Farewell Open Houses

 I knew for months that I wanted to have some sort of party so that I could see as many as we could before we move. Last weekend was all about open houses for that very reason. On Saturday we did one for friends, most of which were from our old ward. Curtis counted it up later and says we had 41 people come to that one. It made me so happy to see so many come! We served cheeses, meats, crackers, apples, oranges, meatballs, a veggie tray, homemade guacamole with chips and smoked ham. (I told you Curtis is addicted to smoking 😂). I had decided that we didn't need any dessert items after all the sweet stuff we had for the holidays. I was able to get a picture with most of our friends that came but not all. 

Alice with her friend Layla.

Charlotte with her friends Alice, Brooklyn and Bryston. (Brooklyn and Bryston were our old neighbors)

Kathy Tuck, me, Georgia Turner, and Brother Tuck - from 37th ward

Sharlene Nickell with her two boys, Rhett and Jens. I don't know why I wasn't thinking, Jack should have been up close in this picture, not in the background! Rhett and Jack are friends. (From 37th ward)

Matt and Cindy Barrus with their kids. Charlotte was friends with their son, Tyson. (From 37th ward)

Mark and Joan Hamilton from 37th ward.

David and Donna Fitzen. One of the few remaining long time 37th/7th ward members.  We moved in after they did and lived in the same neighborhood. Nikki is friends with their son, Logan.

Vicki and Whitney Johnson (mother and daughter - friends since I was little)

Kay Haney - another long time 37th/7th ward member friend who also lived in the same neighborhood. I served as her 2nd counselor in the Primary presidency right before we moved.

Julie and Scott Gibbons - a friend from Curtis's childhood. (I had a crush on his younger brother, David, in middle school 😆)

Trey Bledsoe - a friend of Garrett's from 30th ward (our current ward). He is also in band with Garrett and was a drum major in marching band.

Bryan and Laura Rovig with their kids - Jenna, Ari and Kai. Also friends from 37th ward.

Rick Tuha - our friend from 37th ward but he's in the new Tonga branch they started last spring. One of the nicest guys you'll meet.

Romar and Sarah Karl - friends from 37th ward.

Jack with his best friend Porter Ballantyne.

Heather and Tracy Ballantyne - friends from 37th ward. They came late and played a new game called "Throw Throw Burrito" with us. Curtis is holding one of the burritos. It's a fun game that mixes "Spoons" and "Dodge Ball" together. Tracy is the one who went to Washington with Curtis New Year's weekend.

Right after church on Sunday from 2:30-5:30 we had an open house next door at my in-laws with the Butterfield family where they had a nacho bar. Shauna and John were over there before we got there. Our niece Sarah came and then Jeanie and Glen. Wendy and Steve showed up with their two youngest boys, Ethan and Wyatt. I expected more but that was all that were able to come. I only got a few shots of the boys playing "Throw Throw Burrito". That's Jack's new favorite game, that he gave to Garrett for Christmas.

Ethan, Garrett, Curtis, John, Jack and Wyatt.

Later, Charlotte joined the boys.

John and Curtis having a burrito duel. Walk three paces, turn and throw the burrito to see who gets hit first.

Garrett and Wyatt having a burrito duel.

They had a lot of fun playing the game and I'm glad Jack got them to play it. Nowadays, we just sit and visit at Butterfield family gatherings, so it was nice to see them play a game together, especially the boys.

All of the family left around 5:00 but then another family from church came and brought us cookies. She knew we'd be next door since I talked to her at church. It was Ruth Hansen (the primary president) and most of her kids, Brendan, Calvin, Logan, Hailey and Kyran. Garrett is friends with Calvin and Logan and went on his first date with Hailey. Unfortunately, I did not get a picture taken with them. I was lazy about it on Sunday. Jack got 4 of them to play "Throw Throw Burrito" again with him and Garrett. I think Hailey beat all the boys. Ha ha

After the game was over, we went back to our house to refill our supply of veggies. We took our leftover guacamole and chips and the veggie tray to our in-law's and then to Grandma Norton's house for our 3rd and final open house, this time with my family. Grandma made some brownies and Dad brought cookies, hot chocolate drink mixes and pop. By this time, Jack was ready to work on a puzzle. Grandma has been doing puzzles lately and Jack likes to work on them with her. They got out a puzzle of downtown Salt Lake with the temple. When we got over there, Debra Norton (Jack's wife) and Aunt Joyce were over visiting with Grandma. I hadn't seen Deb in years. Her husband, Jack, passed away last spring but she is now living in Nampa. I wasn't able to attend the funeral. She left after we showed up but Joyce hung around. Tamara's family, Melissa's family and Scott's family all came over. The younger kids played downstairs while everyone else visited or worked on the puzzle. Thank goodness Laverne insisted on getting pictures or I might not have done it here either.

Us with Aunt Debra

Livvie, Melissa and me

Visiting

Tamara had a mouth full of apples. That was her dessert since she can't have gluten or dairy. You can see the guys working on the puzzle in the background.

Curtis and Chris

Me relaxing and visiting.

More visiting.

Livvie, Melissa, Nathan, me, Curtis, Scott, Hawkins, Jill, and Scotlyn.

Butterfields and Floyds

Us with Laverne (Mom), Grandma Norton, Aunt Joyce and Dad.

One more so Charlotte can be silly with her sweatshirt.

It was a great weekend visiting and seeing so many friends and family, all loved ones! I consider it an early birthday gift to me since we're leaving right before my birthday. I had hoped to be here in Idaho on my birthday but because Curtis has a work meeting up in Washington next Thursday, it just made more sense to move the weekend before so he wouldn't have to do so much traveling. It's not how I imagined my 40th birthday would be but then again, I didn't plan on moving out last summer right around our 20th anniversary either! Talk about timing. Oh well, it is what it is. We are now getting serious about packing more things up and getting ready to move this weekend. We'll pick up the U-Haul truck Friday morning and then a couple of guys from a moving company we hired will be helping us load the truck while the kids are in school. We'll load everything except mattresses, bedding and suitcases (so we can sleep on them one last time). Then we'll head out Saturday morning to Kennewick, Washington. Scary and exciting but on to our new adventure! 

New Year's and After

Curtis was anxious to take a load over to the new house and I finally told him he could go New Year's weekend. He took both boys with him and our friends, Tracy and Porter Ballantyne. Porter is Jack's best friend and we happen to be really good friends with his parents. It was a guy's weekend for them! We were very appreciative of Tracy going because he was able to drive Curtis's work car over for him and leave it at the house. Curtis had been worrying about how we were going to get all of our vehicles over there so this helped relieve some of that stress. We also went ahead and paid Tracy some money for helping. The boys did do some work while they were there but they also brought a TV and video games so they could play or watch a movie. Curtis had found that the basement had flooded due to some blocked drains and gutters. They got those cleaned up so hopefully that won't happen again. We were planning on tearing out all of the carpet anyway, so the boys removed all the carpet and took it to the dump. We also learned that the previous owner never used the community mailbox so there was no key to check the mail. They always went to the post office to pick up the mail. I'm going to have to go down to the post office after we move to get the key and any mail that might be accumulating already.

This is our friend Tracy. He helped Curtis install the new microwave and oven. Then he tested it out for us by cooking some steak on the stovetop. Tracy is actually distantly related to us through Ada Ballantyne. 

While the boys had their weekend in Washington, I stayed behind with Alice and Charlotte. Nikki had flown back to Tacoma on the 29th. Tamara invited us over for New Year's Eve and it was a lot of fun! We brought over stuff to make pizza rolls and homemade guacamole, plus some cheese balls and chocolate covered pretzels. Tamara provided pop, chips and a new type of pig in a blanket. We played some games, did some dancing and watched Encanto. Right before midnight, Grandma and Jess and Diane showed up to ring in the new year with us. Tamara bought horn blowers and confetti. We also had sparkling cider.

Making the pizza rolls.

The new type of pigs in a blanket. They turned out so cute!

Charlotte busting a move on the dance floor.

Cartwheel time with Tony!

Since Jess, Diane and Grandma came late, we visited longer than we planned. I didn't end up getting in bed until 1:30am that night! I was SO tired at church the next day because it was also Fast Sunday. Thankfully, our ward meets at 12:00 noon now so it allowed us to sleep in. And even at noon, the girls and I were late! It's so not worth it to stay up that late. The boys came back Sunday evening and they were very tired as well. 

We were finally able to get Garrett in to his orthodontists appointments on the 3rd and 4th after having missed it in November and then cancelling the week of Christmas because he was sick. He hasn't been good about wearing his rubber bands on his braces but now that we are going to be traveling back and forth to finish us his appointments, I'm going to be on his case to make sure he wears them! I feel like he could have had his braces off early had he been good about it. The doctor said his case will be another 4 to 6 months. Honestly though, I like having an excuse to come back for a visit! It's just tricky planning his appointments so that he won't miss any school. The next appointment will either be on March 13th or 24th. Those are no school days for Kennewick School District. Well, the 13th we're not totally sure if it will be no school because it's a snow day make up day. That's why I made two appointments, just in case. 

The kids break ended and went back to school on Wednesday the 4th. That morning I called the kids' schools to let them know their last day will be the 13th but I didn't call Jack's school early enough. His new school in Kennewick already requested his records and so the secretary withdrew him from the Nampa School district, thinking we had already moved. They of course, had to put him back in but there was a school program he couldn't get into until two days later because of that. It was a little frustrating but oh well. One more week to go.

Here's a couple of fun pictures of kids doing different things during the week after Christmas.

Garrett and Curtis were learning how to use one of his gifts. They were learning how to program and Garrett loves it! They programmed lights to go on and off at certain times.

Charlotte colored a page from her big coloring book. She says she's going to give this one to a friend at school.

Garrett did this 750 piece puzzle. He wanted to challenge himself and see if he could do it by himself so I wasn't allowed to help. That was hard for me to do! Although, I think Jack snuck in a few pieces. 

Oh, I forgot to mention the trouble we had with Charlotte's new mini sewing machine she got for Christmas. I spent half a day trying to figure it out because it was not stitching properly and the thread was way too tight. After trying to get help from my Aunt Karen on the phone and my mother in law coming over (both are very good at sewing) I finally made the decision to send it back to Amazon. We haven't quite figured out what we're going to do to replace it yet but I'm thinking about just letting her use my sewing machine and buying her own little sewing box and filling it with sewing supplies. Maybe I will give her my old one and get myself a new one. Right now, she's happy using her other Christmas gifts and we're just focused on moving now.

Also, the day before the kids went back to school (the 3rd) I brushed the girls hair in the morning and decided it was time for a hair cut. I didn't want to mess with trying to schedule with either Melissa, Jeanie or my friend Amanda so I just did it myself! I figured it couldn't be that hard if all I needed to do was part their hair down the middle and try to cut a straight line around the bottom. It was a little more difficult than I thought because their hair curls or waves but I think I did pretty good for a beginner on girl's hair.

Before

Before

After

After

Before

Before

After

After

Both Alice and I weren't sure we liked how short I cut her hair. I didn't mean to cut it that short but it happened. I'm sad that her curls are gone also but it was getting so difficult to brush through the knots. I was just wanted to trim it.  Alice did say at one point that she wanted her hair like Charlotte's, so that's what she got. It is growing on both of us though. Charlotte, however, loves her new hair cut and so do I! Short hair looks really good on her but of course I think they are both so cute in their new hair cuts! New year, new do!

I almost forgot to add, that on Monday the 2nd, we finally sold our red van that we've had for 16.5 years! I wasn't sure we could get much for it so I was thinking to list it for $1000. Curtis was thinking $2000. After seeing what other people were selling their similar vans for, we found we could probably get more. We listed it for $3,250.00. We got 3 appointments set up after an hour of posting it on Facebook Marketplace! The first couple who looked at it wanted to buy it though so we cancelled the other two appointments. They came back the next day with the money and just like that it was gone. One less thing we need to worry about before our move! Bitter sweet because I loved that van but it was just time to upgrade.

Christmas 2022

Christmas Eve and Day were fairly quiet and relaxed here at home this year. We already had our Butterfield Christmas FHE with the Butterfields and Laverne was still keeping away from people because of her health situation and Grandma Norton has been in Utah since after Thanksgiving. So we opted to just stay home and do our own thing. In the late afternoon we watched a church video of the nativity and talked about it a little. We played Apples to Apples afterwards. We thought the ornament activity from the ward Christmas party was a fun idea so we bought some supplies to make our own and did that. Some kids would play video games while the rest of us worked on the craft. Then we would trade.

What they looked like when you first put them in.

They melted pretty quick.

And afterward.

Alice made the most. The boys didn't really want to make one but we made them do at least one.

Curtis is wearing his on his ear. Silly guy. I only made one because the girls kept needing my help.

After our project was done, we spent some time cleaning up the house to get it looking nice for Santa. Then we opened Christmas pajamas. Well, they aren't actually Christmas pajamas, they are new pajamas you can wear all year. Curtis and Nikki both said they didn't want or need new jammies so they didn't get any but I had Nikki open mine for me because I did want new ones.

Getting ready to open the pjs!

Wearing our new jammies!

After we all got cozy in our pjs, we settled down to listen to Curtis read "The Night Before Christmas", as is our tradition. When the story was over we put on the movie "White Christmas". Jack decided he was going to skip the movie and go straight to bed. He was tired and still not 100 percent better yet. The movie was a good way to get Alice to fall asleep also. After the movie was over, Nikki and Garrett went to bed while Curtis, Charlotte and I played Santa. Yep, Charlotte found out the truth about Santa last spring when her friend at school kept saying he wasn't real, so we decided to go ahead and tell her. But that also meant she could be Santa's Helper (SH) this year and she enjoyed doing that, which meant she put Santa gifts out and helped with stockings, except her own.

Reading the story.

Even Sage got cozy and fell asleep. She is so cute!

Charlotte was up around 1a.m. or so and woke Alice up. She came into my room and said she couldn't sleep but I told her to go back to bed and try. She ended up crying in the hallway and I just did not want to take it. I got a little upset with both girls being up and threatened to wait until after church before opening presents if they got out of bed again. I was tired and had to wake up early so I could shower and get dressed before opening presents since we were going to church that morning and I needed to be there by 10am to warm up with the choir and sing prelude songs before the program at 10:30a.m. So, I didn't want to hear the kids all night and had to make that point known. Fortunately, that was the only time the girls came in, probably because I also locked my bedroom door after that and turned my fan up to high to drown out noise. But even after I got upset with the girls in the night they still woke up happy and excited. We started with opening stockings some time after 7a.m.

A men's grooming kit, orange, Reese's, a coin game that looks like corn hole, and some peanuts.

Alice got new hair clips, stickers, a coloring squishy that can be washed and colored on again, peanuts, an orange, and bubblegum.

Charlotte got pretty much the same as Alice.

Jack got a men's grooming kit, a small game called chicken fling, an orange, peanuts, and Oreos.

Nikki got a new razor (because she left hers here and I started using it, she asked about it when she came home). She also got an orange, peanuts, Nerds candy, and an ice sphere maker to make ice balls for her glass of water or drink.

Then we had the kids hand out gifts to everyone. My in-laws came over just in time to watch us start opening presents. It was fun to have them there.

Alice got a walking unicorn from Santa.

Charlotte got a small beginners sewing machine from Santa.

Jack got a finger piano from Santa.

Garrett also got a finger piano, painted dark blue.

Nikki got a pillowcase that says "Call Mom"

There's her mini sewing machine. I told you it was tiny!

I found a fun puzzle box to stick a gift card in that you had to solve to get the gift card out. Nikki got it pretty quick. We gave her a gift card to Walmart since we know she's limited on space since she flew home with only one suitcase.

All of Alice's loot.

Charlotte's gifts.

Nikki's gifts. She also got a Magpen, which is a pen that has magnets that you can take on and off and play with them.

Jack's gifts.

Garrett and Jack got similar gifts this year.

After opening the gifts, we warmed up some monkey bread to eat for breakfast along with our goodies from our stockings. Then we had to get ready for church. Our Sacrament meeting was mostly musical, with narration in between and a few words from Bishop Roundy. I was happy that I was able to sing with the choir for Christmas. I hadn't done that since before the pandemic. The roads were very icy that morning so I wasn't sure we would be singing since some other stakes in Nampa cancelled church. East Stake did not though. That was my last time singing with this ward since we are moving soon and I enjoyed it. I was able to get a picture of our family after church. Garrett is always so quick to go change after church, that I had to make him change back into Sunday clothes. Nikki just wore her normal clothes to church but that's fine. We're just glad she came.

This is the first year that we did not go anywhere on Christmas, other than church. It was nice and relaxing and I loved spending time with our kids. With Christmas being on a Sunday, that meant no video games. Garrett and Jack bought each other games since they knew mom and dad weren't going to do it this year. They had to wait until Monday to get to play them. That made it easier for us to spend quality time together. We played some new games and Garrett and I did a puzzle together. One of the new games is called Throw Throw Burrito. It is a fun game that is basically a mix of Spoons and dodgeball. Nikki had gone to visit Ted for a bit but she played with us after she got back. For our Christmas dinner, Curtis cooked a new garlic chicken recipe and I made home made mac and cheese mixed with cut up meatballs and a little broccoli. It was good but I probably won't add broccoli next time. It just tastes better with out it, in my opinion. Alice wasn't happy about the broccoli either. She usually likes mac and cheese but she wouldn't touch it this time.

I was able to us my new tripod that I got for Christmas to take this picture.

The boys playing with their finger pianos. They were learning how to play some tunes by ear. It was fun to listen to them.

They did have a couple of songs that came with the pianos.

Curtis got me a wearable blanket that is super soft and some fun wool socks. The puzzles are a family gift from Garrett. Curtis also got me the tripod for my cell phone. My in laws got us a pickle ball set and my parents got us some new silicone mats. I love all of my gifts and can't wait to use them!

I wanted a picture of Curtis with his gifts but he was busy and then it didn't happen. I got him another new shirt for wearing to work, new church socks, and slippers. Jack got him a set from the movie Elf that included a mug, socks, and keychain. 

We ended the night watching the 2nd episode of Season 3 of the Chosen. It was so good and a great way to end the Christmas day!