Yeehah!  It's holiday time people!  Time to go back over the months of October, November, and December as we round out the year 2021.

October started with our general conference per usual but it's still worth mentioning although I didn't hear a whole lot of it since now, we've got five little ones running like crazy and it's a little hard to hear but still good weekend. 

The next weekend we went over to house of some friends for dinner.  They have a whole lot more backyard, so the kids enjoyed lots of running-around space.  This family also has a lot of farm animals, including a pony, so the older two girls enjoyed riding the pony around the corral.  They took turns leading the horse and riding it.  Erick, meanwhile, was enjoying looking at the chickens and goats.  The twins weren't all that interested in the animals, but they still had fun running around with their friends.  Meanwhile the adults had fun catching up on each other’s lives and what was going on.

Later that same week Enna finally got her wish in that we were able to connect with her friend’s mom.  We had run into them during a parent teacher conference and so I was finally able to meet her friend’s mom and get her number.  Eventually we were able to set up a playdate.  We went and met them at the park up the street from our house, and for about 1/2 an hour to 45 minutes the girls played while her mom and I talked and got to know each other a little bit better.  I was glad that Enna had such a good friend.

Our next big activity was another birthday this time it was Eric's birthday-he turned 1!  Woah!  I can't believe it's already been a year.  As he had already had cake at siblings’ birthdays when we put it in front of him, he knew just what to do with that!  The presents, on the other hand, were a little bit of work.  But he finally got the idea.  I think the older kids were more anxious than Erick was to find out what was underneath the wrapping!

The month rounded out with quite a few Halloween based activities.  The first was in Enna’s field trip to the zoo.  Apparently, they normally do this during 1st grade year, but due to COVID it was canceled, so they allowed them to take it during their second-grade year this year.  Enna was very excited because she would be able to ride a bus for her very first time.  I laughed when I found out that it was the most exciting part of her trip (other than the fact that she got to be in the same group as her best friend).

The next activity was a reading night.  The school allowed the kids to dress up in Halloween costumes and spend time doing STEM based activities (in case you don’t know, this stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).  The kids were all very excited about this and were very happy to get out of the house for a little while.  We built monsters out of clay and paper and played a couple of Halloween games.  We were forced to leave quick after that though because Erick started getting tired.

Finally, of course, was the big day itself:  Halloween.  Because it was a little bit warmer this year, we were able to do a little bit more trick-or-treating than we did last year.  We started with our traditional trunk-or-treat at the high school and then we came down our street and did most of the neighboring street.  The kids had fun going up to the doors and knocking and saying “trick-or-treat!”.  They sure received a lot of candy.

The next day November began.  The first activity on our agenda was practice for our ward’s primary program.  Although they had technically done a program last year via video recording, this was the first year that Aijah would be able to be in it in person, so she was excited for that.  The leaders had the kids practicing the songs and their parts pretty much every week.  The day before the actual program they even treated them to a pizza party (after they had practiced for a little while of course).  They had enough pizza that the younger ones were even able to get a little too.  Before leaving the church, the kids notices that there were quite a few leaves on the ground.  So, they took advantage of the fact that and played in the leaves.  A grand time was had by all.

The next day was the actual performance.  Due to Ryan's work schedule not allowing him to be there in person, I asked for permission to record their speaking parts.  It was granted, so I was able to let Ryan see later.  I was even able to get the link for Grandma and Grandpa to watch.  Grandpa was able to watch online as it happened.  They both did very well and remembered their lines for the most part.

December came on and we were excited to be joined by Grammy Beach.  Although getting her here was not easy.  Her flight came in on a day that we also got a huge snowstorm.  So, in driving to get her, I wasn’t ever able to travel more than about 35 mph.  Thus, what should have taken about an hour and a half round trip ended up being about a 4-hour round trip.  We arrived at our home at around midnight very tired, but safe.

She spent the next day with us.  After that she began making the daily trip to Emily’s house (as the whole reason she was in town was to help Emily in preparation for her new baby).  She would return at night to sleep in our guest room, and then head over in the mornings.  This continued for about 2-ish weeks.  So, the kids were able to have a lot of fun hanging out with her.

With the holiday approaching, the end of school brought fun activities.  One of those was a chance for the kids to bring a stuffed animal to school.  I was a little worried Enna might lose hers, but I let her try it out.  She had a lot of fun bringing her doll Hope to school.  However, she did inevitably forget it and didn’t realize it until we had returned home.  Thankfully, Dad was home, so I was able to take Enna quickly back to the school to search.  With the help of one of the teachers, we headed to her classroom to search.  As we were going, I saw Hope sitting on a table.  Crisis averted!  Thank goodness.  We thanked the teacher for her help and went home.

A few days later we were able to get pictures of the new cousin Minnie.  She is definitely a cutie.  They had her baby blessing over Zoom.  We chose not to go in person due to Ryan wanting to go up after his work week.  So rather than leave him out/make multiple trips, we waited for a couple of days.  Unfortunately, this meant missing seeing one of my brothers in person, but it was fun anyway.

Once Ryan was done with his shift, we headed north.  We were able to spend about four days with family where we played games, opened presents, talked about anything and everything, and dealt with a few colds.  Despite the colds, we still had fun.  I even got to attend the temple for the first time since before the pandemic began, so that was a nice change.

Well, that does it for our holidays.  See you in 2022!

​Hello again and welcome to another Blackburner.  This time we will be reliving summertime starting with July.
As cases have continued to go down, we took a chance and chose to go hang out with our family for the 4th of July weekend.  We went to my aunt Lisa's house, and while there shot fireworks.  My aunt also had some silly string for the young kids to play.  Our kids didn't get the idea, but they seemed to have fun with it.
A couple of weeks later we had the fun of going to little Cottonwood Canyon and camping as a family.  While there, we hiked to bridal falls and back (well Enna and I did-the rest them stopped short of it because it was hard to get down up and back up).  They really seemed to have for a good time, even if they immediately crashed on returning by car (they were too exhausted to finish the walk).  We were able to find a seesaw constructed of two long trees, and the kids had fun jumping up and down on that.  The trip was a little rough with the baby because of sleeping in the pack-and-play in a tent, but we made it OK and everybody survived the three days with good memories.
The last week of the month was packed with some fun things.  The first thing of that week was the blessing of a new niece.  Miss Charlotte was blessed on that last Sunday of July.  Due to that lots of people were in town, so we were able to enjoy time with my side of the family with a dinner, some games, and just chit chat time.  It was also during this time that the first word popped out of little Erick’s mouth and guess what it was-Mama!  Ryan heard it and called him a traitor because all the rest of the kids’ first words was Dada.  My mom said, “let Ashley have her moment”.  I just laughed.  I’m glad we are starting to hear words from him.  Let’s just hope he does more talking than just mom and dad.
Finally, the month ended with the fun of riding the “Heber Creeper” train.  It was something that Ryan and I had done when we had first gotten married, and we thought it'd be fun to do it again.  So, we took all our kids, plus Emily and her family, and my mom and we went to Heber for a fun family activity.  The kids really enjoyed it and they loved dancing along with the fiddle and singer player as they performed their song.  Afterwards we went to a train themed restaurant, and the kids pointed and were transfixed by the train that was driving around our heads.
As August began it was time to start getting ready for the next year of school.  However, there was still a little bit of summer left to enjoy.  One of those things was helping our neighbor when they went on vacation down to Saint George.  For about four days, we were responsible for our neighbor’s cat.  We went over to their house and made sure the cat had food and water, and then we would play a little bit with their toys (with permission of course).  This gave the kids an excuse to get out of the house, but also had a chance to teach them a little bit about responsibility.
We also got the opportunity to spend time with Ryan’s side of the family as his sister Kamee made a rare appearance down in Utah.  Using the excuse of everyone being in the same state, we had a BBQ at his brother’s house.  The kids enjoyed playing with all their cousins (and their cousins’ Bunny), and the adults had fun chit chatting and catching up as we hadn't been together for at least six to nine months.
Wanting to take advantage of the nice weather and the fact that we had no school to deal with, we squeezed in one other camping trip.  This time, however, it was in a cabin so that made things a little bit easier.  It was at a site called Mia Shalom, which was usually reserved for reserved for young women for their girls’ camp.  However, because of the pandemic, they hadn't had a whole lot of wards signing up, so there were spots for families like us.  We spent about three days canoeing, hiking, playing outside, and just letting kids have fun in the fresh air.  My favorite memory we made there was during our canoeing trip portion of the camp.  While on the lake, Enna found a lizard and she decided to call it Freddy.  Thankfully, we did convince her to leave Freddy behind, but the fact that she enjoyed picking up the lizard and checking him out was fun.
As soon as we returned home, it was time for a big birthday.  Our girl is 7!  Can you believe it? 7 already.  She enjoyed getting a brand-new bike and lots of toys that she could build with her hands.  She's quite the architect.
Soon enough August began. And with that came the end of a project which has been going for over two years: the finishing of our basement yay!  Only thing left to do was to lay carpet.  We had already picked it out, put in the order, and made the appointment, so now it was just waiting for the day. On the day in question, the installation took about three to four hours.  But when it was finally done, we all enjoyed going down together and running around in the new carpeted space.  Now all we had to do was move the furniture down into the new rooms.  That took a couple weeks, but once it was done, it was nice to have additional space.  Especially on days when Ryan had to sleep during the day for work, because I could just send the kids down there.  And they didn't have to be as quiet as they did when they were upstairs.  The older girls also loved their new bedroom which was good as I had worried they would be a little scared.  Yay for major project done!
In other news, it was time to begin the adventure of potty training again.  I knew training would be a bit more difficult this time around as there were two trainees the same age (aka no break for mom).  Especially when one of those trainees was a boy.  Thankfully, I wasn't having to train them both at the same time Celeste was pretty much all the way there having been more interested to start earlier. This time, however, would be a little bit different as it was now Dallin’s turn.  He seems to be interested (at least a little bit) this time around so hopefully that helps us.
We ended August with two kids entering school. One as a kindergartener and one as a second grader.  Although both were excited, they were also a little sad to see summer ending.  We'll see how the year goes, specifically for us at home now there's two missing during the day-well at least for half of it anyway.
September brought the twins 3rd birthday.  As part of that birthday, they each got a new bike.  They were both over the moon that they got to have a new bike, and promptly went outside to ride them.  Only a few more months in our little twinos will be going to primary!  It's hard to believe.  It was fun seeing them opening their gifts and being so excited about it.
We also introduced Erick to his first sucker.  He didn't get to eat it all by himself because I was too afraid he would stick the stick all the way down his throat so I was there holding it, but he did get his first taste of it and boy did he love it!  He kept shaking and trying to grab the stick every time I would take it out of his mouth.  Another kid that is growing up so fast.
As another part of his growing up this month, he also received his first haircut.  I was amazed how before his haircut he looked like he had brown hair and then after his haircut he looked blonde.  I couldn't believe what a difference that removing all that hair made-it was like a whole different kid!  We even made jokes that it wasn't the same kid simply because he looked so different.  So much for having my brown-haired kid.  Oh well, they all got the brown eyes, so it works.
Well that does it for us for this quarter see ya for the holidays!

Wow time sure does fly doesn’t it?  Here we are again three months later.   It's time to go over the months of April, May, and June for the Blackburn clan.

The month of April began with Easter.  We couldn’t gather with family again this year, so we decided to hide eggs in our house.  The kids were pretty good at finding their baskets and eggs.  Even Eric got in on the action as he dug into the shoes to find the little eggs hidden inside.  Of course, he spent most of the time chewing on the plastic eggs rather than anything else, but at least he had the fun of the idea.

Thankfully due to cases of COVID going down in our area, we were allowed to meet again for primary.  They decided to have it twice a month in the evening after dinner.  Our girls were very excited because they would be able to see their church friends again.  Each week they gathered for about half an hour as they sang songs and had a mini lesson together with their friends.  Although they weren't thrilled about having to wear the masks the whole time, the blessing of being able to gather was felt by all.  Maybe in a few more months we'll be able to get back to normal church gathering on Sundays instead of during the week.

For this same reason (COVID cases going down) we decided to go out to Antelope Island in Stansbury Park for a fun evening with our friends the Skidmores.  We also invited our friend Arlon along.  As the Skidmores raise lots of animals, they brought their baby goats as well.  You can imagine the melee that happened when the kids got ahold of that. The little goat was sure having a lot of fun though, so I guess it worked out on both ends. We made hot dogs for the kids and tin foil dinners for the adults.  Then, of course, the traditional s’mores.  The kids were free to roam through the mountains finding treasures including rocks, bugs, and dirt.  They were happy to get outside though.

It was about this point that the vaccines for the COVID-19 pandemic finally reached our age group.  After deciding to get them, we made sure that we got them on separate weeks so in case there were any side effects, the other parent would be available to take care of everyone else.  Ryan was the brave one and got his first.  It didn't seem to do much to him thankfully.  Mine happened a couple weeks later.  Again, no major side effects on that one so definitely good.

About mid-month Aijah celebrated her 5th birthday.  She loved opening all her gifts and was looking forward to being able to do a special birthday trip with Mom.  She had decided that she wanted to go to the movie theater.  And so, a few days later we made our way to the movie theater.  She decided she wanted to see Raya and the Last Dragon.  We bought our tickets, our popcorn, and our candy and we made our way to our seats in the theater.  As this was the first time that Aijah had been to a theater, I was a little bit nervous about how she was going to act and whether she would make it through the movie.  I hoped she wouldn't be too distracting to anyone else.  As it turned out, however, it was something I didn't have to worry about.  Why?  Because we got a private showing (AKA no one else showed up).  So, when she got a little antsy toward the end, I didn't have to worry too much when she was noisy and talking because no one else was there to bother.  It was fun having a private showing.  We got to be wherever we wanted to, and we could talk about the theme of the movie as it was happening, and nobody cared.  I guess I can chalk it up to being a silver lining of the pandemic.

The last Sunday of the month brought a fun little difference in our Sunday routine.  Where we normally would just listen to sacrament over the Internet, we got to be involved in a virtual primary program.  The primary leaders had asked the children to each individually record a part talking about what they had learned from the Book of Mormon in 2020, and then they put it together into a presentation that we watched during sacrament.  Our kids ended up being the very first ones, and we had a little bit of technical difficulties, so we didn't get to see all their part, but it was still fun to see the kids doing a primary program, even if it was in a different style than normal.

May brought nicer weather and with it brought the opportunity to pull out the MacGyver bike.  I call it the MacGyver bike simply because Ryan took pieces of different bikes and put them together, thus changing our tandem bike into a kid carting bike so to speak.  Because of the car seat on the front of said bike, Erick was able to go out and enjoy his very first bike ride.  Although Ryan said his face didn't show it much, he sure seemed to enjoy it.  You could tell because every time after that when Ryan would try to put him in the bike, he didn't fight at all, and he would joyfully giggle.  I was glad that he liked the bike; it's becoming quite a family tradition to be able to go on bike rides together.  The only thing is that we're going to have to find me a new bike because in his MacGyver-ing Ryan took apart my bike and I don't have one.  Oh well, at least the kids are having fun.

As the COVID cases continued to go down, we were allowed to finally meet in person again.  That meant the twins would get to go back to nursery!  Yay!  I was a little worried that they would miss the whole nursery experience as the lock downs first started the Sunday they were supposed to go to nursery in the first place, and this was the first time we were coming back.  However, knowing that they were going to get at least some exposure to nursery was good as I knew then they wouldn't have as hard of a time transferring into primary in the next year.  While it started a bit rough as they didn't want me to leave, they eventually found it fun, and they would stay and play.

The month of May soon came to an end and with it the end of school.  This also meant that Enna would be starting her swimming lessons. She was a little nervous about it but was willing to give it a try.  Therefore, for the first two weeks of June we made the trip into Tooele to have her swimming lessons.  Although she liked being in the water, she didn't seem to like to let go of the wall; and every time that she was asked to do strokes, she had to be holding on to something or someone and wouldn't try to do anything on her own.  So, in the end they recommended she redo the class.  Oh well, at least she got some experience.  Maybe we’ll try again next summer.
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Well, that’s about it for the Blackburn clan this quarter.  As the French say, Au revoir!
 

Well hello you Blackburner friends and welcome to another new year and another issue of the Blackburner!  Today we're going to be talking a little bit about January, February, and March.

So we begin the year having celebrated the new year at Grandpa Thorsted’s.  As Grandpa was out of town, we were able to borrow his house for a little while and just hang out with my folks.  New Year's morning found us cleaning and getting his house back to “kid-free” setup and last minute games with Mom and Dad.

About a week later, we had a friend of ours (our neighbor actually) who came over and told us that because of the pandemic, she hadn't had a chance to go see her granddaughter.  She had bought a gingerbread house for her to decorate with her granddaughter, but because they couldn't see each other, they decided that they would give that gingerbread house to us because we had kids, and it wouldn't do her any good.  We thanked her and later that week for a good hour or two, the older girls and dad had fun getting into building this gingerbread house.  Of course, the most fun part they had was after we built it and they got the chance to destroy it in the process of eating it.

Life continued on as it does, and Enna returned to school for more of her first-grade year.   She was taking French this year and she didn't seem to enjoy it all that much but we're trying.  She also had to do virtual school on Fridays so that they had time to deep clean the school.  Thankfully, her teachers opted to simply send out assignments with videos/worksheets connected to them so that we didn’t have to struggle with zoom and keeping noisy siblings quiet.  It meant a little more work for me as I had to “dust off” info buried deep in my brain (because even though I knew what they were learning, I had forgotten the terminology of the different assignments and had to review).  At least she's not getting anxious about it I suppose.

We also got to enjoy life with our still little dude Erick.  He is getting so much bigger every day.  He is just curious and looking around (as of this issue he is almost six months old. It'll be six months in April).  He's getting around and he likes to hold up his head and to attempt to crawl around a little bit
Construction of the basement continues as we are finally nearing the end stretch.  We have sheetrock up on most of the walls and mudded most of the walls to get prepped for adding the final touches.  Then once those are done, of course, I will do all the painting so that we can have our basement finally complete.  It's so nice to see the rooms just coming together even though it's taking forever; but at least once done we'll have more room for all the kiddos to play around downstairs.  They'll have a nice big family room that we can send them to in order to get a little peace and quiet up here on the main floor.

We began February with a fun outing as a family.  Because of the pandemic, we hadn't been able to eat out all that much.  We decided to brave it because of Dad's birthday.  We went to his favorite restaurant: IHOP.   All the kids loved the smiley face pancakes that they were able to order because it had lots of yummy chocolate chips and whipped topping.  I don't think any of them finished it though - we took a lot home that night.  Thankfully, we only had to do a little bit of practice to remind them how to behave in a restaurant.

In early February it became time to enter the new frontier (a repeat for us, a first for Erick):  solid foods. He liked lots of them, but not all of them.  His favorite thing was to be able to try to put them in his mouth by grabbing handfuls at a time.  I think his favorite food is sweet potatoes.  Must be a family thing as that was what most of his sisters and brother liked first too.

My favorite event of the month, however, happened about a week later.  One day Enna came home from school a little perplexed.  She told me that one of the boys in her class had told her that he had a crush on her.  Not wanting to be outdone, another little boy (who had already expressed this sentiment to his mother) told her the same.  Enna said that she had replied that she had a crush on them too, but when I asked her if she knew what that meant, she said no.  When we explained what it meant, she decided that the only crush she had was the one she had on her dad and her brothers.  I just laughed.  I thought it was hilarious.  I guess we will have some troubles when she becomes a teenager at least in the relationships department!

Due to the pandemic taking away the chance to go to Primary in person, the general Primary presidency put on what they called a friend-to-friend.  In that program they did music, drawing, stories, and singing.  We decided to watch on our computer. The girls absolutely loved it!  They were drawing and singing along, while laughing at all the jokes that the little girl and boy (who were the hosts) and also the adults told that helped out.  I was glad to see them having fun with Primary again.  Hopefully, they will be able to go in person again soon.

March began with a new adventure - it was time to potty train again.  We discussed potty training both twins at the same time, but as Dallin had expressed pretty much no interest in doing so, we decided to go ahead with just Celeste.  As she was stuck in the kitchen (to minimize carpet cleaning) we found that she had an affinity for baking.  She loved to add the ingredients to the bowls, watch it mix, and then of course, eat whatever she made after it was done. Who knows?  Maybe when she grows up, she'll be a chef.
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Well, that about does it for our family this quarter.  Hope everyone has a wonderful time and I will see you in three months!
 

Happy Holidays!  It is time to wrap up this crazy year!  All I can say is GOOD RIDDANCE!  Of course, with my luck things will be crazier next year, but we'll just look forward with hope that things will start to look up.

October began with another virtual General Conference.  You could tell that the brethren missed having the conference center filled and having to broadcast from a smaller room on temple square.  Hopefully, we can gather again soon.  The messages were wonderful as usual and even though I didn't hear a lot of it (thanks to 4 rowdy kids), I felt the Spirit there.  It was also kind of fun, because during the Saturday evening session they were using performances of choirs from prior years and one of them was mine!  I had fun watching familiar faces popping up on the screen and watching my kids have fun playing “find mom in the choir”.

As the month progressed, the main event everyone was getting ready for was the arrival of the newest member of our family.  The new little guy would be arriving on the 19th.  In order to help us adjust to the new little one, my mom would be coming to stay with us for a couple of weeks.  As part of her visit, she went to stay with her dad for a couple of days.  She invited Enna and Aijah to come up and have a sleepover with her at Grandpa's.  They were really excited and helped to pack their bags while I was taking a required COVID-19 test (thankfully negative).  When I arrived home, they were already standing outside waiting for me so that they could load the car and go.

With the girls gone for the night, Ryan and I were able to enjoy some time with just the twins and (when the twins were asleep) with each other.  One thing for sure:  the house was a LOT quieter!  :)

The following Monday morning, we headed to the hospital so that we could welcome the new guy.  It was a long drive as we stayed with our same doctor we had from day 1 and she was currently with a hospital in Riverton.  So we had to travel for about an hour to get there.  It was nice to just talk and relax.

After arriving, we had the normal changing, poking with needles, and heading into surgery we have had every time.  I absolutely hate it, but I just kept reminding myself “Last time, last time”.

It was really cold in the operating room and so I started shivering a lot.  Thankfully, one of the doctors noticed, and I got a heated blanket to help keep me warm.  That felt nice.

As they pulled little Erick out, the doctors said, “Wow, that's a lot of hair!”  He ended up being the only non-bald kid at birth we had.  The hair was really dark too.  So I hoped that the dark brown would stay.  Only time would tell.  He also ended up being our biggest kid at a little over 8 lbs.

Once we arrived back in our room, both the baby and I slept while Ryan read/slept/played.  Over the next few days, we got used to each other and got feedings solid.  However, the day before we were scheduled to leave, the pediatrician told us that his jaundice levels were too high and would need to be put under the lights to help it go down.  We were also told we might have to take the lights home if the level didn't get low enough by the next day.  We hoped that one night would be enough.

Thankfully, the level did go down enough that we didn't have to take the lights home, but we were supposed to take him to the doctor a couple of days later and make sure that the levels continued to decrease.  So we went home a few hours later.

Upon arriving home, the older girls wanted to love on him and cuddle him as much as they possibly could.  We had to make sure they took turns with him because this time there weren't two babies to share.  The twins more or less ignored him, so at least we didn't have a 4-way fight.

Due to the level of COVID infections still being high a couple of weeks later, the city canceled their annual Halloween trunk-or-treat.  So instead we dressed up (except Celeste, she wasn't interested) and hid candy around the house for the kids to find.  They loved it!  They ran from room to room looking for their favorites.  The only thing we really had to do was remind the older kids to let the younger kids find some too.

November began with an unexpected twist.  Ryan's back had been hurting him for a bit, so he finally went in to see the doctor.  At the consultation, he was told that he would have to have surgery, so it was scheduled for later in the month.  We weren't too worried about it, but Ryan was saying that he would know how I had felt after all the c-sections that I had.  It would mean a little creativity for a bit because basically right after I would get the all clear to lift things (assuming nothing went wrong), he would lose his ability to.  So he did all the lifting until I was cleared and I did all of it after.  It made things interesting to say the least.

Once again due to COVID and the uncertainty of when things would open up again, we decided to talk to our bishop about doing Erick's baby blessing over zoom instead of waiting for church meetings to be allowed again.  He gave the OK and came to our home to help do it.  It was a bit of a last minute decision, but it ended up working out alright.  While the bishop was there, he also gave Ryan and I a blessing and did our tithing settlement.  It made for a bit of a longer visit than we originally intended, but I think that it was needed.

The next day we headed down to the Salt Lake area for Ryan's surgery.  Due to the distance from our house and the length of time for the surgery, I decided to just hang out in the parking lot.  It was a bit rough trying to keep 5 kids calm for the whole time, but I figured it would be more efficient than traveling home, sitting inside for 15 minutes, and then coming back.  Although, after all was said and done, the surgery and recovery took longer than originally planned, but I had no way of knowing that, so oh well.  He was a little loopy on the way home, so he said some funny things, but otherwise he seemed alright.  When we got home, he just went into bed and rested there.  For the next few weeks as he got back to normal, he just took it as easy as he could.  I had to do a lot of reminding to the kids that daddy wasn't for climbing right now.

As Ryan was in no shape to travel, and we couldn't meet with family because of the pandemic, we had our own family thanksgiving for the first time in our married lives.  So that made things interesting.  We didn't do a ton of food as we have picky kids, but we still had a good amount of leftovers for a few days.  I think it was a bit more relaxed than normal though, so that was nice.

The beginning of December was pretty laid back, the only major things we did were school for Enna, decorating the tree (or in the twins' case un-decorating), and DDIvantage meetings.  I think that the meetings for the twins have really been helping as we are starting to hear a lot more words come out of their mouths.  We aren't getting a whole lot of sentences yet, but we are getting more words instead of screaming.  That alone has brought the stress level in the house down.

About mid-month we had the fun of watching Ryan's niece Elaina perform her dance recital over Zoom.  We were sad we couldn't go in person, but she did a good job.

The next week we decided to go up north and enjoy some time with family while they were in town.  The girls had a lot of fun sledding down the hill with Grandma and Grandpa.  The twins weren't really into it though, so they played on the playground instead.  It was funny watching them slide in their snow suits, but it worked pretty well.

Christmas day came and unfortunately Ryan had to work the night shift.  So as soon as he got home, we opened our presents and had breakfast, and then he went to bed while the kids played with their new toys.  Erick ended up sleeping through most of it and had pretty much no interest in even trying to open gifts, but I wasn't really expecting anything different.

The next week we went up again and enjoyed New Years Eve and Day with family as well.  While there, the girls got to go with Dad and Grandpa and enjoy a tubing resort.  They had a blast tubing for a couple hours.  Especially since they didn't have to climb the hill (there was a moving sidewalk instead).


We played games, enjoyed family and food, and the girls even got to sleep in a tent in the house (Dad's idea, he made sure to OK it with Great-Grandpa though)!  After everyone woke up, we cleaned up the house so it was nice when Great-Grandpa got back, bid farewell to my folks (as they were leaving for home), and headed back to our place.  We were a little tired, but we had fun.

That's it for this installment!  See ya in 2021.

July started with a trip for a VERY belated birthday present.  We had already planned on taking Aijah to Build-a-Bear to make her own new friend for her birthday.  However, that became an impossibility when everything shut down due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  So when the store finally opened, we went ahead and took her there to get her gift.  She loved being able to pick a new friend and watch the stuffing blow in.  She decided to make a unicorn and to pick out some PJs for her.  It was the first time that she had been able to go and do that, so she had fun.

A few days later, we had the fun of gathering with our family so that we could be introduced to Ryan's future sister-in-law.  We were all very excited for his brother that he had found someone he could be happy with.  We also loved the time with cousins as it was the first time we had been able to gather together for anything fun.  We had dinner, played in the water, and then everyone enjoyed the show as Ryan made cotton candy with his machine.  The girls didn't want to leave.

The next day, we were able to participate in the baptism of Ryan's niece via zoom.  As the gatherings were restricted to 20 people, it was just easier to gather virtually.  She had a pretty good turn out both ways.  Enna loved being able to watch even if it was by computer.

That following day we were able to reach the long awaited day of our basement renovation:  the inspection.  Ryan had been working on it on and off for a good year to year and a half.  As we wanted to move it along after our family vacation, we scheduled it as soon as we could.  Thankfully, the inspector's schedule was open enough for us to accomplish that and he came over and had a look.

From start to finish the inspection took no more than 10 minutes, and happily when he was done looking, he told us we had passed.  Hallelujah!  We were told that he would need to come back and inspect again once our insulation was in, but Ryan was certain that wouldn't take that long.  At least most of the hard work and all the little builds were now behind us.

After waiting for a long time (in Enna's words - forever!) it was finally time for the Beach family reunion.  This time, it would take place in and around Yellowstone National Park.  As it was a closer destination this year we thankfully did not have to fly.  It only ended up being about a 5-hour drive.  As the path would take us right past his sister's house, we also decided to stop in and say hi on the way up.

We packed up our suitcases and car and headed north.  When we stopped at his sister's house, she and her husband weren't sure if they wanted a visit.  We told them that whatever they chose was fine by us (this was just due to the high possibility of passing on COVID if one of us had it).  After some discussion, they did let us in.  We spent some time touring their new house and then just talking.  The kids had a lot of fun playing with their cousins and their cousin's toys.  We were probably there for about an hour and half, but fun was had by all.

Once we left there, we had another hour-ish of driving before finally arriving at our destination in Island Park.  The girls immediately began running around checking out the cabin rooms and playing with Hazel (the only cousin there that was about their age - the rest were still coming).  Meanwhile, Ryan and I unpacked and hung out with the adults just talking.

The following day was a Sunday and we got to watch as my brother blessed his first child.  We had a church lesson and a game night full of “Whose Line is it Anyway?” games.  There was a lot of laughter and jokes to be had by all.

For the next two days, (now that all the family had arrived) we spent time in Yellowstone.  The first day we saw Old Faithful.  The girls liked how far into the air the water went, even if they didn't like the rotten egg smell :).  Then we went on the paths that went around them.  When the path split into a longer & shorter path, the moms, kids, and a couple of the guys went one way, while the rest took the other.  When all was said and done the shorter path only landed us back about 5 minutes before those on the long path, but that was mainly because kids kept wanting to stop and take breaks.  A lot of the kids ended up taking power naps on the way home.

The second day in Yellowstone led to lots of driving to see some of the canyons and waterfalls that fell into them.  Due to most of the stops requiring us to play “follow the leader” it lead to a few tense moments, but we were still able to have some fun.  Enna and Aijah loved hanging out with their new “friend” (their cousin Alia) and held hands with her whenever they could.

Wednesday brought horseback riding day.  As three of our kiddos were too young, I was pregnant, and Ryan gets hay fever around horses, Enna went by herself with Alia and the adults who wanted to go along.  While she rode, Ryan and I played with the other three on the playground and even on a boat that was in a little pond on the ranch.  The twins were apprehensive of the water especially since they had to wear a life jacket the whole time, but they made it through.

About 2 hours later when Enna returned, she told us how much she had loved going and wished she could have gone longer.  Her Aunt Em also told us that she had tried to rechristen her horse “Prince” to “Sparkles”.

Thursday we spent most of the day inside as we moms were more or less outnumbered by kids.  This was due to the fact that all the guys (and one of the girls) plus the older kids had gone white water rafting.  Since they would be tackling rapids categorized as twos and threes, Enna and Alia didn't join in even though they were technically old enough.  Instead they played, watched Disney movies, and ran around while the moms talked and took naps.  Thankfully, it wasn't too stressful, but we were definitely glad to let the dads have a turn watching kids when they got back.

Friday turned into an “individual choice”/picture day as a lot of people were played out or had to leave early the next morning to start heading home.  We chose to spend it at the ranch again where we again went on boats, used the swing set, and the girls jumped on the water trampoline.  We were there for about an hour and a half.  When we returned home, we made everyone lunch and then pulled out some squirt guns.  The kids had a blast shooting water at Grandma and Grandpa and each other.  Ryan ended up getting me involved even though I wasn't originally planning too, but it was fun.


After dinner, while people roasted marshmallows, Mom and I headed into town to see a musical.  Jake and Kanneisha had bought tickets to celebrate their anniversary, but then due to plan changes had to leave that morning instead of Saturday as they originally planned.   So rather than let them go to waste, they offered them to us.


The show was pretty good and had good moments of laughter, but it was really hard to breathe in there as it was really hot from being so packed.  Mom and I eventually had to move back a row to not feel like sardines so that my nausea would go away.  Other than that though, it was a fun night out with my mom.

The next morning was a flurry of activity as everyone that was still at the cabin was packing, cleaning, and getting ready to head out as we had reached the end of our vacation.  We all wanted to get an early start as there would be a lot of driving for some to get home, so we moved as fast as we could.  We all said our final goodbyes and headed out.  All in all, it was a fun vacation.

When we arrived home, it was right back to normal life as we had a doctor's appointment that Monday and an evaluation meeting with DDIvantage on Tuesday.  Both went well and everything checked out OK.  Now we'll just see if the DDI program can get our twins using actual words!

The first event of August was another inspection.  This time, the person only had to come out and make sure our insulation was put in correctly.  So this one went even faster than the last.  However, we apparently missed some places to put insulation, so we didn't pass this time.  But at least all we would have to do was put those few pieces up and then send him pictures rather than having him come out again.  Then when the pictures are cleared, we can do sheet rock.  We are slowly making progress!  Hopefully, it will only be a year or so left of work to do, but who knows.

The following Saturday, Ryan was gone all day as he was helping his brother move into his new condo.  Most of it was spent on the road as he had to go about an hour between the old house and new, and then another hour (one-way) to pick up a washer from his future sister-in-law's house.  Needless to say, he was pretty beat by the time he got home, but I'm sure that his brother appreciated the help.

A couple of days later we were able to celebrate a birthday as Enna turned 6.  I can't believe it has been that long since we became parents, but it has been fun to see her grow into the spunky, mischievous, creative girl we have now.  She excitedly received a dinosaur and an air rocket that she loved.  Now if we could just get her as interested in school coming up.  :)


Finally, the long awaited day arrived as we headed to the temple for Ryan's brother's wedding.  Due to COVID restrictions, only a handful of people could attend in person, so while Ryan went in, I stayed with the kiddos outside.  They loved how there was a huge hill to roll/run down, so they were able to burn some energy while I chit-chatted with some of the bride's family.  After we talked for a while, they expressed that they were feeling more comfortable about the marriage once they had a chance to get to know our family.  The dating/engagement had been a pretty short whirlwind, so they had been a little nervous about it.  I was glad they were feeling better as it seemed to me that the couple meshed together well.


After the sealing, we were treated to lunch.  The girls were excited to get to go somewhere new (especially since they got ice cream).  We chatted, ate, and enjoyed each other's company before going our separate ways.  Since the reception wasn't until later that night, we headed to the spot to help with set up and talk with family.

The evening was enjoyable and we were able to chit-chat with some of our friends from our old ward.  The only problem was that the kids got grumpy when we were trying to leave, so they were making us drag them to the car.  Thankfully, some of our friends who were also leaving saw this and helped us to hold their hands and walk them over to it.  Then Ryan realized he had forgotten his backpack and asked me to go get it.  When his sister-in-law saw that I was walking back for it, she grinned and said that she was going to “have some words” with Ryan for sending the pregnant woman instead of coming himself.  I just laughed and walked back with his bag.

The next morning, Ryan had the fun of loading all of his little sister's college stuff out of our basement and into his truck, and then driving it down to Provo and helping to move it into her dorm.  It took pretty much the whole day, but she was glad for the help.

A few days later, it was time for school to start again.  The difference this year was that Enna would be going all day as she was now in first grade.  That was definitely going to be different.  The district had decided, due to the virus, that the kids would go in person Mon-Thurs and then Friday would be virtual at home in order to let a deep cleaning take place.  They would then reassess the situation if the virus became too prevalent.

This year would also be different as she was enrolled in the dual-immersion program.  That meant half of her day would be in English and the other in French.  I was a little worried she would freak out when she had no idea what was being said, but she seemed to take it in stride.

Life continued on with the school routine and suddenly August turned to September.  We had a few adventures this month.  The first was the twins' second birthday.  While they both knew what to do with their cupcakes and shoveled them down, only Dallin really tried the present thing.  After he succeeded opening his first, he dove right into the rest of them excited for new toys.  Celeste took a bit longer, but once she saw what Dallin was doing, she enjoyed it just as much.  There was wrapping paper everywhere!  Oh well.

The next adventure was 4th of July fireworks.  But why in September?  Due to COVID, the fireworks that the city had ordered in February (right before shutdowns) didn't arrive in time for the 4th.  So they petitioned the state to allow us to shoot them off when they did arrive.  The request was granted.  So we set up chairs in our driveway and enjoyed some belated fireworks.  The girls absolutely loved it.


Our final adventure was having to replace our TV.  It had been getting really touchy and no matter how hard/how much we tried the power button, it just wouldn't turn on.  So Ryan unhooked it and took it outside.  The girls followed him thinking he was just going to open it up to repair it, but watched with horror as he placed it in the trash.  He told me (as I had been at the doctor) that they kept asking him for the next 30 minutes to an hour when he was going to fix it.  They couldn't believe he was actually throwing it away!


Well that does it for this quarter!  See you after the Holidays!

​Hello there again family!  It's crazy to think that yet another quarter has come and gone.  Well, let's jump right in!


April began with a visit to our OB-GYN.  Due to the restrictions and rules of COVID, Ryan wasn't allowed to come along as he had in the past.  So I went alone while he watched the kiddos.


The appointment went well and found out that (thankfully) lightning didn't strike us twice.  There was only one little person there this time.  I was extremely relived.  I know the chances for twins goes up if you have already had them, so I was definitely happy that it wasn't the case this time.  Especially because we had decided to make this the (absolutely) last time.  Amazingly, we also found out that we were further along than we thought.  We figured that we were only about 8 weeks, but we were more like 11 weeks along.  So we wouldn't have to wait long to figure out the gender this time!


That weekend, we had general conference like normal.  However, as COVID had once again changed things, only those invited to speak at the particular session could be in attendance.  So every session was attended in person by 9-10 people in a small room rather than thousands in the conference center.  It may have been a slightly different feel, but it still gave us the same spirit it always does.


This general conference was special in other ways too.  As it was the 200th anniversary of the first vision, pretty much every talk centered on the restoration of the gospel.  There was also the release of a new proclamation and the participation in a Hosanna shout-which usually only occurs at the dedication of a temple.  So it made conference this time very special and memorable despite the pandemic.


A couple of weeks later, we were able to participate in a family zoom meeting that we had started having.  While on the phone chat, we learned that Jake and his wife Kanneisha had been blessed to welcome their new little one into the world.  She was super cute and it was fun to watch Jake be a doting dad.  She definitely already has him on her finger!


We also did an Easter egg hunt that day as it was Easter Sunday.  We would normally have been heading to my Aunt Lisa's house, but we weren't allowed to gather in big groups yet.  So we just did one at home.  It was fun to watch the twins this year as they had a better idea of what was going on.  Celeste found her basket the fastest of the four.  Then she just carried it around while she walked.  It was pretty funny; especially since the basket was just about her same size.


A couple of days later, Ryan and I were just enjoying some quiet time together after putting the kids to bed, when the house started to shake.  We read later that it wasn't a separate earthquake, just an aftershock from the one that had happened the previous month.  It was still a little unnerving though.  We did a quick look over and thankfully it seemed that everything held together just as it had with the last one.  I just hoped that this would be the last of the earth moving for a LONG time.


The next day, we began officially teaching online school.  We had already received the news during spring break that the kids wouldn't be returning in person.  Enna was really bummed about the change as she was looking forward to seeing her friends.  I was nervous about the change as I wasn't sure if I would be able to teach the concepts well enough for her to get them.  Thankfully, her teacher gave us a lot of info and spent a lot of the assignment time solidifying things that she had already learned in class.  So it was just a refresher for her, and a gradual slide in for me.  Once I understood the concepts her teacher was providing, I was able to use her assignments to help her understand them.  So it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.  I was just glad that I wasn't going to have to build the curriculum myself-that would have been disastrous.


The end of the week brought Aijah's birthday.  She turned 4 and celebrated with a pony cake.  Lately they have been really interested in a cake decorating show and so we ended up trying to make a rice crispie pony for a cake topper.  It turned out OK, and Aijah loved it, but it was a lot of work!  Maybe we'll have the skill down a little better come August; Enna decided she wants one too.  :)


The last event of the month was our 7th wedding anniversary.  As we couldn't really go anywhere, we just made it a non-cooking dinner and rented a movie.  Somedays it is hard to believe that it has been that long!  It’s been a fun journey though.


The month of May began with bidding farewell to Enna's teacher.  We went to her school to drop off all of the things that she had that belonged to the school.  We had to stay in our car and say hello from the window.  However, because we went right at the beginning, we had the opportunity to chit chat for a minute.  Enna proudly told her teacher how she had finally learned how to stay up on the two wheels of her bike (we had been working on it during most of April).  She was really excited knowing that she could go on rides with Dad and keep up with him.  She was still bummed that she wouldn't be heading back to school in person for the rest of the year, but she had been doing well with the online school as well.


About a week later, school officially ended.  Enna was happy that she wouldn't have to do work every day anymore.  I told her that we would still do some from time to time to keep her skills up for the coming year.  She was willing to make that deal as long as it wasn't a daily thing.


The end of the month brought the exciting appointment.  Gender reveal!!!  Thankfully, they let Ryan come for this one so he was really happy.  We dropped the kids off with a friend of mine and headed over.  The appointment went well and we found out that we are expecting another.....boy!  Ryan and I were excited.  We didn't tell the kids right away as we knew that Enna was hoping for a sister.  We decided to do a gender reveal cake instead.  As this would be the last kid, we figured it would be a fun way to let the kids find out.


The last big event of May was the baptism of my nephew Caleb.  We unfortunately couldn't be there in person as they live across the country, but we enjoyed seeing the pictures and being able to send him the baptism gift we had finished so he could hang it up in his room.


June began and life was pretty routine for most of it.  We stayed at home unless we needed something or had to go somewhere, so we did a lot of playing indoors.  When it wasn't too hot, we went over to the park (as restrictions had lifted a bit) and let them get out energy, and from time to time we did family bike rides/walks.  One of these walks was on the boardwalk around a lake in Little Cottonwood canyon.  The kids enjoyed seeing the water, eating lunch, and being free from the house for a bit.  We even saw a moose and a duck up close!  I think that was their favorite part.


In preparation for Fathers' day, we volunteered to deliver cookies to all the dads on our street (since we still weren't attending church in person).  The girls had a lot of fun running up to the doors and hanging the ribbons on the door knobs.  It was a good way to get out and get a walk while also helping them provide service.


The primary also had a couple of fun drive up ice cream activities.  The girls got to see their primary presidency and get a frozen treat and they were able to hand us information about things happening and coloring pages for primary lessons.  This was definitely something the kiddos enjoyed because-well ice cream!


Well, that does it for this quarter.  Hopefully, by the time we meet next time life will be more back to normal.  Until then, do what you need to keep your sanity intact!!  See you next time in the Blackburner.

Happy new year!  It's hard to believe that another 3 months has already passed.  And what a crazy three months it has been!  Let's relive some of the fun from this past quarter.

January brought the end of the school winter break and the start of the next part of the school year.  I think that Enna was really happy to go back and see her friends.

A little later we were able to celebrate my birthday as a family.  The kids were only really excited about the cake that comes with the party, but there you go.

The end of the month brought the annual stake winter's morning activity.  I love going every year I can as it is a nice break where I get to enjoy time listening to a spiritual message and then a luncheon where I can chat with other ladies in the stake.  This year, they had Kenneth Cope come and do a musical message where he sang a lot of his songs and talked about his inspiration for them and the writing process.  I enjoyed it a lot as it was music based and the songs were ones that I really liked.  After it was over, I made sure to pack some of the desserts to take home to the kiddos as I knew it would be something they would really enjoy.

As it was the 1 year anniversary of my grandma Beach's passing, we traveled up north to spend some time with family singing our family good bye hymn of choice “God be with you 'til we meet again”.  We had many people gathered in person and many others by telephone so that pretty much anyone who wanted to be involved could be.  We then stood and chatted together for a while.  As it was  winter, Enna and Aijah spent a few minutes running through the snow and throwing snowballs.  Enna even found some big chunks and made a little snowman with them.  It is always nice to get to gather together as family.

The end of the month brought Enna's much anticipated dinosaur day.  She got to go to school early and learn about dinosaurs, participate in a mini-excavation, decorate cookies, and make necklaces.  She cam home all excited and told me all about the dinos she had learned about that day. Her school sure does some fun activities!

A few days later, we were able to celebrate Ryan's birthday.  He had been excited because he had been given permission to use some of his vacation time to have it off for the first time in a while.  However, a couple of days before, we learned that there had been some miscommunication and his boss asked him if he could work it again.  Although understandably bummed, he agreed.  So we pushed his birthday forward a few days.  The kids didn't seem to mind as they just enjoyed the cake when we pulled it out to eat it.

As we started making plans for what we could do for valentine's day this year, our plans were suddenly made for us.  In an unfortunate incident, Ryan's uncle was killed by his fiancee's ex.  So we spent time getting ready to attend his funeral which would be held that weekend.

We attended the funeral in the morning, and then while his immediate family/friends went to the luncheon provided by his current ward, we went out to eat with his sister and her family, and then headed over to the farm to let the kids get out some of the energy that they had to hold in all morning.  The girls had a lot of fun chasing ducks, pointing out the horses and cows, and running around on the playground.  It was also really cute when we were by the ducks and Celeste suddenly shouted “uck!  Cack!” (translated Duck, Quack!).  I laughed and shouted at Ryan what she had said as he was up ahead, but all of our efforts to get her to repeat herself were in vain (she is still of that attitude when we try to get her to say anything).  What about Dallin?  Did he have fun at the farm?  Well, apparently his energy was spent.  So while the girls ran and played with the animals, Dallin happily slept in the stroller, blissfully unaware of anything.  Oh well, at least he wouldn't be grumpy later!

After an hour or so at the farm, we headed over to Ryan's brother's house to have some fun with his siblings.  While the reason we were gathering as a family was a sad one, we were happy to spend time with all of Ryan's family and get an updated family photo, which hadn't happened in over three years.  We enjoyed a dinner, games, and getting examined by his little sister Tiffani who is in her sophomore year of college with the aim to get her medical degree.  It was just general info stuff as it was for her work with her EMT training, but we had fun coming up with different scenarios and crafting stories that she then had to decipher and diagnose.

The end of the month held a family trip to the dentist.  We didn't have them look at the twins as we figured they were still a bit young for it, but the rest of us did.  The girls weren't too keen on going, but they definitely enjoyed the prizes at the end of the visit.

That night I also went to a meeting to learn about Enna's possibility in participating in the school's DLI (dual language immersion) program for the next 5 years.  Basically the premise is that the students spend half of the day in English, and the other half is spent learning the same curriculum in a foreign language (in this case, French).  Her teacher and many of my friends had highly recommended the program.  I also had experienced it a bit as a substitute teacher, so I was a bit familiar with the concept.  While I was a bit disappointed it wouldn't be Spanish (as I knew that language at least a little bit), I figured it would be a good way to keep her challenged.  There was still the selection process to go through, but they told us that pretty much everyone who applied early (which I had) would be placed in the program.  Now it was just a waiting game.

Of the three months of this quarter, we had finally arrived at what would be deemed the craziest:  March.  The month started out normal with us getting Enna to school and back and holding stake conference, but then something hit that would change everything COVID-19 aka coronovirus.  As this was a novel virus, no one really knew how to best handle or kill it off so everything became a guessing game.  We were asked by our political leaders to stay home as much as possible for the next two weeks and only make essential trips.  Basic necessities like toilet paper and cleaners were no where to be found, and school was to be moved online.  There were definitely some big changes to our every day routines, but we went with it in the hope that the crisis would be over soon.

We were told that they would be giving the teachers a couple of days to prep their online classrooms and that online school would begin on the 18th.  No biggie, Enna just enjoyed having a couple of days of no school work.  That morning, however, promised no easy switch over.  This was due to a 5.7 earthquake that hit the town of Magna.  Although we are about 25-30 minutes away, we could feel its affects.  As this was the first earthquake I had ever experienced, it definitely threw me for a loop.  The twins who were eating breakfast didn't seem bothered, and the girls had been just getting out of bed.  When I asked if they had felt the quake, they responded that they had, but as they didn't seem too concerned/scared, I just let it go at that.  The next few hours we just spent time checking in with all of our family members.  Thankfully, although all felt it, no one saw significant damage from it.  So that at least was good.

Later that day, we began the new world of online learning.  It took a while to learn the platform and get everything set up, but it seemed to go OK.  One thing was for sure, I was going to have to review concepts that I haven't really thought about for at least 2 decades.  Oy.

After the initial 2 week “stay at home” period ended, we got the news that it was being extended again as cases were continuing to rise.  They told us that they would reevaluate school returning to normal after spring break.  Enna wasn't that thrilled about that prospect as she was beginning to miss her friends and the freedom we had to go to the park whenever we wanted.  We just crossed our fingers and hoped that the tides would turn back to normal.

Well, that does it for us here at the Blackburner, see you in three months (digitally at least).

​Hello again! Its amazing to think that the Holiday Season is come and gone, and we move on to a new year.  But we'll just take one last look at how 2019 ended by reviewing the events of October, November, and December.

October began with my first experience at a parent-teacher conference.  Enna acted like she was all shy, but both her teacher and I knew that she was just being a goof.  Her teacher said that she was doing well with her academics and seemed to be understanding things, but was moving so slow and meticulous that she wasn't finishing most of her work during class.  Her teacher was pretty sure she would grow out of it as soon as she was more comfortable with the pace of school.  Oh well, we'll keep working at it.  She seems to like school OK, so that's what's important.

About mid-month, we hit a fun milestone with Dallin; every time we gathered for prayer and told everyone to fold their arms, he joined us!  Still not much talking from either twin, but they sure are learning a lot!  I can't wait to see how their personalities continue to develop.

The end of the month of course brought Halloween.  This year we had a witch (Enna), a pumpkin (Aijah), Tweety bird (Dallin), and a reindeer (Celeste).  While the twins were more or less just riding around, the girls actively collected candy.   We were able to get around the city trick or treat set up once before the kids got too cold and asked to go home.  We went to a few houses on the way home as well, but only a few as they kept complaining about being cold.

As soon as we got home, all the kids got wrapped up in the warmest PJs they had, snuggled up with blankets, and we watched a short movie as a family before putting the kiddos in bed.  Although we were probably only out for an hour or so, they got A LOT of candy.  I'm guessing that it will last until Christmas!

November came a couple of days later and we again went to the KUED reading kickoff party.  Due to not having to work this year, Ryan was able to join us.  This made navigating downtown so much easier!  Although, just like last year, the kids were a little hesitant to try out any of the activities right away, so we just wandered around for a bit.  We did get them to do a couple toward the end.  The twins had the most fun with the block building activity.

The rest of the month was pretty routine with Enna going to school, and Ryan at work.  Then came the end November.  Enna had fun at her school's “Heritage Day” activities.  She proudly brought home a dream catcher that she had been able to make.  They learned a lot about cowboys, native Americans, and life in the earlier days.

A few days later, we left to take the 10-hour drive to California to visit with Ryan's parents.  We hadn't been back in a couple years, so it was a nice break.  We had to battle some snow, but for the most part it was a nice drive.  We left in the wee hours of the morning so that we could get some distance before the kids were solidly awake.  We ended up in California about 10am, and spent the rest of the day enjoying time with the folks.

Enna found herself enamored with their dog Truffles.  This was pretty amazing as the last time we had gone to California, she had been scared of the dog most of the time.  The twins, meanwhile, found themselves enamored with the dog's cage.  :)  They loved to open the door, crawl in, and shut the door behind them.  We just laughed and took pictures.

We were able to spend about 4 days there.  Thanksgiving was fun as we enjoyed all the traditional dishes that the Holiday brings.  The kids also loved the playground that we were able to take them to a couple of times during our stay.  It was a nice change of pace and we had fun being with family.

Eventually, we headed home as it was time to get back to our normal routine.  We bid farewell and headed off.  It was a little later in the morning this time as we didn't want to tackle the snowy roads of Donner's Pass in the dark.  This also meant, however, that we would be having to actually use our tire chains.  That was a fun adventure.  It probably took us about 30 minutes to put them on originally, but one of the chains fell off on our way out (not entirely our fault, the clasp was not tightened all the way)!  So we had to go back and try again.  It was then a slow bumper to bumper ride down the pass until we reached the point we could remove them.  The area that normally would have taken us about an hour to pass ended up taking almost two, but we finally were able to drive normal speed as we left the snow and storm behind.

However, our adventures with the snow where not over.  When we returned home about 10-11pm that night, we found that we had received a dumping of snow of our own while we were away.  I had to play pioneer as I stomped out a path to our door carrying a sleeping baby.  The snow probably went about halfway up my thighs.  We made the decision to unpack in the morning (other than the couple of suitcases that had PJs), carried in the kiddos, got them settled in bed, then got some shut eye.

The unpacking in the morning was preceded by an intense shovel-out where I had to shovel the walk a layer at a time.  Ryan was shoveling around the car at the same time making a path that would meet mine.  When it was eventually cleared enough to move things to the door, we unloaded everything that we hadn't the night before.  It had been a fun trip, but it was really good to be home.

Finally, it became December.  The first activity of the month was the ward party.  We enjoyed time chatting with our friends the Goodsells.  As we were chatting, my friend mentioned that her son had told her that he was set on marrying Enna someday!  We both had a good laugh at that and watched as Luke took Enna under his wing when she was too nervous to go up on stage for the primary's part in the Christmas story reenactment.  They had the fun of spending a lot of time together as they were also in the same class at school.  We'll see if his prediction pans out at all. It would make that story even funnier!

For the next couple of weeks, it was just going through the routine of school, homework, naps, and life in general.  The kids kept counting down the days when we would be able to celebrate Christmas.  As we had the twins this year, we had to put all of the ornaments and decorations up as high as we could so that they couldn't keep pulling them down.  As not everyone would be coming in to town and our basement was a bit in shambles as we were working on finishing it, my parents decided to stay at my grandpa's house to hang out with him.  We eventually made our way up there a few days after Christmas so that we could celebrate the holiday as a family first.

As it was only the twins' second Christmas, they were still a bit slow to open their gifts as they still didn't really get the whole presents concept, but they seemed to have a lot of fun with the toys once they were open.

That does it for the holiday months.  See you in 2020!

Hello friends and family!  It's hard to believe that another quarter has passed us by.  Yet here we are saying good-bye to the summer and hello to fall.  So if you are at all interested, here is a review of the Blackburn shenanigans for the last three months.

July started out like it pretty much always does:  the fourth of July.  We spent some of the morning doing the local parade and other activities, and then we headed up to my aunt's home in Ogden to hang out with some family.  There we played games, enjoyed food, and had fun chatting while waiting for it to get dark enough to set off fireworks.  Due to the fact that my aunt and uncle live on a very large hill, we were able to see fireworks being set off all throughout the valley.  Enna and Aijah absolutely loved seeing all the colors and sizes of the shows people were making.

A few days later, I had the fun of picking up my sister and niece so that I could get my sister to the hospital in anticipation of the arrival of my new nephew.  I'm just glad he picked a night that Ryan was home so that I didn't have to figure out how to put 5 kids into a car that only really had space for 4 car seats.

Enna and Aijah enjoyed having the chance to have Hazel around for the day while Mom and Dad spent some time getting to know the new kid, John.

The end of the month led to a fun family excursion up to the mountains.  We also ended up inviting Emily and Kevin along, and they happily joined us.  We spent a couple of days in the mountains hiking, cooking s'mores, and trying out sleeping bags.  Enna seemed to really like it as she has asked if we could go camping again really soon.

As part of our trip, we also got to see the Soda Springs geyser (ID).  It is a man-made geyser that is designed to go off every hour, on the hour.  Originally, they had planned to put a natural water spa there, but when it didn't work out, they opted for the showy geyser instead.  The part that made me laugh, however, was that the sign indicated that they didn't originally plan to manufacture the geyser to be predictable; they were just going to let it go off when it went off.  However, they soon received an angry call from Yellowstone telling them that their geyser was throwing off Old Faithful!  Oh the things you learn...

While on the trip, we also had a chance to have a “mini-trek”.  As the sight we were at was frequently used by young men and young women groups for camps, there were some handcarts there that allowed us to show the kiddos about the pioneers pulling them.  It also gave Kevin a chance to try one as he never had.  It was definitely as hard as I remember it being as a teenager!

We wrapped up our camping trip at Bear Lake.  The girls loved the water and didn't want to leave!  Even the babies showed some interest at getting in and splashing around.

The end of our trip also brought with it the end of July.  A few days later, August came rushing in and found us celebrating the first birthday of our nephew Ethan.  He is exactly 1 month older than our twins, so it was fun to let the three of them interact now that they are slightly more mobile.

A couple of weeks later, it was our turn to celebrate a birthday as Enna hit her 5th birthday.  We wished her a happy birthday the day of, but we waited a couple of days to actually do all the fun birthday activities as Daddy had to work.

When he was finally home, we enjoyed cake, playing with balloons, and opening presents.  This year, however, we also went bowling to let the kiddos try it out.  Both the girls loved to position the dinosaur roller they had and watching the ball go down the lane.  They were also both enamored with the ball return and wondered how it worked. They kept watch for their balls to return and would jump with delight when they saw them come back.  The only ones that didn't like the bowling trip were the twins.  As there were too many dangerous things there, we had to keep them buckled in their stroller for most of the time.  So needless to say, by the end of the game they were so done.  It was a fun outing anyway.

The next big project was the installation of our new fence.  Thankfully we were only doing a small portion of it, but it had already taken multiple weekends as we ripped out old fence, dug new holes, poured cement, and now we were finally ready to install the actual panels.

As Enna had just received a toolbox from her birthday, she wanted to be out with us trying it out.  So we gave her old pieces of wood and used/discarded nails to build with.  She had a lot of fun out there just hammering away.  Looks like we will have a builder on our hands!

The fence took most of the day, but when it was finally done, it looked really nice.  Hopefully there won't be any more fence repair in the near future though. :)

The end of the month brought a lot of busyness.  As Enna had turned 5, it was time to begin school.  She was extremely nervous and scared for the new experience, but I hoped in the end it would turn into something good for her.

The first thing she had to do was get tested so they could measure her knowledge so they would know how to get her going based on her current skills.  When the tester came out, she told me that Enna had tested well, but then she asked if Enna liked to distract a lot.  I just laughed and nodded.  One thing Enna loves to do is tell everyone about everything in her life, especially when she knows you haven't heard the story before.  We call her selectively social.  She can be very shy and closed up if she is with a lot of people she doesn't know, but when she is in a group of people she knows she opens up and loves to be the life of the party.  All I could think was that her teacher was going to have her hands full!

A few days later, we were given the information on the class she was put in and all the class specifics that we needed to know.  I was kind of glad that she had been put in an afternoon class as I struggle in the mornings.  This meant that I had 1 more year to get my act together and figure out how to handle morning wake ups.  She was given a chance to explore her classroom and see some of the toys that she would be able to interact with.  I crossed my fingers that she wouldn't be scared after the first day.

The last hoorah we did before school started was attend the Box Elder county fair.  The girls were able to ride lots of the rides as they were taller this year.  They loved trying out the roller coaster.

Once our ride tickets were gone, we went over to the food court to get some dinner and enjoy some time with Grandpa and my aunt that were also there that day.  They had come to enjoy the live music.  We had a nice visit with the plan to head over to my grandpa's after we were done wandering the fair.

Finally, we went over to the animal area to see the rabbits and chickens.  They liked petting the bunnies that were out.  They kept commenting on how soft and furry they were.

As we left, we bought some ice cream for the girls to snack on as we walked over to Grandpa's.  The twins couldn't get enough of that.  We kept hearing Dallin's grunt which is his way of saying I want some/more.  As it was hot outside, it also meant that ice cream melts faster.  Aijah had a hard time keeping up with her melting treat.  By the time we arrived at Grandpa's, she was extremely sticky.  In fact, knowing that we had a change of clothes for her in the backpack we had brought, Ryan just went ahead and took out the hose and sprayed her down.  She came in sopping wet, and then got changed into her new outfit.  After another fun chat with Grandpa and my aunt, we headed home.

A couple of days later was the first day of school.  Enna was understandably nervous, but I walked with her to her classroom.  When I came back to pick her up when school was over, she told me that she had fun and that she wasn't scared of school anymore.  I was glad that she found fun in the new experience.  Hopefully, it would continue to be that way.

September came in pretty fast after that.  The fun is that it started with a family get together as we had fun celebrating the blessing of Emily's new little one, John.  We then had the fun of a meal and games at our home.  Our home was pretty full, but we didn't mind much as it was full of family.

The first week ended with the twins' first birthday.  I couldn't believe it had already been a year!  We gave them their cupcakes and watched as they shoved them into their mouths as fast as they could.  They both loved the chocolatey treat.  In fact, after they were done with the one, they started looking for another!  We just laughed.  After cleaning them up, we gave them their gifts.  They didn't really get the idea, so each gift took like 10 minutes to get open.  The older girls were more excited than the twins were!  They somehow got it into their head that they would be able to play with the twins' toys as soon as they were opened.  We had to remind them the toys belonged to the twins and they got to play with them first.  It didn't stop them from trying though.

The rest of the month was pretty routine.  The only other thing that happened was Enna's first school picture day.  After school, I asked her if she had smiled and she showed me the slight smile she had used.  When I asked her why she hadn't smiled, she said that she had been too scared!  I just shook my head as she usually loves pictures.  Oh well, it makes for a fun memory.

Well that does it for this quarter.  See you in 3 months!
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