Hindsight of 2020

 The year 2020 has definitely been an interesting and unexpected year.  It seems like all of our original plans were thrown out the window.  With a world wide pandemic of Covid-19 throwing a wrench in everything, we had to adjust to basically a new way of life.  Schools, churches, temples, and stores were shut down for quite a while.  Everyone was quarantined to their homes for months.  Social distancing and masks were mandated.  As much as we hate it, this has become the new normal.  We are still holding out hope that these things will go away but they have yet to do that.  Despite all of these crazy changes, we did have a good year.  We were able to spend more time as a family, there were less things vying for our time, and we discovered new things to do 

We started off the year with an amazing cruise to Mexico.  This was probably the most fun we have had in a while.  The kids loved every minute and are still asking when we can go on another cruise.  We sailed to Cabo San Lucas and played on the beach and saw whales. In Mazatlan, we loved hiking to the highest point and seeing the entire village. In Puerto Vallarta we had a blast zip-lining through the jungle.  We definitely want to go again someday.

February was full of new experiences for the kids.  Logan turned 7.  He loves seeing all of his friends at school and is doing really well in school.  He also started taking piano lessons this year and is really progressing.  Also this month, Emily and Colby participated in the school's production of "The Wizard of Oz."  Emily was a Munckin and Colby was part go the stage crew.  They liked being in the play and trying something new.  Emily also got to go skiing for the first time.  She loved it and wants to go again.

In March, Colby turned 9.  He is really growing up.  He is excelling in school and he's teachers say they never have to worry about him.  Colby loves everything outdoors and sports.  He is doing well in baseball, soccer, football, and now basketball.  Also during March, I ran my first 30K Ultra Trail Run.  It was actually quite fun especially running with my friends.  Emily was also able to go to the temple for the first time!  She loved doing Baptisms for the Dead.  Unfortunately, March was also when all crap hit the fan with the Covid-19 pandemic.  On March 11 everything shut down.  Schools were closed and we were forced into home schooling.  This wasn't too bad once we got the hang of it but the kids sure missed their friends.  Church was also cancelled and the temples were closed.  We were glad Emily was able to go to the temple before it closed.  Because of all of the shut downs, we got to spend more time together as a family.

April and May continued much like March.  We were still under mandated quarantine because of Covid-19.  Home schooling and home church continued.  Though there were a lot of changes, we were making the best of a bad situation and having our own fun.

During May, June, and July, Russell and I participated in a virtual race series through St. George Races.  During these months, we ran a ton, and biked even more.  I ran over 400 miles and we biked over 600.  It was fun to get out and do something and get in shape in the process.  We won quite a few medals during these races.

In July we went camping a lot to Grandpa Morwood's property.  It was nice to finally be able to see family be in the great outdoors.  We also took a quick impromptu trip to Yellowstone.  This was a fun sporadic trip that we will always remember.

In August, life went back to a little bit of normalcy.  The kids were able to go back to school even though it required a bunch of changes including wearing masks and distancing the desks among others.  The kids were so grateful to be back to school though and be able to see their friends they were willing to wear the masks all day.  Church also started up again.  There are a lot of changes to this as well including social distancing, limiting the number of members coming by alternating weeks, wearing masks, and only having sacrament meeting for now.  It is still crazy but we are glad to be back.

In September, Emily and Charlotte celebrated their birthdays.  Emily turned 12 and is growing up so much.  She is a big help around the house.  For her birthday, she wanted a dog so we added Truly to the family.  This dog has been fun to have around even if she is a little wild at times.  Charlotte turned 4 and is now all grown up according to her.  She can and will do everything the big kids do and always gets her way.  We also found out we are having a new baby!  This new little girl will definitely cause some changes in our family.  Hopefully all for the good.

October and November just flew by as we enjoyed the wonderful Fall weather in Cache Valley.  We loved going to the Corn Maze, pumpkin patches, and other fun activities in the area.

Finally we are to December and winter has set in.  Though we do not have as much snow as the kids would like, they still like playing in the little skiffs we do have.  Truly loves the snow she eats it, plays in it, and is a snow dog.  

As far as goals go for 2020, I feel like we did pretty good.  Though we can always improve, we did accomplish some good things.  Emily was able to earn her Great American Award she worked really hard on, she was able to train for and run a 5K despite the Canyon Colt run being cancelled, she was also able to read the Book of Mormon.  Because of the Covid-19 restrictions, she was not able to spend as much time with friends as she would have liked for her goal.  Colby also accomplished much and was able to pass off all of his piano tests for AIM and has improved a lot in his sports since last year.  I fell like I did pretty well on my goals as well.  I was able to read 47 books this year including Jesus the Christ, and quite a few church history books and a lot of novels...  I learned how to make a t-shirt quilt and made two of them.  I also was able to figure out my InstaPot and was able to prepare a lot of meals and freezer meals this year before the pandemic hit.  We were also able to stay caught up with "Come Follow Me" and studying the Book of Mormon.  I know we can be better at this though because we really just did the bare minimums.  I have also been able to stay caught up with the Ensigns and church magazines this year.  I have never been able to do that and I have learned so much from reading them.  Unfortunately, because of Covid-19, the temples were closed for 10 months of the year so our temple attendance was once for the whole year...  Hopefully that can change next year if the temples reopen.  So in all, the year was not a total bust.  Because we were able to take more time for ourselves and our family, we were able to do some things we have not been able to do in the past despite our good intentions and trying.   We are looking forward to the new year and hoping for good changes and good news in the future.

One terrible thing that did happen this last week was we found out that Lacie has been diagnosed with breast cancer.  We are all very devastated for her.  We especially know what they are going through and will go though in the coming months and year.  When she called me with the news, I immediately burst into tears as she did too.  Cancer is something I would not wish on anyone.  I am trying to keep her positive by sending her things that helped me get through it.  We are all praying for a good news and a successful treatment of this dreaded disease.  Their next year will definitely be a hard one.

In other good news we were able to head up the canyon with he kids today and try out their new guns.

Colby and Emily had a blast shooting their guns.  They were even able to hit the targets quite a few times!  Logan also like shooting his BB gun but was more interested in sliding down the snowy hills.  After shooting for a while, our hands were freezing so we decided to head home.  We are looking forward to taking the guns out more often next year so that we can get even better at shooting.  

Goodbye 2020, we are ready for a new year!

Merry Christmas 2020

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL AND TO ALL A GREAT DAY.

Christmas Eve was a day of getting the house ready for Christmas. Tiffany did her favorite cinnamon roll wreath. Before the kids went to bed it has always been a family tradition to open Christmas PJ's. I ended up working this year, so I FaceTimed the kiddos and watched them open their presents. 

They were fun PJ's this year because they got one piece PJ's with a butt flap on the back. All of the kids laughed so hard when they saw them. 

The official picture of the butt flaps. It was time to set out the cookies and milk for Santa. Emily and Colby did something special for Santa this year. They made gingerbread cookies and made one into Santa Claus and the other Mrs. Claus. Poor Mrs. Claus had some head issues. The cookies did not make the trip well from plate to plate. Mrs. Claus' head fell of and Santa got cut in half. Off to bed they went with lots of excitement, and not wanting to sleep. All of them slept in Emily's room and of course there was a party going on downstairs. As for me, I was at the fire station and getting off in the morning. It was fun to have the technology that is out there so I could see my kids open their presents and hang out with them for a bit. Christmas morning came with a sleepless night. I hurried home and the whole place was quiet until I made a noise. Then I heard, "Dad's home! Dads home!" I told them, "It looks like Santa did not come this year, there are no presents up here." They all said, "Whatever Dad, Santa came." I went in my room and found the mom of the house dead asleep and not wanting to get up. I laughed at her and she opened her eyes. I said, "Are you going to sleep all day?" She nodded her head yes and closed her eyes. I went downstairs and got the kids all excited. They lined up youngest to oldest. Charlotte came up and her eyes got big. She ran over to her presents and started going crazy. The rest of the kids came upstairs and it was game on for a good time.  

Santa must have been trying to tell us something, because there was a lot of guns on the couch. Emily got a .22 Ruger with a case, Logan and Colby got BB guns and I got a 6.5 Creed-Moore. The note from Santa said, "Don't shoot your eye out!" There were Rollerblades for Colby and Emily, a hover board for Logan and Charlotte got an American girl doll. Mom got a new blow dryer, a popcorn maker and a two really nice outfits.

Charlotte had a blast with her new doll and her camera. She took over 300 picture before noon. She took a picture of whatever she could see. Mom and I helped out on a gift for her doll. I made a bed and Mom made some awesome outfits. She has always wanted a doll like her oldest sister Emily. She named her new doll Lori.  She played dress up and had the doll pose for a pictures. 

Logan saw his present plugged into the wall. He was so excited to receive a hover board just like he wanted. We got it calibrated and off he went. It was funny to see him go for the first time. He was all over the place on balancing and trying to get it to move without falling. At the end of the day he was pro and speeding all over the house. He also loved his books and his BB gun. 

Colby has become quite a rollerblader. He wore out his first pair of blades clear to the last wheel. Santa knew it was time for a new pair with an upgrade. He put them on and off he went around the house. Santa also must have thought he was big enough to have a gun. It was cool to see the big smile on his face when he saw it. He also got some books, clothes and lots of candy.

 Emily is also getting older and Santa got her a .22 rifle. She loves to read and got two books, candy and roller blades. Emily wants to get her blue card and start putting in for the deer hunt. So i Guess the next thing for her to do is take the Hunters' Safety class. 

We even pampered Truly this year and got her a bed, bones and play toys. She loved it right away, but we hoped that it stays that way and she doesn't tear it up. 

As for me, I got a new gun, bike helmet and the best present of all, SPICY KETCHUP!! Mom got some cool gifts from Santa also. A popcorn maker, a hair blow dryer. an ironing board and also a smart watch that she has been wanting. We all got some great games that we had a blast playing. Tiff and I had a great time putting a puzzle together. It had been a long time since we have done a puzzle. 

Here we are showing off our big guns.  Even Charlotte got a little Nerf gun to play with.  The kids are excited to go out shooting with their guns soon.

After breakfast and getting dressed, it was time to open more presents from under the tree.

The boys got a cool share gift from Mom. It was a mini basketball hoop that can hang on their door. They played this game all day long.  There was lots of dunking and jumping around. 

Emily loved the curling iron and lotion from Logan.  She is getting older so she got a lot of girly things this year like her curling iron, make up, and lots of smelly lotion.

Charlotte was so excited to receive her new bed and clothes for Lori.  She loved the blanket and dressed her doll in all of the different outfits.  Tiff made the very cute handmade clothing and quilt and I put made the bed. They look amazing, we did a great job. 

The kids gave us some fun presents too.  Logan made us some Christmas coupons for things he is going to do without being asked.  Colby wrote us a paper on the things he would like to give us.  They both did a really great job on their gifts.

The rest of the day we spent playing games together. We got a really cool game called Perfection. I haven't played this game since I was a kid. The kids dove right in and played it a lot. They beat the timer and I am still trying to get all the shapes in under 60 seconds.  We also got a couple other fun games called "Cover Your Assets," and "Skull King."  We have been up late every night playing these games.

 The next day, Tiff worked at the Heritage Center for a few hours. We went over after she got off work and hung out for a bit in the snow.  

We went on a wagon ride and got some hot chocolate.  It was really fun riding in the wagon as the snow gently fell on us.

That night we played games until really late again and had a great time.  This was such a fun Christmas because we just got to hang out as a family.  Merry Christmas everyone!

December Fun

I can't believe it is already December and Christmas is right around the corner.  We have been busy doing a lot of fun traditions to get us in the Christmas spirit.  We started the month of by decorating the Christmas tree.  The nice thing is that the kids are old enough now that they can do most of the decorating.  They love doing it too!

We have also made a few crafts like this cute nativity scene.  

No Christmas season would be complete without making Gingerbread Houses:

All of the houses turned out so good!  Not only did we use up a lot of candy, we also ate a lot of candy!  We are definitely swearing off sweets for a long time after Christmas.

Making Gingerbread Houses is something the kids look forward to each year.  They come up with the most creative ideas.

Another fun thing that happened this month was Colby got glasses.

I think he looks quite handsome in his glasses.  His eyesight is actually not that bad but the glasses help focus things.  His right eye is actually perfect and he can see 20/20 but his left eye is not so good.  When he closes his right eye, he cannot see very far with his left eye alone.  It is more like 20/70.  With both eyes he sees pretty good but with the one he can't see.  That being said, he technically only needs a monocle or one lens like they used in the olden days.  In his glasses the right eye is just glass and the left eye has a prescription lens.  He says the glasses brighten everything up and makes thing more clear.  They also help with his depth perception.

On the last day of school before Christmas break, I was able to help with the kids' Christmas parties at school.  I was so busy I didn't get any pictures...  First was Colby's class.  During his party, each kids made a candy sled and then we raced them down a ramp.  It was really fun to see the kids creativity and watch them get so excited to race.  Next I helped in Emily's class.  Here the kids play a bunch of games like LRC, a number risk game, and bingo.  They won a lot of prizes and ate way too many treats!  Finally, I went to Logan's class.  During his party I helped the kids make a cute snowman ornament.  I like helping in the kids' classrooms.  It has been a little harder to do this year because of Covid but I like to do it when I can.

On December 21st, we got to experience something very rare.  The planets Jupiter and Saturn came in line and made it look like one huge star.  It was called the "Christmas Star" or the "Star of Bethlehem!"

I did not take these pictures but we were able to see this star in the sky.  As we were walking around the neighborhood looking at the star, our neighbors, the Hyde's, invited us over to look at the Star through their telescope.  It was really cool to see the planets together.  We were even able to see the rings on Saturn!  According to scientists, the last time this happened was actually the new star that shone when Christ was born!  At that time Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars all came together to make that bright star.  It was pretty cool to see.

Now we are just preparing for Christmas and having a good time.

Basketball Season

The kids are playing basketball again this year.  They really have fun getting out there and competing with their teammates. 

Emily's team has been doing really well and has won each of the first two games they have played.  I am glad they are doing well this year because last year was really hard for the girls.  Its good to see Emily competing and helping her team.

Logan has also been having a good time playing.  He loves being with his friends and having a good time.  His team has also been doing very well.  They have won two of the three games they have played.  The third game they only lost by one point.  Logan also loves taking shots and has made a few points.  He even made his free throws!

Colby also loves playing basketball.  He really gets into the games and is good at defending.  His team has won one game and lost one game.  His team is still learning to work together but they are having fun.  Hopefully the rest of the season goes well for them.

This basketball season has been really weird.  Covid-19 has really messed things up.  The season was originally scheduled to start the middle of November.  Then the governor put another two week quarantine mandate on all gatherings.  Because of this, the season was postponed until the first of December.  At this time, we were able to play for two weeks or two games.  Then the league decided to postpone the season again.  Now we will not play again until January (hopefully).  We are kind of tired of all of the postponements and Covid restrictions but hope to play and practice again soon.  

It's A Girl!!

Yesterday Russell and I had our 20 week ultrasound and were able to see our new little baby!  We were so excited to hear the tech and doctors say that everything looked great with the baby. It was fun to see these pictures.

And we also found out that we are having another girl!!  This little girl will be the tie breaker for our family.  We will now have more girls than boys! 

One fun thing the baby did during the ultrasound was give us the thumbs up!  It was so funny we had to get a picture of it.  It was like she was saying, "Here I am Mom and Dad. Ready or not!"  It was really cute.  We can already tell that she will have a fun personality.

The crazy thing about this is that I had been having dreams about having a boy so I thought the baby was going to be a boy.  When the tech said it was a girl, I was really surprised.  I even had  the doctor double check and he said it was for sure a girl.  This will be so fun to have another girl.  When we told the other kids, they were really excited to have another sister.  Charlotte knew for sure it was a girl from the beginning and has been calling the baby, Baby Lori.  

 Now we just need to find a good name for a girl.  Names are always hard to choose.  We can't wait to meet this cute girl.

November

November was another good month.  I did not take many pictures because we didn't do a whole lot.  In fact the governor mandated another quarantine due to Covid-19.  For two weeks we couldn't really go out and do anything.  There were a lot of restrictions on Thanksgiving gatherings this year which we thought were really dumb.  Rather than having big Thanksgiving gatherings, a lot of people opted to just have their own small gathering at home.  It continues to be a really crazy year.

November began cold and we had our first snow storm of the year in the first week of November.  

Fortunately for me, the snow only lasted a day and then melted.  Since then we have not had any snow at all.  This is really weird because we are usually covered with snow from now until March.  I am not complaining though!  I do wish the mountains would get more snow though for the water levels.  We will have to see how it goes the rest of the winter.

For Thanksgiving, we headed down to St. George to spend the holiday with my family.  We were rebels and ignored the Governor's mandates.  (Well so did about everyone else traveling to St. George!)  Our Thanksgiving was smaller than usual with just us and the Hughes over for dinner.  It was still a good time and the kids loved spending time with their cousins.  Unfortunately, I did not get any pictures of our time together.

When we got home, we decided to have our own Thanksgiving dinner again.  So about a week later, we did just that.

I cooked up the turkey, stuffing, sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, and Jello.  I even tried out a few new recipes and made rolls and pumpkin pie from scratch!  It was all so good!

The kids are so funny, this is their favorite meal of all time.  We all ate until we were stuffed and then ate some more pie. Now we have our own leftovers to have for the rest of the week!  We love Thanksgiving.

Another awesome thing that happened this month is President Nelson gave a special broadcast to the world.  He sent the video out on YouTube and challenged everyone to flood social media with things they were grateful for.  The campaign was called #GiveThanks.  It was amazing to see the swift in the tone of social media after this.  It changed from almost constant negativity in posts to posts full of gratitude and positive messages.  I loved it!  Along with this challenge, President Nelson gave a great message on the healing power of gratitude.  He acknowledged that everyone is going through hard times and that the best prescription for getting over hard things was gratitude.  Gratitude would not take away or make you immune to hard times, but it sure makes those times easier to bear.  He then prayed publicly for the whole world.  It was so amazing and the perfect way to really get into the spirit of the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons. If you want to watch it click here: https://youtu.be/i51gcWCs-Ho

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!  This year has been pretty scary as it is but it got scarier as people talked about not celebrating Halloween or going Trick-or-Treating because of Covid-19. We were not having any of that.  The kids were planning on going Trick-or Treating no matter what!  So we planned out our costumes and did all of our favorite Halloween traditions.  Our first tradition was the North Logan Pumpkin Walk.

We were so happy when they decided not to cancel the Pumpkin Walk.  We headed out there with our friends, the Sunada's.  The Pumpkin Walk was a little smaller this year.  There were not any photo booths, or witches at the end.  That was okay with us though because we still got to see some pretty amazing scenes made completely out of pumpkins.  Here are a few of our favorites.

We loved the Mario Brothers, Toy Story 4, and Hocus Pocus  scenes.  Our favorite though had to be the Cinder-rona.  It was full of funny spoofs on the whole Corona Virus thing.  The pumpkins had masks on, signs everywhere saying 6 feet apart, as well as gloves and hand sanitizer.  We all laughed at this one.  There were a lot of other good ones too.  We love seeing all of the decorated pumpkins.

Next we carved our own pumpkins.  We love going to the local farmers and pumpkin patches to get our pumpkins because they are less expensive and the kids get to pick out their own personal pumpkin.

This is one of the kids' favorite traditions.  They love pulling the guts out of the pumpkins.  A few days before we carved the pumpkins the temperatures dropped and froze.  Because of this, the pumpkin guts were so cold!  Our hands were freezing as we tried to clean them out. 

Each one of the kids had their own ideas about how they wanted to carve their pumpkins.  Charlotte's was a smiley pumpkin, Logan's was eating a smaller pumpkin, Colby's is a mean pumpkin, and Emily's pumpkin's mouth was saying "Boo!"

They turned out so spooky!  I really like how they looked with the candles lit and all of the lights turned out.  Creepy!

For part of Colby's costume, I made him this awesome beard!  How do I look?  I am not really a fan of facial hair especially beards but beards do keep your face warm when its cold!  I may have to make myself one for the winter.

Finally Halloween came.  Because Halloween was on a Saturday this year, we kind of got two days to celebrate.  On Friday, the kids got to wear their costumes to school for Halloween parties and the costume parade.

They all looked great in the parade.  Emily coordinated with her friends to play Little Red Riding Hood.  She was Little Red, her friend, Ayzleigh, was the Big Bad Wolf, and their other friend, Kyler, was the grandma.  They had so much fun at school together.  

The next day was officially Halloween and we counted down the hours until we could go Trick-or-Treating.  Finally it was time to dress up and go.  This year the kids picked some fun costumes.  Charlotte loves Frozen as much as Emily did at this age so, of course, she decided to be Elsa.

Logan wanted to be a bat this year.  He loved running around and flapping his wings like a bat.  He even hung upside down like a bat for his picture.  

Colby couldn't really decide what he wanted to be but then we saw a picture of a lumberjack and we though it would be perfect for Colby.  He looked so tough with his ax, flannel shirt, and beard.  

Finally, Emily wanted a costume that would go along with a dog.  She decided Little Red Riding Hood would be perfect.  That way, Truly could be the Wolf/Grandma.  Truly was not so sure about wearing a dress.  She kept trying to bite it off.  We decided it would be easier to go Trick-or-Treating without the dog so we left her home.  I think Truly was happy about that too because we took the dress off of her. 

The kids made a killing on candy during the night of Trick-or-Treating.  A lot of the houses just left bowls outside their door this year because of Covid.  There were also quite a few that did not participate because of it.  That was okay with us because we were able to hit more houses in a shorter amount of time.  We were also grateful it was not freezing cold outside.  We had a lot of fun hitting every house we could.  Charlotte was the one that kept us on track.  She pointed to every house telling us which ones we had been too and which ones we hadn't.  By the end, Colby thought we were going too slow and started running to every house leaving us in the dust.  Charlotte noticed all the houses Colby was hitting and wanted to go with him.  We had a great time.  The kids told me that next year they are going to find bigger treat bags so that they can keep going and get even more candy.  

Happy Halloween!