2020 - In Review

Although I understand why many people are referring to 2020 as a dumpster fire, for my immediate family and me, it wasn't that terrible and actually offered many opportunities we might not have had otherwise. With that said, I recognize that we are incredibly blessed to have good health, good jobs, and good schools for our children. I fully understand that my year's success are just that: mine. Yours may be different, and that is okay. For many, this year was merely one of survival.

Highlights:

• One marathon, one half marathon. I joined a Facebook group for running mamas, and now I'm signed up for a trail Ragnar in May 2021!
• Felix learned to ride a bike.
• Trixie learned to ride a bike.
• Felicia is potty trained!
• Canoeing 88 miles on the Yellowstone River with lots of Eric's extended family.
• Connecting with my big sister, an old friend, and my niece on MarcoPolo.
• Joe Biden won.
• I won tickets for our family to go to Lagoon. We had so much fun!
• I made my own sourdough starter and can now make an adequate loaf of sourdough bread. I like this recipe.
• We got a Costco nearby. There are a handful of things there that I really love, especially the giant bag of spinach for my green smoothies.

Places in 2020:

• Cruise along the western coast of Mexico right before Covid-19 hit the rails. We even got a bonus day aboard the ship.
• Lots of camping, including a couple of nights in Fremont Indian State Park in a tipi, camping near Moab, and camping on Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands.
• A trip to Seattle (and environs) to visit Eric's sister and her family. I am a bit in love with the San Juan Islands.
• Jackson Hole for Thanksgiving. (We defied the CDC.)

Birthdays/Traditions

Same traditions as usual, but this year we added Stockington Day the Monday before the first day of school. It was such a blast, and I can't wait to do it again next year!

Review of 2020 Goals:

• Run a sub-30 5K. DONE!
• Log 400 miles of running (outdoors and treadmill). DONE times 2.5. Yes, I ran over 1000 miles in 2020.
• Catch up on all the books I have downloaded to my Kindle. Ha! Not even close. The problem is that Amazon gives me a free book every month, and I joined a second book group this year!
• Read the Book of Mormon as a family. We gave up on this pretty early. Our little girls just cannot do it. I did read the whole thing, and I think Ike might finish before the new year.
• Start a social media hashtag called #forrealfriday where people take pictures and post about real-life stuff, not just the beautiful stuff. This hasn't caught on quite like I wanted, but we'll keep working on it.
• Crochet 20 beanies for a service project run by a family in our ward. I didn't do this one, but our ward did a service project for them, so I made five and put them with entire bundles for the project.
• Crochet 15 new snowflakes for my Christmas tree. I didn't count how many I did. It may have been 15? It may have been 10? I genuinely do not know.

2021 Goals:

• Run another marathon (or two, or three).
• Keep teaching my kids to cook. (Before the reinstatement of tighter lockdown (which, to be fair is hardly tight at all compared to other places), each of my kids helped me cook one night a week, and they got to have a friend over that night. It was working really well, and they were learning real skills besides just, getting food out for me.)
• Read daily with my kids. This should be a thing we do already, but we just don't. Sometimes we will check books out from the library, and I never even crack them open.
• Reinstate dates with our kids.

2020 focused a lot on myself, especially in regards to training. I am looking forward to being more mindful about the time I spend with my kids going into 2021.

Trixie is Five!

Trixie turned five at the end of August. 

At five years old, she loves to play outside, play with friends, play with her siblings, and play with her parents. She is still snuggly, especially when trying to avoid going to bed or after a volatile outburst. 

She basically taught herself to ride a bike, and she loves going on bike rides with anyone who will take her. If no big kids or adults will accompany her around the black trail (a trail by our house), she will ride up and down the sidewalk of our street for long stretches of time. On the Monday after her birthday (Labor Day) she rode eight miles!

Trixie is smart and asks a lot of good questions. Last week her pre-school teacher told me she is ready to start reading and sent Trixie home with some resources to work with. (And yes, that technically happened after her birthday, but with a post nearly six weeks late, I'm talking about it anyway.)

Technically Trixie could have started kindergarten this year, but I had decided quite a while back to hold her back a year so she'd be one of the oldest in her class rather than one of the youngest. I had a lot of reasons for that, and with 2020 being like it's been, I'm confident I made the right choice. Trixie's getting an extra year with her beloved pre-school teacher, and she's doing an online program that is going fine.

Trixie loves animals, especially horses. We still go to Thanksgiving Point to let her ride ponies. I mentioned that when she turns 8 maybe we can some riding lessons, and she has remembered this and brought it up several times. Earlier this year she and Ike pretended to be missionaries for a Family Night activity. As we asked them questions people might ask missionaries, she told us that you can get baptized when you turn 8, and you can also take horse riding lessons.

She got 11 stitches in her chin earlier this year. It went about as well as you would expect. Once the shots numbed everything up, she did okay. But eventually that numbing agent wore off. At the age of 4, she learned to swallow pills because she detested the taste of the liquid pain medicine.

My two girls are absolutely, positively, the very best of friends (when they are not fighting). They have great imaginations and can play together for extended periods of time.

Trixie also loves to play with her brothers. Felix can often be found setting up train tracks for her, and Ike can always be relied upon to rile her up. At Bear Lake this summer, he toted her all around in this borrowed kayak for long periods of time.

Trixie played QuickBall (like tee-ball, but faster-paced and more focused on essential skills), and she did fine. She finally got a hit on her last game, which was thrilling. I was one of her coaches, which was special for us. She agreed to play, in large part, because of the treats she expected after each game, but Covid put the kabosh on that, which was really disappointing. She also excelled in swim lessons this year and thinks she can swim now. (She can't.)

Trixie is brave and always willing to be a daredevil. She told me she wanted to jump off this bridge on a camping trip. Once we were actually up there, it felt quite high, and she really struggled. She finally did it, though! (After the actual experience, she thought she'd try again, but she just stood on the bridge being scared for a long time before I finally went to get her. Ike did that too on the first day he jumped.)

Like a true middle child, Trixie likes to point out the ways in which she is special, generally talking about her "broken" heart or her defective ears and how she's had surgery more than anyone in her family. At one point I'm pretty sure she told somebody she was born without a heart at all.

She actually has a great, big heart, and we are so happy she is ours.

Felicia is Three!

Felicia turned three in early July. She is a fun little girl right now. At age three she is:

• Obsessed with her father.
• Needing a nap about every fourth day but never getting one.
• In love with Peppa Pig.
• Verbose.
• Potty-trained, but has recently relapsed into having chronic accidents because she can't be bothered to go to the bathroom.
• Irate about having to get her hair done.
• Too skinny for a lot of her pants to stay up.
  
• Interested in wearing as many patterns as possible at one time.
• Crazy about getting her fingernails and toenails painted.
• Capable of finding any porta-potty at any construction site while we are out for drives. (She has a bizarre fascination with them.)

The other day she wandered into our room at night and slept on the floor. When she woke up for good, she popped straight up, with no lolling about on the floor. She looked at me and said, "Mom, wake up. It's cock-a-doodle-doo."

A few weeks ago she fell asleep while leaning on a dining room chair. This episode (pictured above) followed a long string of crying about everything you could imagine, and probably some things you couldn't imagine.

She loves to sing and dance, especially if nobody is watching. She also plays elaborate make believe games by herself.

If there is a mess left in the house, Felicia probably made it. She is, hands down, my most "into stuff" child. She constantly gets into food without permission. She eats raw oatmeal from the container, takes single bites out of cucumbers and apples, and makes her own cinnamon toast, with literally tablespoons of cinnamon heaped on. She has put an entire box of bandaids on her body like stickers. She took a bite from an EOS lip balm. (Who knew that was even possible?) She has gotten into and eaten entire packages of gum from the van's glove box. It is not unusual to find a sink full of sudsy water and all the wash cloths from that bathroom in the basin.

Her speech is generally understandable, but she struggles with words that start with s followed by a consonant. "Smoothie" sounds like "movie." "Stuck" sounds like "duck." Last week she rode a pony called Penelope, and she pronounced the name, "Pennareppy."

As difficult as she can be at this age, she can also be very sweet. She is quite perceptive of other people's feelings and tried to comfort people when they are sad. She quotes her older brothers quoting their favorite lines from movies and shows.

We love our Felicia!

Felicia: 2.5

Felicia turned two and a half on New Year's Day. She is such a fun little girl.

In the last six-ish months, Felicia has developed strong opinions about fashion. She is very opinionated about what she wears, often choosing very inventive combinations. If there is something with a pattern, she'll wear it. She also loves to wear anything with a picture or logo on it. She loves accessories, especially necklaces and purses. She enjoys choosing her own bows when I do her hair.

Her favorite colors are blue and orange. If she can wear something or play with something or use something with those colors as an option, she will. Until a few weeks ago, she preferred to use a bottle, if possible. (But I finally threw the bottles and sippy cups away because I am sick of finding gross containers with days-old milk in them around the house. Tantrums and general sadness ensued when Felicia realized they were "lost.")

Felicia loves her daddy. If I try to get her out of bed in the morning, she usually tells me to go away. If daddy is gone by the time she wakes up, she is very sad and often takes a while to be convinced that I am capable of getting her out of bed and getting her oatmeal. (But with quarantine happening now, Daddy is home all the time, and Felicia is one happy girl!)

Whenever we go on pre-school field trips with Trixie, Felicia lines right up and acts like she is part of the preschool class. I am considering enrolling her in a 3-year-old pre-school for next year, but I may not because she has a summer birthday. Then I think about how well she does on these field trips, and maybe I'll find one for her after all.

She loves to play with her siblings and can also be really tyrannical with them. She has loved being able to spend so much time with her siblings during this "Stay safe, stay home" time period. Usually her brothers get home from school and try to go play with friends as soon as they can. With everyone being forced to be together, Felicia is in heaven. She is also starting to play so much better with Trixie, and it is so sweet to see them play happily together.

Felicia inherited my need to be right and correct people all the time, so that's fun for everyone. Most of the time when I call her "baby," (which is a lot) she responds, "I nogga baby. Ina girl."

We potty-trained Felicia this week, and she did awesome. She wasn't our youngest to potty train, but overall, she was definitely the easiest.

Right now she can be very loving and affectionate, often saying, "I just love you." She also loves to say, "I'm happy today," followed by listing everyone else in the family who is happy at that moment and pointing out any who might be sad. She loves babies and pretends that everything is her baby. This is her with her baby cousin, who weighs almost as much as she does:

Felicia loves to dance and to sing her own made up songs, which usually involve one line repeated ad nauseam. (Example: It's a beautiful day! It's a beautiful day! It's a beautiful day!)

We sure do love our little girl (who insists she is not little).

2019 - In Review

Highlights:

• So much running! I ran two 10Ks and two half marathons. I ran about 300 miles. (I didn't keep track of my non-GPS runs, and I deleted some of my wacky GPS runs where my app gave me more mileage than was accurate, so I'm not exactly sure on the total.) I am in better shape than I've ever been in my life.
• Felicia's talking really took off in the last two months.
• Trixie started preschool and loves it.
• Ike and I hiked Mt. Timpanogos (but didn't quite summit due to wind).
• Ike is learning that working hard to accomplish something difficult feels awesome, even if the process itself can be really disheartening sometimes. (Thanks, piano!)
• Ike and I went to the BYU vs USC game, which BYU won in overtime. It was Ike's first BYU football game, and my first time back since 2007.
• Felix's reading has really improved, and he is starting to enjoy reading on his own a bit more.
• I went to my stake's Young Women's camp, and it was awesome.
• Eric's student loan forgiveness came through, after initially being denied. (It was a huge relief.)
• Doing "Come Follow Me," our church's scripture-study program, through the year was fairly consistent and gave us lots of opportunities to talk about spiritual things with our children.
• We had several opportunities to help build our children's faith this year. It started when Eric's loan forgiveness was denied (despite him having taught at a low income school for five years). As we discussed what to do about it, both of us felt prompted to be open with our children about the situation and ask them to pray for their dad's loan to be forgiven. (Trixie once prayed instead "for dad to be alone.") When the loan forgiveness came through, our children could see it as a direct correlation to their prayers. We also had a lot of family prayers for Eric's shoulder to heal so he wouldn't need surgery. (It did; he didn't.) And for Felicia to learn to talk. (She did!)
• I'm like a decade late to the trend, but I started drinking green smoothies, and it's so much better than skipping breakfast or eating whatever desserts we have lying around. (Who knew?)
• I did some things to wrangle my mental health, and I am doing so much better!
• We took lots of friends canoeing on the Jordan River (even more than last year).
• We have a group of friends for fairly regular date night outings.
• New flooring in my entire main floor! Before that we also painted the living room white, bought new curtains for the living room and dining room, and bought a new sectional! The old couches went to the basement, and the TV is down there too. Re-doing the living room was a big deal this year!

Places in 2019:

• Three trips to Jackson Hole - Once for the Fourth of July (my brother had taken my boys to spend a few days with their family, so we had to go pick them up); once for a missionary farewell, and once for a missionary homecoming.
• Moab for a canoeing thing with lots of friends.
• Capitol Reef National Park - Possibly my new favorite.
• Bear Lake, with friends - We started this trip on our own but then found out a bunch of friends would be there at the same time. It was a great little trip.
• Ginormous family reunion in Heber - Eric's grandma's last time to host one with all of her six children, her 26 grandchildren, and 54 (or 52?) great grandchildren. (I could name them all for you, and figure out the exact count, but I've got other stuff to do right now.)
• Great Basin National Park

Birthdays/Traditions:

Nothing new to report here. Birthday ice cream at Cold Stone on the Monday after a birthday. We did two shepherds' meals this year, one with friends, and one with family. Fondue on the last day of school. One new tradition is Hawaiian haystacks for dinner on the first day of school.

2019 Goals (copy and pasted from last year's post, with the results bolded):

• Redecorate my living room. DONE!
• Run a 10K? DONE!
• Read more books on paper and Kindle. Not really.
• Read more books with my kids, especially chapter books with the boys. Probably comparable to the year before. We did read scriptures more, though.
• Maybe get around to finishing up those 2018 goals. (And with commitment like that, clearly I'm on the right track.) Well, we all saw where that was going, didn't we?

2020 Goals:

I'm still working on these. Right now I've got:

• Run a sub-30 5K. I don't know exactly how fast I can run a 5K right now, but the last time I tried (end of November) I ran it in just under 33 minutes. I'm pretty sure I can shave off those three minutes.
• Log 400 miles of running (outdoors and treadmill). (I have a new Garmin, so it is easier to log my treadmill activities to the same location as my GPS activities.)
• Catch up on all the books I have downloaded to my Kindle. There are so many.
• Read the Book of Mormon as a family. We can do it!
• Start a social media hashtag called #forrealfriday where people take pictures and post about real-life stuff, not just the beautiful stuff. Be on the lookout.
• Crochet 20 beanies for a service project run by a family in our ward.
• Crochet 15 new snowflakes for my Christmas tree.

I'm excited about this new year, and the new decade.

Trixie is Four!

I'm rather behind. Trixie turned 4 about six weeks ago. Nevertheless, in tribute to her new age, here are some things about this adorable little girl in the last year.

She talks and talks and talks, and most people have no idea that she had significantly delayed speech. With that said, her speech isn't impeccable. For example:

• She adds "ed" to most past tense verbs throwed; wented; putted (not the golf kind); saided; ated. I can't bear to correct her because it's too cute.
• She can't say her "r" or "l" sounds well. She can say her own name, but it isn't always understood by the people she's saying it to, and sometimes she summons me to tell a child what her name is.
• Unicorn = hooticorn; Utah = Hootah.
• Cheetos = Cheerios
• In the last six weeks, she's gotten down the differences between "yesterday" and "tomorrow," but she has no concept of time and frequently talks about fairly recent things happening "wast year."

She loves animals. We dog-sat the above-pictured dog, B. J. last November, and she still talks about him. Her love is not limited to dogs. It extends to all animals of all kinds.

In February we went for a heart checkup, and she was thoroughly amused by all the stickers for her EKG. (And she left the hospital with at least three new toys, so it was a winning day in her eyes, without a doubt.) And the best news is that the cardiologist said we don't need to see him for two whole years, and she may never need her valve replaced. (Miracle!)

And here are just a few more thoughts about this child, scattered with some of my favorite pictures taken of her over the last twelve months.

Trixie is an incredibly sweet and affectionate child. She went through a phase of obstinacy, but she seems past that. Sure, there are times when she wants something her way, but by and large she is amiable and eager to please.

She is incredibly social and always on the lookout for somebody to play with her. She loves to play with neighbors, and with her brothers and sister.

Lately she asks a lot of "what if" questions. Sometimes they are baffling, but most of the time I think she's just looking for a reason to talk to me.

Trixie loves to play outside. We are really grateful that her heart defect has had literally no impact on her ability to keep up with her peers. While she's capable of playing quietly and calmly, her preference is generally to be rambunctious and physical.

Trixie loves to go places. We go to the various venues at Thanksgiving Point quite frequently. She loves them all the more if we are going to meet friends there. She still loves riding ponies there and has no fear of any of them (even the one that knocked her off once. Actually, he's her favorite.)

She sings a lot. Whether it's Primary music, the music from Annie or Coco, or her own made up songs, the child is constantly singing. She insists on songs and stories and cuddles at bedtime. (And, truth be told, she still gets out of her bed two to three nights a week to tell us she needs somebody to cuddle with her. Usually Eric goes and lies down with her for a while. He is a good man.)

This is Trixie holding her baby cousin this summer. She's not generally that interested in babies, but she thought this one was pretty cute.

Trixie's birthday is literally the cutoff for kindergarten enrollment next year. I couldn't find a vacant spot in a 3-year-old preschool, so I enrolled her in a 4-year-old preschool. My plan is just to have her do it for two years, unless she blows us all away this year. She is loving preschool and will probably be thrilled to do it again next year.

For her actual birthday I rented a bounce house and invited friends to come jump and splash. And the only picture I took was to send to a friend whose daughter was scared to come. (The picture assuaged her nervousness, and she came and partied.) Trixie had tons of fun acting like a hooligan with lots of neighborhood kids.

I gave her lots of cake options, and she liked the sound of a pineapple up-side-down cake, but then she didn't eat a single bite of it. She asked for a treasure chest, and that is what she got. She has loved telling people that she is 4, and she insists that she's a big girl now.

We love this little girl. She brings so much love, fun, and cuddles to our family.

Felicia is Two!

Felicia turned two on July 1. The boys were out of town with their Uncle John, and Eric was away doing his summer gig - being a teacher for a week at our school district's summer camp. The day before her birthday (and before Eric left for camp) we had a little dinner for Felicia with just the four of us, plus our friends, Joey and Priscilla.

Felicia was really not crazy about us singing to her.

She didn't really understand the concept of blowing out the candle either. Also, she ALWAYS takes her elastic and bow out of her hair during her nap, and then she wakes up with hair like this:

The day before that, we went as a little family of four to the farm and let the girls ride ponies and play in the air conditioned play area.

On Felicia's actual birthday, we hung out at home, went to our local park, and then went to the Butterfly Biosphere.

At two years old, here are some things I want to remember about Felicia:

• She is getting better at playing with her siblings and loves to be a part of the group.
• Felicia is quite the mimic. She doesn't talk a lot, but she mimics people in very physical ways.
• At her two-year checkup, when they asked if she speaks in two-word sentences, I said yes, but it's still very rare.
• She begs for bites of whatever I'm chopping, slicing, or cooking, especially onions and garlic.
• Eric took her pacifier away while I was away at Young Women's camp. It doesn't seem to be the magic bullet for speech that it was for her older sister. But we're confident it's not going to hold her back either.

• She's a bit tyrannical. Actually, she's very tyrannical. We have a kid-sized chair in our living room, and she doesn't like anyone to sit in it, even if she is also not sitting in it.
• Felicia demands to say her own prayer after she hears anyone else saying a prayer.
• She adores our nightly hug-a-thon, when everyone in the family hugs everyone else in the family. She happily says, "hu-fon" while she hugs everyone in the family, usually multiple times per person.
• Felicia actually loves to get her hair done, and happily runs into her sister's room (where the hair stuff is) when I suggest we do her hair.
• She likes animals but is pretty nervous around them.
• Almost any time I ask her if she wants to ride on my back, she is excited to do so. I use the Ergo to carry her for far more than just hiking.
• She is my most cuddly child, often asking to be picked up and held. At bedtime and naptime, we rock her in the rocking chair and sing songs to her. She usually insists on holding her pillow, a blanket, and as many stuffed animals as she can fit in her hand. When I tell her to close her eyes, she covers them with her hands.
  
• She loves baths and frequently takes multiple baths in one day. I don't feel like arguing with her about the baths, so I just let them happen. She loves to dump water on her head over and over and over again.
• Along those same lines, she loves swimming. She especially loves jumping off the side of the pool into the pool and letting somebody pull her out from under the water. She has no fear.
• When not done, her hairstyle is definitely a mullet. Grow, hair, grow.

• She is so friendly and says hello to just about everyone we pass. She is also rather scared of big trucks. One day she was repeatedly jumping off our front step (a hobby of hers), when a UPS truck came up the street. I was on the side of the house watering the tomatoes when I heard her screaming, "Mama! Mama!" I ran over, worried that she maybe had been stung by a wasp and realized that she was just afraid of the truck. As it went on by, her shouts of fear turned into, "Bye! Bye!" as she gleefully waved at the passing truck.
• I hate to admit it, but she's looking more and more like Eric. She used to look just like me, so I'm a little sad to be losing my mini.

And here's a little video we made of her singing one of her favorite songs with me a few weeks ago:

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If you need something cute or if you need more goofy camp songs (🐸 🚗) in your life (and don't we all need more camp songs?):

A post shared by Sherry (@containyourexcitement) on Aug 9, 2019 at 5:18pm PDT

Felicia is such a fun age. We love how she's learning, increasing her vocabulary, and discovering the world. We are excited to see what becomes of her in the coming year, and I'm really looking forward to having more individual time with her and her sister as both her brothers are in all-day school this year.

2019's Fourth Summer Trip - Bear Lake

We returned from Jackson Hole on Saturday night, went to church on Sunday, and then went to Bear Lake on Monday. It was a quick turnaround.

We had blocked out the days on our calendar that we planned to go to Bear Lake. Eric and I had driven by, but we'd never been there. We knew lots of people go there for vacations and family reunions, so Eric asked a good friend what we should do. The good friend asked when we'd be there. Eric told him our dates and he said that's when his family and half a dozen other families (some we knew, some we didn't) would be there. They all stayed at a big KOA in their RVs and campers. We are not an RV family, but we figured we'd join the party and sleep in our tent at the KOA. (I don't generally recommend camping at a KOA, because what's the point of camping in a place surrounded by people? But, this time, we wanted to be by all our friends.)

On the way up we stopped at Ricks Spring, which was neat.

We stopped at Tony Grove to go fishing, which was a bust. It's a beautiful spot, though, and it would be a good place to camp.

One night we went to dinner with friends. Other nights we just gathered around various propane-fueled fires for roasting marshmallows and staying up too late chatting.

This KOA is rather large. It features a playground, mini golf, and other fun activities for kids. The girls were particular fans of riding around in the "train" in the evenings.

We went with lots of friends to the Minnetonka Caves, which was very cool. I love caves.

Before the tour started, our tour guide asked if there were any questions. The only people who had questions were our three children. (We were in a group of about 30-40 people.) At one point when he asked again if there were any questions Trixie asked, "Why is there so many rocks in here?" He told her that people brought the rocks in and left them. Also when the guide asked if there were any history buffs in the group, Eric and I were the only ones to raise our hands.

After the cave we stopped on the side of the road to go canoeing on the lake for a little bit. We sure do fill up a canoe!

After dinner that night we rented one of those horrible surries. They are insanely hard to pedal! They need some gears. The boys didn't want to come, and they missed out. (But we didn't miss them since they wouldn't have been tall enough to reach the pedals, and we would have had a lot more weight to haul.) We rode down and got shakes, and then went back up to camp.

The last day we went to the north beach and played in the sand, swam, and canoed some more. Everybody got at least a little bit sunburned.

We stopped for shakes one more time. (It was the third time for the parents and girls, the second time for the boys since they missed the surry ride.)

Then we stopped on the way to hike the Timber Pine Loop Trail. It was really hot when we weren't in the shade, but the information signs along the way made it really educational (at least for me). It was so interesting to learn about how the plants "migrate" into a new area - which plants come first, which follow, and what animals come along with them.

This tree is like two thousand years old. (There weren't signs telling us not to climb it.)

Trixie got tired of being in the carrier and insisted on walking on her own. Each time, she'd take of running and fleefully laughing only to face-plant on the trail. Then she'd insist on walking/running some more. It's hard to be little.