JANUARY

NEW YEAR'S DAY - On New Year's day we attended a couple wards.  It was pretty cool that the first day of the year was on a Sunday.  First we attended Jed's home ward with all his family for our nephew Jordan and his family.  They blessed their new daughter Peyton.  Then we went out to a ward in Labelle for a missionary farewell of Hayden Livingston - my cousin's son.  Both were great experiences and brought a confirmation of peace to me that these moments in life are what it's all about.  Life is about doing little things each day to better ourselves and draw closer to our Heavenly Father so that when the day comes along we are ready and worthy for the big moments.  On Monday we had to head back to Boise, but first we stopped at Jake/Megan's house for breakfast and family time.  It was John's birthday so we got to celebrate with a donut tower.  John turned 76 years old.  It was fun to celebrate him.  On the way home, Dallin said his first word "dada."  It was the cutest thing.  He would say it and then laugh at himself and say it again and laugh harder.  It was like he was so proud of himself he didn't know what to do!

SNOW DAYS - The craziest weather occurred when we got back home.  The kids went to school on January 3rd, very excited to get back into the swing of things.  They had a great day back and then that night it started snowing.  Long story short, it snowed so much and got cold enough that school was cancelled for the next 5 consecutive days!  It was crazy.  The kids were a little excited the first day and with each progressive day it was cancelled they got less excited and more mad about it.  So we basically had a 3 wk Christmas break this year.  There was so much snow that people were just digging out little pathways down the sidewalks. 

I think total there were 6 or 7 snow days in the first half of January.  It was crazy.  Equally crazy were the roads throughout the subdivision.  Because they don't plow roads here it would snow, get driven on, melt a little, freeze... creating these huge divots and ruts down each road.  One Sunday I was taking some youth home from BYC and driving around the subdivision felt like a roller coaster ride.  I think I scared them a little!  For about a week I couldn't even get out of the driveway in the van because I would get stuck.  So I stayed home.  To get Kinsley to school we had to walk.  One day she strapped on her baby doll like I had Dallin strapped on to me. :)

SAN FRANCISCO - On January 6th (Friday) Jed, Dallin, and I flew to San Francisco for the weekend.  My dad was receiving the Environmental Stewardship Award at the National Potato meeting.  He was notified about the award in the summertime and they flew people out to Ririe to film a 10 minute segment on him.  He was pretty humble about it and kept blowing it off like it wasn't a big deal, but we wanted to make it a big deal (because it was!) so all my siblings and their spouses decided to fly out and be there at the banquet to show our support.  I didn't feel comfortable leaving Dallin quite yet overnight with anyone so we decided to take him.  That turned out to be a bit more exhausting than I had hoped!  On the airplane there he cried and screamed nearly the entire time.  I felt so bad for all the other passengers.  He screamed in ways we had never even heard before. Dallin never sits still so he hated being in the tiny area on our lap, but the air pressure must have bothered him pretty bad too. It was pretty much a nightmare.  These pictures were right before we took off. Happy baby soon to become crazy baby...

When we got to San Francisco, we met Mal and Trevor at the airport and headed to our hotel which was right downtown.  San Francisco as a whole isn't the prettiest place I've ever been.  It's a lot more hilly than I thought it would be and the houses/buildings all have flat roofs.  They were all mostly a white-ish color that looked dirty so I felt like I was looking at a 3rd world country really.  It definitely wasn't what I expected.  Downtown area was nicer. We got to our hotel and then with Deatre and Katie, Mal & Trevor we went down to Fisherman's Wharf before the banquet.  It was a very unique area.  We saw Alcatraz out in the water.  It didn't look that far away, but I bet it would be really hard to swim from... and cold!  We were told the water is never warm here.  Most people wear wetsuits year-round if they boat/kayak/etc. 

All along the pier were little shops and eateries.  All served seafood. The air had a very pungent fishy smell!  A lot of lobster/crab type sandwiches, clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls, etc.  Also down at Fisherman's Wharf are the famous seals.  They love the water here and live on these docks.  They were pretty fun to watch.  They would start fighting each other and before long one would get pushed off the dock into the water by the other one.  The loser would swim around to another dock or to the other side of the same dock and then just pop out of the water back up. 

Per recommendation from a friend, we found a good place to eat called The Codmother.  The cod was actually really good, probably because it was deep fried in batter!  I'm not a huge fish eater. 

The view from our hotel room and my parent's hotel room across the hall.  I think we were on the 26th floor.

The banquet and awards presentation was very nice.  It was the last event for the National Potato Conference so there was a nice dinner beforehand.  They announced Vista Valley Ag as the recipient of the Environmental Stewardship Award and then showed the 10 minute video made all about the farm.  It was very well done and had great interview segments from my mom and dad.  Afterward, my dad shared a little speech which he did a great job on.  I'm sure I speak for everyone, but I was very proud of him and my mom too.  They have done so much in the potato community and industry and I know I'm biased, but I just think they are really great people!

Dallin was a little bit more high maintenance this trip than our trip to San Diego.  He turned 8 months old while we were there and was more whiny and demanded more attention.  When we were out strolling he did fine.  Overall, he was great, but definitely brought his drama attitude with him.

For example, he didn't sleep that great.  He would fuss on and off all through the night.  My sister was convinced he would have a tooth pop out at any moment and that was why he was so fussy.  One night at 3am he was whining so I got up to check on him and he was soaking wet.  So I stripped him down and put him in bed with us.  I have to admit I wasn't terribly mad that I got to cuddle with him the rest of the night.  He is still so squishy and that baby skin is soooo soft. 

Saturday morning we all gathered and decided to go on a double-decker bus tour of the city. 

We learned on the tour that in San Francisco there are more dogs than children.  There were big, beautiful parks only to find out they were dog parks - the playgrounds for schools or buildings were on the roofs.  So the dogs get the grass and the kids get the cement.  I'm sure we were quite the crew for many people with our two babies and two pregnant ladies.  I can only imagine if we all would have brought our kids!  haha.  The bus took us around where our hotel was and past the place where the windiest road is in San Francisco.  Another ironic thing is that it actually isn't the windiest or steepest in the city, but for whatever reason it is the most famous one.  It was fun watching all the cable cars/trolleys zoom by.  They would zoom up and down the streets that were really hilly and actually looked like a fun ride to go on!  All the cables above the streets reminded me so much of Ukraine with their tramvise.

Our first stop was Chinatown.  Our guide told us that Chinatown is the oldest chinatown in North America and the largest Chinese community outside of Asia.  It is only a little over 1 square mile, but more than 100,000 people live there.  He said they don't have fridges or freezers so they only buy enough food they can cook/eat that day.  There are also no washers/dryers because they live with so many people in one small apartment.  I think in that square mile there are 4 zip codes.  It is pretty crazy.  It was really quiet when we were there.  A very cool little area.

With this group there was a lot of picture taking and a lot of random pictures resulted from it!

We saw lots of other very interesting areas.  I can't remember what any of them are called now though!  I liked the old mansions.  We kept seeing these little lines sticking up on quite a few of the houses.  We learned that they were large nails/spikes so the pigeons wouldn't land and perch on their houses.  Our guide told us that most of these homes have been remodeled so each level is a separate living space. I saw a sign posted for a room for rent in one of the houses for only $4000/month.  Apparently San Francisco and NYC go back and forth with each other on which city has the most expensive rent and gas prices.

One of the highlights of the tour was driving across the Golden Gate Bridge... which is ironic because it is red!  The rain came and went throughout the day, but when we got here it started storming again.  Driving across the bridge was like driving through a hurricane.  I'm sure it would be a really great view of the city on the bridge, but it was too stormy we could barely see the city-scape. 

We finished our tour back at Fisherman's Wharf.  Some of our family hadn't been there yet, so we walked around some more and visited the seals again.  They really were close to the pier! We watched sourdough bread being made at Boudin and ate fresh chocolate at Ghirardelli Square.

These are my favorite pictures of the day.  Jed & I in Chinatown and by the big ship wheel at Fisherman's Wharf.  I also love the picture of the trolley zooming towards the Golden Gate Bridge. So quintessentially how I pictured San Francisco in my mind.

That night we had a very fancy dinner down at a restaurant my dad had been to about 10 years prior called Scoma's.  It was all seafood and very fresh seafood. We were a big group at two tables, but in the same little room together.  We also celebrated Katie's birthday which was the next day.  Everyone went around and said one word they thought described Katie.  She is such a fun, talented, uninhibited, and kind person.  She is a great sister!

We were hoping we could take a trolley back to our hotel after dinner, but they were all done running.  So we took a hybrid of a trolley and a subway car thing.  Some homeless man got on and sang the whole way back to our hotel.  Jed loved it.  haha  Our little boys were wiped out from a full day of fun!

Back home our kids had so much fun staying with Tresa, Jeff, and Tyler!  They went sledding and played in the snow.  While we were gone we started getting notifications that church was cancelled and there was a monster storm coming and hitting Boise on Sunday.  In San Francisco there were warnings that a monster storm was coming there too.  We were worried we wouldn't be able to get home!  Luckily we didn't have any problems taking off or landing.  Dallin did better on the plane and even slept for awhile, but I have no desire to fly with him again for a long time!  Tresa sent us some fun pictures.  She said the kids thought it was so funny that Jeff fell asleep sitting up on the couch and he was snoring too.  :)  Not sure why they were so surprised by that, Jed literally does it every single night.  We really appreciated them taking care of our children while we were gone.

The same day my dad got his award, Jed's dad also got a special award - Republican Lifetime Achievement Award.  We were equally proud of him!  Pretty cool that both our fathers got awarded for some of their contributions. 

DALLIN 8 MONTHS - WOW! It is so hard to believe that Dallin is this old.  He is such a funny little boy.  He is really sturdy at sitting up now.  He loves attention from everyone.  He gets really excited when he sees his siblings and Jed or I.  He is starting to develop a little stranger-danger and has cried a few times when people try taking him out of my arms. 

See how good this little guy does at sitting!  He was pretty interested in the tub his first time sitting up.  He doesn't splash in the water as much as I anticipated considering he never stops moving outside of the tub. 

Dallin is always so excited to see me after his naps.  He is taking some nice naps now.  His morning nap is always consistent at 10-12pm.  He will usually start jabbering and so I'll go in and say, "I hear a baby! Where's my baby?!" in a sing-songy voice and he just starts laughing.  He gets so excited.  I love it.  I bought an a noise fan this month to help him sleep more soundly.  There were a few nights this month that Jed woke Dallin up with his snoring, which in turn wakes me up and I am not really a fan of not getting any sleep.  I think it has helped all three of us sleep better!  Dallin is still growing like crazy.  People are just in awe that he is so big for 8 months old.  He is looking a little big for his bouncer. lol  In fact, he is wearing size 12 mos clothes already.

10 days after Dallin turned 8 months old his first little tooth popped through!  Abby was right after all.  Kinsley also had her first tooth break through at 8 months, but Ava & Kasen got theirs a little later. 

As I said earlier, Dallin loves his siblings so much!  He definitely likes to be in charge when they interact with him though.  One day Kasen was trying to play with him and Dallin just kept kicking Kasen in the face when he got too close.  Luckily all the kids just laugh and think he is funny.  Kinsley has started helping me feed him and took these pictures of him one day at lunch.  A pretty happy little boy!

One evening I wasn't home and I got a picture from Jed of Dallin asleep on the floor.  It is entirely not in his typical nature for this to happen that at first I was worried.  Normally Dallin doesn't stop moving the entire day unless he is in his crib napping.  Poor little guy was obviously worn out.  Dallin is such a fun little guy.  Life with him is great.  When we got back from San Francisco he really figured out army crawling.  I'm so glad he didn't do it before our trip!  He gets going pretty good.  It looks like it is exhausting, but he has it figured out.  It is so interesting to me that one day they just start doing something new.

FUNNY KIDS - Just a couple of fun pictures of the kids.  Snuggling with Dallin one morning before I got him dressed.  When he gets giggling the kids can't be away, he is just the cutest little baby.  Kinsley and I got back to business with homeschool.  With the holidays I slacked being as committed to it, but we got back on track.  I try to do something everyday with her, but it usually ends up being 3 or 4 days.  We talked about plants this month and so one day we did a science experiment to see which color the flowers would soak up into their petals first.  I will miss Kinsley when she is gone all day next year.  She doesn't always like to get started with homeschool, but once we get going she is always so fun and happy. 

I challenged Ava & Kasen to not just complete their Faith in God requirements as written, but to try and do a few extra as well.  Ava completed every single activity and finished the entire book this month.  She is so amazing!  Kasen hasn't started yet, (haha) but has really been focusing on scouts and doing extra belt loops than required.  He has been working hard and decided this month he would do Digging In The Past belt loop which is all about dinosaurs.  One activity in that one is to create your own dinosaur and name it.  He created the Kasensaurus - "carnivore and very ferocious." Speaking of church stuff, in YW we had scheduled our New Beginnings program for the middle of January.  It was a week with pretty bad storms, so we almost had to cancel because of weather, but we decided to go ahead with the program.  We had set up the night before and were really excited about everything.  The day of a group of advisers got together to make sugar cookies for refreshments and we had set up the gym the night before.  So even with the bad weather we decided to hold the program.  However, when we were driving over we could see flashing lights at the church and as we got closer we realized it was fire trucks??  When we got inside we found the whole south side of the building flooded - like a foot of water standing on the ground.  Apparently a pipe had frozen and burst.  So we had to cancel New Beginnings and helped clean up some water.  It caused quite a bit of damage and some of the girls there got to take home water damaged hymn books.  It was crazy!

One night Kinsley and Kasen started playing with the keyboard.  They put together a whole routine to the Star Wars theme song.  Kasen fought bad guys - including jumping off chairs and intense light saber fighting - whiled Kinsley played notes throughout the song in the tone of  "gunshot."  Dallin and I were the audience... well, Dallin, myself, and the steer I should say.  It was very original and entertaining, as well as was Kinsley's outfit that day.

I'm not really sure what prompted this one day, but Kasen decided to make a will.  He said Ava would get all his seashells and pictures (art work), Kinsley would get his notebooks, utensils, and other artwork, and Dallin would get all his toys and games.  He left Jed his scriptures and I got his clothes. haha  He added a PS that "dad would get my sports stuff."  At the bottom of his page he wrote his testimony which was sweet.  He is a good boy and a great example for his little brother to look up to.  

One night Kasen and Kinsley decided to go camping.  They set up their tents and made a little campfire out of a flashlight and a see through orange block.  They are pretty clever.  I liked how they set their slippers out by the entrance to their tents so they could get them on first thing when they woke up.  

While at the Balls one evening they were playing games.  Ava started making words with the Jenga blocks.  Before long they had made "I Am A Child of God" out of blocks.  We were all impressed. One funny event that happened this month was we finally decided to use the gift card to Golden Corral Jed got last year for coaching Ava's bball team.  When we walked in our kids' eyes got big as quarters as we explained they could eat as much as they wanted from all the different buffets.  At one point while eating Kasen leaned back in his chair and said, "This is the life dreams are made of right here!" 

 Just two more of these monkeys:  Kinsley drinking out of a chocolate milk gallon with a straw & our little Dally.

RADDISH COOKING - Ava got her 2nd cooking box this month and it was all about the Chinese New Year.  She made us pork dumplings, egg drop soup, & broccoli/beef stir-fry.  I helped a little less this time.  She has caught on really well and is a pretty good student when there is something I need to teach her.  She is such a go-getter and isn't afraid to try new things.  I'm always really proud of that quality of hers.  She mentioned that cooking was really starting to become fun for her which I'm thrilled about.  She and Kinsley dressed in their new clothes from Chinatown SF for dinner.  Jed taught everyone how to use chopsticks - except I gave up and ate regularly.  Momma don't have time for that!  One thing I really like about the cooking boxes is that not only does Ava prepare food, but I really like going to the store together and teaching her where to find stuff and how to compare prices.  This month included a scavenger hunt of different items in the store which was fun.

FUNNY STORY - So I got a kick out of Kasen one day.  He had been playing around with his bow and arrow and after awhile came up to me and said:
Kasen: Heavenly Father gave me the special talent of archery.
Me: Oh really?
Kasen: Ya watch.  (He shoots and misses the target.) See mom special talent!
Me: Umm you missed.
Kasen: Ya but I was so close!

He has such confidence!  I hope he stays like that forever.  Love that kid. :)