Zack: I’m staring out with Zack, because he was the biggest news of our family in 2019. Our year started out with learning he was coming this year, and then he surprised us some more by coming five weeks early and spending almost three weeks in the NICU learning to eat. We love having him and seeing him grow, three thumbs and all.

Henry: Henry started the year in daycare, and switched to preschool when the school year started. He played soccer, and loves cuddle time, art, and is actively learning to read.

Curtis: Curtis finished first grade and started second. He’s in Spanish immersion and is tolerating school. He did football, soccer, and basketball, and also did some piano. He loves playing with friends and most of all video games.

Peter: Peter finished third grade and started fourth. He loves school. He played football, soccer, and continues to improve on the piano. His favorite thing is of course basketball. He loves the NBA and shoots hoops every day.

Liz: Liz is over halfway through her masters in landscape architecture program, but then decided to add a second degree in instructional technology because she loves school. The children, home and garden keep her life busy.

Joe: Joe continued his employment at Pioneer Care Center, but did switch employers halfway through the year when the company he works for was bought out. He started working at Maple Springs occasionally to add some variety. He continues to love woodturning in his spare time, which isn’t very much.

We went on lots of small vacations to Moab, St. George, Capitol Reef, City of Rocks, Twin Falls, and Grandma’s house. We took a big vacation to Las Vegas, Sequoia and Yosemite. We grew a big garden in our new raised beds we built this year. Liz still drags everyone out hiking all the time, and we went swimming and found lots of opportunities to have fun.

Top 20 pictures:

We had a great Christmas. The boys got most of what they wanted, including a VR headset. We had lots of time with extended family and enjoyed a nice, normal Christmas.

Pictures from Christmas related activities, since I didn’t take any actually on Christmas.

Henry had a birthday. He loves stuffed animals, and sometimes drawing, and is a sweet kid except for when he screams/cries which happens a lot with two older brothers.

We went up to Mantua sledding and out on the lake. Right before we left, I spend a lot of time getting all the kids in warm gear. Curtis and Henry stood on our pond in the front yard. They fell in. Henry had wet snow pants and boots. Very annoying, but we found him another pair of boots and off we went. Then at the lake, he stepped on a fishing hole that was fresh and fell in all the way up to his leg. It was a very cold walk back to the car.

After Christmas, we took a trip down to St. George and enjoyed the hotel pool, warmer weather, red rocks, and Children’s museum.

Fun story: while at the Children’s museum I saw two families I know from Brigham City…and later on someone on Facebook posted that they had accidentally switched a shoe from someone in Brigham. It wasn’t me but was one of the people I saw, so they were able to get in touch and trade shoes back. Social media is pretty cool. Also, it’s crazy to meet up with people on accident who live five minutes away when you are on vacation five hours away.

The kids did their basketball skills camp and quite enjoyed it.

Here’s Henry at his preschool program for Thanksgiving. He has adored going to preschool this year. We love Ms. Karen!

I had a lot of family in Wyoming coming to Utah for Thanksgiving. The roads can be impassable, but all of them made it no problem. Then we woke up to over a foot of snow. Crazy! We would have had a snow day for sure, and I wasn’t sure if we’d make it down to my parents. We did make it out after a lot of shoveling, luckily it was warm and not at all icy.

The only picture I took at Thanksgiving was of my twin sister and me.

I am so grateful all of my family was able to get together and enjoy each other. I have a wonderful family and parents.

I love organizing and participating in scavenger hunts. My family has gotten used to me giving them a clue and proceeding to do weird things for the next hour or so.

For this one, we went to the Cemetary, Tabernacle, Pioneer Park, a consignment store the kids actually loved and ended at Isle Isle for candy.

If you are even in Brigham City and want to do a scavenger hunt, I’m your girl. And if I’m ever visiting you and you want to make me happy: give me a scavenger hunt.

I want my children to bring home two things as homework: dioramas and science fair projects. After building a model train set-up we had lots of diorama stuff. Peter brought home an assignment to make a diorama of a desert. So all the kids made dioramas.

We went on a fun drive and hike up by Pineview. There wasn’t anyone around and it was beautiful. November is one of favorite times to hike. It was so warm we quickly shed our jackets.

Finally, a beautiful fall sunrise.

Here is an overload of mostly baby pictures. I love having Zack around. He makes life more complex and difficult…But it is so fun to see him grown up and do cute baby things. He brings more love into my life. 

It’s such a weird holiday. I do the bare minimum. The kids get costumes that can double as pajamas. We went to a party that my sister-in-law had that was a lot of fun. We had a scout carnival and went trick-or-treating. This year Peter and Curtis went out on their own and had a great time. My win for the year was trading in candy for toys.

Here’s more hiking in the fall, because fall is the best time to hike. Even when I am pretty out of shape because I had a baby two months ago. Just Joe and I, + baby because baby goes everywhere with me. It was nice to spend some time away from the children, which I love but can also be loud.

I love where I live, it’s a beautiful small town. By the way, two-month-old babies are hard. But luckily he is calming down and things are getting a bit easier.

The kids had fall break and I wanted to go do something. I love to travel. But with a fairly young baby, I didn’t want to go somewhere far or very long. So we went to our default location of Dead Horse Point. That’s where the kids picked to go, and it’s always a great vacation to visit cousins and see some beautiful sites.

We went and saw the sunset, hiked, and mostly enjoyed our family. On the way there we stopped at my Grandparents, and the way back we stopped at the Springville Art Museum and Provo Library.

I was glad that I didn’t go far: by the end of our car ride back, Zack was very ready to be done with his car seat.