January 2024

January started off with continuing the holiday celebrations. We had a fun New Year's Day breakfast (crepes). So so yummy. We also made 7 layer dip, party snacks, and played Juicy Fruits with Holland. I also played Cupcake Party with Darcy (at the same time). That day we started taking down Christmas decorations. It is so fun to have decorations, but it is also so nice to get them down and have less clutter around the house. That night we did our last advent activity "Remember Hawaii Day." We celebrated with shave ice, lychee gummies, and 20 verses of "Oh you can't get to Heaven." 

Pointing to our favorite advent activities. 

We had such a nice anniversary. We did an early morning together, pickleball (just us) in the afternoon, Bombay house for dinner, and a movie and Tillamook chocolate ice cream in the evening. My stomach was hurting for dinner but it was still a wonderful day celebrating us! I am so lucky to be married to John. He makes me so happy. 

John said, "1, 2, 2.5." Darcy said, "No Daddy, it's easy, count like this--1, 2, 3." 

Also, Darcy has been really expressing love during prayers--I love our neighbors, I love everyone in our city, I love everyone in our country. She has prayed this multiple times. 

We did a preschool song to learn how to spell her name, "There was a mom who had a girl, and Darcy was her na-me. D, A, R, C, Y,...D, A, R, C, Y,...D, A, R, C, Y, And Darcy was her name-o." (To the tune of Bingo.)

Me and my mini! One day I played Dice Forge with just Ellie and Miriam. At one point Ellie told Miriam, "I am not judging you, I was glaring you into submission." They are so funny!

We are trying something different this year for scripture study. We changed when we do it--trying to do it closer to dinner time. We are using the Come Follow Me manual, and I printed out a chart to track our success. We also decided to memorize a scripture every week, so we are marking it when we check it off. So far this has been working well. Holland can be so sweet and serious about scripture study and value night. 

I love my birthday lilies. 

I love the snow on the grasses. 

Parent child dates were so fun. Miriam and I played pickleball. She tried so hard and was so positive the whole time, even though the heater wasn't working, and it was freezing. We had dinner, chocolate ice cream and learned how to lay one of our new games--Magic Maze. 

John and Holland went to the library and to go get ice cream. That same day we went to go get Holland a flu shot, and she was pretty nervous. She asked to pray before we went in the office. I was so proud of her. 

We went to Ogden to go through my mom's clothes. Dad was so tender about picking out a few items to hang in his closet and see. We found a few treasures: my mom's handmade mission suit, Powder Mountain T-shirt, dresses she made and some that were so her it was hard to say goodbye. 

Such an awesome latina skirt. 

Darcy started Sunbeams!

Darcy told me 20x in one day, "Genius starts in the abs, Max." which is a quote from the Grinch. 

At an eye appointment and the doctor asked Darcy if she wanted to watch Baby Shark, "Definitely!" It was so funny! She is so quiet around new adults until she isn't and tells them some random fact going through her mind. 

One day Darcy told John "My belly thinks you're dancing," when he was exercising. 

"Why does Daddy leave his stuff everywhere? Why? Tell me why!" So hypocritical!

There was a crazy blizzard one night. I had to walk around in it for bookclub. The next day was a late start. 

One day Holland came home so upset because she thought she had cheated on a spelling test. She was crying and came to me. We emailed her teacher who responded that she didn't cheat, and it wasn't a spelling test. I am so glad she had a positive experience with coming to me when she thought she had made a mistake and wanted to be honest even though she was scared. 

I read a book about WWI book (Last Christmas in Paris). While I was listening to it I found a photo of my Grandpa as a soldier. It made the story so poignant. 

I love my new foot massager!

This was the most snow we got all winter! It was a pretty wet winter, but it was a lot of rain. Thankfully there is still plenty of snow in the mountains. 

The babiest snow bee. 

I love just spending time at home as a family. My two littler girls love playing with the chairs when Holland moves them over when we sweep. They play "Hotel cage." I love the days off school--games, sleeping in, swim meet (Eliza got a PR), malasadas with John. I love seeing the kids play together. We loved a new Bluey episode--Granny Mobile. We also played pickleball and Floriferous with John. Everyone napping together in the afternoon was so sweet.

One cute moment was when Holland asked John, "Do I have sanity?" And when she said, "Admire all" for "Admiral." 

There was one cute moment when Darcy told Grandma and Grandpa Pearson, "When I was a baby I didn't like bottles or binkies I only wanted Mommy's milk." 

All of the new games for Christmas sparked a bunch of new interest in playing games as a family. We discovered Darcy loves playing preschool games--Memory, Five Crowns--even though she doesn't really understand playing by the rules, but it is still fun. 

Darcy got a sad stomach bug. She actually vomited in a bowl, but then vomited again 3x the next morning and napped almost the whole day. I kept finding her asleep on the floor--under her table, in the middle of her room, and in her crib. Poor baby! The next day she told me "I don't want to sleep--I want to be tired." 

Christmas colored chore chart!

John and I used the tickets I got for my birthday to see "The Foreigner" at Hale Center Theater. We laughed every minute and the 2+ hours flew by! "Eh-yugs." We also played pickleball in the morning with a 1-1 and a 15-15 tie to end with. So fun! 

Dynamic Duo--Anne Shirley and Diana Berry. :) 

Food favorites recently: fruity chocolate protein shake, shrimp scampi, and crescent bread. So stinking good. 

Darcy can give me the worst burns sometimes: "Your eyes are just like a little piggy." Also, one Sunday during the Sacrament, she burst out super loudly into "Joy to the World." The next day we cuddled on her rocking  hair. Out of the blue she asked, "Do you want a big spicy onion?"  I asked, "For What?" "To have plain." Funny girl!  

We have recently had a big hit with Darcy in the story department. I came up with the characters, "Poppy the Penguin." She has her friends, Freddy and Macey, and her mommy and daddy, and her baby sister Grey. She and her friends love going on icy slides in Antarctica. It has really stuck and now she wants me to tell her Poppy the Penguin stories all the time and while we're doing all the things. 

My birthday lilies were so great. This was one month exactly after my birthday. 

Playing at Thanksgiving Point with Jenessa is always fun for me. Darcy and Samuel are somewhat frenemies. 

Holland stayed home form school and hung out with Darcy and me. We did our work pretty fast, including taking before/after photos of clean up. We played Deer in the Headlights for the first time with Darcy. Later we picked up Ellie and Siqi at the swim meet and played "Can you think of a song with ___ word?" It was a good day. 

A couple of days later we were invited to the oddest dinner ever. We thought we were getting invited to have dinner with Miriam's friends family to celebrate a new year for their kids. Turns out it was a dinner but first it was an ordination and father's blessing for the three oldest kids in their family. There was us, two other families, the hosting family and their bishop. It was so weird. We really don't know them at all, and it felt super intrusive to hear their blessings. There was a particularly weird time with a son of one of the other families. He also goes to Timpview and was such a perfect angsty teenager. It was hilarious. "I hate all of my classes and everyone in them." "The choir teacher is so uninspired." We felt kind of trapped talking to him, but it was pretty funny at least. 

It puts perspective on the crazy innocent things that Darcy says. "I am allergic to zebras, but not to dogs or cats." "Mommy if you feel skin next to my bum it is really warm!" 

My mom's Thanksgiving Cactus bloomed! In January. :)

Girls night at Ramen Noodle place. It was fun and yummy. I love swapping stories with them. 

 

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.