a long time ago…

…it was January and we accomplished a lot!

Orders for Riss Floral

Bunk Beds for the girls -

A new quilt for Abi – still mustering up the endurance for B’s quilt – this took so LONG!

Family goals for the year – which is crazy how much we have already accomplished – more on this later!

Taking Uncle Erik out to lunch at the BYU Creamery -

Sunday games of scrabble -

Blinging out helmets with rhinestones -

Eating straight sour cream for dinner -

Refusing to put on clothes-

Teaching about money and payday for FHE-

Hair salon nights -

Surprising Dan at work with sundaes-

Feeding babies at lunch  -

Creative movement dance class for Activity Days – this was so rewarding!

Getting chocolates from Great Grandma Arave -

Las Vegas lunch – more on this trip to come too!

At the M&M world in Las Vegas-

Curvy roads at Hoover Dam -

eating at IHOP and donating to their good causes!

our “future roy high cheerleader”

Abi had a special week in January when she was able to participate in a fundraiser for the cheerleaders for our local high school. She practiced hard for two nights and then had a performance during a high school basketball game.

All dolled up-

She was a bit nervous, but held it all together (even after getting kicked in the face right before performing). She was so funny kneeling because the cheerleaders were kneeling…

Afterwards we went and celebrated Abi’s accomplishment and Dan’s awesome news of getting accepted to BYU’s Executive MBA program with frozen yogurt. Our favorite flavors were watermelon and salted caramel pretzel.

Well done Abi and Dan!

an adventurous day in january

Have I mentioned how cute these girls are? They were at least when I took this photo.

Then I fed them yogurt and it all changed - we headed down to Provo to be with my family when my brother opened his mission call. We had had a nasty week of the stomach flu but thought we were over it. As Dan and I discussed this on our drive, it suddenly smelled like a couple days previous when something was regurgitated… strawberry yogurt. Ugh! Brookie, bless her sweet heart, had thrown up in the car. I turned around bracing for the worst and all she does is get big alligator tears in her eyes and says, “uh-oh.” Poor thing. Thankfully we were close to work in Salt Lake so we dropped Dan and Brookie off while Abi and I made a run to Wal-mart for some clothes.

Finally we made it to Provo. Thankfully nothing happened after that, but we were always on guard for it.

My brother Erik opened his mission call with all of his family and some friends looking on with great anticipation. I know, just like my parents, I had been waiting for this day for a long time.  So special-

Forgive all the weird faces, we were just all so sick -

I sure wish there was a photo of Erik’s face when he read the call. It is the perfect call for him. He has been called to serve a mission for the LDS church to the Retalhuleu, Guatemala mission. He will be speaking spanish and leaves for the Guatemala MTC on May 1st if everything goes according to schedule. He grew up in these moments as we looked on. I can’t imagine how much more he will grow and change as he serves the Lord for two years. So exciting!

We celebrated by heading to Brick Oven for dinner. One of my favorite places since I was Abi’s age. Sadly, we didn’t really eat a lot.