Jan 2023

Well, January started out with illness. On January 1 I stayed home from church with cold symptoms. and listened to a lot of General Conference talks. I felt inspired by how many talks addressed my concerns. Even when things don't make sense I love the gospel.

Fortunately right after New Years Day is our anniversary! John had the day off work and it was so nice to play with him the whole day: games, trip planning, exercise, shrimp and other yummy food at Red Lobster. Miriam took these pictures for our 16th Anniversary! I am so lucky to be married to John. He makes every day a better one. He works so hard, and puts so much effort into making our lives wonderful. I love him. 

We got a free dessert because it was our anniversary. The lighting wasn't great but the food was delicious! Definitely more pricey than we would normally feel comfortable with, but we had a gift card so that helped. 

At lunch on day I was trying to convince Darcy to eat when I said, "This food will make you healthy and strong. Or if you don't eat it you might be sickly and weak." She said, "I want to be sickly and weak." Then she told me I was weak. Punk. :) 

I bought an amaryllis bulb at the store around the corner on a whim. It actually bloomed. The leaves didn't really sprout ant and the stalk wasn't very tall, but the color was lovely. 

I am lucky to have Darcy as a little buddy at home right now. She is so much fun even when she is not being that fun. :) So many things about her: tantrums about not getting a cup of syrup and me having an arm, singing about "number 5" while dancing aimlessly, sour cream hands, crawling around as kitty families, telling Ellie no kisses because she has zits, "playing" Azul with us, nursing in the bath. Darcy loves Ellie so much though, She told Ellie, " I want some Ellie time." Ellie does such a good job taking care of her: taking her potty and washing after, getting her dressed, playing and reading, getting her dinner. What a gem of an older sister. 

Darcy is thinking hard about potty training. She went poop, and told me, "I pushed out a Daddy poop, Mommy poop, tiny poop, and am working on a sister poop." A whole family! 

I have been trying to work with her on preschool and letter identification more. One day, I drew a heart and she said, "Heart is for Pearson." She sure loves to sing. She tends to sing the same line again and again. One day it was the line, "Remember me for centuries." Darcy wouldn't let anyone sing along with her. None of the kids have even heard the real song before. Too funny!

Another time, Darcy played with a ballerina Barbie and positioned her arms in a circle in front of her and said, "She is saying 'Ho, ho, ho.'" She loves to sing "Up on the Housetop." She is so funny.

Speaking of funny, one night she was super interested in the foot massage John was giving me and decided I needed the pink baby lotion too. She went to go get it but kept getting distracted by various items she thought I needed--a cold rice bag, a blanket, another blanket. It was hilarious.

One day, Darcy said some pretty hilarious things in contradiction to what I was saying. I said, "Darcy you're just adorable." And she said, "No I am just cute." Then I said, "You're my little sweet girl." And she said, "No, I am sweet and sour." 

One morning Darcy declared, "I want to be naked for the rest of the day!" Later she was singing and dancing about it, "My naked knees, my naked toes, my naked face, my naked tummy." She got cold and eventually I convinced her to wear clothes. She picked out 2 pairs of pants, a shirt, a dress, and a bath robe. 

Darcy praying, "Please bless Jesus to feel better and Grandma be happy because I especially love her." 

Darcy's joke one day, "Knock, knock." "Who's there?" "Cash." "Cash who?" "Is there an owl in here?"

So many blossoms on a tiny stalk.

Miriam and I worked so hard on her science fair project. This is her trifold board.

Miriam worked like crazy on her science fair project this year. She was meticulous in her methodology and analysis. I thought her research was great too.

Miriam is just a sweetheart. She is so good at working hard without complaint. She helped so much packing for our Deru cruise. The day before we left, she chopped a ton of veggies for our road trip. She said, "I chopped every kind of veggie in our house." I was so surprised that that she did all of it without complaining once. She really got the rotten deal with getting sick on our cruise and not getting to see the magnificent whale watching, but I have been blown away with how she hasn't complained about it. She extremely mature for her age. 

One day she prayed that Holland, "wouldn't feel so puny." (She had been feeling a little bit sick.)

We love after nursing snuggles.

You can see the footprints of one of the guys who came to give us a quote. That dirt even under the grass was very, very soft.

It was an unusually wet winter for Utah. It actually broke the all time snow records, which was wonderful because of the never ending drought we are in. Unfortunately all of the water made the soil around our house settle and compress down. This left a cavity under our concrete pads. We got a couple quotes for fixing it (we really didn't want those expensive pads to collapse or at least crack). We ended up spending about 3k to pump in concrete to fill the cavity. 

Concrete pump to fix the gap underneath the pads. 

Holland is such a sweetheart too. She told me, "Have you noticed I am am getting more attached to my red silky? I am carrying it around more." Also, when she was playing with Glenn and Andrea's kids, Holland came up and whispered to me, "I am making a real friend!" Then there was just one night when she gave me the sweetest hug, smile, and a "I love you so much." at bedtime. She has come so far in her attitudes about things. I really appreciate how much she tries.

One night, Holland told me, "Sometimes I am just really grateful for all of the members of our family. Some people don't have good families." It was really sweet. 

One Saturday, Holland told me that she wanted t surprise Daddy with her getting her chores done. She announces this regularly, and John puts on a good show of being surprised. 

One day she was doing her math page and was using a timer. When she finished she announced that she had broken her record. "I broke my record last year, I broke it this year and I am going to break it next year!" She was super proud of herself, and it was adorable and hilarious.

It seems like whenever Holland says "I love you" anymore she always says, "I love you so much." She leans in close and semi-whispers it. What a sweetheart!

We went to Taste for date night and got chocolate treats. It was adorable: marble tables, chandeliers, tufted couches, real glasses and napkins. So fun!
Another date night this month was going on a BYU date: burgers, fries, and shakes from the Creamery and then to the BYU bookstore to get a BYU shirt.

Apparently this is the cool way to take pictures of yourself when you're almost 14. I found  a lot of photos like that. Also, her cousins were at least as committed to these silly photos as Ellie is. 

Eliza is just a gem. She helps me so much. She helps babysit and even care for her little siblings when I am home and distracted. She started wearing makeup this month and looks so much older now. I love that she is my mini me. I love doing teen Tuesday with her: watching All Round Champion, playing games, watching other movies. It is a fun time to just be with her. We went to a great fireside with the general YM president (Steven Lund). She was so intent and engaged. She tries so hard to be good and do good, and she does! She got sick on the way home from the cruise. I can't imagine how bad the stomach flu would be in a moving car, but she dealt with it without complaining. How amazing!

Cheerio activities with big sisters while Mommy and Daddy went on a date.

Chocolate smoothie goatee.

What is with her wanting to be naked in January? There are better times of year to get committed to this idea. :)

Darcy also likes that red silky.

Darcy's first self portrait.

Poor girl ran into something and gave herself a black eye.

We love audiobooks! Darcy even listened to one on the way to and from California! This is the first time she has really listened to one of those.

I am such a lucky momma.

 At the end of January we actually started potty training Darcy. We have taken her potty fairly regularly since last summer when she showed me she had bladder control over her pee, but haven't really tried to do it. I was too swamped with putting in our yard to deal with it. Then we had this cruise coming up that I didn't want to deal with a new potty trainer on. It was funny though that because we were stopping for the bathroom a lot on the drive down to California (Miriam had diarrhea, poor kid) Darcy wanted to use the gas station potties. That was *precisely* what I was trying to avoid by not potty training her yet. So I told her to go ahead and go pee in her diaper. I said it ONE time and you better believe that she brought it up for months that I just told her to pee in her diaper. It really stuck. Thankfully she potty trained fairly well, and we are looking at diapers in the rear view mirror (except Holland's nightly pull up). Darcy started sleeping dry about when she turned three.