January 2021 Part 4: The Everyday and In-Between

 How did we spend the longest, coldest month of the year, besides projects, an anniversary, and a birthday? Well,

Rachel continued to greet us in the late evenings with her sleep-walking/night terrors. 

We took Christmas down during the first few days, and as I was putting things away, I finally noticed this nativity. Somehow, the baby Jesus got separated from the set at some point, and we found baby Jesus when we were unpacking our kitchen stuff, but somewhere between June and December, we lost Him again. I love that somebody used our mini-Christus statue as a replacement. It brings some more thought into a traditional nativity. I thought it was a pretty powerful reminder about why we celebrate Christmas to begin with. 

I second shot a wedding, which was a lot of fun! 

One Sunday, Rachel and I matched. 

Food was consumed. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Maybe even homemade ice cream?

On the January 3, Michael was ordained to the Aaronic Priesthood, to the office of Deacon. Our ward wasn't very communicative about the whole thing, and we found out that same day that they were planning to do ordinations right after church. We could have put it off, but the following Sunday was our anniversary, my nephew was getting ordained the Sunday after that (or maybe the same weekend as our anniversary?), and Michael really just didn't want to wait that long. He was incredibly excited to be able to help pass the sacrament. We made some quick phone calls. Nana and Papa were able to rush down, but there was no way my mom would be able to make it down from Idaho for the ordination. I was really, really sad that she wouldn't be there, and I was pretty frustrated that nobody had let us know the plan until that day. We went to the Bishop's office right before he headed out. Brian's parents arrived, and Brian ordained him to the priesthood. During the ordination, it became incredibly apparent to everyone in the room that Dad was there. Michael later said, "I knew that if I opened my eyes, I would see him there." We were all in tears following the blessing, and I was so grateful that Dad could be there when Mom couldn't. Michael and my Dad have always had a very special bond, which made the entire thing even more tender. We're so proud of Michael and this decision. In the chaos of the day, we never took a picture of him with Brian and Kirt, but I grabbed this selfie before he went to bed, 

And I had the boys pose for this picture the following Sunday. 

It became apparent in January that Rachel's coat was too small, so I ordered a couple from Amazon for her to try on and decide on. 

Do you want to guess which one she picked?

The following picture seems to sum up what life is like with children:

But then again, so does this one: 

Gabe was really needing some extra attention, so I took him on a date to IHOP (because all my kids love breakfast foods above nearly all others.)

Gracie continued to be our office-mate

Movie buddy

And fierce guard dog. 

Gabe continued to put his whole soul into eating his favorite foods. 

And we all drank lots of water. 

We got a new door mat. Hopefully this one won't blow away with the wind. (Spoiler alert: It still blows into the door during the really bad storms). 

I got new church shoes for At Home church. 

We gave bananas a try again, and this is about how it went:

So, Brian and I made banana bread in our Instant Pot. 

It was pretty good, but I think we'll make banana bread in the oven in the future. 

Fun fact: I love green beans. 

Another fun fact: Michael loves airplanes. 

Taryn made me this sweet headband: 

And the kids celebrated the 100th day of school, and for the first time, they dressed up as 100 year old versions of themselves. Our other schools never did this. 

I needed to renew my temple recommend, and with Covid, it was an interesting process. Normally, we'd go in person, first to a member of the Bishopric, and then to a member of the Stake Presidency. This year, I got to do both interviews virtually. My bishop dropped off my new recommend to my house after he signed it, and then after having my interview over the phone with a member of the Stake Presidency, I drove to the Stake Center for drive-through signing. This pandemic has had some strange effects on regular, ordinary things. 

We also went on dates, and at least twice doubled with our friends Serene and Dustin. Things got a little more official in January. Serene sent us an invitation for a date she planned:

We ate dinner at Dog Hous and went on a scavenger hunt at Barnes and Nobles: 

The next week, it was our turn, and not to be shown up, I made an invite too:

We were dying for warmth, tropics, and green, so we went to the Butterfly Biosphere:

And that is how we spent our January.