February 2021

We always have a lot of deer that come through our yard, mostly in the winter.  Last winter we had one take a nap in our yard a couple days in a row.  This year we had 3 hanging out right next to our house.  As much as we hate all the poop in our yard, it's still fun to see them.

Once again we couldn't have our family get together for the super bowl so we had our own with just our family.  We had different snacks and dinner just like we were at grandma and grandpa's and we even made our own scoring game so we could win candy bars at the end of each quarter.  It ended up being a fun evening but we still miss out get togethers.

The girls played another season of basketball.  It was fun for them because they are finally to the age where it isn't co-ed anymore and I think they had a lot more fun that way playing with all their friends.  Shane and I helped coach along with their friend Vanessa's dad.

All 3 kids got to make their own valentine boxes and bring them to school.  It's kind of a pain if I'm being honest but they have fun making them so I guess it's worth it! 

The girls had another friend party hosted by her friend Ella.  Her mom always plans such fun little parties and events.

We had a fancy Valentine's dinner together as a family.  The kids had fun decorating the table and always like when we do things just a bit different for special occasions.

Aria cracks me up a lot of times.  She decided she wanted to sleep on the floor one night and even though her bed was right there she slept on the floor for about 2 weeks.  I always knew she had a lot of stuffed animals but we had never counted them.  She asked me to help her count and organize all her stuffed animals.  I was dying when I counted 121 stuffed animals!  Anytime she goes to the store with money, she always, without fail, buys a stuffed animals.  She can't resist those cute animals.  She is truly an animal lover and nothing can deter her.  She still checks out horse non-fiction books at the library, the same ones over and over again.

All 3 kids have been listening to the Harry Potter audio books.  They are obsessed with them and listen to them every night before bed and any other chance they get.  Siena decided to throw the family a little Harry Potter party one day.  These were her little creations she made that we got for going to the party.  It was so fun and cute and creative of her.

January 2021

 I thought maybe this 2020 pandemic might be over when I went to the store in early January and saw Cactus Cooler on the shelves.  The pandemic hit and so many businesses had to shut down, factories slowed or stopped and so a lot of things you used to easily get now couldn't be found.  We had a TP shortage, water was scarce (Still strange one if you ask me) but the Cactus Cooler had never come back...the other one, the Lawry's spaghetti packets.  The pandemic was definitely not over but it was a fun find to see it back on the shelves.  Sadly, I haven't seen it since (and I'm writing this 3/4 of the way through 2021 and yes the pandemic is raging again and I still can't find cactus cooler and just found spaghetti sauce packets at Macey's this week for the first time!  Apparently California has both in abundance!)

The girls had to make an invention for a school project.  It had to be something that hadn't been invented.  Siena sewed a zipper into a mask to make drinking from her water bottle easier.  Aria made a Guinea Pig food funnel to make the feeding of guinea pigs easier, cleaner and more fun.

The biggest event of January was the vaccine became available for those 60 and older, which meant my parents could get vaccinated.  The first step to having family get togethers again.  It was so hard to get appointments but I got on the website and helped my parents get an appointment.  Apparently it had 'sold out' within 5 minutes and we were one of the lucky ones to get one.

Jaron started another season of basketball, this time with his cousin Landon.  Doug, Landon's dad was the coach and it was a fun season playing together.

Lots of snowmen are built each winter but I loved that all 3 built their own snowmen this day.  They all look like friends out there.  The girls got cold and came in early so only Jaron was in the picture and honestly I think he did most the work on all 3 of them.

Jaron got sick in January.  He actually wasn't even that sick but because we're all on high alert for covid and because no one in our family has been sick for almost a year now, I went and got him covid tested.  I pulled the girls out of school hoping we could do a rapid test and find out fast.  For whatever reason his results got lost in some computer outage and we didn't find out until the next day.  He was negative and felt better pretty fast.  The girls were mad they missed their basketball game but we had to be really safe.

We had the Pace's over one afternoon to decorate sugar cookies.  We are so excited that they moved back from Boise and live here now!

December 2020

 Like the rest of this last year, things in December were a little different.  Normal Christmas concerts, activities and parties didn't happen.  But it was nice to have a less busy month in exchange for some fun family time at home.

We were still able to have our annual gingerbread house decorating day.  Always a fun time.

Siena had her 'star of the week' in her classroom at school and got to decorate this poster all about herself.

The girls had a fun friends Christmas party at their friend Ella's house.

Jaron and Aria decided to participate in the school ugly Christmas sweater contest this year.  They came up with the ideas and put them all together.  I was proud of them for participating as my kids do not like to do things that are different and might generate unwanted attention on them.  So even though I think they were a bit nervous that morning they came home glad they did it.

School parties and door decorating contests all showed up in pictures this year since we weren't allowed to come see them or take part in the Christmas singing show this year.

Jaron finished up another season of Jr Jazz Basketball with some of his neighborhood friends.

We actually got to go to church in person for Christmas Sunday and hear the beautiful musical pieces.  Even though we aren't all back every week a lot of people showed up on this Sunday and it felt good to almost feel back to normal.  We're not back to 2 hour church yet, just sacrament and the Zoom it to those that are at home and we trade off every other week.  So we don't always dress up fancy and some weeks are home in casual clothes, although I try to put a dress on for at least the meeting portion of the day whether at home or not.

The kids had their annual sleep by the Christmas tree on the night before Christmas Eve...a fun tradition that I hope they never out grow.

Christmas eve day calls for Sugar Cookies and Grandpa South's train.  Also a fun tradition and the kids always have fun with the train.

We had our own Christmas Even dinner at home this year.  We got out the table cloth and china and the kids thought this was the fanciest dinner we've ever had together (it probably is)  We had eye of the round roast, the kids favorite, sparkling cider, jello and lots of good food.  It was fun to do a fancy dinner with just our family.

We also acted out the nativity with just us.  A little hard with small numbers but we made it work.  Then the kids opened up their Christmas even present and spent the evening working on their little craft they got.

Christmas morning fun.  Still my favorite part of Christmas morning is watching the kids open each other's presents.  They are small and usually have some homemade gifts to it.  They double and triple wrap them and it's just fun to see how excited they get to watch their sibling open up their gift.  Shane and I got the kids computers this year.  Not knowing if they were going to be doing online school at some point we felt they needed their own computers.  We got remote controls with them and they have loved playing some games on them but they also use them to email grandma, make up slide shows and other educational things.  I felt like it was much better than getting an xbox that they asked for.  That afternoon all 3 declared they were happier with a computer than an xbox and they were glad we didn't get them an xbox.

That afternoon we went over to my parents and had dinner with them, Jennifer and Jeff came as well.  We stayed and played sky-jo and had a great time.

New Year's was spent at home with the kids.  They think we have a tradition to make a pi-zookie.  We have the pan and I put too much cookie dough in it and it spilled all over the side and onto the over, making a complete disaster of the oven.   So then we turned on the self clean and oh boy, our house stunk for New Years.  We of course still had fun but definitely didn't turn out like we thought it would.  The pi-zookie though still tasted great!

November 2020

 After such a crazy year and staying home a lot more than we ever have, we decided to put our Christmas tree up early.  Usually I put it up right after Thanksgiving but this year we put it up about 2 weeks before Thanksgiving.  We just needed a little extra cheer in our house.  I didn't put up any other decorations but it was fun to have the tree up.

We did a STEAM activity and build some pilgrim boats out of styrofoam and foil and then had a contest as to whose could stay afloat with the most dimes on/in it.  It was a fun Saturday activity.

Sunday Snuggles

Siena sewed a little purse for herself.  She is turning into such a good little sewer.  She sews it all by hand and loves it.  One of these days I'd love to get her a sewing machine.

The girls are getting to the age where they want their own space.  We decided to take the loft we had upstairs and turn it into a bedroom so everyone could have their own room.  The kids were hardly ever really using it and it was almost always a mess.  So we cleaned out a lot of toys and hired someone to come frame a wall.  The house was designed to have a room here but when the builders built it they left it open as a loft.  So it wasn't hard to just build a wall and turn it into a bedroom. Shane did the electrical work and added some outlets and moved some switches around.  Then he drywalled it with the help of Shad and then he painted it.  It doesn't seem like a big project but it took quite a bit of time and was more time consuming then we thought.  We are so happy having it done.  The kids all fought over who got that room even though it's not the biggest room.  Siena ended up getting it and everyone loves having their own space to call their own.  They got some wall decals for their rooms and Siena used some of her money to buy a new bedspread.  We started right before Thanksgiving and didn't completely finish it until Christmas break but we're so super happy to have an extra room and the kids love their own space.

Jaron loves watching BYU Football with me and I love the company.  It's fun to watch him start to understand sports more and asks about rules and what is going on.

The Sunday before Thanksgiving we took a few family pictures.  I thought they turned out so cute so thought I'd share here.

Because of Covid, we weren't going to be all be able to go to my parents for Thanksgiving.  The few days before though Christy was in town so we decided that all the siblings and kids would meet at the mall and enjoy some time together without the fear of infecting our parents.  It was such a fun afternoon seeing everyone and it had been so long since we had all been together.  Even though we talk and text all the time (like all the time, hundreds of texts a week) it was still fun to see everyone in person.

The family decided we did not want my parents to spend Thanksgiving alone this year after not having any family dinners all year.  So we got designated to have Thanksgiving dinner with my parents.  So besides going to the mall and the kids to school where they wear masks, we stayed home the whole week before so as to hopefully not catch covid and infect my parents.  It was one of my favorite Thanksgivings in recent memories.  My family wore masks while we were there and socially distanced as much as we could at the dinner table.  All worth it to spend time together and not feel like we were infecting them.  I didn't realize just how much I missed hanging out with my parents at their house.  We still see them from time to time but we really haven't spent more than a soccer game outside together.  And it was so fun with just my family and them.  We ate, sat around a talked and then played some games.  We even played our annual Left, Right, Center.  It was such a fun day/night.  I even got my banana cream pie from Jennifer.  She made us a pie and in return I made her and her family pretzel jello.  I left there that night thinking, that is just what my heart and spirit needed tonight.

And then Christmas season was officially upon us.  The kids were super excited that Sparky our elf made an early appearance, with a mask of course, and had to quarantine at our house for a few days before he could officially fly back and forth to the North Pole.