March 2025

Brooklyn finished off her basketball season with a bang! They hadn't won very many games throughout the season and we had no expectations going into the final tournament. Her team fought hard though and won the first game by 2 points in the Silver Tournament, which meant they got a silver medal and moved onto the final game. They were already really tired and when the next game started, they struggled a bit and got way behind. I don't know what happened at halftime but they came back and won by one point in the last minute! It was a very exciting game to watch, especially because they were up by 1 and there were only 30 seconds or so left. One girl went up to shoot and was blocked by Brooklyn so we told her she won the whole game! They got another medal for winning the whole tournament too. It was a fun, exciting end to a great season.

We had an FHE talking about the importance of the temple in our lives. The girls decided they wanted to go walk around the temple and just feel the Spirit on the grounds. I was impressed by their desire and loved that they recognized even being near the temple can be beneficial for us. 

Richard somehow convinced me to do the same tour of the Blue Jackets stadium that he had done with Jared in exchange for going to a game. We had a miscommunication about the time we were supposed to arrive so we got there an hour early and walked around outside. So by the time we had done that, plus the tour, I was pretty tired and we left during the 3rd period. It was fun to go on a date with him and it's been a long time since I've been to any sports game like that so it was still worth it.

For the last few years, our ward has hosted a Eid dinner for a local mosque here. They asked the youth to serve the food and invited their families to come. I wasn't super excited about going but Kaylee really wanted to and I felt bad sending her alone so I went with her and I am SO glad I did. I met the most amazing, kind people and had a fantastic night. We got into a really good discussion at our table about some of the things we believe and it was just an incredibly uplifting, inspiring evening. 

Kaylee was really busy so we didn't get to do much for her birthday. In fact, she was so busy that we couldn't even go out to dinner so I picked her up from school and took her to lunch! I told her she could still have a bday party in a few weeks but I think between her busy schedule and not having the best experience last year, she just didn't have one.

The next day we went to the school to watch her at the honors assembly. She has maintained a straight 4.0, seemingly really easily. School seems much harder here than it did when I was in high school and she balances it all so well. We are very proud of her!

Wicked was coming out on Peacock and the Crossley's hadn't watched it yet so we decided to have a big Wicked party. We made a huge spread of pink and green food and decorated with pink and green. I'm not sure if they loved it quite as much as we do but it was fun anyway! And we loved it just as much the second time, they did a really good job with it! 

Brooklyn wanted to invite a lot of friends from her old and new school and so she decided to do a movie night since that is a LOT of kids. Unfortunately, most of the kids weren't super interested in watching the movie and were CRAZY. I was surprised by their lack of respect as they ran all over our house and into every room. I wasn't super happy with how it went but Brooklyn had fun and they did calm down after a while. 

Stake Conference weekend is always a little stressful and tiring for Richard. We had a family in the stake (who used to be in our ward but moved two years ago) reach out to us and invite us for Sunday dinner to relieve some of that stress. I thought that was so nice of them! It was fun to chat with them since we hadn't seen them in so long. It made me want to be more thoughtful of leaders and others who give up so much time and figure out ways that I can help.

February 2025

 Someone in our Elder's Quorum has a suite at the stadium where the professional hockey team plays. They usually use it for clients but they had a open night and decided to invite whoever wanted to come from the EQ so Richard happily went. 

We didn't get to do our mixed up menu for Valentine's Day this year because both Kaylee and McKenna were babysitting for other people. But we did still do our President's Day debate! Brooklyn got really into it and was planning her presentation days before and even put up campaign signs. Both her and McKenna made a powerpoint this year- McKenna as George Washington and Brooklyn as Barack Obama. Barack won this time and everyone got to pick something that they wanted the whole family to do together. 

Richard enjoyed the Blue Jackets game so much that he went back with Jared Crossley. Jared had been invited to come take a tour of the stadium (and hear a pitch for season tickets) in exchange for tickets for that night's game.

After feeling terrible for so long, I decided to go to a functional medicine doctor that had been recommended to me by someone in my ward. She was able to give me some supplements that helped me feel better almost immediately and also found that I have really low ferritin, Vit D and confirmed that I have Hashimoto's. It was nice to finally have a doctor who was willing to keep digging until they found something! 

Brooklyn and I had seen an idea to decorate peg dolls to look like the Weasley family so both of us decided we were going to do it. We went a little beyond just the Weasley family and over the winter we made pretty much every main character from the series! It was actually really fun to do and I love how many super fun HP projects we've done together.

January 2025

We did our annual mixed up dinner for New Years. Richard loves going to the store and buying all kinds of crazy things and the girls love not knowing what they are going to get for dinner. We ended up doing it on New Years Day instead of NYE because Richard was gone watching a football game on NYE. He took Kenna and Brooklyn with him and they played with the other kids while the adults watched football. Kaylee and I just chilled together and watched a movie.

Brooklyn decided to try basketball this year and I think she really enjoyed it! It's not the youngest team you can play on but most of the kids in the league had obviously not played before but that made it nice because they were all learning together. 

We spent a lot of January being sick and didn't get out much. I had decided to finally try an anti-inflammation diet so I asked Holly if she could give me some recipes as a place to start. Rather than send me recipes, she worked with Richard and showed up at our house to surprise me! It was the best surprise and it was amazing for her to come when she isn't back to 100% herself and had to leave her family to come take care of mine. She was amazing and planned recipes and prepped food for an entire month! She cooked an insane amount of meat and brought as much of the groceries as she could for all the recipes. It was amazing how much she did and how much we continued to benefit from all she did after she left! I have the best family. 

When Holly was here, she had a Wicked blanket to sleep with. She said a friend gave it to her and when she got back home she told this friend that we were jealous of her blanket because we love Wicked so much. Instead of just sending a link to where we could buy it, she decided to send us, not one, but FOUR Wicked blankets! It was so very thoughtful of her and they are very soft and comfy. Kaylee and McKenna came home from school after a long week, curled up in them and immediately fell asleep on the couch :)

Kristi had to stop going to her ward book club and was missing it a lot. So we decided to start a sister book club! We convinced Holly and Julie to join us and we meet once a month over zoom. It's been fun to have a reason to connect, even if we talk minimally about the book :)

December 2024

 I have always wanted to go to the Giving Machine since they started them years ago in Salt Lake. We were very excited that they were coming to Columbus! So we started off the Christmas season by visiting them. Such a fun way to donate money!

We had a late bday party for McKenna. She just wanted people to come hang out and stay late so that's what we did! Got some pizza and snacks and let them go crazy. It's my favorite way to do parties since it requires minimal effort from me! Ha ha.

We got a puzzle advent calendar and we had also given one to Sharon so we started taking pictures every day of our puzzles and sharing them with her. It was a cute way to connect her with the kids throughout December.

Brooklyn had an activity at her school where after school, they lock the kids in and just have a ton of fun activities to do. Unfortunately, most of Brooklyn's friends decided not to do it so she spent a lot of the beginning alone, just going from station to station. She did eventually find some people to hang out with so that made it more fun but I think she was really tired and didn't enjoy it as much as she was hoping to. 

I heard about a winter drone show happening at Easton and Richard and I drove down to see it. They are a little slow moving, but it is incredible to watch and I'm sure we will see more and more of them in the future. It was FREEZING so we were glad the show wasn't super long but it was a fun, quick little date for the two of us. 

We also went downtown to see a giant nativity scene with the Crossley's. While we were there, the church opened up and they invited us in to watch a German choir sing. It wasn't the most exciting concert so we only stayed for a few songs but it definitely helped us feel that the Christmas season was here!

Nobody seemed interested in seeing any Christmas lights this year so Brooklyn and I went to a nearby house that does a light show we love. They had a sign saying they are moving so this would be their last year to put on the show and that made me very sad! But it was fun to watch it one last time with Brooklyn.

Even though I haven't been feeling great all the time, I decided to help plan Brooklyn's school winter party. The day of the party I woke up feeling terrible and was scared of how I was going to make it through. Luckily I survived but was pretty dead the next couple of days! 

Ever since we saw Wicked over Thanksgiving, McKenna and Brooklyn have been obsessed! They decided to write the play and perform it with just the two of them. I was shocked how much they remembered from only seeing it once and they spent many, many hours practicing and created all the costumes and sets and performed it for us a few days before Christmas. I love when I see their creativity come alive!

Christmas Eve was spent at the Crossley's and we had a blast eating dinner, decorating cookies, and playing games. We even did a Powerpoint party where whoever wanted to could present whatever they wanted to! Only Brooklyn and Richard did it from our family. Brooklyn made a hilarious presentation about loving cheese that was cracking all of us up. Richard used AI to make pictures of what a "Twas the Night Before Christmas" would look like with us and the Crossley's. 

Christmas was quiet but good and we had a great day opening presents, calling family, and spending time together.

Brooklyn wanted to do a secret santa gift exchange with her friends so we offered to host the exchange party at our house. I was pretty wiped out so Richard took over and helped the 10 or so girls have a great time!

November 2024

 Kaylee got her braces off! It feels like she had them for a really long time since she had to get them twice. Beautiful smile is now braces free!!

Grandma came out to visit for a few days and we loved having her here. We did go to Scene 75 again, which the kids really love, and went out to eat and tried some new pastry shops. She also took McKenna shopping for her bday and ended up taking Kaylee shopping for Christmas since Kaylee didn't know what to have Grandma get for her. I wasn't feeling great and we didn't do much, but we always love spending time with her!

Kaylee finished off her cross country season with a fun surprise. We didn't think she had quite made the qualifications to make varsity, even though her running time was fast enough. But when they called up all the girls from JV, Kayee was not called and looked very worried. We were so happy when they called her up to give her a varsity letter for her freshman year! 

Our friends, the McKays do a pie night every year before Thanksgiving. Because they love pie so much, they think it doesn't get enough of a chance to shine at Thanksgiving with so many other foods so they invite a bunch of people over, everyone brings pies and we have a feast! Unfortunately, Richard had been sick and completely lost his voice and he decided not to go but the rest of us had a great time.

We headed to Holly's for Thanksgiving and unfortunately, we had to drive on Kenna's birthday. But when we arrived, they took us rock climbing and made her a chocolate cake with chocolate frosting to make up for it! We also did her presents at home before we left. 

Thanksgiving day was great food and great company. That night, Holly had us all pick a song genre out of a hat and we had to dress up and lip sync or karaoke a song in that genre. It was actually really fun! Chase did rap, Holly did rat pack, Richard did diva, I was 80s, Brooklyn was pop, Kaylee was rock n' roll, Emery did opera, Madsy did country, and Kenna did boy bands. It was hilarious to watch everyone get really into it!

The next day we made sure to go to our favorite creepy thrift store and then went to see Wicked. Holly and I have seen the play together twice and it was so fun to experience the movie with her too. All of us thought it was amazing and we have been singing the songs nonstop!

Brooklyn loves getting her hair and makeup done by Madeline and Madsy is always happy to comply! Kaylee and Madsy also wore matching shirts without meaning to, which was adorable. It's fun to watch the cousins have different things that they enjoy doing together. Kenna wasn't feeling good most of the trip so she was down a lot and the other two got to have lots of Madsy time.

On Saturday, it was pretty cold but the kids decided to still go out on the lake to paddleboard and kayak. And if that wasn't enough to freeze them, the Andreason's talked us into doing their cold plunge! Kaylee, Brooklyn and I all tried it. Kaylee and Brooklyn didn't even flinch and sat there not moving the entire time, while I squealed my head off! It was pretty refreshing though...

We ended the night getting peppermint shakes from Chick-Fil-A and watching the first snowfall of the year and then we headed home the next morning. We always love spending Thanksgiving with the Andreasons!

October 2024

 Kaylee finished off her cross country season so strong. She PR'd every single race and ended up getting her varsity letter! They got to wear special pink uniforms for breast cancer awareness month at her last race and they all said it made them run extra fast ;)

Holly and her family were heading to Niagara Falls for fall break and stopped by to see us before and after their trip. We just grabbed lunch with them real quick but it was so fun to see them! Brooklyn was home sick from school both days so she got to tag along and see them too. We all joked that Brooklyn wasn't really sick, she just knew the Andreason's would be coming so she stayed home to see them.

We tried to wait to carve pumpkins since it has still been so hot but finally decided to do it for FHE one night. They definitely didn't last long on our porch but the girls got very creative with their pumpkins this year!

Bryant usually drives his truck only on the west coast lately but he had a long haul and was able to come see us! We got him a for a few hours that night and then he left after lunch the next day but it was great to catch up with him and the girls seemed to connect with him really quickly. We got to see so much family this year, it was the best!!

At school, they don't let the kids dress up on Halloween, which is a bummer, but Brooklyn's class did something really cute. They called it a word parade and they were all supposed to choose a word they didn't think their teachers would know and dress up like that word. Brooklyn chose arctophilly, which apparently is the study of teddy bears! She dressed up in a scientist lab coat and carried around a clipboard and a teddy bear. I thought it was a really cute idea!

All of the girls went trick or treating again this year but we only got to go around with Brooklyn. Kaylee went with the same group she did Homecoming with and McKenna went with her best friend, Reagan, who she has gone with every year since we moved into this house. Brooklyn also went around with 2 of her friends from her old school but one had to leave really early to go to her grandparent's house and the other was wanting to go with someone else and I think she ended up making Brooklyn feel bad, so it wasn't the best night ever but we still made the most of it!