January 2022

 A new year!  Covid started spiking again with the Omicron variant and made for a very long month.  Our district even did 2 days of online school between a long 3 day weekend to help numbers go down.  Doing online school was a little stressful.  You would think after doing this 2 years ago it wouldn't be a big deal but it was still hard getting all 3 kids to get all their stuff done.  It was easier since all 3 kids now have their own laptops.  It also brought up a lot of memories and feelings of is this starting all over again. Luckily it really was just 2 days and we were all happy when they were able to go back to school.

All the kids got to do some fun things without their parents this month.

Jaron was invited by his friend Graham to the Globetrotters game in a suite.  Jaron loved watching the cook tricks they did and was very impressed by their dunking skills.

The girls got to go skiing with their class during a school day.  We were a bit nervous because the online school days were the 2 days leading up to their scheduled ski trip and we weren't sure if they were going to extend it and they would have to cancel the ski trip.  But they got to go and had a great time.  They even learned how to go up the ski lift and got some good runs in.

Leading up to Christmas Aria started writing notes to Shane and I every. single. night. asking us for a horse or horse lessons for Christmas.  This is the compilation of all the notes I saved.  There were a few more I found after I took this picture.  We are going to give her lessons again but need to wait until it gets a little warmer.  As for buying a horse or miniature horse...not happening much to her dismay.

We've had a lot of deer in our backyard as usual for winter time.  But it was fun to come home one night and see the deer hanging out right next to our driveway.

We have our annual Goold Family Football trophy and as the championship came up we realized that Siena was ahead and had Georgia winning the whole thing but if Alabama were to win it would be a 3 2 way tie between Siena, Aria and Lilly.  We made a fun night out of it with some food, treats and a fun watch party.  Georgia won, which we were all happy about since everyone is sick of Alabama winning, except for Aria who was sad she didn't win.  Siena won the trophy.  We had the trophy presentation during the super bowl this year and now we get the trophy for another year in our home.

The funny thing about the game was that Aria and Siena kept not really watching.  They did wood carving crafts and read their books, barely looking up until the very end.

Jaron had to create an invention for school.  Siena gave him the idea of the Skounter.  A skittle counter, or measurer that helps to put an equal amount of each color skittle into the bag.  It turned out cute and I thought he did a great job with it.

Jaron isn't as much of a fan of reading as the girls are.  But he had to read a fantasy book for his book report this month and I came in to check on him at 11:00pm one night and found him like that.  He said the book had gotten too good to put down and he had just 2 pages left.  I couldn't be too mad as I've done that a lot of time and thought it was cute he was so into his book.

The big event of January was cousin Kali got married to Mason Phelps.  We had showers, temple nights, wedding dinner, wedding and reception.  We are so excited for them and they are so cute together.  It was a fun month celebrating and loved the beautiful reception Jennifer put together where she thought of every, single detail.

December 2021

 I helped with Jaron's activity days activity for December and they made gingerbread houses.  They had fun doing it, the only problem was when they were running around the church while we were setting up, someone opened the cultural hall door right into Jaron's head.  Exact same thing that happened when Aria was little and she had to get stitches.  Luckily Jaron didn't need stitches but he had the hugest goose egg on his forehead from it.

The kids decorated our annual gingerbread house.  I always make them work together and share one house.  It starts off a little tense but always turns into a fun time for them.

Aria played in her school orchestra concert.  She did great and it's fun hearing the songs from the whole orchestra after listening to her practice the songs for a few months at home.

Jaron has been playing indoor soccer since November.  This day he played goalie and really missed Graham being our normal goalie but Jaron has loved indoor soccer and looks forward to every game, even if he has lost every single game.

I took the girls to see Nutcracker that Holland was in one night.  She looked so cute and we loved seeing her in it and my girls loved the dancing and especially the Nutcracker music.

I got to have a girls night out with some girls from our ward to go see West Side Story the movie.  It was a fun night and nice to get out and socialize with some girls from the ward.

It finally started to snow around here.  The kids love playing outside in the snow and this day they built a snow fort.

The kids got to have their Christmas singing program and it's always a fun morning to go see them sing.

I got to help with all 3 kids class parties for Christmas.  For the girl's we played Christmas song pictionary which I think they really liked.  For Jaron's I helped with a breakfast and then helped with a craft.  I forgot to take a picture during Pictionary but here is a picture of all the boys in Jaron's class.

Our annual train set up happened a little earlier this year which was fun because we kept it up for a whole week for the kids to play with.  This is the train from Shane's grandpa and it so fun to see and all the details and how it works.

We also made our traditional gingerbread men and decorated them.  I always like that because then I get to make the gingersnaps out of the rest of the cookie dough.

Our whole family (meaning my side of the family) all met downtown to see the Christmas lights while Christy was in town.  We stopped by Grand America for the huge gingerbread house they make, saw the Macy's candy windows, ate dinner at the food court and saw the lights.  There weren't a lot of them due to the Temple being under construction but they did a cool new nativity cartoon video on the ceiling of the tabernacle which was fun and different to do.

With Christy in town the kids got to have a cousin sleepover at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  They always stay up so late but they love being able to have these sleepovers.

The Pace's came over a couple days before Christmas and watched Polar Express, ate dinner and decorated sugar cookies.  It's always fun having them over cuz all the kids play together.

Christmas Eve was just us and my parents.  We had a pulled pork dinner, decorated sugar cookies and of course acted out the nativity and opened up Christmas Eve presents.  Siena played 2 roles of Angel and sheep.  She was so cute about acting both parts.  The kids got these come back bouncy balls that they love and might be the most played with presents.  It was a fun night at my parents.

Christmas day is always fun.  The kids get up at our agreed upon time of 7:20...which honestly I can't believe they are really good about that and don't come in one minute early.  Jaron got some laser tag guns, the girls got new scooters, we gave them a trip to California in a few weeks.  Aria got some cowboy boots after asking for a horse daily for the last 2 months.  They also each got their own soft big blankets so they won't steal mine anymore.  They love them sleep with them every night!  It was a fun morning.  That afternoon we went to my parents for turkey dinner and everyone got to come this time so it was a great day.

Between Christmas and New Years we took the kids up to Seaquest aquarium.  The kids had fun but Shane and I were stressed because it was sooo crowded and no one was wearing masks and I thought for sure we would get covid but luckily we didn't.  The kids favorite part was feeding the parakeets but it was a fun afternoon and was good to get out of the house and do something.

We often get deer in our yard, especially in the winter but a couple times we've had a deer just camp out in our backyard.  The kids never get sick of seeing deer in our yard and they're fun to watch from the window and often just stare back at us.

We went down to the Pace's for New Years Even.  We ate dinner, played some games and then celebrated New Years around 9:30.  Brigitte even planned a fun balloon drop.  When we got home we had just enough time to get ready for bed, eat some more treats and then stay up until midnight, so we got to celebrate twice.  

We sure hope 2022 is a great year for our family!