Tuesday, January 28, 2025

Christmas Break

Damon came to open gym with Tessa and me. It's a great place for him to get 2 hours worth of energy out. :)

Tessa and Morgan opened a Five Below Twister knock-off game they found in our game closet. 
We were laughing so hard at how small the game board was. :)

Rockwell made us some pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, and they were delicious! Thanks Rockwell!!

Chad came to town for Christmas and spent a couple days at our house. Cade and Emilie came over one afternoon and hung out and then the siblings went to lunch together. 
We played a few rounds of Cover Your Kingdoms with Chad. :)

Tessa and I made the mints for Christmas Eve.
And Damon and I made the cherry chocolate bars.

The day after Christmas we went to Adria's for the Barth-Robbins party. Tessa and Damon were so excited to see the rabbits!
For one of our white elephant gifts we took the belly button fanny pack that Rockwell brought home from his cross country party. It was a hit for sure! Haha.

I went to Mexico with my siblings for the last week of Christmas break. Paul and the kids had a great time while I was gone! They went to Classic, bowling, to a late-night movie, had Grandma and Gramps over for dinner, went to Brick Oven with family, Rockwell went ice skating, partied, and went skiing at Sundance with his friends. 

Monday, January 20, 2025

Everyday Adventures

 I was released as a Young Women advisor in September and called as the Stake Young Women Secretary. It was a sad day for me. I think advisor has been my favorite calling ever. I have loved being in the youth program at the same time as Rockwell and Tessa, and I truly loved the girls in my class and the other leaders I got to work with. Travis Searle was released as Bishop of our ward and called into the Stake Presidency about a month before my calling changed. He was the one who extended the calling to me, and he just cried as he did. He said he was sad about releasing me as he had seen the good I was doing with his daughter and the whole class of girls. It meant a lot to me. This new calling is very different and there's a lot to learn and get used to. Luckily I really really like Nikki, Karna, and Susie too, and it's been fun to make new friends in them. We jumped right into planning our Stake's "His Hands" Christmas activity. It's a huge, highly detailed and meticulous activity where we partner with Vivint Gives Back and supply Christmas for many many families who need help in our Stake. The youth love this activity, and it was neat to be a part of helping make it happen.

Jill shared pictures of the youth shopping for the gifts.
There was a ton of preparation before the event, and the day of the activity was 8 straight hours of being on my feet and making sure all the details were running as they should. I was absolutely pooped when it was over and fell asleep trying to get some after-the-fact work finished the next evening. Tessa took a picture of me and I can feel the exhaustion when I look at it. Haha. 

Tessa and Damon had their Christmas choir concert.
I love this picture. It's a perfect representation of older sibling and younger sibling. :)
The concert was awesome. They learn a lot of songs and they sure sounded great!

We had an evening where we didn't have anything on the calendar, and it was so exciting! We decided to use something from our Get Out Pass and went to an Escape Room.
We had a great time! We were so close to solving it, but ran out of time. It was so fun to spend time together just doing something all 5 of us enjoy.

Rockwell had a Christmas concert, and this was his last band concert. He's decided to be finished with the clarinet and fill his classes with other interests instead.
He tuned and warmed up the band again. He was really excited to play a Harry Potter song and was so glad they played it for his last concert.

Rockwell had his Cross Country Banquet. It was fun to celebrate the team's hard work this season.
Rockwell and Elsa were given the Most Valuable Athlete awards for the Freshman. He was really excited to get that one!
He also got the Timpanogos Scholar Athlete award, he earned a Varsity Letter, and got a medal for participating in every race of the season. Basically, he killed it all season long!! :) Way to work hard at this sport, as well as doing awesome in the classroom Rockwell!

Keith took the kids to the Mount Timpanogos Temple to do baptisms. Tessa and Rockwell loved it.
He also took them to Macey's for some ice cream afterward.

Northridge had their Christmas Sing, which is always so cute! 
I can't believe it's Tessa's last Christmas Sing.

Rockwell and his friends did their Christmas party at our house. I love hearing all the kids laughing all night long! Luke gave Rockwell a turkey onesie. Haha!! They always fight over which holiday is better, Thanksgiving or Christmas. Luke's trying to convince him that Thanksgiving is better. :)

Friday, January 17, 2025

Thanksgiving Break

We celebrated Thanksgiving with the Clark side of the family the Sunday before Thanksgiving. Everyone was able to make it that day and it was a great day! 


It was Paul's turn to host the Librarian meeting that week and so he made a couple turkey platters for the refreshments. They looked awesome and he said they were a big hit!

The Murphy-Barth-Allphin movie night was Tuesday night and they decided to show Wicked this year. Everyone was very excited to see Wicked!
The whole night went great. People loved their prizes and the movie. It's always a fun event that his clients love.

Hallee and Wyatt come over to hang out one day.
We had SO many leaves to rake up, and Damon helped us out while Tessa and Rockwell were busy with their cousins. 

We ate Thanksgiving dinner at home this year. We made a more simplified version of a turkey dinner and it was delicious!!
We went to Grandma and Grandpa Ham's that evening for dessert. I made a peanut butter pie and a peppermint dip.
It was fun to hang out with the family and eat yummy dessert.

Matt & Lori came for Thanksgiving and a few of us went up there the next day to celebrate Matt's birthday. We went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner and then Matt opened some gifts from Elena and Lori.