January Misc

I bargained with Owen to build my Lego set, the A-Frame Cabin.  I really didn't want to build it.  Alex put together his giant Shackleton boat.  

Savannah went to a birthday party with school friends.  

Owen is practicing driving now... he's been practicing for a couple of months now, so it's not quite as scary anymore.  

Savannah took a little trip to the urgent care and then over to the ER since the urgent care couldn't do lab work and such.  Her stomach and chest were hurting quite a bit, so she got some meds and hydration. She had been puking and had diarrhea for the day, with the pain starting the evening before.  Her hands started getting tingly too, so I think she was starting to overthink what was wrong.  But she did seem to be hurting and also dehydrated since she wasn't keeping things down.  So she needed some attention.  They're not quick about anything at either place though.  We spent about 5.5 hours on the whole process, and she didn't really receive any care until about 4 hours in. She got to experience getting an IV and laying in a bed with a blood pressure armband that goes off randomly.  I told her it was preparing her for pregnancy later on!  The guy putting the IV in did a good job.  The guy taking it out... not so much.  He pulled it out and it started squirting fluid and blood out of it.  He looked at her arm and said, "Oh wow! That's a lot of blood!" as he's scrambling to get more bandages to stop the bleeding.  I'm pretty sure that's not very cool when dealing with a patient, especially a child.  Luckily Savannah wasn't too shocked seeing all the blood coming out of her arm.  The lab work was fine - just a stomach virus I guess.  She was able to sleep well that night at least.

Last photo is of Weston hanging out with friends.  He's quite the social guy recently.  He has his own little "nerd herd" (Alex's school friends were called that when he was in high school.)

 

January Band Concert

The band got invited to play at a city council meeting, so that's what the first photo is from. Weston had another band concert, and this time he tried out a solo.  I don't think it went as well as he hoped, but I'm glad he tried it out.  He was having fun.  If you look closely, he does a little head bob right before his solo.  Weston had a little fan club there, with about 5 friends from church who attended (no picture because they left too quickly after the concert).  I think Weston's solo was in the song "Evening Stroll" (as part of the jazz band songs).  He played in the advanced and jazz band pieces.  The first video is just some clips from the concert, and Weston's solo is in the 2nd video.

Golden Birthday

I didn't even realize what a golden birthday was until when we were planning Jared's party last year (we had 2 golden birthdays in one year). We were too busy to have a party in December, but we finally got to celebrate this month.  Owen didn't really want a party, but I insisted since it was his golden and 16th birthday.  We really had to celebrate.  His guest list was pretty big, so we used the church gym again.  We had a nice turn-out, with 13 guests.  I think it was the first time that one of our boys had just as many girls as guys at the party!  

We did a taco bar, which was really yummy (and not too hard for a big group).  We actually had a lot of leftovers, so we were eating tacos for a few days after the party.  Drinks were an apple juice and Sprite mixture, which made a nice gold colored drink, but looked like beer in the pitchers! 😄

All the decor was gold, which looks really pretty for a party.  I put together the table centerpieces for $7.50 total, using some sparkly gold paper and gold containers from the $1 store.  I already had gold stars. I ordered gold tablecloths and utensils. We had gold cupcakes, which were easy.  The downside of parties at the church is that no open flames are allowed, so we had to step outside to sing to Owen.  The gift favors were bags of a variety of gold-packaged chocolates.  

The games... I had some fun things planned, but it turns out that teenagers mostly just need food and chatting.  It was a bit like herding cats to get them to do anything.  We eventually did about half of the things I planned.  I brought out the candy nerf gun board that we had used in a couple of other parties, but they quickly lost interest in that one.  Instead of doing the candy game, they started volleying a bouncy ball around - probably could have done that for a while.  They did a memory game that I made using pictures of Owen.  They actually liked that one more than I thought they would, since it was fun to see the pictures of little Owen.  It was pretty challenging though, because I made enough matches for 2 different sets, which each had 36 matches (meaning there were 72 cards out on each table).  I had them divide into 2 teams and then race against the other team to see who could make all the matches first.  They were able to help each other, but it still took some time to make progress with that many cards. They also played Pictionary and Reverse Charades for about 30 minutes.  

The kids don't really know how much time I put into these parties, so they probably don't appreciate the efforts, but hopefully they end up with some good memories.  It was pretty exhausting, but I'm glad we were able to celebrate Owen.  He's a great "kid" and deserves for us to make a fuss over him every now and then. I'll share the photo pages I used to make the memory game.  Pretty cute kid!

 

Temple Trips

The week of January 6th was the start of the wildfires in LA, which were devastating.  We had a temple trip scheduled for the youth on Saturday the 11th.  Many parents were concerned about driving to the temple that weekend, so the youth trip was cancelled.  However, as a family we still felt like we needed to go.  The temple was still open and we weren't discouraged from coming, so we made the drive over.  We did drive through some areas that were getting evacuation warnings, so that was a little scary.  When we got closer to the temple, we started seeing all the exits closed.  The one we usually get off on to get to the temple was also closed, so we weren't sure if we would make it.  However, we did get onto another freeway and came in a different route.  It was cool to see us coming directly to the front of the temple.  The air quality wasn't too bad, but we could see ash on the temple grounds.  

Shortly after arriving at the temple, we realized why we felt like we needed to be there that morning.  A lady had been waiting for over 2 hours for someone to come in and help her do some family names.  She had 10 names that seemed to be really special to her.  The spirit was really strong as we watched Owen baptize her, with tears streaming down her face.  Alex noticed that some of her family names were from Ecuador, so that was a bonus connection.  Owen baptized Weston and Savannah as well, doing a total of 44 names.  One other touching thing we learned from that weekend was that only 1 other group kept their temple baptismal appointment that day.  It was the youth of the Pacific Palisades Ward!  They had just lost 22 homes in their ward from the fire earlier in the week, but they still came to the temple that Saturday afternoon. That's amazing!

Our youth were able to re-schedule their temple trip to a couple weeks later, so Savannah was able to go again.  (Owen and Weston were sick that weekend.)   

 

Youth Activities

The youth did some cool things in January.  They did a car wash and bake sale to earn money to donate towards the wildfire victims.  They washed cars for 4 hours and raised $10,000!  The families of primary children donated baked goods.  (The only picture I saw from the event was my friend's picture on Instragram, so I snagged it.)  

They did another activity that involved some Fear Factor type games, along with a hike.  Weston wasn't allowed to eat the sardines apparently for one of the challenges, since he actually likes them.  

The young women painted the cover of scriptures one night.  I love Savannah's design.  

The youth had a night where they learned some Brazilian capoeira - a combination of martial arts, music, and acrobatics.  They learned some kicks and maneuvers and different stretches.  

 

21st Birthday

We celebrated Nathan's birthday a little early since he had to be back at BYU before his birthday. We had some apple pie and opened a few presents - nothing too exciting!  I chatted with him a bit on his birthday, which also was apparently not that exciting.  He had tried to use a Chick-Fil-A gift card that he got for Christmas at the restaurant on campus, but they wouldn't take it.  (I noted for future reference that the on-campus restaurants don't accept gift cards.)  He also was pretty busy with work and classes, so it was just business as usual on his birthday.  

 

OKC Thunder Game

One of Nathan's Christmas presents was tickets to an OKC Thunder vs Clippers game on Thursday January 2nd.  After we left Papa John and Grandma's house, we headed to OKC.  We stayed downtown that night right near the Paycom Center.  We were able to walk to the game from our hotel.  The kids swam in the pool and then we ate dinner at Fuzzy's Taco Shop before the game.  It was pretty cool to be at the game, with all the lights and entertainment and game vibe.  Thunder was down in the first half, but they picked it up in the 2nd half and won the game 116-98. 

OK Misc

When we travel to OK, we can count on doing certain things - eating pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs, and chips, watching movies and eating lots of homemade popcorn, shooting guns, checking out Papa John's gadgets, and eating Braum's ice cream.  Buster the dog is always a hoot as well.  One of the new things for this trip was firing the cannon.  It's small but still really loud.  We had beautiful weather while there, so the kids were even playing frisbee one day.  We also looked at the sun through a special telescope.

I appreciate being able to just relax - read a book, catch up on blogging, 5-mile morning jogs down the country road, and sipping on hot chocolate topped with a marshmallow peep.  I ate way too much junk food too! Alex and the kids discovered the Dollar General store this trip, which had Lego mini figures.  They're supposed to be surprise figures, but Alex and Owen know the Legos well enough to feel the figure through the bag and know which one they're getting.  They were pretty excited about their Lego finds.  I also get excited about shopping at Wal-Mart.

We stayed through New Years, so we got to ring in 2025 in OK.  On the way out, it was fitting that we stopped for (I think) the 5th outing to Braum's.  Owen mentioned how it would be cool to have one of the Braum's hats that he saw the employees wearing.  We didn't think they'd have any for sale, but upon asking, we found out they were $2.77 each!  We ended up buying 4 Braum's hats.  Alex wasn't going to get one at first, but he decided to go back in and get one. Maybe I should have bought one too, since mine and Alex's first date was to Braum's.  True Braum's fans! 😊

 

50th Temple and Friend Reunions

We went to the Bentonville Arkansas Temple and did work there as a family early Saturday morning.  My good college friend and roommate (Jerushia) met us there and we had breakfast afterwards.  It was good to catch up with her.  We also got to meet up with Alex's mission buddy Jared and his family when we returned the rental car.  We hadn't seen Jared and Ann Marie for about 23 years.  It was great to see them too.  

Bentonville Temple was Alex and my 50th new temple together!

At their wedding in 2000

Christmas in OK

We spent Christmas in Oklahoma with Alex's parents.  Aunt Jane joined us for a couple days as well.  We traveled there in a 2024 Honda Odyssey, which was a nice ride (although not much space for luggage).  A few days before travel, we realized that our suburban wasn't going to make the long trip.  We almost bought a minivan, but then we decided to do a one-way rental.  We had to leave the dog with friends since we were short on space.  We weren't sure how we were getting back, but we ended up buying a 2006 truck from Alex's parents.  

We arrived on Christmas Eve, so our first day in OK was Christmas Day. I made cinnamon rolls for breakfast and potato casserole for dinner.  We also had pie, sugar cookies, and M&M cookies.  We leisurely woke up and did presents (no early morning present opening anymore).  It was fun to watch Alex's mom open her presents, which happened to be goat-themed.  We gave her goat Legos, a screaming goat, and a book of goat quotes.  Weston got his Charmin toilet paper.  There were plenty of Legos gifted - it's funny to watch Weston open them because he always gives the box a shake before opening.  I think Nathan got a couple of the best presents.  We got tickets for the OKC Thunder basketball game vs. the Clippers.  I also gave him a book of his mission, which I had been putting together throughout his mission. 

Christmas in CA

Since we traveled to OK for Christmas, we did some of our Christmas festivities before we left so we wouldn't have to take as much stuff with us.  We opened presents from Baba and Papa and a few larger presents.  Alex got the giant boat Lego from his parents, which he knew what it was before he opened it.  I opened a Vitamix blender, which we labeled as "From Alex", even though I bought it and Owen wrapped it up.  It was funny watching Alex's reaction to what he got me! Alex and the kids bought me a Lego set, which I didn't want... but I had mentioned was pretty cool after spending an hour waiting around in the Lego store with the kids last year. I guess I shouldn't have said anything because then they thought I wanted the set.  They keep trying to convert me to being a Lego lover, but I'm resistant.

We did our traditional candlelight singing.  I recorded one of the songs so we could send it to Jared.  Nathan sang the first verse of Silent Night in Spanish, which was one of the highlights of my Christmas season.  It was fun to sing together, especially since they're more active participants in singing now. We missed Jared, but it was nice to have Nathan back with us.  He arrived home a few days prior with his friend Shawn who picked up Nathan on his way from BYU-Idaho.  It was nice he could catch a ride home from college.

December Birthdays

 We had more fun in December (and busy-ness) with Owen and Savannah's birthdays.  We did cake and presents the night before Owen's birthday, since Alex and Weston headed on their camping trip on Owen's birthday.  The trick candles were fun on the cake.  We did do birthday breakfast on Monday morning before Savannah left for school and the boys left for camping. Owen wanted hashbrown waffles, so that was a new thing to try out.  They didn't turn out bad, but I'm not sure I love eating potatoes with Chick-Fil-A sauce for breakfast. Owen had BB practice in the afternoon, but we did get to eat pizza and watch Wicked in the movie theater the evening of his birthday.  A few of our friends happened to be there at the movie too.  We will probably do a friend party sometime in January to celebrate his sweet sixteen.

Savannah turned 12 this year!  We had pancakes, bacon, eggs, and strawberry smoothies for breakfast.  She had to go to school on her birthday, but I dropped off Wendy's for her lunch.  She got invited to a friend pizza and movie night that happened to be on her birthday, so she decided to go to that instead of hanging out with family.  We went out to eat the next night. 

She got some make up for her birthday, Owen's old phone, and Alex bought a Durham sweatshirt for her on his recent trip to Scotland.  She was pretty excited about that.  She got a special gift this year - a Bear Bear book, with 10 years of photos with her pink stuffed bear that she's had since she was a baby. That was one of my projects for November.  It turned out pretty cute, but the page describing the book actually made me get a little emotional.  She's had that bear since day one, and it's gone so many places with her.  Although she still sleeps with it, she doesn't cart it around anymore.  It's sort of the end of a season for her - goodbye to childhood and hello to pre-teen / teenager!  

Here's the last page, which I think is pretty cute!

The first page, explaining the book:

Some others - hard to choose just a few - I love them all!