Christmas, New Years, Diplomas, Concert, Dance, Piano, Ordination, Chicken Nuggets

Here is what our family has been up to the last month. Even though I was gone to London for 9 days, life still continued on at home. Here are some highlights:

Matthew got to go see the lights down at Temple Square in Salt Lake with his group home. He had his staff send us these pictures of him enjoying the lights before Christmas:

While I was gone,  Matthew got to go out on a date. It was with another special needs girl from a Chrysalis home. He was so excited to tell me about his date. I think the date was successful because his date happened to be nonverbal. Matthew is a talker so Matthew didn't mind she was the strong silent type. He told me she is now his girlfriend and tried to set up a time where her and her mom could come to house to meet me and Aaron. I told Matthew let's not worry about that right now. Let's just shoot for a possible second date. Matthew was fine with that.

Noah also had a band concert while I was gone. The Christmas concert is a fundraiser so you had to purchase tickets to attend. I don't necessarily agree with that, but that is for another post. Anyway, Aaron and Sarah attended the concert. From where their assigned seats were, Noah sat directly behind the band director--DOH!  Luckily, there were a few seconds where they got to see Noah throughout the performance. They played a Christmas medley with songs from the Nutcracker, Trans Siberian orchestra, etc. Aaron sent me a video so I was able to listen to it while I was in London. It sounded pretty awesome. 

Noah was also able to participate in the city youth council Blitzen Bash city Christmas party. They help man the booths and keep things running. Sarah had dance so she was not able to help out this year, but Noah was there. Here is the group of youth council members that helped that evening:

With the 7 hour time difference between London and Utah I had to time my calls just right to catch everyone to talk to them. I did FaceTime Sarah to make sure I was picking out the right London sweatshirt that she wanted--haha!

While I was also gone Sarah had a dance company performance. Here's a picture of Sarah's group after the performance:

When I got home from London Sarah had a follow up appointment the next day with the liver doctor to go over her results from her liver biopsy.  There was inflammation found on her biopsy. The doctor still is unsure what is going on with Sarah. He is starting to lean toward the possibility of PSC (Primary sclerosing cholangitis), but he is still not sure. She is getting some more testing done and a MRI next week. He decided not to restart her on the Ursodiol medication for now. So we still don't have any definite answers which is frustrating. However, Sarah is getting ready to start on her mission paperwork. They changed the sister missionary age from 19 to 18 which means Sarah can go towards the end of this year. I am not ready for that, but luckily, I have a few months to get used to the idea. Daniel will come home the very end of July and Sarah will leave sometime towards the end of October through the middle of November.  We will only have a few months where our whole family will be together until she leaves which is crazy!  Our last Christmas we were all home together was back in 2003. With the way things are going we won't have a family Christmas altogether in person until 2030 because as soon as Sarah gets home, Noah will be leaving.  Crazy times!

The next day after I got home from London, Sarah and Noah had a very relaxed piano recital. It is a party at the piano teacher's house where the piano music is in the background while everyone is talking or visiting. That way there is less attention and stress for the performers. It was a very small affair to make it less stressful for everyone. It was fun.

Daniel has been busy. He has switched areas twice in the last two months. He went from Sioux Falls, SD, back to Omaha. Then he got moved to Council Bluffs in Iowa. That is where he is currently serving as a Zone Leader. Here's a few random pictures we have of him lately:

Daniel was in an ad for the 'Finding Christ in the Midwest' Facebook group promoting the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. It was pretty cool to see!  He got to show off some of his sweet Kendama moves as well. Here's just a screen shot of the ad:

The kids got out of school for Winter Break after school December 19. We had a few days that I had off the next week so we decided to go have some fun. I let the kids choose what they wanted to do. They chose to go thrifting. We went to a few places and got a few pictures of their finds:

Josh was being a dork and tried this leather vest on. It did not come home with us that day--thank goodness--haha!

Daniel challenged us to find the oldest thing in the store. Noah and I found this really old copy of the Book of Mormon in Russian we think:

The Sunday before Christmas we had a special Christmas Sacrament Meeting. Noah was asked to be one of the speakers. He was nervous, but he did great! Josh attends a YSA (young single adult) ward so he doesn't go to church at the same time we do. He volunteered to play a special piano musical number in his ward for their Christmas Sacrament Meeting program as well.

We did stop by and visit Grandpa T's grave before Christmas:

For Christmas Eve we had everyone over for a Christmas Eve lunch. I didn't get any pictures, but Grandma T, my sister Johanna and her family and my brother Bryan and his family were here.

After everyone had left after lunch, Daniel called to ask if he could open one of his Christmas presents. We had sent him and his companion the same Christmas pajama pants so they could be twinners like us. Here he is opening his first present Christmas Eve:

Later that evening we went to look at the Christmas lights at the Ogden Christmas Village. It was crazy because it was 55 degrees outside. It wasn't cold. We just were all wearing only sweatshirts and were just fine. That is crazy because most years it is so cold. We really loved it!!   Here's proof from the van that it was 55 degrees:

Here's some pictures from looking at the lights:

After we got done at the Ogden village we drove down to look at the Layton City lights. We do this every year just like the Ogden Village. It was fun to see all the familiar light displays.

The ones we like to see are the frog eating the flies, the train, the dragonflies, monkey and the coconut, the moose, etc. Here's the train as we drove by:

When we got home we opened our one Christmas Eve present which is always matching pajama pants:

Here's our annual Christmas Eve matching pajama pants picture (even though you really can't see the pants--haha!):

After the picture we played some games, watched a movie, and read the Nativity from the Scriptures. Then we sent everyone to bed.

All the kids decided they wanted to sleep downstairs instead of trying to all cram into Sarah and Noah's room. It does have more space so we just said they couldn't come upstairs until we gave them the okay the next morning. Santa did come to our house, though:

The next morning they were excited to come upstairs:

Trying to figure out whose stuff is where so they know where to sit:

Everyone opening present:

Matthew got Sophie a doggie jacket that came with an eye mask. Sophie was not a fan of it, but she did sit still long enough so we could get a picture--haha!

After opening presents and trying to tidy up a bit, Daniel called. He and a bunch of other missionaries had a sleepover. Each missionary called their family so their family could watch them open their presents. Daniel called us and was able to say hello to Grandma T before she left to go to Bryan's house so it was nice they were able to talk for a minute. Then we got to watch Daniel open the presents we had sent him. That was fun because you could hear all the missionaries excitedly watching in the background:

He got a Dino nugget blanket and a Kendama with a few other things.

After Daniel opened up his presents it was another missionary's turn to call their family so he got off. It was fun to watch him open his presents, though!

For Christmas Dinner we didn't do anything exciting. We had our big family dinner the day before so we were pretty chillaxed for that day.  We ordered some Chinese Food and let the kids pick out some sushi rolls to share. It was awesome!

After lunch, Sarah did have to go in to work. The joys of working in health care around any holiday. Luckily, she was able to spend the day before with us and Christmas morning so I call that a win!

I was given an Amaryllis plant a few weeks ago. It just started blooming and it is so pretty!

The Monday after Christmas we all had the morning off and decided to go play some Top Golf. 

Noah has decided he wanted to sleep in Daniel's bed so he could try the bigger bed. I think he likes it better, but I don't know how Daniel will feel about that when he gets home....

New Year's Eve was a very boring, but nice night. I had to work all day. Aaron got off a few hours before I did and cooked some bacon wrapped beef tenderloin for us. All the kids were supposed to have plans so we just knew it was going to be Aaron and me.  Well.....Noah decided to invite all his friends to our house for the evening. Sarah's plans fell through so she was with us, too. We had to share part of our steaks, but it was okay--haha!

Sophie was trying her hardest to get a taste, too--haha!

At midnight we celebrated with Noah's friends outside our front door:

Then while Noah was walking his friends home we opened some sparkling cider and had a glass/cup:

The next morning Aaron wanted all of us to try some traditional southern New Year's food black eyed peas and cornbread. It is supposed to bring you good luck in the new year. If there is a chance for good luck I will try it--haha!

Black eyed peas on cornbread:

I have tried it before, but don't remember liking it. However, I tried it again this time and it wasn't too bad. Here's too good luck in the new year!!

Aaron and I had a chance to go to the Syracuse Temple a few days ago. Sometimes that can be put on the back burner, but I am glad we got a chance to go.

Noah got ordained a Priest by Aaron this past Sunday. I can't believe it!  It is our last Priest ordination!! I am happy, but sad that it has gone by so fast!  Here's my cute new Priest:

Josh was able to join in on the ordination as well. He just changed clothes too fast before I could get the picture taken--haha!

We had one last day together before work and school started so we decided to do a food compare and contrast challenge. The kids chose to try out different chicken nuggets. We picked up nuggets from McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King, Jack in the Box, and Carl's Jr. Here was the blind taste test set up--I set it up for them to try:

Amazingly enough McDonald's nuggets were the overall winner!!

Josh excitedly got the mail today. Inside were his TWO Associate degree diplomas from Weber State University. He got one Associate's Degree in Spanish and another in General Studies!  He will get another one at the end of next semester in Medical Laboratory Technology. He just figured he qualified and had enough classes/credits for them both so he applied to get the degrees. He is still planning on getting his Bachelor's degree in two years, these were just icing on the top of that cake he will eventually get. Way to go Josh!!!!

No one knew that Josh played the piano in his ward until he played his musical number in church for Christmas. Now they know that....all the piano/organ players were gone this past Sunday so he got asked last minute to play the piano for all three Sacrament meeting hymns. He was nervous, but he said things went okay for the most part. He is more brave than I am!!