New Year's Weekend

I just wanted to start out with this super cute picture of Milo after we gave him a bath on Thursday. I had been wanting to give him a bath before Christmas, but there just wasn't time. I finally did it with the help of Charlotte. He stayed really calm for this bath as Charlotte kept feeding him treats while I wet him down and scrubbed him. After we got him out to dry him off, Charlotte wrapped one of the towels around him and he looked so cute!

We decided this year that we wanted to invite some friends over to play games and eat snacks on New Year's Eve. We started asking around and several already had plans but we did have two families over that we have been wanting to hang out with for a long time, the Benedicts and the McShanes. Of course everyone went to church first and they had a linger longer for the 2nd hour. We brought a bunch of chocolate dipped pretzels that I made the night before while watching Encanto with Curtis and the girls. There were enough left over that we had some for our New Years' party as well. Our friends came over around 6pm. Curtis made 3 flavors of chicken wings and jalapeno poppers. I made Quiche Triangles and a veggie tray. I also cut up a pineapple and peeled some mandarin oranges. The Benedicts brought cake and the McShanes brought their veggie tray leftover from the linger longer plus some spring rolls. We had a lot of good food to eat! 

I didn't get a lot of pictures because I was so busy having fun but we played a few games that we haven't played in years, starting with Pig Spoons. That game was temporarily interrupted by some of the group going to watch fireworks over at the Carousel. Curtis and I stayed here with some of the boys and watched from the window of our house. There was fog but we could still see them from here. Our girls rode over with the McShanes because their girls were going. We played SkyJo while we waited for the group to come back. The fireworks went off at 9:00pm for about 10 minutes. I guess it lines up with the East Coast ringing in the new year. After they got back, we finished the Spoons game and then moved to our front room to play Signs. We haven't played this in years but it's always so fun. Everyone picks their own sign and they have to pass it around to different people without the person in the middle seeing. If they catch you, then you switch places. 

Playing "Signs".

The McShanes have 5 kids like us. Three are teenage boys (Garrett and Jack are friends with the oldest one, Dallin). The Benedicts brought their 3 younger kids. They have an older son who is not at home right now. I think he's serving in the military overseas right now. Anyway, between those two families and ours, we had a house full. It got a bit crazy sometimes but it was fun. Even Charlotte and her friend played Signs with us. The last game we played was Catch Phrase and they played that one also. Alice and her friend were busy playing downstairs.

Playing "Catch Phrase".

We had no idea how long we were going to go but we ended up having so much fun playing the games that we made it to midnight. I last minute found a count down on my phone but I made the BIG mistake of not telling Alice that we were counting down. The two girls (Alice and Laila) came up after we had counted down and shouted "Happy New Year!" and Alice was not happy that she missed out. We did another count down but she was still disappointed. I will make sure I do not make that mistake again next year. Poor girl. Other than that, everyone had a blast!

The only time we saw Garrett was when we started eating. He disappeared to his room most of the night. It may have been too many people for him. I think we could have gotten him out of his room if we had invited a family who had teenage girls. Maybe next time 😉

It was two late nights in a row since Jack had gone to the New Year's Eve dance Saturday night with Morgan and Eli. We were the drivers. So, we all slept in New Year's Day and didn't do a whole lot. Curtis did do a few small things around the house like hanging our vanity lights in the bathroom downstairs. The box has been sitting there for a couple of months. Curtis went back to work on Tuesday.

The kids are back to school today and so it was nice to get back on a schedule. We have been doing the Biggest Loser weight loss challenge with family members, but I haven't been exercising yet. I saw Curtis using an exercising app last week and so I downloaded the same app to do exercising at home. I just started that this morning. I don't want to just lose weight. I want to get in shape and have more energy. So far, the exercises are pretty short. After I warmed myself up by jogging up and down the stairs 10 times and doing some other cardio, the workout on the phone took about 3 minutes and was mostly push-ups. I'm not sure how I feel about that yet, but we'll see how it goes and if they change it up every day or what. 

I also sat down to read my scriptures this morning and look at the Come Follow Me book. We did not do very good with that as a family last year nor did I do very good personally. I have a goal to do better this year. I have been listening to the Book of Mormon this past year on my phone sometimes and only have a few chapters left to finish but I found I have a more difficult time paying attention and focusing, so I plan to read my paper scriptures this year, unless I'm out of town, then I'll use my phone.  Anyway, my main goals for this year are to get to my weight loss goal, I have 7 lbs to go. Then to get in shape and read my scriptures every day and do better at Come Follow Me Lessons with the kids. Happy New Year!!