Remembering

 Birthdays are the best days to celebrate the people you love that are living or to remember the people you love that have passed on. Today we remembered Brad’s mom, my mother in law, and the kid’s Grandma Hobson. Only Kade and Tenley ever got to meet her in this life and only Kade remembers her. We made her famous cinnamon rolls. They were delicious and melted in my mouth! The kids wrote her notes and pictures on balloons that we sent to her in heaven after Brad got home from his stake meetings. It was a windy night and the balloons flew away quickly! 

When we walked back inside Luke asked, “Does Grandma even know you have four kids now?”

I told him, “Yes, she does! Because she’s our angel now and even though we can’t see her, she isn’t far away.”

Our Flag Pole

 The youth hunt begins today so Brad had taken this day off work months ago to go hunting with the boys. But Kade is now too old and Luke is too young and Ryder wants and needs to go shooting more first, so no one went hunting today. But they did get a huge start on putting up Christmas lights! It was a beautiful day to spend outside doing that. They got the flag pole up and it looks so nice! It also looks very sturdy which will hopefully help with the Christmas tree that he wants to make with it.

Balloons for Grandma Hobson

 Today would have been Grandma Hobson’s 80th birthday. Brad siblings texted together about what they did to remember her today and how much she would have loved group texts and find friends. She always loved to keep an eye on her kids and she loved having them all together. The kids colored notes on balloons for her and Kade shared a memory of her as we watched them fly away. Luke asked why we let balloons go in the sky for her when she won’t actually get them. I told him it’s just a way for us to remember her and do something for her. Then he said, “Maybe she’ll watch them float by while she’s sitting on a cloud in heaven.” Oh it’s so funny the way his mind works and the way he pictures heaven. It’s definitely a subject I wish I knew more about. For all I know he could be right.

Christmas

 We had the best day as a family today. The kids weren’t up until after 8 and then we had our traditional cinnamon rolls and omelet breakfast. After breakfast we went downstairs to exchange gifts. They all seemed happy with what they got! Luke got two Lego sets and spent the rest of the day building them. He finished them both right before bed! I asked him if he had a good Christmas Day and he said, “Yep I had a good Lego day because that’s all I did today!” 

After gifts Brad had a scavenger hunt planned for the kids. It led to his truck where they found a 3D printer. The kids are excited to make things with it! And then he surprised even me when Tenley found a clue for a scavenger hunt for me in one of my presents. I usually enjoy sitting back while the kids run around but this time I had to join in and figure out each of the clues. One of the clues led me to a puzzle which took me 10 minutes to put together only to realize a piece was missing. Brad had the missing piece and on the back he had written, “Just kidding! Your next clue is actually in the mailbox…” Oh my word…But we did finally find out that he planned a family trip for us all to Kauai for next month! He booked an Airbnb and flights and everything! I don’t know how he kept it all a secret from me. We are so excited. I’ve been wanting to go and have dropped many hints to him. I guess he listened!

Brad and I went for a walk tonight and as we were leaving the house a family was there looking at our lights. They asked if the wind really knocked our tree over. I guess they thought the grinch was so funny on it that maybe we actually did that on purpose! It’s a sore topic for us. Hopefully next year is better.

It really was just a great day hanging out at home and enjoying having nothing to do!

Christmas Eve

 We had a fun Christmas Eve today! Kade and Tenley delivered the last gift of the 12 Days of Christmas. We really enjoyed doing that for our neighbors. We made fruit cocktail and all the kids helped. Luke cut up the grapes and did a really great job. They all did a great job it’s just cute to see little Luke getting involved with the big kids stuff.

We had a delicious turkey dinner and while I was making it I realized that I didn’t have any candy canes for our peppermint ice cream! All the major grocery stores had already closed for the night so I drove around to some gas stations hoping for a miracle and found nothing. As I was on my home I saw that Walgreens was open! And they had candy canes for half price. What a life saver. The kids were so happy. So we got to enjoy our chocolate cake and our peppermint ice cream. It was delicious. The kids opened their cozy new pajamas and went to bed so happy that tomorrow is Christmas!

Homemade Ornaments

 We got a lot of house chores done today. It feels like we haven’t had an open Saturday to do that in a long time. I even started building a new desk for my new office that I’m so excited for. And Tenley helped me finish making some homemade ornaments that I plan to gift to our friends and neighbors. I grew up getting handmade Christmas ornaments from my grandma each year and I’m trying to start the same tradition myself. I’m not a crafty person and I’m sure I’ll never knit or crochet ornaments but making these homemade salt dough ornaments was a lot of fun. And I think Tenley put more work into them than I did. Luckily she loves to craft! It’s such a fun tradition to keep using! Especially with Tenley’s help!

One other fun thing, I came home tonight and there was a couple on a walk with their kids stopped in front of our house admiring all the lights. Obviously the lights have been so disappointing for us this year so to hear the kids laugh about the grinch and have the adults thank us for spending so much time on the lights meant a lot!

Traditions

 We’ve tried to keep up with all of our old traditions from years ago when we used to more frequently get together for Thanksgiving in Boise. That meant today the boys watched football while the girls went shopping. Tenley joined us shopping with her cousins which she loved. It was so much fun to have her along with us. We went to an outdoor mall. It was cold but the sun was shining! We went to several stores, stopped for lunch, and then went to several more stores. 

The boys went to shoot shotguns after watching football. Kade thought it was a lot of fun shooting clay pigeons.

Then the adults went out for our traditional date night and we had to go have our traditional TCBY treat after that. It was a very nostalgic day.

Grandma Hobson

Grandma Hobson would have been 79 today. We hate celebrating without her here but Tenley is always adamant that we send her balloons. Since she passed almost 11 years ago only Kade really has any memories of her but he’s always good about sharing them with us.

The Murdocks left this morning and it’s a sad and lonely house without them! We did get all the Christmas lights from outside taken down though so it was a productive day.

Christmas Music

Church was so nice today and not just because it was only one hour. There were so many musical numbers and they were all so beautiful! Kade and I got to play a duet on the piano together. We played O Holy Night. I really enjoyed playing with him and I loved the arrangement we found. Brad shared a message at the end as our Bishop which is still so funny to think about it. 

I feel like I spent the rest of the day in the kitchen baking. We had a yummy feast for our Christmas Eve dinner. Brad smoked beef brisket and we had rolls, orange rolls, salad, and loaded mashed potatoes. Then we had chocolate cake and peppermint ice cream for dessert. I think I’ll be full for the whole week!

Caroling

The kids and I went caroling with some friends from co op today at the hospital. I love going caroling! It’s been a few years since we’ve done it so it was really nice to get out and do that. The kids felt a little sad afterward for the people there that they sang to. I think they appreciate their life more now.

They also helped me deliver gifts to friends today. We had a fun night out as a family driving around and doing that. 

Christmas Time

Now that Thanksgiving is over we have lit the lights on our house and started to decorate for Christmas inside! It was fun to turn on Christmas music today and put up the tree. Ryder was especially excited and helpful in getting everything set up! I don’t think we’ve had it set up this early in a long time! This picture of our house was from our neighbor across the street!

Thanksgiving

We had such a great Thanksgiving! It was really low key and really relaxing. We slept in, the kids begged Brad to make waffles, and then we went to the church to play basketball. We thought about playing football but we woke up to snow on the ground so we decided to play basketball instead. We had a lot of fun. 

The kids played games when we got home and built their Kiwi Co experiments. Dinner was delicious and for dessert we had homemade ice cream and pecan bars. It was a good day! I’m so thankful for my family!

Italian Sodas

The kids love to have Italian sodas on Sundays. Brad started the tradition a while ago but then stopped making them. The kids wanted the tradition back so badly that now they know how to make them themselves! It’s fun to see them grow to be more independent.

Remembering Grandma June

Today was Brad’s mom’s birthday. It’s always hard to celebrate a person’s birthday when they aren’t here but we do our best with our balloon send off. Tenley won’t let us forget to send Grandma balloons.

2022

2022 has been a great year and ringing in the new year in the mountains with family has been amazing! We’ve had such a great time playing in the snow, enjoying the hot tub, and eating delicious food. I’m excited for the new year!

Cabin Getaways

We met up with the Murdocks and Haddons in Island Park for our New Years party today! There is a lot of snow here! It’s gorgeous. The kids got in the hot tub tonight and enjoyed the beautiful winter wonderland. 

Christmas Eve

We had a wonderful Christmas Eve. We spent a lot of time cooking and delivering gifts and then we had a delcious turkey feast for dinner. The kids opened their new pajamas and we watched a Christmas movie and had chocolate cake for dessert. The kids went to bed so excited for tomorrow!

Christmas Tree Moments

At our Relief Society activity last week a friend shared her tradition that she calls ‘Christmas Tree Moments’ with us. After hectic days they take time to pause by turning all the lights off in the house beside the Christmas tree and then listening to quiet Christmas music. I loved the idea and after our crazy day I decided to try it tonight. We have definitely seen blessings for our family as Brad has served as Bishop but the holiday season with tithing declaration is busy and we miss him! He left for church this morning at 7 AM and after all of his meeting we saw him at 3 for an hour. Then he and I had to go back for a meeting about FSY for Kade next year at 4. We came back home for dinner and then left again for a meeting at 6 for Tenley’s temple preparation night since she’ll be going into young womens next year. It was a long day! 

So after we got home and the kids got in their pajamas we had a Christmas tree moment. Ryder played the piano for us at first which I loved even more. It didn’t last long but it was a great end to the day.