January 2021

One of the joys of living far away from family is that Christmas lasts a little longer... Jonas was stoked to receive these fun socks from his cousin!  He was eager to model them for me. 

Is there a screen on somewhere?

My mom and dad came to visit!!!  We were so, so happy to have them here!

I think birthday spankings were in order.

More snuggling with the dog.

My dad LOVES pho.  We took them to a little place down the road and my dad decided it might be worth one more trip to North Dakota before we move to get some more.

The reason for their visit was because Abraham made the big decision to be baptized.  He is growing up in a many ways and we are so blessed to have him in our family.  Trying to get good pictures before the meeting was kinda funny.

Masks for the memory books.

Abraham asked Bryant to baptize him, so we had to get him in some of the pictures too.

What a blessing it is to have the priesthood on the earth so we can make covenants.

We had laughed and laughed together when the kids got every single stuffed animal we own and buried Grandpa in them.  It started out small...

But it escalated...

Before we knew it, Grandpa was nowhere in sight.

The traditional dinner out with the grown ups and the child who was baptized.  Abe chose Red Lobster.  He loved it.

He got his very own lobster tail!

I did a thing.  I partnered with a luxury hair care, skin care, and wellness company.  I was so excited the day my products arrived (which also happened to be the day I tried some other beauty products for the first time--hence the red lips) that I got all gussied up and made my big announcement on Instagram.  I was starting a business!

We didn't have nearly enough time with my parents, but we were grateful for the time we got!

Bryant was pulling out of the garage on his way to school and he hit the suburban.  The bumper came all the way off the car.  We didn't fix it for quite some time.  At first we were shy about using the car without the bumper, but we got over it, eventually.

This boy struggled through online school again.  Thankfully, school got back into a rhythm and he was back to his awesome productivity.

I don't know where or why we took this one, but I sure love this guy.

This winter was unbelievably mild as far as North Dakota standards go.  We took the kids to the park on a couple Saturdays.  There was VERY little snow, but that didn't stop them from having a blast sledding down the hill over and over.  I took videos of all our fun, but only got this one photo.  I think it's a keeper.  

One super fun memory from that specific day was when the kids went down the slide and shot out at the bottom a good 3-4 feet because of ice.  It was hysterical!

Muddy Buddies for FHE treat.

I don't know why these boys look so sad.  

Eliza has been baking a lot lately.  She loves it.

This little boy is my favorite.  He loves reading.  And I love when he lays down with his hands under his chin like this.

I made a goal to use up some of my fabric stash and make some quilts for charity.  This was my first one.  

This beauty, self-care stuff has been really fun.  

I love making soap!  I made some with my mom while they were here.  

I finished reading the Old Testament, too!

My kids played this game every single day in January.

What in the world? How is this kid old enough to be going on a mission?!?!

Home school started back up in earnest in January.  It mostly has gone well.

But Levi sincerely gave me a run for my money.

I'm taking a lot more photos of myself lately.

Spied this one day and thought it was pretty cool that WalMart has a special parking spot for USAF.

Last year I decided to save our Christmas cards by doing a hole punch in the corners and putting a ring to hold them all together.

 January was a good month.  We were thankful for the warmer weather than we expected