The Coltrin Clan

This year Arizona came to us. And I am so grateful because with Aaron's job, we are rarely able to travel during the Thanksgiving and Christmas season. Kalinda and her family left Phoenix early on Dec. 21 and Mom and Dad followed a few hours later. Mom and Dad stayed at Shannon's house because that was easiest for her. She is the most familiar with their house and it is quieter. That meant that Kalinda and her family got to stay with us. It gave them a welcome calm and break from their everyday life. The time we spent together was filled with Laser tag in the Layton Hills mall, a white Elephant gift exchange and Nacho Bar at Logan's club house, Chinese food on Christmas Eve. Which was kind of a fiasco, Shannon called ahead, ordered and paid for our dinner. She asked for a 5:30 pick up, but something was lost in the translation. She and Larry waited for an hour and a half for our order and they forgot half of our meals, but it was good and nastalgic! We all opened our Christ...

What do you do when you want to spend quality time with some of the people in your village?  You plan Murder Mystery night of course!  I count Aaron and I very blessed and humbled that we have more village than what we played the game with that night, and I plan to host a couple more murder mysteries to enjoy all ofy village in the near future.  Tonight, we were set in a Manor. I was the wealthy Anthony Westgrove, that is dying of cancer and wanted to gather my family to say goodbye and to let them know I was turning the company over to my illegitimate son Richard, who was the only one that knew I planned to commit suicide after the gathering. We had a Lavish dinner planned of Flat Iron Steak, Marnie's Augrautin potatoes, Jenn's Rolls, Shannon Brock virgin Movktails and I topped it all off with Creme Brulee for dessert. The game company that I got this mystery night from was not as well thought out as How to Host a Murders for sure! The books were inconsistent...

I have discovered that I am the boring mom. My kids dont want to be around me. They would rather go to their friends houses and hang out with their moms. When did that happen? I am sad that this has happened.

Time to start blogging again. I love to blog and being with Katie has rekindled that love. The best thing is that I can do it from me phone. So let the memories be created and saved here...

We had a New Years Eve  party with some of our close friends! We enjoyed a night of food, fun and entertainment. I wanted to do some minute to win it games to break up just the chit-chat and board games that we play so often when we get together. We played a game where we had to stack dice on a tongue depressor, and a really fun game where we had to carry potatoes between our legs across the room and drop them into a bucket. we got the adults and kids involved. It was such a fun night! As I prepare for the coming year, I hope that We have many, many more nights just like this one!!!

Getting ready for Family Home Evening today, I came across this video, and it is so touching, I want to share it. My lesson is on noticing the needs of others and doing something about it. https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2011-04-005-our-hands-his-hands-our-hearts-his-heart?lang=eng I want to teach my children to serve others by looking outside of themselves and by being willing to help others when they need it most. It just so happens that when they need it the most is when they don't ask for it. Especially in our family units. It is so easy to say, that is not my job, or its not my problem. I am guilty of that too. I get caught up in the trap of, " I have children, they should serve me by doing things for me that I am capable of doing myself." I need to remember that even though my kids are there, it is not always their responsibility to take a piece of garbage from me to throw away because I don't want to walk 5 feet to the garbage can, or that they do no...