17 years

 

He's 17 years old! I posted this on FB: We’re a little tired of our small family celebrations, but what can you do? He got his requested meals - bacon and eggs for breakfast, leftover stroganoff for lunch, stuffed peppers for dinner, and apple pie and Dr. Pepper floats for dessert. He was smart in getting 2 of his favorite meals by requesting stroganoff for lunch. That means I had to fix stroganoff for dinner on Friday. He got his main present back in December, a weight bench, because he wanted to start working out early for basketball season (if it ever happens)... he did get some snacks and the game “Cover your Assets”. We had fun playing that yesterday, and some of them watched “Jurassic World” (too gruesome for Savannah and me). Some friends brought over some cake for him too.

Happy birthday Nathan! We love you.

He finally got his driver's license about a month ago.  He had to wait to complete the required in-person driver's training that got shut down due to Covid.  He was able to finish those up this fall and get in for the test.  We tease him about the driver's test, because he failed the first time for driving too SLOW.  Apparently, he was driving more than 10 miles under the speed limit on one stretch.  He said it was because a person crossed the street in front of him and he obviously slowed down to let them pass.  But then he didn't get back up to speed.  He did everything else right.  I've never heard of anyone failing for driving too slow though.  He is cautious; I noticed that when he was driving with us.  But I'm glad he's more cautious than the other way around.  I always knew he'd be more cautious about driving.  We'll see about Jared - I've always thought he was less observant and more adventuresome. Anyway, Nathan can drive by himself and now has no excuse not to get a job.  That's next up on his list... time to get a job!   (But wow.  The car insurance is expensive!)

2020 blessings

 I posted this on FaceBook.  

2020: It’s been quite a year... lots of hard times, events cancelled, restrictions, sickness and lives lost, jobs lost and economic hardship, isolation, depression, political division, rioting, violence, and protests... there was a lot of darkness.

But I was thinking back on all the good things that happened this year for our family. It’s quite a list. Here are some of them:

- Owen received the Aaronic Priesthood and went to do temple work for the first time. We did work for Alex's brother and grandparents

- Alex and I gave talks in church in January and February on finding light and truth, tender mercies of the Lord, the Savior’s love, and answered prayers (both talks of which were good spiritual preparation for the hard times to shortly follow)

- We had many spiritual experiences with home church - sharing talks, testimonies, singing, and sacrament

- Read “Saints” volume 1 as a family and started volume 2

- Lots of family time; games and movies (watched Poldark, Anne with an E, Agents of Shield, all of the Marvel movies, Mandalorian, and Last Man Standing)

- 8 backpacking and camping trips, including our 1st ever family backpacking trip

- Family kickball

- Consistent running in the morning (all of us)

- No driving to early morning seminary (switched to online); got to listen to Nathan and Jared diligently singing their hymn before their personal study

- Nathan and Jared did some cooking this year

- Break from sports and busyness

- More time to play the piano, work in the yard, and other projects (typed 102 pages of Alex’s mission journal, finished our 10-20 years marriage book, and started my own personal history book)

- Stayed up-to-date on all news and politics this year

- Spent 3 weeks in TX and 1 week in UT with family

- Savannah and Weston learned to swim

- Nathan got his driver’s license

- Alex and I celebrated our 20th anniversary in Monterey, CA without kids

- Home School - flexible, no stress getting out the door in the mornings

- Scripture study before school and journal writing

- No sickness in our family this year

- 3 baptisms in our family (niece, nephew, and Savannah)

- 1 niece born in November

- Fasting and prayers answered on my parents behalf, which they had been waiting a long time for

There was still a lot of light amidst the darkness this year. Make your own list and count your blessings!

I also posted about some of our favorite things for the year:

Alex: backpacking trips

Annie: Church talks at home and with family this summer

Nathan: tubing on the lake and getting his driver’s license

Jared: tubing and spending time with family this summer

Owen: Our 1st ever family backpacking trip

Weston: steak on his birthday and his swimming party

Savannah: delivering cookies, swimming in the pool this summer and wiggle car down the driveway

Utah

We headed to Utah the day after Christmas to visit my sister Alison and her family.  We hadn't seen them in 3.5 years!  I guess I saw Alison at GG's funeral in May 2018, but the last time our families got together was in summer 2017 on our way to England.  It was great to spend some time with them and meet my new niece Eden.  I think all the kids, except maybe Jared, held her at some point.  Weston was the "lucky" one and was holding her when she filled her diaper.  He said, "Ummm... a weird noise just came out of her butt."   

We all enjoyed Kobe, the dog, and their 3 cats as well.  The kids couldn't stop talking about Timmy, Alex, and Jote.  The older orange cat is a great lap cat, and the younger cats are playful and a little ornery.   

We did a lot of just hanging out, but got out a couple of days on the 4 wheeler and to go shopping.  There was a great sale on suits and dress shirts, so we stocked up on some new church clothes.  

The kids were excited to see snow, since we never see that in CA!  It was cold, but fun to ride the 4 wheeler around in the snow.  

We celebrated New Year's there.  Alison made some jello "shots".  We had plenty of soda, cake, ice cream, and junk food too.  Several of the neighbors were shooting off fireworks.  Grateful to put 2020 behind us and see what 2021 will bring! 

On the way home, we had to stop by the county line and snap a picture.  Alex took a picture there as a missionary back in 1997-98.  Obviously there's a new sign, but should be the same spot! 

Oh, and guess where Kai was for the week?  In Las Vegas! We dropped her off at a PetsMart on the way.  I think she was glad to see us, but maybe she had a good time in Vegas with some other "abandoned" pets.    

Savannah's baptism

I took some photos of Savannah prior to her baptism.  I also put together this photo combination with Savannah in her blessing dress when she was 3 months old.  

We ended up doing her baptism in Utah when we visited my sister.  Baptismal fonts aren't available here in CA right now, due to covid restrictions, so it was nice to not have to get baptized in the cold ocean.  We got permission to livestream the baptism on FaceBook, but when we got to the church, we couldn't get any internet service at all.  We couldn't even send out a text message or email.  So unfortunately, all the family and friends waiting to watch didn't get to see it.  We would have loved to share the occasion, but the most important thing was the baptismal ordinance.  We had a nice small service with our family and my sister's family.    

I gave her this necklace as a gift.  Hopefully, she'll think of her baptism and the promises made when she wears it.  

I played the piano, Alison and Micah led the music, Jared gave the opening prayer, Owen and Nathan gave talks, and Alex performed the baptism and confirmation.  Savannah, Dallin, and Emmy sang a musical number "I Will Follow God's Plan for Me" and I gave the closing prayer.  Our opening and closing songs were "When I am Baptized" and "I am a Child of God."  

I made this little video for her baptism - enjoy!

I recorded the musical number as well, a couple of times after we got home.  The sound went in and out on my phone.  We did a couple times on Alex's phone.  This was the best we got.  The file was also too large, so I tried to trim it.  You might have to turn the volume all the way up to hear it.  They really sounded cute together.  

 

Christmas 2020

We did our traditional candlelight singing on Christmas Eve.  We may not sound very good, but I love the tradition.  We all try to sing anyway.  I did sugar cookies instead of cupcakes this year.  I think I might stick with that since we get a lot of cake with the birthdays.  The kids also got to open socks - yay socks!  And we got Season 1 of The Chosen.  

The presents are a little embarrassing to post, particularly since they got SO many LEGOS.  That's all Owen got, and he's carrying a stack of EIGHT Lego sets!  I think everyone was pretty happy.  

I made breakfast casserole for brunch, and we had an early dinner outside with our friends.

Kai even got a toy.  I tried to play fetch with her, but she didn't figure out how to bring it back.  She got the fetch part, but then ran off and left it for me to fetch and throw again.  I guess she was training me... 

Weston and Owen got some new shirts in their stocking.  They love them, and Weston wants to wear his pig shirt every day... 

 

Snickerdoodles

 

189 snickerdoodles!  That's how many I made to deliver to friends, church teachers, and neighbors.  We also made about 60 more cookies or brownies, because we needed about 250 total.  It was fun making deliveries with our whole family, looking at Christmas lights and listening to Christmas music along the way.  It did take about 2 hours to make all the deliveries though! Some of them were spread out on different sides of the town.   

December birthdays

 Owen turned 12 and Savannah turned 8 this year.  I can hardly believe how quickly they're growing up.  Owen's main present was one big Lego set, along with a hand-me-down cell phone.  Savannah also got several Legos this year, for birthday and Christmas. She now enjoys them just as much as her brothers (unfortunately for me... since I feel like we already have TOO many Legos...).  Savannah had 2 friends bring over a present for her.  She got a Lego Nasa set and a teddy bear.  She loves them!

We didn't do any friend parties due to Covid, so we just had small family celebrations at home.  They got their requested meals and cake.  Owen was really sweet about helping make his breakfast.  It's the first time anyone has offered to help me fix their own birthday breakfast.  He made the omelettes, and I did the bacon and french toast.  He wanted scalloped potatoes, Caesar salad, and rolls for dinner, with ice cream cake for dessert.  We watched the movie "Safety".  

Savannah wanted bacon, eggs, pancakes, and smoothies for breakfast.  She actually wanted canned beef stew and rice for dinner (I don't know why they like the canned stuff so much).  She wanted a chocolate cake with pink frosting for dessert.  She got a pretty blue dress for her birthday, which she wore to church that day.  Baba found a picture of Savannah in a blue dress when she was 2 years old and put together a cute side by side picture of then and now (I added the words).  She is a beautiful girl!  I took some pictures for her baptism program that day as well, and I told Alex he better have a plan for keeping the boys away!