January 2026

 These kids used to be so little!

We had a great month! It was really nice to have a more chill month after such a crazy holiday season.

Hyrum had a bunch of swim meets for his high school team this month, including their big rivalry meet- Battle for the Paddle. His high school won that meet for the first time in almost 30 years! It was a big deal and everyone was super stoked about it:

They also had their big regionals meet this month in Heber, so they enjoyed the bus ride there:

Hyrum had a great meet at regionals! His relay team came in 3rd:

He got 4th in his 500 Free:

And he got 5th in his 200 IM:

They had a bunch of photographers there who took some great pictures of Hyrum!

The best part of regionals is that the boys won the whole thing!! They were SO happy, their coach cried, and Hyrum was pretty hyped up for the next 24 hours:

Ivy and her friend "stole" our neighbors' breakfast one morning on their way to school:

Zane wrapped up his stuffies on his bed one day to look like he was in there, and it ended up tricking Ryan one day!

Zane helped build Ryan's new little robot one day:

Here's the finished product:

Over Christmas break we went to a BYU women's basketball game. The kids got to meet a raptor there!

Zane was sick during the game, so we missed him, but we still had a great time. We got on the Jumbotron like 4-5 times!

We had the whole swim team over for dinner this month before one of their swim meets, and Zane helped make the sauce for the pasta:

Then Zane and Ivy had to eat in our bathroom since the main floor was full of high school swimmers:

The high school swim team is such a fun group- it was great to have them over!

Me and Ryan went to the temple together this month!

On Martin Luther King Jr day this month we decided to do our own version of the TV show, "You Draw, I Cook," where a kid draws a picture and then two chefs compete to make food that looks like the picture. Ivy drew our picture, then we split into two teams and shopped for ingredients at the store, and then we did our best to make the dish! It was Hyrum and Tricia on one team, and Ryan, Cora, and Zane on the other. Here we are cooking up our dishes:

Hyrum sculpted an amazing dolphin out of rice crispy treats:

Zane's team made some cool coral out of melted sugar:

Here's the picture Ivy drew:

Here's what Hyrum and Tricia ended up with:

Here's what Ryan, Cora, and Zane ended up with:

Ivy was our judge, and while she thought Tricia and Hyrum's creation matched the picture really well, she liked the other team's creation best, so it was the winner!

We took Zane to the temple for his first time at the end of this month! The only time available was early in the morning before school on a Friday, but he was a trooper and said it was really cool:

I am so grateful we got to take Zane to the temple together!

Over Christmas break we also went to the Museum of Natural Curiosity. The kids are kind of growing too old for it, but they enjoy it for a little while:

We spent New Year's Eve at a neighbor's house this year where we played some fun games, like having to march in place with your eyes closed and see how far you ended from your square:

And we beat some pots and pans at midnight!

On New Year's Day we went out to lunch and went to see Zootopia 2 as a family, as is tradition:

Ivy and I went on her Christmas gift date this month, and she chose to have dinner at Olive Garden:

Then we went to Provo Beach together where we played croquet, arcade games, laser tag, and she played in the playplace there:

We also rode the carousel!

Ivy loves to steal my phone and take pictures of herself:

On a different day over Christmas break I took the kids to a new jumping place for us- Lowe's. They had a blast!

Cora had a cheer competition over two days in the Salt Palace this month, and it was so fun to watch her compete!

She liked getting food with cheer friends while waiting for awards:

I took the little kids to the Butterfly Biosphere one day over the break when the big kids had other plans:

Zane is in Young Men's now for church, so on youth activity nights, all 3 of the big kids leave! Their youth group got ice cream after an activity one night and it was fun to see the pictures:

Zane has decided to grow his hair out a bit, which means sometimes it's a bit crazy without even trying:

One morning we were planning on going to the Grand Opening of Pinkbox donuts near us, but when we got there the line and amount of people was crazy, so we just left and tried Oh No Malasadas instead. It was super delicious!

I took Zane on his Christmas date this month too, and we went out to dinner at Jurassic Taco, then went to DreamWalk for some fun:

We loved seeing all the cool stuff, and Zane especially loved finding all the secret messages and pictures!

After DreamWalk we got yummy ice cream at Crispy Cones!

The littles had crazy hair day at school, and I think we did a pretty good job at giving them some crazy hairstyles:

Cora found out this month that one of her cheer teams qualified to go to the Summit competition in Florida! They were so excited!

Zane wrote some letters to our US Senators and Representatives this month to let them know that he didn't like some of the things going on in our nation. I was proud of him for wanting to create some positive change!