February 2019
Hamilton Newsletter
FAMILY:February flew by! It was fast, but we still had fun. On the 2nd, we headed down South for Camri’s first time at the temple. It was wonderful! We are so excited for her upcoming farewell! That night mom & dad went to the Bealers for a late-night game night. It was so much fun! On the 4th, mom and dad went to see Elizabeth Smart at SUU. It was interesting, and thought-provoking and we had some discussions with the older girls when we got back. We got QUITE a bit of snow this year! At least 3 really good storms, and at the end of February, still snow on the ground. We’ve loved it! On the 9th, we went up to Woods Ranch to sled and had a blast! There was almost too much snow to sled with anything but a tube, but we still had so much fun - sledding, drinking hot cocoa, and exploring all the amazing snow caves! Ireland even made her own snow cave! On the 11th, we did Family Home Evening at Brookdale & it was a lot of fun. The older girls all played a song on their instruments and even Noelle sang a song with mommy. We talked about scriptures having to do with love, and we enjoyed visiting with the residents. Afterwards, we headed to Laurie Hansen’s retirement open house. She has delivered half of our children and we love her. Excited for her new beginnings. Valentine’s Day was lovely - Mommy did the heart attack thing on the doors every day, and daddy spoiled us all again with roses, chocolates & stuffed animals. Noelle, Mommy & Oaklyn brought sugar cookies to their friends, and Chris Marx even brought over a huge bag of chocolates. Truly and Levi stopped by to say hi, too! That night, mom & dad went to Milt’s and had a great time :) The morning of the 16th, we headed up North, but stopped by the Creamery in Beaver on the way. Yummy lunch & ice cream! We got to Aunt Cindy’s by about 6 that evening and enjoyed hanging out with them! We brought the dogs, so it was quite a dog party with 4 dogs! That evening, we took Aunt Cindy & Johsua & Michael to the movies - we went to Aquaman - it was fun! On Sunday, we went to church with them and after church, Jason gave the priesthood to Joshua. It was a wonderful blessing. That evening we had a birthday get-together/dinner for Cindy’s birthday & got to see Becka and Joseph and Andrea. It was neat and we were thankful we could be there that weekend to make her birthday special. Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr Day and we headed back home, but not before stopping by the town of Rocky Ridge and getting Kezia a Chinchilla! She was over the moon excited! Wolf the Chinchilla is the newest member of our family and has been so fun so far. :) On the 23rd, Jason took Kezia & Ireland skiing for the day and they had a fantastic time! Mom took the littles swimming that day, too, and we had fun as well. Another thing that happened this month, a guy named collin kartchner came to CMS & did a presentation about cell phones & social media. They had us watch one of his TedTalks and we decided, as a family, to not have social media until they are 18. And to get phones without internet access. Too many scary things associated with them!
JASON : Not that we need any more evidence of how awesome of a dad Jason is, but one morning McKinley could not find an important paper for school. We searched high & low & finally Jason went out & dug through the outside trash & found it. Seriously, super dad!! Heidi had fun again this year giving Jason a different note & treat for every day leading up to Valentines. She’s so blessed to have her sweetheart and her best friend in one!
HEIDI: February is the last month of Heidi’s full training & it’s definitely been hard with all this cold & snow - even St. George got snow! She got her last peak brick in at the end of the month over by Sand Hollow - 51 mile ride & 9 mile run. It was hard but good! She is still nervous about the race, but excited, too & ready to be done :) She enjoyed getting together with Cindy this month & has also enjoyed getting to know her new Beehives better.
McKINLEY:
-McKinley got to go to a late-over for Micaella’s birthday. They had pizza, laughed, talked, and even watched the Suessical that they were in together.
-McKinley registered for the 8th grade this month! Crazy! It was the first year she actually got to decide on some electives. She chose to be a teacher’s aide and a tutor.
-McKinley got to have a late-over this month - she had Micaella and Karmiyah over. They talked & went for a long walk in the cold!
-McKinley has been practicing cello a lot to try out for a solo!
-We were so sad for McKinley. She was all ready to go to Youth Conference at Bryce Canyon with the stake, but ended up getting sick :( She was so tired and had a fever. She ended up missing 2 days of school as well.
IRELAND:
-Ireland has had fun in Young Women’s. She loves going to all the activities & it’s fun for mom to get to be with her more!
-Ireland got to have a late-over with Sariah this month. They talked, laughed, and watched a movie together.
-Ireland got to go skiing with Kezia and daddy this month, and Mahina just happened to be going on the same day & they skiied together for most of the time. She said the snow was awesome, but boy did she come home burned!
-Ireland got 100% on her math test!!!! We are so proud of her & know how much work she has put into it.
KEZIA:
-Kezia made an awesome chinchilla Valentine’s Day box! (little did she know she was going to get a REAL chinchilla soon!) She gave out a variety of chocolate candies this year for Valentines :) nmkj
-Kezia’s year long dream finally happened this month! Mom wishes she would have recorded her walking up those steps with her bucket full of cash, and then the look on her face as she went down the steps with a cardboard box containing a small, fluffy, grey chinchilla. She was SO happy. On the way home, the smile was just plastered on her face and she said “I’ve never felt like this before in my my life!” and “Somebody pinch me!” :) She has had a lot of fun getting Wolf’s cage set up and showing her off to all her friends - she has had Addie, Sage, Jade, Emmy & Hailey Schoppman, Ana & Karmiyah, and Macie over to see her new baby :) She loves to take her downstairs to the barbie house & let Wolf run around. She thinks being chinchilla momma is an 11 on a scale of 1-10! (Oh, and the name Wolf came about on our way to MN last summer, we stopped at Nellie’s cafe in Walnut Grove & while we waited for food they were each taking turns making up a story and somehow a story got spun about a chinchilla named Wolf) :)
-Kezia got to go skiing with daddy & Kezia. Daddy was good enough to put sunscreen on, but missed some spots & she came home with some interesting burn lines!
LINK:
On the 2nd of this month, I was SURE you were close Link! It was the day of Camri’s baptism. In the morning, the lamp kept flickering (which it never does), there was a rainbow on the way to St. George!, DeeAnn talked about that day she took out her endowments & there was a ray of light, Dave wore his tie bar that I had made with the links, and that night when we played a card game with the Bealers, one of the cards said Link. THANK YOU SO much for being with us that day our beautiful son! We love you SO much!
NOELLE:
-Noelle is still loving preschool! Mom had her assessment with her teacher this month and her teacher said she’s a wonderful girl & very smart! She has passed everything off & is ready for preschool!
-Noelle is having a harder time keeping her glasses on her face. She keeps taking them off random places or forgetting to put them on in the morning.
-Noelle is getting pretty good at her chores in the morning - she puts the dishes away, cleans her room (and/or helps me put away her laundry), gets her hair fixed, and does a choice chore. Way to go Noelle!
-Noelle has sure been asking a lot about Satan again this month. She keeps wanting to throw him in a volcano or “punch him in the face.” Mom said the best way to punch Satan in the face is to be kind to each other and obedient to her parents.
OAKLYN:
-Oaklyn seems to still wake up at least once a night a few nights a week. One night we gave in and let her sleep in bed with us. Somewhere in the night, she was yelling in her sleep. She said “Noelle!! You have to share Noelle!”
-One day mom asked Noelle what her favorite animal was & she said “My Link Bear” :)
-For some reason, Oaklyn has demanded that she not sleep on the bed with Noelle, but the floor. Almost every night, no matter what we do to try to get her on the bed, she wants to sleep on the floor.
-Still one of my favorite things Oaklyn says that mommy can’t hardly ever turn down is when she says “let’s rock and roll!” (meaning, rock in her rocking chair with mommy) :)
-Oaklyn always called McKinley “Kinley Lou” :)
-Oaklyn has really enjoyed our huge Book of Mormon puzzle. She is constantly getting it out and asking people to do it with her. Whenever she figures out where a piece of the puzzle goes, she shouts “I did it, all right!”
-Noelle & Oaklyn have been doing this thing where they pray for each other - a lot. It sounds sweet, but they know it annoys the other person. Oaklyn will say “And thank you for Noelle. And thank you for Noelle. And please help Noelle” till Noelle can’t stand it anymore. It’s funny, but also a source of contention!
-Another thing Oaklyn has been constantly asking - what time is it? Like, a hundred times a day. We think she’s after “what activity are we supposed to be doing right now?” Like, “what time is it mom?” “It’s yogurt/lunch/play time”
-We’ve had a lot of fun with the tea set that Oaklyn got for Christmas. She is SO CUTE pouring out tea into the cups! We go through a LOT of rags, but it’s totally worth it to see that smile :)
-Poor Oaklyn - all the rest of the family can get Alexa to do what we want, but Alexa really hasn’t gotten Oaklyn’s little voice down yet. She will sit and yell at Alexa “Alexa, turn on Tumbleleaf!” But, no response :( She gets quite frustrated, but we are glad that she isn’t quite there yet :)
-Oaklyn is getting SO good at remembering books now! She knows a lot of “Share Bear” “The Hungry Caterpillar” and “Green Eggs and Ham” - it’s sooooo cute!
-Oaklyn is getting out the blocks from the ottoman at least 3 times a day. She LOVES building with the blocks and pulls mom & dad onto the floor to help out.
