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!!

Birthdays and Christmas

After we had homemade apple pie for Thanksgiving, Alice decided that's what she wanted for her birthday instead of cake. Right after we got back home from church, I whipped up an apple pie. It was easy because all I had to do was make the pie crust. The apple pie filling was waiting in the pantry from when I made it in October. She was very anxious to do her birthday celebration, but we had to eat our dinner first. But we finally did it. We sang once and she was starting to blow out candles when I realized that I forgot to call Nikki because she wanted to sing with us. So, we lit the candles again after calling her up. She was in the middle of a nap so she didn't stay on the phone long. One funny thing is that Alice asked for apple pie and then she didn't even eat any until the next day, and she only ate one slice out of the entire pie. She did, however, eat some vanilla ice cream. Funny girl. 

It's great to be 8!

Charlotte wanted to light the candles.

Her reaction when she got Super Kitties toys from Charlotte. It is a TV show on Disney Plus.

For her big gift, we used her blindfold from her pin the horn game to cover her eyes while the boys brought it in.

I had it covered with black bags out in the truck.

Barbie's dream house! It's as tall as she is, and I had no idea how big it was when I went to pick it up. It was for sale on Facebook marketplace over in Pasco. I also didn't notice until after I got home that it had a big, cracked area on one of the walls. That's my fault for not looking at it closely before buying it, but it would have been nice if they had told me about it as well. It did also come with some accessories. The Barbie car was one of her new birthday gifts, so it has a garage to park in now. She loves her new Barbie house! The girls played with it all evening.

Finally, Curtis gets to open some gifts. He wasn't expecting anything.

A shirt, a sweater, a movie about Abraham Lincoln (found at Goodwill still new in package), Bananagrams, and Costco size bag of pistachios. He kept saying he wanted to get Bananagrams so I decided it was time.

Alice with her card from Gma Vernie and Gpa Tony, along with some money.

The girls showed Sage she could get on the Barbie house and then later she got on by herself. She approves!

Alice said this was the best birthday ever. It's safe to say she's a happy girl! 

This Christmas Eve and Day was pretty relaxed. We didn't have anyone over, and no family came to visit. It was mostly fine, but I did miss how we used to do our thing Christmas morning and then pack up and go to someone's house to eat and play games or watch movies. We tried to do that with our kids, but they are a little less accommodating. We did play a little on Christmas Eve while dinner was cooking. Right after dinner, the kids wanted to open their pajama presents, as is tradition. Curtis and I had started a Christmas puzzle that day and finished it on Christmas day. We ended up watching two movies on Christmas Eve because it was early enough. We watched Home Alone 2. Then we read "The Night Before Christmas" and the girls went downstairs to go to bed and the rest of us watched "White Christmas". After getting our finishing touches ready for Christmas Day, we got to bed around midnight. 

The girls played hangman with Curtis.

We cooked up some sausage rolls and a salad for our dinner.

I sat down and played a little also.

Time to open pajamas.

In pajamas and settled in to watch "Home Alone 2".

After the movie, Garrett said he wanted to be the one to read "The Night Before Christmas" this year, so Curtis let him.

Santa came and it's all ready for Christmas morning!

Stockings were filled. I love that the reflection of the Christmas tree showed up on the TV screen.

That night was a rough night of sleep for me. First, I couldn't get to sleep because Curtis was snoring louder than heck. He can fall asleep so easily. Some nights like this it's frustrating for me because it affects me being able to fall asleep. Then around 3am or so Charlotte comes in and tells me that she and Alice can't sleep. I tell her to go read books in their room. They leave, but then 2 hours later I can hear them playing downstairs and they were loud. I sent a text message to their phone watch to quiet down and thankfully they did. Then around 7:30 Jack comes in to wake us up. Ugh, I was so tired, but I got up and we did our thing.

Milo got his gift first. It was a portable dog water bottle that we can take on walks or hikes. Charlotte picked it out.

Garrett got a matching Boise State license plate cover for the front of his car. He also got a tie, a BSU mug, a book set of myths from different parts of the world, a car window shade, chocolate orange, rubber hand (from Alice), and a car that rolls when you pull it back and release. He was satisfied.

She got a light pink headband in her stocking and some pink heart sunglasses from Gma B. They matched her new pajamas perfectly!

Alice got her trampoline from Santa, three new headbands, stickers, a car (like Garrett's), a Chelsea Barbie doll, pink heart sunglasses, a keychain from Charlotte, a chocolate orange with pop candies in it, and multiple things from Gma B- blue dress, hair clips, coloring pages and crayons, pom poms and pool inflatables.

Charlotte got her gymnastics bar, rubber lifelike reptiles (snake, lizard and dragon head puppet), gloves, a blue car (like Garrett's), chocolate orange with pop candy in it, and multiple things from Gma B- pink heart sunglasses to match Alice's, pool inflatables, coloring supplies, a cat pillowcase, and two bags that could be used for makeup or other things. She also got a Book of Mormon from her Primary teacher that they had used the last year to mark and write things in. They added their testimony on the inside cover.

Jack got a new wallet, a necktie, BSU mug from Gma B, gloves, yellow car (like Garrett's), a rubber sticky hand from Alice, and a Lord of the Rings board game. Unfortunately, he learned this game is an extension and can't play it without the original. We went ahead and ordered the original game for him, but it won't come until after school break. He'll keep the extension as part of his birthday gift.

The boys put Charlotte's gymnastics bar together while Curtis cooked pancakes for breakfast.

He made them Christmas shaped pancakes.

Charlotte loves it. It slides around a bit on the hard floor though, so we need to figure out how to keep it from moving.

Working on the puzzle.

Garrett looking at one of his myth books. This one is Egyptian myths.

The gymnastics bar came with a swing!

Jack gave up his old square pillow so Charlotte could put her new cover on it. The pillow was originally given to Garrett when he was little and had a Buzz Lightyear cover on it. You can't even see the picture anymore because it's been washed so much.

We moved the gym bar and the trampoline to the girls' room. Having it on carpet keeps it from moving around. I also helped them organize their room more and Curtis hung new stuffed animal nets.

Finished our puzzle without any help from the kids. It was meant to be a family activity. Oh well.

Our temple light/music box that Dad and Laverne gave us. At this point I still needed to glue the angel Moroni on, but I did that yesterday, so it's on now.

I love that this gym bar can fold up.

It was a nice Christmas this year, but I do kind of hope to have a little more people around next year or go somewhere.