December Activities

- This Christmas we decided on a Minecraft Lego advent calendar. It was a fun one to start and had lots of good characters. It's always so hard to stick with one (I remember them only being chocolate ones when I was a kid. It was amazing chocolate as a kid, but when I tried it as an adult it wasn't as good as I remembered). The kids really enjoy doing those each season.

-Larry decided to get a membership to a nearby spa because he loves massages and decided he'd like to get them more often. He also surprised me on the 4th with a facial. I haven't had one for so long and he knows that I've wanted to get on again, so it was a very nice surprise. I forgot how much I love them! This one started with telling them I get a lot of dry skin (so they made sure to focus on that) and a very warm bed. They put on lots of different creams and then very warm towels to wipe them off. The best part was the nice neck massage. Afterwards, I had VERY glowing skin and it's so soft now (the dry parts seemed to go away for a while). I decided I wanted to do those more so I asked him for another one for my birthday celebration day.

-The girls had their dance Christmas party on the 13th and they had SO much fun with this. They ate pizza, played games, got a shirt and took group photos. Cara loves to wear her shirt to dance class each week now.

-It really hasn't gotten too cold yet (unfortunately), so during my break times, when Pierce doesn't have school, we've been able to enjoy our neighborhood playground. He calls it "the one with the bumpy slide" haha. He asks to go all the time and it's kind of nice having it to ourselves for a bit. I love any 1 on 1 time I get with the kids!

-I did end up finishing the activity closet organization. It took a looong time and a LOT of motivation and it totally killed my cleaning spirit for a while, but it's done and it's much better than before.

-Lastly, my favorite kiddo pics this month:

2025 In Review

I KNOW a lot happened this year, normally it feels like nothing did, so lets see if I can keep this to a minimum:

 January

-January was such an eventful, but low key month. I started it off with my surgery (which means A LOT of down time spent healing). I'm very excited to say this year was the year that ALL girls were officially, fully potty trained (Gwen became night time trained this month). So that has been a super nice transition! We also found out that Cara passed her A.L.L. test so we got her prepared to start those classes this year.

February

- February always starts out fun with the Superbowl. I wasn't able to stand up straight, but I was still determined to have fun that day and I think I succeeded (which was a nice game to watch). We had a different, but very fun, Valentine's Day. I think I did good with not spoiling the kids too much with stuff. I started to get back into my normal stuff after my surgery (and I'm super happy to say I think I'm officially to the point where recovery is not my first though in the morning - yay!).

March

- March is normally one of our slowest months (the calm before birthday season is what we refer to it as), but this year it was SO busy and so much fun. We went to our very first Disney on Ice (first for ALL six of us and it was so exciting and fun and such a good memory maker event!). Clearly I was feeling a lot better at this point, because it was filled with Memory Maker Days: Color Me Mine, Dreamwalk Park, and a few Thanksgiving Point places (this membership has served us well!), all of which were a hit! 

We celebrated St. Patrick's Day, I got to see my first Hale Center Theater play, and I spent a good amount of time and money updating some house items (including our kitchen appliances!). Gwen went on her first field trip this month. We also started the swim lessons at Goldfish this month (which was SO nice!).

April

-April started off with the Kids' Spring Break, so you know it was filled with activities: Curiosity Museum, Little Beakers Lab (a first and the girls still talk about how much fun it was), The Treehouse Museum, and ended with the Minecraft Movie in theaters. We celebrated Pierce turning three (which included a fun "party" at Jurassic Jungle and Leatherby's dinner). We celebrated a very busy Easter Weekend, which included breakfast with the Easter Bunny. And more home updates, Spring Pics, plus surgery appointments/updates (I finally started feeling more normal this month)

May

- May started with Cara's birthday (and her party at home she really wanted and it turned out more fun than I expected). I celebrated an awesome (but busy) Mother's Day. Mom, Rachel, and I took the older girls to see Wicked (SO great!). We also marked the end of the school year with a fun art adventure.

My biggest thing was going to D.C. with Stace, which ended up being one of my most favorite trips with her (I went into it with very low expectations and it surprised me with how much fun it was).

We had a lot going on with the end of school. AND we had Lucy's ballet recital (which influenced the older girls to try dance this year - most for the awards though, haha)

June

- June was our first official month for Summer. So, naturally, I took them out to Gardner Village for the petting zoo and a fairy hunt. We decided to end with a trip to the Chocolate Covered Wagon for funsies haha. We also hit up Tracy Aviary and finally did the Liberty Amusement rides, which ended up being really fun. Lucy turned five, so we had fun party at Uptown Jungle AND went to our first Fairy Tea Party at Gardner Village (I'm glad we finally got to try that out). We celebrated a more low key Father's Day. We checked out the new Imaginaria at Ashton Garden's. We had a SUPER fun family day at the Zoo and seeing How to Train Your Dragon (Pierce's first theater experience). We threw a really fun Summer Beach Party at home on Friday with the neighbor kids. We had an unfortunate first  Baseball game experience (but that was made up later, no worries). AND we took the kids to their first trip to Lagoon, which went as great as I had hoped!

We also did lot of Frazil Friday runs and the girls got to do a campout with dad. This might be the most fun month we had all year long! 

July

- July started with Larry's birthday (where he went to Wendover and I tried to take the kids on a fun adventure that didn't quite work out how I'd hoped). We had a fun, albeit a little lazier, Fourth of July. We got to have SO much fun at Monster Trucks this year (some hiccups, but overall a very memorable experience). We had a VERY fun day at Cowabunga Bay as a family (being at a water park when everyone else was at work and shutting the place down made it almost feel like a mini vacation). We attempted a day fishing as a family....hopefully we can fit more of these into next year because this didn't exactly wow them as much as we hoped. We hit up as many Thanksgiving Point activities as we could this month (and were very grateful for our membership, we used it up every chance we could this year). We did a lot of swimming! We did a lot of crafting, some other smaller adventures, and attempted another Bees game (which didn't work out) so it was a very busy month!

August

- In the beginning of August, we met up with Marie and Jim and had an amazing time at the Sundance Scenic Lift (something I would so do again!). I also took the girls to the Harry Potter Exhibit, which they seemed to enjoy (Cara still plays with her stuffed Phoenix). We hit up Imaginaria one last time before school started. Our 3rd attempt at a Bees game was successful (it wasn't too cold, the Bees won, AND we got to see the drone show, finally!). All the kids started school this month (Pierce's first year, Lucy was in her real school with Gwen, Gwen started her 1st real grade, and Cara moved to a new school where she is thriving!). The kids started soccer, we went to Thanksgiving Point more, and I got more into decluttering the house. It was a really great month!

September

- At the end of August/beginning of September we went on such a fun (first) family camping trip (this has gotten the camping bug in my system so I'm making it a goal to go more next year!). I had a lot of fun taking Cara to the Harry Potter Symphony (which she still remembers going to). We tested our social anxieties a lot this month, haha (but it was all fun so it was good). Larry and I got our first real date night this month, seeing Three Days Grace and Breaking Benjamin, which was SO much fun!! I took the kids to Red Butte Gardens, which was a quick visit (because I didn't realize how big it was), but it was very beautiful (pretty comparable to Ashton Gardens, but I prefer Ashton Gardens a tiny bit more)! We also switched the girls from gymnastics to dance, fit in one last swimming day, and started our prep for Halloween. Such a great month!

October

-I finally got to go on one of Gwen's field trips, and it was to the zoo (I love the zoo!). Mom and I tried a new Vintage Market Days spot this year (it was pretty good). I saw another play (I really, really enjoy going to see these now). We celebrated a fun Halloween. I got to have a fun volunteer opportunity during work, soccer finally ended (phew!), and we did more smaller house projects.

November

- In November, Lucy got to go on her first field trip (and I got to go with) to the aquarium (which was a lot more hectic than the last field trip there! We, of course, celebrated Gwen turning 7 (with a lot of 6-7 jokes). We did our first ever North Pole Express that was so magical and wonderful! We had two Thanksgivings (one had only okay food, one was amazing, but we got to see SO much family so it was great!). We also crossed off doing family pics, I did a lot of Christmas shopping, did our annual Santa picture, and saw even MORE family this month (it was a really good month)!

December 

- We started December off with Larry and I having ANOTHER date night (two in one year is going crazy for us haha). We had another food related Memory Maker doing Breakfast with Santa (which was a HIT). We threw something new in our December activities with a Jingle Bell Bubble Rave for the kids. The girls and I went with Nana to see the Nutcracker. We had an amazing, giving, and very messy Christmas. I had a very wonderful birthday. Larry got his spa membership he's been wanting and I got our activity closet cleaned up (and hopefully functioning better!). It was a great month.

I have to say it was a great and busy year! I think we definitely took advantage of all the things that we wouldn't normally do (and who needs a vacation when there are SO many good things nearby?). I think next year we'll definitely not go as hard, because this year seriously flew by, which I knew it would. I'm just glad at the end of it all we have so many fun moments to look back at. Now onto another exciting year, with LOTS of exciting plans. Happy end of 2025, bring on 2026!!

2025 Goals revisit

So I feel like I didn't take my yearly goals as seriously as I have in previous years because I have found I don't like to make goals just for the year anymore. If there's something I'd like to work on, I want to start right away rather than waiting until the end of the year to make a list for the next year. That being said, I did find thing I'd like to work on right away at the beginning of this year so let's see how we did:

-One screen free day per month: yeah, this one didn't go exactly as I saw it. I didn't pick a random day, I just decided that each day I'd actually just spend time with the kids and play with them however they wanted to play and that would happen anytime we had down time. I also told the kids, during the Summer, that anytime they caught me on my phone (when it was just random scrolling) they'd get a quarter. I only had to pay them out a few times, but it definitely made me keep my boredom scrolling in check. I did find, just playing together as a family, without a plan, were some of my favorite moments! So I'm definitely going to continue that part of this goal.

-Less snacking: I actually did decent with this. I do have moments where I snack more than I should. BUT I also have done more of the drinking water if I know I don't need to snack and that helps. I also decided to get less sugary snacks so that if I feel like I want to snack I tell myself I can only have those ones. Sometimes that changes my mind, but when it doesn't, it feels good knowing I'm having a healthier snack.

-Surgery recovery: this was my biggest one. And it was extremely difficult. I didn't rush it, but I sure got sick of how long it took at the same time. This was so much harder than I realized it would be (I would NOT recommend the surgery if you don't truly need it!), but now that I'm close to a year, I'm so excited I got this done and love my results!

-Take more pictures with Larry: I actually did pretty well on this. I did my best that if I was taking pictures of the kids or having him take pictures of me with them (or I was taking pictures with him and them), I'd stop and take one of just us. We also had a couple date nights this year that I got to take pictures with him. It was a good year of this one, and I hope it helps me do this more in the future.

-Memory Makers: we did EXCELLENT on this one! We had so much fun with our one off exciting adventures and it truly made me realize it can be just as fun doing new things closer to home as doing a vacation. It's good this happened because we are probably going to be doing similar things next year (reasons to come later). I absolutely loved using my PTO for weekdays off to take the kids out. I think Lagoon and Cowabunga Bay were some of the highlights of this part.

-Less Social Media around kids: yeah, this one went with my no screens. I did my whole "I owe you a quarter if you catch me on my phone" during the Summer, and that worked. But I would say this one I did the least amount of work on and could've done a lot better!

-Home Projects: well this one didn't work out as well as I had dreamed. Maybe this is the least amount of completed. We almost got a pergola for our back yard, but it was hard to find someone that would come out, so that got moved to next year. We did smaller projects (hanging baskets in our mud room for the kids' papers, a new light in our dining room, some storage areas for the kids toys and in the kids rooms) and we did a LOT more decluttering and organizing. But none of the big projects I listed on my goals got done (like even a little bit!). So I'm still dreaming.

-Game/Date Night Wednesdays: I stand corrected. This one I don't think got done at all. I just never really felt like I had time. We did kind of add in doing something a little more special a couple nights a week (so he'll give me back massages on Monday nights during our show, as an example), but I think it'd be good if we did more of this next year...maybe.

So I actually did decent, as the list went on I did less and less, but the ones I did do I feel like we rocked so it made it a pretty fun year. I'm excited for another chance next year!

My Birthday Celebration

My actual birthday was a good day. I chose a yummy French Toast breakfast, made at home with Texas Toast, strawberries, whip cream, and orange juice! I also wanted to go out to Brick Oven for dinner, I had heard so much about it and since the closest one is in Provo I figured I'd use it for my birthday dinner. Turns out it was a little over-hyped. The service was a little slow and chaotic, but the food was good (just not good enough to make that drive for it...there are things closer to us that are just as good - if not better). I also wanted to hit up Menchies for dessert, to check out other frozen yogurt (since it's our favorite type of treat), but that also wasn't the greatest (the kids were bummed they didn't have cotton candy flavor and the place was a bit dirty and had poor seating options). So that wasn't the greatest, but I'm glad I can at least say I tried them (and at least my breakfast was super yummy!)

Larry set up this surprise for me

For my celebration day, which was pushed to the 28th this year, I had planned to sleep in (I told Larry I wanted him to wake me up after going grocery shopping, if I wasn't up by then), but I ended up waking up early, but I used the time to finish the book I was reading, so that's a win right off the bat (I also watched the Packer's game recap, but that was depressing). I ended up going with the family grocery shopping, I figured I might be able to find more organizers for our home, but they didn't - oh well.

When we got home, we did a quick bath time for the kids (since we normally do those Sunday nights, but I didn't want to at night). We then traveled to the Traverse Mountain Outlets to find me some new sneakers (I haven't actually bought shoes in a long time, my most recent ones I got a free coupon from my work so I picked them out online), but man shoes are so DAMN expensive! We went to the Sketchers store and I got some that were on clearance (but are easy slip on and off so that's nice). I also wanted to find a new windbreaker, but the ones at the Outlets were too expensive, so then we headed to Scheels, but those were even more expensive. I found one on Walmart's website, so we headed there to see if they had any to try on, but they didn't, but I ordered the online one in my best guess size and called it good. 

I planned to go see The Housemaid (since I loved that book), but I knew if I went to the theater I'd want to eat snacks and since I didn't work out all week and I knew I'd want to go out to dinner, so I skipped the movie. So instead, I spent a good chunk of time cuddling with Minnie upstairs. 

After that, we went to Applebee's for dinner, which had slower service than normal, but the waiter was really nice and the food was really good. So it was such a nice day. Larry kept telling me to do more, but I was very content with the day. I did have him schedule me a facial at his special spa for tomorrow morning, so that'll be nice (it's an hour long!). 

While some food things weren't as great as I wanted, the overall birthday celebrations (and gifts and treats) were awesome and I'm happy for the celebration I got. I've warned Larry that I plan to go big for my 40th so he has 2 years to prepare for that, haha. But so far, 38 is great!

Christmas 2025

Christmas, this year, was a HUGE success. For one, I got ALL my shopping done early. I wrapped a few presents each night, which was MUCH better than my usual "wrap here and there and then realize on the 24th that I have A TON to still wrap and then I'm scrambling to wrap and by Christmas morning I tell myself how annoying it is that I JUST wrapped all these and now it's a giant mess on the floor" M.O. I realized I was all done wrapping by the 18th, which was a surprise, but nice too. Because I had got it all done early, it made me really antsy for Christmas Day to get here for a while, plus today was filled with nice surprises when gifts were opened (I really did forget half of the things I got, haha).

When the kids woke up this morning, they were so antsy to get going they woke us up early claiming they were hungry. I did my usual "go downstairs, start music, turn on lights, and get ready to record their reactions" move. They were so excited to see everything (our couch is definitely getting more full each year with stocking items). We started with stockings, which were torn into, then we ate breakfast (we didn't have any eggs so we had to stick with pancakes and cereal), then we moved onto gifts under the tree. There were some screams while opening gifts, so I know they got good stuff, haha. I did good with making sure to get them 3-4 things that they specifically asked for (wrapped in Santa wrapping, of course), then the rest was clothing items they needed with a toy, book, or craft with it. I feel I did good, but Larry says I always go overboard with gifts (but he had depressing Christmases as a kid so he just doesn't get it).

I remember last year, after all the gifts were opened, we set the kids up with a gift while Larry and I cleaned things up. This year, I had NO motivation to clean. It was a huge mess and just felt overwhelming (it didn't help that I decided to clean out the activity closet on the 22nd and I still haven't finished it, so there were things ALL over the house already, probably a bad idea). I know future me will be mad I didn't clean, but I just didn't care. 

One thing we did different this year was I heard of other people who like to bring food to people who work on Christmas (like firefighters, hospital workers, etc.) since they have to be away from their families and I thought that was a fabulous idea. So we ordered some Papa Murphy's on the 24th and grabbed some Chomps and some Gatorades from the store this past weekend to take with it. Then after we were done with gifts, we got all dressed up and took it over to the closest fire station. They were so excited and surprised, it was such a good feeling (they even gave the kids some plastic firefighter hats as a thank you). 

After we got back from that, we put on the Cowboys Christmas game (however, they are already out of the playoffs so watching it felt a little weird since the outcome wouldn't matter whether they won or lost it), while waiting for Mom and Will to finish up at Andy and Rachel's to head to our home. Visiting with them was so fun. They always bring SO much for the kids (which they love) AND they gave me one of my other favorite gifts: my own Cheesehead to wear for the Packer's games! My mom had her boss grab it when he was near Lambeau recently and I absolutely LOVE it! 

After they left, we mostly just moved things off the couch so we could watch shows or movies together and not be sitting no little items. Again, future Jodi will be very upset with me, but I just don't care. 

We also made a nice big ham dinner with stuffing, mashed potatoes, olives, and rolls, that turned out SO amazing (especially with deviled eggs...of course! I've decided next year we need to make those once a month because I'm obsessed with them!). I wanted a very low key Christmas Day, haha. And it was definitely one for the books!