Parentheticals

Last Sunday was Aelfric's baptism. Aunt Laurie gave the talk, and Gideon like it so much that he told me, "I want her to speak at MY baptism!" (He really wanted the Kit-Kats she gave out.) The baptism went very smoothly and it was really nice to be there. Especially for Gideon, since he'll be baptized this year (in November). On Wednesday, the Activity Days kids and their families had a meeting about goals and the Children and Youth program. We used to be really good about goals right up until the new Children and Youth program, with its emphasis on goal setting, came out, and then we stopped being good about it. (Actually, the real change was Covid lockdowns, but it makes a funnier story that way.) Anyway, we're trying to start back up, so Mike is paying a nickel to each kid who talks about their goals at dinner. It seems to be working OK. Maybe we'll achieve great things this year! We are getting really close to the opening night of Utahoma! The girls had pr

I started this week by asking Elsa (Lizzy, Boo, etc) what she wanted to write in the blog, and this is what she came up with: "For team clean I love cleaning up table and benches. My favorite animal is tiger-cats. My favorite color is pink. My favorite toothpaste is very strong toothpaste. I love Dad and Mom. I am wearing a beautiful shirt. I love Jesus." She then told me "Isn't this a beautiful heart? It reminds you you have a heart. If your heart breaks or doesn't break. Its for everyone in our family, And Rea is asleep, so make sure you don't wake her up." She then added "I love cats. Especially pink cats. I like to cuddle with them and play with them. I like to take them on a walk." When this ended, I asked Gideon if he wanted to add anything and he told me "No", but I persisted and he told me the following: "My favorite color is red, My favorite animal is cats, and my favorite Team Clean job is Stairs." Gideon then refu

Apparently we missed some blog posts recently.  Christmas went well. All the kids enjoyed their presents. We made egg rolls and had Mike's parents over for dinner. The only complaint that anyone has was that we didn't have a white Christmas For the 12 days of Christmas this year we did the following: Day 1: the Tuesday after Christmas we went to the Gateway Lights On! - we actually went to Gallivan Plaza first accidentally. It was really pretty, but after realizing we were in the wrong place we took the train to the Gateway and saw the lights there. We had Panda Express, played in fountain (the kids thought the risk of getting wet was worth it (and no one actually got wet anyway))  One of Mike's Christmas present was a new faucet for our kitchen sink because Mike has hated the faucet we have ever since we moved in. Before going to the light show Mike installed the new faucet and ever since then has been appreciating it every time he turns on the faucet in the kitchen. Day 2