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 :)
