March 2019

The kids have finally learned how to build a Snowman by themselves.  And they are much better at it than I am.  I was impressed they built this all by themselves and that it's as tall as them.  They lucked out with the perfect type of snow that day.



Aria got new glasses.  I love these cute new purple ones. When she picked out the 2nd pair, little did we know she had picked out a pair that was called Aria.



The kids are getting much better and more elaborate in building their Leprechaun Traps.



The Secret Leprechaun never disappoints and the kids count down the days until he comes.  On the day of they check the door non-stop hoping to catch him in the act.  This year St Patrick's day fell on a Sunday and they were sure he was going to come while we were at church.  But he waited and they were so excited.



For St Patrick's day I served a Green dinner with Corn Beef hash, which the kids actually liked, green jello, pickles and green onion pringles in a green can.  We had green Popsicles for dessert.



I had to take a trip to St Paul for work one week.  Shane did a great job being super dad while I was gone and I had a good trip.  I got to tour 3M's innovation center there and sat in a real bobsled used in the Olympics.  3M also has these vending machines that you can get a new laptop, mouse pad, earphones, etc. all for work.  Rose and I were pretty excited to try it out.



 

We used our reading pass to get into the zoo one day. We hadn't been there in a couple years so it was super fun to walk around and see all the animals.  And we were happy it wasn't too cold either.  I think the highlight is still the carousel though.

February 2019

The Girls room needed a pick me up so we ordered and put these cute pink polka dot decals on their wall and got them new bookcases.  I think it turned out super cute and even if they still don't keep their room as clean as I'd like, it looks cute.



Jaron was so excited about Ground Hogs Day.  He had learned all about it in Kindergarten and he was so sure the ground hog would say 6 more weeks of winter so he could go skiing.  We got online and watched the whole video.  Well...the ground hog called for an early spring.  I was so excited because I love spring and warmth.  Well Jaron was not impressed.  In fact he was in tears talking about it for the next 20 minutes.



And just to show how wrong the Ground Hog was, we got snow, snow and more snow.  We got so much snow one day that although the district didn't call a snow day, they should have.  Most people just stayed home but Shane took the girls and Jaron and his friend Graham to school because we live so close and they thought it would be fun to be in school when not many people were there.  Well soon I got a text that Jaron and Graham were the only 2 kids in their whole class that showed up.  haha...so I went and picked them up and got the girls as well only to get stuck in a snowbank on the way home.  Shane had to run over a few streets to come dig me out.  Ugh, not a fun day but we all survived.  Thankfully Shane works at home and could come get me.



Jaron celebrated the 100th day of school by putting 100 stickers on his cape.  Always a fun day to celebrate at school.



Both Siena and Aria decided to participate in the Story Telling Festival this year.  Aria told her own version of Uni the Unicorn and Siena told The Best Nest story.  I was proud of both of them for doing it.  Both are pretty quiet when they get in front of people, but they practiced and practiced so much.  After doing it in front of the whole first grade they were chosen to tell their stories in front of the school for the school assembly.  They were so nervous but did great and I love that they will do things that are hard and out of their comfort zone.  We of course had to celebrate with ice cream after it was over.



We get a lot of deer walking through our backyard all year long but in February we had this deer just take up residence in our yard one week.  She would come and just sleep in our yard for hours at a time.  It was fun to see her a few days in a row.



We had the school annual Rocky Reading Contest.  The kids love this contest and are constantly reading to earn tickets which in turn gets them prizes.  They even went to a friends house for a 'reading party' one afternoon which was so fun.  All 3 of them were in the top 3 finishers in their class.  And Aria was the top reader for all of 1st grade.  It helped that she was sick the last week of the contest and read a lot while she laid on the couch in between her fever spiking.  She won a big gumball machine and a nice art kit.





We went to the Dinosaur Museum with our reading pass and the kids love digging for bones and playing in the sand.



Jaron has been wanting to get a booster seat for a while.  I told him he had to be 40 lbs, which is the law.  So for the last month he has been eating and then weighing himself and then eating and weighing over and over again.  He even went over to Lori's and was using her scale as well...haha.  So he finally hit 40 lbs consistently enough that we went and bought him a booster seat.  He was so excited to finally feel old and big enough to be in a booster seat.

January 2019

We started the year going down and seeing the Pace's and going sledding in Elk Ridge on New Year's Day.  Always fun to see the Pace's whenever we get a chance to play.

Santa gave us tickets in our stockings to go see The Wizard of Oz at The Hale Centre Theatre.  I had read the book to the kids over the summer so it was perfect timing.  They loved it and were totally enthralled watching all the special effects.

We went the Children's Museum with our KUTV reading pass we got again this year.  The kids could spend a really long time here and never get bored.  I always kind of think as they get older that it won't be as fun and yet every year we spend way more time here than I think we will.

Jaron got to have his free skiing lesson like his sisters did last year.  Because of how full the classes were, he had to miss a day of school which only made him more excited. He of course loved it and is now asking every day when Dad will take him skiing again.  

And I only have video's of this but we went sledding a lot in January.  The kids got new sleds for Christmas and we found the best sledding hill one neighborhood over.  And the kids are old enough I can let them out and they can go up and down the hill while I sit in the warm car and watch.  I wish I had a good picture of the fun big sledding hill that they love.

December 2018

Our first visit to Santa this year was at Highland City.  It must have been a little early in the season because they had no idea what to tell him they wanted for Christmas.  In fact they didn't have a lot of requests this year in general.


We got to attend the girls good friend, Sorena's baptism.  These 3 have so much fun and spend a lot of time together and it was a nice day to celebrate with her.


Sparky our elf made his return.  Wow, the kids love him so much.  He has notes almost daily to take back to the north pole.  This year they made him clothes and a sled to help him with his trek back to the north pole each night.


Our annual gingerbread house decorating took place again.  They sure love this tradition.  This year they were determined to eat it...I wasn't even sure it was edible but after Christmas I let them at it and they ate a lot of it and didn't seem to get sick afterwards!


We also had our annual trip to see the lights at temple square.  Always a fun and cold night.


I got to volunteer for Jaron's Polar Express Day at Kindergarten.  I got to do it for the girls last year as well so it was fun being able to be there this year as well.


We got 7 tickets to see the Tabernacle choir Christmas concert this year.  Kristen Chenoweth was the guest performer so we were so excited to get tickets.  I took my girls this year after a lot of my sisters/family couldn't go that night.  They loved being in the conference center for the first time (and were even excited we got to sit at the top looking down!)  My mom, Jennifer and Lori went with us as well.  President Nelson was there that night so it was cool for the girls to get to see him, even if it was really far away.


We got to see Santa at our ward Christmas party this year.


Gingerbread house decorating wasn't enough apparently and we had another night of decorating gingerbread men.


The kids had their annual Christmas sing at school.  Unfortunately Siena got sick the night before and wasn't able to go. (she also missed the dance festival last year, ugh.)  Jaron sang I want to be an Elf, and Aria sang Santa's using Zebra's now.  Both songs were so cute.


The kids were so excited when I told them one night that they could have a slumber party by the Christmas tree.  They got everything all set up and thought it was pretty fun getting to sleep by the lights of the tree.


The sad part of our Christmas was Jaron got sick on Christmas eve.  I was glad my parents didn't mind that we still came over on Christmas eve but it's always sad to be sick on a holiday, let alone Christmas.  Luckily Christmas day he felt ok and still enjoyed the day.


Christmas eve was fun though.  I love how low key Christmas eve is, it's always just a relaxing day at home, playing games, and spending time with each other.  The kids had all been making home made presents for each other this year through out the month, so we decided to open those on Christmas eve before we went to my parents.  They even made presents for our fish, Diamond.  I hope these home made gifts never stop because I love them and I especially love how excited they get to give these.  That evening we went to my parents and of course acted out the nativity.  This was the first year any of my kids had a request, Aria wanted to be the angel, so it was cute to see her get excited about this.


Christmas morning is always so fun but I'm not sure why I'm terrible at taking pictures.  We always take video but not many pictures.  The kids had a great year and always score big.  This year we bought the girls electric scooters and Jaron got a go-kart.  They got to ride it Christmas morning and since then it's been so snowy that they haven't rode them that much.  Santa gave them sleds that have been very well used this year.  We have a great sledding hill a few neighborhoods over and the kids have loved sledding this year.  And I like it because I can watch them from the warmth of my car.  Grandma and Grandpa Goold gave the girls a little sewing machine and Jaron a lego set.