New Years in St. George per the Usual

For New Years Weekend, we barely beat what sounds like a terrible storm down to St. George to hang with Babi and Papou. Dakota came too and did great in the car and at their house except for she kept hoping the fence to the next door neighbors yard and stealing all of their dogs bones and toys. 

 The kids spent part of every day in Babi and Papou’s pool heated to about 94 degrees. 

 Liv and the boys serenaded Babi and Papou with guitar and piano songs. Derek, Babi and I all hit up the Foot Spa for a relaxing hour of massages. On New Year’s Eve, Derek and I gave Babi and Papou a break for a little bit one night and took the kids to see Sing 2 which they all enjoyed. Everyone stayed up till midnight this year. The kids watched a movie outside in the pool and then came in to watch the ball drop.

 Babi had poppers that confettied all over the place and sparkling cider for all. Babi and I went on some good walks every day with Dakota. We checked out the new park which has outdoor chess/checkers, bocci ball, horseshoes, some body weight exercise machines. Kind of a fun new park close to their house. We ate lots of great food. And now, we are headed back home and not ready to start life and school again tomorrow.

Christmas Break

We had a fun packed Christmas break this year. We spent several days hanging with the Watkins over Christmas break. We had them over for a game night one night, then we took Addie and Levi to the orem rec with us one night and Derek ran basketball drills with the kids while I did a strength training class. Then, another day we all went ice skating together. 

 Even I skated! Both boys had a turn holding Addie's hand as they skated around the rink.  It was darling, but I only snuck a pic of Carter and Addie. 

 One night, when Derek wasn’t feel great with a man cold. I took all the kids and Cooper and Bentley to a BYU basketball game. They got to snag a pic with Cosmo.

Christmas

We had the pleasure of having Aunt Kylie join us for Christmas this year. She came with JoJo which was fun except Kota scared the crud out of JoJo with her shear size and energy. We spent most of Christmas telling Dakota to stay away from JoJo. Aunt Kylie watched the kids while I worked one day. She gave them each a $20 budget at Target. The boys picked gift cars with Robucks. Liv picked out an outfit. That night we went to Encanto as a family with Aunt Kylie (and Bentley). Little did I know that Encanto would be released for free just a day or two later on Disney +. Christmas Eve I did a great snowy hike with Annie and the dogs. I let Dakota off leash. She did pretty good except twice when she knocked snow of the edge and it resulted in a snowball running down the mountain that she couldn’t help but chase. 

 That night we did our traditional crab feast, Steve joined us. We opened presents from family. The boys got BYU shirts from Grandpa and Liv got a fleece BYU blanket. They were all stoked with the BYU swab. Dad and Lynn sent loads of fun stuff for the kids including this perfect shirt for Liv.

 Aunt Kylie gave us a family adventure challenge book. We are excited to get working on it. Nay sent us out the best cookie sheet. I used it once to make Grandma Nyquist’s Mint Surprise Cookies. I loved that cookies didn’t slide around on it. 

 After presents, we all drove around as looked at Christmas lights around Orem. Then, everyone headed to bed so Santa could fill the stockings. 

 Kota snoozed under the tree. 

 Santa brought Liv a new acoustic guitar and she has been playing and singing non stop ever since. The boys got a new Nintedo Switch from Santa along with Super Mario Bros and Mario Kart and have already purchased their first game with their own money (Minecraft). Derek and I got new apple watches. Great presents that everyone has loved this year. Steph, Jon, and Steve came over for Christmas brunch. It was fun to hang with them. Steph, Kylie, and I all did the super fun puzzle Carter got from Uncle Nathan. Then, Christmas Day we gave Aunt Kylie and JoJo some quiet time and took the kids to see the new Spiderman movie at the Scera. They seemed to enjoy that. I love the Scera…cheaper tickets and concessions and they never run out of seats.

Liv Happenings

Liv spent an entire day dancing at the Nexus Dance Convention. At the end of the day, they choose one of the dances they have learned and have a little dance audition and pick finalists to win prizes. The picked the Hip Hop dance which Liv had loved learning. Out of all the 100 kids there, to her surprise, she actually was selected as one of the finalists. I had volunteered to chaperone and drive a bunch of the dance girls home so I actually got to be there for it which was fun. 

 Liv also to her excitement got selected to sing a solo for the Rise Up/ BYU Vocal Point colab music video this year. She did such a fantastic job and had such a blast recording that in the recording studio and then filming the music video. 

 Liv amazingly despite being in the middle of Hunchback performances made it to both her acting and MDT COPA solo performances. She performed a death scene Shakespeare Monologue from Macbeth for acting company and same Belle’s Reprise for her MDT solo. She did a fantastic job in both. 

 Liv’s choir recorded I Saw Three Ships for a KUTV Christmas special. Liv got to record in Funk Studio in Salt Lake.  Tt was sort of neat they had a video playing in the lobby where we were waiting where we could watch the recording session.  

Then one chilly day they recorded the music video at Deer Creek.

The choir performed this year at the Christkindlemart celebration at This Is the Place Heritage park in Salt Lake. Camden stayed home from school that day with an earache. We had fun wondering around the German market booths and buying a few Christmas presents and decoration and watching Liv and the choir perform. Liv had fun after the performance wandering around with Aubrey. 

 Olivia also did a fabulous job in her HCTO Christmas voice recital. She sang In the Bleak Midwinter and really did a beautiful job. I love that song especially the last verse where singing she ask, “What can I give him…I can give my heart.” She continues to be an avid supporter of all her friends in the the theater shows they perform. We got to see Kelsey Plewe perform in Secret Garden at Hale Centre Theatre in Sandy.  

She knew almost the entire youth cast of Christmas Story at the Scera Shell. The night she came the whole cast was supposedly abuzz backstage. Liv is here tonight! Olivia is here tonight. Someone asked…who’s Liv? You don’t know Olivia? 

 We went to see her cute friend Aubrey in her debute show at Hale Sandy Christmas Carol.

Miscellaneous Winter Activities

Camden once again decided to participate in the reflections competition at his school. The theme was I can change the world by…and he created a lego board that said being kind and explained it a little more. 

 I let Liv invite Bentley over for the Saturday afternoon session of conference. She and Liv made some edible face masks and all the kids applied them and sat on the couch listening to conference. 

 The kids school pictures all turned out great this year. 

 I took the kids for their yearly physicals and flu shots. They all were pretty brave. Liv reminded me that they get ice cream after something like that so we hit up Dairy Queen. 

 My whole office dressed up in camo one day in commemoration of a past co-worker who had passed away from a car accident. They only camo I had was a hat that I stole from Liv. 

 One day I got a one on one hike with Camden and Dakota. It was actually a day when he needed a little anger management training. He had been raging through the house and causing all sorts of issues and I decided maybe we could hike it out.  Seemed to do the trick although Derek felt he deserved a more severe punishment.

 The Cooks came to visit from Boston and stayed at our house with their kids. My kids loved having littler kids around to read to and help eat at the dinner table. 

 Both Camden and Liv continue to have no cavities. Carter recently had one filled. The night before I told him to make sure to brush his teeth real good which then prompted him to get his toothbrush unpacked from his backpack from an overnight stay a whole week previous to that night. Come to find out his just hadn’t brushed his teeth since. 

 No wonder he is the one with the cavities. Liv had a Rise Up Performance at the Draper City Lighting Ceremony. We all went as a family sort of a fun even with hot chocolate and cookies, Santa, and a marshmallow roasting section. 

 We finally finally got everything put back together for our house from the flood damage and all the old water ruined things taken out of our garage. Just in time for Christmas. Here is a pic of the new vanity. The only thing left to do is put in new facets and hang new towel racks.