Sunday, March 31, 2024

March







March...a birthday month!  The month began with Jacob going to the Esports tournament up at the Huntsman Center.  He went with the team at school to watch the qualifying teams compete.  He has a good time and it gets him out of school (though the homework catch up is not always fun!).







One of Jacob's classes this quarter is Driver's Ed.  He has been working on class items and here is doing his GOTE assignment...Gas fill, Oil check, Tire change and, for extra credit, he could put together a car emergency kit.  
 





On my birthday Mom, Heidi and Joy came up for lunch.  It was fun to visit and celebrate my 60th.  Just sounds so old!

 While we were eating Jason came home from work and surprised me with flowers and Sees candy!



One Saturday, the 9th, Christian (Elizabeth's oldest) was baptized.  We went to that and then over to her house for lunch.  Jacob was doing this same thing 8 years ago!


The night Marcia and Steven, Clark and Natalie and Jason and I went to dinner at Slackwater to celebrate my birthday.  The pizza was good and we then headed back to our house to have cake and ice cream.  I made the Cake by Courtney Hot Chocolate cake.  Yummy.  We had a fun time!
Night before Jacob's chemistry test.  He said he
was ready, but then told us he had copied the 
answers.  He had a lot of homework that week
and was sick of it.  We talked about how this was
cheating--basically himself.  Jacob eventually 
feels guilty when he has done something wrong 
and then tells us.  
So at 9 p.m. that night Jason went over the test
material with him so he could be ready.  He did 
know most of it, but needed help.  He did well on
the test.
 

Jason taking a break while I make my
grocery list.
MarySue left to go help Jenny on the 15th of March.  She was gone 2 weeks.  One of the Saturdays Karen texted Jacob to see if he wanted to go over to Grandpa's with Robbie, Grace and Lilly for pizza.  He went over and while he was there Grandpa gave him $100.  He generously gives each grandchild $100 for their 16th birthday.  Jacob loved that!

The following day, Sunday, we had Jason's cousin (Roy and Vina's son), Brent, and his 2 sons, Kenny and Ren, over for a family dinner. 

They had flown in that morning to go skiing during the week up at Solitude.  They are so nice!

The next day Brent texted Jason and invited them up, to where they were staying, to have dinner, swim etc.  Jason and Jacob went up and Jacob had a really fun time.  Too bad they don't live closer! 

Jason had a cold that weekend and sat away from the family.



















Open wide!

 Time for braces!  We were going to start this 2 years ago, but things like the orthodontist only being in office 1x a month made me hesitate.  Then Jacob started to have jaw popping problems so we decided to try and fix that first.  

He has had a night mouth guard for a little over a year and it has helped, but not fixed it.  


In the meantime I've taken him to other orthodontist consults and finally decided to go with one out of network.  It is more expensive, but it is up the street (which I love--the in network is in Taylorsville and he is only in office there 1 day a week), and they have a very good reputation.  Fingers crossed.  
Putting glue on the teeth

Grabbing each little brace with tweezers

Setting the brace in place

Brand new look!!

Saturday, March 23rd!  Jacob's 16th Birthday!!  It began as he likes it....with Swedish pancakes in the family room watching TV.  We then opened gifts.  This year Jason and I decided to try and not do an electronic birthday.  He opened Lucky Charms cereal, socks, pickleball paddles/balls and new headphones.  



































At the beginning of the month Jason and I went to our Republican caucus.  It was kind of difficult to get in due to the long line, but once we were in with our precinct it was fine.  They nominated State delegates to go to convention and then County delegates to go to convention.  Jason and I were both nominated as county delegates.  

On Saturday, after Jacob's breakfast and gift opening, we headed to the Meet and Greet for the Republican candidates.  We had both heard from some of the candidates, but it was nice to have them all in one location to talk to.  This was from 10 a.m. - Noon at American Prep Academy.

After that we headed to Jared's for lunch.  Hannah and Stephen were in town with the kids for a day and we all went over to see them.  
Marshall
We were able to meet the cute new baby Marshall and Karen brought an ice cream cake to celebrate Jacob's birthday.  When we got there Janette, Emma and Abby were getting out of the car and yelled, "Happy Birthday Jacob!"  
 
Getting ready to blow
out the candles

 












Huff and puff

     




    


Getting ready
After lunch we went home to meet Elias and Jaxon.  They came over for Jake's bday party.  They headed down to American Fork to play paintball.

Load 'em up!

As Jason captioned this one..."Ahhh, the 
sound of heavy metal, smell of 
testosterone!















Heading to play

Prep area



















After playing they came home to show me their welts.  ;)  They had a fun time!
They had pizza for dinner, played video games to their hearts content, and then had birthday cake.  
















The day before Easter we went to Jared's for spring rolls, musubi, and Easter egg dying.  There was also the grand opening of Chips--a new cookie place over by Jared's.  Grace really wanted to go so I drove us over and we all got a free cookie.  They were good, but almost too thick and gooey.  Had fun getting them.  





Easter Sunday I hid the eggs for Jacob to find.  He found the first ones pretty easily.  

Then he was stumped for the last egg.  He looked all over and finally found it!   

Hidden between the boxes!

Speaking of boxes...right now our dining room is storing our 2 Adirondack chairs, lawn swing and new BBQ.  We don't have places to put them until we set them up, so they ended up here.  

Jacob, Garrett, Amber Olivia, Makenna (David's 
niece), Kolton and Julianna

Jason, Jen, Amy, Tanner, Chris, Lucy, Barry,
Linda and Mom


After church we went down to Heidi's for dinner and to celebrate Mom's 85th birthday. 
Its official!  Jacob has a driver's license!!   After we got home he left for Jaxon's house to show him.      















 

Thursday, February 29, 2024

February

The first Saturday in February Taylor and Brynn were up for the week visiting.  They went to Elizabeth's so we went over to see them and their twins, Olivia and Emma.

Jacob brought over his Switch to play with Christian.  

They were also celebrating Christian and Ryan's birthdays.  It was fun to see the babies and Ryan and Taylor!
That morning I bought strawberries and made jam.  The next day, Sunday, was our 18th anniversary and Jason bought me Sees candy and tulips. 
That night, Saturday, we went out to dinner to Zao's and then walked around the mall.  Jacob had Jaxon over so we wanted to give them a little more time parent free. :)


We opened the last box of orange
sticks from Christmas.  Jacob wanted
to make sure he got these 2!  



Rory and Kay Hardy, Annalee Hobbs, Todd
Combe, Ella Halterman and Grandpa,
Trent and Travis Ferguson



Rylie Ashing, Zury Manuel, Zildy Corser, 
Ada Corser, Dustin Jackson, Shep and Pearl
Jackson, Jim Ward





















Pinewood Derby painting for Activity Day!
Tina Memmott, Shane Eller and Kids, Cameron Memmott

Saturday, the 11th, we celebrated Chinese New Year's at Jared's.  Emma and Abby invited roommates and friends to come up and celebrate.  

Valentine's Day.  I made some "tarts" that were
pretty good.  

 Janette and a guy she is dating, Jared Xia.  She is going with him to Taiwan to visit some family this summer.  He is from California and really nice.





We had Catheys over for movies.  First time 
seeing them since New Year's.

Monday through Thursday Marcia and I walk in the mall (it is closer to her work).  Doing this everyday, for over 2 years....you get to know others walking the mall.  

There is Mike, the guy who is hard of hearing and always tells us, "the extra mile is never crowded."  Gaylynn and Carolee who walk against walking "traffic"....2 Christmases ago they passed out little boxes of candy just before Christmas.  Stephen, the mall security guard.  Luann and Alice....Luann's husband grew up in Redmond, UT--where Marcia's mom grew up and they knew each other.  Then there are David and Donna Bailey, this coupe in the picture.  They have been married 63 years and come everyday...even last year on the snowiest day, when no one else went out...they drove to the mall to walk.  

His 85th birthday was on February 25.  When we walk we chat sometimes and over 2 years you get to know people.  On February 20th and 21st it was Luann's 82nd and Alice's 85th birthdays.  Marcia and I decided to get them all a little something.  I got a bundlet cake for David and Marcia put together a candy bar with a cute note on top for Luann and Alice.  We gave the gifts to each of them and they were so surprised.  It was so fun to cause the surprise.  We all know each other, but not well so something like this was a true surprise and super fun for us!



On the last Sunday of the month we had everyone over for a dessert night.  It was fun to get together and visit.  Less stressful than doing a dinner (at least for me).  Kids played games while the rest of us visited.  
On February 29th it was Inez's official birthday.  So Lisa, Inez, Birthe and I all went out to lunch to celebrate our birthdays.  It was fun to get together and visit.  Can't believe it has been over 40 years since I met them!