January 2023

Happy New Year! New Year's Day was a Sunday but we had 11:30 church so we got to sleep in.  Justin had meetings starting at 8 but that was an hour later than all of last year so he was excited about that as well.  The rest of us were lazy but the first thing we noticed that morning was just how much snow we had gotten overnight.  And that the snow was not stopping.  It was a whole bunch, more than we have seen in the last several years.  I started getting everyone ready for church but word shortly came that church was canceled and that we should focus our efforts on getting our neighbors and friends dug out.  Stockton spent a lot of time shoveling our walk and it was a group effort to get our driveway cleared out...and we had to do that more than once! 

The kids were excited to have a snow day even though we all wished it would have been on a school day.  It's not really that exciting to miss church but the snow was very exciting.  Most of us bundled up and headed out, either to shovel or to play...or both!  Our first item of business was to get the snow off the trampoline.  Brynn and Ivy made little bit of a dent (they mostly played), then I did everything except for a huge ice chunk in the middle that Justin got off.

We explored the yard and loved the natural canopies made by the trees.  We built a snowman.  The kids stayed out until they were soaking wet.  Then we came in by the fire and cuddled under blankets and watched our Harry Potter movies.  We had a pancake picnic for dinner while the snow, that had never stopped, continued to fall into the night and the next day.

I don't take a picture every time I wash eggs but our chickens are heavy producers all winter long.  Justin has a heat lamp that automatically turns on each night for five hours and that is what does the trick.  I took a picture this time because the price of eggs sky-rocketed this winter.  It wasn't really on my radar until I started hearing chatter and seeing funny egg memes. I check every once in a while and they are close to $6-8/dozen.  I am getting that many every second or third day. (I still pay for the chicken feed so I can't say I'm saving a whole bunch of money but it still feels nice.)

All the shoveling from the previous day had to be done again on Monday.  We dug out Molly's truck and just took in the amount of snow.  The kids discovered that they could climb the fence onto the garage roof and slide off into the soft, new snow.  Stockton and the girls made a snow fort under one of the trees in the front yard.  When Justin and I went out to feed the animals, the snow in the pasture was literally up to the top of my thighs!

 

It was nice this year to have Christmas and New Year's on Sunday because the banking holiday was on Monday which meant Justin had two long weekends in a row. We didn't really do anything memorable on the Monday after New Year's but we did plan to go to dinner that night.  We put an order in for Mod Pizza in Park City but shortly after getting in the car, we realized that getting up to Park City wasn't really going to be fun with all the snow.  So we canceled that order and told the kids they could get what they wanted from in town.  We had a divided family so we decided to get what everyone wanted and take it home.  Stockton, Brynn, and Ivy wanted Panda Express and Justin, me, and Molly got street tacos.  Everyone was happy with their choice and spent the rest of the night finishing the Harry Potter movies. It was our last non-school night weeknight.

 

The one thing Brynn and Ivy were dying to do over the break was to go ice skating so I finally took them on the last day before going back to school.  We went to the Midway ice rink and we spent about an hour and a half skating.  Brynn is really good at skating and loves it.  Ivy also loves it but she struggles to stay up on her skates a lot more than Brynn does.  But she is good at laughing at herself and we had lots of laughs and giggles.  I thought it would be super crowded since it was the last day of break but it wasn't and we even had the last 5-10 minutes with the rink all to ourselves.  It was a fun day!

Raylie still comes over most days after school.  They get off the bus, walk down the street, drop Raylie's backpack off at her house, and then trudge over to our house to play.  They never play at the Anderson's house for some reason but that's fine with me.  It took them a few days to make a pathway through the snow from their house to ours.

Big day for Stockton!  He finally got his braces on.  I think he was okay with it...not super excited but ready to just get them on and started.  It sure changed his smile!  He was sore for a few days and has a weird bite so it took him a while to get to where he could bite down on certain foods.  He'll have them for a couple years, at least.

before

after

Stockton's next big day came a couple of days later when he was ordained a teacher.  Justin ordained him and both his grandpa's, Uncle Brett, and Jason Grant (teacher's quorum advisor) were in the circle.  Cameron is staying with Gene and April through the rest of the school year so it was good to see him as well.  Stockton still loves his quorum classes and activities; it is a great group of boys.

April, Cameron, Stockton, Gene, Brett

Cam and Stockton

with Grandma and Grandpa Moyes

Justin and I took Ivy to a baptism preview that night and when we got home we found that Stockton and Brynn had pranked her by putting all of her stuffies in random spots around the house.  I took this photo of the princess dolls in the window but that was barely a quarter of what they did.  It was pretty funny but Ivy was not impressed.  She got so mad and upset...which actually made the whole thing even funnier!

I helped Ivy get back at Brynn a couple of days later...while Brynn was at cheer we snuck in her room and put all of the letters on her letterboard upside down.  Then we waited to see if she noticed.  It took a while but she saw it...and also was not happy, haha!  She had spent so much time getting it just the way she wanted and was annoyed that she had to re-do it.

 

We had cheer competitions three Saturdays in a row in January.  The first one was in Ogden at Weber High.  Brynn is always pretty solid in her stunting but one of the groups had some trouble and fell out of their elite stunt.  They got third.  Since it was close to family, she had a bigger cheering section.

front row, second in from right

Grandma Kay, Stockton, Grandpa Moyes, Tessa, Ali, Molly, Brynn, Ivy, Lucy

Stockton had all his bats laid out one night when I went to tell him goodnight.  After taking fall season off, he is excited to be playing baseball again this winter and spring.

 

Justin's Idaho cousin was bringing her family for an extended weekend in Midway so they asked if we could take their daughter's dog while they were at the hotel.  Brynn and Ivy were in heaven.  Dash is some sort of poodle mix and he is BIG!  But so well trained.  He had a super fun personality and we enjoyed having him very much.  If we could get a dog that was already that well-trained, I would be very tempted.

 

The Fife's were back and forth that weekend.  They would take Dash for several hours in the day and then bring him back at night.  We hardly ever see the Idaho side of Justin's family and it was so fun to get to visit with them.

Stockton, Justin, Maddox, me, Ivy, Molly, Emma, Norah, Amy, Kip, Brynn, Dash

Stockton set up his baseball net in the loft with the gymnastics mat behind it and had Justin throw him some balls.  This proved to be an effective way to practice.  We are buried under so much snow at this point that we are wondering when we will actually get to play outside on grass.  The girls had to try it too.

We were pretty boring for Martin Luther King Day and just stayed home.  The kids got creative and set up a movie theater in Brynn's room.   

The next Saturday's competition was in Sandy.  Again, Brynn did great but that same stunt group had the same issue.  They didn't fall quite as bad but it still earned them some deductions.  They got third again.  April was able to come and watch and we hung out at their house in between performance and awards (celebrated Ivy's birthday then).

left flyer

Brynn, April, Ivy

The Young Women were going to the temple for an activity.  We had really been wanting to take Brynn for her first time but all those cheer competitions prevented us from doing that.  Since I wanted to be there for her first time, I rearranged my afternoon so I could go down with her. She drove with her class and I met them there.  We had teased her ahead of time that they wouldn't have a jumpsuit that fit her or that the water would be above her head but neither of those turned out to be true.  They have kid-sized jumpsuits and the water came up to the top of her shoulders.  She did great and it was special to be there for her first time.  Justin would have liked to be there but couldn't arrange his schedule so we took Brynn and Stockton back the next week and that was good too.

 

The last competition this month was in Farmington.  They had made a couple of changes and had to majorly adjust last minute when one of their girls couldn't compete due to a concussion.  They did so awesome!  Their best performance of the month for sure and everyone was ecstatic when they announced Code Blue as the division champs that day.  So awesome for these girls, they truly work so, so hard each week and put it all out there when they compete.  It felt great to get a win at the end of those series of comps.

back flyer

far right flyer

Brynn and Shaylee Williams

bottom row, second in from left

Whew!  We made it through January.  We have more snow than we've ever seen as long as we've lived here (which is not that long, actually); some old-timers tell me we haven't had this much snow in 30+ years.  We have needed it so I try not to complain but we are all a little tired of the snow and cold.  I mean, really, really cold.  I dropped Ivy off at school on the last day of January and wanted to record the temperature at 8:40 that morning.  -10!!  Needless to say, that was a "red" day and they stayed inside for recess.  Brrr!