TEEN-AGER!!

Sariah is 13!!  How did we get so old that we now have THREE TEEN-AGERS?! Yikes.  I will say up front that with the amount of emotions around the house, it feels like we have 5 teen-agers living here, but that is beside the point.  Sariah, my tiny little 3 pound baby is now 13!  The first thing she did today was go shooting with her dad, grandpa and uncles. If you are going to shoot, a 50 Cal is a good way to go.

When having a teenage daughter, its always a good idea to train them in the proper use of firearms.  This is Corrine:

And for good measure, dad. Take note boys interested in the teen-age girls.

A member of the YW presidency brought this poster, a balloon and a cupcake for Sariah. I LOVE our group of young women in this ward. I love the leaders. My girls are so blessed.

Corrine wanted to make Sariahs cake and Im more than willing to let her. I spent the day cleaning up Christmas stuff. Corrine is getting to be a pretty good little cake decorator.

Sariah was so happy with the Legos she got for Christmas, that I didn't think we could top that with birthday gifts. Hayden used his brand new tools and made a stool for Sariahs closet. (he had a little supervision)

Sorry that picture is blurry, not sure what I did.

Corrine gave Sariah some necklaces. Ahhh, the girls do like each other some times!

Sariah has really been into knitting. She made scarves for everyone in the family as Christmas gifts. We gave her more knitting stuff for her birthday.

Who doesn't want a large bin full of yarn?

Sariah, we love you!  You are happy and so willing to help. Sariah is the best at helping with the dishes and playing with Kate.

Happy Birthday Sariah!

Christmas

I LOVE Christmas. This year Christmas was on a Sunday and everything was PERFECT! Things had been sort of brown and icky for a couple of weeks. We were able to wake up to a magical white Christmas!

We had church at 11 and so Keith and I decided that we would wait and open presents until after church. Everyone slept in till about 8:45. What a great Christmas morning! Little kids are so much fun at Christmas time. Its the simple things that keep them so happy.

Hayden seemed pretty happy with all he got. He really likes the erector set.

He was surprised by the REAL tools he got.

Corrine is questioning our judgment as parents.... we just gave Hayden a real saw. Seems dangerous.

Sariah was drunk with happiness at the amount of Legos she got.  This girl LOVES her some Legos.

She got a lot of Legos. I really should buy stock in that company.



Corrine was drunk with happiness at the amount of clothes she got. Boring gift? She thinks not.

I did have to have a large number of books, and EV3 and other necessary school items under the tree.  Keith got some things for reloading ammunition. guy stuff in the guy craft room.  I got THIS. And yes, Im happy about it.

Please note that its the COMMERCIAL sized mixer. Its huge. (Come on, say it like The Donald) The motor is UGE.  Think of the UGE amount of cookies I can make!! This is our new robot Dash. He is super cute. I wondered if this would be dumb purchase, but I really like Dash.

I will admit I was a little nervous spending our first Christmas without Jakob. I was worried about him being homesick. Jakob was able to call us and we talked for exactly 30 minutes. No kidding, he had a timer and had to watch it closely. He sounded great! The kids all talked at the same time when we put him on speaker phone. There was so much excitement in the air!

After a few minutes, we were able to really talk to Jakob and ask him questions about how things are going for him. He sounds happy and he is really loving the MTC. He was able to go to the Mexico City Temple. He said it was great! He liked to point out several times that the weather is warm and the palm trees are beautiful.

I love Christmas! We went to church and then came home and spent the rest of the day as a family.

I loved watching the girls practice with the selfie stick!  Haa haa!

Merry Christmas!!

December craziness

December is crazy! Corrine had a debate tournament. This girl worked so hard preparing for it! She had to be prepared to answer a question about Trumps picks for his administration, know about the death of Castro, and the plague of fake news. She then had 30 minutes to prepare a 7 minute memorized speech based on those questions. She had no idea until the 30 minutes started what the questions would be. Corrine had  goal of coming in the top 6 when she went to the debate. This girl took FIRST!!  First place. Yes, I might be proud.

We were able to go see Rouge One with the kids. Keiths work bought out the theater. The movie did not disappoint. I was a little sad Jakob couldn't be there.... but it will be fun watching it with him when he gets home. Im sure we will have seen it 1000 times by then and the other kids could just quote it to him. The rest of us enjoyed the popcorn and the theater experience. Its not something we do very often.

The kids have been spending a lot of time trying to figure out the Christmas Code. I love this tradition. I don't love the fighting, but I do love it when the kids work together to solve a problem. Its funny how close to the code the younger kids get. Hummm.

What IS the code?!

First Lego League

Sariah and Hayden are members of the FLL team Infinity Squared. Corrine is one of the mentors for the team. I am one of the very silent and not involved mentors. Hayden and Sariah are LOVING being on their own robots team. Here is a picture of the team.

Here are the most awesome and amazing mentors. This is a great group of teen-agers.

The competition is in January. The kids have to make their robot to various things for animals. For inspiration, we took the team on a field trip to the Humane Society of SLC. This is my car load of team members.  On the way home, I had a car load of boys. The boys were a different group, I'll say that. They might have encouraged me to race Betsy (the other mother mentor) home. It was VERY close and I might have got a little over 25 in a neighborhood, but we won. I digress......

While at on this field trip, the kids got to see several different animals. No, none of them are coming home with us.... in fact I liked learning that I could give them the animals we currently have and they wouldn't ask questions or kill the animals. Hummm.

While on this field trip, I also noticed that Kate and Hayden were wearing pants that were FLOODS.  WAY WAY WAY too short pants. How embarrassing. Right after the trip, I went to the store and fixed that problem. Merry Christmas.  Have some pants. I did enjoy this field trip and Im looking forward to competition in January!

Christmas Letter 2016

This is Kate. (this is Kates version of the year)We went to robots. Daddies team won. Staying in a hotel is good. (moms clarification... The robots team competed in SLC, Colorado and Idaho. We won the regional in Idaho!)  We went to Michigan. It is a long way away and you have to go all night. I liked the sleeping bag and going swimming. (at the lake) I didn't like getting blood out my nose. That was not fun. Jakob went on his mission. I really miss him. Jakob likes to play the pinano. (he did leave, and I miss him as well) Corrine goes camping and to classes. (She went on a backpacking trip to Philmont and took drivers ed) She goes to speech and debate. She learns about things we have to know for school. Corrine doesn't do really good at driving. (she isn't too bad) Sariah likes to go to art class. She likes to read and make scarves. She goes to church with Corrine (and the rest of us) and robots with Hayden.  Hayden goes to robots with Sariah. (they are on an FLL team) He likes to go to scouts. He stays home more than everyone else. He has to learn about stuff for school. Kate stays home all the time (she probably does) and likes to do school. She helps mom get food. She likes to watch tv with Hayden. Dad goes to work. He plays wii with us. He helps us go to stores (if she means Lowes, then yes). He takes care of us. Mom goes to stores. (is that all I do?) She stays home with us. She likes to print school pages for us to do. Mom likes to feed us. She goes to meetings (RS pres, so yes, she is right). Mom likes to hold me. (yes I do). Merry Christmas! (We want to wish you all a Merry Christmas and hope you enjoy the spirit of Christmas. We are so grateful for our Savior and for the peace that only He can bring to our lives)

Christmas Kick Off

This was the first weekend in December and we kicked off Christmas in style. Thursday, Corrine played the piano at the Festival of the Trees. I enjoyed listening to her play.

Afterward, we decided to wander around and check out the trees.

Kate was drawn to every single pink tree.

She and Hayden really liked this Grinch tree..... I'll admit, I think its pretty cute.... the tree and the kids. Kate lost Jakob so she has been a little extra clingy to Hayden.

I might have been a little more emotional than was really necessary over this display.

Friday we had our ward party. Corrine played the part of an Angel in the Christmas program.

This is our primary singing Away in a Manger. Hayden and Kate practiced this song for days and days. Its so cute hearing them sing it. Yes, I realize the size of our primary is rather small. I like it that way.

This is the young men and young women singing. We were missing a few, but this is about it for that group.... again, I realize its small, but I like it that way.

I felt the spirit while at the ward party. What I felt more was this sense of community. I felt so close to these people. They all knew we had heartache with Jakob being gone. They were all so sweet. I felt that this is what every child needs.  Every child needs to be in the nativity play put together by a fellow church member. Every child needs to have the bishopric hand them a candy cane.

One of my sweet friends in the ward brought me this the morning after Jakob left. She knew I was having a rough day and that would extend into a rough week. Im so grateful for inspired and thoughtful people. Again, what would we do with out that feeling of community and family that can be found in a ward family?

This evening we had the sisters come watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. There is something comforting about taking care of the missionaries. There was also some comfort in the thought that Jakob would be watching the devotional along with us. I would like to think he was anyway.

And..... GONE.

Im not going to go on about the mission farewell for Jakob. Honestly, my emotions are pretty raw today.  If you want to read about it, you can visit the mission blog I set up for him. Its at
http://monterreymiracles.blogspot.com/
Last night after Jakob got set apart we came home to finish packing. Kate WOULD NOT leave Jakobs side. It was sad and cute.

In January, the primary kids were challenged to read the Book of Mormon this year. We decided to read it as a family. About a month ago, we decided that we wanted to finish it before Jakob left on his mission. We had to cram the last few chapters in. I need to share the scripture that we read RIGHT AFTER getting home from Jakob being set apart as a missionary. Moroni 8:2-3 "My beloved son, Moroni, I rejoice exceedingly that your Lord Jesus Christ hath been mindful of you, and hath called you to his ministry, and to his holy work. I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end."

We did it! We finished the Book of Mormon as a family! Hayden made his goal. It was pretty awesome to finish it up as a family.

We had lots of laughs and tears as we enjoyed our last evening together. Keith found some of his old missionary tags. It was fun for the kids to see them. He sent a tag with Jakob.... I guess I can say I have my first "tag" picture?

As I was putting Kate to bed, she said "I want to be a missionary in Monterrey Mexico so that I don't have to miss Jakob."  Ugh. Its rough. This morning she got out of bed and went right to him. She was pretty clingy while we said our good byes.

Keith took Jakob to the airport on his way to work. Im glad we didn't have that scene on the sidewalk in the freezing cold.

 

 Then, it was all done. Today has been the hardest day ever. Its awful. Its so very draining. I wouldn't have it any other way, but boy... its tough.  The kids did manage to try and feel a little better. Sariah was happy for a moment when she realized she gets to inherit Jakobs cell phone and kindle. 

Kate sought comfort through a cupcake.

Hayden and I shoveled the snow on the driveway.

Its strange. The best way to feel better is to get to work and go through the motions of routine. But, it feels so wrong that the world didn't stop. I don't want to get to work or go through the routine. I want to go to bed and cry. Im guessing today is the hardest day of them all. Im glad its just about over.