My Least Favorite Month

 January is not my favorite month of the year.   It's cold.  It's dark.  The holidays are over.  Spencer was diagnosed with leukemia in January, so there's a bit of PTSD I still deal with every year.  And, in general, I experience all sorts of restless feelings this time each year.  So I donate blood every January.  It's definitely become an annual tradition now and it gives me a sense of purpose/giving back in amongst all the angsty feelings.  

I also try to stay very busy.  That also helps.

All in one week in January,  I cleaned out the pantry, put away the Christmas stuff, hosted book group, donated blood, cleaned the house, made a menu, and started going ham on creating the Come Follow Me activity sheets for the upcoming year.  Staying busy is good for my mental state.  

I also finally got all the Christmas Eve pajama photos compiled into one collage, which made me super happy.   When you've got kids all over the country, these kinds of things can take a while!   

So I mentioned above that   I've started creating the Come, Follow Me activity sheets again for this upcoming year.  I discovered the use of AI for creating coloring sheets and it's been a fun resource for me. I'd been using CHATGPT for creating them and they would turn out like this.   Pretty good.   Sometimes with some weird stuff in it, because it's AI, but not terrible in my opinion.   

Then Spencer told me about a new AI platform that he'd heard was really good.  I decided to test it out and I put in the exact same prompt that I'd used on Chat to create the above coloring sheet of Abraham and Sarah from the bible.  This is what it came up with.... 

HAHAHA!  We may have laughed for a very long time about this.   I looked it up and apparently Claude is better for words than images and  I'd have to say that is a massive understatement.  Ha! 

January has also been quite the adventure for getting to know the new members of our BYU ward.   It's a little harder than we expected, because while it was only a fraction of the people than it was in September, it seems like the expectation is higher to learn the names more quickly.  I am still working hard to get there, but  I'm realizing that my brain still needs to meet people a few times before names/faces are really stuck in my brain well!  

And how did we finish my least favorite month off?   

WITH A TRIP TO RHODE ISLAND TO VISIT SOME OF  MY FAVORITE PEEPS!!!! 

Stay tuned for that blogpost coming soon....

2025 Christmas Card and Newsletter

It seems that every year I receive fewer and fewer Christmas cards.   While I totally get that Christmastime is an exceedingly busy time of  many commitments;  I consider Christmas card sending and receiving as one of my favorite parts of the season and you should worry if the day ever comes that I don't send them.    I enjoy thinking about aspects of my upcoming Christmas cards in snippets all through the year.   I consider all sorts of questions, like what picture(s) might I use, what tidbits might I include, how to structure the newsletter, who  I should purge  from my list after I haven't heard from them in a few years, how I can make it more interesting, etc.    In all fairness, I don't usually DO anything about my Christmas cards until late November, but I usually already have a good idea of what I will do by that time.   

This was another entire year with one of our family members on a mission, which meant no whole family photos to include.   Other missionary years included 2017, 2021, 2023, and now 2025.  I've approached this in different ways before, like the year we just put in a part-family photo and included photos of the missionary on the back, and the one time we commisioned an artist on Etsy to create this artistic version, but I knew early on that we would just do a collage this year.  I found this template on Canva and from there it was just a matter of finding the right photo for each person. I changed up the design a bit too and had it printed at a local print shop.      

Here's a little about each photo and why we chose it.   
The photo of Glen and I was taken at the Cliffs of Moher in Ireland. I think the background is lovely and it's a cute photo of us.  
The photo of Spence and Kiwi was taken by his request one day when he needed a photo for a work spotlight.  I knew instantly that I would include that one in the Christmas card.  
The photo of Cam and family was taken by a photographer friend of theirs near their apartment in Birmingham shortly before they moved.  I love how these turned out.   
Graduating from BYU was definitely one of Emma's big highlights of the year, so using a grad photo was a no-brainer for me.  
Adam had A LOT of mountain climbing selfies in the camera roll, but I like this one of him at the Provo City Center temple the best. 
There were other pics I liked better of Ellie, but I wanted one of her by herself that showed a little glimpse of the beautiful area she's serving in.  This one standing at Ventura Harbor (I think) fit the bill perfectly!  

The photo of me with Lucie and Oliver was taken in Rhode Island on Halloween.   It was one of my favorites that included them!  
I love this photo of Ellie and her companion, Hermana B, who is from Australia.  They get asked all the time if they are sisters.  
This photo of Glen and I was taken in the Dolomites.   
This *almost complete* family photo was taken this past summer when Cam came to town.   I was super sad that Glen and I didn't hop in the picture as well, otherwise that one may have ended up on the front of our card.  It's also missing Garrett and Ellie though, so it's all good.  
I like how this photo of Adam, Glen, and I at a BYU football game this past fall shows a glimpse of how much of our life is currently spent down in Provo!  

For the newsletter, I just ended up purchasing a template on Etsy, when I couldn't find anything I liked on Canva.   I included a quick rundown on each person and also had it printed at a local print shop.   

  I have been gradually whittling my list down over the years as I've been receiving fewer and fewer cards in return and this year I'm down below 200.   It makes me sad taking people off my list, but when I don't hear from them for a few years in a row, or if I know they've moved and make no effort to give me their new address, I usually take them off.  Good friends and relatives being the exceptions.  I leave them on regardless of whether they send anything or not.  

 I had so much fun making my own cards, that, once again, I volunteered to design and print some for my Mom as well.   The background in this photo with all of us siblings and Mom  in the Dolomites almost looks fake, it's so stunning, but I can attest that it's 100% real!   

So, in other words, my obsession is still going strong and you can find me excitedly running to the mailbox every single day to see what the haul is.   

What are your thoughts on Christmas cards?  I know many people choose not to send them and don't really get that excited about receiving them.    If you don't send them, why not?  I'd love to hear what you think!  

 Click here to see Christmas cards and newsletter from past years.   

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU AND YOURS!  

Another Thanksgiving in the Books!

I feel like I've been a little off my game with blogging lately and I'm here today to try to get caught up a bit by {finally} blogging about Thanksgiving.   What about the trip we took back in September, you ask?  Well, blogging about that, my friends, is going to have to wait for another day.  Maybe another year.  My bandwidth is not quite there for diving into trip photos yet.   

So, I'll start off the rundown on Thanksgiving with our Christmas decorations.      I've been feeling a lot more minimalistic this year and we didn't even put half of the ornaments on the tree this year.  I originally thought we might get a narrow tree for the dining room to display some of the other ornaments, but ultimately we left it more sparse.   Maybe we'll find a tree on clearance at the end of the season.    

I also tried to go a little lighter on decorating the display shelves.    It's probably still too much and it's definitely way too much brown on brown, but until I finally get around to painting these shelves, it is what it is.  It usually takes 5+ years of an item being on my home improvement to-do list before I even think about making it actually happen. Someday...perhaps!     

IN Virginia, we almost always hosted Thanksgiving at our house, but we haven't done it much since moving here to Utah, since my Mom was already filling that role when we arrived.  {Click here to see a glimpse of  past Thanksgivings}. It's been nice to just show up as a guest the past few years.   This year, however, my Mom and sister needed a break and we became the host house!   With all the hosting we've done with the YSAs the last few months, it didn't feel as stressful as it might have otherwise.   We had 2 of our 5 kids there {Spence and Adam}, my Mom, my sister, two aunts, one uncle, three cousins, the mother-in-law of my cousin, and four kids of my cousin.   We assumed we'd have some of our YSA ward members join the crew, but everyone we talked to already had plans, and the 1st counselor beat us to the punch with the two that didn't.    That was right about 20 people...just enough to keep things lively, but without it being that stressful.   

Glen  smoked the turkey, made mashed potatoes, and gravy.  Adam and I made the pies, which turned out dog ugly, but tasted pretty good anyway!    I need to keep working on my gluten free pie crusts!   

The rest of the Thanksgiving dinner was made by everyone else, which is an awesome way to do things. We played one round of Codenames and then I gave everyone a postcard challenge.   Everyone picked a random word and I went through my postcard stash after they left and sent them a postcard with that word on it.  No one stumped me, though a few people got close (all with food words).   

 In the end I actually found postcards with a pretzel....

pasta...

 and another with a taco on it...  

The words they gave me (besides taco, pasta, and pretzel) were iridescent, watermelon, tiger, purple, lake, candy, beach, pig, octopus, and heat.  And none of the rest of them were that hard.  

 Haha!   Yes, I'm aware that I'm quite a nerd when it comes to postcards.    Feel free to leave a comment and challenge me with your own word.  😆

Now, back to more Thanksgiving shenanigans. 

The boys also played a lot of Magic the Gathering...

And I was quite enraptured with the pics from Thanksgiving out East!   I really missed having any of our girls home and I am somewhat obsessed with Oliver and Lucie right now.  I really really need to see them again soon.   Isn't that flannel on Oliver the cutest?!   

 Adam gave a talk the Sunday after Thanksgiving, so I skipped out on part of 2nd hour and went to watch.   He spoke about becoming new creatures through Christ and did a great job! 

Last but not least, we did a peppermint ice cream taste test over Thanksgiving week.   

Last year, we did Tillamook vs. Umpqua and declared Umpqua the winner.   

This year we put BYU Creamery and Farr's peppermint up against Umpqua....

And Umpqua won the day again!  

 It's got a great creamy texture and by far the best peppermint flavor.    We'll look for more brands to test next year and see if any can unseat Umpqua!   

 

All in all, it was a great long weekend with my boys and it was nice not to have much on our schedule.  I've got a lot to be thankful for and you, my dear blog readers, are on that list!  Thanks for tuning in and have a beautiful holiday season filled with  peace and lots of love.  

Free Therapy

I'll be honest...

I'm currently sick with a bad cold (and the worst sore throat I've had in many years) and I have a lot of things swirling around me that are keeping my head in a pretty negative space.   As such, I am using this blog as my free therapy for the evening and I am going to try  and use this post as an opportunity to embrace the positivity as much as I can.   Don't worry though...since I don't pay you to read my blog, I'll keep you out of the muck of my brain!  

I'll post more about this trip later, but last week I was in Rhode Island to celebrate Emma's Halloween birthday with her.  Yes, my third child is 25 now and I am kind of feeling extra old because of it.  Cami has a full-time job and two small children, but she still managed to make a beautiful cake for Ems, as well as put up some decor (neither skill which she learned from her mother).  It was fun to be there with two of my girls...

I also very much enjoyed the opportunity to spend Halloween with these two cutie pies, even if they sent me home with this terrible cold.   

I also very much enjoyed seeing photos of Adam and his roommates' Halloween costumes. 

Speaking of photos of my "babies", I just got this one of Ellie texted to me yesterday by a girl that used to be in Vienna Ward like 20 years ago!   I think she recognized her by her nametag, not her face.  In any case, it totally made my day (which isn't hard when you feel like I do)! 

 If you happen to know me in real life, you may or may not know that I  have two core love languages...one is food, the other is postcards.    I love sending and receiving both.   I send  A LOT  of postcards in a month (probably 50+ most months), but don't get too many in return.  That's okay, because I love sending them so much, I don't really care.   Recently, though,  I got a homemade one from my sister-in-law...

And another one from a friend I met in Portugal...

 Both made me very happy.  

Also, every Monday we get to do this...

The calls with Ellie are always a bit chaotic and we are usually missing one family member or another (this week Adam), but being able to gather virtually with the fam is something that brings me incredible joy...the next best thing to being all together in person.  

So, yes, life is hard right now, but it's also good.     Hope you're having a beautiful week.  

 

Spencer's Summer Update

Hello, friends!  Welcome back for the next installment in our series of  What Our Family is Up To where I go person by person and give a little update on what our family is doing this summer.  You can see previous updates  here:  
 Ellie
 Adam
 Emma 
 Cami 

...and if I get my act together, I'll do updates on Glen and I soon too, but in the meantime, here's SPENCER!   

NOTE:  Spencer has not outgrown his aversion to picture taking, so his update will be less pictorial than the rest.   

  For the last couple years Spence had been working as a relationship banker at a local branch of a big bank, which gave him some great experience and proved to be a  confidence booster for him. However it did not prove to be as upwardly mobile as promised when he was hired and he did not enjoy getting shuffled around to work at several different local branches, despite being hired to work at the branch 5 minutes from home.  

Eventually, he decided it was time for a change and he quickly found a job in a related field, but not before winning a prestigious performance award at his old job.   The reaction of his soon-to-be former manager when he found out about the award confirmed to him that he'd made the right decision by leaving.  

His new job seems very promising.  Not only have most of his co-workers worked there many years (which seems like a good sign), but part of the training is helping him receive licensing and certification that will increase his earning potential and future marketability, wherever he works.   He also enjoys working from home every-other-week, so the longer commute is less of a factor than it would otherwise be.   

The last couple of years he's gotten a few tattoos--each of which has special meaning to him.  

In addition to being busy with a new job, Spence has been enjoying the long hours of daylight by taking Kiwi out on long walks most days.  He still loves to read, listen to podcasts, play disc-golf, rock-climb at the gym, and play Magic the Gathering whenever he can talk Glen and/or Adam into joining him!   

His health remains good and we enjoy having him live close! 

Eastering Together

Since becoming empty nesters, we honestly  go through some pretty dry spells where our lives are pretty uneventful, but lately it's been a pretty steady stream of nonboringness and we are enjoying it!  In fact, it's felt a bit like a whirlwind here the last month or so, so there's a ton to blog about.

This post will focus on the happenings of Easter weekend.  

On the Friday before Easter, my sister Heather was down in Provo with my Mom taking Emma's graduation pics (more of the recent excitement) and we decided to join them for a spontaneous little dinner and treat night.  Besides Heather, my Mom, and Emma, McKenzie (my niece), Riley (Emma's roommate), Adam, Spencer, and Glen and I were there.  We ate dinner at Don Joaquin's...

and laughed when our receipt was #74, which induced a lot of giggles on our parts...

We ended the night at Brooker's Founding Flavors ice cream shop near BYU.  Zwahlens in PA is still our gold standard for the best ice cream ever, but Brooker's isn't too far behind.  Plus the colonial / Founding Fathers theme of the shop makes us nostalgic for the DC area.   We were there on the snowy day mentioned here, so it wasn't great ice cream weather, but the place was still packed and we laughed that they had an outdoor DJ there that night.   

It was way too cold to be sitting outside and eating ice cream, but we chatted with the DJ on the way out and were impressed that they were celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Midnight Ride of Paul Revere that night.  

I doubt any of you blog readers have been around long enough to remember that Emma was OBSESSED with the poem, "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere," by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow back in the day!   We both could quote several stanzas of the poem from memory and I had to pull up this picture I found here on the blog to pass around to everyone!    "Listen my children and you shall hear of the midnight ride of Paul Revere..." 

Then on Easter Sunday we attended our new YSA ward and LOVED it!   The talks and music were Christ centered and beautiful.   I think we are going to really enjoy this season of serving down at BYU. 

After church, we hosted dinner for 12 people!    Guests besides Glen, Emma, Spence, Adam, and I, included our niece, McKenzie, my sister, Heather, my Mom, my cousin, Trisha, and her 2 daughters Lily and Sylvie, plus Adam's roommate, Ty.

Glen woke up at 2am to  smoke  brisket and later made mashed potatoes, Heather brought rolls, and I made broccoli salad, pie,cupcakes.  Adam, Emma, and McKenzie were our sous chefs.  Everything was delicious and we ate well! 

It was so fun to get these first and second cousins together again. 

Meanwhile, in Alabama...the B family was enjoying their own Easter.  Yes, Cami and I were wearing matching dresses that we both bought on a recent sale!    And Cami sewed Lucie and Oliver's matching outfits!    Apparently Lucie had the time of her life with all the Easter celebrations, but Oliver wasn't so sure...

And, in California, Ellie was busy teaching people about Jesus, while celebrating the resurrection of Jesus.   She, along with the other missionaries serving in her ward, ended up performing a musical number in the Easter sacrament service without any previous notice.  Overall it sounded like she had a beautiful day. 

It turned out to be a lovely weekend with  a lot of good food, lots of reflection on the atonement of our Savior, and  with lots of good company... just the way Easter should be!  💗

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Adjusting Back to Real Life and the Literal Worst Picture Ever Taken

 It's been nearly a month since we've been home from our grand European adventure, which means life kept  rolling forward while I kept blogging about our trip and I am a little behind here.  I know you all have missed the updates about our super exciting lives, but, never fear, I am here to get you all caught up again!   

We got back home right after the USA had switched to Daylight Savings Time, which effectively meant one fewer hours of jetlag to adjust to, but that little difference didn't seem that helpful in reality.  The day AFTER we'd gotten home (after sleeping in our bed for one night, but still feeling quite topsy turvy about what time it was compared to what time our bodies thought it was), I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror around 8pm (about 2am according to my body) and literally gasped in horror, then started cracking up.   I looked AMAZING!  😂😭😂😱😂 

 Haha!  I hope sharing this picture doesn't come back to haunt me, but this picture is a pretty accurate depiction of those first few days of being back!    It's okay to laugh...just remember the circumstances.  😆

So after a week mostly filled with laundry, shopping, getting back to cooking our own meals again, giving Denali extra cuddles, getting ready for book group at our house (2 days after returning), avoiding naps, and being completely exhausted every evening...we finally started to feel more "normal" again. 

What is normal?   

Well, we did a Belgium vs. Ireland chocolate taste test and unanimously agreed that Belgian chocolate wins.   We probably shouldn't have been surprised by that fact, but the Irish chocolate looked so tasty, we were a little surprised that Belgium won so handily.  

I spontaneously made a pie to celebrate Pi Day on 3/14, but it turned out about how you'd expect a pie made by a  jet-lagged /haggard / exhausted woman not following a recipe to look...

Luckily it tasted better than it looked and we had no trouble eating it.  

Speaking of food...while the adjustment back to making every single meal, every single day was a little rough, my body very much appreciated getting back to eating tasty, minimally processed foods again.  I especially missed my breakfasts while traveling, which are generally  hearty, wholesome,  and nutritionally dense.  This veggie filled omelet Glen made one Saturday morning was as pretty as it was delicious, so I had to take a picture!  😋😋😋😋😋😋

Glen worked some while we were on our trip, but definitely got a little behind and has been playing catch-up  since being home.  One night, Glen challenged me to a game of Scrabble, then got lost putting out a figurative fire at work, so Spence played with me instead.   Our kids do not enjoy  Scrabble the competitive way Glen and I play, so we played fast and loose with the rules.   

We didn't keep score and threw in a few proper nouns for good measure...but it was fun!   We'll have to play that way more often to get the kids to join in!

Since being home, Glen has been on not one, but TWO additional  trips--one for work and one to help with his Mom, who is in poor health.     And last week his "right hand man" at work just unexpectedly quit.    In other words...his stress level is high and I am hoping he is able to find his balance soon.  It's hard watching him feel so much stress and feeling helpless to do much, other than loving and supporting him.  

On a brighter note, Ellie recently started the second transfer of her mission and got a new roommate and a new companion in the process--a missionary roommate is a missionary who lives in the same apartment, but is in a different companionship. 

from left to right:  Hermana C. (Ellie's companion), Hermana P., Ellie, and Hermana W.

Anyway, she learned that Hermana W.'s family lives within sight of our house!   They're in another ward and relatively new to the area, but I immediately reached out and had her Mom over for lunch one day.  

It was delightful to meet a fellow missionary Mom and  we bonded over the fact that both of our daughters have had significant health challenges in their lives.  Her daughter has a prosthetic foot, which is much different than Ellie's epilepsy, but both indicative of strong young women overcoming challenges to serve the Lord! 💗 

Speaking of Ellie, she seems very happy on her mission.   

 

 It sounds like the Spanish is coming along decently well and it's made my Mom heart happy to watch her grow and stretch in this way!    She doesn't have a temple in her mission boundaries, but was recently able to attend the Los Angeles Temple, which was a highlight for her. 

Okay, okay.  I said I was catching everything up here, but I need to be done for today.   I am trying hard to keep things like blogging in balance in my life, so consider this catch-up post #1.  I anticipate an additional 1-2 more, before I'm back to blogging about more recent happenings.  

HAVE AN AMAZING DAY!   THANKS FOR TUNING IN TODAY!  💗