Wrapping Up 2024

There is nothing I love more than catching my kids enjoying each other's company of their own free will and choice. Luckily, we got lots of moments like that over Christmas break. 

We had a super fun and not too chilly first time at Top Golf - thanks to Grandma and Grandpa! 

El Fadre and I snuck away to the temple one morning. The 4 hours in the car make for a lovely time of connection, but we were both dreaming about the day that we will be able to walk into the temple doors 20 minutes after we leave our house. Soon!

We continued to find adorable signs of Auntie Al around the house! 

There was a wonderful bit of lazing around every day. 

And bundling up from the cold!

The girls got permanent bracelets! 

We rewatched all of the Twilight movies, 

and we had a mini Christmas party with the missionaries!

"Merry Christmas!" 

And although it's largely against tradition, we went out for New Year's Eve! The night was mostly fun and a great way to pass the hours until the new year, but when midnight rolled around there was not the same level of ringing in the new year as we put on at home. 

It was still memorable though, and a great reminder that nothing about the new year is most likely going to go the way it always has. Things are about to change in a big way! In that sense it was a great way to welcome in 2025. 

Still, we wrapped up the party then went home to celebrate in really loud style- complete with bubbly, yelling into the night, hugging and kissing all around, 

and the settling into finish a movie before heading to bed around 2 AM. 

We are ready for whatever the new year is going to bring! 

Just a Little More June

 We enjoyed a lovely evening of live music at the capitol- I love perfect summer nights like this one when you can't even remember the months when the weather is so cold and miserable that you can't leave the house for days at a time, and certainly not without a coat, hat, gloves, socks and boots to keep you safe and warm.  Give me summer, bare feet and sunburns and bug bites and all!

Emma used the umbrella to hide from the elementary school band teacher. 

We made a trip back up to Ankeny to visit our favorite childhood pool and conquer those lily pads! What a walk down memory lane- my brain equates this pool to non-swimming children, so it was a nice change to stay on the side catching up with friends rather than keeping my babes within arms reach at all times. 

Laney is the best lazy time companion any of us could ask for. 

Star Wars Oreos! 

We thought the whole box was Jedi Oreos, but it turned out the ones we sent to youth conference with Leah and Adam were all Sith!  

Big kid on a little kayak at youth conference- 

Leah and Adam have both had dating/boy-girl interactions this summer that have ushered in a new era of parenting- reliving all of the ups and downs of teenage relationships and trying not to freak out about any of it!  This is new for me. 

Time for a haircut! 

How to Keep Kids Quiet In Church

I thought this was just yesterday.... but it was in 2018. 

 This is a thoughtful question that the kids asked last Sunday after we were sitting directly in front of a young family with a three-year-old boy with two volume settings- on and whining. Jason quickly defaulted to me as he has had very little opportunitiy to sit with our family in church over the years that these habits were formed.  He was called to be a bishop in 2016 when Noah was barely 3 years old, so while he was there to help with the earliest days of church revernce, the years since have been up to me alone! 

Today I have four sweet kids who sit quietly in sacrament meeting with no phones, toys, snacks, figdgits or complaints about getting through an hour of sacrrament meeting.  And our building doesn't have cushioned-backed pews so that is really saying something! This is the way we learned how to sit quietly in church, which of course isn't what would work for everyone, but it worked for us and this is my blog so here we go!

In the diaper bag years we brought a small number of quiet activities- soft toys and quiet activities and soft snacks that didn't have to be unwrapped or CRUNCH when eaten. 

Toddlers or young children who couldn't sit quietly were relocated to the hall, without any toys, books or snacks to enjoy.  Those were reserved for the kids who stayed in the meeting. I don't have many memories of hauling kids out into the hallway for lack of reverence, with the exception of two-year-old Noah parroting, "So long, suckers!" on his way out for a much needed diaper change. 

As they got older the activities became church specific- the Book of Mormon puzzle book, the Jesus and temple lacing cards, the gospel A to Z books, quiet felt books.  All other toys stayed at home. 

Next level- all activities could only be played with after the sacrament.  Leading up to the sacrament, the kids were encouraged to sit quietly, sing the hymns, and prepare to take the sacrament. 

Of course, all bets were off during stake conference.  For years we would set up a veritable fort in the Primary or Relief Society room with a wall of chairs containing our little family, with snacks and toys adn activities galore available to all- whatever it took to keep everyone entertained for the two hours of stake conference. That's how we came to love stake conference- it was different and fun!

Somewhere around 2017 we were gifted small zippered bags for each kid with post-it notes, pencils, and tissues (pictured above). That became the next level of working toward reverence in sacrament meeting- a piece of paper and a pencil for taking notes or drawing appropriate pictures. If an activity wasn't doing anything to help us think about the Savior during sacrament meeting, it didn't come to church with us. 

And eventually that all went away and was replaced by nothing.  These days phones (for those who have them) stay out of sight and out of hand during sacrament meeting.  Not unlike my childhood, if you're bored during the talks you can read the hymnbook or count the lights on the ceiling.

Today, we have conversations about what we learned during sacrament meeting and in our second hour meetings on the way home from church.  We are there for a reason, and there is follow up after church each Sunday.  Sundays truly feel like a day of resetting for all of us, and the busier our lives get the more we crave this day of calm each week. 

Delightful side note- every child in our family has hated hearing this book read to them- 

but they had no questions about what was considered whining from an early age, and understood that it was an unacceptable form of communication. "I'm not whinnnnningggggggggg!" 

Skiing for Five!

In the midst of our busy winter days, Adam was not about to let me forget that it's ski season!  This winter has been delightfully (and ridiculously) mild, which meant that when we saw what was potentially our last opportunity to go skiing before the weather really warmed up, we had to take it! It was so cold on the day we went, but we had to go night skiing because the warmer weather meant the lifts were only open for part of the day.  But we weren't going to miss out on our annual ski date. And this year, we took three extra ski babies with us! We didn't have school on Friday and tried our hardest to guilt Daddy into joining us, but he had to stay behind to work.  What a bummer.

But Noah, Emma and Leah were all up for joining us this year- no small decision since they haven't been skiing since we all went in Utah back in 2019.  Man, I'd love to say that I was patient and calm as their teacher, but after three trips down the bunny hill Adam and I were more than ready to get on the chair lift and make our way to the top of the hill.  So off we all went. 

We all still laugh about Emma jumping off the ski lift in Colorado back in 2018, and, determined not to get stuck on the chair again, this time Emma zipped right off the lift and fell into a heap on the ground.  Not a great start.  

When Leah, Noah and I got to the top of the hill we realized just how steep even the green runs are for scared beginners. Leah made her way down okay, Emma followed Adam and made it down, but Noah and I were basically stuck on the hill as he tried his very best to do something completely unnatural and so scary.  We were about half of the way down the hill when Leah came around again and, in her loving, patient big sister voice comforted crying Noah and politely but insistently dismissed me to go find Adam while she helped him get down the rest of the way.  Bless that child.

Leah gets ALL the props for the success of the three beginner's day- with her help Noah made it off the run 

and the three of them made their way back over to the bunny hill and had an absolutely delightful time over there for the rest of the evening while Adam and I zipped down the blues and black runs over and over and over again.  I don't want to forget that he put his arm around me on the lift to try to keep me warm, or that he was always happy to go on whichever run I wanted to go on, or that we talked about whether skiing would be a good date to take a girl on.  I just love skiing with him!

We all met up in the lodge for hot cocoa and snacks before heading out again, then skied as long as we could until the freezing cold- 6 degrees!- and the sharp ice that was shooting out of the snow makers drove us back inside for good. 

I am so proud of all of these skiers!  Leah, Emma and Noah took great care of each other (and enjoyed scoping out Brians on the bunny hill!) and the whole experience just made me wish that we were somewhere out west were there are longer runs to enjoy instead of just the one literal down-hill option we've got here in Iowa. But they had fun!

And I'm so grateful that we are a family that can support each other in our strengths and help each other out in our weaknesses.  I'm far from a perfect parent and I'm grateful that I've got kids who can help fill in my many gaps with their strengths. 

Almost as exciting as the skiing was the hard earned and delicious stop at Culvers on the way home.  We were all so tired but were so happy to be together. 

Also, a heart-shaped cheese curd! The perfect symbol of a mostly very happy winter day and memory in the making.

Time Stands Still

When you accidentally punch the ground and your finger pops in a direction it's clearly not intended to go and you have to decide whether a mid-night trip to the ER is in order (it wasn't, thankfully). 

When ice and snow and bald tires make it impossible to get out of the driveway, let alone up the street, so you have to reverse back down the driveway but get stuck even doing that and then you get rescued by a real life Prince Charming. (He even made sure I had fresh new tires on my car within 24 hours!) 

And he dug out a throne for Laney so she could use a patch of grass even when the snow was so deep. 

Look at that snow mountain! And those flying ears.  No time for sniffing around in this weather.

The view out Leah's window was impressive!  And, it turns out, impressively destructive. 

Time stands still when a little spot on the ceiling starts out looking like this- 

and before long looks like this- 

When the ornament you brought back from Mexico didn't make the trip- 

When babies get sick. 

And then more babies get sick.

And then you get sick but really nothing matters because you are too busy resting to care about much of anything at all.

But your babies make you food- thank you Emma and Adam!

And (not pictured) drive other babies around- thank you Leah!

And then dryer breaks and the repairman is back in Mexico so you just can't do laundry even though there has been a stomach bug going around the house. At least it wasn't the washing machine!

So you turn off the lights and light up the candles and just embrace it all.  Because it's such a good life, even when it's a bumpy one.