New Years Eve 2023

We never managed to make gingerbread houses before Christmas. I had purchased all of the items but it just never happened. I thought it would be a good activity to keep us busy on New Year's Eve. We watched a movie and Jack went to bed around 10 p.m. Juliet fell asleep on the couch. Merril got called out on a search at 9.45 p.m. He got back in time to toast 2024! It was a Sunday and I hadn't been feeling well so I didn't manage to get the the store the night before. We ended up making snacks out of whatever we could find in the house.

Maxine worked on her house for about 2 hours. Her house has smoke coming out of the chimney. Jack has a snowy with several cars covered with snow. He even used his fingers to make footprints in the snow. :)

Mark ended up munching on the houses the next day. Good bye 2023! You've been amazing to us!

Janet and Mark's 50 Wedding Anniversary

We've been battling colds at our house and my little Mark has had a fever for a few days. We had to take a huge family picture together. Everybody loves a huge family picture. 

We thought Mark would better for this bike ride. He kind of wasn't. He did the whole thing, which was 12 miles but was too beat down to go to the anniversary party that night.

At the big airbnb was a hot tub. We had to improvise a swimsuit for Max.

The party was nice.

Lots of people came.

I was in charge of making the cake. I was frazzled but it turned out well. I made a yummy applesauce cake with brown butter cream cheese frosting.

Can we just take a moment and look at this charcuterie? I could take pictures of food all day!

There was a song that most of the kids and grandkids sang. I'm going to tell you straight up that I didn't practice at all and stood in the back. It just didn't happen with all the Christmas things. It was still a nice night.

 

Merry Christmas! I Love You!

It’s Christmas Eve and it's finally here! We are on our way to Grandmother's house. We went to my mom's house on the 23rd and opened presents with everybody because people had to work. I don't have any pictures of that. We did the nativity, we ate clam chowder as per tradition, and we opened pajamas. 

I ended up sleeping until a beautiful 5:00 a.m. until I got woken up by Mark, who was so excited I thought he was going to turn inside out. It was a lovely Christmas morning and one for the books. I surprised Merril with a trip to Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania on Groundhog's Day and I have been so excited about it for 6 months. He was really surprised! Yay! It was a perfect Christmas morning!

Maxine made this for me for Christmas. I saw this painting in the Washington D.C. temple when I was there for the open house and fell in love with it. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to get a print of it. So Maxine just decided to make a reproduction! How amazing! I cried. Like always. So sweet of her. It was spot on. Thumbs up. Love you guys!

Home for Christmas!

Maxine finished her classes and headed home. She didn't come straight home because she was attending a reception of her roommate at the dorm. Kyaera Price, now Mecham. Maxine shares a room with her. So even though she was done with classes on Tuesday or Wednesday, she waited until Sunday to come home because the reception was in Price. She didn't want to drive here and then drive back up. She said the dorms were a ghost town. Now she's here and we went for a hike.

We wrapped presents while the kids were at school. I felt pretty calm this Christmas season. I asked Merril to help a lot more and got a ton done. I really didn't wrap anything though. Maxine and I watched "While You Were Sleeping" and wrapped! It went fast! Yay!

Maxine said this is her first Christmas home in 2 years. I can't believe that's true but it is. She left on her mission right before Christmas. I asked her what she wanted to do and she said nothing specific. Just be here. 

I can't believe how nice it is to have everyone home for Christmas! Loving it!

It's Been 24 Years Since This Man Changed My Life! 💓 💓 💓

Merril is so good about planning little getaways for us. I wanted to try harder and so I surprised him with the idea of going to a historic bed and breakfast in St. George called the Mulberry Inn. We met 24 years ago and it has been fantastic. We have spent so many good times together! He has made life so good.

 I also wanted to go out to Anasazi Steakhouse and get cheesy fondue! It was delicious. 😀

The Mulberry Inn is one of the oldest houses in St. George. It was super cute and they had an adorable Christmas tree in the parlor.

It was great to spend the time together to distract from all the busyness of the holiday season. Although I've been killing my to do list, with the help of Merril, and I haven't been too stressed!

For breakfast, I requested oatmeal and the cutest tray came out with tiny serving dishes. 😍

Also, the St. George temple was rededicated and opened this week. I had planned a little ahead and secured an appointment for endowments. We could only get an early morning session and it was pitch black when we arrived at 6:30 a.m.

The session was great and it was wonderful to be so close to a temple again! Not that Cedar or Vegas is terribly far but this is nice. We are doubly blessed because the opening of the Red Cliffs Temple is right around the corner in March! Yay! We will have two operating temple so close! 

Merril's Having Trouble Seeing But It'll Be Okay

I didn't want the title to be too alarming. Merril was having trouble seeing out of his good eye. After googling some symptoms, it seemed a little scary. He had a new big floater and had seen some flashes of light. Those can be signs of a detached retina. He jumped over to St. George to get an eye appointment and it's not a retinal detachment. He was diagnosed with a large posterior vitreous detachment. The jelly in your eyeball pulls away from the back. It's more common as we age and more common for people with nearsightedness.

 

These are the pictures of the inside of his eye. It shouldn't require any surgery and the big grey floater will improve over the next 6 months. If it doesn't get much better, they can zap the floater with a laser to break it up. So he should be okay.

It was a little scary for half a day. He followed up with a retinal specialist and they weren't concerned with it either. Merril's dad had detached retinas and we didn't want the same thing happening to him. He should be good though!

December Music and St. George Temple Dedication

Mark started piano lessons and has taken off. He doesn't practice that much but is quickly picking it up. He had his first recital.

This is Mikayla's second orchestra concert. Their teacher said they've improved a lot for a beginning orchestra.

This is the picture we took right before the St. George Temple dedication session! Yay! My littles were able to get a special recommend and attend with us. Talon was with us too. Yay! It was a fun experience because my sister, Jeannie, was asked to sing in the choir at the dedication. Such a cool experience for her. Low key, kinda jealous. :) It was fun to look for her in the choir and the dedication was lovely! So excited to finally be able to use the St. George temple again!

Ward Christmas Party

The Relief Society was in charge of the ward party and I was in charge of putting together a live nativity of primary children.  It was a good time but I was feeling a little scrambled trying to get costumes for an entire primary worth of children. I borrowed some from Amy Werrett and also made a few more for my batch. Mikayla is actually wearing my mom's first temple dress. She gave it to me several years ago and it's been in the back of my closet because I didn't know what in the world to do with it. I finally gave it a purpose. It fit Mikayla perfectly.

 I can't believe my mother ever fit in that dress. It is so teeny! I was running around that whole night and didn't take a single picture but I took a picture of Merril and the primary activity boys setting up chairs.

 Merril took this picture of Mikayla as the angels entered. I made a manger out of some old wood and a pallet. It turned out well and it was fun to build something. The nativity was cute and I'm so glad it's over. Now I can focus on Christmas for our family!