At the end of the year I had several people on Instagram
share their “Best Nine” posts of the year. I thought it was interesting to see so I downloaded the app
and let Instagram tell me what my “Best Nine” have been for the past five
years. Of course what ends up on
my Instagram is far from a full representation of our lives and what my few followers
chose to “like” more than others isn’t an accurate measure as well. With that said – here’s the results –
the nine for each year are in no particular order.
Dec 2: Justin and I signed up for a hosting
shift tonight at the Bellevue Nativity.
Our stake has put on this event for the past several years and has
decided that they would be taking a break after this year. We’ve attended most years and each year
we get a traditional family nativity photo.
Dec 6:A couple realtors in the area hosted a
“12 Days of Giving” event this year.Each day they placed several Tupperware containers out at a park and
inside were little certificates redeemable for free stuff from local
businesses.Once I got word I
couldn’t NOT participate.Abigail
was also hooked and since we didn’t want them to know that we were from the
same household (not against the rules, just a bit embarrassing).I had to meet the realtors around town
to get my goodies, while Abigail was able to give them our address for them to
simply drop off the prizes on our porch.After a few days I decided to post on Facebook…
“Local
friends! I'm feeling a bit embarrassed and overindulgent with my daily prize collecting
through the "12 days of Giving Snoqualmie Ridge". I collected my loot
thus far this afternoon and thought I'd post today to both show you my bounty
and encourage you all to get out there and get some free stuff. I'd take even
greater pleasure in "winning" if there was more competition.”
There’s
coffee and a tumbler in the Starbucks bag, which I regifted to Drew’s teacher
for Christmas.In addition to
everything pictured above I also won a $10 Safeway gift card and 2 free Steve’s
donuts.Merry Christmas to me!
Dec 6:Jason and Katie are still taking piano
lessons.Katie hasn’t even been
playing a year and is doing great.She wasn’t necessarily excited to start because she’s heard her older
siblings complaining about it for so many years, but she really enjoys it.Jason on the other hand had “Quitting
Piano” near the top of his Christmas wish list.On this particular day I snuck in a little video of him
practicing.
Since we’re on the subject of piano I’ll give a little update
now that we’re deep into 2019.Jason’s gotten pretty negative about taking lessons and practicing so
we’ve reached an agreement that he can quit once he’s learned 4-5 hymns.Even with an out it hasn’t motivated
the kid to practice more.It’s
unfortunate cause he really is quite talented.
Dec 10: Today I sold our Corelle baby
dolls and all the adorable little accessories.These were Abigail and Carly’s dolls that were passed down
to Katie.Katie hasn’t played with
them in years so it was time to pass them along.Reminds me that I need to get rid of all of our Barbies and
Polly Pockets that are also just taking up space.Little sad to see my kids getting too old for toys.
Dec 11:Oh my goodness!Ignore the fact that Drew is pantless in
this video – actually don’t because it’s typical Drew.But I must share his cute little voice
trying to remember the words to the Latter-day Prophet song.
Dec 12:There’s a house on Moses that sets up a
fantastic holiday lights display each year.The kids love to watch the musical display.
Dec 14:I love that most mornings Drew blows me
a kiss when he leaves for school.It
melts my heart and I had to get it on video – a time. or two.
The kids walk to school most mornings.I only drive them if I’m heading to the
gym.But even if they walk from
home he’ll still turn around a blow me a kiss.
Dec 15:Our ward Christmas party was this
morning and it was quite unconventional, but delicious and super fun.A few Hispanic families were asked to
put together a Spanish themed event and they went all out.So much Mexican food, piñatas, Mexican
clothing and songs – so fun!
Dec 16:Wow, heavy on the videos this month,
but again my kids are growing up too darn fast and I don’t want to forget these
fun little moments.Drew
“flossing”…
Dec 19:Tonight we attended a Christmas party
at the Gibbs.It was fun to catch
up with Nead’s who moved to Gig Harbor last year as well as visiting with other
friends from Snoqualmie.The gift
exchange is always fun.Drew ended
up with a fun Star Wars Santa hat and toy.
Jenn also had some really fun prizes for the Bingo winners.
Dec 31:Drew still LOVES going through the
carwash.There was a mega carwash
in Utah near my Mom’s house that we spotted as we drove into town.Drew finally got his wish, after asking
us every day we were there, if we could go through it.I took a little video of that
experience, but I won’t share – our sunroof started to leak midway and Justin,
in an attempt to close it, opened it and I wasn’t too understanding.After we returned home from the long
drive with bugs splattered all over the car and Utah salt all over the car we
went through the car wash again.So
it’s a long clip, but the kids love to watch these videos so I post it for them
J
One of my most favorite things about the holidays is
receiving Christmas cards.At the
start of the season I mentioned to one of the kids how happy they make me and I
said I should send a prize to the person who sends us the first card.When I received the McInelly’s card on
November 24 I did just that and sent Camille a Starbucks gift card.I think this may be the fewest cards
we’ve received, but we don’t send out very many either.I leave the cards up until Valentine’s
Day and then I figure it’s time to move on.Love my Christmas Card wall!
Our New Year's Eve was lame. The girls were out with friends – pretty sure they attended
a church dance that night. The
three youngest watched the ball drop in NYC and then I think they went to bed
shortly afterward. We must not
have been feeling particularly festive.
2018 was a year to remember!The highlight for our family was traveling to Europe this
summer.Holly, Abigail and Carly
visited Paris for a few days on their own and then met up with the rest of the
family in London.After fully
maximizing our five days in London we headed to Copenhagen where we boarded a
cruise ship stopping in Stockholm, Estonia, St. Petersburg and Helsinki.On the way home we also had a three day
layover in Iceland. It already
seems surreal all the amazing places we were able to experience.We love to travel and can’t wait for
our next adventure wherever that takes us.
We’re busier than ever.This fall was the first year we’ve had all five kiddos
playing a fall sport (one playing two!).Holly seems to spend most of the afternoon/evening driving kids around
and catching as many of their games as she can.One of Justin’s highlights this year was participating in
his third Chick-fil-A First 100 campout this spring – that’s nearly 250 free
meals in the last 3 years. As the kids get older we’re finding it easier to
slip away here and there for a few days.Holly was able to join Justin on his two work trips this year (T-Mobile)
– Boston in April and Phoenix in October.They also snuck away on a couple’s trip to Sunriver, OR in May.
Abigail is a junior this year and will be taking all of her
courses for the next two years at Bellevue College.We are thrilled that when she graduates from high school she
will also have her associate’s degree.She loves spending less time in classes and enjoys having many of her
friends at the college with her.Her schedule also allows her to work at the nearby physical therapy
office which she frequented so much last year.Abigail was back on the volleyball court this fall after
taking last year off to recover from knee surgery.She also plays tennis at the high school and babysits as
often as her schedule allows.She’s been saving up for a much anticipated humanitarian trip to Africa
next summer.
Carly graduated from middle school as the only girl in her
class to receive a 4.0 GPA all three years.She continues to excel as a freshman in high school and
recently wrapped up her first high school volleyball season as the team setter.Carly also played several other sports
this year including lacrosse, basketball and soccer.This was Carly’s third summer running her trash container
cleaning business.She is also a
babysitter in high demand and has impressive money management skills with a
small weakness for clothing.
Jason started middle school (6th grade) this fall and
decided he wanted to try out cross-country in addition to playing soccer.It was a busy fall for this kid, but he
adjusted quickly and is surprising us with his ability to get himself up and
off to school each day and we were pleased to see him make the honor roll.Jason reads pretty much every book he
gets his hands on.Jason was
awarded the kindness award at his fifth grade graduation.A bit of a shock to his siblings, but a
relief to his parents.Jason is
looking forward to playing basketball this winter.
Katie is in third grade this year and is our only kiddo that
didn’t switch schools this year.She loved playing soccer again this fall and will play basketball for
the first time this winter.She’s
not an aggressive athlete but she does have her height and happy-go-lucky
attitude to bring to the team.Katie was baptized as a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints in April.Thanks
to years of complaining from her older siblings, Katie was reluctant to start
piano lessons this year, but has found that she has a real talent for music and
loves it.
Drew started kindergarten in September and is our only kiddo
to attend kindergarten all day (now a state requirement).Thankfully, he adjusted quickly to the
long days, but he still dreads the long, uphill walk home.He’s become quite social this year and likes
to say hi to all his little neighborhood buddies.Drew played his first soccer season this fall and is quite
the little baller.Drew is the
sweetest little boy with a bit of a stubborn streak.If he doesn’t want to eat it, he won’t.If he doesn’t want to learn to ride a
bike, he’s not gonna.But dang,
that smile!
We are looking forward to this holiday season and feel so
grateful for all of our friends and family that bring so much joy into our
lives. We truly are blessed and
wish you all the very best!
We spent a day in Salt Lake – I picked up a new temple dress
and as we drove by East High (the location where High School Musical was
filmed) we had to stop for a photo opp.
I thought it would be fun to take the family to lunch at The
Pie – it’s an iconic downtown SLC hangout near the U of U.I hadn’t been probably since
college.It’s in the basement of
an old building and the graffiti all over the walls just adds to the
ambiance.The pizza is also delicious.We went all out and ordered a massive
pizza – the first pizza our family hasn’t been able to finish.
When we were downtown on Christmas Day the Joseph Smith
Building was closed so we couldn’t get to the Giving Machines inside so we went
another day.The kids had fun
picking out what to donate.I
thought we’d set some clear parameters, but Justin was apparently feeling
pretty generous and let Drew donate a $150 cow.We also donated some chickens, socks, blankets and I
couldn’t resist donating some pacifiers because I’d have been lost without them
with my babies.
We brought all of our snow gear to Utah in hopes that the
kids could have some winter fun; however, it only snowed an inch or two while
we were there.That was enough for
Jason, Katie and Drew.They spent well
over an hour outside in my Mom’s backyard making a little fort.
On our final day we decided to drive down to Provo so Justin
and I could attend an endowment session in the Provo City Temple (we dropped
the kids off to see a movie).It
was beautiful and gave me an opportunity to wear the new temple dress I
purchased that week.
As we neared the freeway homeward bound I realized that even
after spending an entire week in Utah I didn’t take a single picture of the
kids with their cousins or grandparents.
I was so, so disappointed.
Preserving my family memories is so important to me so that was an epic
failure for me. It was a long
drive home and every so often Drew would mention something he already misses
about Utah. Grandma. Val. Utah. We were
all so glad that we were able to make it down – next time we hope to have time
to catch up with some friends as well.
