August Newsletter and Slideshow

August 2020 Hamilton Newsletter FAMILY: Last month of summer! The first weekend in August we had a Tew Retreat at Bear Lake. We all enjoyed it so much! It’s been so long since we’ve all lived in our swimsuits for a week straight, walking to the water, getting to ride on boats, go tubing and wakeboarding, playing in the sand, catching frogs, and just escaping regular chores and life. We enjoyed getting to be with the Tews and we had great times! Besides all the water fun, we played LOTS of card games, glow-in-the-dark games, played guitars, ate yummy food (including famous raspberry shakes), looked at the stars and huge moon at night (we saw so many shooting stars!), and fawning over our newest cousin/nephew Austin! We also celebrated 2 birthdays while we were there - Oaklyn & Caden! All-in-all, it was a wonderful, memory-filled trip! Even without air-conditioning in our rental (good thing they had LOTS of fans & it cooled down my midnight every night). After the Bear Lake trip, we took advantage of the extra 2 weeks the district gave us of summer. We attempted macaroons (not quite right, but they tasted good!), made silhouette strip cutouts, hiked to Hidden Haven, went to the splash park in St. George, participated in a neighborhood obstacle course fun, made forts, and spent time with friends. In between all of this, daddy did the electrical work with Colby, we insulated the downstairs, we paid for it to get sheetrocked, mom primed and painted (see the picture of her crazy painted hair!) and the girls and dad helped paint, too, and we did all the flooring downstairs. We got to meet our new renters, Bryn & McKay and her parents. They are great! We also did lots of back-to-school shopping for supplies and clothes. We even drove to Old Navy in St. George so the girls could try things on since very few shops are letting people try things on. We got lots of cute things! On the 14th, we had Oaklyn’s 4th birthday party! We rented a bouncy slide with water & lots of friends came and had fun. It was great! Monday, the 24th, was the last day of the girls’ summer break and we did our annual “pick something fun to do.” Noelle chose the animal shelter (cute kitties!), Oaklyn chose the park (we played in the stream and got muddy, and laid in the shade at East Canyon Park), mom chose our annual picnic at Link’s bench (daddy came), Ireland chose Bulloch Drug for ice cream (daddy came there, too!), McKinley chose window shopping (we had so much fun seeing all the cute stuff at the main street shops), and Kezia chose a random act of kindness (we bought 2 hugs bags of candy, divided them into smaller bags, and dropped them at neighbor’s homes and ran). Alas, the day finally came. SCHOOL! LOTS of changes for each girl this month. McKinley started 9th grade at Cedar High! Ireland is now queen of middle school in 8th grade, Kezia is queen of elementary school in 5th grade, but red group this year, Noelle is starting East Dual, and Oaklyn is starting preschool! So crazy! The other BIG CHANGE this month was dad starting his new job at APHIS! The younger 3 had extra fun this month at the Hillsteads for Kali’s birthday party, playing in their pool, and then at the Greggerson’s pool for the primary party. So much fun! In other big news and changes - CAMRI IS HOME! Yay! We went down the evening she got home and ate yummy food and enjoyed giving Camri hugs & welcoming her home :) MIRACLES! We found water for Oaklyn’s party, the hanging & mud & tape were done in 2 days, and we found Oaklyn! She was locked in the truck on a hot day :( So scary. JASON : Jason enjoyed the time at Bear Lake! He had his hands full afterwards, after being gone to Alaska and Bear Lake, to wrap things up with the Forest Service and prepare for his new job at APHIS. He started on August 17th and brought doughnuts for everyone. It’s been a bit of a transition. Even though the FS and APHIS are both under USDA, things are done very differently at APHIS and he’s having to re-learn a lot of things. Also, he doesn’t have access to the programs he needs to do his job yet, and his computer is pretty slow, so he doesn’t feel like he’s contributing a lot yet, but there are some great things about his new job, too. He really likes the people he works with. He isn’t a supervisor anymore. His new job is a little closer to home - he can get home in about 8 minutes flat - which is awesome. And they are also good about getting out of the office on time & he’s usually home before 5:30, which is great! Jason, of course, has also worked hard doing the electrical downstairs and helping with painting and flooring. He’s a busy guy and we are so thankful for him! Another big change for daddy, which we’re all excited about: HE CUT HIS HAIR!!! HEIDI: Heidi enjoyed her time at Bear Lake with her family. She also enjoyed our last couple weeks before summer break ended for the girls. It was great to spend time with them. Maybe a little too much, because she is so behind on memory things - Oaklyn’s birthday book is not done, McKinley’s isn’t started, and our Alaska book hasn’t been started, either! She’s looking forward to catching up after the basement is done & she’ll have a few kid-free hours a week! Even though mom didn’t go back to school, she’s had some learning opportunities, learning how to use a paint sprayer and lay LVP flooring! She listened to North and South, which she thought was a book about the Civil War, but ended up being a love story in England, kind of like Pride & Prejudice (which we also read!), and she listened to The Book of Three. She regularly walks with her friends Mandy and Carmen, and runs with Diane once a week. McKINLEY: -HIGH SCHOOL! Goodness, where has the time gone? Mom helped McKinley register and we were both walking all over the school trying to figure out where her classes were. It was entertaining! :) And we got lots of steps in! McKinley is sad to leave middle school, but excited for her classes and having A and B days. So far, she has really enjoyed high school, with her favorite classes being Seminary, Human Biology, Orchestra and math. Her least favorite class is P.E. - she has to wear a mask while exercising inside :( It’s been fun to be able to text her more during the day - especially lunch. Dad is taking her to school in the morning & Emma Beacham is taking her home. -McKinley had fun at Bear Lake. She loved hanging out with Michael, playing games with him, going boating and staying up late. -Mom, McKinley, and Ireland finished Pride & Prejudice this month! Yay for Mr. & Mrs. Darcy :) After we finished, we watched the 6-hour BBC version of the movie. It was great! -McKinley spent as much time as possible with Ella and Karmiyah before school started. Lots of playing guitar and talking in her room :( -McKinley isn’t especially fond of all the construction items in her room. Especially paint - some white paint got on her dark blue carpet. -McKinley scored a TON of clothes (3 garbage bags FULL) from Miss Camri! She also got quite a few cute back-to-school things at Old Navy & Ross. IRELAND: -Ireland is in 8th grade this year and looked so cute. She got lots of cute clothes this year at Ross. She wasn’t super excited about going since Mahina is homeschooling. It’s been hard to have to walk to school and home alone. She’s been sitting with Sam at lunch, but with social distancing, it makes it even harder. She is enjoying her classes, though. She’s excited to be in symphonic band and is learning 32 pages of music! She also loves her Chinese class and is learning a lot from her teacher, who is from Taiwan. She has most of McKinley’s teachers that she had last year & they have had fun talking about them together. -Ireland had a lot of fun at Bear Lake - she even got up on wakeboarding on her first time. Tubing was also a blast and she retains her title of being the hardest one to buck off! -Mom, McKinley, and Ireland finished Pride & Prejudice this month! Yay for Mr. & Mrs. Darcy :) After we finished, we watched the 6-hour BBC version of the movie. It was great! -Ireland really stressed about what color to paint her room. Mom was hoping she’d have some color & not just have a black, white & gray room in the basement, so she chose a blue-green shade. Unfortunately, when it was on the wall it looked very different than the sample. They even went back and re-shook it. We painted one wall with 2 coats, but after much back-and-forth, she decided to go with the same gray that Bryn chose for the apartment. It looks great! She also chose a SUPER cute crystal chandelier for her bedroom. It’s looking so cute! KEZIA: -Kezia had a hard time this year with going to 5th grade in a new group. Macie and most of her friends are in blue group and it has been difficult for her. She also was very much looking forward to having Senior Niles again, and she found out that he is not teaching at the school. We are proud that she is doing this hard thing and making the most of a hard situation. She got a bunch of cute clothes to add to her wardrobe from Mahina, and mom bought her a dress, a pineapple shirt, a Harry Potter shirt, and a Harry Potter dress. She also got brand-new white Converse! -Kezia and Love were attached at the hip at Bear Lake. They ran around all day, playing in the water, going on the boat, going tubing, catching frogs, playing games, and getting sunburned! Mom & Kezia enjoyed laying down on the dock and looking at the stars on the last night we were there - we saw like 10 shooting stars. One of them was like a comet - it was HUGE! -Mom was going over some of the road sign meanings with McKinley on the way to St. George. Mom asked her what the sign of a truck on a hill with a 6% meant. McKinley answered right. Kezia said that when she was young, she used to think that it meant that if you were driving a truck down that hill, you’d have a 6% chance that you’d be alive at the bottom of the hill. -Kezia and Addie figured out how to link their Alexas and now they drop in on each other frequently :) -Kezia was so cute. Mom and Dad were downstairs working on the insulation until very late one night. We came up to find a tray with tea and a cute note on our bed. THANK YOU sweet Kezia! -Kezia did the cutest activity time for Come Follow Me. It was from Helaman about building our foundations upon Jesus Christ. She set up multiple foundations - of cups, graham crackers, paper, an egg, etc. We all voted to see which foundations we thought would hold up to the wind (blow dryer) and rain (spray bottle). It was great! -Kezia made lots of yummy treats this month - including a chocolate heart sandwich. LINK: Link, thank you for sending us gorgeous shooting stars and breathtaking full moons this month. Thank you, thank you, thank you for watching over your little sister and alerting us when she was stuck in the truck in the heat. Thank you for giving us perspective when we feel overwhelmed and stressed about the small stuff of life. We love and miss you every single day! NOELLE: -1st grade all day! Noelle is really liking her teachers (though Senora Fernandez is still in Spain for now) and it seems like she is grasping Spanish! She also made 2 friends right away on the first day of school - one was a girl from her Kindergarten class. One is named Carolina Quarnberg, and she is the daughter of Kezia’s English teacher! The tough part about 1st grade for Noelle has been how long it is. She has struggled with the transition to full-day school and is often tired, grouchy, and unreasonable. She doesn’t like how long school is and how short her free time is when she gets home. One day mom was driving her home and she said “Mom, okay. I have the plan. When I am done with the first recess then you come and get me and take me home.” -Noelle LOVED Bear Lake. She is still talking about it a month later. She loved going tubing, she loved playing on the lily pad, she was really good at kayaking & could go all by herself, she loved hanging out with her cousins, she LOVED catching frogs, and she liked swimming out in the lake. She was truly in her swimsuit all day long! On the last night we were there, mom went out to lay on the dock and look at the stars with Noelle. It was such a sweet moment. -Noelle finished The Boxcar Children book! Mom and dad were with her, but she read all 160 pages by herself! Way to go Noelle!! :) She is getting to be such an amazing reader! OAKLYN: -HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY OAKLYN! It is crazy tha 4 whole years have passed since our sunshine girl has joined our family. We love her so much! She really got spoiled this year. Her birthday was on the day we traveled to Bear Lake. She got to have chocolate peanut butter cereal for breakfast and then we took off. In Richfield, Grandma Devenish had a cake and ice cream and the Reeds came to sing as well! Then after we got to Bear Lake, mom bought a cake & got some ice cream and we all sang to her there. Mom & Dad got her a soft personalized unicorn blanket, a personalized towel, a snow globe that sings her “you are my sunshine” song, and a voice-changing megaphone. She got a purse from Aunt Trisha that she loves, and a bow and arrow and #4 magnet from Kezia. She got money from her grandmas and Aunt Kim & she used it to buy a flying owl (she named her Kalli), and a make-up vanity. :) -The festivities kept going on the 14th, when we had her birthday party!!! Mom and Dad rented a bouncy house/water slide. We were panicking for a bit when we found out there wasn’t water at the park, but we knew the neighbors next door and they were so sweet to let us use their hose. It was so much fun! The Ruperts all came, Charlotte & Addie were there, the Spigarelli & Potter boys came, Benson Bealer had fun, and McKinley’s friends Karmiyah and Addison came. We had Oreo ice cream cake and the day was hot and not windy so it was perfect! Oaklyn got some cute gifts, too! What a fun birthday party! -After years of putting on her backpack to go to school with her sisters and being told “not yet, sweetie,” Oaklyn FINALLY gets to go to school! She is loving preschool and wishes it was every day instead of twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She loves Mrs. Shirley and is making friends (though she can’t remember their names yet). She loves to sing the bubble gum song and tell mom about the books that they read and the toys that they play with. She hasn’t even complained about wearing a mask! -One Sunday, in home church, Oaklyn kept raising her hand and saying “I have a question.” It was followed by “Aliens can kill you.” And many other non-church-related non-inquiries :) -Oaklyn does call the Book of Mormon by its actual name. She says “Where is my chapter Mormon mom?” -One day Oaklyn was having so much fun playing with friends, but mom told her it was time to go. She looked up with her big eyes and said “Can we please get a little more 5 minutes?” -One day Oaklyn got an owie & mom gave her a band-aid to put on. She came out and proudly said “Look mom! I got an ice cream band-aid!” (it was a poop emoji band-aid) :) -Oaklyn is lately obsessed with freezing things! She keeps putting little medicine cups in there and random things. One day she came to mom with a frozen cheese stick and asked mom if she wanted to eat it. She said “It’s just like a popsicle mom!” -Oaklyn thing lately is snorting - a lot - when she laughs :) -Oaklyn likes to give looooong kisses at night - she says “Like you and daddy when you got married!” -One of the scariest moments and biggest miracles came this month with Oaklyn. It was a busy evening. Dad was downstairs doing electrical with Colby. Mom was upstairs cleaning & helping the girls. Mom asked where Oaklyn was. No one knew, but most of us assumed she was at Charlotte’s. Mom went downstairs to see if dad knew where she was. He said she’d been down there, but not recently. Mom asked Noelle to jump over to Charlotte’s to see if she was there. Mom decided to take some pictures of things in the garage to post online free. She opened the garage. Dad came into the garage to get a new battery and pointed at his truck and said “there she is!” She was in the truck, sweating, screaming. The look on her face was pure terror. It was a hot day and dad immediately got his keys and unlocked the truck and mom got her out. She wasn’t even red, she was closer to white, very sweaty. The truck was so hot. Mom spent the next couple hours, helping Oaklyn cool down, and weeping in gratitude that Oaklyn was safe. We are so SO so thankful she is safe. So many kids die every year in hot cars and we really feel like the angels led us to her.

July Newsletter and Slideshow

 https://photos.app.goo.gl/4zgS5rsDP7AkqzcRA

Hamilton Newsletter

FAMILY: July was a hot month! No rain like we usually get! The 4th of July was a bit different this year. We still went to Richfield, but watched the parade online. (No candy this year, so the kids weren’t too excited ;) And the Johnsons didn’t come this year. Still, we had a wonderful time with family. We bought pizza for everyone to celebrate Jason’s new job and we are so thankful for his new opportunity! He starts on August 15th. It was great to see Sedona! We missed Camri, but she’ll be home soon! The girls had fun with their cousins - walking to the park,  playing outside in the water (lots of water balloon fun!), playing games inside, and doing sparklers. The older cousins, including McKinley, also went tubing in the Sevier River & had a lot of fun! The Jorgenson’s had a great firework show, as always, and the Richfield fireworks were awesome! Oakyn was so excited she just could not contain her excitement about how spectacular the fireworks were! That day, we had another spectacular, out-of-the-ordinary event - we got a new nephew/cousin! Austin James Simon was born on the 4th of July and we are so thankful he got here safely! The next day was Ireland’s 13th birthday! See her section for more details. All the girls (no deal on dad’s shoulder-length hair yet!) got haircuts at Evan’s beauty school. No one had extreme cuts, but it was nice to feel like we all looked a little less ragamuffin-ish : ) On the 8th, we had a lot of fun going to Lake at the Hills with the Rupert family. They are new in our ward and have 12 kids! It’s been fun to get to know them & wonderful they have kids our kids’ ages. They brought their kayaks and we all enjoyed getting to know their family more & playing in the water and sand. 2 days later, we went with them to the Alpine Trail. Mom got some of them lost! :) But we eventually met up and it was a fun morning. The beginning of July was a LOT of hard work, but like mom says “Hamiltons aren’t afraid of hard work!” :) We went out each day, usually for an hour or more and wheelbarrowed probably 100 loads or more of big rock to the front so someone could haul it away. Whew! We’re glad that part is over with! The 11th was a l o n g hot day full of digging. We worked on our trampoline hole until 5pm, and only got about halfway done. We dislodged some huge boulders, have lots more boulders to dislodge, more digging to do, and a water line to re-route (it’s running in the center of the hole!) We watched Tiarra’s dog, Zoe, for a few days & that was fun. Michael & Joshua were also in town and they stopped by to say hi & have sacrament with us.  Then, the BIG EVENT! Mom, dad & McKinley spent July 18-29th in Alaska for McKinley’s 14-year-old trip. We saw LOTS of wildlife (Bears, caribou, moose, orcas, humpback whales, puffins, etc), glaciers, and of course DENALI! It was a wonderful time - see McKinley’s section for more details. While we were away, the rest of the girls had a good time with Grandma & Grandpa Potts in St. George. They played games, did gummy bear toesses, played games, watched the birds in grandma’s backyard, had tea parties, made doughnuts, went hiking, and played at the park. Thank you mom & dad for watching them for 10 days! We were thankful to all be back together and at home. On the last day of the month, we hiked to Hidden Haven with the Ruperts. It was a wonderful morning! MIRACLES: We even got to go to AK with all the restrictions! And seeing Denali! And 7 new families moved into our ward! 

JASON : Jason has been on super-speed this month, wrapping things up with his current job, preparing for his new one, working downstairs and outside at home. He was thankful to take a well-deserved break and head with McKinley & Heidi to Alaska! He had fun fishing and seeing all the wildlife! 

HEIDI: Heidi decided to take the plunge this month and dye her own hair. It’s dark and red and she’s enjoyed it, though it’s taken some adjustment! Heidi enjoyed Alaska so much! She is SOO thankful they got to go, especially with all the uncertainty right now with traveling. It was just SUCH a heavenly hug to be able to go and have everything work out and be together with her oldest and her sweetheart on such an adventure! Heidi’s favorite parts were getting to see a bear in the wild (cross it off her bucket list!) and the Kenai Fjords cruise. She’s never seen an orca in the wild before, either, and was really not expecting to see any whales this time of year, so it was a total treat to get to see Orcas and humpback whales. She also LOVED her solo day in Homer while Jason & McKinley were fishing. She got to walk the beach, finish her book (the new version of The Message - it was wonderful), do personal study, take a nap and watch a movie! She missed her other girls like crazy, but they connected on the phone and through Marco Polo, so she’s thankful for that. 

McKINLEY: 

-McKinley was SO excited to go on her trip and see “her” mountain. She says her favorite parts were the Kenai Fjords Cruise (she loved seeing the glaciers, and the puffins were cute and funny and she loved seeing the orca), the Husky Homestead (getting to hold the puppies - cuteness! - and go in the ATV) and she loved seeing all the wildlife on the bus tour. She also thought the K2 plane ride was crazy-cool. Her dad also taught her how to play poker :) The things she didn’t love as much - wearing the mask for 10 hours on the way there & back (she was a good sport about it though), the mosquitos (we know why they’re called the state bird! One got McKinley right on the forehead!) the cold and wet and seasickness of the halibut fishing trip (she thought it was cool to catch a big fish, though!), and the freezing wind of the Kenai Cruise (can’t believe we left her nice coat in the car!). 

-Before and after her AK trip, McKinley made sure to spend lots of time with friends. She had Ella over a lot, and Karmiyah, too. We got some really, really sad news about Karmiyah this month. They are moving :( Probably over to Paragonah or Parowan. 

-McKinley went down the Sevier river with her cousins over the 4th! 

IRELAND:

-HAPPY #13 Ireland!!! Ireland was in Richfield for the morning of her birthday and she wanted crepes for her breakfast, so crepes it was! With ALL the toppings - strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, mini chocolate chips, nutella, etc. It was quite a spread! For lunch we were home and she chose subway sandwiches. We would have gone to actual subway, but it was Sunday. We  had quite a spread for the sandwich options, too, though! And for dinner, she chose spaghetti bread, but we had eaten lunch so late we saved that for the next day. Ireland got decorating tips for her birthday and she decorated her own cake (with Aunt Cindy video calling help) :)  For gifts, Ireland’s big gifts will be her new room when it’s done (with the lighting fixtures, rug, paint that she chooses), and maybe a puppy, but on her birthday she got an automatic hair curler, fairy lights, and Harry Potter book 6. Aunt Keeley got her a Ross gift card and she got money from both grandparents! So crazy we have 2 teenage girls now! 

-Ireland wins the HARDEST WORKER prize with clearing the rocks in the backyard. We are so thankful for her hard work! 

-Ireland got to do some fun things in St. George while we were in Alaska, including going to Fiesta Fun and having a day of play at home. She liked to call mom and dad at night with her phone. We are glad we got to stay in touch a lot. She was happy when we came home and were a family again : )

-We got some bad news this month about gymnastics :( Looks like they won’t be opening the gym for fall after all. And possibly not in the spring, either. We’re discussing other options to keep Ireland active. 

-More sad news: Mahina is doing online school :( Ireland is sad she won’t have her friend to walk to and from school with and sit with at lunch. We are praying for new, wonderful school friends this month!

KEZIA: 

-Kezia was getting her hair cut at Evans and was standing up when she turned sheet white and almost threw up. The hairdresser was concerned & mom went to go find her. Apparently, she hadn’t eaten any food that morning and we worked outside in the sun and she was feeling faint. Mom got her some food from the vending machine & she felt much better. 

-Kezia finally got to cash in on her date with mom and dad. She decided to go bowling! It was a lot of fun and we had ice cream afterwards. Then, she got to try her hand at the arcades. Mostly, she just wanted to try the risky games. She did finally get a little ball out of one!

-Kezia was SUCH a big helper with her little sisters while mom & dad & McKinley were gone. Grandma was very flourishing with her praise of Kezia’s peacemaking and assisting. THANK YOU Kezia! 

LINK: Mom finished “The Message” again this month, only this time Lance’s wife wrote about her experience after Lance’s death and each of his kids wrote about how their dad is still influencing their lives every day, too. It was so neat and I LOVED reading about it. I really hope your sisters can always remember how they have felt you in their lives, protecting them. Guiding them. Reminding them. Please keep doing so, we’re SO SO thankful for you! Thank you for sending rainbows in Alaska!!!! And the forget-me-nots!!!! <3 

NOELLE:

-We were at the Richfield park on the 4th. Kezia turned to Oaklyn and said “Oaklyn, do you want to swing?” and Noelle turned to Oaklyn and said “Oaklyn, do you want to eat some wood chips?” 

-Noelle prays, almost every single night, that we will go to heaven as a family. She also usually says as mom and dad are leaving the room “Mom - I hope we go to heaven as a family!!” and we always say “Me, too!” <3

-One day, Noelle said “Mom, would you rather your house burn down or your car? I would rather have my house burn down because I could just drive my car to a new house!” 

-Noelle says she wants to be a farmer when she grows up because she wants lots of animals. 

-Noelle is reading The Boxcar Children. Mom and dad listen while she reads, but she is reading it by herself! Great job Noelle! Noelle also reads the scriptures with us in the mornings and does a great job! 

-One day Noelle pointed to the indent under the nose and said “This is our booger line. That’s what it’s for.” 

-Noelle missed us while we were in Alaska, but had a lot of fun at Grandma and Grandpa’s - going to the splash parks and especially doing the gummy bear tosses :) 

-Noelle got ALL the way under the waterfall at Hidden Haven! 

OAKLYN:

-Oaklyn LOVED LOVED the fireworks! She had so much fun with the sparklers and when the big fireworks came at night, she just could NOT contain her excitement. She sat on mom’s lap and just kept saying “Wow!” “Mom! This is just so exciting! Mom - I’m so excited!” :) Her exclamations were as good as the fireworks :)

-Oaklyn is learning some handy tricks. One night Oaklyn said there was something on dad’s shirt and when he looked down, she bonked his nose :) 

-Oaklyn and Charlotte still spend a LOT of time together :) She says “Me and Charlotte are twinsies!” 

-Oaklyn has a GREAT dislike of ants. At our picnic at Woods Ranch, ants were on the ground and Oaklyn got on the table and said “Mom - if I put my foot on the ground, the ants will eat me up!” 

-One of mom’s FAVORITE Oaklyn-isms is when Oaklyn squeezes mom before bed and says “I want to hug you forever!” 

-We’re working on Oaklyn’s confidence levels. Often when she tries something new, she will say “I’m not very good at it!”

-More naughties - messes - wasted toothpaste, dumped cinnamon & sugar, choking Ireland, putting sunscreen on Daizy and cutting Daizy’s hair. 

-Oaklyn was being mean to Ireland and Ireland called her a bully. Oaklyn came running down the hall saying “MOM! Ireland just called me a BOY!” 

-When we went to Cedar Breaks overlook, Oaklyn looked down and said “What world is THAT?”

-Oaklyn said “this bonk bed is usually for bonking heads.” 

-Oaklyn missed mom and dad, too. One night, she was having a really hard time and Kezia called us and Oaklyn just cried & cried :( Overall, she did a great job, though, and enjoyed spending time with grandma and grandpa. 

June Newsletter and Slideshow

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June 2020
Hamilton Newsletter

FAMILY: June was a warm month filled with lots of fun with each other and friends. It is a rare day when we don’t have multiple friends over to play. Some of our activities this month included: flower pudding cups, the aquatic center, whittling crayons, hiking the Red Cliffs trail, making yarn bowls,  smores, a basket cake, homemade Take 5s, Chaco Tacos, Bristlecone Pine Trail, Reading Pride & Prejudice, and playing at East Canyon Park in the stream. We also went camping this month to Indian Creek Reservoir. We ended up getting a spot RIGHT by the lake and it was awesome! Catching fish, throwing sticks for Daizy into the lake, hammocking, watching Anastasia for movie night on Heidi’s phone hooked up to the bluetooth speaker and taped onto the tent :), WINDY the first night, freezing the second night, but GORGEOUS view of the stars both nights!, silly silly songs around the campfire, s’mores, dad eating a fish with hardly any seasoning, laughing as Daizy tried so had to catch a chipmunk up the tree by our tent - she patiently waited at the bottom for hours!, playing Phase 10 and Yahtzee, etc.. Lots o’ fun! Just like we played hard, we worked hard, too! Mom mixed LOTS of cement and added color to make a stamped pathway in the backyard. It’s nice, but was LOTS of work! We have also been working on breaking up dirt in the garden area and MOVING ROCKS. Lots and lots of ROCKS! We moved all the rocks in the section of the backyard closest to the block wall to make way for an in-ground trampoline. Mom bought it online, but only one box came! :( Walmart told her the 2nd box was lost. But MIRACLE!! It arrived the next week! Daddy has also been working hard in the basement - we got it framed - yay! And he helped Jason rough in the plumbing, too. Progress!  We got to see Grandma & Grandpa Potts a few times this month - once we had Sacrament Meeting and Sunday dinner at their house, once they came to see the girls’ play, and once they came to help out around the yard! :) Oh, and we stayed with them when we came up to SLC for Spencer’s baptism (though McKinley and Kezia stayed behind for play practice). The girls performed on June 27th & 29th and did an excellent job! It was such a fun play - Willy Wonka :) We’ve had lots of families move into our ward this month - and the girls have made some new friends at their play, so it’s been fun to have some new friends over to play. Teal McDonald’s dogs had puppies - 2 litters! And we had fun going over a few times to play with them! SOOO cute! Not much compares as a mood booster than spending an hour with puppies! Another MIRACLE! The laptop was missing for weeks and weeks and we FINALLY found it way under our bed - (Oaklyn!). We’ve “adopted” some neighborhood cats this month - there are a couple cats that walk the back fence that have just been super cuddly. Well, one day, one of them had a kitten in our sandbox! She took it and jumped the fence. We’re not sure what happened to her kittens, but they named her “sugar” and her mate is “spice” and the girls LOVE it when they come around!

JASON : Jason interviewed with Aphis this month - and got the job! We prayed and fasted that weekend to know if it was the right direction for our family and we felt good about the change. It will be a GS-12 as well, but non-supervisory. Jason is very excited about learning new things and working with his new boss, Wiley. He will also be a little closer to home, so that will be nice! His start date is August 16th! Jason has been working hard in the basement and is still very busy with his current job. This month was Jason’s month with Father’s Day and his birthday. We tried to spoil him with his favorite foods and some simple gifts. It’s not enough for all he does for us. We love you daddy!

HEIDI: Heidi enjoyed the little trip up North to be with her family. It was cram-packed! A baby shower/luncheon at Olive Garden, a Father’s Day BBQ at the park, taking her dad out to eat at the Belgian Waffle place, and Spencer’s baptism, then back to Cedar. It was a wonderful whirlwind :) Heidi learned a lot doing the cement pathway this month - a few of them are: 1. It’s tough to get the exact right consistency of cement. 2. It’s sweaty, hot, terribly messy work. 3. A 40+ year old back does not do well lifting 80 lb bags of concrete all day long! 4. It’s best to think of the master plan. A lot of her work was undone when we brought in a tractor to dig a hole for the tramp :( Anyway, she’s thankful for the girls’ help with the littles as she worked long hours to get it done. Overall, she is really pleased with it! One of the ways she passed the hours was listening to Harry Potter book 6, almost done! Heidi also LOVED going camping - it’s been too long! The time outdoors was just what her spirit needed! Unfortunately, it wasn’t what her hips needed (rocks!) :) But totally worth it!

McKINLEY:
-McKinley did a great job as Mrs. Teavee in Willy Wonka! Her “son” Mike was addicted to screens - we don’t think she will be that kind of mom when she grows up :) She was quite “made up” with lipstick and a skirt and jacket. She delivered her lines wonderfully and sang great!
-Mom, McKinley & Dad made a few bets in June for goals. McKinley’s bets were about finishing a certain number of chapters in Humanities. She came REALLY close to losing a couple of times - and having to cut half her hair off! - but she pulled it off and finished her book! It was fun when she put together a Google form for her aunts, uncles and cousins to fill out for one of her chapters. Their responses were fun!  We are so proud of her and we know it will be a lifelong treasure.
-McKinley enjoyed spending time with Karmiyah (who got a puppy this month!) and Ella!
-Mom & McKinley lunch date this month to Pizza Cart! There was a TINY green spider that joined us for lunch :) It was Link wanting to say hi!

IRELAND:
-Ireland has been into cake decorating lately and she did all the basket weave for our Taste-it-Tuesday cake!
-Ireland was in charge of Come Follow Me activity time this month & she spent a long time putting together a Jeopardy game - it was challenging and a lot of fun!
-Ireland got to go to Aunt Trisha’s baby shower luncheon when we went up North. It was the first time she had eaten at Olive Garden & she had fun. She even bought a little onesie and some socks for baby Austin with her own money!
-Ireland had a ton of fun with her cousins at the BBQ at the park - they played frisbee for over an hour!
-Ireland is SO CLOSE to getting her splits!
-Ireland rotates her friends - Sienna, Sariah, and Mahina - and now she has a new friend Annie Rupert who just moved in - hooray!

KEZIA:
-Kezia was perfect as Violet beauregarde! Her singing and lines were so good and even when her costume malfunctioned in one of the performances, she did great! She improvised and it turned out great! She had a ton of fun meeting new friends, learning new songs and memorizing her lines. She even made a new friend - Gracie Ulrich, who played Charlie, and has had a couple playdates with her!
-Kezia and Addie never seem to run out of creativity! On Charlotte’s birthday, they made her a cake. They also are so cute and do a little ballet/dance class for Noelle, Oaklyn, and Charlotte. They also have transformed the Price’s shed into a hideout - complete with a couch! They also have adopted 2 neighborhood cats - Sugar and Spice.
-Kezia and mom went on a bike ride and a run this month!
-Kezia also has had Macie over and they formed a “Pineapple Squad” with some of their friends :)
-Kezia was so cute and made a whole playground for Noelle’s tiny toy puppy from a cardboard box, including a tiny swing, a sandbox, and a place to take a bath. It was so so cute!

LINK: We love you Link! We know you would have loved that camping trip and are so thankful for the love note of GORGEOUS sparkling stars at night. It was so magical. We love and miss you so much Link!

NOELLE:
-Noelle has really LOVED the cats that we have “adopted” in our backyard - Sugar and Spice. She will go out there for hours just trying to get them to come and pet them when they do. She REALLY wants to adopt them for real and let them come in our house, but one day she came in from petting one of them and her eye was almost swollen shut :(
-The crazy thing is that Noelle told mom about a dream she had about Sugar having baby kittens in our backyard and that mom let her keep one of them. Well, a week later she really did have kittens in our backyard! The last half of the dream is probably not going to happen, though :(
-Noelle also LOVED getting to see Teal’s puppies and begged and begged to see them every day.
-Kezia did ballet this month and it was fun to go back!
-Noelle prays almost every night “And please bless that we can go together as a family to heaven.” She is just really worried that we won’t be able to go TOGETHER and can’t stand the idea of only one or two of us doing and the rest staying here. We pray that prayer with her!
-Noelle spends a lot of time with Oaklyn & Charlotte or Kezi and Addie.
--Kezia was so cute and made a whole playground for Noelle’s tiny toy puppy from a cardboard box, including a tiny swing, a sandbox, and a place to take a bath. It was so so cute!

OAKLYN:
-More Oaklyn trouble - HUGE powdered sugar mess, and then took out half of the pages of McKinley’s birthday book! Grrr!
-One day Oaklyn said “Mooooooooom! Noelle’s not please-stopping!!”
-We ate corn on the cob one day and Oaklyn said “I’m rubbing it on my leg! It’s so warm and feels so good!”
-Oaklyn was on the ottoman with a blanket and told mom “watch! I’m going to disappear me!” and she went under the blanket :)
-We love Oaklyn’s attitude about friends. Whenever she sees anyone even remotely close to her age, she will point at them and exclaim to mom “Look! Mom! It’s my friend!”
-A scary thing happened when the Schoppman’s found Oaklyn on their hot tub cover :( We’re thankful she’s safe.
-Oaklyn still goes over to Charlotte’s or Charlotte will come here most days of the week.
-Mom has been trying harder to have more 1-on-1 time with Miss O. One day we were playing felt downstairs and making felt faces. She made a face for daddy that had long girl hair! :) She brought the felt upstairs and has had fun playing felt with Charlotte.

May Newsletter & Slideshow

https://photos.app.goo.gl/1XXBwbEcLxJfuL1J7

May 2020
Hamilton Newsletter

FAMILY: May!! It was very different this year. Most years May is crazy-busy with field trips and projects and tests. We usually do a “jumping for joy” picture when school is done, but none of that happened this year. The girls weren’t quite “jumping for joy” because they had already been home for 2 months. But, nevertheless, we were SO thankful to finally turn back in those Chromebooks. At least mom was! :) WAY too much screen time was really affecting everyone. We are grateful to fully jump into our summer themes! For Make-it-Monday, we made stain-glass paintings. For Taste-it Tuesday, we made churro ice cream bowls, Nutella ice cream cake, and taffy. For Water-Wednesday, we went to the lake at the Hills and played with water balloons in the backyard. For Thinking Thursday we went to the Library and had a read-a-thon. For Forest Friday, we went to Spring Creek Canyon and we Moqui caves/sand caverns. At the beginning of the month, we watched our neighbor’s pregnant poodle, Tesla for a couple days. The 10th was Mother’s Day and the girls made it really special with lots of homemade and store-bought gifts. Daddy and the girls made yummy food, including pancakes with strawberry roses, a meat board bouquet for lunch, and cashew crunch salad with pork for dinner. For at-home church, the littles sang some mother’s day songs and later McKinley played “A Poor Wayfaring Man” on her cello.  Her Mother’s Day gift was four trees! 2 shade trees for the front and 2 peach trees in the backyard. Yay!  The 12th was Heidi & Jason’s 20th Wedding Anniversary! That evening they went to their favorite local italian restaurant & then to Brian Head to look at the stars. We couldn’t make it up to the Brian Head peak because of the snow, but it was still gorgeous and we saw lots of stars and one AMAZING shooting star that looked like a firework blazing across the sky. The other uncommon thing we saw were porcupines! Lots and lots of porcupines! It must have been mating season or something, but we saw 20 or more porcupines - mostly right by the road. That weekend, the girls went to grandma and grandpa Potts & were so excited to see them for the first time since they got home from their mission. They had fun with Grandma & Grandpa walking to the pond, getting ice cream from the ice cream truck, playing games, going to the park, etc.  They slept over for 2 nights while Heidi & Jason headed up to Anniversary Inn in SLC for an anniversary getaway. It was wonderful. They got to walk around Temple Square and Memory Grove and reminisce about all the wedding day memories from 20 years ago. They also got some things for the downstairs rental, including a stackable washer/dryer and a small stove. The next week was the girls’ last official week of school and there were a lot of parades and turning things in :) Sedona got home from her Anchorage AK mission this month & we celebrated with Ireland making a yummy chocolate cake! We had to wait to hug her till her 14-day quarantine was over, though.The girls had an “official” end-of-school-year late-over on the last official day of school and had fun doing the chocolate fountain and watching a movie.   Memorial Day weekend, just like most of the past few months, was different than other years. We decided not to Mapleton and instead we stayed home and on Saturday we took a road trip to Kanab. We stopped at the  Orderville Park for a picnic lunch that we had brought. There was no playground, but we all had so much fun rolling down the hill and playing tag and mom doing back-flips. After that, we went to Moqui Cave. It was an interesting place and the girls especially loved the gift shop with all the rocks. After that, we went to the sand caves, which were SUPER neat. The best friend animal sanctuary was closed to visitors, so we didn’t get to go there, but we had fun eating ice cream in Kanab. It was a fun trip! And Memorial Day we worked in our yard and home. Right now in our basement, the plumbing is roughed in. Heidi and Jason filled the hole with concrete. The HVAC is almost done and we’re hoping to get it framed soon.At the very end of the month, on the 30th & 31st, we headed to Richfield to see family we hadn’t seen since December. We loved getting to hug Sedona & celebrate Grandma Devenish’s 75th birthday! Heidi & Jason worked together to make a special memory slideshow and birthday wishes slideshow. It was wonderful to be with family!    MIRACLES: We were ready to head to Richfield and stop for a hike on the way there, but Oaklyn decided to put one of mom’s glass foundation make-up containers in the toilet. Clear back into the toilet. We tried to plunge, we tried the snake and finally we resorted to manual extraction. Unfortunately, Heidi & Jason’s hands were too small. We employed (literally - they earned $10 each) Ireland and Kezia and, after about an hour of struggle (and a hanger), it was finally free! We are SO thankful we didn’t have to end up getting a plumber here!

JASON : Jason is still busy with work - 90% of the time work at home. He is still doing the GS-12 job, but without the GS-12 pay yet. A detail got approved until the permanent job can be finalized, but needless to say, he’s been putting in a lot of hours! Sometimes not finishing till after 7. Jason also worked hard in the basement - digging out the pipe for Jason Barnes to put in his pipes and then doing the cement. He also put 2 returns in the hallway, by the ceiling, and that was a lot of hard work. We are so thankful for his hard work and dedication to our family. He enjoyed a day off for the 20th anniversary getaway & getting to do some relaxing, connecting and movie-watching.

HEIDI: Heidi took her mom out for Mother’s Day in St. George. It was the first time she’d seen her since their mission & they were still in “quarantine,” so Heidi couldn’t hug her mom :( But they still had fun going for a walk, getting Cafe Rio, and making a Target run. Heidi loved all the lovely Mother’s Day gifts and just the time spent with her treasures. She finished “Carried” by Michelle Schmidt (married to Jon Schmidt of the Piano Guys) and it was very good. She also finally finished The Hobbit, which was a fun read. It’s been SOOO nice to get fully into summer and not have to worry about trying to keep on top of all the girls’ schedules and homework. Heidi REALLY treasured their 20th anniversary getaway up North. It was just such perfect weather and completely relaxing. Yay for 20 years! It was MANY hours putting together DeeAnn’s slideshow and video wishes compilation, but so worth it. It was neat to see how many people responded and many pictures we’ve never seen before.

McKINLEY:
-End of middle school for McKinley!! :( :(
-McKinley did really well for all she had to do at home. The only thing she’s still working on is her Humanities Autobiography, which she has until the end of June to complete before her teacher sends it to print.
-It was fun to go to McKinley’s 8th grade parade and see her teachers :) She got an orchestra certificate from Mrs. Carrigan and she had Daizy on her lap & everyone thought she was so cute.
-(Micaela) Ella invited McKinley to go for a hike one day. They went on Ghost Flats up to Thunderbird Gardens. She had a lot of fun!
-McKinley has got to spend more time with Karmiyah and Ella & they have fun hanging out and playing instruments.
-McKinley got her schedule for high school! She’s really excited that she got all the classes she was hoping for - including 3 honors classes!
-McKinley did a really cute Come Follow Me activity time where we went on a treasure hunt and followed the footprints she cut out and answered questions about the lesson. It was super cute!

IRELAND:
-Ireland is now the queen of middle school! Going into 8th grade! She finished 7th grade with style - a 4.0 plaque, a CBEAR superstar certificate for highest Utah Compose essay score in class, and a certificate of achievement for math! Way to go Ireland!
-Ireland’s flute was broken again and rather than keep putting money into fixing it, we decided to go ahead and get her a new flute. We looked into renting, but in the end it made more sense to get the intermediate flute at Cedar Music Store. It was expensive! But Ireland is going to help contribute to the cost of the flute every month and she is going to take REALLY good care of her brand new intermediate flute! It does sound much better than her old one & it’s fun to listen to her play.
-Another Ireland saying “Peace UP!” :)
-Ireland has loved spending more time with her friends. She rotates with Mahina, Sariah, and Sienna.
-Ireland was bored and was craving chocolate one day and decided to make a really yummy chocolate layer cake!
-Ireland made a really cute Australian Shepherd stain glass for Make-it Monday :)

KEZIA:
-On Cinco De Mayo, Kezia dressed up in her Spanish dress & made a spanish craft :)
-Kezia is basically the queen of East Elementary now! Out with 4th In with 5th grade! Yay!
-Kezi has been reading - and loving - Harry Potter!
-Kezi started working on learning coding this month.
-It was a really sad day in May when Fox, Kezia’s chinchilla, died :( We are not sure exactly what happened, but Fox and Coyote were downstairs while daddy was working loudly upstairs. Charlotte Price was over and mom found Charlotte & Oaklyn in McKinley’s room. Coyote was under the bed and, according to what Oaklyn said, she squeezed Fox to hard :( It was so hard for Kezia to bury another sweet Chinchilla. Hard, hard day :(
-Kezi did a lemonade stand and made $70!
-Kezia’s boredom turned into creativity with her friends! Addie Price and Kezia did lip syncs on the fence to the whole Silly Songs with Larry album, she did a dance/lip sync with Paige Hillstead and Addie, and when Macie came over one day they did a cute card for Senora Engst.
-We had a big box and Kezia quickly turned it into a castle for her little sisters, complete with spray paint and a treasure chest full of precious necklaces! :) What blessed sisters Noelle & Oaklyn are to have a sister like Kezi!
-On the Saturday of Memorial weekend, we met after breakfast to decide what to do. Mom left for a minute & said she wanted a full plan when she got back. When she returned Kezia had a slideshow presentation about what she proposed to do: Kids get to watch screen time all day while parents go on a date :)  It was a wonderful presentation and even had random puppies at the end!
-Noelle & Kezia slept in the back of the truck and in the tent this month! Great times :)

LINK: Mom thought a lot about you this month, our duder-dude. She had 2 friends lose their children this month, a cheerleader friend and a friend of Lena’s. What a difficult journey it is. We are so thankful for your love notes and the knowledge we will be with you again one day.

NOELLE:
-Noelle is done with Kindergarten! Hooray! She got accepted into East Elementary’s Dual Immersion program so she gets to be with Kezia for one year next school year. She’s nervous but excited :)
-One day mom’s friend, Carmen, came by to drop off some chocolate milk and we were visiting in the entryway. Noelle pointed & said “You’re only 2 feet apart!” I didn’t know we had a social distancing policegirl in our home :)
-One evening as we were putting the girls to bed, mom and dad kissed and Noelle said “If you guys kiss, you’ll get a baby in your tummy!”
-Noelle was explaining to Oaklyn one morning at breakfast “Did you know they make PIGS out of BACON?” :)
-Noelle & Oaklyn worked on riding a 2-wheeler with no training wheels this month! Noelle made GREAT progress! She does great starting, and is getting really good at balancing, but when she wobbles, she often goes straight into a curb and falls hard. Poor girl. We’re so proud of how she kept getting up and trying again! Pretty soon she’ll be as fast as her sisters!
-Noelle has been learning to code this month - yay!
-Noelle was SO sad and cried almost as much as Kezia when Fox died :(
-Noelle & Kezia slept in the back of the truck and in the tent this month! Great times :)
-Noelle’s caterpillars turned into butterflies and we let them go. It was so fun to see their transformation and watch them fly away into the wide world :)
-Noelle’s stain glass creation that she worked so hard on broke and shattered. She was so so sad and wanted mom to put it back together. Instead, mom gave her the butterfly one she made.
-Noelle was such a big helper for Kezia’s lemonade stand. She was out there helping her for around 3 hours. What a dedicated sister!

OAKLYN:
-Oaklyn continues to be a naughty girl this month, including making huge messes and hiding under beds with Noelle’s Leappad, phones, or even the laptop (it was missing for almost 2 weeks!) But the most devastating thing was one day when Charlotte was over and the chinchillas were downstairs. They cornered them into McKinley’s room and somehow Oaklyn got a hold of Fox and squeezed her too hard. She died. Kezia was so very sad and we tried to make Oaklyn understand how sad it was without shaming her. It was a really hard thing for Kezi to forgive, but she did.
-Oaklyn did so good on her 2-wheeler bike with no training wheels! Because of her balance bike, once she starts, she just takes off & does so good. But she struggles with starting pedaling by herself and using her brakes instead of her shoes like her balance bike. It will take some practice, but she is doing awesome!
-Apparently, at 3 years old, Oaklyn is facing reality. She takes her baby everywhere, but when mom wants to hug or kiss her baby, she’ll say “She’s not REAL mom.” or when she makes a drawing & mom asks about it, she says “it isn’t real mom!”
-Oaklyn also keeps making papers with letters on it & mom asks what it is and Oaklyn will reply “It says THE PARK IS CLOSED!” Oh, our poor COVID-19 kids!
-Another COVID-19 experience is when we were practicing riding our bikes at South Elementary, there wasn’t a sign there that said that the park was closed, so Oaklyn ran over there, started swinging for a few seconds, and then yelled “MOM! LOOK AT ME! I’M NOT EVEN SICK!”
-Little Miss Oaklyn has decided she’s done watching her sisters play Minecraft & has started joining in!
-One day mom asked Oaklyn how old she was. She said “Kind of like three, but not two. I was two a long week ago.”
-Another thing that was extra naughty of Oaklyn was that she put mom’s make-up foundation in the toilet and it took over an hour to get it out! NOT FUN!
-Oaklyn also keeps jumping the fence to Charlotte’s house whenever we’re not looking. Adelaide said one morning, they were sitting down for breakfast and Oaklyn just walked in and made herself at home!

April Newsletter and Slideshow

https://photos.app.goo.gl/KgmKW2DFbSbY7hFJ8

April 2020
Hamilton Newsletter
FAMILY: April was a continuation of March… no real school, no church, social distancing, etc. etc. April was a test of our fortitude with respect to distractions and contention. It’s been a battle every day to focus on our schoolwork and our chores and be kind to each other. Thankfully, we survived April! We still don’t know what the summer will bring, but we have hopes of getting outside more, seeing our friends more, and our stress going WAY down with no homework. April 1st started out with Kezia’s classic April fools’ pranks - including “spilled” milk in the hallway (paper), googly eyes on all our pictures, worried eggs, and “bad” milk, to name a few :)  It was all in good fun. General Conference was very different this year. They held it in a small room. The speakers were very good, though - and youth even spoke! It was really neat. Noelle turned 6 this month! Yay! See her section for more details. Easter was low-key, of course, but nice. We still got all dressed up in our new dresses and shoes and took pictures. We still dyed eggs, got Easter baskets, and went on an Easter egg hunt. It was all a lot of fun, but mostly we were thankful to talk about, sing about, and pray in deep gratitude for the Resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ. His Resurrection means the world to our family and we are so thankful for the knowledge that we will get to all be resurrected and be together as an eternal family! Mom was excited to F I N A L L Y get the area over the fireplace done. After measuring, cutting, staining, screwing, more measuring, and more screwing, we finally have a nice wall with a picture of the center of our home and family - Jesus Christ. We love it and it’s fun to have a change of scenery! :) We had even more change of scenery the 2nd week in april. We debated & debated, but we’re glad we took the time and money to go through with the spring break airbnb cabin that we rented up Cedar Canyon. It was snowy/muddy up there, but we still had a great time sledding, going on mountain walks, roasting s’mores in their indoor stove, stargazing, doing puzzles, LOTS of games, and partaking of their Disney plus and Netflix subscriptions. It was a great, memorable time. Something that made it especially memorable was a little furry fellow that kept mom and dad up till the wee hours of the morning the first couple nights. Mom thought for sure it was mice, but when she contacted the owner, she found out that it was a squirrel! Sure enough, we set the trap & caught us a squirrel! It was pretty cute, but since it was not a fun night-time pal, we drove it far away and let it go :) One thing that has taken a lot of time this month has been working in our yard and our basement. In the yard, we took out the garden boxes and hope to put in a bigger garden. Mom has been battling weed, too, and trying to clean up the little rocks outside. Downstairs, we took out all of Ireland’s things in her makeshift room and moved them to the main downstairs family room. Then we took down most of the sheetrock and a concrete cutter came and cut into the foundation so we could get to the sewer line. We are excited to hopefully make some good progress in the downstairs and yard in the coming months! We’ve already started summer with some taste-it-Tuesdays :) Homemade doughnuts, poptarts and fruit pizza!
Miracles!: I hope to keep this miracle section in all our newsletters. One of the things we were talking about in our Come Follow Me this month was King Benjamin and how he spoke about the records and writing down our blessings. It was a miracle and blessing that Jeff’s friend, Jason, was willing to do our plumbing downstairs. He is a commercial plumber and initially said he wouldn’t have the time, but he has made the time and is wanting to do it free of charge. He also was able to save us lots of money with the concrete cutting. SO thankful!

JASON : A lot has changed with Jason’s job this month. First off, he is home most of the time, working from home. Before, he would still go in once or twice a week. Now, they are discouraging even that. He set up a temporary table in the bedroom, but it’s not easy keeping all the kids out. Second, the FLT approved the change for him to take over budget now that Wendy is leaving. That would make him a GS-12, but with a LOT more work than he’s currently doing and one more employee. Needless to say, he has been very busy. Even though he’s home, he’s not really “home.” He’s also really worked hard downstairs and outside. His hair has continued to grow! He can put it in a ponytail & now no one can tell in Oaklyn’s drawings which one is mommy & which one is daddy :)

HEIDI: Heidi has struggled with trying to juggle the wishes of 17 teachers. She has tried to help but often feels pulled in so many directions that her sanity is often hanging by a thread, she also feels completely inadequate most of the time with their assignments and projects. Jason has helped, too, and of course does a lot with math. She has enjoyed reading some of McKinley’s short stories and discussing them with her. One of the stories was one she remembered from middle school. Heidi has started trail running again and that has been wonderful. She’s also trying to get some strength training in with the gym closed. She is getting behind in all her computer projects because she has to wait a turn on the computer till all the girls are done with school and sometimes that’s not till very late. One thing she’s been helping with, though, has been with Grandma’s basement apartment. Ivory moved out and Heidi was recruited to find someone. It’s been a bit of an evolving process with Grandma’s health and we’re working on finding someone really good for her.

McKINLEY: -McKinley was SO sad when she found out they wouldn’t be returning to school this year. It was her last year of middle school and she sure misses her friends.
-McKinley has been overwhelmed and severely behind on a couple classes and while part of it is the new environment she’s in, there’s more going on and we’re trying to take some steps to help her and set her up for success in high school!
-McKinley still tries to stay connected with her friends, especially Micaela and Karmiyah.
-McKinley said she was “too old” for the Easter egg hunt this year and was so sweet to help out Oaklyn.
-McKinley’s favorite part of spring break was watching the movies on Netflix and Disney plus. She also stayed up WAY too late reading Unbroken, the book she got for Easter.

IRELAND:
-One of Ireland’s favorite sayings this month - “Broham!” - apparently as a greeting.
-Ireland has been texting more this month! Mom, sisters, aunts, and grandma’s! Mom has gotten lots of comments on how they love that she’s staying in touch.
-Ireland still struggles a lot with distractions. It’s hard to be on a screen for school and not want to check youtube and do some google hangouts.
-Ireland made fried orange chicken one Friday that was really yummy! Like Panda!
-Ireland’s allergies flared up in April and she was MISERABLE. Sneezing and sneezing, and itchy eyes. When she was good about taking Allegra, it was manageable, but she wasn’t happy. It’s the first time she has really struggled with allergies :(
-Ireland got chalk for Easter and made a cool dog drawing!
-Ireland has learned how to make mug cakes this month and she has made MANY chocolate mug cakes in the microwave!
-Ireland has been really good about working on gymnastics, even though the gym is closed. She’s been really consistent with her splits and is SO CLOSE to getting them down on her left side! Way to go Ireland!
-Ireland wasn’t super excited about having to lose her room and move in to the downstairs area. But she has been a good sport about it and is really excited about the prospect of having - and decorating - her own finished room!
-Ireland has been quite the selfy-taker this month!
-Ireland’s favorite part about Spring Break at the cabin was watching movies and stargazing.
-Ireland found the bonus golden egg this year! Extra $5!

KEZIA:
-Kezia had to do a quarantine book for school and it was AWESOME. She told the real nitty-gritty about being stuck at home and all the monotony and chores. She even did a comic strip about it and it was awesome, too :)
-Kezia was really cute and bought Noelle some m&ms for her birthday along with a Connect 4 game. And she gave her her old roller skates, which Noelle has LOVED!
-Another assignment that Kezia had to do was to do a video about getting distracted while driving. She pretended to get distracted when she was driving the van because she was seeing real life people and animals :)
-Kezia has been working on her room this month - adding greenery and pictures. It’s cute!
-Kezia had fun at the cabin with the movies. Her favorite part, though, was seeing the breathtaking stars. She played a LOT of games with her sisters, but after a while no one wanted to play with her because she kept winning. Hmmm - she must be related to her dad!
-Kezia basically made the homemade doughnuts for taste-it-Tuesday by herself and they were YUMMY!
-Kezi & Addi still often meet across the fence. Sometimes they play “courtroom” and there’s a judge and everything :)

LINK: You would have had so much fun at the cabin, our sweet boy! We are so thankful for Easter and the blessed reminder that we will get to be together again!

NOELLE:
-Happy 6th birthday Noelle! Noelle chose Krave for breakfast, Culver’s for lunch, and corn dogs for dinner. Fun! She got lots of fun gifts. From mom & dad she got a Belle brush, a small treasure box, a lighted snow lantern that plays Christmas music including The First Noel, a drone, a bunk bed caddy, and a butterfly kit. We ordered the carpillars right away! Kezia got her Connect 4 and mini m&ms and gave her her old roller skates. Aunt Cindy got her a glitter craft thing. Aunt Trisha got her a butterfly craft. Grandma & Grandpa Potts got her an explorer kit. Grandma Devenish got her some money. She wanted a Minecraft cake, so mom baked the cakes, cut them up and made the #6 out of cake blocks and icing. We also put little Lego Minecraft characters on top. It was a pretty mellow day with social distancing and all, but she got lots of calls, and her friend Sam came over again and brought her flowers! It was so cute! And her teacher told her Happy Birthday on YouTube :)
-Noelle continues to do really well with her school. She really misses her teacher & her classmates, but is able to get done with her schoolwork quickly and get on to her other loves right now - Minecraft, Prodigy, and Slither io. She did get to have a Zoom meeting once with her class & had fun seeing her teacher & classmates & doing “show and tell” with her caterpillars. One of them was making a cocoon right during the show and tell! Cool!
-Noelle & daddy finished reading “The Secret Garden” this month! They both really liked it!
-When we were at the cabin, we let Daizy outside and Noelle said “But what if Daizy runs back into the wild?”
-When we got back home from the cabin, Noelle & McKinley were wrestling & McKinley basically kicked Noelle’s other bottom tooth right out!
-Noelle sent her teacher, Mrs. Nakken, a cute video telling her about how she is working hard and misses everyone.
-Noelle has really had fun trying out the roller skates Kezi gave her. She is good at putting on all the protective gear, getting on those skates and pushing off.
-For Easter, Noelle got a book called “We Don’t Eat Our Classmates!” It is super cute and funny and we’ve probably read it a hundred times in the past few weeks. It’s a family favorite now :)
-The drone that Noelle got for her birthday is hungry for hair! It has eaten every girl’s hair in this house & we have had to cut it sometimes to get it out!


OAKLYN:
-Oaklyn loved Easter :) She got a Frozen 2 push button book, a coloring book, a bubble maker, and her favorite - candy :)
-Oaklyn keeps saying “did they die?” when we see a picture or video of someone.
-Mom walked in on Oaklyn one day in our bathroom. Applying a QTip to her lips and kissing the mirror :)
-So, mom had a COVID-19 moment one day when Oaklyn got out of the bath. Her hair had gotten so long and stringy, so mom took scissors to it! Let’s just say now she has an asymmetrical bob!
-Oaklyn had so much fun at the cabin, but one day she was outside with Daizy playing and we were playing a game. After a while mom asked everyone where Oaklyn was. She went outside and called & called for her and was starting to panic when finally she could hear Oaklyn crying. She had gone about 3 cabins away in the snow. She was really terrified. Daizy was with her, but she was really scared. We think she was following Daizy and got lost. She was pretty traumatized :(
-One day mom was backing out of the driveway & Oaklyn was yelling good-bye. Mom flashed her the “I love you” sign. She kept trying to do it back, but ended up just flashing her 3 fingers and a big smile :)
-We were all waiting at the table for dinner one evening for McKinley to stop playing the piano and come sit down for prayers. Finally, Oaklyn yelled out “Kinley Lou!! Stop Piano-ing!”
-This social distancing/sisters doing schoolwork at home thing has not had a good affect on Miss Oaklyn. Our almost 4-year-old has regressed back into a 2-year-old.  Her screams for attention usually involve something along the lines of squeezing all the toothpaste all over the bathroom (repeatedly), dumping out paint, taking out all the shirts in her closet and throwing them on the floor, squeezing out Neosporin all over mom & dad’s room, stealing an electronic and bringing it into her room and watching it under her bed, dumping out nuts, sugar, and really any food that she’s eating (doesn’t she know there is a PANDEMIC going on?), and using an extremely whiny voice whenever something isn’t going her way.
-Oaklyn has enjoyed riding her balance bike & wiggle car inside & out!

March Newsletter & Slideshow

https://photos.app.goo.gl/GJ5cH5xjPbxnyo1V9

March 2020
Hamilton Newsletter
FAMILY: So…. March 2020! Kind of a lot of crazysauce going on! COVID-19 has turned out to be a pretty famous gal. She is ALL the news, social media, etc seem to be talking about these days. She has forced the closure of schools, churches, parks, athletic events, concerts. Basically, events & many activities have come to a screeching halt because of the fear that she might be there. But life hasn’t come to a screeching halt. We go on, with more gratitude in our hearts and trust in our great Creator and Savior. They knew all this would happen and we feel so watched over as we’ve been able to get the food we need (although we’ve gone through a #10 can of wheat that we’ve hand-ground) and toilet paper. It’s surreal to go to the grocery store and see all the empty shelves. Feels very apocalyptic. But we are sto thankful for our prophet’s words of hope, encouragement and peace. We know that Heavenly Father sees us, knows us, and loves us. We are so thankful for his guiding hand! Right now, Jason is working from home most of the time, the girls are doing their school online, at home. And we are supposed to stay inside our homes, except to go for walks, hikes, etc or go to the doctor or the grocery store. So, life has really slowed! It’s been hard, but it’s been good. We have all been faced with the reality that there is not a never-ending supply of goods in the world. We are grateful for what we have. We are grateful to be together. We are interested to see what the future will bring. We know there will be at least another month of homeschool. We know that economically, things have been extremely rough and we are facing a recession, if not a depression. We will move forward with faith and hope and continue to check on family and friends and share what we have, for we are richly blessed. One thing that did happen despite the craziness, was Noelle & Kezia’s ballet performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. No one was able to make it, but we LOVED watching it and they both did a fantastic job!

JASON : Jason went to a meeting in Ogden the 2nd week in March. He stayed in Farmington, which was a bit stressful because Davis County had the first incidence of the Coronavirus. We were all very thankful when he made it home safely - and without sickness. While he was up there, he took off half a day to go watch McKinley’s state performance at the U of U. He enjoyed watching them and they did absolutely fantastic. Afterwards, they ate at the City Creek mall together. Which also happened to have an incidence of COVID-19, which they found out about later. Jason likes to work from home & be near his family. It’s hard when he has meetings, though, so Noelle made a really cute sign for him telling people to keep out. 

HEIDI: Heidi turned 41 this month & got a fitness watch, and a silk pillowcase and eye mask. :) She loved spending time with her family that day, and in the evening, Jason surprised her with a Polynesian dance performance at SUU. It was really cool! It has been a major adjustment having all the girls home all day. She can’t go to the gym (closed) or Grifols (put on hold for 2 months because she got a live vaccine for MMR). It’s been quite a change of routine! But she does enjoy having her girls home and knowing everyone is safe. The beginning of the month was busy with fielding Airbnb stuff for the St. George place. By the end of the month, we had almost all cancellations. She was kept busy at the SUU downstairs, though, with all the girls leaving early, finding a new couple to rent to, and selling all the furniture that was in there. Heidi also helped out all week the week that Jason was gone to Ogden with backstage for the ballet. That was an exhausting week! But she’s had a lot of downtime to recover :)

McKINLEY: -McKinley went to state for orchestra at the U of U on March 11th. Dad even left his meeting in Ogden so he could go cheer her on. It was a long day (7am to about midnight), but they did so good! They a 1, which is the highest score you can get! They got it on their performance & their sight reading. Way to go McKinley & CMS Orchestra!
-McKinley had a skiing field trip at the beginning on the month & loved hanging out on the slopes with her friends.
-McKinley is really not loving being away from teachers and friends. She is dealing with the online schooling but can’t wait till it’s over. She’s gone on some walks with friends, and is constantly messaging Ella (and she did have a s’more fire in the backyard with her), so thankfully she does get some friend time in, but it’s hard being at home all day!
-McKinley worked hard on her (online recorded) audition for symphonic orchestra & it paid off - she made it! Congrats McKinley!

IRELAND:
-One of Ireland’s favorite sayings this month - “Gouda cheese!” as in “Dinner’s ready!” Ireland - gouda cheese!
-Ireland made symphonic band!!! She was so excited! Congrats Ireland!
-Ireland had a skiing field trip this month & had so much fun!
-Ireland also made the rec team for gymnastics in the fall! She gets a team leotard and has the opportunity to perform at one SUU gymnastics meet! Yay!
-Ireland went to Sienna’s house one day for a few hours & they had fun riding scooters and building a fort in the backyard.
-Ireland was excited to stay home & do school in the beginning, but she is really starting to miss school and her friends. She tries to stay focused at home, but there are a lot of distractions and it’s hard to stay focused!
-Some things Ireland has done to stay connected with her friends is go on walks and bike rides with them and play games over the phone - like Yahtzee! She also has played a lot of games with her sisters - and built a fort downstairs!
-Ireland read the entire book “The Meeting Place” by Janette Oke in one day! One of mom’s faves.

KEZIA:
-Kezia had a tough beginning of the month - there was a calculator competition & she worked SO hard every day and was SO fast and accurate. She didn’t feel like the rules were clear at the beginning of the competition and she didn’t know she had to get 100%. She only missed one and was out of it :( It was a hard day.
-Kezia’s last (until all the craziness is over) activity days was going to DQ for ice cream. She had a blast!
-Kezia did SO well with her ballet! She was the leader for 2 of the groups heading onstage and was so fun to watch. She looked beautiful in her fairy costume (even though it wasn’t her favorite). Mom loved to spend time with her backstage. Kezi had fun spending more time with Elizabeth Niles, too.
-Kezi made a “mailbox” for her and Addie and put in on the fence. They write letters to each other and send treats. It’s so cute :)





LINK:On the 26th, it was 7 years since Link left this earth. We couldn’t go inside the temple because of the virus, but we did do some family history work at home and we went to the temple and walked around. Spontaneously, dad linked arms with mom, McKinley linked arms with mom and so on, till our entire family was walking down the temple parking lot, arms linked. That was a precious moment and one we won’t forget. We also went to Link’s bench & spend a little time there. We love you Link! We miss you every day and are SO thankful you’re watching over us - especially in times like these!
NOELLE:
-Mom had to take the girls in the van with her to the hospital so she could get her immunization shot. As we pulled into the hospital, mom said “this is where you were born Noelle!” Noelle said “Are we getting another kid!!??”
-Noelle did SO good with her ballet performance. They were long evenings/nights at the Heritage Theater rehearsing and mom wasn’t sure how well she’d do, but she did really well and it was SO fun to see her beautiful smile on stage. She said she was nervous, but no one could tell! She looked at home on the stage. We know she wasn’t always wanting to do ballet, but we’re so proud of her for sticking with it!
-Noelle is big into playing Minecraft nowdays. She’s still learning it, but she’s pretty into it!
-Mom offered Noelle a dollar to clean out the van. Noelle folded her arms, narrowed her eyes and said “Five dollars!” Mom countered with $1.50. Noelle said OKAY! She hear the word fifty and thought it was fifty dollars :)
-Noelle was explaining one day (mom got most of it on video) about how she can be really full from eating a meal, but then her body will hear the word “treat” and it will open up a specific square space of room in her tummy :)
-Noelle has been great about homeschooling for the most part. She does 20 minutes of waterford, about 20 minutes of RAZ kids books reading, and about 20 minutes watching her teacher & the other 1st grade teacher’s YouTube video. She really lights up when she gets to see her teacher. We got to pick up a packet at school and I told her she couldn’t hug Mrs. Nakken. When we left she said she was about to cry, but was brave.
-More changes in the littles room. We bought the white dresser from the rental, so now they have more drawer space and we turned the bunk bed to the East wall. It’s fun to have a change :)
-Noelle’s lunch date with dad this month was a little different with all the restaurants closed. They ended up doing the drive-through at McDonald’s and eating outside on a picnic table.
OAKLYN:-Mom & Oaklyn were taking a rest one day and Oaklyn told Alexa to start the white noise. Mom told Alexa “volume 4.” Oaklyn said “Mom! That’s way too loud! Alexa, volume 5!”
-Oaklyn has been saying OOF all the time? Hmm, wonder where she gets that from? (McKinley)
-Oaklyn said one day “Mom, I’m starving… for ice cream!!”
-Oaklyn woke up from a nap one day looking very similar to our President Trump. She definitely took a picture :)
-Oaklyn was acting sick one day. Mom felt her forehead and said “you’re feeling warm.” Oaklyn said “Yeah, I like it like that!”
-One day, mom found Oaklyn was putting her baby under the rocking chair footrest. Oaklyn told mom they were having home evening :)
-Oaklyn has multiple times snuck in mom & dad’s room and watched their Echo Show (90% of the time watching Frozen 2). Mom got after her one time & told her she didn’t have my permission. She put her hands on her hips and said “Yes, I DO have your PREmission! What is premission?”
-Oaklyn has done pretty well with having all her sisters home all day. She still asks to go to gym daycare & Grifols Daycare, but mom has tried to explain it the best she can. Oaklyn has started to do some Starfall in the morning when her sisters are doing their work, so she can do more learning, too.
--Kezi made a “mailbox” for her and Addie and put in on the fence, Charlotte & Oaklyn use it, too. They write letters to each other and send treats. It’s so cute :) Oaklyn really misses getting to play with her BFF.
-One day Oaklyn went in Irelands room & caused major distress. She dumped out baby oil all over her floor and aloe vera gel! Yuck.

February Newsletter & Slideshow

https://photos.app.goo.gl/SZNZ2iehLDvJvXZSA

February 2020
Hamilton Newsletter
FAMILY: Happy February! On the 2nd, we had Levi & Truly over for dinner & some Superbowl watching. That was fun :) On the 3rd, it just kept dumping snow so mom let the 2 elementary girls stay home for a snow day :) we had fun building snow forts & drinking hot cocoa. The door knob totally fell off our door this month, so that kept daddy busy getting that replaced & in the mean time every time we’d walk in, the entire thing would fall to the ground. Valentines was fun! As always, mom wrote things on hearts & put them on the girls’ doors every day before Valentines and gave daddy a big treat with a pun attached. And, as always, Daddy spoiled the girls with chocolate and roses. That night, mom & dad went to the Valentines fundraiser dinner for the Women’s Crisis Center and we enjoyed meeting new people and eating yummy food. Afterwards, we had a night in a hotel and it was great to have a little getaway, the girls did so great. The weekend of the 16th, the Simons came to stay for a couple nights & we had fun playing games, going sledding, building Legos, going to the park, etc. Daddy was gone for a week for work at the end of the month, so we had a fun time just us girls - reading Pride & Prejudice, watching a chick flick (The Perfect Man), and painting our nails. In the world, there has been a lot of panic and worry about the Coronovirus. School districts in WA & CA are shutting down & they are cancelling many conventions. We don’t think we’ve had the Coronovirus, but we’ve had plenty of sickies at our house this month - coughs, fevers, puking, etc. We are looking forward to warmer weather & less sickness!

JASON : Jason had fun as a Watchdog for Kezia’s school on Valentines. He also got to scope out the boys that had a crush on Kezi ;) At the end of the month, Jason had a last-minute meeting in Reno, NV and got to go see Lake Tahoe. We missed him! Jason has been busy as Mr. Fix-it this month, trying to work on fixing our front door - both the handle and the moulding around the glass are broken. He also lowered Oaklyn’s shirt closet rod and put up Kezia’s floating cube shelves.

HEIDI: This month, Heidi worked a lot on getting mom & dad’s place in St. George ready to Airbnb. We’ve already had our first guest and looking forward to more! On the 4th, Heidi convinced a few friends to go watch Little Women in the movie theater with her. It was a lot of fun & the movie was great! Heidi’s been working on becoming a full-fledged volunteer at the hospital, so she can help out with Share more. It’s been more intense than she thought! There was quite a lot of online training hours she had to complete, along with a drug test, and immunizations. She also had to go to an in-class training. Thankfully, she only needs one more immunization before she’s ready to go.

McKINLEY: McKinley continues to practice cello a lot to prepare for state and trying out for symphonic orchestra. She also babysat a couple times this month! She and Karmiyah and Micaela love to hang out as much as possible!

IRELAND:
-Ireland had a fun month! On the 1st she got to go skiing with Mahina and a friend of Tammy’s who’s a ski instructor. They had a ton of fun!
-Ireland also got to go to Mahina’s birthday party this month - they went to IHOP, they played a bunch of games, and they watched a movie.
-Ireland had a pop band concert this month & it was so fun to watch! Mahina came too!
-They had red ribbon week at school this month & Ireland dressed as the cutest cowgirl one day!
-Ireland has had fun the past couple times we’ve gone to Woods Ranch. First she made an epic snow cave. Then she made an epic snowman!
-Ireland drew a really cool picture of the silhouette of a girl (hers) staring at the moon & stars. Called Starin’ at the stars. It was really cool!

KEZIA:
-Kezia had some interesting Valentines love triangles. You’ll have to ask her about that one though ;)
-Kezia got 2 reading awards this month & mom went to go see her at the awards assembly. Mom was standing on the side and trying to mouth to Kezia a question about who someone was. Kezia thought mom was asking which awards she was getting and kept mouthing “ORANGE and SILVER,” only mom could NOT understand her she kept thinking Kezia was mouthing “ORANGE LIVER.” and the more confused mom looked, the more Kezia tried to mouth “SILVER” but mom only saw “LIVER” “LIVer!” She even pointed to her necklace and mouthed (in mom’s eyes) “LIVER!” We all got a good laugh out of that one!
-Kezia spent a good amount of time building ANOTHER Chinchilla Valentine box, only this time she 1-upped herself from last year and did TWO Chinchillas, one of them could lean over and “kiss” the other one. Super cute! :)
-A certain someone gave Kezia some pretty cool Valentines things - like a mug full of candy and a 3D Laser printed heart keychain with her name on it :)
-Dad got to come be a watch dog for the day on Valetines! He had fun hanging out with Kezia and her class.
-Kezia had a pretty yucky fever and cold and missed some days of school.
-Kezia was in charge of activity time for Come Follow Me this Month & did some fun activities, including shooting a bow and arrow (like Nephi’s), playing basketball, and building a temple. Thank you Kezia!
-While mom & dad were in St. George, Kezia and Addie decided to chalk their hair. Only, they ended up chalking their faces, clothes, and mom and dad’s entire bathroom! What a mess!
-The practices for ballet this month have gotten pretty long on Saturdays. Kezia has done really well though! Lise says she’s made so much progress!


LINK:
Our beautiful baby boy! We love and miss you so much. Thank you for always watching over us.


NOELLE:
-BIG NEWS for Noelle this month! She FINALLY lost her first tooth! It was so loose and only about 5 minutes after daddy got home from his meeting in Reno, he popped it out and there it was! We can definitely tell a difference in her speech :) The tooth fairy came that very night and left her a gold dollar!
-Mom went to Noelle’s SEPs at the beginning of the month & she was off the charts on her Dibels testing. Mrs Nakken says she is a fantastic reader and Mathematician! (although that night, Noelle told daddy she was a fantastic Math-magician!) :)
-Noelle had a bad cough/cold this month. She also had a day or 2 of puking :( Not fun.
-Noelle had fun with her cousin Caden this month when he slept over for a couple days.
-Noelle has been LOVING the Magic Treehouse books we read at night & often begs for just one more chapter! :)
-The practices for the ballet performance this month have gotten really long. We’re proud of Noelle for sticking with it!

OAKLYN:
-One time during sacrament meeting, Oaklyn said she had to go potty and just headed out. Mom asked Ireland to go help her, but then Oaklyn came back & Ireland said she didn’t even see Oaklyn in the bathroom. Mom asked if she washed her hands & she didn’t know so mom took her back out and she walked straight into the men’s bathroom! So that’s why Ireland didn’t see her!
-Oaklyn was supposed to give the prayer in Primary one week and mom got up there with her but a full melt-down ensued and mom ended up giving the prayer.
-Oaklyn still LOVES to write notes and give them to people. Usually she uses permanent marker, and folds it up tight before she gives it to you :)
-Oaklyn had a lot of fun with her cousin Rachel when they slept over. Rachel was struggling with potty training, but after she left our house, she did great! Great example Oaklyn!
-Oaklyn was sick this month with a cough and a fever.

January Newsletter & Slideshow

https://photos.app.goo.gl/Jgoj4CQDwg4KsB546

FAMILY: Happy New Year! We can hardly believe it’s the beginning of a new DECADE! Excited to see what the ‘20s will bring :) On the 2nd, we headed to St. George for some fun in the sun, stopping by the rental, then heading over to Tonaquint Park to get some energy out. On the 3rd, we went up to Kolob and hiked the peak trail. It was snowy, muddy, and beautiful up there! We’ve never hiked it in the winter :) Afterwards we took Daizy to a park & had fun snowing snowballs for her. On the 7th we made vision boards for the new children & youth program. It was fun & we are excited to start on them! On another family night we watched part of the video history of Verda Rosenvall, GG’s mom. That was fun! On the 18th we headed for the hills and a fun afternoon of sledding at Woods Ranch! There was hardly any snow in Cedar but plenty in the mountains and it was good times! That evening, mom and dad went out with the Bealers and friends to The Pastry Pub for Diane’s birthday.  On Sunday the 19th, we headed to St. George to visit with GG. She was so sweet and had pizza and veggies for us. We enjoyed our visit. The 20th was Martin Luther King Jr day & the girls had it off school. Jason took them shooting with their new guns in the afternoon. We have LOVED studying the Book of Mormon for Come Follow Me this year and have started waking up 10 minutes earlier (6:30am) to gather and read from the Book of Mormon. We’re also rotating who’s in charge of activity time, 15 minutes where we do an activity and cater to the littles so they can participate more.

JASON : Jason has been busy at work. His new employee, Lindsey, started this month and he is working to get her trained. Jason had fun taking a day off work and skiing with Kezia this month. He got to go to dads & doughnuts at East Elementary with Kezia this month, too, and he got to take Noelle out on a date to McDonalds. He also had fun teaching the girls how to shoot and going sledding. Jason’s hair is getting quite long and he’s started putting it up in a ponytail when working outside or around the house!! His daughters give him never-ending grief about it, but so far, he’s holding out!

HEIDI: Heidi is always excited for new months :) She stays busy going to the gym, Grifols, watching other’s kids when she can, running errands, being in YW, helping with Share, and being a mom. Heidi has a lot of goals in her spiritual, intellectual, social, and physical categories, and she also has some memory and organization goals that she’s hoping to get to this year. She knows she won’t accomplish everything, but she hopes to make some progress. Her word this year is HUMILITY. And she hopes to be able to make progress in that, too. Heidi got to attend 2 spiritual feasts this month. One was a stake relief society meeting with a speaker named Ganel-Lyn Condie. It was SO good and had her laughing and crying. The next Saturday was a regional Youth of Zion activity and we got to hear the mom of Kennady speak (Love, Kennady movie) and the main actor from 17 Miracles. It was really neat!

McKINLEY:
-McKinley was Warrior of the Quarter in Science - way to go McKinley!!!
-McKinley was called as the 1st counselor in the Young Women’s middle group, with Emma Beacham as president. She’s going to do a great job!
-McKinley used the overnight curlers she got for Christmas a couple times this month. It takes a little while to get all her hair in the rollers, but it looks super cute when she takes it out in the morning.
-McKinley is going to have a couple solos in her next concert. We can’t wait to hear her!
-McKinley got to go skiing for Warrior Pride this month & had a lot of fun with her friends, Micaela and James.
-Micaela’s birthday party was this month and McKinley had a lot of fun hanging out at her house and going bowling with Karmiyah, too. They hung out until almost 11!
-McKinley’s orchestra made state!!! And they made sweepstakes, which means their orchestra was in the top 12 schools in the state! (many of them have 9th graders, too, so it’s pretty awesome!) They compete in March and we are so excited & happy for them! McKinley has been practicing longer than ever! She even had a couple friends over to practice this month, Emma Manley and James.
-McKinley also did “the tour” this month, going around to all the Elementaries to get them excited about doing orchestra. She had fun!

IRELAND:
-Ireland got called as the 2nd counselor in the “Freshman” - youngest group in YW - with Emmy Schoppman as president. She’s excited to be able to participate & choose some of the activities.
-Ireland had 3 cavities this month at the dentist and they had to work on her teeth for quite a while. She did well, even though she was numb for a while.
-Ireland got her first babysitting job this month. She babysat the Reed kids, plus a couple of her friends’ kids. They mostly watched movies, but she had to put some of them to bed and help a couple when they were sad. We’re proud of her!
-Ireland started back up with gymnastics this month & is loving it!

KEZIA:
-Kezia had to get her 2 incisor teeth pulled this month to make way for her new ones which weren’t coming down. She did NOT like the idea of it, she hated the process, and she really struggled afterwards. We hope we don’t have to do that again!
-Kezi got to go ice skating for Activity Days. They had a bunch of new girls with the new year and she had a lot of fun!
-One day, Kezia accidentally broke one of our stem glasses. Instead of just throwing it away, she surprised us with a neat creation - a galaxy - dark blue paint splattered with white and turquoise. It was really neat! Trash into treasure!
-Kezia’s creativity went on to include mini heart pies - filled with chocolate, nutella, peanut butter, and different jams. Yummy!
-Kezia got to have some neat memories with her dad this month - going to dads & donuts at East Elementary and then taking a day off school to go skiing! It was foggy, but they had a lot of fun!
-Kezia is still enjoying ballet and now it’s even more fun since her friend Sarah Simmons joined in on Thursdays!
-At the end of the month, Kezia’s class did a Spanish reader’s theater. It was so fun to watch! Kezi was by far the best & most animated :) She read the part of the Great Spirit in a Native American tale about earthquakes.

LINK:
We have felt you close this month, our sweet son. Mom even had a dream about you & got to hold you & kiss your cheeks. We love you so much, thank you for always watching out for us.

NOELLE:
-One day mom asked Noelle if she was going to visit her when she was older. Noelle said “yes! Every day!... well, maybe every week.” :)
-Noelle mentioned one day that she kept seeing Pioneers everywhere. Mom was a little concerned, thinking maybe we had a “I see dead people” moment on our hands, but it turns out, she was just seeing the polygamists.
-Early in January, Noelle caught strep throat :( She had to miss school for almost 3 days. Mom & Oaklyn enjoyed their time together, though :)
-There is a woman in our ward that helps out at South Elementary with reading. She was talking with mom about Noelle & what a good reader she is. Then she mentioned that after the holidays she was chatting with the kids before reading with them about what they got for Christmas. She said after Noelle sat down, she immediately asked HER what SHE got for Christmas :) That made mom smile :)
-One day Noelle was talking with mom in the car about how the sunrise wasn’t that important. We went back and forth, mom assuring her that the sunrise was VERY important and trying to get to the bottom of her struggle. Finally, she found out that Noelle had told her friends that she brought the sunrise, and they didn’t believe her and made fun of her :( Mom assured her that Noelle DID bring the sunrise in OUR family and that her friends didn’t quite understand our family situation.
-One day mom and dad came home and Noelle had made a treasure hunt for them. They followed the clues around the house until they finally found the treasure under their bed. A beautiful book made just for them by Noelle! It was so fun and sweet :)
-Noelle finally got to go on her earned date from reading all her BOB books. Daddy took her to McDonald’s!

OAKLYN:
-Mom went to close the blinds and Oaklyn said “don’t turn off the sunlight!”
-Oaklyn graduated to Sunbeams this month! She wasn’t too happy about leaving nursery and blatently refused to go, but when she found out that Charlotte & Tucker were going to be in sunbeams, she finally acquiesced. She seems to enjoy it now.
-Charlotte is still Oaklyn’s best friend and they get lots of bonus playdates because Charlotte often goes to gym daycare at the same time as Oaklyn. Oaklyn also has made DOZENS and DOZENS of pictures for Charlotte. Sometimes we put them in the fence for her to get. Sometimes we drop them by her house. Sometimes she gives them to her at gym daycare.
-What Oaklyn said as she was coming up the stairs: “this goat needs some batteries.” What mom heard: “let’s go eat some batteries.” :)
-Mom often asks Oaklyn why she has grown up so fast. Oaklyn has learned to turn it around and say “But mom, YOU were a baby! Why did YOU grow up so fast?” Mom replies “so I could have you!” :)
-We were listening to the radio one morning in the van and the radio show pronounced “welcome to the greatest show in the planet - planet 105.1” Oaklyn yelled “MOM! That said It’s the greatest show on the PLANET!!”
-Mom watched her friends’ month-old baby one day & Oaklyn was totally infatuated and loved talking to her and holding her :)