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!
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!
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