw what I think looks exactly like the tree of life. This might sound corny, but it was gorgeous. The rest of the night was a bit of a bust (weird concert, snow storm on the way home, cars sliding off the road, and the girls getting home too late. But we can't say it wasn't an adventure!

Emmie and Owen had season ski passes this year. And John and I had night passes. John took advantage of that and took Emmie up for an afternoon and evening of skiing. Emmie started off the ski season lacking confidence, but after a few visits to the mountain I couldn't keep up with her anymore. I am officially the slowest skier in the family. 

Owen got cleared to start skiing in January. But he was told to take it easy. I think he took it easy for his first visit. But after that I think he threw caution to the wind he was back up and skiing at full force. Sadly, his ski season was cut short after a fall where he twisted his knee badly. That kid just can't go for more than a few weeks without being injured! After his fall his knee was swollen to at least double the size it should have been. His doctor said that nothing was torn and that he just needed to take it easy. Which meant....no more skiing.

Other random happenings in January:

• Ainsley went on a date where she made cakes and delivered them to random people from school. 
• Ainsley also started hanging out more with her "french group" from school. Which was awesome! They are such a great group of kids. 
• Owen spends all of his time with friends. Which is great, but we miss him.
• Owen was ordained a priest the first Sunday of January.
• Owen started acutane. Which is super fun for him. 
• Emmie's indoor soccer team took 3rd place!
• I started teaching 6 classes, it took up more time than I wanted, but the money was nice.

The biggest event of the month was that Ainsley turned 18! Our first child is now an adult. 

Ainsley has developed a love of plants. She's had her eye on this string of pearls plant for quite some time. So she got that for her birthday, so college stuff, and a glass blowing class. Which she loved!

The highlight of the month for Ainsley was when she got to go do some glass blowing. She has been watching a show on Netflix called blown away and has become fascinated with it. We thought it would be a fun thing for her to do for her 18th birthday and would give her a nice little keepsake. She had to wait a week or so after her birthday for an available slot, but eventually the day came and she and I went down and she got to make 2 glass peices...with a lot of help, but the process was so cool! I'm glad she got to be a part of it.

Emmie also started indoor soccer in January. Her team did great! And it was good for her to have something to do on Saturday mornings other than lay around and watch TV.

Emmie also quit piano in January. I was a little sad about it...but she really hated it. Emmie seems to have a talent for art. So we swapped the piano lessons for some art lessons from a friend/artist in our ward, Brittany Hall. Emmie has loved it. She goes over twice a month and gets to create some art. She really is talented and I hope she continues to develop her talent!

Also, we got a new couch. Super exciting. 

Leo loves to perch up on is and look out the window. And clearly we love to take lots of Leo pictures....

December 2021

 

Christmastime is here!

December always starts off with a huge mess. The excitement of decorating for Christmas carries us through for about an hour. Then, the house is an absolute disaster, and we're all ready for lunch, and the excitement wears off. This is the point at which I usually get cranky and yell at everyone to help me finish. But when we're all done it feels amazing!

We kicked off the Christmas season by inviting the Demars and my parents to go see the lights on the River Walk in Caldwell. They were beautiful. And it was an especially warm night, so it was actually pleasant to walk around!

We also managed to get in plenty of holiday baking. I don't want to brag...but I made the most amazingly perfect caramels. I have tried and failed for years to get them just right. And this year I tasted the sweet success of victory! They were amazing!

We also made a knock-off version of a swig peppermint cookie that was so delicious we made a million more batches so we could pass them out to our neighbors as well. 

Ainsley also made her traditional gingerbread house. Which I'm currently struggling to find a picture for. I'll hunt for it so I can add it. Because as always, it was amazing.

Not a great picture, but zoom in at her gingerbread house on the buffet. The piping she did this year was amazing.

I've been volunteering a this year for the IRC (international rescue, comittee). Natalie Ball invited me to come with her one day and I decided I could use some community service in my life, and what a better way to help my community than by helping refugee families that are sent here and are rebuilding their lives from nothing. They asked for a few families to sponsor families for Christmas. So I signed us up for a family of 6, a mom and 5 kids ranging from 4-18. It was a great experience for my kids to shop for others during the holiday season. And my mom helped us out and bought some gifts for this family for Christmas as well. 

December 16th means celebrating John and I's anniversary, and my mom's birthday. December birthdays and and anniversaries are hard. I'll just leave it at that. 

And only one band concert this year! But Emmie nailed it.

There was a new spider man movie that came out this December. Which meant that John had tickets ready for us the moment it was released. Owen was too cool to join us this year and chose to spend time with friends instead (which I understand) but the girls joined us. We had a great time and got to see the lights at the village.

And then some old guy was nice enough to hit us while we were stopped at a stoplight on our way home. He tried to flee the scene twice, but police were able to get his insurance info and we were able to get the minor damage to our bumper fixed.

Hamilton also came to Boise in December! We had to go in two shifts but the show was still amazing. John took Ains one weekend and Emmie, Owen, and I went the next weekend. The show was fabulous and it was fun taking Owen and Emmie to their first Broadway play.

While I have no photographic evidence of this, Ainsley got invited to a traditional French Christmas dinner by the mom of one of the kids in her French class, (Max). Max's mom is from France and it was incredible of her to do that for these kids. Ainsley got to go hang out with the kids she has been in French with for the last 4 years and got to try fun french foods like Escargot. And, as luck would have it, that night was the start of a great group of friends deciding they all really liked hanging out together, and was the first of many fun nights.

Last but not least, the main event. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. The day was a little heavy because my grandpa was admitted to the hospital and driven to St. Lukes in Boise. Although we couldn't go see him because of Covid.  

While there was sadness in the air, there was italian food, christmas poppers, pajamas, Muppet's Christmas Carol, and Santa still came.

Ains got college stuff and a new phone. 

Owen got new fancy-schmancy shoes.

And Emmie got bedroom decor and decor pillows.

Oh, and we wend skiing on New Years Eve!  We had plans to go to the Flakes new cabin with them to celebrate the new year, but they got covid. So we settled for skiing  and Owen went to the NYE stake dance/party at Centennial and the girls and John and I did our annual tradition of watching the new Little Women.  Even with the bummer change of plans it was a great way to end the year.