New Years

For New Year's Eve this year we headed down to visit Keri and Kevin. We played games and ate way too  much junk food, and didn't get nearly enough sleep.

At one point football was on, which is not my thing, so I was pretty bored. I found the teenagers sitting at the table staring at the phones so I handed out rummikub boards and they miraculously looked up and joined me in a game.

On the way home we stopped at Sheels to ride the ferris wheel. We've always wanted to check it out and we finally had time to do so. The line didn't seem that long but it took forever!

I couldn't get the kids to smile for the camera.

Christmas

We had a nice Christmas this year. Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday, so we only had Sacrament Meeting at 1:00 and no other meetings. After church we played games as a family then attended the live nativity put on by a local family and the 4H kids.  This a favorite tradition that we absolutely love. They have a small set that they built with a barn and live animals, and a seating area made out of hay bales. We begin with a prayer, they tell the story from the bible and we sing a few hymns throughout the short production. Afterwards they have hot chocolate and donuts for everyone. We make it a point to go every year, they have several showings throughout the month of December, but going on Christmas Eve is my favorite. Over the years we've learned to bundle warm and take blankets to sit on and cover up with. But being outside in the cold is actually a big part of the fun. We love running in to neighbors, community members, and preschool families.
After we returned from the nativity it was a bit late so we ate dinner and made pies. I made a coconut cream and the boys made a pumpkin pie while Naiya showered. We watched a Christmas episode of Studio C and the kids open their presents from each other before we went to bed.
Christmas morning was a bit earlier than I had hoped at 7:00am.  Naiya woke us up, and since we hadn't had much sleep we weren't too thrilled. We sent her back to bed but got up and got ready a short time later (I prefer to get my hair and makeup done and out of the way so I can relax the rest of the morning). After I was ready we woke Calin and headed down to see if Santa had visited. The kids had a very lackluster reaction to gifts under the tree (I guess that comes with age). We opened gifts one at a time as we usually do and I think we were all pretty happy.  It snowed during the night and was a beautiful white morning.
After gifts we had our traditional big Christmas breakfast. This year we made pancakes, bacon, sausage, eggs, and potatoes. Afterwards we got ready, loaded the car, and headed to Missy's house. We got to work in her kitchen while the kids played. Dan and Jess and their 4 kiddos joined us for a yummy ham dinner and we played games and laughed and enjoyed the fun and chaos of the day. We didn't stay too late, opting for an earlier bedtime.
It was a great day and great culmination of the holiday we all anticipated.
I didn't do a great job of remembering to take pics. But better few than none.

Our stockings are always filled with our favorite candies.

I decided rather than disguise this long board in a huge box it would be more fun to wrap it as is.

$133.32

It's Christmas break and I'm off school and trying to get a few things done, including grocery shopping. Last night I went to Walmart and stocked up on toiletries and picked up items for Christmas. My cart was full, and I was tired, so I decided to defer the rest of the shopping trip until the next day. I headed back to Walmart the next morning and filled my cart with mostly canned goods and some pantry staples. As I was unloading my cart I opened my bank app to check my account balance, I had about $200. I was trying to mentally add up the cost of my groceries to make sure I had enough when the woman in front of me saw all my cans and asked if I had a lot of cooking to do. I laughed and explained that it was payday recently and I was just restocking my can rotaters since they were looking sad and empty. My turn came and I loaded my bagged groceries into the cart and bent over to place some bulkier items on the bottom. When I stood back up I saw a man leaning over to the card reader. I looked closer and saw a red debit card sticking out of the chip reader. I probably stood there staring for a full 30 seconds staring at it and him while trying to process what was going on. "Sir?" I spoke up, but he ignored me. Again, "Sir? You don't have to do that." But he continued to ignore me and did not look at me. I thanked him and wished him a Merry Christmas as he quickly turned and left. It was obvious that he didn't want any recognition so I allowed him to leave as tears sprung up in my eyes. I stared at the cashier with my hand over my mouth, unsure of what to say. She said he asked if he could pay for it and she had told him yes. We exchanged a few words and I apologized for my emotions, she handed me my receipt and I quickly wheeled my cart out of the store as I brushed the tears from my cheeks. I got into my car and let the tears flow. The receipt showed that he had just spent $133.32 on my groceries. That wasn't a substantial amount, but it wasn't a cheap act of kindness either.

I don't know where that man came from, I don't know if he overheard my conversation about it being payday or if he had just wanted to do something nice and I looked like a good target.  Perhaps he was just doing his part to "Light the World" (a campaign by the LDS church to serve as Jesus did throughout this holiday season. Day 22 was: Jesus taught: "That which ye have seen me do even that shall ye do.") Maybe he had felt impressed to help and was simply acting on a spiritual prompting. I'll never know. I feel undeserving, there are so many people out there struggling that could have benefited even more from this unexpected financial blessing. And I know from Facebook that other financial blessings have been swirling through the community as grateful recipients post their gratitude to community pages.  But this time it happened to me. I'd like to think that it's a small sign from Heavenly Father that he is aware of my family.  He knows that we are trying hard to find the balance of living frugally, paying off debts quickly, and still living enough of a life that our children will have fond memories to look back on.  We struggle and sacrifice and do our best to give back to others, and this time it was our turn to be blessed. 
This is an act of kindness that I will never forget. It's one I intend to pay forward when an opportunity presents itself and I feel prompted to do so. It's hard to put into words my feelings, and my takeaway from this experience is somewhat private. I don't wish to share all of the ways that it has affected me except for how tenderly my heart has been touched. God knows each one of us individually and he loves us. He seems to know just the right balance of allowing us to struggle enough that we can grow, yet still blessing our lives enough for us to find happiness and peace. I will forever be grateful for my Father in Heaven and will never forget the kindness I was shown today.

Pocatello

Darin had to spend a few nights in Pocatello for a Manager's Summit. It's harvest break so there was no school and we were just hanging out at home anyway, so we decided to surprise him. After gymnastics we spent 20 minutes packing then drove an hour down to meet him at the hotel around 9pm. The kids had fun swimming with him and no one got any sleep (as usually happens when we go to hotels).  In the morning Darin had to go back to his meeting so the kids and I had planned to go to the Pocatello Zoo and the Fort Hall replica, both of which I looked up online and found to be closed. Boo! The kids wanted to just head back home but I took a detour into Idaho Falls and we visited the zoo there instead.
It was so fun to add a bit of spontaneity to our break and get out of the house.

My First Garden

I decided to finally stop making excuses and plant a garden this year. I've never had a garden, and many years back I took a class that scared me out of planting one. There was so much to know and so many things you could do wrong. I had been told conflicting advice: "just put some seeds in the ground and they'll grow" vs "you can't just put seeds in the ground and have them grow." I finally decided things are going to either grow or not grow, but I'm not going to learn anything until I try.
So after much weeding, this is what I ended up with:

Naiya wanted her own strawberry patch.

 I bought the plants as starts and got them in the ground the end of May or beginning of June, I think I got 3 of each and several died right away, including all the peas.

Zucchini, Red Pepper, Tomato, Peas (the empty row), Green Beans, Cucumbers.

My 2 zucchini plants, they started the exact same size but one on the right went nuts.

My first vegetable! I did awful at picking the zucchini, a lot of them ended up way too big.

The zucchini was the rock start this season, the second plant eventually caught up and both produced wonderfully.
The red peppers grew, but took too long to turn red and were inedible.
The tomatoes had issues, but it seems like it wasn't just me, others had bad tomatoes this summer, too. I got 2 edible tomatoes and they were delicious.
The peas died right away, I remember learning you have to plant them as seeds while it's cold, so the starts didn't take at all.
The green beans were great, I would plant more next year so I have enough ripe at the same time for a meal.
The cucumbers exploded and did awesome.

And now the fruits of my labor to document my success and failure:

 It really was fun to garden. The initial prep was SO MUCH WORK! But watching as those tiny plants grew bigger than I could have expected was pretty cool. It was fun to eat something I grew. I learned a little bit through this first garden, and I will try for better success next year.

Lewis & Clark Caverns

For Labor Day we drove up to Montana to check out the Lewis and Clark Caverns. They warned us there were 600 stairs and  I was worried my sore broken overweight body wouldn't be able to handle it, and I almost backed out and sent the family alone. But I did it. The most difficult part was the hike up the hill to the entrance, that about did me in. But they had lots of benches for those that needed to rest on the way up and I used them to sit and calm my heart rate so I didn't give myself a heart attack. Once in the caverns it wasn't a big deal. My sweet son stayed by my side and helped me through the caverns. That boy is so good to me. One of my favorite things to hear him say is "I got you." I love the way he says it, and I love that he means it.  He is so much like his father and I love that I can depend on both of them.

We took turns driving, it helped break up the monotony of the trip.

She was so excited to sit by someone other than her brother!

This is at the top of the hike near the entrance to the caverns.

He mixed all the sauces, because that's what teenage boys do.

After the caverns we headed to Virginia City, stopping for lunch along the way. We were disappointed to find Virginia City closed down for the season, but we still got to walk the street and check out the shop windows. The old buildings were just gorgeous! It was kind of nice to be the only ones there so I didn't have random people in my photos. It was a pretty cool town, we'll definitely go back during tourist season.

This 1915 Model T was parked here for people to take pictures in.