Jan. '19- Week 2- Alice Crawling!, Jr. Jazz, Bethany Crazy Hair, Mantua with YW, Ben's 8th BD Party!, Pinewood Derby Car Cutting

Tuesday I got a video of Alice officially crawling and chasing a balloon! 

I exercised, watched Hazel, Bethany had crazy hair day at preschool, and Ben started his second session of Jr. Jazz basketball.  

We also got word of Dan getting a promotion at work!  He went from being the lead consultant for the Salt Lake region, to being the director of recruitment state wide!  So happy for and proud of him!  

Wednesday we had Anna's kindergarten friends Annie and Emi over to play, as well as William Alexander.  Then Bethany and Alice and I went to McDonald's with cousins for lunch! I finished my book club book ("These is My Words") during carpool and cried quite a bit.  I ran an errand after picking up the kids.  I attended music with Anna and had book club that night at Rachael's.  

Thursday I exercised and had a dentist appointment.  Bethany's preschool friend Arlee came over to play and they had dress like a princess day at preschool.  I babysat Ellie and Hazel.  Alice pulled up a couple of times to standing! Ben came home from school with from scrapes on his face. :( He said he just fell on the playground.  Ben also had scouts. McKenna's Peter Pan rehearsals were in full swing. 

That night, we watched an episode of Marie Kondo's "Tidying Up" and Dan got inspired to go through his closet.  

That night we got word that sadly, Dan's aunt Wendy Maxfield lost her fight with cancer and passed away.  :(   

Friday I prepped all morning to have Mickelle babysit while Dan and I went on an overnighter with the YW to Mantua.  Mickelle sent this picture of the kids' mac and cheese dinner! We had dinner and played lots of games with the girls like Banana Grams, Catch Phrase, and Murder in the Dark, which was awesome! 

I found that with Alice's new mobility, she gets into a lot of things she shouldn't be.  She's a busy body! 

Saturday morning we had a yummy breakfast, cleaned up, and went for a walk around the block for 30 mins.  It was so pretty and clear blue skies up there.  Then we drove home back into the smog. Yuck! This was my attempt at getting them to do a jumping picture.  

We got home in time to take McKenna to play practice and get groceries, then we had Ben's 8th BD Party! We had Eli Webster and Eli Forbes, Jordan Slaugh, Oliver Winegar, Henry Alexander, and Taggart Lewis.  We started with everyone doing lengthy dot-to-dots while we waited for everyone to arrive, followed by painting some wooden boxes.  

After painting, the boys all went in the basement and had free time to play.  Then we did a pull string pinata while having the boys do a trick or pull a string and get a treat.  Then we opened presents and had brownies and ice cream.  

One of the gifts Ben got was a new game called "Suspend."  Dan played it with McKenna and Ben right after all the boys left.  So thankful Ben has such nice friends and cousins!  

Sunday was a normal day at church and a normal afternoon.  That evening we celebrated January BDs at Webster family dinner.  Ben got a stomp rocket thing as well as some pretty generous $$ from Grandma and Grandpa.  

He loves sharing his BD month with Uncle Adam! 

Monday was a normal day of laundry and me trying to do things on the computer. :)  I put up Valentine's Day decorations.  After dinner, Dan took Ben to the Remington's house to cut his Pinewood Derby car.  The girls helped me work on Bethany's half BD spotlight poster for preschool the next day.  

Jan. '19- Week 1- Last Days with Smiths, Alice 10 Months, First Cub Scouts, Baptisms, Ben's 8th BD!

Tuesday, more puzzle fun, and Emily & Justin took Kari and Kaitlyn to scuba dive at the Midway Homestead Crater.  The rest of us went to see the new Mary Poppins and loved it!  That afternoon was had some down time and Alice made some funny faces with her rodent looking teeth.  

That night we drove to Maddox for dinner!  Unfortunately Bethany threw up as soon as we got to the restaurant.  So weird it was two days after her first throw up episode.  I got some funny pictures of Alice pooping at the dinner table.  That night we said good bye to my parents who left to go back to Florida.  

Wednesday the kids went back to school.  Bethany seemed to not feel very well even though she never threw up again.  The Smiths were skiing all day but we spent time with them and Mickelle in the evening.  

Thursday Alice turned 10 months old! 

Emily, Justin, Kari and Kaitlyn went to do baptisms for the dead at the Bountiful Temple.  Dylan and Kelsey hung out with me at home.  Mickelle, Emily, and Kari later went down to Provo for a hair appointment.  I had a regular afternoon hanging out with Justin and the younger three Smiths.  They worked on packing up as they would be leaving the next day.  Kelly Kump came over after school to talk to Ben about joining Cub Scouts!  He attended for the first time an hour later!  We had dinner all together and Jonathan even came up in the evening to hang out for Emily and Justin's final night with us.  We watched a Fast and the Furious spoof movie called "Super Fast." :) 

Friday I started cleaning and putting back together my house, in addition to putting Christmas away.  It's always so great to have visitors, but also great for things to go back to normal.  Anna played at Lizzie's and McKenna played at Brittana's after school.  They both ended up having dinner with them.  We continued to clean and put Christmas away.  

Video of Alice and cute tongue thing. 

Saturday I got up super early to attend an Endowment session and loved the new changes!  I steam mopped and vacuumed then we headed to Brady Leavitt's and Taggart Lewis's baptism! 

McKenna went to Lia's house and Henry and Desi came over to play.  The evening was the usual baths and Sabbath day prep.  

Sunday we got lots of snow right before church so we were late for our first day of two hour church.  The snow kept coming down so much during church that Dan had to help us get home.  We also did our first "Come Follow Me" lesson after church and the kids attention was ok, but we needed to do the reading before hand.  

Monday was Ben's 8th birthday!  

Dan took Ben out for breakfast.  

Cute video of Bethany singing "Have a Holly Jolly Christmas."  

Video of Ben playing a kind of peek-a-boo

Anna had a playdate before school.  I made it to school just in time for Ben's BD spotlight in his class.  That night for dinner, we went to the new R&R BBQ because Ben said he wanted steak and mashed potatoes.  He got several calls, texts, and cards.  I especially loved this text from Lara Vance Webster's mom, Jane which Ben responded to. :) And the screen shots of my parents singing to Ben are pretty great too.  

 We opened presents after dinner.  Walkie Talkies, a poop emoji key chain, 

 Some Legos and candy from his Primary teachers, and some money from Grandfather.  

Ben is such a loving, friendly, creative, smart, and funny boy.  He is loving piano and Jr. Jazz right now and especially looks forward to baseball in the Spring.  He loves Legos, Pokemon, and dot-to-dots.  He made a New Year's resolution to be more honest, which in his mind meant he had to tell me who his "girlfriend" is.  He's our favorite son! 

Dec. '18- Week 4- Part 2- St. George, Family Pictures!, Escape Room, Kari's BD, New Years!

Wednesday we woke up to 7 inches of snow.  We ate, packed up, and started our drive south around 10:30am.  

We stopped for lunch in Scipio and a very brief (because it was soooo cold and windy!!) visit to my Thompson Grandparents.  Then we split off... Smiths, my parents and Mickelle and Jonathan all together, Websters all together and stopping in St. George.  We stopped for one other ancestor visit on the way to see Francis Webster in Cedar City. 

We got our hotel around 5pm and had leftovers for dinner in the room.  

Then we went swimming, took showers, and were asleep before 11pm! 

Thursday we had hotel breakfast and left by 11am to go to Snow Canyon and do some hiking.  First we climbed the petrified sand dunes.  So cool!  Bethany was quite scared coming down even though it was like walking down stairs...but she did it! 

It was much colder than we expected and SUPER windy!  We packed a lunch and had to eat in the van since it was so cold and windy outside.  

We drove around a bit and saw some beautiful views.  

Our next little hike was to see some old Pioneer Names written on a rock with wagon axle grease.  

Dan and Ben made it higher than the girls.  

After Snow Canyon, we went to Thunder Junction park.  Alice had fallen asleep, so I stayed in the car with her.  

Then we went back to the hotel and had a family meeting about the new Come Follow Me curriculum we'd be studying as a family next year.  We had dinner at a Mexican place and went swimming again.  We watched "Ratatoullie" and Alice had a hard time going to bed that night.  Dan and I watched "Dr. Pimple Popper." :)

Friday morning I worked out at the hotel gym and ate breakfast. I loved the cups with all the lips and mustaches.  Then we headed out for some church history sites, specifically the St George Tabernacle and the Brigham Young Winter Home.  

We had lunch at the Pizza Factory and then drove to our Air Bnb for the night in LaVerkin and to meet up with the rest of my family.   I had a bad head ache and got a great nap with Alice.  Mom, dad, Mickelle, and Jonathan got there around dinner time.  We had tacos for dinner and watched a holiday show on Netflix before going to bed.  The Smiths stayed with some friends that night.  

Saturday we met Emily and Jusitn at the St. George Temple to do sealings.  Then we checked out of the AirBnb and started for home.  We had lunch in Cedar City and got gas in Scipio.  I mostly napped and listened to the Book of Mormon off and on.  That night, my parents had dinner with my Dad's siblings.  We had mac and cheese and unfortunately, Bethany threw up! :( After showers and baths everyone went to bed and we watched a little "Try Guys" with Mickelle and Justin.  

Sunday the Moultons spoke about goal setting.  After Sacrament meeting, I took Alice and Bethany home.  Had to document matching outfits though. :) 

Alice was giving my dad some great snuggles! 

We watched "Singin' in the Rain" and had enchiladas for dinner.  After kids were in bed, we watched "Jurassic World 2."

Monday was Kari's birthday! We also went to the State Capitol with Lara to get family pictures taken.  

We had pizza for lunch, then Marcie and Brooklyn came over to babysit.  All the adults, plus Kari, did an escape room in Salt Lake.  It was our first time and we did NOT make it out in time, but still lots of fun! Then we had Kari's BD dinner and hung out with Grandma Pat.  She brought puzzles for everyone so we enjoyed our time doing those.      

 Alice was also making quite good progress with crawling!  

We watched a count down on Netflix (early) and toasted using many different flavors of sparkling juices.  

Then we smooched at the real midnight and went to bed!    

2018 brought our last baby to the family, for which we are eternally grateful!  I feel like it was a year of learning to manage my time better since having 5 kids is super busy!  We knocked down a wall in our house and continued to strive to find joy in the normal things of life!   HAPPY NEW YEAR!