January is almost over???

Man it just felt like we celebrated the new year and here it is the end of January.  Life is flying by but I finally feel that after 34 years I have a grasp on what matters in life...well at least I did this past week.  Hopefully it stays with me.  I love the apartment complex we live in because there are so many kids to play with.  When the kids walk in the door, they drop off their back packs and head back out the door to go play.  They don't like to come in for dinner and usually go right back out when they are finished.  I do make them come in and work on homework but I think they have figured out to just do their homework so they can go back out.

This past week, like usual, kept us pretty busy.  Colten had his first pinewood derby.  Jonah was supposed to help him with his car but was sick last Saturday so Grandpa Chris stepped up and learned a little bit about derby cars to help Colt.  My brother never really did scouting and neither did my dad and since Doug is 6 hours away, we had no idea what to expect.  Well Colt didn't place but his car went down the track.  He even placed 2nd in one of the races.  After all the races were down, he had so much fun just running his car down the track with the other boys.  He was sad when they said they were tearing it down and he wished we could get one.  His car won the "Best Workmanship" award.  I had no idea that you are actually supposed to decorate the car and make it look fancy.  So next year we will be better.

Saturday was a fun day.  Aspen had had a sleep over at her friend Jadyn's house (who just recently moved into an apartment about a mile away and Aspen is so thrilled) on Friday night.  So Colt and I watched Thor: Ragnarok, well he just watched the rest of it once he came inside from playing.  Then Saturday morning, we headed over to The Bird Festival.  There was another Home Depot craft but I got the wrong time.  So Colt was able to sit in on a bird presentation for about 30 minutes before getting the craft and picking up Aspen.  Then he headed to his baseball clinic while Aspen played with Jadyn at our house.

That afternoon I had arranged for the kids to go out to Kevin and Julie Fielding's house and ride their pony.  The kids loved it.  They also loved their playground.  And we got invited to come back in a few weeks when he has his chicks.  The kids each got to ride bareback and got to go around the "arena" twice.  Kevin also has a fainting goat that is more like a dog.  The  goat just stayed right with the horse and would bounce around.  It was a fun afternoon.

That evening our stake had a single sister's dinner so I decided to go (even though I am not officially single but papers were submitted this past week).  It was not what I was expecting.  There were young men at the doors to escort the sister's to the tables.  I don't know many people so I just sat at an empty table and one sister joined me.  The Snow Canyon Jazz Band was playing and through most of dinner.  The soup they had was phenomenal.  They also had Neilson's custard...didn't eat all of it because too much caramel syrup and my weight loss challenge.  After they finished with dinner, there were musical performances by some of the youth in the stake.  All in all it was a nice evening.  I think I was the youngest one there so I don't know that I would go again, unless I meet other people. 

Switched to 9:00 church....

...combined with playoffs for football have not left a lot of time to hop on a computer and write on the blog and now I am regretting not doing it :( But I will do my best to recap what happened two weeks ago.

The kids have enjoyed being back home and playing with their friends.  Colt has resumed his karate class.  I think he is doing well and really wanting to do what Mr. Moore is asking of him.  We got him a notebook to write down all of the different kicks, punches and forms that he should know how to do.  When I remember to have him practice, he goes and grabs his notebook and goes through everything.

Aspen decided to switch gyms for gymnastics.  So we are going to give Barefoot gym a try for a few months to see if they can help her along more.  Her first week was last week and she came back and said it was good.  I hope they can build her confidence and she will be able to do some of the things she is close to doing.

On Saturday mornings the kids are now attending a baseball clinic with our friend Jake Shewmake.  Jake has coached Colt in baseball and basketball.  Aspen wants to do softball so I asked if she could tag along to work one things and he said sure.  The kids have had fun doing the clinic.  Colt was upset last week when I came to pick him up because he hadn't hit the ball yet.

Last week we had a holiday so I asked if my parents wanted to go to Zion's National Park with us.  Partly because we wanted to spend time with them...partly because they could get us into the park for free.  Well it turns out that it was free National Park day so I didn't need them to come with us but I am glad they did.  They know more about the park than me since it's been like 10+ years since I have been.  They also brought Alijah along.We started off going up to the Narrows hike.  And it took awhile because there were so many pictures to stop and take.  We definitely did not go anywhere near the water...well the kids kind of did but didn't get wet.  On our way back to the car my kids and I were able to see 4 doe deer on the side of the hill.  Someone else did have to point them out to us.

We ate our lunch on a log by the river, Aspen's request :) When we started out the day it was a little chilly.  But the sun was starting to peak through the clouds and by lunchtime we were feeling pretty good.  After lunch we decided to try to do the Weeping Rock but couldn't find any parking so we headed down to the Emerald Pools hike.  That hike was uphill primarily.  The kids just ran on ahead of us.  Due to my dad needing to get back to St. George to get a report out, my parents and I didn't get to see the pools.  The kids did though.  They had gone to the lower and upper pools by the time we made it to them.

After my parents left, the kids and I headed back up to Weeping Rock and found a spot to park.  If I thought that last hike was uphill, this was one straight uphill but only a quarter of a mile.  It was a fun rock to see, especially now when there is actually water on it.  I highly doubt that in the summer the rock is wet.

Then the kids and I went to the visitor's center where the kids picked out a stuffed animal.  Aspen got a Red Tail Hawk and named him Hawkeye.  Colt got a raccoon and named him Rocky.  The kids used some of their money to pay for the animals and I contributed as well.

We headed back to St. George and topped off our night by eating dinner at the Mongolain BBQ.  We heard that they were closing at the end of the month so we wanted to get one more trip in before then.  I would say we had a pretty successful day off of school.  Hopefully we will be able to do similar days when we have more days off together.

On Tuesday, I utilized the free massage Hollee won for us on FaceBook back at Christmas.  It was so nice to be able to relax for an hour and just get some kinks worked on.  For the most part the rest of the week was a normal week.  We had been enjoying some pretty nice weather all week and that ended on Saturday.  I went outside to go to the temple and it was raining :( And it pretty much rained all day.  We headed over my parents so Colt could work on his pinewood derby car.  He was supposed to work on it with Jonah but he called and said he was sick so Grandpa to the rescue.  Grandpa helped him sand it down and get it painted.  After he was done with that, both kids headed off to a birthday party for the neighbor boy at a karate place.  While they were partying it up, I headed off to the gym and found a picture on FB saying that there was free entry into the swimming pool celebrating St. George's birthday.  So I told the kids that they had to do their chores if they wanted to go.  Luckily, they did so pretty quickly and they got a good 3 hours of swimming in.  The pool was also passing out free cookies.  Lucky kiddos :)  The kids came home showered, ate, and watched a movie.  Pretty good day for a rainy day.

After two weeks of 9:00, today we finally got to church early.  I am teaching Colt's class and am somewhat having fun.  I had to have a talk with him this morning about not being able to call on him for every question.  Luckily today's lesson involved drawing on the chalkboard and reading so everyone in class got to do it.  I am loving this new class...not as many talkative boys :)

Happy New Year!!!!

Day after Christmas was cheap movies at Megaplex so I had planned to spend the day at the movie theater.  Two of the movies I had wanted to go see left the theater on Christmas day :( so spending the whole day there didn't work out.  I did get to go see Star Wars: The Last Jedi with my parents and Hollee and Jonah.  I was supposed to go see Pitch Perfect 3 that night with Holly, Darcee and Kayleeya but there was a little misunderstanding so Holly and I didn't get to go see it.  I did go see it on Friday.  Wasn't as good as I was hoping but still good.  I spent the rest of my break at the gym, went to the temple, reading and watching TV.  Oh one day I did do a little reorganizing in my kitchen and vacuumed.  I considered that a huge accomplishment since I really had no desire to do it.

Well it turned 2018 6 days ago....I didn't do much to ring in the new year.  I went to my parents after church to which I was welcomed with them starting a 2,000 piece puzzle...I was ready to go back home.  But I stuck around for a little bit...long enough for dinner and to play a game of chicken foot with my parents.  My dad and I tied and won 4 rounds each and mom won 2 rounds.  By then it was 9:00 and I was ready for bed.  I got teased a little but still left.  I did leave them in good hands watch Captain America 3.  They told me on Monday it was timed perfect...it ended with like 3 minutes to spare to midnight :).  What a great daughter they have :)  I indeed went home and went to bed only to be woken up 2 hours later by my boy calling to wish me a Happy New Year.  They went to Kayla's farewall in Salt Lake and then got passed off to Grandpa Higgins for the evening.  I was happy that they woke me up.  I told them it was alright but they said they were heading to bed.

I didn't have any major plans on my last day of the break.  Just tried to watch a few movies, only got one of them watched (and still haven't watched the third movie in the trilogy).  I did go pick up my kids in Cedar City.  It was so nice to get them back after two weeks.  I think they were glad to be home as well.

Tuesday I went back to work.  It was a little difficult to teach class once the kids woke up.  I had taken the afternoon off because my college roommate, Summer Pearson, was going to stop by for a little bit on her way home from Salt Lake.  But she ended up getting a flat tire just outside of Beaver and it took forever to get it fixed.  But I was still class to have the afternoon off.  Colt ended up going to see Star Wars again with my parents and his boy cousins.  Then he went to karate right afterwards.  Then right after karate, my parents, the kids and I went to see the movie "The Great Showman".  All I knew about the movie was that it was about the circus.  Turned out to be a musical and a great movie.  Aspen loved it...Colt is still trying to decide. 

Because I was working a full day on Wednesday, I had the kids have a sleep over at Grandma's after the movie.  Grandma ended up getting Jeramiah and Alijah the next day and took them to the pool.  The kids were there about 3 hours and could have stayed longer.  It was a great way to end their break.

The kids went back to school on Thursday and life resumed as it should.  They enjoyed seeing their friends at school and have enjoyed playing with the neighborhood kids.  Aspen was having a hard time combing threw her hair and just putting it in a pony tail so I told her we were going to cut it.  She decided that she wanted it short...I let her be in control of what she wanted.  I love it and so does she.

On Saturday, we went to Home Depot for their project.  Colt really wants to get that 100 project pin so he is mindful of when the projects will be.  Luckily there are two this month and I have the reminder in my phone.  After the project, the kids headed to a friend's baseball clinic.  We have known Jake Shewmake since we moved to St. George.  Colt was in karate with his boys for about 3.5 years and has played on a few of his sport teams.  Willy, Jake's son, really likes baseball and Jake used to coach a high school team up in Salt Lake so he decided to try and do a clinic for anyone who wanted to come.  December was a little hectic for us so we are just now getting going.  I asked Aspen if she wanted to go since basically softball is the same thing with a bigger ball and the pitching.  She said yes she wanted to and Jake said it would be alright.  So yay...got the kids out of the house for a little bit.  I actually went to the gym while they were at their clinic.  We headed home afterwards and attempted to clean the house (wasn't too successful) and watch NFL playoffs.  All in all it was a good day.