January 2016

It may just happen that I only do 12 posts this year, one for each month, to preserve our family history. So here is January's post. I have not taken many photos this month. January typically the month I just try to get through as best I can without cursing the cold, dark winter too many times. Interestingly we have a pattern of kind of silly or ugly pictures every January post, why not. So here is the picture I took of Weston last Sunday as we were trying to entertain ourselves inside, in the dark, cold winter. Weston said, "Look I'm Aang!" (Air bender whose eyes turn white when he is being magical.)

I perfected my dad's burrito sauce this month. I've tried about 10 times over the past couple years to get it right, and I finally made a sauce that tastes and looks like his, though I did it differently than his instructions. Hooray! Dad's burritos will live on.

 Weston had four teeth fall out this month, and all that was left up top was his four front teeth and two back molars. He looked like a bunny with braces. Still handsome though. We are waiting for his handsome canines to come in and perfect the smile.

 Of course its gym meet season! So we have been to three meets so far this month. Weston and Jared went to Bakersfield California for a weekend so Wes could compete and he did pretty good, but tough competition there! He is doing some pretty amazing stuff and I'm just so grateful he makes it out without getting injured. His team mate Evan broke his ankle at the last meet in Springville and is out for the season, we felt for that guy! That was a tough meet for Wes, he fell three times during events and slipped up on some dismounts, so he didn't want me to share that one on video. But stay tuned for the next one coming in a couple weeks! Weston's overall scores have ranged from about 67-70, and he is hoping to improve a little each meet. Fiora takes my camera and tries to entertain herself during the meet with selfies.

 Its one of the snowiest January's I remember. Seems each week we get another good couples inches and the world transforms into white. Then the sun comes out and melts it enough to make everything look brown and gray and kind of ugly. But these pictures show the temporary beauty at first.

 Savanna took her BAE (code for best friend these days, acronym for Before Anyone Else) Aislyn McIntire to get Aislyn's nails done for her birthday. Savanna is trying like crazy to earn money for a cracked phone screen but keeps finding other things to spend her money on like nails and can't seem to collect the $150 it will take to repair the majorly damaged screen. So hard to be to young to have a job but old enough to want adult expensive things. We pay for her tutoring and voice lessons and bras and food and stuff, so she really has it good, and she tries to show her appreciation by getting her kitchen chore done and trying to be nice to all us annoying people. She is a wonderful girl.

 I have been watching this cute Titus Carpenter while Heidi works at her preschool job a couple times this month. He is 6 months old now and such a good little cutie pie. Its fun to have a baby in the house for a little while. In fact he is here right now while I'm typing this post and I'm reading all the fun things about January to him! And he's talking right back to me.

The girls have been in charge of dinner Thursday nights while I'm out helping my sister. Fiora and Savanna take turns, and they have been doing a great job! Fiora made soup the first thursday, with a little help from dad, and Savanna made salmon with salad and potatoes the next. My neighbor told me she saw Savanna outside with an apron on looking for a lemon to borrow for her fish! Last night Fiora made hamburgers with mushrooms and onions. There is a little bit of frustration and drama with getting these meals made without me there, i.e. forgetting how to light the outdoor grill and trying to figure out how to work the indoor grill, lol, but they are doing a great job and Jared and I have both been impressed at how much they have learned about cooking these past couple years. Fiora is especially patient with her older sister pointing out her minor errors on the learning curve.

Lets see what else. Tomorrow is youth conference for our stake and Savanna gets to go this year. Jared and I will also be attending, as we accepted an assignment to be on a "Winter Stake Youth Conference Workshop Committee" and are helping a workshop in between a speaker and dance for 250 + youth. Fun fun fun. The choir sang last week and I was asked to speak at a Relief Society Activity on healthy bodies, and I was asked to host a Beehive activity for a personal progress party this week. And I'm in the Stake choir for Stake conference next week and attend those rehearsals. So January has been a busy month of church service! It has been joyful and rewarding.

Jared has taken advantage of the cold by going ice fishing with our neighbor Randy Rogers a couple saturdays this month. They have a good time but they don't catch much. LOL. Jared hurt his neck this month lifting weights, and then cricked it further playing basketball, so he has been to the chiropractor and is back to not playing bball in the morning. I like that because he is home in the morning and helps me with breakfast and lunches, and he supplements his exercise with more boring things like running at the track with me. Ha!

I guess that's it! We just try our best every day to love each other, be grateful for blessings despite the cold, being cooped up, stresses at work and school, and sometimes feeling not that well. I'm so grateful for my little monkeys, that are actually getting to be pretty big monkeys, who eat a lot of food and still leave their socks all over the house.  :) The Lord has blessed us and the Spirit is in our home and we try to love and serve every day, who could ask for more?