End of School Year 2023

 The rest of the school year was busy and great! For spring break this year we spent three days in Sun Valley, Idaho skiing. Our season passes to Snowbasin work at Sun Valley, too. We had never been there before and we all enjoyed it. Beautiful place and the ski mountain was HUGE! The kids and Mitch all outskied me as usual. They are all such good skiiers! 3

Layla turned 13 in April, officially a teenager.  She has a large group of friends that she spends most Friday and Saturday nights with and while Mitch and I are exhausted from her social life, haha, we are happy that she has such a great group of friends who are good kids and good influences on each other. For Layla's birthday, she took a handful of friends to Saver's where I gave them each $10 to buy what they coudl and put on a fashion show after. They had a great time and bought some fun stuff.

We gave Layla her first smartphone for her 13th birthday, which was a big decision for Mitch and I. Ultimately, I feel fine about it--she's responsible and smart about it -- but it's also hard because once they have a smart phone they'll never go back. But overall it's been great and actually helpful in many ways.

The month of May went by in a blur. So many school activities and programs, Marcus ran track, Mitch and I celebrated 16 years of marriage, and Marcus had a birthday. It was a busy month, some people call it Maycember because it's as busy as December, haha. 

Marcus had a great 10th birthday. He chose to have friends go to Get Air and it did not disappoint. We had 12 boys jumping and they were sweaty and stinky by the time the party ended! Marcus is also blessed to have many good friends in his life. For his birthday all of our families went in together and got him a robotics kit so he can build and program his own robot. He just built one with a catapult. 

Marcus ran track this spring and loved it! He still hasn't decided if he likes the longer or shorter distances more, but he truly did great at both! He competed in several track meets and earned a few ribbons for shot put and javelin. He also placed in the top 5-7 places for the mile run, the half mile, and 100 meter races. He started the season on a team with a few friends, and Marcus was the only one who chose to do the extended season. He is excited to do track in junior high and high school and wants to continue to do what he can in the meantime. We are lucky to have so many track meets for kids close to us at Davis High.

Now it's summer and one of the best decisions I've ever made is putting the kids in charge of weeding the yard! They go out every morning for 5 minutes each and it's enough to take care of the weeds for the most part. I kept up on it until school got out and now I've barely pulled a weed in almost a month. We have Lagoon passes this year and love going at 8 pm on a weeknight when it's not hot, lots of people are leaving, and the lines are pretty short. It also helps that we live only 10 minutes away. We're trying to convince Layla that she likes roller coasters, haha, but no luck so far. 

We have been boating a few times this summer. It has been a cold, rainy start to the summer so boating has not had the same feel yet. We ordered a new wake surfboard that I'm dying to try out. Our Powell trip is coming up fast so if nothing else Ill try it there.

I have officially been working as a CMHC therapist for a full month now. I was SO nervous for about two weeks when I started. Like, stomach aches every day nervous. But now my nerves are gone and I love how much I'm learning from the process and the other clinicians I work with. So many wise people that I feel blessed to be surrounded by! I have met many interesting people and love learning to love all types of people. It has stretched my heart, patience, empathy, and understanding of others and myself.

Along the same lines of self-growth, my cousing Lindsay passed away recently. This has had such an impact on me. To be honest, I did not know her well as she lived in Washington state and I didn't see her often. But her death has prompted me to want to live life more, to see the people I don't see often enough, to have more fun, and to worry less. It's been a great time of reflection for me and of prayer for her family. I think also in the mix is the fact that I'm turning 40 this year. That's a big milestone and one I'm looking forward to. There's something about turning another decade older that brings another level of appreciation. 

Anyways, I didn't mean to get all philosophical, but I have had those things on my mind a lot lately.

Mitch is well and busy as ever at work. I think he balances his stress from work with skiing and boating on the weekends. Good thing we live in a place where he can do both. It's funny to see his excitement for boating and Lake Powell grow each year. For most of our marriage I was the one wanting to save and plan for a boat and Powell trips. Now I think he'd agree that he loves it as much as, if not more than I do! He has become quite the wakeboarder, which was something I could do that he couldn't originally, and now I'm asking him for tips! He wants so badly to buy a newer boat that we can surf easily behind (our current boat is a wakeboarding boat), so that's the plan for next year. One thing at a time. 

I can't remember if I recorded it in my last post or not, but we just bought a 2022 Jeep Gladiator Rubicon. It's awesome. Whomever owned it before put a lift on it and big tires and it's so much fun to drive! It pulls the boat, so that's great.

Welp, gotta go get some other things done today. And make sure I fit in time for self-care and quality time with the family. Trying to prioritize those things a little more so I don't waste my life away cleaning the house! 

April 2023

Easter is on Layla's birthday this year. I can't believe she will be 13! Time flies, that's for sure!

Quick recap of life lately:

-Marcus's Robotics team made it all the way to the state competition! During the school year his team took first overall at one competition, which qualified them for state. They also won the Creativity award. His school was divided into 8 teams with 4 students on each team. 7 of the 8 teams made it to state, and 1 of those teams (not Marcus's, sadly) qualified for the Worlds competition. Marcus was a coder on his team this year, which was great for his first year on the team. I know he would have preferred to be a driver. He learned a lot this year and is already excited for next year!

Somehow I got the job of decorating their team table at the state competition. My mom helped me and it turned out pretty good! The boys were also in a parade and carried their team banner.

-Layla ran for student body officer for 8th grade. There were 6 students running for 5 spots, then a few days before the finals were announced, one girl learned she was moving, so the remaining 5 automatically made it. Layla is stoked because the other 4 sbos for 8th grade are her good friends. I'm sure she'll enjoy it next year! She did a great job with her campaign theme. She did the movie Up! and made an adorable video and great poster.

-It has officially been snowing for 6 months. We have broken all sorts of records with snowpack, moisture, etc. this year. Now that it's starting to warm up, everyone is preparing for likely inevitable flooding. Hopefully it's not as bad as the 1983-84 season of flooding. Snowbasin ski resort is still open and extended their season to April 23rd. They have received 600" of snow this season and other resorts in Utah have received even more (Solitude 780"!). It's been quite the winter. Looooooonnnnggg. But I know many people, including us, have been praying for the snow we so desperately need to help end the drought. It will take more winters like this one, but every drop helps. 

We put the trampoline up too early and have to keep shoveling all the snow off of it.

-Marcus wrote and gave an awesome talk in primary the other week. He truly wrote this all on his own accord:

"This might seem random, but when I was little I thought about two songs. "Stairway to heaven" and "highway to hell." I asked my mom why aren't they flipped. She said "Because it's harder to get to heaven then to hell." I thought about this for a long time and thought I should give a talk on it. But before I end I want to say that we can all clib that stairway to heaven if we have faith. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen."

As you can imagine, this brought out several emotions in us: we laughed, we were amazed at his insight, and we were proud of the depth and care he put into the talk. 

He also participated in the 4th grade Utah program:

-I will be starting a new job with a counseling agency next month. I will work as a Clinical Mental Health Counselor (CMHC) intern. This means I will see clients one on one, but they will pay only half the normal fee (because I'm still an intern) and I will have weekly meetings with my mentor to go over my cases. I am SO excited! Originally, I was lined up to work with a woman who runs her own private practice in Kaysville. I was ecstatic about that because she and I seemed to be so similar and had so much in common. Unfortunately, her husband's work might be moving them to London and she isn't sure when she'll know. I have to have an internship lined up by the end of the month, so I started looking for other places and found the one I will start at next month. I'm sad to not work with her, but who knows, maybe that will work out in the future. 

-Layla had a dance recital at Peery's Egyptian theater and an orchestra concert at Davis High.  Both were lovely and she did beautifully!

 

She also bought herself a used bass guitar and has been learning to play:

-Marcus asks great questions every day. Some examples: Would you rather be a turtle leather worker or a shark tooth necklace maker? Would you rather be able to teleport or fly? Would you rather only have ketchup or bbq sauce for the rest of yoru life? The kid is creative!

He made his Valentine's box all by himself this year (a car and you put the Valentine's in the trunk).

-Speaking of Valentine's Day, we had our traditional Fancy or Silly dinner

-Layla was Junie B. Jones in her 7th grade school musical. She blew us away with her talent! She did phenomenal and was on cloud 9 afterwards (so were Mitch and I, tbh. We both rewatched her play several times and cried tears of pride every time!). 

-Mitch's work is busy, busy, busy as always. He has LOVED all the snow this year and has skied more than any of us. He's also shoveled/snowblowed the driveway more than any of us. He sure works hard!

-We got a new car! The Q7 hit 100K miles and we had to unexpectedly dump $5K into it and it needed another $5K so we decided it was time to say goodbye. Mitch and I were actually sad when we left it. We made a lot of memories with that car! I drove the kids to and from California where we lived for a summer, we drove to Lake Powell twice, Lake Pend Orielle, St. George multiple times, fall break trips with friends, Zion, Jackson Hole, Moab, hauled the boat everywhere, and other places I'm sure I'm forgetting now. Lots of good memories!

So anyways, we bought a Jeep Gladiator Rubicon. Whoever owned it before us put a lot of money into it getting it outfitted and making it awesome. It is so fun to drive! We're loving it so far! We ordered side steps to make it easier to get in and out of. Hopefully that will help the kids I drive home in carpool complain less about it, haha.

-Mitch and I spend a weekend in New York! Oh man, I love that place! I love the vibe, the ease of public transportation, the people watching, the walkability, the beautiful architecture, the amazing food, all of it! My birthday and Christmas gift was this trip to see Lea Michelle in the Boradway musical, Funny Girl.  Barbara Streisand was the originally Fanny Brice in Funny Girl in the 1960's and this is it's first return to Broadway, so a pretty big deal. I think Lea Michele is incredible and was so excited to see her. Unfortunately, she got sick the day of our play, so we saw it with her understudy instead. I am still sad about it even as I type this out two months later. But it's okay because we had a great weekend and now I've had the experience of seeing a Broadway play on Broadway, which did not disappoint. We also saw the statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. How I wish we still built building as beautiful as the one on Ellis Island. Those windows! The tile on the ceiling! And to think of all the history there. It makes my soul happy to be surrounded in that beauty and history. And we also ate the best Indian food we've ever had in our lives. I don't even have the words to describe it. Must go back someday. Saar Indian Bistro. Yum! 

-Sometimes Layla put Harvey's leash on him that she bought him and takes him on walks:

-General Conference weekend. The message I felt the most: Be a Peacemaker.

Welcome 2023

 I can't believe it's 2023! I probably start every new year post that way, haha. 

We had a wonderful Christmas season. This year we FINALLY walked around the lights and blow-up Christmas displays at the local park in Farmington. We drive by it every year and say we should stop, but never had. This year after Thanksgiving dinner at the Botts we drove over and walked around those lights. Only took us 5 years but it was worth it! I'll always remember the way we all laughed so hard at the giant blow-up teddy bear that had moving arms and I said, "Oh, it wants to give you a hug!" and Marcus said, "Yeah, of death!" It doesn't sound as funny now that I type it out, but we really did all have a good laugh.

We saw a lot of other Christmas lights this year, too. We spent New Year's Eve at Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point with my parents. It was awesome and something we'd all like to do again. The rest of New Year's Eve was spent playing Mario Kart with a little friendly family competition thrown in.

Christmas was great! I was sick leading up to it ... like flat in bed for 6 days sick. That part was no fun. But I felt pretty good by the time Christmas rolled around and was able to party the day away. I personally love having Christmas fall on a Sunday because then we go to church on Christmas day and it feels extra special. Layla sang in our ward choir this year and really enjoyed that. The kids got a 3D printer for Christmas and they have been so excited about it and are printing all sorts of trinkets. We all were spoiled like always and very much enjoyed two weeks off of school and work. The kids definitely had their moments of arguing and getting on each other's nerves, but mostly they laughed and played together a lot.

We went skiing several times over the break. The kids have become quite the skiers! Marcus still doesn't love it, but he goes and does well. We have had more snow this year than the last 10 years or so it seems. I love seeing snow flocked in the trees and on the mountains. It's beautiful! I continue to make it a point to get outside every day despite the cold because my mental health suffers when I don't. I love walking in the sunshine and seeing the glitter in the snow.

The biggest change is that I quit my job and will be working part-time as a student advocate at the same school. I did this to have more time to study while I return to school to earn my Clinical Mental Health Counselor certificate (CMHC). I start classes next week and will start my internship this summer. I'm not sure if I'll be a therapist at a school or private practice, but I am sure that I only want to work part-time for now. I am very happy with this arrangement and am oddly excited to take classes about suicide causation, addiction counseling, etc. It's all so fascinating! My end goal is to work with teens who are experiencing suicide ideation. 

Layla is at a dress rehearsal right now for her 7th-grade school musical. She is Junie B. Jones in the musical, Junie B. Jones. She is so excited and also understandably nervous. I can't wait to see her perform! 

Marcus decided to quit drum lessons. Mitch and I are sad but have also learned that we cannot force or push our kids to do things they aren't passionate about. Marcus has a passion for his Robotics team and so we will stick with that for now. Maybe someday he will pick up the drums again, you never know. He is loving Robotics though and his team is doing very well. 

Mitch's work is crazy, as always, but he is happy there. He loves skiing on his every other Friday off. I'm hoping to join him on Fridays now that I'll be part-time!

Let's just take a moment to look at Harvey sitting so comfortably on Layla's head. That cat!

Every time I buy toilet paper, I ask the kids to distribute it to all the bathrooms around the house. Before they can do that though, they have to build creations with it. Every.single.time. Here they are with the toilet paper Eiffel tower. 

Jordan got a German Shephard puppy. Her name is Koa. Layla and I were dying of cuteness overload. Mitch and Marcus were not impressed and did not listen to our pleas to get a puppy. Maybe someday. (But to be honest I don't really want to shovel dog poop anyways.) 

Well, here's to 2023. Looking forward to all that it brings us.

Fall 2022

We had quite the start to the school year! It was an adjustment for the me and the kids, but mostly for Layla. Starting 7th grade as an SBO is no joke. She is BUSY! And she does NOT enjoy attending the games, or really sports at all for that matter. Can you blame her when she grows up in a family that puts zero emphasis on sports? There were occasional tears from both kiddos for the first month or two of school: Layla due to overwhelm on her introverted self and Marcus due to a new school with a new teacher and his teacher is quite strict (Layla had her too, so we were already aware). But now we're 1/4 of the way through the school year and all is well. They both learned and grew from their experiences. Layla earned straight A's for first term including Honors English and Science and 8th Grade Honors Math. Quite the girl! 

We spent Fall Break in Park City. We went 4 wheeling for a day and swam in the Midway Crater. The fall leaves were stunning and we had a great weekend spending time together.

We had Halloween. Marcus decided to be a light-up Stick Man again. Mitch made his costume by hot gluing LED lights on black sweatpants and hoodie. It looked ghetto fabulous during the day and freaking awesome at night! Layla and her friends wore onesie pajamas and went as animals (Layla was a cow). I appreciated this because I did 0 work and didn't buy a thing since she already had the cow onesie. Both kids were invited to trick or treat with friends, so Mitch and I are that old now, haha. However, Marcus's group of friends quickly grew to 10 boys, so I volunteered to walk around with one other mom to ensure that no boys were lost or hit by a car. :) It was a successful night and Mitch and I have been sneaking their candy ever since! We silently laugh at each other across the room when we see the other one nonchalantly come back upstairs from stealing candy. Sorry, kids! We love you ... and your candy! 

We went to Disneyland with my parents and brother's family. It was crowded and I'm Disneyed out for a long time, but we had a blast and enjoyed spending time with everyone. Brock and Natalie's kids are at such fun ages for Disney, so it was fun to go with them. I love that our kids love to ride the big rides now. 

We put up our Thankful tree for Thanksgiving. It's a 12" tall tree with fairy lights I display on our kitchen table. We write things we're thankful for on little paper tags and hang them on the tree. It's fun to see what everyone comes up with. So many things to be thankful for!

Trying to wrap my brain around getting ready for Christmas. I feel like the sales and materialism of it all sneaks up earlier every year. I'm trying to hold off without missing out on things that I want to gift others. Most of all, I want to keep the Spirit of Christmas and the wonder of the birth of our Savior alive. That can be difficult to do with kids who are excited for ear buds and Nerf guns. Not to mention, Mitch and I wanting to plan trips to various places in the near future. Need to stay centered on what matters most.

Speaking of materialism ... Mitch bought a new (to him) car! He bought a 2015 Audi RS7. It is the black panther paint (it looks sparkly dark purple in certain light) and it's loud and fast. So loud. Obnoxiously so to the non-car lover. It has launch mode and we love that. He is happy about it and says it's a good way to go out before he buys an electric car. He's ordered a BMW i4 that will be here next year sometime. He sure loves cars! And he deserves it. :)

Gonna try to add pics to this post before I have to prepare dinner. We have friends coming over for dinner that we haven't seen in ages and we're excited to visit with them.