Celebrating 43!

To start off my birthday celebrations for this year, I went out to lunch with a few ladies from our ward. Sister Gale and I are in charge of activity days but the other two are helpers, so we all went together. Sister Gale's birthday was on the 9th and mine on the 17th, so we decided to go out to lunch on the 13th. We both happened to be in the mood for Olive Garden, so that's where we went. All four of us ordered the unlimited soup, salad and breadsticks. I had the Zuppa Toscana and the Chicken and Gnocchi. Both were delicious. It was especially great to have Charie there, as we just recently met and made contact with her about getting her daughter to activity days. She hasn't been coming to church either because her in laws use her car for work. I also minister to her and my partner, Lisa Jacobsen, started giving her rides to church when she wants to come because they live so close to each other. Then Glenna (Sis Gale) started picking up Charie and then getting her daughter from school and joining us for activity days. It was a process getting it all figured out, but I'm so glad we did! Her daughter is autistic and so it helps to have her mom there helping her and helping other girls as well. We are so happy to have both of them in our group now!

Toni, Glenna, Charie, me

Toni and her sister-in-law, Catalina, bought us candles as a gift. They are so sweet to do that.

The very next day on the 14th, I was given a mini bundt cake for my birthday from my ministering sister, Michelle Gould. She was heading out of town for a few days to help her sister who was having surgery, so she dropped off my treat a few days early. It was delicious! I may or may not have eaten it all in one setting and didn't share. Ha ha.

White chocolate raspberry flavor. Yum!

Originally, we scheduled to go out to eat with another couple on my actual birthday, since it landed on a Saturday this year, but we changed the date because Curtis made an appointment in Idaho for the 19th and we weren't sure if we'd be traveling to Idaho that day. We moved our double date to Friday the 16th. I had asked them if there was anything else they would like to do besides going to dinner and they suggested going to a musical that their oldest daughter was in, The Little Mermaid. We both said that sounded like fun and would love to go. We went to dinner at Hong's Mongolian Restaurant because that's what I was in the mood for. I haven't had Mongolian BBQ in over 3 years, since before we moved! It was very good! And I love having leftovers for another day! 

Mark and Liz (Elizabeth) and us

We got to talking too much during dinner that we lost track of time and had to rush over to Kennewick High School where the musical was happening. We got there a little late, but fortunately they did introductions at the beginning, and we didn't miss any of the show. Their daughter played Atrina, one of Ariel's sisters. The show was wonderful! They did such a good job and we heard several new songs we'd never heard before. The group that did this performance is called Vibe. It's for ages 10 and up, so there were a few adults in there as well.

On my actual birthday, Curtis and I started the day with cooking some French toast and sausages for breakfast. Then Alice went with us to watch Charlotte play in her first basketball game of the season. We have one really tall, good player on our team that makes most of our shots and she did very well that day. They keep score up until a certain point and then they erase the score before the game is over, so I don't know exactly what the score ended up being, but it was fun to be on a winning team for once. Ha ha  It was just fun to watch. Charlotte is on a team with one of her best friends and so we sit by their family at the games and coordinate taking turns for who takes the girls to practices. Jen does Mondays and I do Wednesdays. Jen also happens to be one of the "Beehive" advisors for young women and with Wednesday practices starting at 8pm, that means I have to come pick up the girls a little early and drive them to practice, which isn't far from the church building.

Later that morning I decided that I really wanted to do some shopping for myself to find some new tops. It seems I always feel this way around my birthday, but everything in my closet felt old and I was ready for something new to wear. I went to Ross and tried on multiple things. I came home with just 3 that I liked, but for me that is doing pretty good. There have been times where Curtis sends me out to find something for myself and I come up empty handed or with something for one of the kids instead, lol. 

I decided that as much as I wanted to go see family in Idaho, I did not want to travel on my birthday or this time of year, when the weather is unpredictable over the Blue Mountains. (Curtis ended up driving down by himself right after church on Sunday, had his appointment and then drove back Monday afternoon.) I also decided that I wanted to do something fun as a family besides going to a movie. Since most of the kids had not tried Tee Time, the new place we found last summer, I wanted to go there and play mini golf as a family. It was a lot of fun, and it was nice doing it during the middle of the day. It wasn't very busy and it gave us time to cook dinner when we got back.

We had to ask someone to take our picture at the end.

When we got back, Curtis got busy prepping chicken because I wanted him to smoke some chicken thighs for my dinner. I also whipped up some cheesy "funeral" potatoes, and we had a Caesar salad on the side. 

Wearing one of my new tops and enjoying my delicious birthday dinner. I LOVE smoked chicken thighs! Curtis always puts a good seasoning on them as well.

Jack unfortunately missed out on dinner and the rest of my birthday because he got invited to a Choral Fusion party and then went to a church dance. That guy is busy! He had Fusion practice in the morning as well. I'm glad I got him to do one thing with us that day. 

My husband is so amazing. I said that I wanted a pound cake with whipped cream and berries for my birthday cake, and he delivered! Well, it wasn't actually a pound cake, it was a sponge cake, but still just as good. He couldn't find any of those already baked at the store, so he decided to bake it himself. Honestly, I think he enjoyed doing it even though there were some frustrating moments. And it turned out delicious! I opened gifts while the cake was cooling down. It was getting late by the time they finally sang and ate the cake, but then the girls watched Sing 2 with Curtis and me. Jack came in right as our movie ended. It was a really good birthday weekend and I'm glad we stayed in town for it. I still can't believe I'm 43 years old. That doesn't seem possible!

Acting a little silly before pictures. Curtis had Garrett and the girls put up the sign for me.

This was after we got back from Tee Time.

Alice wrote me a story and read it to everyone.

She also helped pick out some necklaces and bracelets for a gift.

My gifts: Alice's story, Twix candy bar, a memory foam pillow, smart watch, and jewelry.

Prepping the cake and nearly done. He actually had bought blueberries as well, but I'm glad he just did strawberries. I prefer it that way. So basically, I had strawberry shortcake.

It was delicious!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to post about Charlotte giving me her birthday gift. She had me sit on the couch and close my eyes. Then she and Alice set up some mats and covered it with a blanket. I had no idea what they would put in there, maybe one of our cats or something. It turned out to be Charlotte hiding in there and gave me a big birthday hug!

Our New Year's

After Christmas I got busy doing the puzzles I received as gifts. The first one was a 500-piece nativity scene that my parents gave us. It was meant to be a family puzzle as it has 3 different sizes of pieces. Larger for the younger kids to start on one side and gradually get smaller to the other side. Well, the only help I got on that one was Alice putting in about 8 pieces at the end. I started it Christmas night while watching a movie. I got as far as doing the perimeter pieces and then stopped to watch the movie. I wasn't sure I wanted to put the puzzle together the next day because no one else seemed interested in helping in the "family" puzzle. Finally, I decided to just do it. I completed that one with a little of Alice's help at the end. 

On the next day I pulled out another puzzle, which was Santa holding the baby Jesus from the nativity set. Curtis bought that one. It was another "family" puzzle that had 3 different sizes, only these ones were bigger than the last puzzle and it was only 350 pieces. This time I was able to get the girls to help me. I had them do the largest pieces and I would do the smallest. I think we all did a little of the medium sized ones. Well, that did it! After the girls finished doing their part of that puzzle, Alice went down to the game closet and pulled out a bunch of kid puzzles for her and Charlotte to put together while I finished the small pieces on the large puzzle. They caught the puzzle bug, ha ha!

The first puzzle.

Working on the 2nd one. They did the bottom of the puzzle and parts of the middle.

The 2nd puzzle finished!

Well, New Year's Eve rolled around Curtis signed us up to be chaperones at the youth dance. Don and Glenna Gale also signed up from our ward so we decided to ride together to get dinner first and then over to the dance. They had the chaperones rotate to different rooms throughout the night. It was held at Columbia Basin Raquet Club in Richland. The first room that we were assigned to was on indoor pickleball courts. They had 3 games of 9 Square in the Air going. Neither of us had ever played it before so Curtis had some youth help him learn how to play. We only played if they needed more players. Once more kids came, then we stepped out. Our next area to watch was the food area, which also had some other games as well like corn hole. Next was locker room and hallway duty. This was the nicest locker room I have ever seen! I wish I would have gotten a picture of it. There was a long mirror and counter with multiple tall soft chairs to sit on (while doing hair or makeup). It was nice and warm in there and the showers were separated from the locker area. Our job in there was to make sure no one went through the locker rooms out to the pool area. So, we pulled up nice soft chairs and sat by the doorway that was already blocked off. Easy peasy. 

Our last area was to go to the dance floor which is in an indoor tennis court area. There was definitely plenty of space. We found some stairs that led to an upper balcony so we could look over the edge and watch the youth from up high. There were also a bunch of balloons all filled and ready to be thrown over into the crowd. We ended up doing that a little before the countdown to midnight. 

Got our picture taken before the dance started.

Us and the Gale's.

Curtis playing the 9 Square in the Air game with the youth.

Up on the balcony and you can see the countdown clock on the big screen down below (21:42 to go until midnight at that point). 

I didn't see much of Jack, but we did finally spot him dancing way in the back.

Looking out at the crowd.

Jack with some of his group. He was wearing Curtis's Australian cowboy hat.

It was a fun night. Happy New Year! 

In case you're wondering, our girls went to a friends' house to have fun and then got dropped off just before midnight, where they rang in the new year with Garrett and then waited up until we got home. We didn't get to bed until around 1:30am or so because we had to help clean up after the dance was over. Surprisingly, I was not exhausted the next day like I thought I would be. We slept in but then we just relaxed. I pulled out another puzzle that Curtis gave me and this time he helped me with it. We just watched movies and put the puzzle together. It was 1000 pieces but it was way easier to put together than the one he gave me for my birthday last year.

The finished puzzle that only took us about 6 hours to do.

Curtis and the girls wanted to go see the new Avatar movie in the theater to do something fun. The boys decided they weren't interested in that movie, so they did not come this time. It was fun to be there with the girls. The movie was okay, but I guess I'm just getting tired of the same old story of the same bad guy chasing after the main character and his family. And there's supposed to be two more of these movies. I'm not sure if I will watch those.

To finish off our New Year's week, we finally got some old pictures hung up around the house. When we were done, Jack said that this house finally feels like a home, like it did back in Nampa. I agree.

I found some wall stickers in a box of frames that were out in the garage, so I put them up on this wall with our old family pictures. Unfortunately, the stickers on the upper half did not stick well and I eventually had to take them down. I'll have to find a new sticker or vinyl to replace it, but at least our family pictures are up. The stickers said "Family is Everything" and "We may not have it all together But together we have it all". Then underneath the pictures they say, "Grateful", "Thankful" and "Blessed".

I hung our gold leafed temple picture up by the stairs (on the left). And the proclamation to the family in the hallway close to the family pictures.

Hung up several pictures in the dining room.

And Curtis bought these phone/key holder shelves so that we could have a place to put our phones while sitting at the table. I still haven't gotten around to painting the archway yet, but hopefully soon.

It was a fun, relaxing and then productive New Year's week. Here we go 2026!

Christmas 2025

We spent Saturday and Sunday (the 20th and 21st) baking cookies to give away to neighbors and friends in the ward. Then we delivered them on Monday evening after we finished with the birthday celebration. We made chocolate chip cookies w/mini M&M's, chocolate Reese's cookies, Snickerdoodles, and fruity rice Krispie treats. I also bought a big tin of Danish butter cookies, so we added some of those to the plates as well. It was a good thing we got those done and delivered when we did because the very next day Curtis started to get sick and remained sick the rest of the week. I'm glad I had already gotten a head start on wrapping presents because it was up to me to do the rest. I think the only gifts Curtis wrapped were the ones he got for me. Curtis took the whole week off for vacation, hoping to do some fun stuff with us, but he spent a lot of it sleeping and feeling miserable. He did feel good enough to go see a movie at the theater on Christmas Eve. I had bought the tickets before he got sick and I'm glad he was able to go. We saw the movie "David" and it was pretty good. 

Charlotte and I got busy making her gifts for the boys. We started before the movie and then finished up afterwards. Charlotte had wanted to make this pillow for Garrett's birthday, but we never got around to it. So she said she would make it for Christmas. Nothing like waiting until last minute! She also wanted something for Jack and so I suggested we make a pillow for him as well, since we had enough fabric already. We made the Tri force symbol from The Legend of Zelda game for Garrett. Then we did a big "B" for Boise State for Jack. Charlotte drew the B. I pretty much did most of the work because we were in a hurry but she did get to do some ironing, sewing and stuffing. As soon as we finished, she wrapped them both up into one box and got it under the tree. 

Because we were in such a hurry and because Curtis still wasn't feeling great, we settled for frozen pizzas cooked up for dinner. Nothing special this year. As soon as we finished the pillows, it was time to do our Christmas Eve traditions. Open the pajamas, put them on, read "The Night Before Christmas" and then watch "White Christmas". It was so funny because the girls really didn't want to watch that movie because it is boring to them. I got out a puzzle for Charlotte and I to do while watching the movie but she ended up going over to the couch to watch the movie instead. Both girls actually watched the entire movie. Funny girls!

A little fun before opening pajamas.

Pajama time!

All of us got new pjs this year. Curtis and I had to pick out our own this year to make sure we got ones we liked, lol. We don't get them every year though.

Alice all cozy and ready for the book and movie.

Charlotte loves her new pjs and the frog she got from the dentist. She saw her eye doctor, dentist and pediatrician all this month! Her eyes improved some since wearing her glasses all the time, so she needed a new prescription. She has also grown 3 inches in the last year (she's at 4'8")! And no cavities!

Garrett reading The Night Before Christmas again this year.

As soon as the movie was over, Alice got out the cookies and milk for Santa, and then it was off to bed for the girls. To kill some time, Curtis and I watched a movie on Prime called "Christmas Story" about the origin of Santa, while folding clothes. It was pretty good. Then we got the stockings stuffed and hung. I also had to wrap one more gift that had to be charged (a new phone for Jack). I still got to bed around midnight, even though most of the gift wrapping was done previously. That just happens I guess when you still have one child left who believes in Santa. We have to make sure she's asleep before hanging stockings.

Thankfully, none of the kids came in during the middle of the night because they were super excited. The girls did say they were up around 6:30am but I did not get up until about 7:30. 

Ready to open stockings. And Milo has one gift.

Sage climbed under the tree and up onto these boxes. She was so cute.

Milo got a new frisbee, which he loves! We lost the last two that he had and I knew it was his favorite toy.

Alice's Santa gift. Another doll to go with the one she already has.

Sage loved the pile of wrapping paper! No need to get her a gift, ha ha.

She also found another box to sit on.

Our big mess!

Usually we clean as we go, but not this year. It was kind of fun to see how big our mess got from opening gifts.

Alice got another doll, a robot dog, pjs for the other doll, clothes, a coloring book, magnet toy (for both girls), mini journal, a bike bell that makes 4 different sounds and two necklaces.

Charlotte got a Lego cat, a tracing board for drawing, a mini journal, Harry Potter coloring book, another stuffy (from a friend), emotional support fries, a Spanish dictionary, necklace, bike bell (like Alice's), a Golden retriever t-shirt and a sweater. (She ended up not liking the sweater, so we took it back. I'm not surprised though)

Garrett's haul

Pillow from Charlotte, BSU hoodie, two sweaters, Book of Mormon/Bible socks, Japanese maple tree Lego set, Japanese bowl set, cards, journals, gloves and utility knife and a big box of Reese's (from G&G Butterfield)

Jack got the pillow, Book of Mormon socks, sweaters, shorts, a music binder, a mini journal, a cool BSU hat and a new phone with case and screen protector. It's still a Gabb phone but it's the best one they have right now, so he can do more with it. He loves it!

I got a painting of Joseph Smith going to pray, several puzzles (one missed the picture), a chicken shredder, a blanket, and a book about Russell M. Nelson. 

The pillows that Charlotte and I made for the boys.

Alice picked out the emotional support fries for Charlotte because she really wanted them.

Alice's new doll and it's a red head.

I spent the morning helping Jack get his new phone set up while everyone else was doing their own things. Charlotte spent all day working on her Lego cat and got it done! It's funny because the box says for ages 18+. It's not that hard if you have instructions to follow. But it did have over 1,700 pieces!

All done!

Curtis hung the new picture in our living room.

A letter that Alice wrote to Santa to go with the cookies and milk.

This was a family puzzle that has 3 different sized pieces in it. The adults work on the smaller harder ones, the kids do the biggest pieces and then they meet in the middle. Well, I ended up doing the entire puzzle myself, except about 7 or 8 pieces that Alice put in at the end! I started it Christmas night but then finished the next day.

Nikki loves pigeons, so we sent her a pigeon hoodie, pigeon socks, pigeon beanie hat, and pigeon bag clips. We also gave her a gift card for a movie theater and Applebee's restaurant.

Nikki's journal (we have it until the next time we see her). These are journals I bought from the holiday bazaar at Alice's school. I put them in their stockings. This is Harry Potter themed.

This is Charlotte's.

This is Garrett's, also Harry Potter themed.

This is Alice's.

And this is Jack's. He loved it.

It was a pretty relaxed day. I did manage to pick up a ham the day before when I had to go get some thread at Walmart and we already had some other food available to make a nice Christmas dinner. Curtis smoked the ham while I baked some mini potatoes, vegetables (like what Ellie made), and some homemade rolls. I had also bought sparkling cider the week before and was saving it for Christmas, so we did have a nice dinner on Christmas day. I tell you what, we did a lot of movie watching that week because Curtis was sick. I would watch movies while wrapping gifts also. We didn't go anywhere on Christmas day. Nobody came over, but it was a good Christmas.