JANUARY

For the first time in my adult life, January seemed to speed right on by.  I started the month off with some baking.  I found fun way to do Christmas Tree scoring on my sourdough and gave lots of loaves away to friends and neighbors over the Winter break.

I also made a cake for the New Years Day party that we attended at Seth's Aunt and Uncle's house.  I made Cake by Courtney's White Chocolate Peppermint Pretzel Cake.  It was fun to have something to show off the goal I had set to make "yummy" cakes in 2024.

 

We ate lots of yummy food at the party and played lots of games.

 

Lou hung out close by me and enjoyed the cake...mostly the frosting of the cake.

Phin got quite a mustache when drinking a protein shake one morning.

 

Lou got some ribbon scissors and a cutting workbook for Christmas and has loved practicing her cutting.

 

We had a very mild January.  We really only got substantial snow one day.  Seth took this photo of the kids out building a fort.

 

January was a big month of Phin.  He was ordained a Deacon and received the Aaronic Priesthood.  It was extra special to have Papa and Grandad come for his ordination.

School started back up on Tuesday, January 7th.  I had to work the morning of the 6th but in the afternoon we took advantage of the Monday off and met some friends at the Museum of Natural Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point.

 

Seth's work had their company party in January.  They had a huge suite at the Utah Hockey League game.  The food was yummy and I enjoyed a more laid-back setting to meet Seth's co-workers.  We were given this gorgeous centerpiece to take home.  We ended up gifting it to my Mom who babysit our kids so we could have a night away from the kiddos.

 

Phin was pretty excited that Pap took him to cousin Ben's basketball game.

 

We took Phin to do baptisms at the Bountiful temple for the first time.  It was really amazing to see him experience the temple for the first time.

We of course followed up the temple with ice cream from our favorite local spot.

Basketball season has officially started...and Fall Suzanne did me dirty...it is quite overwhelming to have three kids playing basketball at a time.  It feels like we are at a game or practice almost everyday of the week.  Millie was up first and had been counting down until the season started.  It was fun to see her excitement when her team won the first game.

 

 

 

Millie was also pretty excited about post game treats.

Millie and Phin's team had official photos take.  Here is a little behind the scenes.

 

Silas was up next.  He is in an instructional league so they practice for the first half of the hour and then scrimmage for the second half.  He is on the same team as two other kids in our ward and is lucky enough to have those kid's Dad's as his coaches.  They are so patient.  I laughed many times the first game.  One thing about Silas is that he tries so hard to do what is asked of him.  He heard the coach tell him he needed to have his hands up...so he had them up the entire game.  He also was guarding someone from the other team and it looked more like they were playing tag. 

 

 

Silas set a new years goal to learn to make his own sandwiches...check done!

I took the kids to cousin Ben's basketball game at East High.  The girls had a lot of fun playing Calico critters on the bleachers.

We had a great time watching Ben play.  My kids also loved  visiting the vending machines at half time.  We talked about how High School Musical was filmed at East High.  Somehow my kids had never seen it before.  When we came home the watched the original High School Musical and then over the weekend caught up with the rest of the series. 

I experimented a little with some sourdough scoring...this is Valentine hearts.

I took four different loaves up for Sunday dinner.

We have been really consistent on family scripture study at night.  We aren't sure how much they hear...but here they are all gathered around to watch a scripture video.

Silas was pretty excited that Nona sent him home from Sunday dinner with some date cake.

Seth had to work on Martin Luther King Day so it was just me and the kiddos.  We went to Chick Fil A for lunch.  They all traded in their prizes for ice cream.

 

It has been so funny to see some of Silas' work and illustrations come home.  This one was about the vocabulary word "forbidden" and he wrote "I am forbidden to play my dad's games.

Millie went to a friend's Space Cat birthday themed party and was delighted to come home with a little goodie bag.

The kids got a coupon to Texas Roadhouse when they were trick or treating that expired at the end of the month.  So we took them out.  Phin was a huge fan of the steak...here you can see him carving away at his steak.

I made Collette a birthday cake.  She chose Cake by Courtney's Tonight Show Cake.  I love this type of cake that is just layered.  It had a layer of chocolate cake, chocolate chip cookie dough, peanut butter butter cream, chocolate cookie crumbs and then caramel cake repeated over and over again. 

One of my kids didn't finish their slice so Lou and I enjoyed it after lunch the next day.  I sat down with it and she very wisely found a spoon and came to sit by me.

 

Cake by Courtney started an "Ambassador" program.  If you send in a picture of a cake you made during the month she sends you a coupon for merchandise on her site and you are entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card.  here is a screenshot of my cake featured on her Instagram at the end of the month.

Silas passed off all his sight words and his teacher rewarded him with a fun light up wand.