The week in between...

The week in between Christmas and New Years was still filled with tons of fun and family (and a few chores because you know...life still goes on). The day after Christmas (Tuesday, December 26th) the boys went grouse hunting in the morning (minus Dallin who had to work). Jacob initiated the activity. I love that he likes to go out and invite the rest to join him. Jonas had fun, even though they didn't catch anything. Jonas got to shoot his slingshot and chop wood with his new hatchet (and no, there aren't any pictures because it was just the boys). When they got back, we all bundled up and headed to the golf course in Spanish Fork to go tubing. Yup...even though Mother Nature has yet to dump snow in the valleys, a clever business made snow and groomed tubing hills so we could all "slide where we reside" (their motto). We had so much fun! During our 90-minute time slot, we went down at least a dozen times or more. Sometimes we went individually or in a small group or in one massive group. Carter and Everly even seemed to have fun, until it got a little too cold. 

Wednesday (December 27th) was a chill day at home. I think we all needed that. Jeff worked on his project; I worked on mine, and Jonas played with his new toys. That evening, we met up with Dallin to see the new movie based on a true story of a rowing team in the 1936 Olympics, The Boys in the Boat. It was a really good movie.

Thursday (December 28th) was a chore day...much to Jonas's disappointment. We cleaned the house and took down all the Christmas decorations (in preparation for our little New Years party on Sunday); however, that night, we resumed the fun. We headed to the Tanners to celebrate Addie's birthday then Jonas got to spend the night. I guess the boys played Monopoly for like 2 hours! They also stayed up until nearly midnight. (We don't even do that on New Years Eve!) 

Friday (December 29th), Jeff and I took Carter out for a birthday date. Now that he's 3, we figured we would do more "experience" type gifts and make fun memories. We decided to take him to University Place Mall where he got to pick a toy from Teton Toys then play at the indoor play place. After he was done playing, we went to the food court for lunch. He is so fun to be with. I love listening to what is going on inside his head. He is so curious and loves to explore. He's also a pretty funny, witty kid. When Jeff asked for one of the Oreo cookies he got in his kids meal, he told Jeff it was "dirty" then promptly licked the whole cookie so Jeff would no longer desire it. Funny kid!

That evening, the cousin party transitioned from the Tanners house to our house for another sleepover. The boys played capture the flag that night. Addie and I hid a bandana in the house and the boys had to sneak in to try to find it. They got pretty good and were easily able to find it after the 3rd or 4th round. Once it got too cold for them to go outside, they came in to play video games and ultimately watch a movie. Because they stayed up so late the night before, it didn't take them long to fall asleep. Saturday (December 30th) they enjoyed their traditional waffle breakfast before retreating back outdoors to ride the motorbike and OneWheel. Jeff and Dallin (who came down for the weekend) even took them on a side-by-side/4-wheeler ride. That evening, while Jeff and I went on a date, all the kids came over. They decided to go bowling at the local bowling alley and invited Gma and Grumpy along too (sorry...no pictures). Laurin's crew left before Jeff and I got home, but Amber, Jacob, and Dallin hung around. I headed to bed at my normal time (and Jacob and Amber left shortly thereafter) but Jeff, Jonas, and Dallin decided to play Mario Bros until 1:00 a.m.! Crazy!! Maybe they forgot they were supposed to go to bed early that night so they could stay up for New Years?

My date with Jeff was pretty fun. It was our last date of the year so I wanted to do something more than just dinner (although we did enjoy dinner at the Block Restaurant). I came up with the idea to go to a store (we decided on Walmart), split up, and gather 12 items. Each item had to represent something that happened to us or something we did from each of the months of the year. While I finished collecting my items first, Jeff definitely won the most creative! In fact, I was only able to guess 7 out of the 12 months, but once he explained the items I missed, I could recall that specific moment from the year. Jeff guessed 10 out of 12 of mine. Jeff admitted he wasn't quite sure how this activity would go, but he said he had a lot of fun. Plus, we got to reminisce about the year gone by. It really has been a crazy, busy year for us. It was full of a lot of incredible milestones for our family (our 10th anniversary, Jeff's 50th birthday, Danny' graduation, first time in the temple, & mission, Jonas's baptism, and so much more). We did so many trips! In fact, there were only 3 months out of the year that I didn't take some sort of trip and a couple of months, I doubled up on trips. Crazy! I loved all the memories made. It was a good year for us, but it was a bit of a blur. It seems like last year I was constantly planning the next event before I could even enjoy the event I was taking part in. I generated a post of my Top Nine posts from Instagram over the year. It highlighted some of our big events that I've already mentioned, yet in the middle was a simple post about a fairly mundane Saturday. A Saturday where we entered sacred space (Saratoga Springs Temple) and walked through a garden. A Saturday that I almost regretted planning because we already had so much going on. Yet, more often than not, our years are full of these small, fairly routine days yet those days can be the days where heaven can touch earth if we are present enough to see it. As I move into 2024, my goal is to be more present. I want too see heaven in the mundane and the miraculous. I want to not only feel my Saviors presence in sacred spaces, but in the car as I shuttle Jonas to and from activities or endless pile of laundry that I'm folding. I want to embrace all the moments - mess, miraculous, mundane, and everything in between. Here's wishing everyone a happy, healthy, present New Year!

My cart

Jeff's cart

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! I am still in awe of how quickly this year's Christmas snuck up on us. Each year, I write Jeff a letter for Christmas. It's basically a gift of words that summarize our year, our growth, and my love. As I looked back at the year in our blog, I was exhausted just remembering all we've done this year! It was a crazy busy year full of incredible milestones for our family. We celebrated our 10th anniversary, Jeff's 50th birthday, Danny's graduation, mission & first time in the temple, Jonas's baptism, and the announcement of a new grand baby to come in 2024. I traveled with Jeff through the southern states, took Jonas (and my parents) to San Diego, cruised with the family in the Western Caribbean, Jeff took Danny on a church history trip from NY to NE (then Jonas and I met up with them in CO), we grabbed the boys (and Danny's friends) for a Lake Powell trip, took the family to Flaming Gorge for our annual August trip, I went on a girls trip with Nichole & Kate in WA and Canada, met up with Jonas and Jeff in Oregon for another week, traveled with Jeff and Jonas to Moab and Durango, took Jonas to Disneyland, then rounded out the year with another quick trip to Colorado for Tyler's graduation. This was on top of just our normal daily routines and all the fun holidays and events we celebrated in between! It's no wonder this year flew by so fast...and no wonder Christmas literally snuck up on all of us. Thankfully (because of my meticulous planning that some might term borderline OCD), we were prepared. This year, Christmas Eve was on a Sunday. I actually really love it when Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday. This is the day that I truly try to remember my Savior (prior to the flurry of wrapping paper and gift receiving excitement on Christmas Day) so it was all the more perfect that we started our day with a church service full of music and scripture. After church, the older kids went to visit their biological mom while Jonas and I made Santa's favorite cookie (even though Jonas is aware of the secret of Santa). Yup...this year, that magic faded as new meaning and magic evolve, but he still wanted to enjoy the cookies. 

Once everyone gathered that afternoon, we started our evening's festivities by assembling and lighting our luminaries. I loved that the newest generation gets to join in on the tradition. I know our children will eventually establish their own traditions and gradually fade away from ours. Christmas will evolve (as it already has), but the memories and meanings of our traditions will last.

After the luminaries had been set, we enjoyed our Bethlehem dinner and Christmas Eve devotional. Jonas and I played a duet, Silent Night, to start it off then we collectively read the scriptural account in Luke 2 accompanied by the book A Christ Centered Christmas. Next, Jonas played the First Noel while Amber sang then Jacob and Amber serenaded us with What Child is This (The Hound and Fox version). We quickly ended with a family prayer before the excitement and anticipation of what was to come overwhelmed the reverence of the moment. The rest of the evening we hung out together, ate more, laughed a lot, and played video games. 

Morning couldn't come fast enough for Jonas. In fact, he woke up at 4:00 a.m. too excited to sleep (even without the secret of Santa). For the past several years, I've placed goodies in small stockings in his room and even given him a few of his gifts to open to entertain him until he could go back to sleep. This year was no different, but once he was back asleep, he didn't wake up until 7:30. I think that's the latest we've opened gifts. Amber, Jacob, Dallin, Laurin, Casey, Carter and Everly all spent the night so we all got to open our gifts together. Danny even got to call while we opened gifts so he could be a part of it all. There were a variety of gifts and ample amounts of excitement and laughter (especially when everyone decided to wear the new communication helmets around the house to test them out). We had our traditional waffle breakfast after the gifts then just got to hang out together, playing more video games, testing out our new toys, etc. until our prime rib dinner that night. Then just like that...it was over. It really does come and go so quickly. Thankfully, the memories last.