Six for Sunday

1. Changing rooms  Due to a series of fortunate events, Jerry is going to have a home office.  This is really a good move since he's been commuting down to Pleasant Grove.  Now he can spend his commute time mountain biking and I can spend the gas money on running shoes.  Two gas tanks at the old prices equals one new pair of shoes.  Fantastic, right?!  Well, that meant that he needed a room for a home office, and since Abby's room was technically an office, that kind of made sense.  And that meant that Abby had to move out and the most sensical place for her to go was with Sara, which meant Kate had to move downstairs into her own room.  Oh, sad day.  I tried to convince myself that there was room in Sara's room for the crib, but realistically, it wasn't even close.  So after some sad thoughts, we fixed up Abby's bed on the bottom bunk.  It is sad to think that there is a good chance that the crib won't be set up again.  The saddest part of the day was separating Kate and Sara.  They have shared a room for 7 years!  They have very differently personalities and I have loved that they have spent so much time in their rooms together.  I felt like that helped them to be a little closer.  There was some excitement and sadness from them.  Kate was totally excited to move downstairs, Sara was sad to be left behind.  At bedtime, they were both in tears!!  They were so sad to be apart.  Sara calmed down and she still has Abby, but Kate cried herself to sleep that night.  Sad night!  Since we've been off track Sara has still slept downstairs with Kate a lot of nights.  Now that it has been 10 days, I think we're all adjusted to it.  I have to admit, it's all working out pretty good!

 

 I've spent a lot of time in this room!  I was planning on turning it into a yoga studio when Abby moved out in a few years.  I guess I'll have to wait a little longer!

 Just in case it is never set up again... this is how it looked.

 And now Abby is sleeping in a big girl bed!  She's doing pretty well.  One night she didn't wake up at all in the night.  She got a sucker for breakfast.  Every other night though she has still ended up in our bed.  I'll work on that in a couple of years!

 And now Kate is down here!  We spent an afternoon hanging pictures and organizing all her stuff.  It might be good for her to have her own space.  She did promise all on her own that if anyone was staying with us they could have her bed.

 

2. The cuteness that is Abby   Abby is just so darn cute right now.  I've been trying to get some videos of her so here you go.

We are trying to get Abby to increase her vocabulary.  I repeat words a lot.  I've also been teaching her more sign language.  She's doing well.  We actually taught her this a few months ago.  She loves ranch dressing and one night at dinner I told her this was the sign.  Makes us giggle!  She pretty much eats her ranch dressing with a side of food!

 

 

No wonder she is so spoiled.  How do you tell this "please" no?

 

 She's just too cute!

3. Kate time  Matt's friend invited him skiing with him.  Jerry and his dad had to go with them and Sara skied free so we just let them go instead of making a big affair out of it.  I didn't want Kate to feel bad so we went to a pottery studio and painted and then went to in n out for lunch.  It was a fun day.  I did miss my board though!

4. New calling  So a couple of weeks ago was I called to serve as the young women's first counselor in church.  I was shocked!!  I had just spent the last month convincing myself that I was ok to teach relief society for another year!  I had to pick my chin up off the floor before I could even say anything.  Jerry saw me right after and said my face was totally white!  I still feel a little bit like a deer in the headlights because there is just so much!  In fact, more than once I've thought, "I don't want to do this!  There is so much to do."  And then we have our Sunday meeting or after our first activity I think, "Ok.  This is good and fun and I like these girls!"  It will be ok.  I just can't look at the calendar too much! My good friend is the president and that will be fun!

Not many girls, but we'll have fun!

 

5. Science fair  While off track the school had the science fair.  I strongly encouraged Matt to participate.  He was resistant at first but he needs projects like this to push him.  He qualified for the district fair and has some work to do on his display and journal, but he was excited.

6.  Welfare square It is hard to keep my kids entertained and not bored in January.  We've had a lot of fun skiing but I also have wanted to take them to the church's welfare square.  It was so awesome!  I have been so tired and busy this past week that I wasn't wanting to go, but I was so glad we did.  It is so cool to see all that the church does to help people in need and help them get back on track.  It made me be proud to be part of it!  The kids all thought it was cool.  I loved our guides, the sister missionaries from Ukraine and Finland!  My favorite part was the movie they show at the beginning.  Watching it I was so touched by how much the Savior loves each one of us and how important it is for us to love each other.  It really is the key.

Six on Sunday

1. Sledding Crashes  I love having the grass fields right behind our house.  They are a lot of fun in both the winter and the summer.  My kids go out and play in them and I don't worry about them especially if they are playing with friends.  So, when my kids met the Rasmussen kids for an afternoon of sledding I thought it was great.  And I still thought it was great when Matt came in an hour later because the PlayStation was calling his name a little too loudly for him to ignore.  And  still thought it was great when Kate came in 20 minutes after that because she was cold.  It was in the low teens, after all.  It wasn't until Sara came home another 20 minutes later and I was met with this black eye that I thought maybe I should have been paying attention a little!  I was so shocked when she turned to me and I saw this.  She said that her and Davis bonked heads and I was thinking it had just happened so I had her come in and put ice on it.  Turns out, after talking with the kids that it happened right after they started sledding and she stayed out for the whole rest of the time!  She's a toughie.  It was pretty bad.  It, of course, went through the whole stages of a bruise and looked pretty rough at times.  Even now, 2 weeks later, she still has some brownish spots.  Pretty crazy. 

 

2. Winter running  I love running in the cold.  I know it sounds crazy but it makes me feel so tough.  I also love breathing in the cold air.  And I love the fact that I don't get too hot on my runs.  I often tell people I'd rather run in January then July and I'm telling the truth.  I also bought a new pair of running tights this fall and I got some awesome new running shirts for Christmas so I was dying for some really cold weather.  I finally got it!  This one particular morning was even cold enough to just barely freeze my nose hairs!  It brought me back to my days of running at Ricks!  I loved it.  I don't run marathons.  I just run when it's way too cold for sissies!

 Often, the sun is coming up as I'm finishing my runs.  I love it.  I love that this is my view as I'm walking down my sidewalk after finishing my run.  I loved all this snow and the mountains!  Yay, Salt Lake!

 

3. New Year's Eve  We continued our tradition of heading up to Snowbird to kick off our New Year's Eve celebrations.  It was really cold, but we bundled up.  We've done this for the past 6 or 7 years; we couldn't remember exactly.  The light parade and fireworks gets us in the party mood!

 Family Selfie.  We were all there and mostly warm!

After Snowbird, we went to a friend's house and had snacks and played games.  We played the game Head's Up which was a ton of fun.  I highly recommend it!  We stayed until almost 10 and then came home and laid Abby down.  The kids were all pumped to stay up until midnight.  We played some playstation and had some more snacks until the ball started dropping.  At midnight we all danced and cheered and then Kate and Sara started doing sit ups and push ups.  I thought that was hilarious so I joined in with them.  We hugged, drank our Martinelli's and then looked at each other and went to bed!  We were in bed by 12:15.  It was fun.  I'm glad they like staying up!

 

4. More ice skating The girls wanted to go ice skating again so I took them and got my own skates.  I haven't skated in many many years.  It was fun but it was easier in my head!  I remembered how to do it pretty quickly and had fun with Kate and Sara.

 Those are my feet in skates, too!

 

5. Winter playing  We love getting up in the mountains any time of year.  We decided one Saturday to make the kids go snow shoeing.  It was fun, but snow shoeing uphill was definitely harder.  There was a lot more laughing as we were going back down!  We took a sled along and went back country sledding.  Ha ha.

 You can get a glimpse of Sara's purple eye.

 Beef jerky makes everything better!

 When we got done, Abby's hands were really cold.  I felt so bad.  She didn't complain or cry at all!  She's a tough little girl!

 It was too cold to show your teeth when you smiled!

 Grumpy pants and sassy pants.  After we were done snow shoeing, we stopped at our favorite sledding hill as we drove back down the canyon.  Just Matt and I went out for a few runs.  Abby's hands were cold and Kate and Sara said they were too tired.  It was probably good for Sara to not risk hitting her head again!  So we just went for a couple of quick sleds and called it good.  We had fun!

 

6.  Skiing  Jerry and I have really been wanting to get our kids out on skis and we decided we just had to make it work this year. Luckily, ski Utah is having a great deal in January.  It's called Learn to Ski in January.  At each resort you can get a lesson, lift ticket and equipment for 45 dollars!  Say what?!  So we jumped all over that with our kids being off track.  I think I was more excited than the kids were.  In fact, they all said they were a little nervous.  I told them that was totally normal and they'd teach them everything they needed to know so it would all be good.  It was a gorgeous day.  We are just having really warm temperatures.  It felt like an awesome April spring skiing kind of day.

 All decked out in their gear!



This was about their third time down or so.  They did so great.  I was really proud of them.  They just stayed on the magic carpet all day which was fine.  They were having fun and feeling good and that was what mattered.  It was so funny watching them.  Sometimes I just can't believe how different they are!  Matt was in control the whole time.  He wasn't afraid, but he just stayed in control.  He actually had really good basic skills.  Kate was all over the place.  She was so happy and loving it and everytime down she would sing, "Hola" as she ended and went back up.  Her teacher was trying to get her to practice stopping part way down, but she often didn't.  She would just wave to me and put on a show.  Sara just flew down the mountain.  She had no fear.  It actually took her the longest time to figure out the turning and stopping but she didn't care.  As long as she could just fly down the hill!  So funny!

Abby and I had fun hanging out together.  Like I said, it was a gorgeous day and we didn't mind at all.  We watched for a bit and then sat on the plaza deck and ate a burger.  And then watched some more.

Seriously.  Doesn't that look awesome?!

No wind at all!

At the end of the day with their teacher.

 

 

It was such a great day that we decided to go up again on Saturday.  We got a babysitter for Abby and took off.  I was of course thrilled with Sara that she wanted to check out my board.

Her fiercest snowboard look.

And then Kate's fiercest look.  She's perpetually being a model!

We had so much fun skiing with them.  I told them that all my parenting dreams had now been realized.  Jerry also thought it was the best family day ever.  They did really well.  We headed over to the chairlift this time and they did awesome.  Sara is amazing.  By the end of the day she was starting to make more parallel turns than wedge turns.  We were proud of her.  We had so much fun that it was really hard to come down the canyon into this muck.  The inversion in January is the worst!

2014 Review

1. What did you do in 2014 that you've never done before?  We had a totally fun year.  One of my favorites so far!  Most of it, however, was stuff I'd done before.  There's no shame in that... it was an awesome year.  One first for the year, though, was shooting a hand gun.  It was definitely an experience I will always remember.  Jerry was recently saying how we need to go do that again.  I don't necessarily have a desire, but for some reason I feel like I need to not be afraid of guns.  Jerry would really like to own one and I'm not opposed to that, I just can't get past the whole deadly part of it.  I've shot rifles and shot guns before with my dad, but for some reason, hand guns feel different.

2. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions and will you make more for next year? Well, I already kind of addressed this in my Thanksgiving BAG.  I got some ok 72 hour kits put together, but they still need some work.  It's still in the back of my mind as well as a good 3 month food supply so maybe this year I'll get it done.  My new goal for this year is to say my personal prayers every single night.  Since Thanksgiving... 100% and I can feel a difference!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?  Yes. My good friend Melanie.  After a long wait and many heartaches, she got her baby girl after 3 boys!  Yay for you, Mel!  Also, my friend in my ward got a baby girl after two boys.  Yay, Beverly!

4. Did anyone close to you die?  No, but there seemed to be lots of sad stories in the news this year about people dying. 

5. What countries did you visit?  We had lots of adventures in the good ol' US of A.  We went all over Utah, had fun in Colorado and ventured out to California to put our feet in the sand.  It was fantastic!

6. What would you like to have in 2015 that you lacked in 2014?  Time.  I'd really, really like more time. 

7. What date from 2014 will remain etched upon your memory and why?  Well, I don't have any specific dates, but I will always remember Matt winning the camp stove and chairs in the stake raffle! That was so funny.  I will also remember watching Beckett this year. 

8. What was your biggest personal achievement of the year?  I'm  really proud of my running this year and I always feel like successfully mothering 4 kids is a huge achievement.  I am also so excited that I was able to take a name through the temple that Matt found.  I completed all the work that is able to be done right now and that was a pretty cool time.

9. What was your biggest failure? Ugh, I still managed to waste way too much time on my phone.  And the worst is that I get stuck playing stupid games and I'll end up doing that instead of reading or some other hobby.  So lame.  Currently, the game is solitaire.  Classic solitaire.  How lame and boring is that!

10. Did you suffer injury or illness? Everyone else in my family got sick this past month, except me!  I was pretty proud of myself!  Injury, though, my stupid plantar fasciitis has just gotten worse and is really annoying.  The worst was when my ankle started swelling after running and I truly could not run through the pain.  So I started going to physical therapy a month ago.  It is helping but not as quickly as I'd like.

11. What was the best thing you bought? I love the KSL classifieds around here.  It's like Craigslist.  We've found great deals on awesome things.  This year we bought a balance beam (Yay), a wagon for the kids (Yay) and a paddle board (Yay, yay, yay)!  We used the paddle board once before it got too cold.  I can't wait for the summer and to take it out many more times!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?  There was this sweet family, locally, that had a little boy with cancer.  They knew he wouldn't make it through the year so they celebrated Halloween, his birthday, Thanksgiving and Christmas all in one week.  So many people in the Salt Lake valley got involved and it was all over the news.  It was sweet and heart breaking all at once.  He did pass away the next week and everyone involved in his celebration week deserves to be celebrated, especially his family.

 13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Kim Kardashian

 14. Where did most of your money go? Home, it was nice to not have any huge medical bills this year.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? All of our vacations and adventures: Goblin Valley, Colorado, California, local stuff... we always had something to be excited about!

16. What song will always remind you of 2013? Oh my gosh, what a fantastic music year!!  The ones that will remind me of this year specifically though are Fancy by Iggy Azalea because on the way back from San Diego, when we were all loopy, I made up the words... "I'm so funny, you already know, laugh at my jokes, from San Diego to So Jo."  Yep, it was funny!  Also, Maps by Maroon 5 because I listened to it on repeat while running and Jerry set my running video to that song.  Love it!

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
a) happier or sadder? 
b) thinner or fatter? 
c) richer or poorer? a) Same, being happy is a blessing from God  b) same, but I've worked a lot on my core strength and flexibility c) richer, yay!

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Sat on the floor and played with Abby.  I feel so overwhelmed with things that need to be done.  I wish I'd done more letting go and playing.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Drive.

 20. Did you fall in love in 2014? No, but I made a little connection with Beckett.

21. What was your favorite TV program? I still watch Modern Family, but not with as much enthusiasm.  I was excited that Gwen Stefani was on The Voice so I watched that.  I got bored with it pretty quickly though.  But oh my goodness, isn't Gwen fantastic.  Every night we watched it we couldn't wait to see her look for the night.  How can one person look so different and yet have all the looks be authentic?  Love it.

22. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Nope.  I like everyone this year.

23. What was the best book you read? I did not read fantastic books this year; ok, but not fantastic.  My favorite was probably The light Between Oceans.

24. What was your greatest musical discovery? Like I said, this was a fantastic music year!  Maroon 5 had some great songs, Take me to Church, Waves, Try, Am I Wrong, Fancy, The Black Keys had a few good ones, and Uptown Funk is like my favorite song right now!  I am singing and dancing all the time.  And thanks to my new iPhone, I can buy songs so easily... my playlist rocks right now!

25. What did you want and get? Paddleboard (Cue the opera music)

26. What did you want and not get? Umm, world peace?

27. What was your favorite film of this year? I loved the Lego movie.  We just watched Night at the Museum 3 and loved it, but my favorite was Maleficent.  It was not what I expected at all.  I thought it was fantastic.  I have mixed feelings about Angelina Jolie, but I thought she was perfectly cast.

28. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you? 37 and we went to the aquarium with the kids after school. 

29. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? I feel pretty satisfied with this year.  I think it was a good family year and that is the most satisfying thing.

30. How would you describe your personal fashion concept for 2014?  Jeans, t-shirts, hoodies and running shoes.  I wear running shoes all the time because it makes my foot feel better.  Let's just say I am way less dressed up than everyone else around here.   My personal fashion concept is called "Keepin it real". 

31. What kept you sane?  Planning our next adventure.  I can't wait to plan more!