February 2019

In February, we painted the living room grey! I am very pleased with how it turned out. It was a little lighter than I thought it would be, but in a way, I'm glad it was because it has really lightened up the house and has made it feel bigger. Dave also built a nice entryway area for the coats and stuff. I ordered a couple benches from Target that fit perfectly for all the shoes. It turned out beautiful and we're really happy with how it's worked out.

The accent dining chairs showed up too!

Jett & Miles spent their book-reading time giving me a makeover. I had to draw the line at the makeup. I mean, Miles may have gotten started with the bronzer, but I had to cut him off there.

We visited the new Butterfly Biosphere at Thanksgiving Point! I really like it because they do crowd control by requiring ticket reservations. I'm all about crowd control. The biosphere is SO HOT & HUMID! But it's really cool having butterflies flying all over and some beautiful flowers and plants growing everywhere. It was pretty impressive.

For Valentines, I made the usual heart pancakes for the boys. Cruise had a dance at school that morning that he was supposed to dress up nice for. He refused and only wore jeans with a white t-shirt and his church jacket. The turd. Jett, however, didn't have to dress up but chose to because it was Valentine's day. I helped in his class that afternoon and his teacher was gushing about how cute Jett is.

 Dave and I went out to lunch the day after V-Day and had sushi at Tsunami. Valentine's day is funny because it really is only a holiday for children and those couples who are not married. Once you're married, at least for us, it's just a really good reason to go eat sushi. And I'm totally down with that.

Miles and Jett created a new persona.

Dave took Cruise to do baptisms for the dead for the first time. Cruise had a very good experience and looks forward to going again soon.

Dave decided to cut all of his hair off and grow a beard! Huge change! We were going for a Jason Statham look and I'm pretty confidant he pulls it off well. It saves him a ton of time and found that it surprisingly helps his success knocking doors. 

Dave's 34th birthday was on the 28th and so I took him out to lunch at Tucano's for his free birthday meal. Miles said we must eat there every day.

That evening, I made huevos rancheros for dinner and a German chocolate cake for dessert. The boys all made him cards and we put together a little skit/song for him to The Beatles Birthday song, which he found hilarious.

The next day, I took him on a date to celebrate! His parents watched the boys for 4 hours and I had rented an Airbnb to surprise him (paid for overnight, but couldn't do overnight). On the way there, we picked up dinner from Wallaby's and then drove to the place in Lindon up on the mountain where we ate it. The space is like a basement apartment of this huge house. It was crazy affordable and really nice. We especially enjoyed the hot tub, which was the big seller. Dave has always wanted a hot tub and I knew he'd love this date! He said it was the best birthday ever, so...NAILED IT!

January 2019 Cont...

Aside from Cruise's ordination, we did a few more things in January...

The boys made a snow fort. I had to start them out because everyone was having a meltdown in their own way.

Speaking of meltdowns, we started Jett on an anti-depressant in January since coming to us and telling us that he was suicidal. He had been struggling with some anxiety for quite some time and depression last year, but this was a whole new level of things and it was like being punched in the gut. For your 9 year old to have to deal with that, it's heartbreaking. But the meds started working that week and it made a huge difference. I feel like he's back to his happy, social self.

Cruise did his science fair project that was actually required. And of course he didn't remember until 2 weeks after it was assigned. So he we did it on what happens when you blow a bubble in freezing temperatures. He worked pretty hard on it and was proud of what he did. He did not, however, like the fact that he only got a participation ribbon this time around. But I told him he did a great job and should be proud of the work he did.

I went shopping with a mini Napoleon Dynamite.

Miles helped me make Snickerdoodles. We had like 4 deaths in the ward in January, so I started out making cookies for the funerals...after the first two, I just bought a huge cookie platter from Costco and divvied them up. So. Many. Cookies.

We started on our makeover of the living/front room. We decided to turn it into a dining room so we'd have more space in the kitchen and it saves money on not having to buy a new couch and stuff. We sold the kitchen table, got rid of the couch giant dog bed, got rid of pretty much everything in the front room, and bought the grey paint for the walls. It took me about a week to choose the grey. Guys, there are SO many shades of grey! They need to remake the movie and make it about a lady who can't decide on a shade of grey paint even though  to everyone else they all look the same but to her, they are all slightly different and she sits and stares at test sections for hours and hours, in different lighting, on different walls, until she's convinced she's gone completely mad. It would be such a good movie. We found a GIGANTIC table on KSL classifieds for like $60. It has 2 leafs and can seat up to 10 people. The plan is to paint the base white and refinish the top real nice. I have a vision for it.

January 2019: Cruise's Ordination

I'm still working on catching up on posts about last year, but until then, I need to keep up with THIS year.

The first thing to note this year is Cruise's ordination to Deacon. Just a few weeks before the end of 2018, the Prophet announced that boys will be eligible to be ordained a deacon the January of the year of their 12th birthdays. As groundbreaking and inspired as that was, I wish it had been announced at least a couple months before the end of the year because it kind of threw me for a loop! I mean, I thought I had 8 more months to prepare Cruise and all of a sudden I only had a few weeks. But Cruise was absolutely thrilled about the changes and had a desire to be ordained and start passing the sacrament. Cruise kept on top of the Bishop and made sure he knew that he wanted the Priesthood and that he needed his interview. Ha ha! So he finally got it on the 9th of January, was ordained a Deacon by Dave and got his temple recommend on the 13th, and passed the Sacrament for the first time on the 20th. I actually didn't know he was going to be passing it on the 20th. They had all the deacons go to church a half hour early to practice passing the sacrament, so when we got there as church was about to start, I looked over and sure enough, Cruise was sitting there with all the other little deacons. His Young Men leader caught us and told us where to sit if we wanted to be in Cruise's section, so we got in the first row. The Sacrament hymn started and I could hear Cruise sing from across the chapel. So could everyone else. When it was time for him to pass the bread, he got his tray and walked towards us with a giant smile. He winked at me...a few times, but kept his composure and reverently passed the Sacrament. No comments, no faces, no fidgeting. He stood straight, walked heel-to-toe, eyes forward. In that moment I had a flashback of his 3 year old self, unable to sit, covering his ears when the hymns would play, and needing constant sensory breaks. It was all I could do to not ugly cry. He has grown so much and has come so far. I feel so blessed and grateful for such a great kid with such pure desires to be like the Savior.