January 2018

I chronicled New Years and the following week in my previous post...so onward to the long (and often dreary) month of January. January is my month to think about what I want to accomplish in the New Year. The one thing that I really love about January is the fresh start.

Speaking of a fresh start... I was released out-of-the-blue from being the 1st Counselor in the Primary Presidency and got called to be the PRIMARY PRESIDENT! Gulp. This will definitely shake things up around here. I love Primary and I am happy to serve there. I also have an awesome presidency that I am really excited about!! That makes it even better.

One of the family goals that Tyler and I made this year was to spend more one-on-one time with the kids...or two-on-one time. We are already pretty good about this but as the kids get older and busier we definitely have to be more intentional about it. Things got off to a pretty good start in January.

Tyler had a fun movie night with Reilly and Kam. The three of them have very similar tastes in movies and they have a great time going to the movies together!!

Ailey and I had a lunch date at Starbucks!! This was during the school day so it felt extra fun and special!

Bryn and Tyler attended the big Daddy/Daughter Dance at the high school. This is a tradition that Tyler does every year. He has taken all of our girls. They love it! Bryn requested that they both wear her favorite color...purple.

They went out to dinner too! Bryn requested going out for Mexican food.

They danced the night away! They always stay until the very end of the dance. All of our girls love to dance and so does their dad. Tyler said that he was so sore the next day! Ha ha! Bryn said that what she loved the most was that he actually danced with her instead of sitting on the bleachers looking at his phone like a lot of the dads did. How sad. Tyler said that it was crazy with little girls just dancing with their friends while the dads were sitting on the sidelines or on the bleachers looking at their phones.

Tyler texted me this video of Bryn doing the whip and nay nay. Ha ha!

Normally this is the time that Kameron and I have our Mother/Son Date which I love and look forward to all year. Unfortunately he had to work and couldn't take it off. We had just had a mother/son breakfast date so I was okay with it. Normally Ailey has other plans on this night but she was home so we hung out and binge watched all kinds of TV and ate homemade caramel popcorn. It was fab!!

So good!!

Ailey is in the Cooking Club at her middle school. It started in January and she is loving it!! They are learning to make all kinds of delicious things. They work with one of our local food banks and will be helping to cook food for them and for those they serve. I love that! Teaching kids to cook and to serve those in need in our community! Win-win.

Drill Team is also in full swing! (Had to block out her school name on her uniform). Since Ailey is a team captain she has extra practices and long days. I pick her up from school four days a week at 5:15 pm. She loves it though and does such a great job with the girls!

Tyler taught Reilly to change her own tires. She is learning to be an independent woman and is doing a great job adulting!! It's nice to have her close so that we can help her with things like this and I know that she is so glad to have her dad nearby when she needs him.

Bryn had a Donuts with Dad Breakfast her elementary school. They had fun and got to hang out with the basketball players from Gonzaga. Always enjoyable.

Sadly this month, the prophet and President of our church died... President Thomas S. Monson. He was such a great man and lived such a life of service to others and to the Savior. I am so grateful for the life and example of this wonderful man!! This wasn't totally unexpected as his health has been declining. Still it struck Ailey and Bryn pretty hard. This is the first prophet that Bryn knows to die and Ailey was very little when President Hinckley died so they were pretty sad and full of questions about what happens now with church leadership. We have had some great family discussions. I love that President Monson was able to connect with the children of our church in such an amazing way. He will be missed.

We got a whole ton of snow on the day of his funeral which was held in Salt Lake City, Utah. We decided to call it a snow day and we kept the kids home from school so that they could watch the live stream of President Monson's funeral and procession. The. Best. Decision. Ever.

I have such a special memory of this morning as we watched the funeral and tributes to President Monson. There were tears and so much gratitude for him and for the gospel in our lives. He has left behind a wonderful legacy.

We have been hitting the gym...along with every other person in Spokane in January. This particular day Kam was annoyed with me and refused to work out beside me. Moving down one machine down was his act of rebellion. Ha ha! Go for it.

17 is precious.

Reilly had Ailey and Bryn come and spend the night at her house for a sisters sleepover! They had the best time!! I love that they want to do things like this together. They had a weekend of cooking, crafting, watching movies, doing facials, beauty treatments, making hilarious videos, and snap chats.

They also did a bunch of hammocking at the park. They were so tired when Tyler and I came to pick them up. They had so much fun hanging out with Reilly at her house and meeting her roommates. They are already planning their next one.

Bryn had some dental work done. She needed to have two teeth *shaved* down to make room for the other teeth that were coming in. She had her first experience with numbing and laughing gas. She was a trooper and had a great sense of humor about it!! She wanted some yogurt from the grocery store afterward and we were laughing all through Albertsons. Can't you tell? Ha ha!

Brynnie smiling with her numb face. I have an epic picture like this of Reilly from about this same age. Man, whenever I need to laugh I whip it out. It's a gem. Here's another one for the collection. Ha ha.



She kind of looks like she is about to cry but really she was laughing so hard and that was her crazy smile.

One day when I was in Kam's bedroom gathering up his dirty clothes and I found this written on his white board:

I love it! That smile more kills me. Ha Ha! He is a bit on the grouchy side these days. Again, seventeen. He is very easily bugged by his parents!!

But despite being a bit on the grumpy side; he is an excellent cook! This was a Sunday dinner that he prepared for the family. Two kinds of spaghetti...a vegetarian sauce and a bolognese, angel hair pasta, teriyaki edamame, and brownies for dessert. He's not going to starve on his mission!!

Another family goal that Tyler and I set for 2018 was have each of our kids take turns preparing a  Sunday dinner. They get to plan the menu and prepare the food. This was something that Tyler's family did when he was growing up and he and his siblings loved it because they got to cook all the things that they liked and didn't have to eat anything that they hated. Kam went old school with spaghetti. Ailey is next and she has been pinning things up a storm on Pinterest; as has Reilly. The girls are definitely going more elaborate. Ailey's delighted to think that there will finally be a Sunday dinner at our house without any vegetables!! She is thrilled. Ha ha. Bryn will get to pick a meal too but she will get help with the cooking although she really is a pretty great cook at eight years old!

On another note...Perimenopause is kicking my butt. It is official. I am in the thick of it...confirmed by a doctor. Good grief. Can my period just end! Do I have to have all of this other garbage AND a period! Here's how it has been going down...turn forty...gain weight...look at a donut...gain 30 lbs...hair gets brittle and thin...eyes crap out...get reading glasses...cluster migraines start...husband has a health crisis...stress causes even more hair to fall out...although weirdly only on one side of my head...have small emotional break down due to thoughts of impending baldness...make an appt to get hair extensions...get the good news that I am not balding...just hormones and stress...told I have tons of new growth...shout hallelujah...now onto my period...which is either early or late...and either super heavy or super light...hot flashes begin...they are sheer hell...good times ensue....find out that said good times can last for ten years or more... Now you are up to date. I am sure there will be more excitement to come...stay tuned.

Perimenopause is a real botch!

I have been busy planning for show season which is about to begin. It is always nice to have a break after Christmas but January is when we get all of our vintage shows lined up for the next year and start working on projects. Our first show of the season is in March.

Projects, projects, projects!

One afternoon when the kids were out of school and Kameron and Ailey were busy with friends...Tyler and I took Bryn on an outing to the park and the conservatory. We were dreaming of Spring! It was cold and gray outside but inside the conservatory it was full of spring flowers and it smelled amazing!!

We also pretended that it wasn't 40 below outside and went out for ice cream too!

Things have been busy and in full swing after the holidays around here. A new semester has begun with new classes and big projects. Bryn has had some huge projects due and she has been working on her science fair project. In other news, my brother Kirk had surgery and is doing well now. Kameron spoke in church and gave such a great talk. I'll post it on the blog. I had book club. We read the YA novel The Wednesday Wars by Gary D. Schmidt. It was great!

That was our January!!