Birthday week

We meet rain or shine to workout with my workout group, FiA. This Saturday it was very wet snowing and windy and so cold, but we rocked it. 

We went to the aquarium to celebrate Spencer's birthday and my mom and sister and family came along. So fun. We went to In N Out afterward, which is always tasty. 

The aquarium was really nice. Lots of cool stuff there. We pretty well wore the kids out. 

I made a double decker chocolate cake with chocolate ice cream for Spencer and my birthday. It was so tasty. 

He's the big ten! This last decade has fairly flown by. Can't believe he's that old already. He's such a fun kid. 

Sunday night my sister and her family came over and we played Killer Bunnies and Cover Your Assets and ate some really amazing homemade donuts my in-laws made. So, so good. It's really fun to live near family. And Bill's face in this picture is the best. Haha!

Chloe has really come into her own this last month on drawing. She's writing a ton, beginning to read, and draws all the time. She's drawn all over the inside of this box, and much like her sister Genevieve at this age, she draws way more detailed than I would expect. It's really awesome to watch her skills develop. 

January is my favorite month

Chloe helped me pick out the backing for this quilt for my friend. We picked a minky pattern and it is so beautiful on the back of this lovely quilt. Back story, a dear friend of mine from South Carolina lost her mom to breast cancer last year. She had been in the process of making this quilt when she passed and my friend reached out to me late last year wondering if I might be able to finish it for her. Sight unseen I agreed without a second thought. Of course I could do that for her! Well she sent me the quilt and I discovered that it was this double wedding ring quilt, which is a REALLY hard quilt pattern! Everything is cut on the bias so it pulls very strangely. Sewing curves in quilting is a rather advanced skill. It was a bit daunting but I consulted my trusty Google and found a lady that did a tutorial that was incredibly helpful. And of course I have my mother-in-law here too and she's one expert quilter, has been doing it for 30 plus years, so she helped so much. 

Well I finished this beauty last night. I quilted it with a bubbly ring sort of design and I really love how it turned out. 

I'm going to go shopping today to find some matching hot pink fabric so that color will pop and put the binding on and get it in the mail to my friend. I'm really proud of this project. 

We haven't gotten out much lately, what with Covid and all. We just got comfy at home and don't do a lot. But Saturday I decided we needed some fresh air and sunshine, so I got the kids away from their screens and took them to this super fun park in South Jordan. They had a blast. 

Chloe and Genevieve wanted me to take pictures of their hair after Grandma did it yesterday. She actually did a really beautiful side braid on Genevieve, but that had come out by the evening and she did a bun instead and Genevieve liked that too. 

I have a lovely group of ladies that I workout with on Saturdays and on Sunday afternoons we take a walk. This week we hiked up one of the mountains in Herriman to drop off our FiA rock at this little rock garden on the trail. Super fun and I dearly love these ladies. 

January is my favorite month. It's my birthday, my anniversary, and Spencer's birthday. I know most people just think January is in the depths of winter and depressing, but I've always loved it. Bill and the kids convinced me to open up my birthday gift early. He got me this foot massager and goodness, it is lovely. I'm using it as I type this post. Pretty sure we're going to wear this thing out from use. Haha! He did good. We went out to dinner and did some shopping Saturday night to celebrate our anniversary. 12 years strong and happy as ever to have married such an amazing guy. 

I got this hand massage gun last week too for some hand therapy after the one my therapist recommended ended up kind of cheap and junky. Turns out this one is total overkill for hand massage, but holy cow, so great for massaging literally anything else. I'm sure we'll also wear this thing out from use. It's wonderful. 

New Year's

 We had a low-key New Year's Eve and Day. But my kids all did stay up until midnight for the first time this year. Well, except for Chloe, who conked out at 11:30 PM as you can see in the picture. We watched Napoleon Dynamite and laughed and laughed and laughed and we rang our outdoor dinner bell like crazy at midnight and watched some pretty great fireworks that were being set off all over the valley. I got a 4.75 mile run in New Year's Eve to end the year and a 5K with Bill in on New Year's Day that we signed up for a month or so ago. It feels so good to be running strong again. That's always a moving target and right now running is going well and that's so very nice. I'm grateful to have weathered 2020 and very hopeful for a great 2021.