Girl's Night Out

 A few of us neighbors have been trying to get together since the beginning of December to go shooting at the indoor range. This was our third and successful attempt. I brought Stephen's 9mm and the three of us got to destress for an hour. I was amazed at how awesome it felt! Not too bad if I don't say so myself.

Mrs. Halliday's Birthday

 Zander's class got to spend the whole day celebrating his teacher's birthday. She even bought the class pizza for lunch. She is an amazing person.

Lucas' One Hundredth Day of School

 There were only a few kids who didn't dress up for school and Lucas was one of them. He is too shy and embarrassed to dress up on spirit days, but that's alright. What a cute class! He loved how Mrs. Thompson walked around really slow hunched over, haha. 

Catch Up

 Making suckers. We tried making them with Kool Aid; they were just ok, but we got some good color on our tongues!

We watched the 2nd Harry Potter movie and Zander decided to showcase his inner wizard.

The kids got to paint bird houses from a secret Santa that we had during Christmas.

Trying out my new waffle cone maker!

"Mom, I'm going to wear my sunglasses and walk with my hands in my pockets so I look cool like a boy."

This girl cracks me up.

Playing in forts with mom.

I'm really good at making myself look old.

We had a really good lesson on serving and loving one another. We took this picture to remind us of the love that we have for each other and to remember the feeling of the spirit during our lesson.

Zander checked out this Star Wars Cook Book from school a few weeks ago, so we used it so Zander could learn how to cook. We made several recipes from it, and they were all, surprisingly, really good. He got up a for a couple of mornings to make breakfast before school. This one is "Twin Sun Toast" aka egg-in-a-hole. And the second one is R2D2 Treats which are chocolate covered bananas rolled in crushed almonds and kit kats for arms. He was really proud of himself, as was I.

This little baby of mine does not want to stay my baby. He is growing up so fast and becoming the most independent little boy I ever made. He has to do everything himself, and I mean everything! I have to lift him up so he can turn the lights on or off, he has to climb in the car himself and get in his car seat and put on his seatbelt. He even has to climb on my lap by himself; he won't let me lift him up let alone touch him. He has to turn the pages when we read a book, which is one of his favorite things, and he loves to help set the table and put dishes in the dishwasher. Grayson is 22 months old and roughly 25 lbs. He refuses to eat dinner with us at night, but loves sweets and milk.

We finally got Grayson a big boy bed, and boy was he excited about it the first night, but hasn't slept in it since, haha. He usually falls asleep by the door, but sometimes I'll find him in some unusual places like his chair or just chilling as he falls asleep reading his books.

New Years Eve

 We took the kids to the "Noon" Years Eve party at Classic Fun Center. I think this is such a fun way to ring in the new year. The kids get to go skating, and play in the bounce houses, and foam pits, and play arcade games. There are a ton of raffle prize giveaways. This year we won a $10 gift card to Dairy Queen. the kids loved getting to learn and feel more comfortable staking, and at the very end we all gather in the center of the roller rink and count down and have a balloon drop. 

We came home and had our traditional angel food cake with different flavored frostings and topping to dip into. We did another countdown and used poppers and noise makers before going to the bedroom and cuddling on the bed to watch our pictures and videos of the past year. I love our tradition, and I love my family!

 

2021 In Review

 This past year really flew by, and good riddance. A lot of it was just a repeat of 2020 because the corona virus is still here and mutating things hadn't changed much. A lot of states and places were still on lockdown and we are still wearing masks, but much of Utah is doing better where things are more normal. Stephen is still working from home two years since the start of the pandemic. This was a year of travel for us, I feel like. We did and saw a lot things this year to stretch our legs and get out of the house since we were cooped up last year. 

Zander lost his first front tooth...and kept losing them all year until Christmas rolled around and so did the start of all his teeth growing in.

Grandpa Washburn passed away at the end of March.

We spent several days with Scott's family at Bryce National Park for our spring break. The scenery is beautiful out there! I'd like to go again.

Grayson turned 1!

I got lasik done on my eyes.

I had surgery on my foot.

I feel like we had a lot more family visit us this year and they all happen to happen around our kids' birthdays. We had family over for almost every birthday which was really cool.

Lucas turned 6!

We had the Pettingill Reunion in Twin Falls

Mom and I took the kids up to Spokane to visit Becky for a week. This was one of the highlights for me. Becky did a great job planning out activities and keeping the kids busy. We even squeezed in some mother daughter shopping time.

I got to visit my family for a week in Twin Falls when Becky came down. We also had loads of fun there.

Hannah turned 4!

Took the family to Big Sky, Montana with Loren's family.

Zander started 2nd grade, and Lucas started 1st. They both got to ride their bikes to school by themselves.

Zander played another year of flag football, and Lucas started soccer.

We took the kids on a staycation in Provo for fall break. We floated the Provo River, and took them to Cornbelly's.

I've gotten to help out with both the boys' classes this year for field trips and holiday parties.

Zander turned 8! He was also baptized and confirmed by his dad  on December 4th.

Grandpa Pettingill passed away in November.

We had lots of fun with family and friends this holiday season. We feel so loved and blessed beyond measure. We couldn't ask for anything more. We hope that this new year will be another great year and we will be stronger and closer and happier as a family than we ever have before.

Christmas

 December felt like there was a million things I had to do within the month. My parents and I went back and forth several times from Idaho to Utah since Thanksgiving on the weekends, then there was all the gift buying and hours of wrapping and sorting and organizing, decorating, parties, and baking, and ornament making, and dropping off gifts to our neighbors. I loved it all! We had an amazing Christmas this year despite the fact that the whole family, myself and Stephen included, came down with colds. We had a good snow fall where the kids and I got to go play in it before Christmas, then on Christmas day it all melted from the rain we got. 

Zander's favorite thing he got this year was his Darth Maul double bladed lightsaber, Lucas' was his Jumanji board game, Hannah was most impressed with her magic rainbow wand and princess shaped goldfish crackers, and Grayson has loved dragging his own just-his-size chair all over the house. He even put it on dad's lap and sat in the chair on top of Stephen, haha!

It was the year of the sock and underwear since that's what everyone got, and I got three different coats. Stephen got a massage chair cover and Seinfeld Legos. 

Our new tradition this year was preparing service hay for the baby Jesus to lay on come Christmas morning. Every night for the month of December we wrote down the acts of service we did for others, and I love this new tradition and seeing all the things we each did for each other and others throughout the month.

I didn't get any pictures from the Pettingill Christmas party, but Rachel is really good at making sure the get pictures at all the Washburn gathering. The Pettingill party was fun even though we were missing two families. We played name that tune, and bingo until it was time for dinner. Then we gathered in the basement and had Dad give the blessing on the family and tell us a story of when he was little. Then we did the pot where Mom won. Then it was time for our family to do the nativity. We worked with the kids for three weeks to memorize "The Nativity Song" from the primary children's book. We sang the song and showed coordinating pictures of the nativity. The kids did an amazing job! I really wanted someone to film it, but we were really rushed and I didn't get anyone to do it for me. I had to use my phone for the music.

Every year one of the grandkids gets picked to wear the nose as we sing Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer" and Zander got picked this year.

All the older cousins got Donald Duck sweaters in honor of Grandpa Washburn.

We took the kids out so they could go shopping for the sibling they drew this year. We had dinner, shopped, and then picked up some Krispy Kreme donuts on the way home.

 And finally, Christmas morning!