Winter days--or life marches on...

School started--and although I was thinking this semester wouldn't be too bad when I got the textbooks (easy to read), that feeling ended when we reviewed the assignments for the semester.  It is our "Leadership and Administration in Social Work" class and we have some BIG assignments due including writing some policies, writing a grant for funding, and writing a huge reflection paper about ourselves as social workers plus other stuff along the way.  And to top it off, I was assigned to Kaysville Group 1 and we had to do a 45 minutes case study presentation and discussion on Week Two of class.  Welcome back to school!!!

Jena started back on the ski slope with her friend and instructor,Terrie.  We misplaced Jena's boots a year ago so we used boots from the Adaptive Ski program most of last year.  After cleaning the garage and the storage room and Jena's bedroom over the summer, we decided to buy her some new boots.  This first day back on the slopes and she is sailing down the slopes, faster than she ended the year last year.  These new boots seemed to be the best fit for her.  Her instructor was so excited for her.  Terrie said it was like Jena had been skiing for a couple of months already this year.

Jena's happy to be back to Snowbasin and the ski slopes!

This past Friday, when Jena had another great day skiing, Terrie said, "Maybe it was a good thing she lost her boots.  She is really much faster and stronger skier now."  Boots are expensive so we will keep good track of these great boots.

Last Sunday, we attended the "Homecoming" of Brianne Watson in our old ward--Walnut Grove Ward. Brianne served in the New Hampshire mission.  We love her family and it was great to share this day with them.  Brianne is about 3 months older than Jena.  I remembered the day she turned 12 and was acknowledged in Sacrament Meeting as "the newest Beehive" entering into Young Women's. Jena turned to me and said, "I am next one. I be a Beehive, too."  At the time, she was loving Primary so much including Activity Days and we thought maybe it would be good to stay there a little bit longer.  But that moment I knew she was ready and excited about Young Womens so three months later she was the next one--the newest Beehive.  Jena followed Brianne throughout Young Women's, completing their Personal Progress, and then three months apart when they were each nineteen, Jena followed her, serving an mission.  Jena will be finished with her mission just 3 1/2 months after Brianne--following her sweet friend once again.

Last Monday, we got to watch Scarlett while Scott and Chantel went out to dinner and a movie for Chantel's birthday which was on Thursday (they were good to work around our crazy schedule so we could spend some time with Scarlett).  Jena and Scarlett had so much fun playing together.  We built a fort over our air hockey table, we sang songs, we played hiding games and we laughed and laughed.

Tuesday was the day of our case presentation.  We tried something creative for our presentation by doing it in the form of a mock emergency agency board meeting and our teachers loved it.  Glad to have it done!

Wednesday, I got to hang out with Liam and Zander for the morning while Jessica had some dental work done under sedation.  She was glad to get that done and I was very proud of myself because I managed to get both Zander and Liam taking naps at the same time---for about 10 minutes.  The important thing was that Zander was asleep when it was Liam's turn to go down for a nap so I was able to follow his little nap routine without worrying about Zander.  I took a picture of Zander but no good ones of Liam (so I grabbed one from facebook.)

Zander at 6 weeks

Liam sleeping with Curious George and a cat

And despite the fact that I have had no personal experience with a newborn and a toddler as a mom (because of the ages and times our kids arrived.), it was fun (although of course, I didn't do one thing other than be with Liam and Zander--how did you mothers get anything done with two little ones!)

In Gary's 'spare time', he completed my Christmas puzzle of 1000 small pieces.  I think I did about 10 pieces, Jena helped a little bit on many days with the sorting and assembling, but Gary did the major work.  This is the BYU football stadium filled with people.

My blog book came--all 385 pages of it--for 2016.  Even though it was just last year, both Jena and I enjoy flipping through the pages and remembering the things which we did.

It fades into my kitchen counter top.

And it has been snowing and snowing and again snowing.......

Not my favorite when I have to drive to Salt Lake or other places (like everyday last week), but it is beautiful.

I took a video for Ben of the dogs jumping and running through the snow.  They love to try to catch the snow in their mouths.  Ben loved watching it.  It made him laugh and he asked me to take more pictures of the dogs to share with him.