1/25-2/1/20

January 25-February 1, 2020: I have been doing the MOC challenges at The Lily Pad where you do a layout a day in January. I have to take some photos for this, so that's what these first two are. They just happened to be a before and after ready for church. Jaxon has been coming over to go to church with us because Talon has been working overtime and Mikel has been isolating with Camdyn until his first set of shots. Taz and Cynjyn could eat rice and ramen everyday...in fact, they almost always do for lunch. Taz bought some dumplings and they've been eating those too. Camdyn is the sweetest and a great baby. I have been trying to support my YW and their activities. I went to watch Emma at a flag football game at Bishop Gorman. The sunset was amazing! I bought a new selfie stick/tripod to take on our cruise and so I've been taking a lot of photos of myself trying it out! We went on a YW retreat to Cedar City. We left Friday and came back Saturday. I rode to St. George with Marilee and Bethany. Garry met us there, he was going up as priesthood and left right from work. We met and ate dinner at Wendy's. After we got to CC, Garry and I stopped at the local Wal Mart to get food for the next day for everyone. We made a breakfast casserole and french toast casserole dish and we got subs for the way home. We did Goblet of Fire most of the night with the girls and then Jodi, Marilee and I stayed up until 5am talking. After breakfast, we went bowling then came back to Heather's inlaws air b n b, cleaned up and headed home. It was a quick trip but super fun.

1/19-1/25/2020

January 19-25, 2020:  
Sunday Taz tried out his new skate shoes and his updated skateboard. He'd gotten new wheels and bearings for Christmas. Cynjyn asked me to help her learn something on the piano! The 20th was MLK day. We went to Talon's for the day. My purple streak is fading out quickly. It was such a nice day that we took some photos outside and held and loved on Camdyn. Tuesday, we had an Iron Chef competition against the boys. The girls used my kitchen and made a grilled chicken pasta dish and garlic bread. Garlic butter was the secret ingredient. They won of course. We had a surprise visit from Mikel and the boys during the week. We made popcorn, one of Jaxon's favorite snacks and the next morning I caught the sunrise from our deck. I decided that I wanted to spend more time with our core friends on a more regular basis, so I organized a date night. We cooked them lettuce wraps for dinner and played games. We decided we will do this quarterly with each couple taking a turn to organize the date night. We are doing it with Hill's, Shafer's and Thatchers. It was great fun! Garry always hates it when the fire alarm in the Family room chirps. It's dangerous and difficult to change.

1/12-1/18/2020

 January 12-18, 2020: This is what Come Follow Me looks like on Sunday evenings. We have been faithfully doing it since it started now. Everyone has their spot on the couch and we take turns being in charge. Tonight Cynjyn is snacking and Tanner has a bloody nose! As the week started, I decided it was time to take Christmas down. When I finally make up my mind, it can't happen fast enough. Cynjyn and Tanner found a block of Irish Cheese that the Haycocks had given us for Christmas and so we decided to try it since non of us knew what Irish Cheese was. I believer Tanner was the only one that semi liked it. Grady Thatcher left for his mission so I made Toni a "blue bag" just to let her know I was thinking of her. I put blue things in it. It made me feel good, and I know the heart ache a mom of a missionary feels as she says good bye to her son for two years. I am still loving my purple hair and this time, I try to put some gel in it to accent the waves. I am also dusting and putting the house back to order after being gone a whole month. Unfortunately, I had to make a trip to the Social Security Administration to get a new SS card. The line was about 20 min. long to just get in the door, but then the wait wasn't so bad, another 20 min. Taz wanted to take Brother Black to Korean BBQ for lunch, so of course, Tanner, Cynjyn and I didn't want to be left out, but we also didn't want to intrude, so we all went together, but sat at two different tables. We love Honey Pig. Then, Saturday, Cynjyn wanted to go to the Korean market and get goodies, so I went with her. I think she likes me to go because she knows I'll pay for it! Mikel sends me photos of Camdyn almost every week. He's a cutie!

1/1-1/11/2020

January 1-11, 2020: What is it about a new year that makes one want to dejunk, clean, organize, improve? This New Year was no different for us. We had been to Oregon for Christmas. UNLV basically had the whole month of January off for Winter break, so the kids were available and had free time to help with any or all of the above. The first thing I wanted to do was reorganize all of our games. We had them in and out of cupboards just will nilly anywhere. So mostly Tanner and I worked on this project. We brought every game out to the island area and started dejunking, cleaning and organizing. Of course this involved clearing a new area for games and a trip to IKEA to buy some shelving for the games. Now we have our most played games on the IKEA shelves and a big box to donate of games we've never played or will ever play. Feels good.  Cynjyn started off the year with a bang eating healthy. She loves making smoothies for breakfast when she has time and January found her with nothing but time! She also spent a night with Gus making Frozen gingerbread houses together. She also bought a challenge at her favorite Boba place and had to drink this gallon in an hour. She won't tell us how much it cost...more than $80 and less than $100, but she was excited and drank A LOT!

Garry was his usual helpful self in the kitchen. I really appreciate all he does to help out. He will always prep the meat when we buy in bulk (here he's getting ready to cook up hamburger) He also does dishes most nights and just generally keep the house tidy and picked up.  Taz got a puzzle at our Christmas Eve name draw and we were all excited to try it out. It only took the three of us a few days to finish this 1000 piece beauty. Taz also hurt himself playing sports and his leg had a little turf burn but then two days later it was an all out puss infected mess!

For YW, we had a B of M read a thon. We only went from 4pm to midnight and we covered 1st Nephi-Jacob. Every hour we did an activity to break up the reading (We read all together either listening or taking turns reading.) For my activity, we played murder by being in a circle and squeezing hands to kill someone. I was first and we'd just read Nephi killing Laban. It was a long night, but it was nice being with the girls. You know me, I always want to take a photo of sunsets/sunrises, this photo doesn't disappoint but like all photos, it doesn't do justice to the actual sunset. Sunday, Cynjyn and I came down for church, we were matching in clothes color without even trying, she had her boots on so I decided to wear my boots so that made us match even more. I love it when this randomly happens. I also love that Cynjyn goes to church and that she loves her mama enough to pose with me for the photo! Cynjyn and Kaela decided to dye their hair one night. Cynjyn did purple. She had enough left over that she did a strip of my hair. I love it! I also started back up walking in the mornings and my NY nails bring me great joy!

We always love it when the Other Goon's come over for dinner. It has been nice with Mikel being on maternity leave. But with that comes the fact that we don't see those adorable grandkids every day. So I cherish our Sunday's. Camdyn still sleeps most of the time and everyone likes to hold him. Jaxon likes playing with any and everyone who will do what he wants. Tanner put up his hitting practice toy and Jaxon still likes sausage and the Christmas train. I don't know what he will do when I take that down. He can watch it for hours and hours! Jaxon still does his preschool classes with Mikel, every once in awhile, she'll send me a photo of him having fun.