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!

Alice Gets Baptized!

The weekend for Alice's baptism finally arrived! When talking with her over a month ago about maybe waiting a couple months to have her baptism so the weather would be good for grandparents to come, she really didn't want to wait. She was too excited to get baptized! We decided to go ahead with the January 4th date and prayed for good travel conditions so that grandparents could make it. Our prayers were answered! Friday morning both sets of grandparents left from Nampa to drive up here. The roads were wet and there was snow on the sides of the road from earlier in the week, but they only had some rain and fog for their drive. My parents got here around 1pm and my in-laws about an hour later. My brother Stillman and his family, along with his mother-in-law Donna, drove from Nampa as well to be there. They had been down there so Michelle's sister could watch her kids while she and Stillman flew down to Arizona to watch BSU in the Fiesta Bowl game. They arrived around 3:30 or 4:00.

Laverne, Gaya and Steve helped me cook up dinner for the evening. Mom made Taco Soup, and my in-laws made Zuppa Toscana (they make it at home, so they were familiar with it) while I baked some homemade rolls. We were able to eat dinner around 5:30. Then we visited for a bit and I brought up some games. We ended up playing Golf and Secret Hitler. I really didn't want to play Secret Hitler, but I did and it was fun anyway. I don't like games where you have to lie sometimes. It's Jack's game and he's the one that brought that one up. I really like that Jack played both games with us though. All of the other kids were playing video games or looking at their phone (Jayden). Jayden did join us for the Hitler game though. After we finished two rounds of Secret Hitler, Stillman's family and mom and dad went back to their hotels. My in-laws stayed with us in Garrett's room. The nice thing about having someone stay in his room is that it gets him OUT of his room for a change. We even heard him playing the piano downstairs at one point. I wish he would do that more often. Anyway, it was a fun evening, but we didn't want to stay up too late because the baptism was the next morning.

I was worried about Dad's allergies when Sage wanted on his lap, but he said it was fine, and she looked so cute.

Playing Golf

The next morning, we arrived at the Ridgeline Stake Center a little before 10:00am and got Alice and Curtis ready in their jumpsuits. We took a few pictures before the baptism program started. Alice received two new white towels. One came from my parents to use when she got out of the water after being baptized. The other one was from the ward primary presidency, but her name was embroidered on it. She's happy to have them both! She also received a small bag of goodies from my parents and the primary presidency gave her a white drawstring bag to carry her towel and wet clothes. My in-laws gave her a Disney necklace that says "Ohana" and ohana means family. 

We had a little issue with getting programs printed. I thought the primary presidency or stake was going to do it and they thought we were going to do it (if we wanted them). Curtis had typed it up on his computer with most of the information on it since our family was in charge of our own program line up. Then we emailed it to the primary telling them we wanted help with the pianist and conductor. They said they would help but I never realized we needed to print it. So, Curtis pulled it up on his phone, took a screen shot and sent it to Bishop Chan, who was conducting. Other than that, it went smoothly. We sang "Baptism" from the Children's songbook and Charlotte gave the opening prayer. Then Jack gave a talk on baptism. He did a great job at looking out at the audience. 

After his talk, we proceeded across the hallway (we were in the primary room) to the Relief Society room where the font was. On the way, I asked Laverne and Gaya if they would be the witnesses so that they could also participate since the men will be doing the confirmation after. Their job as the witnesses is to make sure that Alice (or whoever is getting baptized) goes all the way under water when she's baptized. Right after she was baptized, I went back to help her dry off and change while everyone else went back to the primary room (except Curtis who also needed to change). Alice and I got back before Curtis did and even had to wait for him a couple of minutes. It was funny considering men are usually faster and the fact that he was only half wet, while Alice was fully wet, and I had to comb her hair as well. Garrett gave the next talk on the Holy Ghost. He also did a good job, and we know it helped boost his confidence because he later started talking about a mission again. Then Alice was confirmed a member and given the gift of the Holy Ghost. Curtis said the prayer and my dad, my father-in-law, Stillman and Bishop stood in the circle. We concluded the meeting with Bishop Chan giving some remarks and bearing his testimony (he was in tears). Then we sang "I am a Child of God". Alice chose both of the songs we sang. And then I gave the closing prayer.

The previous Sunday Jack had been sustained in Sacrament meeting to be advanced from a teacher to a priest. Since we had family in town, we decided to do his ordination right after the baptism finished. Everyone who came (even from our ward) stayed for the ordination also. The same people who did Alice's confirmation also did the ordination, as well as Jason McShane, who was his youth leader. It was super neat!

We didn't get a picture of everyone who came to the baptism, but we at least got a picture of all the family members who came. And we had to get some pictures after she was dressed in her white dress, the same white dress that Nikki and Charlotte wore when they got baptized. I wish I would have gotten a picture of Alice and the McShane girls. They were the only kids that came besides her cousins. Laila McShane is her best friend. Their parents and both daughters came. Sister McShane conducted the music, and Marcia Lennon played the piano. They are both counselors in the primary presidency. The primary president is Kim Prescott and she was also there with her husband and older daughter. And her primary teachers from the previous year, Wade and Christa Meek. We had several other ward members come as well. Luckily, I was able to have them sign her book we bought her for her baptism memories so we know who came.

After the baptism, my parents changed their clothes at the church and started back home to Nampa. They wanted to make sure they had plenty of daylight while traveling. We went back to our house and changed our clothes before going over to Applebee's with my in-laws and Stillman's family. It was a tight fit, but they got 14 of us seated together. From there, Stillman's family left to head home to Lewiston. The rest of us went back to our house to relax for a while and Curtis helped his mom with something on the computer for church calling. I also got the kitchen cleaned up. We ended the night with watching "Star Wars: The Force Awakens".

The next morning was our first Sunday having a 10:30am meeting time. It was nice to sleep in a little but still begin in the morning. Yesterday was also Fast and Testimony meeting. I don't get up to bear my testimony often, but I decided I needed to. I was the first one to get up after the bishop bore his testimony because I knew it would be harder to get myself up if I waited too long. Then later Jack, Charlotte and Curtis all bore their testimonies. It was a Butterfield day I guess, and we all mentioned something about Alice's baptism. Charlotte got up by herself for the first time, so I was proud of her. I never did when I was a kid. Jack challenged himself last year to bear his testimony every month and he accomplished it. I was surprised to see him get up yet again yesterday. I guess it had something to do with his friend's younger brother getting up. He had said he would get up if Connor did. Anyway, I'm pretty sure Jack bore his testimony more times in one year than I have in my whole life. I just always get too nervous to get up. But I'm glad I did it yesterday. The more you do things like this, the easier it gets. We said goodbye to my in-laws right after Sacrament meeting so they could head back home.

Sunday was pretty relaxed after church. Curtis smoked some chicken thighs and roasted some rosemary potatoes in the oven, and we had iceberg salad as well. It was such a good dinner that I requested it for my birthday dinner! The chicken was way better than the dry chicken breast I ate at Applebee's. After dinner Jack requested that I make a Nutella Star because I had talked about making one last month but never did it. Well, I finally did it Sunday evening, but it took a little longer than I expected. We didn't get to eat it until 10pm, but it was good! Next time, I'll have to start much earlier. 

Before going in the oven.

And after it came out of the oven

It was a GREAT weekend!!

After Christmas Fun

Last Saturday morning our family signed up to clean the church building. It felt good to have all of us there helping for a change. Even the girls were working hard to do different things. When we were finished, we took them to the store to get a donut and Charlotte said she liked cleaning the church and wanted to go back later to do some more. I love that girl!

Working hard on the windows.

Late Saturday afternoon the girls wanted to go to the park, but it was about an hour before dark. I was able to talk them into using their ticket for the Carousel of Dreams that they received from their school. It was good for one free ride on the Carousel. While waiting for them to get on the ride, I looked at the prices. I was originally just going to do the one free ride and be done, but I decided to spend a little and bought 8 tokens for $20 (basically $2.50 per ride). We (including myself) each did two more rides and then the girls got another ride. During the rides, they have a fun game that you can do. As you go around there is a fish that sticks out and in its mouth there is a small ring you can pull out. After you pull one out, another one slides down. If you get the brass-colored ring, then you get a free ride. The two times I rode the carousel I grabbed the rings but never got the brass one. Workers also pass out rings to kids who can't reach, and they have a bucket you can toss them into while you ride. When the girls used their last tokens they had two brass rings available, and Charlotte got both of them! There's usually only one brass ring per round, but the previous round it never came out. So, the girls both got another free ride! There were only 2 or 3 kids trying to pull the rings out on this turn and Charlotte won it again! There was only one this time, so she gave that free ride to Alice. When Alice rode, it was only her and one other girl trying to pull rings. She almost got it, but didn't quite grab on enough. It was pretty cool that Charlotte won 3 times and Alice almost won once. The workers were telling me that I needed to go buy a lotto ticket with her or take her to Vegas. Ha ha!

Holding the first two brass rings.

And the third brass ring.

Curtis and I did some shopping at Costco and saw some dog beds/mats. We finally decided to get Milo a nice soft bed for lounging around in upstairs. It was only $30, which was way less than what I was seeing at other stores. And the cover comes off for cleaning. Milo loves it of course!

The girls enjoy laying on the bed with him.

Alice put her headband on him, ha ha!

One of the activities we decided we wanted to do during Christmas break was ice skating at the Toyota Arena in Kennewick. The girls were super excited, but the boys not so much. We did it Monday night and everyone had fun! It cost $90 for all of us to go because it was $10 to get in and $5 for skate rental. It was worth it though because it got us out of the house and doing something different as a family. Garrett liked it better than I thought he would. The first time the boys came here was for a youth activity not long after we moved here, and I ended up coming back to pick Garrett up because he was nervous about going and said he wanted to go as a family first. Well, it took us long enough, but we finally made it happen. He even said afterwards that he'd like to get his own ice skates that would fit him better. I told him he could bring a girl here on a date and he smiled at that. Alice said she fell a total of 6 times. That's not bad for being her first time ever. It was the first time ever for both girls. Sometimes, they were even allowed to use a big orange construction cone to push around on the ice to help with balance. Next time I go, I'll need to put mole skins on the sides of my feet or something because they were hurting a lot. It was a good thing the session was only for 1.5 hours. We were all done by then.

Garrett started out holding on to the side but eventually got comfortable enough to let go and skate around without it.

Finally got everyone in the picture!

We didn't really make plans for New Years Eve because we knew we'd be watching the Fiesta Bowl where the Boise State Broncos would face Penn State. Unfortunately, our team lost 31-14. We did try to invite at least one family over, the Wingerts. They said they had invited someone over already (the Horne's, whom we are friends with also) but said we could join them after the football game was over. Right at the end of the game, we got a call from Nikki. She is struggling again because she's finding it hard to make more friends also and needing to get out and do fun things other than school and work. We gave her some suggestions, like finding a group that does art or DND (because she's interested in that). She felt better after talking with us and we said we'd check back in with her on Friday to see if she's found a group yet.

After getting off the phone with her, we headed over. It was a little after 9pm by then. Garrett was pretty upset by the BSU loss and decided he would stay home. Jack and some of the Wingert kids took off immediately to go to the New Year's Even regional dance. Curtis had to drive them over to Richland, so I waited at the Wingerts where they were eating food and playing games. We ended up playing a card game called "Taco Cat Goat Cheese Pizza" and a board game called "Poetry for Neanderthals". I liked the card game better. Then when I realized that it was close to midnight for Idaho, I was able to look up the live video for the Potato Drop. This was the first time our friends had seen it. The potato dropping was not anything spectacular but the fireworks were pretty good. Then we looked up the count down for Seattle when it was our turn for the midnight countdown. This time I made sure Alice was in the room. The neighbors were lighting off fireworks and the kids ran out to look at them. It was a good time. By the time we all got home and went to bed it was around 1am. Everyone slept in until at least 8:30. Garrett was watching "Open Season" when we got home but we made him turn it off. He finished watching first thing in the morning and I watched with him.

We did not have plans at all on New Year's Day and were pretty tired, but eventually we did some cleaning up and put our Christmas decorations away. Then Curtis had the idea that we could get some ingredients to make our own homemade pizzas. Everyone wanted to except Jack, so he just made himself a grilled cheese sandwich. Curtis and I are trying to eat healthier and lose weight again so he whipped up a cauliflower crust for the first time. It was actually pretty good, except it was a little too wet. It said we needed to use a cheesecloth for draining the cooked cauliflower, but we didn't have one of those. We will need to get one! The kids used premade dough from the store.

Charlotte and Alice's pizza. They said this was one of the best pizzas they ever had.

Garrett's pizza. He wanted to try Hawaiian on one side and supreme on the other. He liked both.

Curtis and I did one together. It had chorizo meat, pepperoni, bacon and onions. His half also had jalapenos and mushrooms.

We ended the night by Curtis and I watching his new movie "Lincoln" which actually came out in 2012 but we had never seen it. It was a little tough to follow what was going on but still a good movie. The kids watched their own things. 

Curtis and I were able to get up at 6am this morning and do a workout together in our room just using the app on my phone. It's nice to have someone to do it with. Then we showered and he took off for work and I got ready for my first wellness exam since moving here. It's hard to find doctors over here but I was able to get in with a nurse practitioner. She's only been in the area since June. She was very nice and got me set up to get my first mammogram and she's referring me to a gynecologist to do a pap since I haven't had that done in 8 years. I also haven't done blood work in a long time, so some time in the next two months I'll need to drop in to the lab to do that. Then she'll have me in again to go over the results. Starting the year off with a bang getting this stuff done. 

On a side note, Curtis and I did some finances last week and started canceling or changing things. We found we could save a lot of money by bundling our phone service with our internet, which is Spectrum. Verizon was charging us around $220 a month (Disney Plus was paid through them also so that's included in this number). Our new bill should be around $70/month. Spectrum uses the Verizon towers, so the service should basically be the same, just way cheaper! We didn't realize, however, that we hadn't finished paying off our phones, so we had to do that. Both of us thought we had a 2 year contract and it had been 2.5 years, so we thought we were good. It must have been a 3 year contract because it said we still had 7 payments to make. We just paid it all off to be done with them. We also canceled Disney Plus, Peacock, and YouTube TV (after the football game), and paused Audible for 3 months. It felt good getting all of these things taken care of. Now to just be better at our spending habits at the store and restaurants.

Happy New Year and 2025 here we come!!