January 28th The 30's are fading.......

My 30's are coming to a close. Year 39 has brought 2 cavities (I've been  cavity free my whole life till this year) and I officially need to wear glasses now. I've gained weight and wrinkles. I'm trying to come to terms with my new metabolism. So to combat this physical slide we did what all adults should do, Benjamin and I joined a soccer league. I'm not really good with the ball but boy can I hustle. In fact that is what my kids call me the hustler. I like that.

This is me with my new glasses typing up my blog :) I only really like to wear them when I'm driving at night, my vision I feel isn't so bad..

Benjamin is so cute with his perfect vision.

January 20th Attractive offspring

Bella has a friend from her middle school years who transferred to a catholic high school, they still catch up here and there. She texted Bella and told her she wanted to set her up on a date with a friend from her school, a guy named Jake. She sent Bella a picture and low and behold it is the son of one of my besties from my high school days, Kara. What are the odds?! He asked her to go to his school dance, they had a great time.

I texted Kara this picture of our attractive offspring :)

January 14th there's a buck in the barn!

This past week we rented a stud for our three female goats. It was quite the drama in our household. Bella was especially upset by the size difference between the three female goats and the large stud. She kept saying we are facilitating this inequity! The Studs name is Captain. That  just made it worse for my daughters. We hope that all three goats got pregnant and we anticipate them to kid in June. Fingers crossed! I'm sad it will happen after preschool gets out, the preschoolers will just have to visit. Once I have the goat babies I will have to open up a goat yoga studio, only have joking...

He is the big guy in the back, Hagrid is our smallest goat she is closest to the camera.

Rushiest day of the year and New Years Goal 2018

2017 was great. We packed so much into one year. The summer was especially busy. I was the Young Women's president (still am) the Youth Camp Leader at girls camp, helped with the Temple Cultural Celebration, was on the Temple Open House committee, along with swim team, getting kids back to school and preschool. It was so busy and often felt very rushed. But I loved it. Because that is the season that I am in. So for my 2018 goal, I want to slow down and be less rushed and more prepared. This is hard for me because I function really well with high-stress deadlines, meaning I don't freeze up and I do it. Often receiving inspiration or direction because of the time crunch but I still feel the stress.

I came up with this goal mid-December. A perfect example of my rush is that I knew we were going to Utah for Christmas, did I Amazon presents to Lindsey's house to avoid hauling and wrapping Christmas? No. I had to go to stores and rush buying gifts. I will give myself credit for getting my family calendars done in time, unfortunately, Costco did not deliver them in time for Christmas despite that I was a week early for the deadline to submit ( that was such a breakthrough for me).

This brings me to my rushiest day of 2017, December the 29th. To set the stage we had been staying at the Smiths and then we were planning to go up to Idaho for Seth's wedding. We pack our car make it to Brigham City Utah and the car dies on the freeway, legit stops moving. We coast off the exit and low and behold a car shop is on the other side of the street.  Funny enough our kids love to push our car on our dirt road. There is a slight hill which they like to push the car up to and then jump on the fender and coast into the yard. Sounds dangerous but it really isn't. anyway, our kids had been training for this their whole life, they pushed the car to the mechanics. Long story made short, too late, the Smith's lent us their car for the weekend and our car was left at the shop for the alternator to be replaced.

We attended the wedding and reception, have a blast and head back to our Airbnb that we rented. I get a text at 9pm for a request to rent our Tucson home for the week starting the very next day. I only list our home a couple of times a year, this year I added Christmas break knowing we would be out of town, never got a request because on our listing it says we need 7 days notice. This guy on a whim thought he would ask...Mercy a week rental for our main house is a lot of money. We prayed about it and thought we should go ahead with it.A flight home for me to go to Tucson to prepare was worth it especially on the heels of a car repair. Next thing I know we go back to the Airbnb pack all of our things check out a night early, haul it down to Bountiful get there at 1am so I can fly out of SLC at 6 am so I can get back to Tucson at 11 am so that my house can be company ready for a 3 pm check-in time..... To erase a family of 7 from a home in 4 hours is impossible. Dan Howe and my Mom luckily were available to help with the massive cleaning job, my Dad at the end lent a hand as well I was desperate. It was an impossible task. I had absolutely no time to pause take a drink, make a plan, it was just go go go. It was a nice family that rented the house basically for a New Years Eve party. My family stayed one more day in Utah and drove home just in time for New Years Eve. They even ended up checking out early, that was a Christmas present for the kids and for Benjamin and I. Apparently I needed to end 2017 with one more reminder of why I need my New Years goal. Never Again.

Idaho December 28th-30th 2017

We headed up to Idaho for Seth and Carlie's wedding!! How exciting I don't think I have seen two kids more in love. They got married in the Idaho Falls temple, beautiful. On our way up we had to stop off in Pocatello for some space burgers. A favorite childhood place of my fathers.  The kids loved it too. It brought back memories of Pocatello in the summer as a kid. The kids really loved their specialty sodas Iron Port and Scotch and Soda. Both were so yummy. A space burger looks like a spaceship, they seal two pieces of bread together with ground beef inside. Holman gave the burger a 5,000 out of 5.

The wedding was beautiful and the reception a blast! This is a shot of just their family. 

Olivia's 15th Birthday, December 26, 2017

How to staff off the after Christmas blues? You celebrate Olivia's birthday!! This year she wanted to dye her hair for her birthday. Utah has the best hairdressers so Lindsy hooked us up with one of her close friends who does hair. She has this beauitful salon in her basement, really great set up. She wanted a change and that is what she got, we love it!!

Olivia has copious amounts of hair. It took over three hours. For Lunch we met the rest of the crew at Nielsons Custard for burgers and custard.

Later for dinner, Lindsey made an amazing pasta dish for her birthday dinner and the yummiest chocolate cake! It was a great day.

Much love to our beautiful, smart, sassy, baker, helpful daughter Olivia! She brings so much fun and joy to our house and I couldn't imagine life without her. What a blessing she is. Love you Olivia Jane!!

Christmas in Bountiful!! December 25, 2017!

The last time it snowed in Tucson on Christmas day was 1987. I was 9 years old. It was so magical. We wanted the kids to have at least one white Christmas in their childhood, what a success! The Smith's as always were fantastic hosts. We have eaten like Kings played hard and the fun is still ongoing!

The cousins dancing to just dance.

Everybody opening up their Christmas jammies

The Smith's beautiful white Christmas tree. With a sweater Annie bought Bella in the first ever Christmas DI thrift store exchange, shopping at DI was, of course, a blast!

I braided Annie's hair into a heart shape braid, so fun.

Lindsey made two kinds of cinnamon rolls both, of course, were amazing.

That's like a whole pigs worth of bacon.

Annie and Bella

Not just a regular fruit platter for Christmas Day

The kids made snow cones, scop of snow and fruit flavor topping my desert rats loved it.

Parkin posing with the ice fort they made.

The Smiths had these chimes with the sheet music for several different carols. It was beautiful and very funny.

 On Christmas day we went to a movie, prices are so much cheaper than in Tucson. Later in the week, we went swimming at the Bountiful Rec center, a true neighborhood gem. They even have an ice skating rink, everyone loved it. Sweet Anna never gave up and got really good at the end. Bella and I took to the ice like a bunch of Olympic figure skaters! For real.

Christmas in Bountiful was amazing but probably one of the most amazing things was the number of friends the Smith's have. Every other minute someone was ringing the door to give them some baked good or present. I've never seen anything like that. I have a Hallmark script running in my head, sister comes to visit full of holiday grump but the love a samll town and all their gifts brighten her Scrooge heart... I'm workin on it.

Bountiful Christmas two thumbs up. I am in awe of how many times the Smiths have packed up Christmas that is no small task. For us totally worth it.