Full On Winter Mode

We began the year right by taking Bentley to the temple again!  This time it wasn't so early and I wasn't stressing about everything else going on in the day, and it was a much more relaxed and enjoyable time.  What a great thing to get to do!  (This coming Saturday we'll get to take *Colton to do baptisms for the first time, so it's an exciting year all around!)

We stopped at Five Guys afterwards to keep Bentley from starving.  That boy loves himself a hamburger!  And then we home and I think I took a nap?  The Smiths came over in the evening and we all went to Mission BBQ together, so we got a lot of meat that day!

This is a terrible picture and Craig really should give people more warning before he suddenly snaps pictures them in the middle of their meal, but I sort of love how both Tom and Camille are pulling the same face! 😂

The forces that be were predicting a HUGE snow storm to hit, which presented us with a problem: the snow was supposed to start at the same time that Bentley was flying out of Richmond, back to BYU.  I called Southwest to ask them about changing his flight and they told me that until they had issued a weather warning, they couldn't help me (or in other words-- I could change his flight, but I'd have to pay an arm and a leg for it).  When I told Bentley, his immediate response was, "Well it's not my fault if I fail all my classes then!"  This seemed a teensy bit dramatic, since he was flying Sunday evening and classes didn't even start until Wednesday.  But I could tell the whole thing was stressing him out.  So when, just a few hours later, Southwest did in fact issue a weather warning, we quickly changed his flight to Saturday morning.  

This was super lame, though, because it meant we lost two days that we were supposed to get to spend together!!!  I was really sad.  And then Craig took him to the airport and I stayed home taking down Christmas decorations, which did not cheer me up.  And then the next day, after Bentley was safe back at BYU, and the snow began to fall, we checked and his original flight left right on time, no problem.  What a waste!  So yes, I had to spend a few days being sad and missing Bentley.

Everyone was excited to claim their hugs before he left

Especially me

After church that Sunday (but before any hint of snow), Colton was ordained as a deacon!  Which meant the following Sunday, he got to help pass the sacrament for the first time!  So that was all very exciting and special.  He was trying to not show how nervous he was about the whole thing, but he kept asking questions and bringing it up, so I knew it was at the forefront of his mind.  Colton is my deep child!

All the people who help ordain him-- Br. Huff, Topher, Craig, (Colton,) and Sawyer

And then that night the snow did indeed begin falling!

There are few things as delightful as freshly fallen snow.  Craig, Kendra, and I stood outside watching and listening to the quiet for quite a while before we decided we were too cold and it was time to head back inside.  Then we snuggled down in our warm beds, alarms turned off, ready to wake up to a winter wonderland!

It was honestly a bit of a disappointment, though.  All we got were three inches, and after a day it was all crusted over ice and terrible.  But then-- THEN-- it's been FREEZING ever since so it's still here, nearly two weeks later!  Which is the WORST.  

Cold little chickens!

It hasn't been all bad: the kids had a great time sledding in it, and I enjoyed staying home and warm.  They even ended up organizing have the kids in the ward go to the Snow's farm and sled down their huge hill!

Terrible picture, but that's Ryder up front with Sawyer behind him

And Kendra with Ember

The whole gang!  (I stayed home from this-- we couldn't get the van out of the driveway and Kendra was going to be wearing my snow pants.  And I was pretty happy to stay home by myself and stay warm!)

I really try to not share videos on the blog too often, but this one is so funny--watch Gideon's boot go flying at the end!!!  It's like a cartoon!

School got canceled for the entire week, which was pretty awesome.  On one of the days, I made the kids watch Fantasia with me.  I warned them that it was kind of weird and boring, and with a preface like that, they actually quite enjoyed it.  Who doesn't love ballerina hippos dancing with crocodiles???

But-- oof-- going back to school this week has been rough.  And it's still so cold and icy.  When I was walking Camille to the bus stop yesterday morning, it was 17℉.  That's just gross.  Trying to get back into a routine of exercising early is also awful.  I keep trying to remind myself that I'd rather be out running when it's in the twenties than when it's in the eighties!  Right?  Ah, Virginia, you beast!

Craig got this sunrise with the full moon.  So wintry!!!

Notice those six stars all in a row?  Are those the droids everyone is freaking out about?  I mean-- they definitely weren't actually stars, since that's not a constellation AND after I took the picture, they all headed off east and vanished.  What the hey???

*In fact, it was Colton who pointed out that his life has been echoing Bentley's a LOT this last year-- Bentley graduated from high school and went on to college, Colton graduated from 5th grade and went on to middle school; Bentley received the Melchizedek Priesthood and went through the temple and is getting ready for his mission, Colton received the Aaronic Priesthood and can go to the baptistry and just got to pass the sacrament for the first time!  So those are some pretty fun parallels!

And That's a Wrap on December!

It was so nice to have nothing planned for the day after Christmas!  Bentley and Kendra decided to go shopping at Target.  My parents and I decided to have lunch at Torchy's and then Bentley, Kendra, and Craig joined us, and we had a lot of fun hanging out and gorging ourselves on chips and queso!  Yum.

My parents flew back home Friday, and I was sad to see them go.  It was really nice getting to spend Christmas with them again-- it had been a very long time!  I was glad I asked demanded that they come!  (Middle children quickly learn that sometimes it pays to be the proverbial squeaky wheel!)

We had a lot of time just hanging around-- Colton was working hard on his lego sets, we played some of our new games (I liked Poetry for Neanderthals), we watched shows we hadn't gotten around to seeing yet...

Craig managed to take a decent picture of Bentley for his mission papers:

Who could slam the door on this fine young man?  Oh, right, everybody!

Craig finally finished baking treats and we spent a couple evenings delivering them to friends (and feeling bad for all the friends we didn't manage to give treats to).  Near one of the houses we saw an owl sitting in the road, so that was about the coolest thing ever!  (We also saw a fox, some deer, and a mouse that same trip, so it was quite the evening for nature!)  I think we delivered fifteen plates, and there were still so many people we would have liked to have given treats to!

Adam wasn't home when we stopped by his house, so I took a picture to prove we'd left him stuff, just in case the bear was around and got to it first!  What a festive little plate!  (He sent us a picture back of just the crumbs, admitting it was embarrassing how fast he and Allen polished it off.  We suggested they lie and let the bear take the blame!)

Despite trying to carefully pace himself, Colton finished the Hogwarts Castle within a week!

More hanging out time!  Notice that Kendra is in DIFFERENT plaid pajama pants this time, though!

We'd asked our friends, the Gaskins, if they'd be willing to host a New Year's Eve party for the youth, and they did it so enthusiastically!  I'm so glad we have such fun people in our ward!

They started out making pizza quicks and snacking

Ryder and I managed to be matching this time!

And then played the tenzi/saran wrap game where you pass around a huge ball of saran wrap and try to get the prizes out of it before the person in front of you can roll doubles

Colton got the final prize which everyone was excited about because they'd heard it was ten dollars-- only to discover that it was Canadian money!  😂

That game took WAY longer than Amy had thought it would-- they were supposed to have a new activity every half hour, but I think that used up at least three of those slots!  Amy kept suggesting they move onto something else, but the kids were DETERMINED to get all the prizes!  It was kind of hilarious.  Anyway, next we did a slideshow of all the activities the youth had done throughout the year, and that was a pretty awesome review-- we've had a lot of fun all together!

Once the slideshow finished, I slipped outside to sit by the fire and read my book for a few minutes.  I needed a short break from all the noise and from being "on."  Craig had started making Oreo truffles and put Olivia and Sabrina in charge of finishing those:

And suddenly it was midnight!  Amy dropped balloons on everyone, they all had noisemakers and confetti and those party popper things...  It was VERY loud and I was glad I'd taken a few minutes to escape before that!  But it was nice to see everyone having such a fun time!

Chaos!

Jason, Colton, and Gideon-- three of the newest deacons!

I LOVE that Amy did this!!!

Gotta love a good photobomb!

Afterwards, Amy sent me a screenshot she'd grabbed from the top of the stairs-- Craig and I are totally busted!

It was as good a way to start out the new year as any I've ever had-- I so appreciate the Gaskins and how they make everything so fun!  And after all the craziness we'd had before Christmas, that last week felt like a perfect mix of not-too-much, but what we did have going on was really great!

Welcome, 2025!

And a Very Merry Christmas Was Had By All!

The kids woke up to this on Christmas morning:

So peaceful and pretty!  Not that they appreciated it, as they were stampeding down the steps like this:

Camille is just a blur 😂

Everyone except Bentley kept opening up puzzle pieces that they finally got to assemble-- it turned out to be a trip in February to Great Wolf Lodge!  (We did this back in 2017 when Camille was a baby.  She and Colton had been feeling like they were owed another visit since they can't remember that trip at all...)

Once it was put together, they still had to unscramble the words: 

So naturally it was Bentley who actually figured out what it said!  Ah, well.  They were excited.

I've got one kid indoctrinated to love killer whales as much as I do!!!

Reading the instructions to his new game, "Bears vs. Babies" brought to you by the same geniuses behind Exploding Kittens!

More killer whale love!

Colton loves his new very fuzzy blanket

More Pearls Before Swine for this family!

Probably my favorite picture from the entire day-- he was so hoping for the Lego Hogwarts castle!!!

Meanwhile, Ryder's other grandparents got creative in how they gave him cash:

I complained to Craig that when I brought all those ones to the bank, the teller was going to think I was a stripper, and he shot back, "Not a very good one!"  Zing!

Apparently we didn't take any pictures of Craig, Bentley, or me opening any presents!  But we did, indeed, get presents, too!  I think Bentley's favorite was probably this duck nightlight, mostly because he wasn't expecting it.  He also got some Tyler the Creator swag, which he's excited for since he's going to his concert in March.  I got some lovely earrings that I'm enjoying, a fabulous blanket hoodie, books I'm excited to read, and this Emma M. Lion pin!  Craig was probably most excited for his new AirPods, but was also delighted by this unexpected sandscape toy for his desk and a box full of those packets you throw into a fire to make it change colors.  I also got him a filter to get the microplastics out of his water, but since it was made out of plastic (ironic, that!), we decided not to bother keeping it.  Everyone got a lot of fun stuff!

In a hilarious twist, the last gift that I opened up was a robe, which of course made me think of the amazing SNL skit, "Christmas Robe"  In Craig's defense, I must point out that I actually wanted a new robe, so he is NOT in the doghouse over this!  Unfortunately, there weren't any good quality robes that could ship in time, so he just ordered whatever would arrive fastest and told me to exchange it for what I actually wanted.  So the robe I got was a sad, thin, grey thing that was immediately returned and I'm anxiously awaiting the real deal.  But it was very good for a laugh!

It took us the entire morning to open presents and eat cinnamon rolls.  Once all the presents were finished, the kids wandered off to play their new games and put together their Lego sets and Craig and I got to work in the kitchen.  For Christmas, we basically just repeat everything we made for Thanksgiving, except for the rolls.  So we were busy!  But our Christmas feast turned out marvelous.  Mom and Dad were able to talk to their other daughters while we did dishes in between dinner and dessert.  

A very merry Christmas was had by all!