Happy New Year 2022!!!
January 1st: Jessica invited us over for a movie and game night. We watched the 3rd Harry Potter movie, and Seb made popcorn for everyone. Then Jess served up vanilla ice cream and Oreos to the family. After the movie, Jess and Seb taught us how to play Wizard with the new Wizard cards that I brought over. It was a FUN night!
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| Checking out the girls' new triple bunkbed There's one more bed on the bottom level |
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| Jess babysat a friend's dog, so for a few days Poppy had her bestie, Penny, to hang out and play with |
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| Sweet, tired sisters |
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| Peggy Dunlap bought matching coats for me and Jess |
January 2nd: We started teaching a new batch of 14-year olds in Sunday School, another great bunch of teenagers to become acquainted with
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| Parker Mortensen |
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| Landon Greene |
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| Alex Norby |
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| Wyatt Holmes |
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| Eddy Xu |
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| Lincoln Brown |
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| Dafne Garcia |
After our church meetings ended on Sunday, we attended Hudson's priesthood ordination where he was ordained a Deacon in their ward and stake. Sebastian gave Hudson a beautiful blessing (in their bishop, Steve Morgan's office).
January 3rd: We had a party for our past Sunday School class starting with a hot breakfast at 10am followed by games upstairs. They had a great time!
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| McKay Burtenshaw and Mason Trapnell playing foosball |
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| Brynlee Clark playing foosball |
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| Skye Millburn and Brynlee play against the boys |
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| Playing a pool game called "UGLY" |
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| Mike was a part of the games |
Later that afternoon, Mike and I went on an invigorating hike to the White Wash Basin in the Sandia's with Jessica and her kiddo's plus the two dogs. Hannah is an excellent hiker, following in Beau's footsteps, and Sofia is doing a great job keeping up. The weather was perfect too. After our hike, we went to Burger King for ice cream cones and a late lunch. These photos are definitely not in the right order!
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| Jessica and Sofie made it to the top of this boulder as did Beau |
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| Hannah meditating in the foothills |
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| This beautiful girl is growing up too fast! |
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| Hannah shows Sofie how to meditate, but she ruins her concentration |
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| Cute little spunky faced Sofie with Beau in the background |
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| Adventurous Beau doing what he loves best |
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| Handsome Hudson chillin' in the sun |
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Sofie reminds me so much of Jessica when she was little. She's her mama's best buddy while the others are at school. |
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| Grandma trying to keep up with Hannah and the boys |
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| I love this sweet 11 year-old grandson who thinks he's at least 14 |
January 4th: Jacob and Shauna treated us out to an early dinner at Texas Roadhouse today. The food was delicious and we ate too much, but it was fun to spend that time with our kids. Jess babysat their three children while we were out, and the cousins had fun together as always.
I have really missed seeing Jacob's family this year, as they have been staying home with colds since our outing.
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| Man, I look like a pregnant whale in that sweater vest. The next time someone takes a photo of us, I'm sitting in the back!
I brought a second mini Chocolate Bar Cake for dessert. It turned out yummy, but I still haven't managed to make the cake lighter and less dense inside.  Christie Boyack with daughter Jocelyn and mom, Dorine  We had a healthy, colorful plate of poached salmon, a mediterranean salad, and a jicama and pear salad with cilantro at the Boyack's home--yum!   January 7th: I invited Kevin and Dorine Kartchner (Kiley's parents) to join us for dinner and made a Chinese Chicken Salad and butter topped rolls for our meal, plus some of the Chocolate Bar Cake for dessert.  January 8th: I wanted all three of our Albuquerque granddaughters to spend the night at our house so the girls could play together, but only the Dunlap girls could make it. Elise had a cold and couldn't come, which was a huge disappointment for all of us.  Sofia and Hannah asleep after a busy day at play  January 9th: Eating breakfast after their bath. The girls had a late night and probably less sleep than needed. And Sofie woke Hannah up early in the morning, which didn't help. But they were still as sweet as can be. Our church services were canceled this morning due to high numbers of our ward members with COVID. So we took the girls to their ward sacrament meeting and sat with the rest of their family. It was wonderful to see so many old friends and to get so many hugs! I enjoyed attending Primary with the girls and with their brother, Beau. It was fun to watch their mama lead the music in both Junior and Senior "Singing Time." Jessica uses her artistic and creative talents, as well as her lovely singing voice for her Primary calling--she's a natural! After church, the girls wanted to come back to our house, so we had lunch; made "Marshmallow play-dough"; read tons of books; watched some TV; and had dinner. Then we took the girls home; brought dessert for their family; had the girls change into their pajamas and brush their teeth; and tucked them into bed before Jess came home from a fireside. We played Canasta with Jess and Seb while the boys finished watching a Harry Potter movie. It was a bit late but also nice to visit, but Mike and I were very tired from the weekend!         Hannah and Sofie knead the Marshmallow play-dough, which was a very difficult task and much messier to color. We'll never use that recipe again. It took a long time and really stained our hands.      We sure love our beautiful girls and the time we get to spend with them January 15th: We babysat the Dunlap kids (minus Hudson who stayed home with the flu) while their parents went to a party on the west side. They played so well together. We are blessed to have grandchildren in town!     The damaged remains of part of our flagstone driveway wall after our corner neighbor (Mike Contois) accidentally crashed into it when his Lincoln Continental went through a crazy reverse ACCELERATION! Thank goodness his insurance is going to cover the cost of the replacement and repairs. You should see Mike's wall and his totaled vehicle! After hitting our wall, the vehicle continued in reverse up his neighbor's driveway and through his own stuccoed wall, and then down onto his trash bin and his front metal gate! It was a blessing that Mike didn't get hurt during this whole unbelievable experience. January 16th: Mike and I replaced our old wicker topped barstools with these leather topped ones from Kay's Barstool World. They're beefy and comfortable.    Our embellished wonton ramen soup with shrimp tempura  Baby Noah Lane         January 19th: Look at the lousy job that our contractor's crew did replacing the capstones on our driveway entrance wall--unbelievable!  January 20th: This is how the chipped and mismatched flagstone pieces looked after they redid the job with matching capstones. We were happy with the wall, except for the bottom corner. The crew came back and replaced the side end with a new full slab of flagstone. And here's the finished wall, good as new!   One of many fresh salads that Mike and I enjoy eating for dinner |
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