Continuing on with our family history

My sister Krystal went through the temple last Saturday, it was a joyful occassion!

The Christmas lighted houses are disappearing and in their place are magnificent icicle formations over all the eaves in Utah County.  The families who can claim that their icicles reach all the way to the ground like stalagmites have all the bragging rights.  I can't even go out to my hot tub because just the two minutes it takes to get to the hot tub in zero degree weather is enough to keep me inside. We had a day or two when the high was in the 30s and we were all so happy and basking in the sun.  Another storm is upon us and we anticipate more ridiculously cold temperatures to hit us this weekend. "Will we make it through this cold dark winter?" I asked Jared. The answer of course was YES, because we have a warm home and love each other and haven't had an car accident slipping on the ice yet, although Jared did almost hit a jogger when he slid out of control on a bend in the road.  Heart stopping.

This week the flu hit us.  Due to my strict vitamin regime and exercise schedule, and of course my abstinence from sugar, I only suffered a minor runny nose and a headache for two days.  Poor Weston though, he has been out of school for two days and there is no end in sight for his head aches, coughs, fever, and runny nose. How it breaks my heart to see him uncomfortable, and missing his schooling and gymnastics that he does so well at.  We all pray he feels better soon.

Today is the maturation program at school.  Savanna does NOT want me to be there for some reason, and tells me every day "Mom you are not coming to Maturation Friday."  And I'm putting this in here solely to embarrass her. (we got our 2012 blog book in the mail, she was reading through it, and she got angry with me for putting something in there that embarrassed her. Seriously mad. I just had to sit and take it, I think I even made an apology, but you know, passive aggressive...you win now, I'll win later.  I hope she can manage to forgive me someday for all the embarrassment I have caused her.)

 The day I had 6 clients, which never happens, I had to spend 8 hours at the office, and the kids were not back in school yet. Jared graciously took the day off work to be with the kids.  They sent me this picture of them playing Yahtzee.  Savanna won by 1 point, even though Weston rolled a Yahtzee!

Fiora is trying to win the world record for the most teeth lost in a one month period.  She's lost everything possible to lose on top, has only 4 front teeth and two molars on the entire top row of her gums. The bottom row is only missing 4, and 2 of those are growing back in pretty solid.  She is pretty cute with her toothless gums. Fiora just corrected me, she still needs to lose one molar on top, so she hasn't lost everything yet.

 Saturdays are hard for Jared. I spend the day going from one cleaning project to another and he has to make a choice: watch me do the work and feel guilty, or go against every natural fiber in his body and help me with housework.  I was wiping off the mud that has been tacked through our entryway (thank you January snow storms) and Jared's guilt got the better of him.  "Cinderella, give me that rag, I can do that!"   I had to get a picture of Jared down on his hands and knees cleaning our house!

We took the kids to Sizzler last Saturday, they got gift cards in their stockings. Jared always breaks into a sweat when we have to order, because the cost of taking the family out to eat is high, and he doesn't want to be the "bad guy" and refuse to get what the kids really want (but we all know the unspoken rule "just take whatever dad orders for you and don't complain about it"). The kids were pleasantly pleased with their meals and Jared quickly recovered from the $40 charge, the $20 worth of bonus cards helped immensely, and I got my sweet potato fries, so a fun time was had by all.  Thanks for taking us out Jared!

 

 We went to the Barretts on Sunday to celebrate cousin Lucy's 9th birthday.  Heidi and Gabe made a yummy roast dinner for us. Lucy is the closest-aged female cousin to my girls on the Barrett side so she's made a bond with us.  All the other cousins are boys, except little Sophie age 3. :) Savanna is very upset by the family rule that we can only have sleep overs with cousins, because there are no cousins her age to have sleep overs with!  So even though she is 3 1/2 years older, Sav loves to have sleep overs with Lucy.  We had Trevan and Lucy overnight during the Christmas break, and the kids went sledding in the morning with Heidi and Gabe on his birthday at the park on our crazy Lindon hills. The Carpenters had fun, but Weston elected not to go, Savanna left after 5 minutes, and Fiora sat at the top of the hill and sulked.  ?  I had fun!!!  Take that, January.