January 2021

 I cant believe that January is over, it went by fast.  It was a good month.  Here is a little bit about what we have been up to.  

School: Lydia still goes 2 days a week, she loves it, and wishes she could go more.  The High School was hoping to be able to open at the beginning of the new semester but with high covid numbers that didnt happen, so the older girls are still doing all of their classes at home, but hoping to be able to go back soon.  They finished first semester a week ago, they did well, and are getting started on second semester, so far it seems like it should be good.

Seminary: They now are able to go 2 days a week to in person seminary, and they all go the same day, which is nice, Hailey can drive them.  They really enjoy it and are learning a lot. They especially loved class on Friday, they did a live virtual tour of palmyra and the sacred grove.

Health: So far we have not had COVID, and Marc has had both doses of the vaccine.  In other health news in December we went to Childrens hospital to have Nicoles hemangioma looked at, they did some blood work and found out that she is anemic, we scheduled an MRI and an appointment  with a hematologist for April, but soon after we scheduled the appointment Nicole started having some problems, she couldnt keep up when she ran and would often have to stop because she couldnt get a good breath, she would have to rest after running up the stairs, this wasnt normal, so we called and moved up her appointment.  She had more bloodwork done and it was a little worse than before, so she started on iron this past week and now we will try to figure out what is causing it, we will run a few more tests and hopefully she will start feeling better soon.

Kyle: Kyle is doing well, we talk to him most Sundays.  He just had his first transfer, he is now in a really small town called Oakley Idaho, there are about 800 people and 3 wards, he also works with a spanish branch in Burley and a small branch in grouse Creek Utah.  He is enjoying getting to know the people there.  He spoke in the Utah branch last week and then they had a big dinner at the church after.  He really likes the food, lots of meat and potatoes.  And he says the lady across the street brings desert over a couple of times a week.  He is making lots of good friends and playing a lot of basketball.  He really likes the missions president and his wife.  He had a bad hair cutting experience this past week, it was a free hair cut and it was pretty bad, his mission president and his wife had a good laugh and just teased him a little, we told him in a few weeks he will be able to laugh at it too.He was also called as the District leader, it is a small district but he is learning new things form a new experience.

He spent a week in Burley before he was able to move to Oakley because the Oakley elders had COVID, he enjoyed hanging out with the elders there, he just slept on their couch for a week.  He had fun dressing up for pictures

One of his good friends from his last area

Looking good-Im sure he is one of the only missionaries with a mullet, but his president likes it, and Kyle says it is legendary

His friend from home stopped on his way to school at BYU

Fun Stuff: Every Saturday we go to the church and play pickle ball and basketball and rollerblade, it has been fun.  We have done lots of puzzles and fun winter art projects

Friday nights Marc and I go out to dinner and the girls have a girls night they do their own dinner and then hang out, usually they watch a fun movie.  Saturday we have been having a family movie night, we have watched some fun movies together.  The twins still run most days, and Hailey plays tennis anytime there is a nice day, it sounds like sports are going to be starting up soon.  Lydia has been really happy because they started up primary activity days again, they made bow and arrows the other day and she loved it. This past week we had some snow, 3-4 inches, it was so pretty and the girls had a great time, they played all day.

They built this huge fort, it had 2 slides and built in chairs and little rooms, and a tunnel

New Years Eve

 We really missed having the fun youth activity for New Years, the past couple of years have been so fun. Hailey babysat this year until about 6, when she got home we ate lots of yummy fun food.  Then I had put slips of paper with different activities into a bowl we took turns picking a paper out and doing the activity, it kept us busy until almost midnight, then we watched the ball drop and went to bed.  Some of the activities were, laser tag, basketball, target shooting with Marcs pellet gun, cake walk with cupcakes that Lydia made and decorated, karaoke, games, talking about favorite things from 2020 and hopes for 2021, and racing our Christmas cars.

What a year 2020 has been, very different than what we expected.  There were things that we really missed- going to the temple, sporting events, going to school, hanging out with friends and family.  But there were also things that we learned and enjoyed in 2020, we loved the extra family time, having church at home was special, although we are glad to back at church now, we enjoyed the outdoors more than ever before-hiking, fishing, running, parks. We learned that different doesnt have to be bad, but that we can find joy even in hard times.  We also learned to rely more on the peace and joy that the gospel brings. And now we are excited to see what 2021 has to bring.

Winter break

 Winter break is over, we start back with school and early morning seminary tomorrow, we have enjoyed sleeping in and have some fun lazy days.  The girls had fun with all their Christmas stuff this week.  We did get some more snow on Wednesday, they played outside for quite awhile, it was funny watching them on the slide they made, they looked like penguins sliding on the snow.

We made it to the church a couple of times to play pickle ball and basketball, and rollerblade.

The girls got really good on their rollerblades, and marc is motivated to practice pickle ball more so that maybe he can beat hailey someday.

We also did a winter art project, and a puzzle, watched some good movies, and enjoyed our week.