Feb 2023

 A girl in my ward won a free hour class for 30 people at her gym so she invited a bunch of us to join her. We did 20 mins of spin, 20 mins of weights, and 20 mins of yoga. It was really fun even though I could barely move my legs the next day!

One of the girls in our ward wanted to go but her husband was going to be out of town so I offered Kaylee and McKenna to babysit her kids for her. Since I told her she didn't need to pay them, she felt bad and made them a cake instead, which she loves to make. This was probably the best cake I have ever tasted in my life! I told Kaylee she should always accept treats as her payment :)

Julie called to ask me a question one day and afterwards she texted me and asked if I was ok because I sounded down. I told her I was just in a funk and struggling a little bit. The next day, these happy tulips showed up at my house with a note from Julie saying she wanted to brighten my day. It meant so much to me that she not only noticed that something was off with me but that she sent me some love and cheer to try to help me. I have the best family!

Brooklyn really wanted to make a unicorn for her Valentine's box this year. She painted a shoebox and then we worked together to create a horn and mane from supplies we had leftover from other crafts. I thought it turned out cute! I was a little sad that McKenna chose not to make a box this year for her last Valentine exchange.

On Valentine's Day, Kaylee was asked to babysit by two different families. I told the second family that McKenna had never babysat on her own before but that she could babysit at our house so we could be here if she needed help. Even though the baby was pretty sad for a lot of it, she was in heaven and can't wait until she can babysit by herself!

Richard got a bunch of free meals at OSU from working STEP this year so we went to campus one day to use some of them with the kids. During dinner, we looked out the window right next to us and saw a raccoon staring right at us! It scared us and he jumped down and ran away so we didn't get a picture but it made for a very funny story! The best part was seeing the robot food delivery for the first time. The robots were so cute and we saw them all over campus. It was fascinating to watch them. It was cold but it was nice to get out of the house and we tried to make the best of it and walked by the lake and up to the top of the library. And we had to stop and see Brutus of course!

We wanted to do our annual President's Day tradition that we stole from Holly but the kids wanted to invite our friends, the Crossley's over for it. I wasn't sure how having friends here would change it but it made it so much better! All of them gave a speech saying what they would do as president or good things they had already done. Then we asked them a bunch of questions and they were very fun and creative in their answers. When we had the vote, Brenton was the clear winner since his law was to give everyone an extra treat at lunchtime! We had a picnic and then the kids begged to go to the park so we went to Homestead Park and had a ton of fun playing tag and trying out the new playground equipment.

Three months after Chase made it for me, I finally stained the frame and attached the metal to make my magnet board. I love it so much and think it looks perfect in our kitchen!

Richard found a new hobby- cutting apples into different shapes! He saw a video online and wanted to try it and thought it was fun so he's been trying a lot of different ones. The favorites were the crab and the swan and we have requested them many times since!

The Young Women got tickets to go see a production of The Sound of Music downtown and they needed extra parents to drive so I quickly volunteered to go so I could see the play too! All of the cast, crew, and orchestra were volunteers and all the money went to the children's hospital. I thought they did a fantastic job and the Captain and the Mother Superior especially had amazing voices.

On that same night, Richard and Brooklyn went with her friend to the OSU vs BYU gymnastics meet. Brooklyn won a T-shirt that is almost as big as she is and loves it! After the meet, they went up and met a bunch of the gymnasts and she even got a lot of them to sign her shirt.

Jan 2023

 We took advantage of Richard having time off during Christmas break and painted our room! It feels so nice to have another room done and it really changed the look of the room. I love it!

Our stake had a youth activity to kick off the new year and introduce the theme for the year which is I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. Richard was asked to do an activity for it and used a balloon full of water and a lighter to about filling ourselves with things of God. When we are filled with good things, then we are strong enough to withstand the fiery temptations. 

Kaylee was also called to be the Young Women president for her class. She seems to be striving so hard to be close to the Spirit and I love watching her step into a new role where she can grow and learn. 

McKenna got her first temple recommend and got to go on a trip to Louisville to meet up with her cousins to do baptisms for the dead for the first time. Unfortunately, Brooklyn was pretty sick and had an eye infection so I stayed home with her but Richard, Kaylee and McKenna had a great trip! And of course they had to go out for ice cream at the Comfy Cow to keep the tradition alive :)

Brooklyn wasn't feeling super sick but her eyes were still goopy for a long time so she had to stay home from school and was getting really bored. We had a paint day where we used watercolors to make something and then the next day we wrote a book. She wanted it to be like the books Holly and Julie have made and dedicated it to them. She did an amazing job and I thought it was such a cute book!

We finally got the front and back doors installed that we had ordered back in September! Our old doors had gaps and the wood around the outside was falling apart. These doors have been so wonderful and I love having built in blinds in our patio doors! Making changes to the house have made me so happy and it feels like it is really ours with every update we make.

Kaylee was nominated for student of the month by one of her teachers. He wrote a little paragraph on the certificate about why he chose her and it was nice to read about how other people also see how special she is!

Other than that, our January was pretty calm and we didn't have much going on. It was a nice reprieve from the craziness of December and what would be coming in the spring!

December 2022

 We had 5 different advent calendars this year so Kaylee made her own board to keep track of the rotation from cardboard, string, paint and staples. I was impressed with her creativity and it worked great!

Richard has resisted my attempts at doing Christmas lights so we finally came to a compromise and figured out how to decorate at least part of the house to make both of us happy. I love coming home in the evenings to glowing Christmas lights!

We had dinner at our ward Christmas party and they had a small sing-a-long, coloring pages at every chair, activities for the kids, and then they said they would put on Christmas music for people to have a dance party at the front. I figured nobody would go do that but Kaylee grabbed a friend and went up there and pretty soon there was a group of them dancing and singing their hearts out! It made it really fun for all of them and I was proud of her for being the first one to put herself out there and make it enjoyable for everyone.

I was also so proud of McKenna. Choose to Lead hasn't been as involved as she was hoping it would be and she was really disappointed when she found out they weren't going to get to help for any of the Christmas events. I told her that if it was something that was important to her, she could ask her teacher if she could talk about it with the principal and explain it calmly without whining or complaining and ask if they could help with anything. She presented her case to the principal and the principal was so impressed with her, she assigned them to help at the Penguin Patch. This is an event our school does every year where they let the elementary school kids come into the gym and pick presents to buy for their family at a cheap price. McKenna absolutely loved helping the kids and came home on cloud nine! It was fun that she got to do Choose To Lead with a bunch of her friends this year and I was proud of her for speaking up and getting to do extra things because of it.

We went to a community center production of A Christmas Carol for the first time and it helped us feel very Christmas-y. It was pretty well done for such a small production with only volunteer actors but the girls didn't really know the story and it was kind of hard for them to follow. It was fun for them to try something new though and they always love going to plays!

We got a huge shock when we were driving to the library on Saturday and got a call from a number that just said The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was Elder McConkie from the 70 and he asked if Richard and I could come to the church to meet with him and Elder Birch from our Area Presidency. He called Richard to be the second counselor in the Stake Presidency! It was a big surprise for both of us and I know it will require a lot of time and sacrifice from us both but I was proud of Richard for being willing to serve.

In music class, McKenna had been learning rhythms on two different types of drums and they had a little showcase for the parents to demonstrate what they had been learning. It was fun to watch her (mostly because she was almost constantly making her embarrassed face which is my favorite!) and she did a really great job and I didn't see her mess up once!

We didn't do a lot of our normal Christmas traditions. I was struggling with my mental health and had a hard time planning anything ahead of time. Plus the kids didn't seem too excited about any of the things I suggested. We did, however, go to Chick-Fil-A for a Christmas celebration and we made sure to drive and see our favorite house that does an amazing Christmas show.

Over Christmas break, we agreed to watch a dog for a family in our ward. They made it sound like we would just have to go once a day to check on the dog and make sure it had enough food and water and since we weren't going anywhere, we thought it would be the perfect thing to keep us busy and give the girls a chance to earn some money. Little did we know, it would take over our whole break! They said we could leave the doggy door open overnight if we had to but Richard felt bad doing that so we had to go around 9 pm to close it up and 7 am to open it again so the dog could go to the bathroom. We also needed to take it for a walk and the girls wanted to play with her so we went once in the middle of the day too. The worst part was that we got a huge cold front come in for Christmas and we had multiple days where we got a ton of snow and outside it felt like -30 degrees! It was awful to be outside walking around in it so we couldn't go out for very long with the dog. AND after a few days, the police were called because the dog wouldn't stop barking so the police got ahold of the family and told them that if they were called again, they would take the dog to the pound. Which meant we had to keep the dog locked in the house at all times! So then we had to go an additional time in the day to make sure it had enough time outside to go to the bathroom and also go on a lot of walks and play with it since it was cooped up all day. The girls thought it was so fun at first but after two weeks of going four times a day, they got pretty tired of it and it lost the appeal for all of us. I was very glad when they got back into town! The girls really did love the dog though and it was another good experience for them to take care of an animal since I want nothing to do with them in my house.

We decided to move our sibling exchange to Christmas Adam since Christmas Eve has become hard to fit it in when we try to get together with other people and that is when they do their special sleepover anyway. I was impressed with what the girls came up with this year- Brooklyn gave Kaylee a keychain she made out of a painted K and thread and also she made a little pot for her to store her stickers and then she made a toss game for McKenna. McKenna made a bunch of Barbie Christmas accessories for Brooklyn to play with and a little booklet, a shelf made out of old CDs, and a reindeer candy cane. Kaylee has continued to really impress me with her ideas and her execution. For Brooklyn she made a coin purse out of felt and a bowl out of perler beads. And for McKenna she cut out an M from cardboard, colored a ton of coffee filters (which she then sprayed with water to create a watercolor effect) and then glued them all around the M. It was so pretty! That night, they got to sleep under the Christmas tree together like we have done for the past couple years. I hope this is a tradition they will continue to love!

We wanted to get together with our friends, the Crossleys, for Christmas Eve. They said they have a tradition of going to another church service on Christmas Eve and invited us to go along. To tell you the truth, I wasn't super excited about this idea but we said yes and found a service that was kid friendly. It was actually pretty fun and interactive and the just told the story of the nativity and had the kids look for pictures they had hidden around the chapel of the part they were telling. They also sang some songs and gave everyone a candle. They talked about the light of Christ and how we can help pass along that light and they went down the rows and lit our candles. It was a great experience and I was glad that our kids could attend a new church and see that it had a lot of good things about it too. We came back to our house and had dinner and then played games until it was time for the Crossley's to leave.

Christmas was FREEZING cold and we wouldn't have left the house at all except we had to get to the dog. But it was a good, calm Christmas and all the kids seemed very happy with what they got. 

On New Year's Eve, the Crossley's invited us over to their house for dinner, football and games. Kaylee wasn't feeling great, I was extra tired, and I didn't really want the other two to stay up until midnight so we let them have their own countdown around 9:00 and then we left within the next 30 mins or so. Richard stayed to watch the football game and got to see the real countdown while the rest of us were asleep at home! I'm glad he had someone fun to spend the holiday with since I wasn't up for it.