Farewell 2020...Bring on 2021!!

 Well we were pretty low key after Christmas.  Grandma and Grandpa came out for a visit after their allotted time of quarantine was done.  They wanted to get out of the house and see what the kids had gotten for Christmas.  Then we spent some time helping Zac with a few of the projects around the house, well really one...getting the wallpaper off in the bathroom.  Colten burned his arm on a light while taking the wallpaper down.  It got a pretty big blister so after checking with his dad, we popped the blister.  He felt much better after that.  Then I had the kids do some deeper cleaning.  We went to go see Wonder Women 84...really good movie...and really nice theater.  I bought the tickets and told the kids they needed to buy concessions.  I told them to go in on the large combo that came with a large popcorn, 2 drinks and a regular candy.  The drinks and popcorn came with a refill.  And I was expecting the candy to be the theater candy you get at the dollar store but I was wrong.  The combo is the way to go.

One day we went to St. George to go shopping for the kids, found some uniforms on sale for Annika and Channing and had lunch with Zac's dad.

We got the girls on Tuesday evening, they had fun playing with their toys.  Wednesday night, Zac said we are going on a date so we left the kids home to fend for themselves and we headed to St. George.  The kids have taken a liking to Tashlee's mini mart and have a whole scenario going on with getting jobs and all that.  So after their movie, I think they were entertained.  Zac had wanted to try the burger of the month when we went there a week ago but it wasn't there :(.  But Zac got a burger and some fries and I got a sandwich and scone fries.  Everything was delish.

On New Year's Eve, I had been asked to watch Hollee's girls since they both worked and daycare was closed.  So, I called in reinforcements called my kids lol.  All wanted to wake up early and go to Oaklee's house.  I had hoped to be able to get outside more but it was freezing....and it snowed for a good 30 minutes...didn't stick though.  So I was able to watch Frozen 2 for the first time, then we played a little Just Dance, then watched Freaky Friday (the little girls played), made mac and cheese for lunch, had the girls clean up the mess, got Oaklee and Raven down for a nap, finished Freaky Friday, started Soul and then people started to wake up.  About this time, Hollee was home.  Zac had taken Colten with him to St. George to pick up an entertainment center.  After we got home, the girls got picked up.  Zac wanted to get Ivy's tank finished.  So since I didn't want to make dinner, I got pizza and we worked on the tank, well I helped.  And the kids had nerf gun wars or competitions.  Colten made a fort in our hallway and they tried to hit targets.  Anyway, we had the bright idea to really stay up until midnight so I am finishing this year's blog.  It is 11:20pm, I am tired and ready to go to bed.  But I might make it.  So Happy New Year!!

Aspen is hiding behind the books.

Merry Christmas 2020 style

 Well both the kids and I made it through our last week of school for the year.  Both of the kids earned straight A's, although they did need some follow-up from me.  I was excited to sign off of school for the year.  This is one of my hardest years with so many students in my class and so many not wanting to do any work (thus are failing).  The break has been very welcomed and I have actually slept in a little...not a lot but a little.  The kids have been able to sleep in slightly but have been helping Zac with a few projects.

And no worries...I never finished the above post so yes I am finishing the Christmas post and catch up the rest of the year with this one.  So let's see if I can remember what happened in the last week or so.

Zac and I celebrated our first anniversary on the 21st.  I was off of work (finally) but Zac worked a few hours before we headed into St. George.  I had been wanting to try Morty's Cafe for a while now and Zac said that we were going there :).  Once we got there we were seated and the waitress took our order.  I am guessing that it was due to COVID protocol.  But Zac tried the Rueben sandwich and I tried the Strawberry Apple Quinoa salad, both were good.  He also got the sweet potato fries...so good.  We also stopped by the Sweet Tooth Fairy to pick up some yummy cupcakes.  We then made the dangerous decision to go visit PetSmart.  And it was a dangerous decision because their reptiles were 50% off and they still had a chameleon.  So, of course, we got her.  And we decided to name her Ivy Pascal because she was female.  The kids were excited when we showed Ivy to them and I got more excited when I saw her eat.  It was fascinating to see her tongue come out.  It was a great first anniversary.

Not entirely sure what we did the next few days but I know that I got a project completed in my second course for my master's course.  Then Zac told me I earned a break from all school.  So I have taken him up on it.   We got the girl's on Wednesday and did our Christmas Eve that night and Christmas morning.  It was fun having "little" kids for Christmas.  Annika and Channing were so excited for Christmas and couldn't wait to open presents.  We decided to do Secret Santa between the kids.  And the kids had done a little fundraiser to earn money to buy the presents.  So we had a fun trip to Wal-Mart trying to hide from everyone.

We had the kids open one of their secret Santa gifts on Wednesday night (our Christmas Eve) and we let the little girls open their PJs.  Then we shipped them off to bed telling the littles they couldn't get out of bed until the clock said a 6 at the front.  I was awake at 5 so we could have said to come in but Zac and the olders didn't really want to get up that early.  But the girls waited until 6:17 to come in our room.

I think this Christmas was fun for everyone...well maybe not Zac.  He got half of this gifts from me early and then he guessed the rest of them.  But I think the kids were happy with all their gifts.  We had told them the day before if there was anything they were not happy with or wouldn't play with to let us know and we will return it.  But no one complained.  Channing started to complain that the older kids got scooters but Zac kind of stopped her and told her to wait.  Because a couple of presents later the littles got their own scooters.  Tashlee got some mini mart things and LOL dolls, Aspen got 4 of the Harry Potter books, illustrated version, Colten got a machine gun nerf gun and some army helicopters and tanks, Annika and Channing got the life size dolls they had asked for.  I got Zac a new razor, that he got early and loves it and some jackets.  Then Zac got me a Broncos stop sign that lights up and some new clothes and an Apple Watch (I got Hollee's old one).

The plan was to go spend the afternoon over at Hollee's house but Channing started to not feel well so Zac and Colten stayed home and me and the girls went over.  The girls made some cookies for Santa and played.  Hollee and I made the chicken cordon blue for dinner.  After we dropped the girls off to their moms, we headed back over to Hollee's for cheesecake and played JackTV.  That was a fun game with lots of laughing.

The regular Christmas day, I left a calendar wrapped for each kid leaned up to their door so they had at least one present.  Then I gave them their gift from their dad...he had sent some money for them to get some things they are in need of.  After everyone got up and ready we headed to St. George and found the Garden Buffet opened for lunch.  We had planned on spending Christmas day with my parents but my dad came down with COVID so we stayed away.  After our time in St. George was done, we headed back home and ended up back at Hollee's for more JackTV.