Welcome to 2022! I saw this and seriously laughed out loud.
Can you believe in March it will be 2 years since a microscopic virus shut down the world? Two years later and things are almost back to normal here in Utah. The Coronavirus is still an ever changing epidemic. The Delta Variant wrecked havoc a few months ago and now the Omnicron variant is surging. This variant spreads easily, but the symptoms are less severe. All I can hope is that this virus will go away soon, or we will all just learn to live with it like we do the common cold or seasonal flu.
In January our home turned upside down. We are nearing the ending stages of our remodel and are finally ready for paint and carpet, so we had to move all of our stuff out of the main level of our house. We all moved upstairs to the bonus room while the painters and carpet guy worked on our house. Mom and dad slept in the bonus room bedroom and all the kids slept in the playroom part of the bonus room. It was like one big sleepover! It was definitely a change of routine for us, but we all managed just fine.
The basement became our dinner table and where we would hang out at nights watching tv and doing homework.
Check out this amazing January sunrise.
Poor Grandma Bonnie has not had a very good start to the year. She has been battling a leg wound that is taking a long time to heal, but in addition to that, right after Christmas she fell and became really disoriented. She ended up in the hospital, and we were all so worried for her. But she is a fighter and a trooper. After a week or so she was released from the hospital and went into a rehab facility. Unfortunately in the rehab facility she contracted Covid. Her recovery has been slow, but she is getting better and stronger everyday. This is the cutest picture of Craig and his mom.
And poor Makayla has not had a good start to the year either. She got a really bad ear ache, so I finally took her into the doctor. Makayla has always had a lot of ear wax build up, but this time there was too much ear wax to see if she had an ear infection, so the doctor and nurse had to try to clean it out by irrigating it. It was not a fun experience at all for Makayla. At one point she started crying and said she wanted it all to stop. She did in fact have an ear infection, so we were able to get her an antibiotic and she was feeling much better a few days later.
Brynnli loves her "ear muffins".
Tyler and I got to go on our favorite date of the year. For a few years now we have gone to dinner in January to talk about our personal, family, financial, and professional goals for the year. We always have great conversation, and it is such a good chance to get on the same page. Our dinner this year was at one of our favorite restaurants, Carvers. I forgot to take a picture of my food, so you get a picture of my leftovers. It was delicious.
Yep, mid January we were still in the middle of our project. The painters came and aside from a slight mix up with the wall and trim colors, we were loving the progress of our house.
Early morning hanging out with dad in his home office.
Caden is back at it with his Jr. Jazz team. We are so proud of Caden and the progress his has made this year. He has made a lot of assists and rebounds for his team. His team hasn't won a game, so Caden is really disappointed at the end of each game, but he is really loving his team and coach.
Aww, I love this little muggie! Bella might be her name, but we call her Bellies, Muggies, Muggie Moos, Stinkie Winkie, and Doggies.
And yes, she is still the most spoiled dog and we love her to pieces!
After the paint was done, our carpet arrived. I was so excited for our carpet, but as soon as the carpet installer put it in the room, I looked at Tyler and said, "oh, no!" It looked so much darker and browner than I anticipated, and I could see that it would leave foot marks and tracking. I was really worried about it and cried quite a bit, but Tyler really liked it, so I kept hoping that once it was all installed, it would look better.
Even if I was questioning our carpet choice, I was really loving the white banister, fireplace mantle, paint color, and new dining room light.
As soon as our carpet is installed and our new furniture is in I will be doing a whole post of our new remodel, so stay tuned.
The kiddos had dentist checkups, and unfortunately Brynnli had her very first cavity. Brynnli is the first of our kids to have a cavity. It could be the fact that she loves Dr. Pepper like me. Oops. Good thing we have a great dentist who kept Brynnli very calm while he filled her cavity. Brynnli got her first experience with laughing gas.
Look at how good Caden is at coloring. Caden still loves Mario Brothers (not as much as x box, though).
One of Caden's favorite games to play on X box is Madden NFL 2022. He loves to play as the Tennessee Titans team. Well it just so happens the Tennessee Titans were playing in the AFC Championship game, so we watched it. We were hoping they would win because they would play in the Super Bowl, but unfortunately they lost in a really close game. Caden was pretty devastated, but he said there's always next year.
Let me tell you, I know nothing about football, but I love watching games with Caden because he gets so into it and yells at the t.v when he thinks they have made a good play (and when they make bad plays too). Caden is such a cute kid!
Look at our little Bellies being so well behaved.
Kenzee and Mason had their birthday party at Altitude Trampoline park. We all had fun, except Tyler who had to stay home because he was sick.
Caden played is last Jr. Jazz game of the season. Remember how last summer his team was undefeated? Well this season his team lost every single game. Despite losing, this was probably Caden's best season yet. Caden learned so much about the game and improved so much.
His coach even asked Caden if he wanted to join a competitive league that he was coaching, so there will be a lot more basketball in our future. Caden's coach said he chose Caden because he was a really hard worker and would always take the corrections the coach gave him and apply it. He also said Caden was a really good teammate and was always so encouraging to all the players. We are so proud of you Caden!!
Makayla went with me to the Utah Gymnastics meet. We had an eventful time getting there. We decided to take trax, but it took a long time to get there, the train kept getting more and more crowded with every stop, and Makayla was wearing a sweatshirt that was making her really hot. Do you know what that's a disaster recipe for? We were about 4 stops from the stadium when I looked at Makayla's pale, white face and started to take my wallet and other items out of my clear backpack so she would have something to throw up in. I tried to place myself between her and the person squeezed right next to us who could also tell that she was going to throw up. I looked around trying to figure out my next move. Luckily seconds later the train stopped at the next stop and I grabbed her hand and pushed people aside to get her outside to the fresh air. We made it just in time and Makayla was able to take some deep breaths to help her. Crisis averted! The bad news? We had to wait 30 minutes for the next train to arrive. We finally made it to the gymnastics meet and I bought Makayla a t shirt so she didn't have the same experience on our train ride home.
It was also Princess and Hero day at the Gymnastics meet, and even though Makayla says she is "so over princesses," I still made her pose next to Cinderella.
We had a great time together. I love as Makayla is getting older, she is becoming so much fun to hang out with. I love hanging out with my bestest little friend!
Hey did you know Tyler started a new job? Remember DMC Mining Services that he used to work at before Cememtation? Well he's back working for them. Tyler didn't even apply for this job, they reached out to him. DMC used to do a lot of projects in the U.S., but they are trying to get back as one of the main mining contractors here in America and they hired Tyler to get their U.S. side of projects going again. This job was not an easy one to take, and there were a lot of conversations, pro and cons list, stressful nights (and lots of tears on my side), but I think we made the right decision to leave Cementation. Tyler's new title is Director of Estimating and Continuous Improvement. This job is working from home with a little bit of travel. Since Tyler will be working from home permanently, we decided to redo the room downstairs into an official office. This was Tyler on his first day of work on January 31st. Doesn't he look so professional?
Until you realize that he is wearing a dress shirt with sweat pants. As Tyler explains, business on top, comfort on bottom.
Lots of changes to start the year off, but we are ready for the new year and all the fun we will have. Bring on 2022.
