Skating, Birthday and Braces!

Time is flying by again and it's time to catch up. A couple of weeks ago the girls' school had a skate night, so I drove them over there and decided I wanted to join them skating this time. None of us use the regular skates. We prefer the in-line skates (rollerblades). It was fun and nice to have the girls at ages where I don't have to hold their hands to keep them from falling. Alice said it was a lot easier than ice skating. I don't think she fell at all. They were able to skate with a couple of friends from school also.

Charlotte and her friend Rylie, who had another friend there. She's also wearing her new glasses that we picked up the same day.

Enjoying a slushy.

Alice's friend Sofia.

The girls enjoyed it so much that we went again on Saturday with some new friends in the ward who moved here in October. This time I sat and visited with the mom, Mary Ann Crandall. She is going through a divorce, so she and her 3 girls are living with her parents. They moved from Missouri and apparently love to ice skate and roller skate. The middle daughter had her birthday on the 10th and got new ice skates for a gift. We were originally going to try ice skating with them, but because it's hockey season there aren't hardly any public skate times and none on Saturdays. We'll have to wait a couple of months for that.

The 11th was Nikki's 21st birthday. I can't believe I have a child that age! We were able to order a few things on Amazon and have them shipped right to her so we wouldn't have to pay shipping this time. And I think it was kind of nice because the gifts all came on different days, so it spread it out. We gave her a $100 Visa gift card because she's a college student and needs it. We also gave her a book called "The Way of Kings", that Jack had suggested which was written by an author that she had been listening to podcasts of recently, Brandon Sanderson. Jack also read the book already and liked it. She is excited to read that one. And Curtis said to give her some Tim Tams for the snack. My brother Colby also helped Curtis pick out a new (used) computer for her. She has a little problem with the screen but other than that it works much faster and better than her previous computer and she's happy with it. Colby is supposed to help her figure out the screen issue. It was a computer that was previously used by the church and because he works for the church, he was able to help us purchase one.

On Friday the 10th I went to lunch with Glenna and Toni to celebrate Glenna's and my birthdays. Hers was the 9th and mine the 17th. She let me choose the location and I decided I was in the mood for Costa Vida. We had a nice lunch and spent a long time visiting and then planning our activity for that next Monday. Toni and her sister-in-law Catalina who is also in our ward gave us each a candle and Thick Mints, which are like the York peppermint patties but bigger.

I had sent Nikki a couple of pictures and then she ended up making it into an art project and sending it back as a gift. I thought they turned out so cute!

Sage, Curtis, Me

The original photo.

Alice, Milo, Charlotte

I sent multiple pictures of the girls with Milo and this is what she came up with. She had asked what their favorite colors were and made their shirts those colors.

As for our first activity of the year, we decided to just play some games because we never had time to play during the last few activities. We started snacks as usual and then played Christmas Bingo. Then I gave each girl a paper and had them write something about themselves on it. They crunched it into a ball and placed it in a big bowl. We moved from the Young Women's room where we started into the gym where the girls had a snowball fight with those papers for a few minutes. When I told them to stop, they each picked up a random snowball and unfolded it to read out loud. The girls would take a few guesses to guess who the paper was about. If they couldn't guess, then we would have the person reveal themselves. After we finished that, they played some hockey using foam noodles and cotton filled snowballs that Glenna brought. All the girls had such a good time, especially the new ones.

The boys have been dealing with dandruff for years, but Jack's was worse than Garrett. I finally got him over to a dermatologist on the 14th. They prescribed some special shampoo and a lotion (which is actually a clear liquid) for itching. They'll check him again in two months to see how it's doing. I just felt bad for him because he is always covered in white flakes and he has areas on his head that are built up a lot and he tries to scratch it off and it bleeds. It just looked painful and it was. We certainly hope that this will help.

On the 15th Jack got his braces off! It's almost exactly a month after Garrett. His orthodontist is doing his retainers differently. He got a permanent retainer on the top four teeth to help keep the gap from coming back. Garrett got one put on the bottom teeth like I did. They both have clear plastic retainers for top and bottom that they have to wear 24/7 for the first little while (except for eating and drinking things other than water). Garrett was told to do it for one month and then wear at night only. Jack was told to wear them for 10 weeks. Then they will check him and see if he's ready for nighttime only. I sure hope Garrett's gap stays closed with how long he wore his braces.

Such a good-looking kid!