Jan. 2022- Week 1- New Years, Maddox Dinner, Dan and Jonathan Skiing, Ben's 11th Birthday!

Jan. 1- Saturday: Happy New Year! 2022! I ate breakfast with the 3 littles. McKenna slept in till 10. I played Pretty Pretty Princess with Alice and worked on my Primary lesson. The girls played Barbies then Desi came over. After lunch, McKenna went to Lia’s. As I was putting groceries away, I watched the Rose Bowl then took a nap. I also started putting away Christmas decorations. After dinner and bath, the girls had a movie night with Desi watching “Encanto." I put more Christmas away. McKenna got home at 9. I watched SNL and collaged pictures.

Meanwhile, Ben and Dan were having a great time. They woke up early to go watch part of the Rose Parade. The parade floats were incredible in size and attention to detail. Before walking back they split a victory dog from a street vendor, then met up with the rest of the men cooking/eating breakfast. They saw many friends and relatives who were also in town for the game and enjoyed the atmosphere, tradition and ambience. Unfortunately the Utes lost in a nail biter.

Jan. 2- Sunday: I fed the two little girls because everyone else was fasting. I had time to crimp the three girls’ hair before church at 10:30. In Primary, we tried having the Jr. and Sr. kids combined, and I didn’t love it as much as I thought I would. After lunch, I watched Don't Miss This, napped, and had my conference call. We worked on Anna’s audition form for the school play. Dan and Ben got home from their Rose Bowl road trip at 6!! After kids were in bed, we un-decorated the tree, put more Christmas away, and talked with Dan.

Jan. 3- Monday: up at 6:30. I drove the jr. high kids, the exercised. Alice had crazy hair day at preschool. I worked on laundry and read over the first Junior Achievement lesson. We had a normal afternoon with Ben at Harry Potter club and working on a book report with Beth. Dan drove McKenna to rehearsal. After dinner, I work on birthday party planning with Ben. We put more Christmas away and folded laundry.

Jan. 4th- Tuesday: I went to the gym with Brynn then ran an errand to Walmart. After school, McKenna went to Whitney’s basketball game with Gma and Gpa. Bethany had dance. Anna worked on a 3 paragraph essay. After dinner, Ben had basketball practice. After that, we drove up to Maddox in Brigham City for dinner with my parents, Mickelle, and Jonathan. En route we discovered one of our headlights were out, so pulled into an Auto Zone in Brigham City where Dan bought and replaced a headlight on our van. It was pretty snowy at times on the drive up there and back so we were glad to have the added vision :) .

Jan. 5th- Wednesday: Dan took McKenna and some friends to the temple, to school, then he went skiing at Snow Basin with my brother Jonathan! I packed Alice a lunch and got her Cinderella dress ready for Princess and Super Hero day at Preschool. She went to Meghan’s while I went to my voice lesson, then I picked up a small grocery order. I listened to my book a lot. I hot glued the dowels that would become the Harry Potter wands at Ben's party. Ben and Anna had piano. I helped Bethany practice he Olaf character book report, then did more hot gluing. Anna worked on an essay, then went to gymnastics. I went to music with Bethany.  McKenna had rehearsal. Ben had his first Jr. Jazz game. My parents, Mickelle, and Jonathan came to watch.  My dad wasn't feeling too good. :(

Jan. 6th- Thursday: I exercised once kids left for school.  I listened to my book club book a lot!  The gym outlet circuit was tripped and we couldn't figure out why for a while.  We watched William Alexander for a bit.  I showered and listened to my book more.  After lunch, I worked more on Ben's Harry Potter party prep.  I also taught my first Junior Achievement lesson in Bethany’s class. Once we got home, I helped Anna with her audition video for the school play.  After dinner, we recorded Anna’s audition and got the kids to bed.  I went to book club at Meghan’s house, discussing the book, “The Woman they Could Not Silence.”  Dan and Ben went through bags of clothes from the Holdstocks.  We decorated for Ben’s birthday and went to bed.  

Jan. 7th- Friday: Ben’s 11th Birthday!  After the kids left for school, I made the “pet” sugar cookies for the Harry Potter party (owls, frogs, and cats).  The frosting colors were tricky, but I'm proud of myself for figuring it out. Alice and I went to eat lunch with Ben at school, and it was a good thing because he needed a new pizza card.  We ran errands to the copy center and Smith’s for balloons.  Once we got home I finished the cookies and started cutting stuff out for the party.  I also made "Benny soup" for dinner. When the kids got home from school, McKenna had a sore throat and didn't feel good. We gave her a rapid Covid test from the Winegars and it was negative, so she still went to her tech rehearsal with a mask.  We went to the West Church Building to set up for Ben’s party.  Kelly and Tanner Kump helped us a ton with all her cool Harry Potter stuff.  We went back home to eat soup.  Then we went back to the church.  We had 14 boys total and it was a blast!  They went through "Diagon Alley" and bought candy and wands.  Next, they painted their wands then we played Quidditch in the gym.  We opened presents and had an oreo ice cream cake and cookies n cream ice cream.  We played pin the scar on Harry Potter’s forehead.  Then played Quidditch more until the parents came.  We got home around 9:45.  Dan went to pick up McKenna from rehearsal and we all went to bed tired and happy!