2021

It’s been a great year and it was fun to ring in the new year here at a cabin with family. There is so much snow here and we all enjoyed playing in it. Lesa and I went snow shoeing and the kids all built a fort outside. We also played a lot of games. It’s been fun! Everyone beside Luke stayed up until midnight.

Hopefully we all get plenty of rest tonight!

Winter Wonderland

It was snowing today and the roads weren’t so great but we decided to test out the roads anyway and make the drive to Island Park to be with family for the New Year. The roads weren’t nearly as bad as I was thinking they’d be so I’m glad we chose to come. It’s a beautiful winter wonderland here! I can’t wait to see it all in the morning. The kids stayed up way too late already playing with cousins. We’ve had yummy food thanks to the Murdocks and I know it will be a great weekend!

Friends

Kade and Tenley both had a friend over today and it was a lot of fun. We even took them to the church to play some basketball games. It was something fun to do in the cold weather! 

Swimming

The kids and I went swimming today at the Peak. It was so nice to feel warm and to be swimming! The cold is wearing on me. And it was fun to have a morning playing with my kids.

Fire Grilled Pizza

Brad bought a pizza oven a few weeks ago and we finally tried it out for the first time tonight. I really love fire grilled pizza and this oven was amazing! It cooks the pizzas so quickly and they turned out delicious! Our Monday night homemade pizza tradition may be coming back in style.

Christmas Church Service

We had a beautiful Christmas church service today. There was some spoken word, but it was mainly wonderful music numbers by the members in our ward. I love music, I love church, and I love Christmas. So it was perfect!

We spent the rest of the day inside staying warm. It’s below zero degrees! It is so frigid. We are lucky to have a warm home. I noticed we were all in our hoodies so we had to take a picture in them lol. Asp we’re missing Braf from these pictures because being a Bishop is hard work. 

Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas! Kade and Tenley slept in until 9:30 so we had breakfast before we headed down to open presents. Breakfast was delicious. I was thinking today that a lot of our traditions seem to revolve around food lol.

The kids loved their gifts and were very happy. And then we had one last present to share with them. It started with a puzzle which had a clue on the back that led to a series of other clues around the house that eventually led to the surprise trip to Walt Disney World in February! We are all so excited!!

We had a yummy turkey dinner and homemade peppermint ice cream for dessert-more food! We did talk about the birth of Jesus at the dinner table and why we are each grateful for him which was nice. I enjoyed the kids answers. Luke’s was simple, he loves Jesus because Jesus loves him. Kade was grateful for Jesus’ good example of how to live. Tenley was grateful that Jesus suffered and died for us so that we could repent. And Ryder was grateful that Jesus was born.

I loved Christmas today and I loved celebrating with my family.

Christmas Eve

We had a fun day being together as a family today. We cut up fruit cocktail and per Tenley’s request we changed our big festive meal to Christmas Day so tonight we had fondue and watched a movie. It was nice to stay home! 

Friends

We’ve had such nice friends deliver delicious goodies to us this year! One of them even came dressed up as the Grinch. Luke couldn’t look away! He really thought it was the Grinch.

We got to get together with some other friends for dinner. The kids had a blast and we enjoyed catching up with our friends!

Sugar Cookies

Baking sugar cookies is one of those traditions that my kids love and I could do without! Lol. We got the cookies baked today at least and we’ll make frosting and decorate tomorrow. Tenley was a huge help though which was nice. Soon she’ll probably be doing it all on her own.

Christmas Break

Technically the kids had school today but we were too anxious to start Christmas break so they stayed home and we partied. After lunch with Brad we went out for ice cream and then to Flippin Family Fun. There was only one other family there so it was really nice to basically have the place to ourselves. They actually ended up playing dodgeball with the other kids. It was boys against girls. They had fun. 

Home Sweet Home

We made it back home to be with Brad and Kade today! I was worried about driving on the Montana roads but they weren’t too bad this afternoon. I’m so glad we’re back safely and we found two pretty good driving days to get there and home again. I was so happy to be there for the wedding and see family. Kade was quick to open his present from Grandma and Grandpa. He was excited!