January 2019

Happy New Year and welcome to 2019! This year started off with a bang...

At the Dallas temple

In December of last year, our church announced that instead of youth waiting until their birthday to advance, they would advance January 1st of the year they would normally have advanced...so suddenly Kimball was getting ordained, passing the sacrament and going to the temple, 3 1/2 months earlier than we had expected. We thought we had more time to help him prepare, and to adjust ourselves, but we had to rush to get his interviews done so he could go to the Dallas temple for the youth trip on January 5th.

When we told Kimball about it, we thought he'd be excited to advance sooner, but he was not a big fan. He thought it was unfair for kids who had just barely turned 11 in December to be advancing with those who had been waiting almost a year. He was very excited to go to the temple though. We left that morning and drove down as a family. We ate food, went to a park, met up with our ward at the temple, and ate dinner with the ward after. At the temple, Dale went in with Kimball, and I stayed with the other kids. A friend came out when it was Kimball's turn so I could go see him do the baptisms. When did he get so big?

Cameron made a list of his resolutions in school which were "I want to get beter graids and to stay ognisd and not get in fights with Kimball and have a better year than last year." His teacher, Ms J had been gone on maternity leave, and came back after the start of the year. He had his 100th day of school and makes quite the good looking old man.

When I put Lily to bed, we take turns saying "I love you more than..." (insert something like "all the stars in the world"). She loves doing it and it's always fun to see what she comes up with. One night, she told me "I love you more than all the pooh's in the world." I'm not sure which pooh she was referring to, but it definitely gave me pause ;). She's at a very fun stage, where she's listening pretty well, but still quite independent. Her fashion sense is so funny to see, and she comes up with quite the outfits! She also got up the courage to try riding her 2 wheeled bike with training wheels, instead of only her trike.

We only let Becca have her binky in bed, so there have been many mornings where she asks to go back to bed after breakfast. It's wonderful because it gives me a little time to shower or get a few things done, and she's quite content. She has refused to even try saying Cameron's name for some reason, but started doing it this month, calling him "Damwun". So far, Kimball's the only one who's picked up on the first syllable. Suddenly Becca became obsessed with the alphabet, and by the end of the month, knew most of the capital letters. If she doesn't remember what one is, she will say "mama" and point at it until I tell her. We are shocked at how much she is learning and doing, and she's only growing faster!

Dale started his own America's Got Talent act with Lily, then the boys had to try standing on his shoulders too...

I gave Lily my old American Girl doll Kirsten. I didn't realize how fragile the elastic is in the joints, and before long, Kirsten was missing her leg. I thought I'd just have to throw her away, but Dale encouraged me to try fixing her, and I did it! I used eyelets and hair ties, and it worked. Lily was so excited to have Kirsten back that she carried her everywhere for days.

We sent Duke away in December to the prison for their dog training program. He was gone for just over a month, and he was very missed at home. When he came home, he was like a different dog...he was much calmer, and seems to need to be with people more. He is so much easier to walk now. We're glad to have him home!

What a fun, blessed month!