2022, In the Blink of an Eye

January 2022, Lucy was finally old enough to do baptisms.  It was great to all attend together for the special occasion.  

She was also able to go with Lacey and Edith.

March- Jared and the older girls drove to Prescott for a Toby Keith concert.

Then we headed to St. George for Spring Break.  Who would have known how many additional trips to St. George we would end up making?  More on that later.

While we were visiting, we stopped to see the Meservey's and Uncle Tracy and Aunt Pat.

The week after Spring Break, we helped Lana pack up her Gilbert house to make a permanent move to Taylor.  

In May, Annie came for a visit.  I made a day trip to the Valley with Lucy, Colton, Lacey, Daisy, Rosie,
and Tyler.  Let us remember that I was pulled over in Payson because I was speeding through town.  I guess I was having too much fun with the kids because I didn't notice my speed.  For the rest of the day, the kids reminded me to "watch my speed."

A highlight of Kimber's life was the trek, haha.  She hated it!  But, since Jared was Stake Young Men's President at the time, planning and pulling off the trek was a literal part-time job.  It was very memorable for everyone.  Even Kimber.  She hasn't quit talking about it!

It was a busy summer.  We had loads of company, Willis, Allie, and her boys, one of the biggest 4th of July crowds we have ever had, more company for the 24th of July, and more.

While Jared was in Alaska, I packed up the kids and headed to San Diego to spend some time on the beach.

On the 4th of July, Kenny was recognized and able to light the anvil before the rodeo.  He asked us to join him in the arena.

Right after the 4th, we demolished our kitchen.

It was relatively poor timing considering we had a crowd coming for the 24th of July.  We made due with plywood countertops and a bathroom sink in the kitchen.

We lived through the remodel, and I was thrilled when it was over.

In August we made a trip to Colorado with the Kay's.

In September we traveled to Nauvoo.  We made a stop at the St. Louis Arch.

Nauvoo will forever have a special place in my heart and I've always wanted to go back to visit since my time at BYU Nauvoo, when the Hancock's received their call to serve as Teamsters, we quickly planned a trip and booked tickets.

October meant Homecoming Week, which means Mums for Moms.  This time the girls bought one for Lana too.

Halloween came and went.  I was down to two kids who wanted to dress up.

One night in November, we jumped in the car to drive to Flagstaff where they had a Giving Machine.

About two years ago, we started a tradition called December 1st Boxes.  On December 1st, the kids each receive a box with things to prepare them for the month of Christmas.  The contents change somewhat from year to year, but in 2022 it had their annual ornament, a treat, an advent calendar for the younger kids, Christmas sheets for the older girls, and Christmas pajamas.  It has been requested that I hold off on giving them their Christmas pajamas until Christmas Eve.

A few weeks before Christmas, we said goodbye to our Edith.  She moved to Cave Creek to take care of LuAnn Voss.  It didn't last too long, thanks to some "friends" of LuAnn's that had bad intentions.  We were glad to get our Edith back to Taylor.

Before we knew it, Christmas was upon us.  Another great one in the books!

Two days after Christmas, Addie had her wisdom teeth removed.  She gave the dentist a bit of a scare because of her reaction to the anesthesia, but she eventually came out of it.  And she gave us lots to laugh about while still under the influence.

That sums up 2022.  It was a great year with lots of good memories.

2021, In the Blink of an Eye

 Tonight I sat down at the computer and saw that my blog was still open from earlier today when I was looking for something.  I noticed that it's been nearly two years since I've written, even though my kids still ask me to keep it up.  They love reading it!  

Since it would be nearly impossible to capture the last two years in a single post, I figured I could share some highlights of each year!

October 3, 2021

Colton was baptized.  

For as long as I can remember, Addie has told Colton that since he would be eight years old when she finally had her driver's license, she would be the one to drive him to his baptism.  She stayed true to her promise!

That same month, we took a trip to Arkansas to see Annie.  She's a wonderful hostess and it's always a good time.  

In November of 2021, we got to host the Hymas family.  Raygon will forever and always be one of my very best friends.  It's such a treat to see her, and her kids are so fun and self-entertained.  That's my kind of company.

We had our annual Christmas Eve dinner at Licano's with the Neff Family. We started this tradition back in 2016!  It's a nice break from making a big Christmas Eve dinner, and of course, having to clean it up.  After dinner, we head home and put the kids to bed.  It's so nice to take all of the extra work out of Christmas Eve, because there's plenty of other work to do!

Christmas is always exciting.  All of the brainstorming and shopping for gifts is so much work, but it always pays off when it's time to go to bed and the house looks like this.

Watching the kids on Christmas morning will never get old!

Vegas and The King

 We are BIG fans of George Strait in our house.  We love The King!  Last year Jared and I were lucky enough to catch a concert before the world shut down.

We were only a few minutes into the show when we knew we had to bring our kids to the next concert.  I don't need to explain why it took us over a year to secure tickets, but it was priority when they became available.  We decided to invite Lana this time, who then invited her parents.  It was quite the experience for all of us!

Our drive to Vegas was pretty uneventful, just a few stops, a beautiful sunset and lots of eagerness to make it to our destination.

Once we made it to Vegas, it was all shiny lights.  Jared took the girls out on a walk to sight see.  There is never a shortage of entertainment in Las Vegas, or as Jared calls it, Loss Wages.

We had a fun Saturday doing some more sightseeing.  There was so.much.walking.  The big girls and I walked through the Bellagio, it never disappoints.

Jared took the little kids to a few fun places, including the M&M and Coke stores.  Would you expect anything else from us? 

Later that day, Jared took Colton and Addie to the Shelby Museum while Kimber, Lucy and I went to the Titanic Exhibit.

By the time the show was ready to start it had already been a very long day.  The show didn't start until 8:00 and that was just for the opener.  We didn't plan on seeing George until 9:00 at the earliest.  I didn't want to get to the show until then but we had some antsy people in our group so we got to sit through a very painful opening.  She was a screamer, it was not easy to listen to!

Lana and I zoned out and went into our own little universe.  We were singing our hearts out having the greatest time!

George does not disappoint!  I will be honest, his first show was better...but he will forever and always be our favorite.  Jared and I felt like he did much more talking and storytelling in his first show.  That was great and very endearing.  This show was all music, which was still so fun!

Vegas leaves much to be desired.  It's a nasty city!  But it was good for our kids to see that our choices matter and that having a loving family makes a world of difference.  Our kids saw too much, but I don't regret it.  They saw people tripped out on drugs, a homeless lady who had pooped her pants and was dead asleep as flies swarmed her bum, a lunatic man coming down from something hard in the hotel, people who have chosen to use their body for money.  Vegas offers it all, right???  But I am glad that my kids saw that.  It made for a lot of interesting conversations for the next few days!