January

The beginning of the month feels like ages ago, though the last four weeks seem to have flown by. We rang in the new year with both sets of grandparents and Aunts. The Johnson's left the next day, the Kress' left the day after that, and then real life started back up again. 

The kids went to the dentist, and Hyrum had his annual check up. The boys had a snow day and a day off for MLK day. On different occasions, Matthew and his truck helped move a piano, a mattress, and a couch. He hosted D&D here twice as well as his fantasy book club. I was able to take Dixie to our book club. Hyrum started Cub Scouts and won first place in the pinewood derby. We have a few weeks of 9:00 am church under our belts and we are really loving the new schedule, despite ward council starting at 7:30. I was in charge of sharing time this month and we spent five weeks talking about agency. I loved seeing the older kids coming to a deeper understanding of this particular Gospel principle. There was a fun Relief Society activity where we got to do Zumba and learn about nutrition. I helped host a baby shower and we went sledding. Matthew went home teaching and did some Elder's Quorum visits. Mercy played at the Jolley's and the Jensen's, and I tended the Brown girls a couple of times, as well as Riker and the Jensen boys. Mercy and I ran a ton of errands last week including visiting teaching, Abraham's class room, the scout shop, the eye glasses place, Sprout's, JoAnn's, Hobby Lobby, and Walmart. We had dinner one Sunday at the Brown's house and ate with them another time at a restaurant. Neither Matthew or I have ridden our bikes this month, but he's been very busy out in the garage cleaning, organizing, and setting up his new table saw. I've spent hours and hours at my sewing machine and have completed several quilts. The days and weeks are busy and full, and we are all trying our best to have a good time.