Fathers Day

 I made waffles, omelets, and bacon for Father's Day breakfast.  We had sweet & sour chicken for dinner and M&M cookies for dessert.  We had a nice day at church, with pie and ice cream after church.  Savannah made a nice card for Alex.  He also got some snacks and chocolate.

My Heart Sings

I posted this video on Facebook for Mother's Day with this message: 

"I got a tribute put together for some special moms in my life. I know Heavenly Father loves me because He put these beautiful and amazing people in my life. My heart sings when I think of all of them and where we started and where our journey is taking us!"

I got a lot of chocolate for Mother's Day. Nathan even sent some via Instacart delivery.  Owen bought Legos for me.  Alex did the meals - German pancakes, BLT's, sweet potato fries, and cake.  We had lunch during the 2nd hour at church and ice cream with the whole ward after church.  I got to chat with Jared for about 15 minutes.

Easter

We did the usual egg dying, Easter baskets, and sugar cookies. General Conference was on Easter this year, so we got to be at home and listen to messages while sitting on our couch.  I enjoyed all the messages and noticed that several of the speakers mentioned the phrase, "Jesus is the way."  What's interesting about that is I had made an Easter card for Jared and Nathan about a week before Easter and conference.  I was trying to decide what quote or phrase to put on the card.  I thought, 

"What message would be one of the most important right now?"  I decided on, "Jesus Christ is not our last chance.  He is our only chance.  He will show us the way because He is the way."  And then when several conference talks mentioned that same phrase, it was a little confirmation that I had picked a good one (out of many possible good phrases of course). My favorite talk was by Emily Freeman "Best Days and Worst Days".  I like how she used the example of Peter:  

"History could suggest that Peter was a man who tried to stand in the way of the Father’s plan, who nearly drowned because of lack of faith, and who denied knowing the Savior three times—and that would be true. But it is also true that Peter walked on water, he was the first Apostle to bear witness that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and he was given priesthood keys to preside over the Lord’s Church. And maybe it took both the worst days and the best days for Peter to become who the Lord needed him to become."
 

We all have best and worst days, but we need both to become who God wants us to be. 

The picture of us dressed up is from Palm Sunday.  Savannah, Owen, and I sang in the choir. We had one set of missionaries from our ward over for dinner, along with a few other friends. We had scalloped potatoes, ham, rolls, green beans, salad, fruit, mini cheesecakes, Twix cheesecake bars, and sugar cookies.  The food was great and the weather was perfect for eating outside.

 

March Misc

 We did our festive green dinner, cookies, and cereal with green milk for St. Patrick's Day.  

We went to a birthday / farewell party for our friends (and Owen's boss).  Sad to say good-bye to them!

Savannah had a big school social studies project and presentation that they had spent a lot of time researching and preparing for.  Their group had to paint a backdrop, dress up in simple costume, and then do a history presentation with interactive visuals.  They talked to elementary school kids and showed them how to make "mochi", although it wasn't real mochi (so not edible).

I snapped a picture on my jog at the harbor one morning.  

Owen did a prom-posal and she said "yes!"  He got a date to prom (and her dad even filmed Owen asking).  Owen plays volleyball with the dad, so he already knows and likes Owen.  

Weston had a fun day hanging out with friends.

We weren't able to go anywhere for Spring Break this year, but we did go out to eat at Chili's one evening. Alex and I biked to the beach one morning - a little less than 6 miles there.  On the way home, less than 1/2 mile in, my bike tire went completely flat.  Alex had to bike back on his own and rescue me with the truck.

Savannah had a fun camp-out one night, including petting a horse, swimming, and the usual campfire and such. 

February

Alex got home from New Zealand just in time for dinner on Valentine's Day.  We had roast, potatoes, carrots, rolls, jello with strawberries and whipped cream, lemonade raspberry sherbet drinks, and chocolate pie.  I gave the kids some of their favorite candy.  Alex brought back a pearl necklace that he gave to me.  

I taught youth Sunday School on the 15th, which was on Noah's ark.  I thought it would be nice to take treats that also coordinated with the lesson theme.  I found some cool looking rainbow jello cookies online and thought they'd be fun.  However... they didn't turn out anything like the online photos!  We had a good laugh about it.  Nailed it... I made some other cookies but let them try the rainbow ones if they wanted to.  The jello gave them a tangy flavor, which reminded me of Nerds candy or those sugar straws.  

I went to an activity with the church ladies, a "Galentines" dinner, which was fun.

Owen, Weston, and Savannah went to a church dance on the 7th of February.  It was Savannah's first dance (since she needed to be turning 14 this year to go).  She had her brothers watching her closely.  They snapped a couple pictures of her.    

The random photos:  Savannah made pie and Weston had "a little bit" of ice cream with it.  He also was being silly with his glasses.  I made cinnamon rolls, eggs, and bacon for a birthday breakfast for one of our friends, Becca, who comes over on Tuesday and Thursday mornings after seminary.  Owen did "valograms" one day at school, singing in small groups with other members of the choir.  They sang to people who had been gifted a song and treat, paid for by family or friends.  In this photo, they sang to one of the teachers.

Alex and I got our monthly temple visit in.  I helped decorate and make a cake for an Institute night celebrating 100 years of the program.  We had pizza and salad, along with cake, and listened to a broadcast of Elder Kearon (Quorum of the 12) and his wife.

I've been enjoying my Saturday morning jogs along the coast. I've been jogging about 4-5 miles (walking a little bit).  I took a few pics one morning.

Nathan has been having fun, enjoying sports and a little more social this semester.  His roommate Devan posted an Instagram photo with them and a group of girls.  I don't know what a Roblox Meet up is... I think they were just going out for dinner / ice cream though. We spotted Nathan at a BYU volleyball game and a basketball game.  He had pretty good seats for a couple games, thanks to one of his friends inviting him to use one of their "VIP" seats.

Happy New Year!

We didn't do much to celebrate the New Year.  We had chocolate pie and Martinelli's and watched TV.

Good-bye 2025 and hello 2026!

 

Christmas 2025

Nathan arrived home on December 20th. My parents arrived on December 23rd.  By the time they arrived, it was raining and some of us were a little sick... We were all still pretty functional though.  Some of us did caroling and treat deliveries in the rain on Christmas Eve.  We also did our traditional candlelight Christmas singing and reading the Christmas story, with chocolate loaf cake for dessert.  

We had a nice Christmas morning.  With teenagers, there was no early rising, so we eventually opened presents and had cinnamon rolls, eggs, and bacon for brunch.  We also got to chat with Jared.  He was playing a board game.   

We had potato casserole, green bean casserole, ham, rolls, and Martinelli's for dinner.  My mom made cherry pie, which was delicious.  

The day after Christmas, Mike, Carrie, Nick, and Ryan joined us for a couple days.  We enjoyed hanging out on Friday evening.  We sort of all did our own thing during the morning and afternoon on Saturday (walk, chocolate making, football game).  I enjoyed watching BYU beat Georgia Tech in the Bowl Game. We all went out together on Saturday evening to wander around the harbor and then out to eat. We went to church together on Sunday morning. Mike and Carrie headed out after lunch. My parents left on Monday morning.  We didn't get out much because of the rain, but I actually enjoyed hanging out at home.  The boys enjoyed playing Pinochle with my parents.  We also put together our new puzzle of us in the M&M shirts.  We watched a couple of movies and also some old videos of the kids.  We had ice cream, cookies, pie, and yummy food.  Owen was supposed to be playing in a couple of basketball tournament games on Friday and Saturday, but I guess it was okay that he wasn't feeling well enough to play.  That meant we all got to hang out together instead of going to BB games.  He did play in the games on Monday and Tuesday, so Nathan got to drop my parents off at the airport.  It was nice to see everyone and have Christmas guests at our home.

Busy December

December is always a busy month!  This one was even more busy with me starting a job and working about 33 hours before Christmas.  We also had family coming in for Christmas, so I had extra stuff to do to prepare for them.  We celebrated Owen and Savannah's birthdays.  Owen wanted more Legos, and I also got him a few clothes and such, which he didn't ask for. 

Savannah DID want clothes and shoes.  I didn't think I could pick out shoes for her, but I got her a whole box of clothes (many from the thrift store).  She also got a necklace, money, and some other lotion and stuff.  We had a friend party for her later in January because December was too busy.

We had choir concerts at school and church and singing at a local retirement home.  Alex and I did our monthly temple visit. We had youth activities (gingerbread houses and white elephant party) and ward Christmas party. We still had quite a few basketball games (although we missed some due to sickness).  We sent out Christmas cards and letters and delivered treats and gifts to local friends.  I made several chocolate loaves and snickerdoodles (not sure how many this year - we delivered on 4 different days). We also delivered some blankets this year. 

Here was our Christmas card this year.  Our letter highlighted our 25 years of marriage.  

Here is the gift Owen got at the white elephant party:

Nathan's Thanksgiving

This should have been on the end of the Thanksgiving post.  Nathan decided not to make the drive home for Thanksgiving - long drive to just be here a couple of days and the flights were too expensive at the last minute.  He joined Alison and Micah for Thanksgiving dinner.  I never saw any pictures from that, but here are a few pictures from the weekend.  A few of them came and saw Nathan's place and took him out to dinner (with Micah's brother).  The second photo is one that Nathan sent me, which was from a social event on Sunday evening.  Nathan ran into one of the sons of one of the families that we had Thanksgiving dinner with.  They hadn't met before but found out from conversation who their families were.  Nathan had been getting rides from this guy's brother every week to go to the Orem Temple last year. Now he knows two of the brothers in this family, and this one was just a random meeting at a social event. 

 We appreciate Alison and Micah taking care of our college kid! 

 

November 2025

 I forgot about some of our other fall financial woes...  I was really worried about our finances this fall, particularly after our Utah housing situation, which had prompted me to apply for a job (more about that in another post). We paid $6000 in September to install a window well on the basement of the Utah house.  In October, we paid $500 for just one portion of our shared backyard fence to be done. Both little cars are having issues. The blue car leaks radiator fluid, somewhere inside the system, so our current solution just involves re-filling the fluid (cheaper to keep doing that than pay much more to diagnose and fix inside the system).  We also decided to pay $1100 to fix the radiator and oil seal on the little car and try to extend its life a little longer. It doesn't start smoking while driving it now.  However, the engine light still comes on sometimes, so it's not a reliable long-distance car anymore.  We take the blue car to sporting events and the temple (when we can just fill up the fluid before we go.)  Our truck is the most reliable vehicle for trips longer than a few hours, but it guzzles gas the most out of the vehicles.

 We had an interesting experience with the little car one Wednesday evening. On the way to the youth activity at the church, it started having issues - with the radio and things turning on and off.  By the time I got to the church, turned it off, and then tried to start it again, it was dead.  By the time Alex checked on it later, it started and seemed to be fine.  I decided to drive home in that car with the kids after the activity.  We had just turned at a light and started to get on the freeway when it shut down again.  I managed to get as far to the right as possible, but we were just by the guardrail and very close to the freeway.  I called Alex, but in waiting for him, cars and trucks were flying by. I didn't even have lights or hazards lights, so I was worried that cars wouldn't see us sitting there.  I called for an officer to come park behind us with their lights.  They arrived before Alex and were able to jump start the battery.  (Somehow it was dead after just recently replacing it).  Alex arrived as they were giving the car a jump.  We were going to head out, but I decided that Alex should drive the car having issues.  The kids and I traded cars.  Meanwhile, Alex took off down the freeway but quickly noticed that the car was still having issues.  He made it up to the top of the hill of our freeway exit, and despite not having power anymore, he decided to try to turn and coast down the hill.  I don't know what he was thinking, but he managed to guide it down the hill and into the grocery store parking lot without power (also losing the power steering)!  He had a pretty good adrenaline rush from accomplishing that feat.  

  We thought about paying to have all our ducts and vents cleaned out before we turned the heater on, but the estimate was $1200, so Alex tried to clean those on his own. I don't think we turned the heater on until the second week of December... We had family coming for Christmas, so we also bought a new mattress for the "guest room" (Savannah's room).  I'm not sure how comfortable the new one actually is - it seems pretty firm, but it's probably better than the old one.  This fall wasn't easy on our finances. Somehow the extra expenses just kept coming.  Anyway, getting invited to 3 different friend's houses for dinner the first weekend in November was a blessing, although they had no idea about our financial woes.   

In more happy updates, Owen got asked to a dance by our friend Eliza with a creative Star Wars poster, so he responded with a light saber message.  They had a picnic dinner beforehand (inside, because of rain). They got out of the original roller skating part of the activity as well, which was good because Owen injured his ankle just a couple days before.  He was able to dance a little bit and had a good time.

Alex and I went on a short hike one Saturday between Owen's basketball tournament games and Weston's band competition.  Another Saturday, we went to the Redlands Temple between Weston's band competition and the awards ceremony.

We played a little bit of board games, Savannah and I went on a bike ride, and the kids decided to start doing planks in the evening before bed.  Alex joins them sometimes.  

The youth did an activity with all the kids from the surrounding wards (stake activity), where they dressed in clothes for Jesus' time period and sat on the floor to eat dinner.  It was a "Friendsgiving Feast".  They each got little mini oil lamps and sang some songs.  I wasn't there, but I heard it was a great activity.  

We decorated our tree before Thanksgiving this year.  It just seemed like we should have it up longer.  We spent Thanksgiving with a couple other families.  We had to drive about an hour to get to their house this year, since they moved.  We had a great meal, and they fed the missionaries and invited some other friends as well. I don't have pics of everyone who attended, but it was a big feast.  We all contributed.  We brought fried chicken drumsticks, green bean casserole, rolls, apple and key lime pie.    

October Misc

It hasn't rained much this year, but one day we got a random hail storm.  The little ice pellets looked like snow on the ground as they piled in one spot as they fell off the roof.  

Owen and Weston had their first choir concert.  

Savannah painted some poster boards for one of the booths at a youth activity.  Our friend Nathan came home from his 2-year mission to Columbia.  We got to help welcome him home.  

We went to a Halloween party at a friend's house.  At the last minute, we decided to wear simple M&M costumes.  Owen taped the M's on different colored shirts.  

4th of July

We started the 4th of July with a pancake breakfast at the church.  They did a bike parade for the little kids with the bigger kids blowing bubbles. Later, we hosted a BBQ at our house for 22 people. Savannah and I made several apple pies again. We made 8 pies to deliver to people on Thursday.  I made 3 more pies on the 4th (using apples from our tree).  I never took pictures of any of the people at our BBQ... but we had a good time and the food was yummy.  We made it just in time to catch the city fireworks after our BBQ.