The Appointment Trip We Have Anxiously Awaited!

The weekend finally arrived to go to Nampa for Garrett's appointment to get his braces removed! Like the title says, we have anxiously been waiting for this for a LONG time. Not only did we have his appointment, but Jack had some gifts that he needed to deliver to FSY friends, and the Butterfields were having their Christmas family home evening like they try to do each year. With all of those things going on, we decided to make this a family trip. All of the kids had to miss one day of school, but it would be worth it. 

Jack made beanie hats for his friends. He found out their favorite colors and we bought the yarn. He's been working on them for months. It was a good Sunday activity to do after church.

Originally, I had scheduled his appointment for Friday the 13th but had to reschedule it for Monday the 16th due to Curtis's Keller Christmas party being on the 13th in Lewiston. Curtis and I drove over to Lewiston that day, leaving around 3:15, and we had Garrett pick up the girls from school for the first time ever. Unsure of what the weather was going to do, we wanted to make sure we had plenty of time to get there, just in case. We actually got into Lewiston about an hour early, so we did some Christmas shopping at Walmart before heading over to dinner. They had a nice party room set up for our group that even had a decorated Christmas tree in the corner. It was nice. We had dinner and then did a white elephant gift exchange. Curtis was so excited for people to see the gift he brought, which was a chia pet designed to look like Bob Ross. You rub on some seeds in a gel or something, where his hair would be, and it will grow to look like green hair. Funny enough, that gift got stolen twice during the game! Curtis ended up with a doorstop and I got a dozen Bundt cake cupcakes of different flavors. We drove home after the dinner and didn't get there until almost midnight. Fortunately, we didn't have to drive in any snow, just rain.

The next morning, we got up early to drop off Milo to the dog sitter and pack up to head to Nampa. We stopped in Hermiston on the way to deliver some of Jack's gifts but the friends he was supposed to meet there did not show up and were unable to come that morning. There were a couple more friends in the Baker City area as well. We had a hard time finding the address for one of them but eventually found it. They live out in the country and own horses. They even invited us to saddle up some horses and go for a ride. Charlotte would have loved that, but we didn't have time. Jack was able to leave the other gift at this person's home so she could deliver it to the other friend for him. Then we continued on.

The kids were scheduled to visit with friends as soon as we got to Nampa. We decided it would be easier to just drop off the girls to the Wallace's in our old neighborhood on the way. The rest of us went to my in-laws and unpacked everything from the van. Then I drove the boys over to the Hansen's from 30th ward to hang out over there with their boys. Curtis stayed with his mom to rest and then go shopping, and I drove over to my dad's house to visit and give him some temple names we had done baptisms and an endowment for, and he gave me some more baptism names to do. After visiting for a bit, I left to go do some shopping at the thrift stores, D.I. and Savers. I found a few things at each store. By the time I finished shopping it was time to head back to pick up Jack and then Porter and take them out to Caldwell to Indian Creek Plaza to meet another friend for gift drop off. Only one friend was able to come so again, he had this friend deliver the rest of the gifts to the other friends. I decided it wasn't worth the time to drive all the way back to my in-laws' because by the time I would get there I would have to turn around and go get them, so I went to the Walmart in Caldwell and did some shopping until Jack called me a little while later. After picking them up, we drove over to the Wallace's to pick up the girls. We went back to my in-laws and then Jack and Porter wanted to go back to the Hansens to hang out. Garrett was still there. At that point, I was tired of driving and said Curtis had to do it. After he dropped them off, he went and did a little shopping at Walmart, then picked them up around 11:00pm. We were all very tired during 9am church the next morning!

Alice got a birthday gift from the Wallace's. She was pretty happy.

 

We went to church in the 30th ward this time since we were staying with my in-laws, and it was the ward we were in while living in the rental. It was fun to see people we knew again. I did better at remembering names this time than I did last time! After church, we came back to the house and just rested and then helped get ready for the Butterfield party that would happen at 4pm. Curtis and I helped his dad get the Zuppa Toscana soup cooked and then the girls and Curtis helped his mom bake some Almond Crescent cookies. The cookies are an old family recipe and it's tradition for them to make it each year. 

After we got home from church we noticed this huge wasp nest in the neighbor's tree across the street. I've never seen one so big in person!

The nest is hanging right about their camper. They really should knock it down. This would be a good time of year to do it since they are hibernating.

Rolling out the cookies and cutting them.

Curtis is wearing a new shirt I gave him as a birthday gift. It was the only gift I gave him thus far since we are going to celebrate his with Alice's birthday the following week. It is Christmas colored and I wanted him to be able to wear it to the work party and the weekend with family. 

A lot of family showed up for the Butterfield party. We ate soups, rolls, cornbread, cookies, homemade caramels and popcorn. My in-laws both shared their testimonies after dinner. There was a lot of visiting going on and then slowly everyone started leaving until it was just us again. I have a hard time with crowds now and so Jeanie and I got busy with washing dishes while people visited. She also has a hard time with crowds and keeping busy with something helped. I also learned that Jeanie has lost 70 lbs! That gave me motivation to start trying to lose weight and exercise again. She said she drinks a bunch of water 30 minutes before and after meals, and she eats smaller portions. She looks really good! After everyone left, we watched the two Christmas episodes of Little House on the Prairie. Then Curtis and I played Mexican Train with his parents since we had just given it to them for Christmas. It was fun to play a game with them.

The next morning we woke up to it snowing!! I had not expected this at all. It was snowing heavy and I was worried about driving around in it and what it would mean for the mountain passes for our trip home. Garrett's appointment was at 9am and so we left early to make sure we'd have plenty of time to drive slowly and get there on time. The roads weren't as bad as I imagined they would be but it was still a little scary to drive in it. I actually dropped him off and then drove across Nampa to pick up a full copy of my kid's medical records from their pediatrician. They only gave me a small portion last Spring because they thought it would be enough for their new doctors. I decided I wanted a full record to keep for our own records, just in case. It was a slow drive and by the time I got back to the orthodontist office, it had been almost an hour. They said Garrett's appointment would take about 1.5 hours. They got the braces off and put a permanent retainer on bottom and took an impression of his upper teeth for the retainer. We'd have to come back at 2:00 to pick up his retainer. He was very happy to have them off!

Before

After

This was the snow after we got back, and it had started to melt by then.

We had some time to kill, so we just relaxed and the girls came up with their own secret sister handshake. It was pretty cute that they did this. I got it on video but also got a picture.

When it got close to Garrett's 2nd appointment, we had everyone pack up their stuff and get it ready. As soon as Garrett and I came back from his appointment, we would load up the van and go. On our way out of town though, we stopped at my dad's again to give them a Christmas gift of Bananagrams and a chocolate orange. We visited for a little bit and then hit the road. It was close to 4:00 before we got on the road, which was good because that gave the roads time to clear off. The drive home was pretty smooth, just some fog here and there, and wet roads. It snowed a little bit but didn't stick. And we made it home safe and sound. We also stopped in Hermiston again to get some dinner and to have one of Jack's friends come get the remaining gifts to hand out for him.

Opening our Christmas gift. It was in the prank box that we had used on Jack's birthday earlier this year. The prank was that the gift inside was a nap sack, a sack to cover your head and take a nap anywhere. We used it on my in-laws' gift as well. 

A picture of all of us before we left.

The girls were exercising by going up and down the stairs with their arms doing the work.

They started doing this at my in-law's house and then did it again over at my dad's house. You could say, they also motivated me to exercise again. Ha ha

A little bit of snow on the ground, but the roads were clear. Thank goodness!

We now only have to check in a couple more times to do retainer checks. They are as urgent to get down as his regular appointments. Normally they would have Garrett come back in a month after getting the retainer but because we travel, they said I could wait longer. We made it for the end of February, weather depending. His gums are swollen from getting the braces off but should go down and they will probably have to make another retainer after that. So, if his retainer feels too loose, we'll have to go down sooner rather than later. But we're so happy to be DONE with his braces after 3 years and 9 months!! 

2nd Week of December

We had our last activity days for 2024 on December 9th and last activity day ever for 5 of our girls. Of course, we wanted to have some Christmas fun with them and even though we had an extra 15 minutes that day, we still didn't have enough time to play our games, as usual. Snack time just takes up a lot of time, but we feel they need something since they're coming straight from school (at least most of them are).

Our little "Christmas tree" with a gift we put together for each girl. They had two wooden ornaments (one with a picture of them inside it), a Kit Kat candy bar, a packet of hot chocolate, and a candy cane.

We used the young women's room that's attached to the kitchen. All set up for snacks and crafts.

Some of our craft items and a game of Bingo that we never got to play.

Our group of girls all ready for a delicious snack.

Working on the crafts. I was so busy that I never got a picture of anyone, not even my girls, with their finished crafts. They made wreaths out of pipe cleaners and paper angels with nice paper.

Charlotte is getting the creative bug just like her big sister, Nikki. She made a Christmas pop up card for her dad, and I think she did a great job with it.

She loved making this so much, that she made more cards just like it for kids at school.

Our Relief Society Christmas dinner was on Tuesday the 10th. We had it at the Life Tributes Center again in downtown. I was asked to make 2 loaves of cranberry bread (that is basically artisan bread with nuts and cranberries added). I once again did a practice loaf beforehand, and it is very tasty! I brought them to the center early when I came to help set up. They had already decorated by the time I got there since I had gone to help Alice's class that morning with a Christmas art project. So, I helped them put together the chocolate mousse dessert cups. I also saw that they had the butter in dishes in the refrigerator. I said we need to get those on the table right now so they will be soft and spreadable by the time we eat dinner 5 hours later. I took it upon myself to do just that. I hate having hard butter when you're trying to spread it on a roll or bread. The butter was a little hard by dinner time, but it was still spreadable.

My boys did not sign up to help serve this year, which kind of surprised me because they had fun with it last year. It was mostly young women that came this time. First, we had our dinner and then they read a story called "Why Christmas Trees Aren't Perfect" where the pages were displayed on a screen. Then a man who was the son of one of the ward members came and played his violin and viola for us. He was amazing! We felt like we were at a professional concert. Afterwards, they passed out a gift of a framed picture of trees (to go with the story) that quoted a scripture "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto the least of these my brethren ye have done it unto me". It made for a great dinner night! 

I was given a chocolate bar for helping with the activity. I have never heard of this brand of chocolate before, but it was good. And that's the picture gift that was given to everyone. They had different colored frames, and I chose white.

On Wednesday the 11th, I finally got Charlotte in to see an eye doctor to check on her eyes. She had not been seen by anyone since before we moved, which was spring of 2022. I mostly held off because she was not good at wearing her glasses at school or for reading like she was supposed to. I didn't want to take her in and have them give her a new prescription and possibly frames if she wasn't going to wear them, but she did finally start wearing them at school this year. The simple eye test that they did at the wellness exam suggested that her eyes might be getting better because they said she had better sight than a year ago. Well, I decided to take her into an eye doctor after that to see if she would still need them. After we took her in, we found that her eyesight is actually a little worse. They were able to scan her glasses with a machine to see what prescription she has. She is far sighted and has astigmatism. The doctor said she should wear her glasses all of the time and that she should wear an eye patch over her left eye once a day for an hour to help strengthen her right eye. She also needs a new prescription. The right eye needs a stronger prescription, and the left eye needs a weaker prescription. The prescription may change again after she strengthens her eye. He said to do the eye patch every day for 3 months. After that, just once a month. I was able to order some cloth eye patches that slide over the top of her glasses and cover the side, so we won't have to use the sticky band aid type. She's been very good at remembering to do it herself.

I took pictures of her trying on glasses for new frames so she could see what she looked like. These are the new pair she ordered.

She didn't like the idea of having to wear her glasses all of the time now, but she has gotten used to it and actually likes to wear them. We still haven't received her new glasses yet because the office was closed from Christmas to New Years. She will likely get them later this week or next week.

1st Week of December

The first day of December we put up the Christmas tree and decorations. I thought I hadn't taken any pictures, but I guess I did a few, so I'll share those.

The girls picking out ornaments for the tree.

I only put a few ornaments on, and the girls did the rest while I put other decorations up.

We told the kids they needed to get their wish lists made over Thanksgiving weekend. The girls wrote theirs down on paper, so I took pictures of them.

This is Alice's. At first the main things she asked for were the Barbie dream house and a claw machine, but later Charlotte talked her into asking for a trampoline.

Charlotte's list

We have already done the bird thing, so no way was I giving in to that again.

The first Saturday in December was our ward Christmas party and it was a breakfast this year. I signed up to make a French toast bake and wanted to test it out beforehand. I also signed up to make a bunch of 3D snowflakes, and I ended up making 22 of them with the girls' help. We delivered them to the church the Wednesday before so they could decorate the church.

My test bake of the French toast bake. It was good!

Our haul of snowflakes that we delivered to the church. We did not want them to get squished, so we spread them out as much as we could in the back of the van.

That week was busy as the girls and I decided to rearrange their room and get the beds stacked into a bunkbed, like it was meant to be, so they would have more space in their room. Curtis also had his birthday and even though we didn't do a full celebration, we at least had his birthday dinner. He asked for steak and he ended up cooking everything. The very same day, Alice earned a couple of awards at her school assembly. One for Perfect Attendance and one for academic excellence.

We moved beds and the desk and drawers but there's still lots of organizing to do and we needed new stuffed animal nets hung.

The perfect attendance award came with a coupon for a free scoop of ice cream at Baskin Robbins. We used it right away. It was a good way to get her out of the house also because one of her gifts was being delivered. The other kids were able to bring it inside while we were gone.

The steak acted as his cake. No, he did not eat it all himself. We helped!

The girls made him a big yellow dog made out of cardstock paper, and a card. He hung it at work.

Sage likes the high bed. It took her a little time to figure out the best way to get up there, but now she gets up there all of the time.

That Friday morning (the 6th) our neighbor Susie brought over a bag of treats that she baked. She had to get them delivered early since she was getting knee surgery on the 13th. She loves to bake. She is the neighbor that gave us lots of apples, so obviously there were apple goodies in her bag.

Apple butter, macaroons, apple bread, dehydrated apples, and a pastry I'm not sure what type.

Many times we see people park their RVs at the Walmart parking lot. Well, it was a shock to see that this one had caught fire and was a complete loss. I don't know what happened or if anyone was injured, but I hope not. So sad.

When driving by the other side looks like an empty shell.

Like I said, our ward Christmas party was that Saturday, and it was a breakfast themed with the Polar Express. All who wanted could wear their pajamas. I wore pajama bottoms and slippers but had a regular long-sleeved top. Curtis was the only one in our family who did not wear any pajamas. The boys were excited to wear their robes with their pajamas. The French toast bake I made that morning got a little over cooked and a little dark on top. I think it was because I was baking two pans at the same time. We came home with almost a whole pan. It was a fun activity though. Our Elder's Quorum President dressed up like the conductor and the table that had the food on it was decorated like a train. While eating, they read the Polar Express book. The bishop was able to tie everything into the celebration of Christ as well.

They had a separate table set up for hot chocolate and different treats you could add to your chocolate. There was an activity for the kids to make a mini snow globe and a chef's hat. Santa had come but he was there at 8:30 for picture taking and we didn't get there until almost 9:00, which is when the breakfast started. There was other picture opportunities set up in the Relief Society room also, with a train and the nativity.  And the primary room had coloring sheets and a scavenger hunt for the kids. The nice thing is that the three wards that share this building all went with the same theme so we could just leave up the decorations afterwards. Our ward put up the lights and snowflakes, but we didn't have to take them down.

Charlotte and her friend Jane.

Alice and her friend Laila.

Finally got all of us in a picture.

They also had a thing where, depending on the first letter of your name and the month you were born, would determine your elf name. Mine was Star McJingles.

On Sunday the girls decided they wanted to bake some cookies. They chose to make oatmeal (without raisins) and then we delivered some to a couple in our ward, the Bullocks. Sister Bullock is taking care of her husband who has a lot of health issues and is suffering from dementia. She was so happy to have us bring her cookies because she hadn't had one in a while, since her husband is also diabetic. She is a very bubbly person and fun to talk with. Our boys (Curtis and Garrett mostly) regularly take her the sacrament on Sundays as well, so now she has met our whole family (except Nikki). It felt good to be able to serve her.

Some cookie doughs you just have to lick the beater!

Whew! Like I said, it was a busy week!