January 2022

Here are Google's Then and Nows for the month:

Since we were on our way home from San Diego, we didn't do our usual NYE tradition of board games and appetizers while we stay up until midnight, so we did it at home a couple weeks later instead:

I got to see my niece (and brother and sister-in-law) in Provo one more time before she left on her mission this month. She is doing awesome and it was so fun to see her!

For an Ivy and Mommy day this month, Ivy wanted to decorate a cake with me, so we made our own homemade marshmallow fondant, bought a cake from Walmart, and went to town making a unicorn cake:

Ivy is so strong!

Zane lost his first tooth on Christmas day, but we couldn't find it (he might have swallowed it?). So, he left this note for the tooth fairy:

We had a couple of remote learning days this month, due to Covid being so bad:

Hyrum having fun on the hoverboard:

We had an interesting family discussion during scriptures this month. Here are just some snippets:

Z- How much does God love Satan? This much? *measuring a space between his hands*

I- We need to dodge Satan's arrows. But if they get too close, hug your mother.

H- The point is, get solar panels.

Sometimes family scripture study gets a little out of hand, but I am grateful for opportunities to teach our kids about Jesus Christ.

We went sledding at Tibble Fork Reservoir this month! It was pretty icy, but still fun!

I adore the beautiful view up there:

The kids also tried sliding down this super steep and icy hill on their bums:

We did one-on-one dates with each kid this month (as one of their Christmas presents). Cora and I went to Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner, then jumped at Airborne:

We ended the night at Brooker's and the Puppy Store:

On one of the kids' remote days this month, I took them to the Classic Fun Center since they finished all their work early. They played some arcade games:

Zane bought himself an Icee:

The kids also jumped and skated:

On another of our Mommy/Ivy days we went to the Butterfly Biosphere again:

And then to Zupas:

We were telling the kids about how we used to use disposable cameras back in the day, and Cora was shocked. "You can throw a camera away?!?"

Sweet sisters! Cora is so good to read to Ivy:

I also took Ivy on her one-on-one date, and we went to Pizza Pie Cafe for dinner and then to Hang Time:

We ended the date with some FroYo:

Cora wanted to try a fishtail braid for school one day:

I helped a ton with the book fair at the kids' school this month, and part of that was making twenty of these snowflakes. Cora actually made five of them for me, but overall it took like eight hours of work:

I took Ivy to the Museum of Ancient Life one day:

Cora had another cheer competition this month, but this one was in North Ogden, so it was quite a drive early in the morning, and we had to be there all day. She had fun hanging out with her cheer friends, and her team took first place in their division!

Ryan and I got to see Vocal Point this month! It was one of our favorite shows to go to the first time we lived in Utah, so it was fun to do it again:

The girls really love doing Ryan's hair:

Ryan took Hyrum on his date. They did an hour of VR, then went to Good Move Café, where they played board games while they ate:

Homemade mac and cheese is good:

Hyrum does weird stuff with his Oreos. He likes to take 6 Oreos, take all the filling out and pack it into two Oreos, then eat the rest plain:

Ryan also took Zane on his date. They went to dinner at Chubby's, then swimming at the Provo Rec Center:

They ended their date at Menchie's for some Froyo. Zane got quite the concoction with peanut butter M&Ms, Boba pearls, sour gummy worms, circus animal cookies, swedish fish, and other stuff on top of chocolate ice cream and he actually ate it all!

Another date night we went to the Mt. Timp temple, then ended with dessert at Blox:

100 days of school for Zane! He's dressed like he's 100, and he brought 100 marshmallows to school:

One date night this month we went to dinner at the Riverwoods where they were having their Fire and Ice event. They had some cool ice sculptures and photo set-ups:

We celebrated Chinese New Year a little early, so it was still in January. We had a homemade Chinese food meal, and then Cora made these awesome fortune cookies, almost all by herself! She even wrote some fun fortunes inside: