Catch up with the Turners

Baptism Day for Logan

2020-10-01T16:31:00.004-04:00

Logan chose to follow the Savior by entering the waters of baptism. He was baptized by Ryan and it was beautiful and perfect.

We shared the experience with the Jenkins twins and their family. It was a quick meeting, with just two short talks given by Grace and Kolette (the two big sisters). It was perfect!

We are so proud of Logan and the man he is turning into!

After the meeting, our family members and a few friends came back to our house for a luncheon.

Great-Grandma Symes came with Grandma Stacy and Grandpa Bob, just for the day.

Kyle and Katelyn's family came, as well as Tori and Jake and Brax, and they all stayed at our house for the weekend. We LOVED snuggling and playing with the babies!

Our 3 kiddos slept in our room that weekend and one of the nights I spied these two snuggling together in bed. So cute!

We loved having these guys come visit and play with us!! It was such a great weekend, celebrating Logan, and connecting as a family.

UofU Gymnastics

2020-10-01T16:06:00.002-04:00

January and February brought us a few weekends of Utah Gymnastics meets. We had bought season tickets on Black Friday, so they were cheap. Even though we only made it to 3 meets that season, it was still worth it! This one that we went to was on January 24th. My favorite mountains were in their glory, welcoming us to town that afternoon.

We had such a fun time introducing the kids to the fun of UofU gymnastics!!

There were some fun activities to do before the meet started - photo booth, face painting, free give-aways, and making a sign with the cheerleaders.

The next morning we all went with my parents to Scheel's and then to lunch before heading back home to Idaho. The store was a lot of fun! We rode the ferris wheel and watched the fish aquarium for awhile.

Grace bought herself this cute Utes hat with money she had earned. She was pretty excited!

Before and After

2020-09-29T16:21:00.006-04:00

When we moved in the summer of 2018, we knew we wanted to re-carpet and repaint the interior. Thankfully, due to Ryan's hard work in his practice, we have been able to do both of those things within 18 months of living here! It's made a LOAD of difference in the look and feel of our home. Ryan has also spent a lot of hours changing all the door hinges and doorknobs from gold to brushed nickel.

BEFORE: Summer 2018

AFTER: February 2020

BEFORE: Summer 2018

AFTER: February 2020

BEFORE: Summer 2018

AFTER: February 2020

BEFORE: Summer 2018

AFTER: February 2020

BEFORE the painters started (note the ugly chandelier)

AFTER - new chandelier!!

This was where the kids slept for the first week of painting, while they worked on the whole upstairs. It was an interesting few weeks in our house...

Whenever they used their sprayer anywhere in the house, the rest of the surfaces in the house were covered in this nasty white layer of residue. It was a lot of work to wipe things down after each day of spraying.

It looked SO MUCH lighter after they had done the upstairs rooms and hallway!!

Living in the mess was not a fun experience. But worth it!

Eight is Great!

2020-09-29T15:40:00.000-04:00

Logan Quinn Turner turned 8 years old!

This was such a big day for him, and we are so proud of the kid he is.

Earlier in January, this crazy crew of boys got together with their parents for the "Baptism preview night" at the ward. There are so many boys in this group of 8 year olds (some not pictured because they had just turned 8 at the end of 2019), and they will make QUITE the group of missionaries in 10 more years.

Henry Robinson, Ford Platt, Logan, Davis Casperson, Graham Jenkins, Pierce Welch, Jack Thompson, Emmett Jenkins.

Over the course of the few weeks leading up to Logan's birthday and baptism day, we had the sister missionaries come teach Logan some pre-baptism lessons. He knows quite a bit about what it means to join Christ's church, and we have had talks and lessons about it with him. But Logan learns better when it's NOT mom and dad doing the teaching. :) We knew he would love to have these fun ladies focusing on him and making it more fun to learn. He loved it! The Sisters did a wonderful job too. One was from American Samoa, and brought such a strong and loving spirit with her. She played her ukelele while they sang together in our home.

Logan's actual birthday fell on a tuesday, so he got to enjoy a fun day with friends at school. I think that's exactly the way he wanted it, since he's such a social butterfly. He woke up to us singing Happy Birthday and a new tshirt for his birthday.

Ryan went early in the morning to snag some yummy donuts for breakfast.

8 is great!!

Boston and I went to eat lunch with Logan that day.

His class sang Happy Birthday to him as well.

Logan asked for a chocolate peanut butter cake... so that's what he got!

He chose a birthday dinner at Red Robin with a rootbeer float as his special treat!

The Dunlavys came over for cake and ice cream and to celebrate Logan.

He opened his presents - one of which was a special one that Ryan had picked out for him! It was definitely the favorite.

He also got a shooting target game.

He also got a framed picture of Christ that Grace chose for Logan. She wanted him to have a picture of Christ next to his bed like she has had.

Logan received some packages in the mail as well. One was a pin sent from Aunt Jessi. All these things got him so excited for his baptism a few days later!

Fun Things

2020-09-28T22:22:00.003-04:00

Grace has been loving using her rock tumbler. It's such a neat surprise to see what colors emerge after each round of tumbling.

Grace played out in the snow and had the cutest little ringlets. She's had those since she was little.

January 5th - This little man was so handsome on sunday for church that I had to capture some of those snow-flurry-smiles.

January 11th - Grace's friend Wren planned an '80s dance party. Just for fun! These girls had a blast together!

January 31st - We got a brand new baby cousin!! Morgan Lindsey Goates. Sweetest little thing.

Boston and I had a fun lunch together, playing with the

And another lunch at Noodles & Co.

A Fresh New Year! {2020}

2020-09-27T22:48:00.002-04:00

Typically when I blog, I write the post as if I was speaking in the present, or very recent past. I journal as if I had written it at the time those memories happened. However in this case I am writing it in September of 2020... and I only pause to mention that fact because of how ironic it is to be writing about "a fresh new year" like this year had so much going for it. Usually a new year DOES in fact mean new beginnings, good changes, making ourselves better, growing, learning, achieving goals, making new memories, and all the hope that a new year brings. Especially one such as "2020" where you THINK it would mean this year will be the year for seeing our past-selves in a new light and moving forward in a better direction. Right?!?... Well it turned out to be the strangest, most dramatic, most disheartening year. I promise I will explain more as I get to the posts in March. But basically the life we were living in January of this year was completely turned upside down in a matter of weeks. We did in fact make new memories this year. We did in fact grow and learn and achieve goals... but not at all the way we wanted to or even the lessons we ever wanted to learn. haha! But it is what it is. The year 2020 will forever go down in history as [possibly] the worst. the strangest, and most anxiety-inducing year in anyone's memory. It did indeed give us pause, and force us to gain perspective, just as the "2020" numbers would entail. And in the words of President Nelson at the end of 2018, he said it so well (as a Prophet always does!) when he prophesied our need to: "Eat your vitamin pills. Get your rest. There's much more to come." Boy did he know it!...

I have no idea what we were doing, but I guess I took funny face photos of the kids one day.

We used the Goates' giftcards and enjoyed our favorite dinner place! Thanks, Ben and Amanda!

Ryan and I grabbed a treat together at Sips.

Snow ball fight!!

Boston randomly caught a picture of my left ear and I figured I'd include it. You can see how well my scar was healing (just 5 months after my surgery), the hair is growing back, and you can just barely spy my new hearing aid! I got it in November 2019 and it's actually been a great help. Wearing it makes me feel like a whole person again.

Grace's class made their own x-ray by using oil on paper and then drawing each of the bones in the hand and wrist. Pretty cool!

Boston's preschool class with Ms Lisa drew self-portraits and answered questions about themselves. So cute to keep these memories!

With Lindsey's help, I came up with a new chore chart for us the start as of January 1st. We have struggled to find a system that works for everyone and that we stick to consistently. I put a lot of time and effort into each detail and the kids were excited to get started. I'd say it worked really well for the few few months... then it was kind of hit or miss after march/april came and life was turned upside down.

Santa Clause is comin' to town... plus Grandparents too!

2020-09-27T22:48:00.000-04:00

After spending the weekend before Christmas with Salt Lake, we headed home on monday the 24th and brought Nana and Bompa with us! We were so excited to have them join us for the holiday. It's the first time they've ever come to us for Christmas and we hoped it would be memorable. Unfortunately... Logan was really, really sick. Fevers, awful cough, such a terrible stuffy nose that he would gag and throw up throughout the day, and just generally feeling miserable. I felt so bad for him! He still tried to be a part of some fun though, like making snowflakes with Nana (to decorate our kitchen), and playing games with us.

All of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day it snowed these big beautiful snowflakes. It was so fluffy and perfect, like cotton balls were falling from the sky slowly all day. So picturesque!

I'd been wanting to make some homemade bread bowls lately so on Christmas Eve I baked some for the first time and filled them with homemade broccoli soup!! Mmm it was good. Just right for a winter evening.

We also made my mom's famous caramel popcorn which I've never had the bravery to try by myself. Mmm it turned out so good.

The kids set out treats and milk for Santa and the reindeer and headed off to bed!

HE CAME!!! We woke up to turn the lights on and light the fire, and there were so many special things set out! There was also a big, dirty boot print on the hearth... Santa must have forgotten to wipe his feet. I would have gotten after him if I hadn't been asleep.

After the kids opened their stockings, we enjoyed some YUMMY breakfast! Ham and hashbrown casserole plus sticky buns.

Opening presents is SO much fun!! Santa brought Logan beyblades. He was pretty stoked! Mom and Dad gave Logan an EZroller, a fingerprint activity book, a frisbee, and some other little items.

All 3 kids took turns opening up presents for them to SHARE as well: 4 laser tag guns, Dragons playmobil sets, new Usborne books, 2 CrazyFort building sets, and a floating soccer ball. Nana and Bompa gave Logan a cool gaming device (like a gameboy) that has over 100 games preloaded on it! Grandma and Grandpa got him a new Osmo game for the iPad.

Santa brought Grace a Space Station playmobil set!! She was SO happy and couldn't believe her eyes. Mom and Dad got her an MP3 player and a speaker! (preloaded with songs too). Nana and Bompa gave Grace some American Girl outfits and accessories! Grandma and Grandpa gave her 2 Lego Creations books with some neat STEM creations to work on.

Santa brought Boston the coolest 3-year-old-toy ever: the Paw Patrol tower and ALL of the characters and vehicles. He was SO happy! Mom and Dad weren't nearly as cool and got him some books, a puzzle piece activity, a frisbee and glow in the dark starts for his ceiling. Grandma and Grandpa gave Boston a Take-Apart car toy with an electric drill. Nana and Bompa gave him

Nana and Bompa brought some Christmas gifts for each other as well: Snowshoes!

Ryan got a book from his favorite series he was excited about! I got a foot massager which we both use equally. :)

Boston was super excited to use one of the gifts Ben and Amanda's family sent us: a melting snowman that melts into hot milk and makes hot chocolate. So cute! They also sent a couple new games (Taco vs Burrito and Pizza Party), plus giftcards to our favorite restaurants (Cafe Rio and Pizza Pie Cafe). They were so thoughtful!

Grace enjoyed some alone time playing in the snow outside. She built her very own Wall-E. So cute! She was quite proud of herself and put him on a sled to pull it around.

The day was a fun one! Unfortunately this is how Logan spent most of the holiday. Doing breathing treatments and resting. He was not feeling well and wasn't himself. We felt so bad for the poor kid!

The rest of the week, Ryan was able to be home with us. It was so great to have all of that family time. Play, build our new toy things, eat, sleep, repeat.

On New Years' Eve, Utah played in the Valero Alamo Bowl against Texas. They lost, unfortunately... but it was still fun to watch our Runnin' Utes!

It wouldn't be New Years' Eve without are waffles and ice cream!!

My dear friend Susie Warren sent us the sweetest surprise in the mail. This Paradise ornament, shaped like a Ponderosa Pine, She was so sweet to think of us and to still include us in her Paradise family.

My friend Lisa Hymas created this cute little ornament to show all of the books we read this year. So fun!

We had a great week, being together as a family, having my parents in our home for a few days, eating lots of yummy things, making memories, and celebrating the Savior's birth and life, We love Jesus Christ and know that all the things we love in this life come to us because of HIM.

Christmas Traditions

2020-09-18T13:00:00.004-04:00

Every year our stake president and his family put on a huge, incredible live nativity production in their yard. It's one of our favorite traditions! Grace and Logan kept finding friends of theirs who were dressed up and "acting" in the live nativity.

I'm so thankful for my Savior and that we get to celebrate His birth and His life. I know my kids (and myself) benefit so much from actually seeing and experiencing what it might have been like to be witnesses to this scene.

Our ward's youth group has always spent one evening riding around on the back of semi truck (like a hayride) and caroling for elderly and those who need a lift.

Our book club group ladies like to do an exchange of some kind at Christmastime. This year we did a favorite things exchange at Loni's house. Her house is beautiful! It was fun to see everyone's favorite things. I got some neat, colorful bowls we use for ice cream. :) I love them!

Our elf, LuLu, was bopping around our house all month. She took the kids' Christmas lists back to Santa for us while we were in Salt Lake.

OF COURSE every year we look forward to spending a few days in Salt Lake with both sides of the family. There is always plenty to do and experience! Puzzles, eating allll the yummy things, christmas lights, parties, dinners, and playing with cousins...

We went with my parents and Jason and Jacey's family to walk through Luminaria on friday night. Ryan and Logan stayed behind because Logan had spiked a fever, which was a huge bummer. But we still enjoyed ourselves and soaked in all of the beautiful light displays! It was fun to have that time to walk and chat and catch up with the Goates.

Church at my parents' ward.

Sunday relaxing.

That evening was the Turner Family Christmas party. We ate traditional "christmas morning" foods, searched for the "Christmas Tree Pickles", exchanged gifts while skyping with Josh and Abby's family, and performed the Nativity story. It was a great night!

Grace received a thank you note from the kindergarten teacher at her school. Grace had thoughtfully taken a couple of items off of this teacher's "Christmas wishlist" and asked me if we could gift some of those things to this teacher. So sweet of her!

One of our favorite traditions is sending and receiving Christmas cards! We LOVE hanging up these beautiful smiling faces in our home and looking at them all month. We are blessed with wonderful friends and family from so many chapters of our life together.

December Happenings

2020-09-10T20:48:00.006-04:00

First snowman of the season! And it was our friend, Olaf.

Some eerie fog that reminded me of living in Paradise.

Boston did this cute worksheet at preschool. That is some pretty good coloring! Age 3 1/2.

Cute little Boston turkey!

Got our Christmas Tree put up!! It's one of our favorite days of the year.

Our Beehive group met for a fun little Christmas party and gift exchange. They are a bunch of cute girls!

Logan's class was assigned to "hide" a turkey in some kind of costume (because it doesn't want to get eaten for Thanksgiving). He made his into Darth Maul with his lightsaber!

Boston and I have been attending a Music Makers get-together once a week while the big kids are at school.

Ryan's calling is financial clerk in our ward. Every year the Bishop and his wife hosts a bishopric dinner at their home. It was so fun to get together with those families and get to know them all a little better. The kids even got to swim in their heated pool outside in the 25 degree weather! Yikes.

Grace and I went to a local production of the Nutcracker with Leila and Alisha. It was so fun! And it continues our tradition.

One of our Christmas advent calendar activities was to drive around and see some of the light displays people put up. This one was pretty large!

This family was dropping off their kiddo at school with their car all decorated with lights! So funny.

Another activity as a family was to make and decorate gingerbread houses and men. Aunt Jessi had sent us a special cookie cutter so we could make them ourselves (usually I go the lazy route and buy them). Boston helped me cut them out and it was actually really fun!

Our ward Christmas dinner and party. We got to see Santa!

Poor LuLu the elf caught a cold and needed some extra rest. :(

Another activity we did was each write down 14 things we are grateful for.

Logan's class put on a "drummersize" performance for the parents.

After the performance, Boss and I went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A. Our fave!

Grace gave this talk mid-December in primary.

Got the Goates Family christmas card in the mail!!

Every year we leave a treat box for our delivery men and women. It's one of my favorite things we do to serve others at this time of year!

Our friends' brother was killed in a plane crash. It was a very sad time for our community and for my friends' family. We were able to help out here and there by having their littlest over for a playdate and taking dinner to her family when they had a lot going on.

Boston wasn't feeling great one day. I got some good snuggle time in.

Park City Trip {part 2}

2020-09-10T16:23:00.002-04:00

We were able to go see Frozen 2 at the movie theater together. I remember so well seeing the first Frozen with Grace in Ohio! It feels like it was just yesterday. We all loved the movie and especially the music.

A nasty blizzard hit on saturday while we drove to the Olympic museum in Park City. It was a really neat place full of so many memories and artifacts I totally remember seeing and experiencing firsthand!

I remember being SO jealous of the little kids that got to be the bearers of light in the opening ceremony.

On our way back from the museum, we had promised the kids that we would take them sledding... but as we drove and realized how NASTY the weather was, we were too nervous to continue driving up and over the pass to Mountain Dell. Many cars and trucks were sliding or getting stuck on the freeway. So we got off, found an empty church building that was positioned on a hill, and let the kids go to town with their sleds. It was probably their favorite part of the whole trip and it hardly even counted as a sledding hill! ha!

Overall there were a few good memories from our somewhat last-minute trip to Park City. We enjoyed the place we stayed at. We enjoyed seeing our families on Thanksgiving. We enjoyed experiencing some new places and things together. But don't let the pictures fool you... there was a LOT of fighting. A lot of whining. A lot of back-talking and very little gratitude. It was a struggle for Ryan and I to want to put any effort in to planning a trip ever again because of the disappointment and exhaustion we felt after this one. But it is what it is... being in a family is just like that sometimes. There are wins and there are losses.

When we got home that evening we found that our house was at a chilly 42 degrees inside! YIKES. Apparently our furnace had died and my app didn't alert me. It was a rough thing to come home to on such a cold weekend but we survived!

Park City Trip {part 1}

2020-07-20T18:04:00.001-04:00

First, really quick, I wanted to save a couple photos of what our house looked like when we got the lights put up! I'm so grateful we can pay someone to do it who knows what they're doing, and that my husband doesn't have to get up there and figure it out. haha. It's much safer.

We bought sleds for the first time in YEARS!

For thanksgiving 2019, we rented a 2-bedroom condo in Park City. We decided it would be fun to do some sledding, show the kids some of the places we love in Park City, enjoy the mountains, and also be able to be a short drive down the canyon to Salt Lake for the actual Thanksgiving day. It actually ended up being one of the most difficult trips we've ever been on with our kids... Ryan and I came away feeling like we never wanted to take these 3 ungrateful, hard to please, entitled children on fun vacations ever again! haha. It sounds harsh, but trust me, it was a difficult few days. That's life, right? Sometimes trips and great and sometimes they're not.

We drove down to Park City in a huge snow storm, and it ended up snowing every single day we were there. Thankfully we made it safely and only saw a few cars slip off the roads on the way. We dropped off our luggage at the condo, got some pizza from ModPizza and went nextdoor to grab a few groceries from Whole Foods.

Before bed, we taught the big kids a new game called PlayNine and it was a huge hit!

In the morning there was a lot more snow...

Driving down Main Street

Driving down the canyon to Salt Lake was a little nerve-racking until we got lower in elevation and all was well.

We got to see and play with cousins!! Especially this littlest dude: Braxton!

It was so nice to see so much family and spend time catching up!

Gma and Gpa Turner had all the supplies for the kids' December advent calendars.

Later in the afternoon we went to Gma and Gpa Goates' house for our second Thanksgiving dinner plus pie. That's A LOT of food! It was fun to hang out with Thomas, Whitney and Claire too, who were in town from CO!

Driving back up to PC we enjoyed seeing all the beautiful Christmas lights! It's like a magical winter wonderland.

The next day we were all a bit tired and wanted to have a low-key morning. We ate, played lots of games, played iPad, and hung out until it was time to take the kids for a big surprise.

They had no idea what we were doing or where we were going. They made guesses and even said "ride a train" for one of their guesses, but I kept playing dumb to throw them off.

"See the trains kids?"

We were going to ride the North Pole Express and see Santa!!

The crew hole-punched each of our tickets.

The North Pole helpers even brought us all hot chocolate and cookies.

Boston was not a fan... of any of it. He thought it was pretty cool at first but for some reason he was unhappy/crying/whining for 75% of the experience.

We saw Santa!!

I'm not a fan of snow, but look how gorgeous that view is!

Finally got a small smile from him.

After disembarking, we drove to the Dairy Keen for lunch (along with everybody else who was on our train, apparently)! The kids liked looking at all the trains around the restaurant.

Birthday Wishes

2020-06-28T22:37:00.000-04:00

I'm so thankful for all these wonderful people who love Grace so much. She was blown away by all the people who sent her birthday wishes!

Grace Turns Ten!

2020-06-28T22:30:00.000-04:00

This girl turned the big DOUBLE DIGIT, ONE - ZERO, TWO HANDS UP! How is that even possible? I cannot believe the little peanut that made us parents and put us through the ringer her first 13 days of life is now this beautiful, bright, creative, independent young lady. Grace is a bright light, a good example, a sweet spirit, a thoughtful friend, an engineer/builder, an idea-creator, and the fun-maker for her brothers. She is helpful and giving. We are so blessed to have her as our big-sis!

For her birthday weekend, Nana and Bompa came up to help us celebrate. My mom was super helpful with getting the surprise decor up friday night. One of the big surprises was that I collected photos of her friends and family wishing her a happy birthday - then I posted them on the window in the shape of a "10".

In the morning she was SO excited and surprised! It made her teary. (more photos on next page)

She asked for sticky buns for breakfast.

She was excited to get her Lego space shuttle.

We went on a walk along the snake river trail to enjoy the beautiful day.

Then lunch at Grace's top pick: Habit Burger. This girl LOVES burgers and french fries. She could eat them everyday.

Her activity of choice was bowling!

Grace's dinner of choice was Hawaiian Haystacks. Yummy.

Cake time!

Ryan and I gave her a big surprise gift we saved until that evening... She opened up a small book of types of rocks and thought that was pretty neat. Then she opened the big one...

I didn't catch her look of utter amazement on camera but it was there! She's been wanting a rock tumbler for a long time. She even started to cry because she was so blown away, happy and touched. You deserve it, sweet girl!

Sunday best for church that day.

Favorite candy: Twix and milky way

Favorite foods: Refried Bean Quesadillas, goldfish crackers, Italian beef sandwiches, Hamburgers, white sauce pizza

Favorite movies: Harry Potter movies (seen 1-5 so far), Grace (American Girl movie), Star Wars movies

Favorite friends: Greydon, Lucy, Wren, June

Favorite color: Red

What do you want to be when you grow up?: Doctor or Astronomer

Where do you want to travel to?: Hawaii, Paris

What's your favorite thing to do at school?: Reading, lunch time

What's your favorite thing to do as a family?: Go to Nana's house together, movie nights, play board/card games

Book series currently reading: Land of Stories, Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, Fablehaven, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Accidental Hero, Michael Vey

Favorite ways to spend your free time: legos, reading, ipad, "chalk city" outside with wagons and scooters, build forts

Grace is becoming more and more picky as time goes on. One week she'll love something I make, and then next week I make it she is already grossed out by it. She's become a puzzle when it comes to eating!

Greydon and Grace share a birthday AND are in the same class! They got to bring ice cream cups and toppings for their class.

Grace had received a ukelele for christmas and had been saving her money to buy a nice, padded case. She finally got enough with the help us birthday moneys, and this came in the mail! She was so proud of herself to reaching her goal.

A silly "oops" moment on the way to school one morning.

Grace's 4th grade class was assigned a Native American project. Each student was given a tribe from Idaho, which they researched and created a shadow box of. Grace was given the tribe of Nez Perce. She wanted to make a Longhouse so she and Ryan spent some time making this cool replica! We then used blue sand for the river, items from the backyard, and a little deer toy Grace had laying around.

Grace is also a bit difficult to dress. Typical pre-teen?... I took all of the things I know she HATES in a dress, searched high and low until I found this one, and had her try it on. She was super unhappy about it and refused to look at herself in the mirror until I left her alone to sulk about it. Then she finally told me later that she actually does love the dress. ha! I'm so good.

She doesn't often make my job easy these days, but we sure love her! :)

November Things

2020-06-28T19:37:00.000-04:00

Nov 2nd - Bald headed boy!

We finally finished reading Harry Potter #5 together!!! So we had a friday night pizza night and watched the movie. This is definitely one of my favorite family traditions we've started with the kids. It helps that Ryan and I love Harry Potter as much as they do. :)

Grace had her friend Wren over to play for a few hours. When those two girls get together, their creativity is off the charts. They put together a "restaurant", complete with a sign on the door, quotes from happy [famous] customers on the wall, and menus to look at.

Nov 6th - We held our Young Women in Excellence meeting. It was a beautiful night, all focused on being the "light of the world" and how each of the girls lights their world around them.

We then wrote on chinese lanterns and sent them off into the night outside the ward... With the gorgeous Temple in the background!

A friend in the ward saw the lanterns from their home and got this picture. Such a cool night! I love working with the Young Women and the amazing leaders. It's such a privilege for me.

Speaking of our beautiful Temple, I caught some neat photos another one of the wednesday evenings after YWs.

Nov 13th: Catching rainbows with Boston.

Nov 14th - Boston and I LOVE having Cafe Rio dates with Luci and Alisha Dunlavy while the big kids are at school.

Nov 15th - Another beautiful Idaho sky. It's rare that we go even a few days without one amazing sunset here.

Nov 25th - The kids and I drove to Idaho Falls to meet up with the Coons at an arcade and play place. It was such a blast! The kids played and played, and they each got a few dollars in quarters to spend on games. Grace was ROLLING in tickets after hitting the jackpot. They all had fun picking out prizes.

I sure love this sweet friend of mine.

I was able to stop by the Tiffany's frozen yogurt shop in Idaho Falls and say hi. It was so good to see them and catch up for a few minutes before heading home.

Nov 27th - We love to go to Pizza Pie Cafe. The kids really love being able to pop in and out of their chairs, pick something different every few minutes, and eat their favorites. I love that I can basically sit and not move all dinner, and everyone gets whatever they want! This time the kids got to have some balloon toys made for them. They were basically living their best lives that night!

Punkins, Parties, and Princesses {Halloween 2019}

2020-06-28T18:53:00.001-04:00

Oct 29th - Annual pumpkin carving.

Boston actually enjoyed it more this year and got his hands in there!

Oct 30th - Our *creepy* Halloween dinner, featuring Eyeball Pie and Centipede Bread. Ewww.

My Beehives got together for a "Cupcake Wars: Halloween Edition". They had 3 categories to enter a cupcake into and we had 3 winners!

Oct 31st - I helped with Logan's class party and Boston came along. One parent did a pumpkin activity, another did a toilet-paper-mummy activity, and I was in charge of the sugar cookie monster faces. The kids had a fun time!

Getting ready for the Trunk-or-Treat at the ward!

We had Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and BATMAN with his cool moves.

Funniest trunk... all of the church organizations and callings that are no more. Church moves to 2 hours, YM presidency, Visiting Teaching, Boy Scouts of America, Young Women class names. So funny!

Every year we walk across from the church to the Alder's house where they have a huge display set up. Each year is a different theme and this year was Disney princesses!

I spy some of our ward friends in these costumes...

That Ursula sure is looking beefy these days........

Are the Genie's muscles REAL?! Better believe it. He's one of Ryan's gym buddies and that's 100% real.

Three of Logan's buddies dressed up as Merida's triplet brothers.

The sunset that evening while we trick-or-treated around the neighborhood was gorgeous! Could not have asked for a better night.

Pumpkin Patch and Monster Cookies

2020-06-23T23:02:00.001-04:00

Oct 23 - We went to Tubbs Berry Farm to enjoy the pumpkin patch before Halloween came and went. It's one of our very favorite traditions each year and it was fun to try this place out for the first time. We did all the things: slid down a haystack slide, took funny pictures, got hot chocolate that burned our mouths, and picked out pumpkins. It was a great time!

Oct 24 - Bowling with friends, then a park playdate with the Dunlavy kids. Trying to soak up the nice weather while we can!

Oct 25 - Decorating Halloween cookies (again) at the Johnsons' house! I made the cookies (monster head shapes) and Angela made the frosting. The kids were so creative with their monster faces. It was definitely more fun than just the regular fall shapes.

Saturday Oct 26 - Our youth and almost all of the leaders drove down to Salt Lake for a temple visit plus a tour of the family history center. It was such a fun day and I was so thankful I could go! It was great to be with all the awesome ladies and men who serve the kids, and to get to know the youth better. The weather was very very windy because a snow storm was moving in (which unfortunately hit while we were driving home that night). The day was wonderful though.

The Prophet had recently announced that women can now serve as "witness" to a baptism, so I was able to sit as witness for a bunch of the baptisms. It was a wonderful experience. When the announcement was first made, I thought to myself "Well, that's cool, but I don't feel like I NEED that to feel valued or important." But when I was asked to help out and sat in the witness chair, I felt a powerful witness to my heart saying "This is right. You are helping to do the Lord's work on earth, even if it is 'only as a witness'." It was a sweet experience. The Salt Lake temple is closing for four whole years for maintenance projects and this was our last time being inside before they make lots of changes and updates. It was a blessing to have been able to go.

First snow of the year. Not bad!

Crazy hair day at school! He legit wants me to do his hair like this every day. ha!

Keep dreamin', buddy.

October: Goofball, Football, and Donuts

2020-06-23T22:13:00.001-04:00

Some new friends of ours are building a huge home up the street from us (Thompsons). Grace is friends with their daughter. The two girls scootered up the road to the lot and climbed all over the massive pile of dirt. We're excited for them to finish building and move in!

The first week of October I was fitted for my hearing aid finally. It was pretty exciting (although a pain to get used to). I've lost enough hearing in my left ear from the Menier's Disease that I really needed the boost to my hearing (the high frequencies in particular). I also have constant (LOUD) tinnitus in that ear, and the hearing aid is supposed to trick my brain into thinking it's not really there. Unfortunately the hearing aid lays directly against my still-healing incision which makes it really uncomfortable. But, all in all, I feel more *whole* with the hearing aid now. I'm so thankful to have it and to be healing so well from my surgery! I have not had ANY menier's episodes, dizziness or vertigo at all since before my surgery. It's been such a tender mercy!

For general conference weekend, before women's session, Grace and I went to dinner at Habit Burger. We snagged some silly photos. I sure love her! I especially love her goofball moods.

This year during conference, President Nelson announced that next time we meet (April 2020) it will be unlike any other conference. It would be special and different. We've already had so many changes announced in recent years that we have no idea what that could mean. It was also announced that we will no longer have 3 hour church... only 2 hours! Pretty amazing. My kids will probably never remember what 3 hour church was like since they are still pretty young. President Nelson has been given SO much revelation for our church in this day and time. It's pretty incredible to watch it all play out. I'm sure there's much more to come...

On a sunday evening, we went over to the Dunlavys and decorated halloween cookies. That's one of my kids' favorite activities!

The next day (oct 14th) we decided to grab the kids a little early from school and head up to Sun Valley for a few hours. It was ABSOLUTELY gorgeous weather and the fall colors were in full glory everywhere. Oh my goodness, I was loving every minute. We walked around the town a little bit, got ice cream, found a chain link buffalo, and soaked in the cooler temps and gorgeous scenery.

We then drove a little ways beyond the resort until we found a great area for kid photos. We found the most beautiful little spot! I put my "photographer hat" on for the first time in quite awhile and got some great shots of the kids.

I am seriously the luckiest girl. Look at this handsome man!!

The beautiful Idaho sunset as we drove home.

October 9th was our ward party/carnival. It was really well done! The kids all got prizes for doing certain games, and we got to eat these yummy (and super cute) donuts for a cake walk game. It was a fun night for the family! We really love our Twin Falls 15th ward.

Oct 19th, we headed to Salt Lake for the weekend - specifically so we could go to the Utah vs. Arizona game! It ended up being quite cold and we had SOAKING rain... but we won! So all in all it was great.

Listening to the drum line pre-game is definitely one of the best parts for me!

Another great part was getting a WARM Goodly Cookie right there in the stadium. Yum!

The kids had a fun time visiting the creek at Brookstone and hanging out with the Turners while we were at the game.

The kids won't let a little something like the screen being on the ceiling stop them from watching a movie. (at the dentist)

Boston is creating some super cool things lately with the magnitiles. He especially likes to build spaceships with them.

A beautiful sunrise during school drop off! I love the open skies of Idaho and all the beautiful sunrises and sunsets.

We experimented with some caramel apples. They were not nearly as easy to decorate as I thought they'd be... But the kids still loved eating them.

Poor sleepy kiddo. He doesn't take naps anymore (unless I lay down with him until he falls asleep) but he definitely still needs them!

Zombies, Besties, and Boise

2020-06-21T22:50:00.003-04:00

Grace's friend June Elison had a birthday and invited her to an escape room. I think she was conflicted about the experience, because she had a blast! But she also came home freaked out about the zombies that were involved. It sure didn't help with her nighttime anxiety...

Grace definitely has an engineer's brain. I love seeing her creations!

Boston loves when Luci comes over to play! They are the cutest together.

I had been going strong with my Usborne Books & More business for almost 5 months and it was serving me well! I was making some money (about $2000 straight to my bank account) plus a whole BUNCH of new books for our own family. It was a lot of fun for me! However after my surgery, while recovering from that, and with all the craziness that fall-time brings, I was struggling to fit in usborne parties and all the customer messaging. Ryan and I both finally agreed that it was time to let that hobby go. It was great while it lasted and my kids LOVE how our library almost tripled in size!

More activity day fun for Grace and the girls in her group! They are quite the adventurers and their leaders make it so fun. This time they hiked around Dierkes Lake, along the Snake River.

In May, our ward held their annual fundraiser for the youth program. Our bishop had auctioned off a day in his corvette and Ryan and I signed up! We had been waiting for a fall day to take it out when it was cooler outside and we could take it to Sun Valley without the kids. By the time the end of September rolled around and Ryan had an open saturday, there was already some snow in Sun Valley... so we decided to take it to Boise and do some shopping. We hired a sitter, found a Melting Pot restaurant, walked around the outdoor mall, and did some shopping. It was a nice few hours away!

THIS was a scary sight: all those things on my calendar for october, and we hadn't even finished september yet. Yikes! Every year I look at October and know that life won't slow down until January. It's hard for a home-body like me to want to have such a busy schedule!

With the start of October comes... fall decorations!! The kids love putting up gel clings (or any kind of decoration) with me.

Date night at Orange Leaf. I've decided we need more date nights... it's good for the soul! (both ours AND the kids')

I went to Logan's classroom during Johnny Appleseed week and helped them serve homemade applesauce. I actually did basically nothing haha! but that's what I was asked to do when they didn't end up needing me. It was fun to check in on Logan though and see him in his new "scene".

Birthday, Ball Games, and Teriyaki Boats

2020-06-14T23:48:00.000-04:00

The morning of September 5th Ryan brought me home DONUTS for breakfast!! Yum. It makes me hungry just seeing these pictures. He was going to be gone until late that night (not fun on my birthday but oh well), so it was sweet of him to do that at 6:15am!

My sweet parents had these gorgeous flowers delivered. I felt so loved. I ADORE fresh flowers!

I got some sweet Boston snuggles. These are super rare and I was thankful for this tender mercy and those peaceful moments with this sleeping 3 year old.

Dinner = Cafe Rio. Of course!

Boston was loving my birthday cards. We felt all the love!

The next night we finally got to go on a date and we went to Tokyo Sushi. Oh my gosh, it is SUCH good food. We love getting the "boat" and sharing all of the goodies in it, plus a whole lotta california rolls on the side.

After dinner, we had a few of our favorite couples over for a game night. Angela and Paul taught us "Left Right Center" (with real dolla-bills, y'all) and it was pure craziness! Angela ended up winning the most.

The tuesday after my birthday was my follow-up appointments with the surgeon who operated on my inner-ear. I also needed to get my hearing and balance tested in Salt Lake as well. Ryan took the day off so he could hold down the fort and I could do a 24 hour trip by myself. I was actually super excited to go and just have some me-time... like a birthday present to myself. I scheduled a Temple date with my mom in the morning and I'm so glad I did! They had announced that they were closing the Salt Lake Temple for four whole years in order to complete a seismic retrofitting project. This is MY temple, and it's special to me. It has been a long time since I went to a live endowment session there. It was wonderful to be there again and be there with my mom. I remember so well being there the day I received my own endowment, April of 2006. She was right there with me, every step of the way, and she still is today.

I met up with this sweet friend from Med school for pedicures. Melanie Redd and her newest baby. We went through 4 crazy hard years together and have leaned on each other many times. She's been living far away and was moving with her family to South Korea in a week. So it was especially great to catch her for a pedicure!

My appointment with the surgeon went well - and I passed my balance test. It was NOT fun but hopefully I won't have to do another for a long, long time. I'm so thankful I've healed so well and have had zero menier's episodes so far.

I did a little shopping, and then met my parents for pizza downtown and Settebello's before driving home. It was SUCH a wonderful day, and I was thankful for so many things: that I was well enough to do this independently finally (thanks to my surgery), that my parents were available to hang out with me, that my dear long-time friend happened to be in town at the same time as me (for the first time in years - we typically just miss each other), the weather was perfect, Ryan was able to be at home with the kids, and I was able to attend the Temple before they closed it. My heart was full of gratitude.

This stud. I absolutely love this picture. I look at it and I see a teenage version of Logan. Yikes!

For Logan, September meant starting a month of both Rec soccer AND flag football through the YMCA. Totally living his best life!!

It turns out he is good as a forward and he is great as a goalie!

Action shot!

TOUCHDOWN LOGAN!!!

Here Comes September {My Favorite Month}

2020-06-14T23:15:00.000-04:00

September means lots of good things are happening: My birthday is a few days away, cooler temps are on their way, college football starts, and fall decorations can go up! September of 2020 also brought these other things:

Got my Idaho drivers license (took me long enough...)

I was in charge of a YW service project with my beehives. We put together 70+ General Conference packets for all the primary kids under 8 years old. The girls had a great time putting the packets together and I think the kids really enjoyed getting to do the activities during conference.

Boston FINALLY got to start preschool! He was so excited to have his *own thing* finally. His class was made up of 7 total kids, and it was held at Lisa Robison's house (a lady in our stake). He went to preschool mondays and wednesdays, 9-11am.

Grace's cute pic was featured in the local SouthernIdahoKids magazine!

A few gorgeous Temple shots I took recently! I can't even believe this is 3 minutes from my house.

Boston can be pretty quiet... but sometimes he shows his fun, silly side!

GAME DAY!!!!

Logan put this together at school - all about him.

Sunday Sundaes. It's our favorite tradition during the warm months! Eating our sundaes out in the backyard.

Some friends of mine got together for a night of meal-prep. I'd never done one of these parties before, and it was really great! We met in the back of Albertson's where they put out all the ingredients (even meats, cut and pre-bagged for you), and then you assemble the plastic ziploc bags. I ended up with something like 15 freezer meals that I simply had to cook in a crockpot or instapot. Pretty great!

Amy Cory and I.

Tia Mayes in my ward invited a bunch of the ladies over for a final pool party while the big kids were at school. Surprisingly though, only 3 of us showed up: Alisha Dunlavy, Paula Weeks, and I. It was fun hanging out with them though, and the 2 little kids (Boston and Luci) had a blast!

Grace and I went on a mommy-daughter date to Sips. Cookies and sodas... can't go wrong there!

We also went with Logan to see a local production of "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" which was really cute! The kids had a great time.

Grace has been helping me in the kitchen more and more.

Ryan and I are trying to get certain spaces in our home feel more and more our "own". One of the MUCH needed changes was to replace the super old, ugly light fixtures. This room had a gross chandelier that hung low because it used to be a dining room. We replaced it with a much more modern light fixture.

The Close of August Craziness

2020-06-14T16:55:00.000-04:00

Once school started for the big kids, we knew we only had a couple of weekends before the craziness of September began. It's that awkward part of the year where it still feels like summer and yet the big kids are gone during the day now. So in order to enjoy one of those final weekends (while Ryan was working), I decided to pack up the kids and meet our friends in Ketchum and go to Sun Valley for a few hours. On the way up Boston started feeling sick to his stomach... we stopped at a park to play for a bit and he was acting ok-ish...

Then we tried to go to lunch around the corner, but as soon as we got to the restaurant, Boston started throwing up in the car. :( I felt so bad!! We drove home as quickly as we could once I felt like he was calmed down enough to make the 1.5 hour drive back.

When we moved into this house, we didn't know we had apple trees in our backyard!! They're so pretty. :) I haven't figured out the perfect timing to pick them in order for them to taste good (and not powdery), so maybe next we'll get it down.

Grace has been loving her activity days activities with these cute girls! This was the week Dave Walker (our neighbor in the ward) taught the girls how to ride a horse. She loved it!

That week, our ward Relief Society held their annual RS vs. YW lip sync contest! I did it the year before too (spice girls) and this year our same group (plus a few extras) performed an N'Sync/Backstreet Boys mash-up! It was pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. ha! It was a GORGEOUS night in our president's backyard that evening. I love Idaho!

BYU vs UTAH football game!!.... betcha can't guess who won. ;)

Uncle Ben was in Salt Lake for some work stuff so he was able to come hang out with us for a few hours! He even surprised us with DONUTS!!! Mmmm. We also played a bunch of corn hole which the kids loved!

Grace had her friend Kolette over to play.

For the weekend of Labor Day, Kyle and Katelyn's family came up to visit! It was so fun to have them up. Katelyn has been struggling during this pregnancy and needed to rest the whole time. It was fun to hang out and catch up while the kids and the dads played. :)

I love love love this tree in our front yard at this time of year!

Ryan's medical group has been recruiting for several new pediatricians so there have been quite a few dinners with candidates. We hosted one in our backyard (the Monsons have since decided to take the job next summer!) and it was a fun evening. My favorite part was having the caterers bring in alllll the yummy food so I didn't have to do any work. :)

We sure love our backyard! Bos and I have spent a lot of time on the trampoline together while the big kids are at school.

First Day of SCHOOL!

2020-02-19T16:25:00.001-05:00

August 19. 2019 - First day of 4th and 2nd grade for these two! They are attending two different schools this year, which is what they did in paradise. So this isn't new territory for us. Grace is at Sawtooth Elementary in the Gifted and Talented Program (for both 4th and 5th grade). Logan is still at Pillar Falls Elementary in 1st grade. They were excited to go back and see their friends! Grace was nervous about a new school and not excited about not seeing her friends from Pillar... but she was able to quickly see that she does recognize quite a few faces at Sawtooth. We'll see how things go!

The week before school started, we were able to to go to each of the kids' new classes, meet their teachers and get them excited. Logan has Mrs. Jones, and Grace has Mrs. Martin.

Afterward we grabbed some dinner at Cafe Rio with the Dunlavys.

What do Boston and I do while the kids are in school?.... Well not a whole lot actually. ha!

Sometimes we visit Daddy at work so Bos can play with his Funko Pops. I LOVES that.

Sometimes we get lunch together.

Other times we relax and watch TV and enjoy the peace and quiet that come when the big kids are gone. hehe

Sometimes we are productive like building Lego x-wings!

School Countdown

2020-02-19T16:14:00.001-05:00

School was just a couple of weeks away from starting up again - with Grace in 4th, Logan in 2nd, and Boston in 3 year old preschool. We were trying to soak up what time we had left by playing in the backyard, having friends over, haircuts, pool days with friends, and movies with Dad.

It's ALWAYS wonderful having the Dunlavys over to play.

Haircuts!

"Logan in a onesie" haha! Thank you, Grace.

Seeing the new live action "Lion King" movie together!

Back-To-School dinner! Smoker pizza, roasted veggies, and fruit.

Goates On Location {Snow Canyon)

2020-02-18T17:52:00.001-05:00

Family Time

2020-02-16T23:11:00.004-05:00

So many fun memories to share... And I don't even have access to 1/4 of the photos I wanted to post!

The kiddos all got to sleep in the big bunk room (except for the 3 littlest). They had WAY too much fun together and not a whole lot of sleeping was going on.

The house had 7 bedrooms, a huge bunkroom, 8 or 9 bathrooms, a large table and kitchen eating area, a movie theater, and a game room. It was perfect for our big family.

Feeding 24 people for every meal is a fun puzzle. We split up planning dinners, and did hodge-podge breakfasts and lunches. We definitely ate well!

Gorgeous view towards Snow Canyon! We spent the evenings out on the balcony cooking marshmallows and hanging out as the sun went down.

Aunt Lindsey and Uncle Thomas made each of the kids a dog-tag with their names on it, and their grandchild number position.

She also worked on "Cousin Crew" t-shirts and activities for the kids throughout the week.

We spent all possible downtime out at the neighborhood waterpark. That was easily the highlight of the trip!

A group of us went over to Thunder Junction park to play in the water, run around the playground, and ride the train.

We had to go snag some cool drinks after a hot day in the sun.

My grandma and grandpa Matheson came to visit since they were in the neighborhood. They were so cute and brought each of the kids (and the adults!) little gifts. It was so thoughtful of them.

Speaking of grandparents: My Aunt Jane also came by (she now lives in St George) for dinner. She is immersing herself in family history and organizing a lot of her Dad's things. She brought over a HAND-WRITTEN copy of patriarchal blessings going back several generations. Here is Grandfather Lee's, which I found interesting... It even mentions "wives" rather than "wife"... and he did in fact end up losing his 1st wife and remarrying.

She also found something that BLEW MY MIND:
This is a small excerpt showing that Hyrum Smith himself gave my 5th Great Grandfather (Jacob Johnson Jr) his patriarchal blessing!! It was given in Navuoo, in February of 1842. How incredible is that!!! I come from some amazingly faithful people.

Games, games, and more games.

Dixie Park exploration.

Lunch at Iceburg

Lipsync battle with the fam:

Avengers: EndGame movie night.

There was so much more I didn't get photos of, but boy it was a fun week!! We got some cute pics of the kids in their matching shirts. We all needed a chance to be under the same roof after a few years apart. If not for our own sake's, definitely for the sake of these littles. They are buddies when they're together and the distance can make it so hard for kids to connect. I'm so thankful we were able to get them all together!

All in order, numbers 1 through 12! (And #13 on the way, thanks for T&W)