John and Kylee: January 2025

Matching Winter Sweatshirts!

January started out with pickleball and a Christmas clean up day. I love looking at all of the travel ornaments as we put them away. It is seriously a treasure to be able to travel and experience so many amazing things, and then also be able to reflect and reminisce with my family.

On our anniversary, I was trying think what I could do for John. We don't really feel like spending a ton of money in after Christmas, my birthday, and New Years. It is kind of a crappy time to try to celebrate when we have already been doing all of the celebrating. But I wanted to do something to show him how I much I love and appreciate him. I decided to try to hit all of the 5 love languages during the day. I started out by dropping off a shake and a poster to John's work. On the poster the girls and I wrote complements about him. I thought it was pretty darling. I know that one of John's main love languages is acts of service, which is actually kind of tricky because we already do so much for each other. So what could I do that would be above the standard service of being a stay at home mom and trying to care for my family. I landed on taking care of a couple of small jobs that hadn't made it to the top of the to do list. Eliza and I took the old microwave to the recycling center. And then Miriam and I organized all of the piano music. We put the printed songs into sheet protectors and binders so they would be easier to keep nice, find, and play. We also went on a fun date that evening. We had a scrumptious dinner at Bombay house and walked down the Taste to have hot cocoa. Afterwards we stopped by the library, watched a Kdrama, and played a game. I love him! <3 To be honest, since I am writing from the future, we have been going through a bit of a rough patch. We are just kind of having a marriage reset, which has happened before and will happen again. I am so grateful to be married to a man who will work through the issues with me. He is committed to making our marriage work and be loving and healthy. I am thankful for him everyday.

The next day we drove toe Ogden and saw Aunt Carol. We actually met up with Marc and Miriam and Kayla too. So we all kind of descended on Aunt Carol's house. It was nice to visit with her. She older than 90 now, and has always been so kind and generous to our whole family.

Afterwards we went to lunch at David and Patti's house. David made us all amazing tacos, which was so nice of him. We also hung out with Kayla. That night we did baptisms with Ellie and Miriam. That same day I found the cutest note from Ellie about a father's blessing.

"Two songs on the disc rleey toched my heat. Vean I had a fathers bleesing last nihgt, I felt happy. Now I fwel dedy for school. July 28, 2015.

I think this was right before first grade. She is absolutely precious.

That weekend Ellie and I went to see the movie Wicked. John and Miriam picked the same date as us and actually went on a different day. We couldn't go all together because we couldn't leave our little ones that long alone. And it kind of goes against the rules of Mommy/Daddy daughter dates to go with more than just one on one. It was such a fun movie! I loved seeing the Broadway performance with my mom in 2019, and the movie was great too. They were very different productions but both have such a fun story and music. I loved the song "What is this feeling?" It is so catchy and a hilarious parody of a love song. The movie was only the first half of the story so we're excited to see the next film in a year. Ellie and I painted our nails pink and green and wore those colors too. Just a little extra to make it more fun.

The next day we went to church at noon. For several reasons we have been pretty spoiled when it comes to church time. We had a whole year of 10:30 church, then we went to 9:00. But then the ward changed mid through the year, and we ended up with a whole other year of 10:30. So it has been a long time since we have had noon church. It all works out, but is an adjustment every time. We don't have any babies that take naps anymore so it doesn't matter so much.

Actually, in January is when I stopped having Darcy take an afternoon nap. Until this time, we put our kids to bed together, around 9:30 most nights. Then we would get up Holland and Darcy together about 7:30. This wasn't enough sleep for Darcy so she would take an afternoon nap too. But with Kindergarten looming, I decided it was time to get used to not taking a nap. You would think that would mean putting her to bed earlier, but that truly feels impossible. I don't know how to even do that anymore. We are always doing things in the evening. So what it meant was letting her sleep until she wakes up in the morning. This has resulted in some wildly different wake up times. Sometimes she sleeps in until 10:30am. Other times she up in the 8 o'clock hour. There have been just a few times she is up before 7. No naps for Darcy, but truthfully I still take a nap here and there. Darcy loves it because she knows that I will let her listen to an audiobook while I take a nap even if it is before she is done with her chores and preschool for the day.

But back to church, Eliza shared a sweet testimony in a combined YM/YW meeting about when she started to read her scriptures she felt less stress in her life even though technically it took up more time from her day. That evening we played games as we try to on Sunday night. This one was memorable though because although I don't remember what game we were playing, Holland won the game by a double tie breaker rule. Another memorable moment that night: we were playing "Chameleon," where one person tries to pretend that they know the word that everyone else knows. The category was class subjects, and the exact word was "religion." It quickly became apparent that John was the chameleon when the clue he gave was "boring." It was hilarious!

This Christmas break felt later than usual. We had a whole week of vacation in January. We took advantage of all that girl time. I loved teaching Holland a couple of songs on the piano. We went to the Butterfly Biosphere and enjoyed the butterflies and especially the tropical plants. One cute moment that day was when I noticed Darcy using the word "urge." She is so darling!

The next day Erica and Brielle came down and spent the day at our house. We did nails. I think it was pretty apparent that I have a lot of teenage girls that my brain automatically went to doing nails as an activity that I would do when my friend was visiting. Erica was a good sport though and went along with it. :)

Tried the fancy chocolates from Cherilee and Jess!

Poster we made John on our anniversary.

Delicious anniversary dinner at Bombay House

Hot chocolate at Taste after dinner

Someone has been coloring on her hands!

We love our blooming orchid!

An awesome school project that was too big to keep forever.

Fun with nails

Ship making

18 years! Our marriage is adult age now.

9 and 9!

These girls are just the cutest!

Butterfly biosphere!

The butterflies are cool but the best part is the tropical plants.

The girls loved having their nails done too.

Silly picture time!

One day I needed some extra motivation to work out so I did something that I literally never do. I let myself watch half an episode of Crash Course in Romance after my workout. That show is so fun and squealy. It is probably my favorite Kdrama besides Crash Landing on You. Funny that they both start with the word "Crash." Darcy was so mad that I was watching that half an episode. She couldn't read the subtitles and all of the audible language was in Korean. She thought it was so boring.

Holland said the funniest thing at violin lesson. "You don't want to hold the neck of the violin so tight that it dies, maybe just so it passes out!" I was laughing so hard.

This time also started our pickleball saga. I sent a message out about who might be interested in playing pickleball and got so many responses. John and I had had such a fun time playing more pickleball at the church over the break, but when we went to schedule it for more days in the future, I told John that we should reach out to the basketball guys to see if we should coordinate something rather than just claim it. After he texted them and before he got a response, two basketball groups claimed it. Everyday except Sunday for the entire calendar year. I was so mad. I thought it was completely childish to avoid a conversation and just hurry and claim it. I stewed over this for a couple of weeks. And finally I sent an email to our bishop. He is the point person for one group. He was respectful about my concerns which I appreciate, but also let me know that this was a long standing basketball group. He and I went back and forth and eventually we got a key to a nearby building where we can play pickleball. Which was great, except when more and more people wanted to play. There was only one court at this other building. So more people got involved. Tensions rose. Eventually the stake presidency got involved...4 different times. Like they had to have four in person interventions about this. It was ridiculous. The worst one was trying to get an evening for a ladies night pickleball. Even after the men were told they had to share this night with us, some still showed up and tried to physically intimidate us. Unfortunately for them we are not a group of women to be intimidated. They were kicked out by a member of the stake presidency and were made to give back the key that they had. These men didn't even live in our stake. There was one who used to live in our stake who just kept his key. I think the reason that the basketball guys all want to play at our building is that the court is NBA regulation size. So it is extra big. The whole point is this was a whole saga, and it all started this day with me sending out a text to see who might want to play pickleball in the morning. Yikes. It is all working out though I hope.

Around this time Ellie went to an overnight swim meet in St. George, and had such a good time! I love that she has made good friends in swim! I love seeing her swim in her meets. Miriam and I tried a new Kdrama that night that we were both able to get a little squealy about.

The following day we worked so much on our Paris trip! There is so much research and planning that goes into these trips. It is so exciting and such a privilege to be able to go on these trips. I need to take a moment to appreciate how well things have gone on other trips.

Darcy had an eye doctor appointment one day. Sometimes it hits me how lucky we are to have eyesight. Holland had a near miss in losing an eye. Darcy could have easily had a lazy eye. I was able to have corrective lenses and then surgery to have excellent eyesight. What a blessing!

The next day Ellie had an early morning swim meet in Park City, and it snowed all day. It didn't really accumulate, but we need the snow. It was so pretty too. That night we went to a Noteworthy concert at BYU. They are so talented. I love going live concerts. We ran into the Guinns and actually sat right behind them. Such a small world.

Miriam got called into her class presidency. This was surprising to us because she was in the presidency last year too. She is doing great at it. She misses the old leaders but we still see some of them. In face the Menas came for dinner. We had a great time playing games and chatting with them about their new baby. Baby Lucy is so adorable (written from the future).

The next day we had such a fun day off school. We cuddled all morning with all of the girls in my bed. We drew penguins, played the game Verdant, Popashot, and even went to the Curiosity Museum. I don't how we fit it all in. Although we did go to the museum in the evening, which was great. It wasn't crowded, and we had a great time playing the green screen, delay videos, and water works. The girls and I had to listen on my airpods to "What is this feeling?"

Eliza had a great last day of swim team for the year. We had both played separately that she would be able to do well. And our prayers were answered. She got a PR on this last meet! That same evening I picked the date night. We went to dinner and then John and I went clothes shopping. Needless to say this isn't John's favorite activity. But he actually had a good time and found a few nice items.

We had a really memorable date one evening. We went to Saigon Cafe for Asian food. Then we did some international NYE activities: chucking things out the window (South Africa), foot ice bath (Canada), breaking dishes on the porch (Denmark), red undies (Turkey), walk empty luggage around the neighborhood (Colombia).

During this time we played a lot of games. Particularly a game from the library called Incan Gold was a hit. Darcy could play it without really understanding it, and she did just about as well as we could while understanding the game. It is fun to include her in the actual game time. We have been playing games with Holland in the morning before school. She has been waking up and getting ready for school so much happier. I love just having a happy interaction time with her to start the day.

I took Holland to STEM night at Provo Peaks. She was so cute learning from all the different stations. I love seeing her creativity and curiosity.

One day we watched the Heimuli girls. They are so cute! Little Ruth asked me so politely if she could jump on my bed. I told her no, but I really appreciated it that she asked so nicely.

I (well John, but it was my idea) got Ellie a little job cleaning at the old Caldera building. They announced the purchase of a new building and a move back in September (while we were in Costa Rica). We felt so so lucky that the new location is even closer to our house than it was before. It takes a couple minutes less to drive there even though it is just a tenth of a mile closer to our house. We felt like we really dodged a bullet because they could have moved anywhere, but they stayed so close which means John's commute is still a dream. But it took them a bit to move everything over to the new building. They hired Ellie to clean the bathroom twice a week for a few weeks (they estimated 2.5 to 3 weeks). It ended up being more like 3-4 months. They paid her $12 an hour to clean them, and it was a nice little no pressure job. She was able to make a little bit of money, which is so nice. People tend to hire Miriam more than Ellie these days for babysitting, so she really appreciates the opportunity.

We did a big YW activity at the beginning of the year. It was a sister-sister activity. The older YW did a panel and answered questions from the younger girls about friends, school, testimonies, etc. It was great! We also did a big clothing swap. The YW and many women in the ward donated clothes, and we sorted and let the YW pick what they'd like from it. There were so many donations. Especially some of the more fashionable people in the ward donated a lot, which was so nice. My girls took a ton. They loved it! I even got a few items, which wasn't really the intention, but I appreciated nonetheless.

The snowfall was so sad. This is the best snowman the kids could make.

This is more what it looked like. Cold and dreary with a lot of birds (I guess?).

Love that girl!

Daddy daughter date!

Ellie and I redid the YW bulletin board at the church.

Mommy and Ellie's turn to see it!

The coordinating sweaters and nails!

Noteworthy with John! I loved their Taylor Swift mash up, and their Korean songs. They did the heart fingers.

She was very proud of her creations

Darcy quotes:

D: What? We love each other and love means kissing. K: I know, tell me about it! D: You already know about it.

"Do you know why she (the doll) doesn't have pants or panties on? Because she wanted a day off from pants and especially ESPECIALLY panties!"

According to Darcy she kissed me 1 billion times in one day. She wasn't too far off. Her favorite thing was smothering me with rapid fire kisses. "I kissed from time after time."

"I I I love love love Mommy! I I I care care care about chores to help HER!" I hope she sticks with this attitude!

"Wizards can't transform into magic things because they aren't magic enough. And by the way wizards aren't born by wizards because that would be confusing."

"Mommy you're strong enough to do anything. Well not open dragon treasure, so I guess not anything." It was so funny!

"Joseph Smith did the transmutation of the pegs and that was so much work!"

Her kissing me 1000x and saying, "How did I get such a sweet mama?"

This isn't so much a quote as just a memory. Darcy is in the phase of wanting to tell jokes but not really being able to know how to tell one. It makes it all the more funny!