Queen to King Bed, Nora's Haircut

Cheer took pictures quit awhile back, probably in October, and I'm just now getting them up. Better late than never. 

Annabelle had a dance competition in February at Thanksgiving Point. Her jazz number took first place in their division! Way to go girls!

A neighbor and friend gifted me this frame after my mom passed away. I decided to add a picture of both mom and dad.

Scott has been asking to get a new mattress for the past year or two. We've been married for nearly 17 years so that's the age of the mattress. I was super motivated to get one because I felt like it still worked fine, but he said it dipped in the middle and was bothering his back some nights. I asked if we could get a King bed (something I've thought would be nice for some time but again, didn't feel it was necessary as the old bed worked). He agreed! We ordered our new bed (frame from Wayfair, mattress from amazon), and once it arrived we put our old bed and frame on KSL for free. Someone picked it up that day which was nice.

We really like it. It's nice having a little more wiggle room.  

Nora asked me to trim her hair. Then when I went to do it she showed me how much she wanted off and it was a lot more than a trim. But I did it and it looks great!

BYU women's conference service activity prep...autism caterpillars

My friend Shauna was asked to be over a service activity for BYU Women's Conference this April. She asked me to be her assistant. Together we planned and organized a few days where we had groups of women, and then young women get together and help with the preparation. 

We invited women in our stake to join us in a day of service where we cut fabric for 700 caterpillars, and then sewed as many as we could, and those who didn't sew helped put the sewn caterpillars into bags for kits. 

Several women offered to take a bundle (20) of caterpillars home to sew that week. We also had a second sewing day, at a home where sewing lessons are taught so there were multiple machines, but this time just invited about 6 women to finish it off.

We had a meeting with team members who would be helping during the night of the service activity at BYU.  

We also planned two nights where we had young women help put kits together. The first night was with the young women from Shauna's ward, and the second night was with the young women from my ward. We just barely finished by the end of that second night!

We so appreciated everyone's help. The next day we found out that because of the coronavirus COVID19, women's conference will be canceled for this year. I'm guessing they'll just use the projects for next year.

And we'll end with two random pictures taken at a family friends birthday party.

Visiting family in Idaho and Annabelle's Birthday

I've been spending time at the family history library getting my mom's photos scanned and digitized so that I could share them with my siblings. While there, I decided to print off family history fan charts for both Scott and myself. We still have a lot of work to do to fill in the gaps on our 5 generation fan chart, but it's a good start. And it's fun for the kids to go through and find the relation they were named after (all have a middle name namesake, and some have first and middle). 

Saturday morning after Valentine's, we drove to Idaho. We didn't have Elisabeth with us as she was still in California for cheer, and I think the kids in the back appreciated the extra room. We all had school off Monday, which is why we decided to go. Becca put highlights in my hair, as well as Annabelle, and we got it trimmed.

When we were done with hair, I went out and found Rain laying on Scott as he read a book.

Sunday afternoon we went for a walk in the neighborhood. We didn't get very far when it started to rain, and then hail, hard.

We celebrated Annabelle's 12th birthday with her friends before we went out to Idaho, but since her actual birthday was on Sunday while we were there, we let her choose dinner(mexican) and dessert (brownies) and we got the candelabra out and sang happy birthday. We love our Annabelle and are so grateful for her sweet spirit and the joy she brings into our lives. She is tender-hearted, hard-working, kind and disciplined and we love her.

C bball, Liz in Cali, Valentine's Day Love Letters

Charles played Jr Jazz basketball with a bunch of guys from our ward and neighborhood. Since we knew most of the boys on the team, and their families, it was so fun to watch.

Here's Elisabeth and Emma, excited for their upcoming trip to California for a cheer competition and more importantly, to go to Disneyland. This was Elisabeth's first time visiting Disneyland. I dropped them off at the high school and they took a bus to the airport.

We occasionally watch our neighbor and friend Saige; I was surprised when she started snacking on the cauliflower I'd roasted, and continued to snack on it! I wish more of my kids would do that.

Valentine's Day Scott and I gave each of the children a love letter, which is our favorite (and one of the only consistent) Valentine's tradtion; and we got the kids cereal for breakfast, which was a treat.

We did a combined 'birthday date' lunch with these two, as Annabelle was out of school for a Dr appointment(and it's her birthday date month), and Charles didn't have school that day, and he'd said we'd missed his date last month(for half birthday...they get 2 each year)...still not sure if that's true so we're trying to be better about taking photos on the day of the date as evidence.

For our Valentine's dinner we had heart shaped pizza from papa murphys, and we made a heart shaped rice krispie treat using what brow rice crisps we had left, and then filled in with a graham cereal.

Grandma Sugar made us some Valentine's treats as well which was super sweet of her, literally :).

Cheer State Champions and Preparing For Nationals. Snowshoeing. Temple Date Night.

 Elisabeth is the flyer in these stunts. Here they are preparing for nationals.

 She is on JV cheer this year and they had state competition in the end of January and they took first place in their division!

 Varsity took 2nd place in their division! So proud of all these girls and their coaches, and all the hard work they put into getting ready for these performances.

 I borrowed Shauna's (left) snowshoes once again, and we went snowshoeing (Shari on the right) in the beautiful Mill Creek Canyon. We'll be hiking together more this year in preparation for our Grand Canyon trip in September.

I learned a couple of lessons on our snowshoeing trip about what is appropriate and inappropriate gear while snowshoeing. I went in sweats and came back with the bottom half of my body completely soaked, including my socks and boots which were sopping wet.

 Scott and I attend the temple together twice a month for our date night; once with our ward members, and once with just the two of us. I love this tradition we've had over the years...though it's looked different over the years with not going as frequently together when we had little ones, to then going once a month together, and now twice.

Scott's 39th Birthday

Friday January 24th, Scott turned 39 years old. He took work off and we went snow shoeing nearby and then grabbed lunch at Costa Vida and ate it at home.

  Later that evening we watched Elisabeth perform at half time (cheer), then we came home for his traditional birthday dinner (stuffed pasta shells), 

 opened gifts,

 and had his traditional pizookie (pizza sized cookie, baked in a cast iron skillet) with ice cream for dessert. 

 This was my treat since I don't eat chocolate....my favorite: popcorn with gummy candies.

I am so grateful Scott was born! He is a continual blessing in my life and in the lives of our children. He is my greatest gift.