finishing up 2021

Brynn woke up the day after Christmas to work on her Legos.  She assembled the entire set that day.  It turned out so cute! 

Sunday Christmas. No one got new clothes and that was okay.  Justin had no meetings and it was sacrament meeting only.  He still had to sit on the stand, but I'll take what I can get.  I made everyone take a picture that day because it had been a while since we had had Justin home in the morning with us...and we knew it would be several years before we got him back.  Happy Sabbath day.  So grateful for the chance to go to church each week with this crew, even though some days are hard sitting in the pew by myself.  I was leading the music and accompanying a couple of musical numbers so the kids were actually by themselves this week and {I think} did well enough. 

Molly drew this family photo for a favorite family of ours. They have four boys and we have become great friends over the last several years as we've served in callings with them.  We loved going to Hawaii with John and Jenny!  John gave this to Jenny as a Christmas gift.

While she was drawing that, she also drew this paddle boarding/sunset picture.  She has an empty spot on her wall and was looking around for some art work to fill it when Justin suggested she just draw what she wanted.  This was the outcome.

We had a full week ahead of us with no plans.  Like the week before Christmas, I was feeling the need to get out of the house each day.  At least for Brynn and Ivy because they are so good at arguing with each other.  On Monday, I took them to the church and let them ride their scooters and skates around the gym.  We took Carli Steiner with us.  I snuck into the chapel to practice the organ (which I'm trying to learn).  We stayed for one hour.  Carli came home with us.  We picked up her snow clothes on the way home and the girls went out to play in all our new snow.

Brynn, Carli, Ivy

Brynn, Carli, Ivy

Carli, Brynn, Ivy

Molly worked a lot over the break.  They do a tropical Christmas train that week after Christmas.  She made so much money doing the Christmas trains this year!

she's taking the selfie, in the front-the only other person I know is Sam Steiner just over her right shoulder

On Tuesday we took the kids to see Sing 2.  We had seen the first one in the theater and thought it would be appropriate to see the second one in a theater as well (we rarely go to the movies).  We loved the movie.  It was so cute and the music was so good.  Definitely a kid movie that adults can enjoy as well. (We had free tickets and popcorn vouchers as well-score!)

 

On Wednesday I took the girls swimming.  They played so well together for the couple of hours we were there.  Just what they need these days.

 

Sometime that week we got started on our Harry Potter movie marathon.  I think most of the movies were watched in the {very messy} loft with the projector.

 

Thursday morning was the day I took the kids to breakfast.  We wish Justin could have joined us but he was dealing with staffing issues at work and couldn't get away.  The kids said Kneaders but I wanted to take them to a legit breakfast place so I took them to Chick's Cafe on Main Street.  Buttermilk pancakes bigger than Brynn's face, French Toast, omelets, hashbrowns, bacon, and scones...the kids thought it was wonderful.  It filled our bellies for lots of hours that day and some of them enjoyed their leftovers later that night.

 

New Year's Eve.  We had gotten a lot of snow that week.  Brynn enjoyed it with Cash.

 

Ivy got her new Lego set and had to get it put together that day. 

At some point I took to the kids to the store to pick out their New Year's Eve dinner item.  This is what was chosen: Justin-shrimp, Megan-honey bbq chicken tenders, Molly-soft baked pretzels with nacho cheese dip, Stockton-pot stickers, Brynn-french toast sticks, Ivy-spaghetti.  Brynn and Ivy stayed true to tradition, as much as I tried to get them to try something new.  We also had Molly's friend, Sadie, with us and ended up with taquitos and chips and queso as well.  And let's not forget about the Shirley Temples, such a fun tradition.  Yum!

Sadie Job and Molly

 

We continued our HP movie marathon in the loft.  I played games with Brynn and Ivy.  We played Exploding Kittens, Candy Land, Sleeping Queens, Go Fish, Old Maid, and Chutes and Ladders until I called it quits with the games.  We rang in the New Year at midnight with 5/6 of us present and awake.

 

Molly and Sadie went to the multi-stake youth dance at the rec center.  Our stake was in charge of it this year and one of the chaperones told me there were more that 400 kids that attended!  We were lucky to get Molly for dinner but the time for her to celebrate with us is probably over...but she did not want to miss dinner so at least we got her for a minute.  Happy New Year!