Winter Highlights

December

December began with a literal whirlwind; hurricane-force winds swept through our part of Davis County, causing some pretty serious damage. . .serious enough that church was cancelled two days later so that everybody could pitch in to get the debris cleaned up.

(No, that's no our tractor--this lucky homeowner happened to have a Kubota too!)

Even now, months later, you can see the evidence: gaping holes where trees once stood, broken store signs, missing sections of fence. . .and work crews putting down new roofs.

Thankfully, our house wasn't damaged too badly, although our neighborhood was without power for a good while. The girls thought the power outage was fun. . .at first. By dinnertime, though, they'd had it--the house was cold and boy, were they cranky, so I buried them under a pile of blankets in the living room and set up the laptop with a movie. (Behold the power of my camera's flash: our house was pitch-dark, but for a handful of candles, when I took this picture!)

The girls missed 2 days of school because of the sustained power outage. . .but they would've missed it anyway, since what I thought was just general crankiness on their part turned out to be Coxsackievirus (a.k.a. hand/foot/mouth disease). Elizabeth didn't get it too badly, but for a few days there Anna looked like she had the plague, with sores around her mouth and all over her hands.

Fortunately, they were well in time for Elizabeth's birthday, so we were able to proceed with her much-anticipated "Littlest Pet Shop" party. The party was a rousing success, and as usual I didn't take any pictures. Whoops!

Anna has been taking ballet this year, and she was SO excited for the Christmas recital. This girl was born for the spotlight:


I got one of those little advent calendars with 24 tiny drawers, thinking it would be fun to leave a little slip of paper in each with some special activity written on it. I let the girls paint the windows, helped them make cards for their teachers, hosted screenings of Christmas movies, baked a Christmas-tree-shaped pizza. . .phew. We even made "gingerbread" (okay, hot-glued graham cracker) houses


The girls had oodles of fun, but by the time Christmas was over, I was fresh out of ideas. . .and we still had two long weeks of winter break! Rookie mistake, starting out too fast and then flaming out a few miles before the finish line. Next year I'll pace myself.

Christmas Day itself was something of a marathon. After opening presents we got the kiddos all ready for church, and then I had to run up there early for rehearsals (our sacrament meeting consisted of a bunch of musical numbers by the Primary, the Young Women, the congregation. . .and somehow I ended up being the accompanist for every number minus one.) From church we left straight for the grandparents' houses for still more festivities. Whew!

The kiddos in their Christmas pajamas. . .

. . .and in their Christmas Sunday finery

We spent New Year's Eve at home with the kids and a couple of pots of "fun do". The favorites this year were the roasted new potatoes (for the cheese fondue) and the mini Rice Krispie treats (for the chocolate fondue--which, by the way, is a great way to get rid of all that Christmas chocolate laying around. . .I think this year's batch included some chocolate Santas and Toblerone.)


Jared and I spent the rest of the evening catching up on some Tivo'ed shows and watching some of the Times Square coverage. I realized that when it comes to pop culture, I come across as 30 years older than I actually am: "That's Ryan Seacrest? I thought that was Carson Daly. Well then who IS Carson Daly? Good heavens, what is that SOUND--they call this MUSIC?!? I don't get why that guy is dancing in a robot costume--is that a 'thing' now?"

January

January is all about getting our groove back after the holiday heydays, and I think we're juuuust about there. We've recently added piano lessons to the mix; I started teaching Elizabeth just to test the waters and see if she was ready for those violin lessons she's been wanting. I'm impressed at how quickly she's picked up on it--she zipped right through the primer-level book and started reading actual music in no time.

After watching Elizabeth, Anna decided she wanted lessons too, and while I imagine it'll be a long while before she's ready to read music on the staff, she likes playing the primer-level songs and especially likes noodling around on the piano trying to copy Elizabeth. She's got a good ear, too--she's often able to figure out songs that she's heard Elizabeth play. One day I saw that she'd drawn on the piano keys, and when I chided her for doing so, she said, "But Mommy, I had to draw on them to remember which ones sounded pretty!" When I looked again, I saw that she'd marked the keys for two F major chords!

No piano lessons for Ben just yet, although he loves to stand at the keyboard and bang out a duet with whoever happens to be practicing at the moment. He loves to be in the middle of the action, whether it's piano-playing with the girls, cooking dinner with Mom. . .or small-engine repair with Daddy and Grandpa:

In January I also started volunteering at Elizabeth's school. Another mom and I hold a weekly book club for a small group of first graders. It's wonderful--just enough to scratch that "teacher" itch, without having to deal with all the stuff I *don't* miss about teaching.

Jared spent January building the most beautiful utility room you've ever seen. Here's hoping it will be closely followed by three of the most beautiful bathrooms you've ever seen. That's right, we're taking on a triple bathroom remodel this month. (If spring is late this year, you can blame me--I'll be praying for the snow to stick around until we finish the bathrooms, because all work on inside projects tend to freeze once the ground thaws.)

At the end of January, Kellie and Amy and I threw a little shindig to celebrate the babies (Trevor, Yvey, and Ben) turning one. The babies were, as always, adorable and hilarious:





It's been so fun having these close-in-age cousins; it's definitely made our family get-togethers more lively, especially since they all became mobile. It's going to be great when they all start talking--as if our parties weren't loud enough already!

I think that brings the blog more or less up to speed. We're looking forward to a wonderful spring, which among other things will include a double Olson wedding (Sarah and Skylar are both engaged!) Further bulletins as events warrant.