Abby turns 3!

We were all very excited for Abby's birthday but Abby was of course the most excited!  It's so fun when the kids start to understand things.  We had early church that day so we decided to open presents after.  So while I got her changed our of her clothes, Jerry brought her presents out.  When she walked out and saw them all on the couch she exclaimed, "Ohh! For me?!"  She is so much fun.

 She couldn't be cuter, but her dress up clothes made her think she was!  This is the exact same set I bought for Kate at that age.  Kate lived in her skirt.  Abby is all about the shoes!

 Her and Sara love play dough and can spend a lot of time outside playing with it.

Falling asleep in the car seat is a common occurrence.  She wears the glasses everywhere and this just cracked me up!

We love Abby very much and can't imagine her not being in our family.  She has such a big personality even though most people don't get to see it.  She is very very shy still and really hates people to look at her.  She is very attached to me and is more than my little shadow.  Most of the time I love it and am happy to have her following me and attaching herself to me.  She is the best cuddler still and really loves to have a drink of chocolate milk while watching t.v. and holding someone's thumb.  She is slow with the potty training and speaking clearly but like everything else in her life, she does it all on her own time schedule and can't be persuaded to speed things up at all.  She definitely keeps things exciting around her.  We are always cracking up at things she says and does.  We love you Abby!

Summer wrap up

Even though we'd been doing the school thing for a while, it was still warm and very summery.  So we still tried to take advantage of that warmth.

 My nephew came to babysit my kids one day while I was with the young women and he showed up with a ton of presents for them.  They didn't have time to open the kites so Abby and I busted them out one afternoon.  She had fun once she figured it out and until it got stuck in a tree.  Oops!

 Kate worked hard on some sewing projects this summer.  She made some burp rags for her cousin and aunt who both had babies.  She did great and is now as good of a sewer as I am!

 We had fun with Tulo all summer.  I love running with him.  He loves running with sticks.  He always manages to find ones and they're often really big like this.  It cracks me up.  It wasn't so funny the day he picked something up and I thought it was a snake.  I was literally freaking out until he dropped it.  I drove back later to see what it was.  It was a banana peel.   Ha ha!

 We tried to go camping but either had bad weather or a sick kid.  But we did manage to get one more paddleboard trip in.  We went to a new place, Causey Reservoir.   It was really cool and we'll definitely go back.

 Abby and I had to work hard to entertain ourselves with no other kids around.  So we dressed up in dance clothes (well, she did, not me)...

 ...and fed the ducks after a big rain storm...

...and had naps on the couch.  I think we pretty much got everything out of this summer that we could!

2015 Review

1. What did you do in 2015 that you've never done before? 

Well we had some awesome families trip this year.  Some things that I had never done before and some things that the kids hadn't done before. When we went to Arizona for my nephew's wedding we took the kids to a Rockies baseball game: first MLB game for Kate and Sara and first real Rockies game for everyone but me.  Matt and Jerry went to an exhibition game a couple of years ago. We also took the kids to the Grand Canyon and it was everyone's first time but mine.  We took the kids to Zions NP and hiked the Narrows, everyone but Jerry's first time.  We also went to Canyonlands for everyone's first time and hiked to Corona Arch and took the kids to Delicate Arch. I also went to Girl's Camp for my first time as a leader and took the girl's on an adventure camp and rafted in Moab for my first time.  I took a child of mine to middle school for the first time.  I took a child of mine to do baptisms for the dead for the first time.  I took Abby skiing for the first time.  Wow!  It was an awesome year for firsts!  

2. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions and will you make more for next year? My Thanksgiving BAG goal was to pray more regularly each night and yes, I did and it was awesome!  My goal for this next year is to focus on more meaningful fasting.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?  Yes. My niece Karin!!  Yay, I'm a great aunt!  I'm sad that I haven't been able to meet Jacob yet, but I would really like to.  He's a cutie!  Also, my sister-in-law had a baby boy! Yay for babies!

4. Did anyone close to you die?  No.

5. What countries did you visit?  Who needs other countries when you've got Utah?  We spent time in the mountains and time in the desert and it was awesome!  I really love Utah!

6. What would you like to have in 2016 that you lacked in 2015?  A more organized home.

7. What date from 2014 will remain etched upon your memory and why?  December 5 when Sara was baptized.

8. What was your biggest personal achievement of the year?  I have worked really hard on finding a good balance this year.  I feel like I've been more successful than other times when I've tried that.  I have cut down on my running, mostly because I have had some knee troubles and also with my kids' schedules I would have to be up at 5 to fit in the time I was spending on running and I'm not willing to do that.  But I have filled that time with other good things and it has been really nice.  I now spend only about 20 minutes running on normal weekdays and then I read scriptures for 20 minutes and then I do yoga for 20-30 minutes.  It is really nice and the yoga is really helping me get stronger so that hopefully I won't be getting injured from running as much.  I like this balance.

9. What was your biggest failure? Wasting time on my phone.  Again.

10. Did you suffer injury or illness? No big illnesses.  My knee was my main injury this year.  It's not super painful but it has been swollen for like 9 months now and I don't have my full range of motion that I used to have.  Annoying.

11. What was the best thing you bought? Well, we bought our house that we'd been living in!  That was pretty exciting.  Since we'd already been living in it, it didn't feel that different, but it is still a blessing.  We were also able to buy a new car this year which was nice.  We needed a four wheel drive vehicle that fit our whole family.  Jerry looked and looked for months and finally found a Landcruiser in Texas that we felt really good about.  So he flew down and drove it back.  We love it.  He especially loves it!  We also bought a dog and I love him 75% of the time!

12. Whose behavior merited celebration?  I have suspected that Kate has dyslexia since she was in kindergarten.  I have asked her teachers about it since then and no one has been helpful (major shortening of the story).  I finally found someone this summer who understood what I was asking and actually has a program to help Kate.  So, Kate has been working really hard on this extra tutoring program.  It. Has. Been. Difficult.  She goes to 1&1/2 hours of tutoring before school twice a week and has homework every day.  I can't say that she has loved it and it has been a big stress for all of us.  But she is working hard and making a lot of progress.  She is not severe, for which I am grateful, but there have some things that have definitely held her back.  I am so proud of her for going through this.  She'll be able to stop her extra tutoring soon, but she'll have to work hard on this for the rest of her life.  She's a brave girl.

 13. Whose behavior made you appalled and depressed? Obama.  He's just seriously a moron.

 14. Where did most of your money go? Home and taxes.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? All of our vacations and adventures and taking Matt to the temple.

16. What song will always remind you of 2015?  Well, in St. George the song Photograph by Ed Sheeran came on all the time and so that reminds me of that trip.  And when we went to Moab we were all singing Stitches by Shawn Mendes so that one will always remind me of that trip.

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 getting stronger and I can feel a difference c) richer, yay!

18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Lay in my hammock this summer.  It just seemed like a really busy summer.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?  Look at social media.

 20. Did you fall in love in 2015? No new love but lots of old love.

21. What was your favorite TV program? T.V. isn't my favorite.  I did watch Parenthood on netflix.  It was ok.  I still watch Modern Family and that's about 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 read a lot of good books this year.  I really liked the Fablehaven series and I liked reading it with Matt and Kate.

24. What was your greatest musical discovery? "Get Low" by Dillon Francis & DJ Snake.  You'd recognize it from the Fast and Furious movie.  We all love it and it makes me want to buy Subwoofers like few songs ever have!

25. What did you want and get? I really really wanted a hydroflask water bottle after one of my friends had one at girl's camp and I loved it.  Jerry got me one for my birthday.  He laughed because he has bought me like 10 different water bottles for different birthdays.  Apparently, I'm a sucker for awesome water bottles.  This one is the best one yet!  I love it!

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

27. What was your favorite film of this year? I liked Star Wars.  I somehow missed that it was going to be another trilogy so I went expecting a story with an ending but it was fine.  We finally saw the new Cinderella movie and I laughed at Kate laughing at Cinderella and her "slow walk".  That girl is the one who has spent all her childhood acting like a princess!  It was funny.  

28. What did you do on your birthday and how old were you? 38 and we actually went shopping which I hate, but this one ski shop was having a huge ski sale so we went and outfitted the kids with some things and I found some new snowboard boots on clearance so that was pretty cool!  Then we went to chik fil a for dinner so it was actually pretty fun!

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 2015?  Jeans, t-shirts, hoodies and running shoes.  I can't stop buying hoodies.

31. What kept you sane?  Planning our next adventure and dreaming of the desert!