Ice skating in Cedar City...

The Howards invited us to go ice skating in Cedar City over Christmas break. Ice skating always reminds me of my Dad. He was from up North, and always liked to go ice skating on Baker Reservoir or Pine Valley Reservoir when they had frozen over. I remember him on a three-wheeler, pulling us on skates or on tubes. I can still skate pretty well from all those years on the frozen lakes. I didn't even fall! Jack fell a lot but seemed to have a good time doing it.

Merril said my bright pink coat made me easy to spot.

for some reason I have my crazy face on with Maxine. 

Mikayla and Mark improved a lot this year. Those blue walker things help so much! 

Green bean soup...

I ended up with 8 cans of green beans from the Utah Food Bank. The food bank comes to the school and asks the kids if they want to take home food. Mark brings one home every time. 2 cans per bag. I've told him not to get the bags of food anymore because we don't need it. So back to the 8 cans of green beans. I don't normally cook with canned vegetables so the kids aren't that keen on them. I use fresh or frozen. So the 8 cans are staring at me from the pantry and I decided to make a creamed soup with bacon on top. I was pretty proud of my creation and thought it tasted classy. The kids did not agree. I made them eat it anyway. I also promised to never EVER make it again. 

Christmas Day...

What a pile of presents! Our tree looked amazing on Christmas Eve!

I was up at 2:30 a.m. because I could hear kids moving around, mostly Mark. He tends to be full volume whether we're at church, at home, at recitals, wherever. He has a hard time grasping the concept of a whisper. Merril and I popped out of our room at 4:45 a.m. dressed in Christmas jammies and ready.

Juliet got a hoverboard and spent most of the day making sure no one broke it. Everyone wanted to ride it.

Even Maxine wanted to ride it!

The living room was a mess and I thought I could live with it. I couldn't. I made the kids clean it.

I think Mikayla's had too much sugar!

The boys are racing cars.

Breakfast was a most excellent egg, sausage, hash brown casserole, made by Merril, and I made the Christmas Carol Roll. I didn't get a picture of the breakfast because we were starving. We didn't have places to run to so we chilled at the house. I took 2 naps! Fabulous Christmas!

Christmas Eve in the snow...

We got invited to play in the snow on Christmas Eve by the Beattys. They go every year on Christmas Eve to wear out their kids so that they'll sleep easier.

A jump was built and everyone went down and a few landed pretty hard. Mikayla scared me the most because she took off on a fast tube when I wasn't looking and landed hard and started crying. I thought she might've reinjured her collar bone! We're still supposed to be careful with her to some degree!! She ended up landing on her hip on the opposite side of her collar bone break, thankfully. We sat together and she calmed down after a donut.

Maxine made a snow heart.

I'm pleased to say they were tuckered out for Christmas Eve.

Arizona hot springs...

2 days before Christmas we were invited to hike down to Arizona hot springs just below Hoover dam. We went with the Howards, who I hadn't really met before and had a good time hiking. They are pretty athletic hikers! I was doing okay keeping up but I was glad to have some little people to slow the pace a little bit. Maxine didn't come because she was working on a Christmas present for her friend Ellen.

The hot springs were awesome! Definitely hot enough to jump into in the middle of winter when it's cold outside! We had to be careful not to put our faces in the water so as not to catch a brain-eating amoeba, common to hot springs. 

One nice feature of the hot springs is that I didn't stiffen up while we sat and rested in them. When we started hiking again I felt loose and good! The whole trail was a 6 mile in and back. Mark and Mikayla did really great for about 4 miles and then they start to drag and get distracted instead of hiking. But we all made it and did great!

Mark is relandscaping...

Over the past 4 months, Mark and a bunch of neighbor kids have been digging roads into the front yard landscaping. They drive Matchbox cars, flood the tracks to make them rivers and basically undo all the hard work on my front yard. Do I let them? The simple answer is yes. *roll eyes*

Let me say that I love kids that play outside...in the dirt...not in front of a computer screen.  I like it a lot. So I'm letting them destroy the yard because I feel like playing outside is a very good thing for this digital generation. I can always put the yard back together later. Hopefully the neighbors don't mind too much!

Anniversary in Vegas!

Merril took me to Vegas for our anniversary of the day we met. It has been 20 years! The Bellagio conservatory was beautiful, we listened to some live music, ate sushi, and visited the Las Vegas Temple.

There's no one else I would rather have spent these last 20 years with than Merril! I remember loving the Las Vegas Temple celestial room and it was as awesome as I remembered it!

Maxine's epic art!

Maxine has a drawing class this year and is loving it. I feel like her artistic ability has increased a bunch! This is her final project for her art class and it is looking so cool!

Class presentation on Japan...

Mikayla's teacher asked if I would do a class presentation on Japan. I was kind of hoping Merril would do it but he was not available. Mark and I dressed up in kimonos! Mark was as cute as a button! The presentation went great and we looked cute doing it!

I didn't take a picture but snagged a screen shot from a Marco Polo I sent to Emily. That's as good as it's going to get. All the other shots look like I'm talking, which I am because it's a Marco Polo. It's better than nothing.

Update on Mikayla's collar bone...

A little before Halloween, Mikayla was able to get out of her sling and start to slowly move it again. She had some guidelines to keep her from reinjuring herself. No pushups, no swinging from monkey bars, no rough housing. Be careful for another month. She says it feels weird to lift her arm above her head. 

To be clear, her crazy collar bones didn't really move back together but just welded themselves together in the oddball position they were in. So her bones are solid but not straight. She can do this really weird thing with her shoulders that makes her pointy collar bone stick up and it is pretty creepy. The bones will remodel themselves but it will take about a year. She will end up with a normal looking collar bone but until then, she's got a cool party trick.

If you look closely, you can see the new bone built a bridge between the crazy break. The human body is amazing. In researching how bones know how to grow back together, I learned that bones bleed when they break. The blood clot between the broken ends tells the body where to start rebuilding bone. Awesome!

After another month, at the beginning of December, she was given the green light to slowly start doing things again. Start slowly. Do one push up and see how it feels. Start slow and discontinue if there's any pain. What a trooper!

La Verkin Winter Fest!

Merril and Maxine sang at Winter Fest in La Verkin. Maxine ended up playing quite a bit because Merril wrecked his snow bike and his helmet caught on the handlebars, causing his chin strap to jerk upwards. The results was some injury to his throat and he couldn't sing very well.

We stayed for a game show afterwards and Merril was called up on stage and won a $30 gift certificate to River Rock Roasting Co. That place makes yummy sandwiches so it was a super win!

Gingerbread houses...

We made some gingerbread kits and decorated them for Christmas!

Juliet & Mikayla's houses

Jack and Mommy's houses

Mark and Maxine's houses

I had two kits, which had enough pieces for Jack to make a garage, a favorite every time. 

Merril and his snow bike!

There he goes, off to play in the snow! He got his snow bike back together and is so excited to be riding it again!

After Wade saw how cool it was, he had to get one as well. Fingers crossed that they ride super safe!

Those two don't seem like the poster children for super safe. This is from the Spring because the snow was better for jumping.

Family Photos...

Time for a new family picture and of course, everyone hates me. So sorry family. I will make you smile once a year for a really long time! Look how grown up they are getting! I will keep doing this for as long as I can make them!

Thanksgiving...

Thanksgiving was at Jo Anna's house in Payson. It was a little snowy on the drive up and back but it was fine in the Expedition. We drove up Thursday morning and came home Friday morning after the kids went to the Payson temple with Merril.

A few days later, we felt sad that we didn't have any Thanksgiving leftovers so we made another turkey dinner. It was delish! I cooked a turkey from frozen, it took more time but worked just as fine. I also didn't have to thaw it so that was good! Christmas is coming!

Christmas is coming...time for a tree

We were able to go get a Christmas tree on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Huge storms had blasted the states of Utah and Arizona. We normally get trees at Jacob Lake but there was too much snow and they don't plow the roads. We went to Cedar mountain and there was SO MUCH POWDER! Walking proved difficult because we would sink up to our thighs.

I only took a few pictures because I could barely breath. 

Merril's brother, Justin, was with us. Justin didn't bring any snow gear. Merril only brought gaiters and snow gloves. I brought full gear for me and all the kids, luckily. I'm not sure why Merril thought there wouldn't be any snow after all the storms but he made it work. Merril, Justin, and I hiked up a hill, which would normally take no time but takes significantly longer when one sinks clear up to their hip with every step. 

Merril and I found the first one and agreed it was good enough. Bag it and tag it. Since I was in full snow gear, I helped Justin dig out the tree he picked. When I stood in the hole at the base of the tree, the powder came up to my shoulder! 

Our tree has a bare spot but no matter. It's still lovely. Merril is singing and took this picture to promote it. Yay, Christmas!