January 2021

Before Easton was born I was in a good blogging pattern of blogging about a month soon after it ended. That quickly went out the window after he was born, but now that he's getting older, I feel like I have a little more time for myself again. So I'm recommitting to that pattern. Here we go!

My parents left a few days before the new year and when they left we realized we didn't have any plans for the rest of winter break. A lot of things were still closed from the freeze order put in place back in November and we had a lot of rain in the forecast (so outdoor stuff was out), but we were able to find a few fun things to do.

In the afternoon on New Years Day we drove down to the Woodburn Outlets. They have a Disney Store there and I had heard it is a Disneyland Outlet where they send Disneyland merchandise that didn't sell at Disneyland and sell it for a killer deal. I got this sweatshirt and Peyton got a spirit jersey. Both were less than $20, but would have sold for well over $40 each at Disneyland. We'll definitely be making more regular trips down there to check out what new deals they have.

After the outlets we waited in the 2 hour drive thru line for In-N-Out. 

The kids watched a movie in the back, Easton climbed all over the car terrorizing everything, I posted about our 2020 highlights in my InstaStories, and Rog patiently inched forward in the line. 

In the past I've stubbornly held my opinion that In-N-Out is not worth the hype, but I've come around to their hamburgers. They are good, but I still maintain that their fries are not. We ordered hamburgers for everyone and some fries from In-N-Out. Then we went through the drive thru at McDonald's and ordered some more fries from there. In a side-by-side comparison, McDonald's fries definitely won.

The next day we set up our tent in the living room.

We had hot dogs for dinner and roasted s'mores.

The big 3 slept in the tent while Easton, Rog, and I slept in our beds.

We found on Family Search that we are related to Walt Disney. Obviously it's a very distant relationship, but fun nonetheless.

Janssen from Everyday Reading recommended these stainless steel wipes and when I saw that they were less than $4 at Target I picked up some for Rog's stocking (even though they really were for me). I finally got around to using them and declared they are life changing. We had so much scum that had accumulated on our microwave that I could never get off. These wipes and a little scrubbing got our microwave looking brand new!

While my parents were here we worked on this Mickey Christmas puzzle nearly every night with them. We didn't get it done before they left, but I got it done a few days into the new year. It was a more challenging puzzle and such a cute picture that I decided to frame it to use as a Christmas decoration. 

We celebrated Rog's birthday with cinnamon rolls for breakfast.

For Christmas and his birthday he got a new iPhone 12. His iPhone 6 that he'd had for years was dying and had barely any storage, so it has been a huge upgrade for him. He also got Bananagrams Duel (want), a space heater for his office (need), a BYU football shirt (wear), and Deep Work (read).

We had Panda Express for dinner and then a chocolate cake with chocolate chip cookie dough frosting.

We watched A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood together after putting the kids to bed.

The next day was our friend Ryan Sullivan's birthday. His wife, Lindsey, had asked me if she could pay me to make him a birthday cake. I said yes, but I wasn't planning on actually accepting her money. A few days before his birthday she brought over $50 and made me keep it. I never would have asked for that much money and felt a lot of pressure to make a $50 cake! I made Cake by Courtney's Sprinkle Cookie Dough Cake except with my go-to white cake as the base. 

Ryan is a huge Oregon Ducks fan, so I decorated it with green and yellow sprinkles and a yellow drip. 

I made this same cake a few months ago, but I've already learned so much since then. This side-by-side comparison makes me very happy. So much visible progress!

That day the United States Capitol was stormed by a group of Trump supporters trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election. It was a sad day in the history of our country. The next day some pretty funny memes came out of it though.

Caught a beautiful sunrise on the way to High.

We started family movie nights sometime during the spring shutdown in 2020 and we haven't stopped. We watch a movie as a family either Friday or Saturday night (whichever works for our schedule that week) and it has been so fun. This week we watched Gold Diggers: The Secret of Bear Mountain. It was a favorite of mine from my childhood.

Toddler in a box!

I decided I'd patch the holes in Peyton's jeans as soon as I found them in an attempt to save them. It helped extend them for a few weeks, but then she got holes in other places and I had to throw them out and buy her new ones.

One of the quilters I follow on Instagram (@woodberry_way) is making a king size quilt with granny square blocks. She is part of a birthday bee and got a bunch from that, but wanted more, so she said if you made her one and sent it to her, she'd give you one of her patterns for free. It was a fun little project.

I was frustrated with our coat closet always being overrun with shoes and storing socks upstairs wasn't working because half the time the kids needed socks, Easton was napping in the same room as the socks. I saw someone do something like this on Instagram and decided it would be the perfect solution. So far so good!

Peyton got a 300 piece puzzle that is like the puzzles I have been doing except with less pieces. She loved it and said she wants more puzzles for her birthday.

I finished my December #aprojectamonthin2020 project halfway through January, but at least I got it done!

Cutest little Cheeto face and hands. The big kids were playing at the Martyn's, so he got to have a little snack!

I decided on my projects for 2021.

We celebrated Peyton finally being able to go back to dance in person by picking up some Krispy Kreme mini donuts while she was there. (Rog was working on the cabinets for a second oven we are putting in our kitchen, so I had all the boys with me.) 

Just a cute little guy (who is looking so dang big these days) hanging out!

The kids were asked to sing this song together for the January virtual assembly. Easton wanted to be included too.

Bernie Sanders attended the Inauguration wearing this and for days after these funny memes kept popping up everywhere.

I was called as the 2nd counselor in the Young Women's presidency and then they asked me to speak in Sacrament Meeting, so the girls could get to know me. I hadn't spoken in Sacrament Meeting since we first moved to Oregon, so it was probably about time that I do it again. Speaking in church is not easy for me and writing my talk took FOREVER, but I was happy with how it went. 

The cool down function of our dryer stopped working which doesn't seem like it would be a big deal, but turns out it definitely is. We had one laundry day with lots of wrinkly clothes, but then Rog was able to fix it.

Easton turned 18 months old! I took him out front for a little photo shoot.

He is loving Mickey so much these days and my Disney-loving heart could just burst with joy!

The last week of January was Kindness Week at the kids' school. They had a different kindness challenge each day. They did things like leaving a heart outside for people walking by to see...

Serving someone in your house (Corbyn cleaned off the counter for me)...

Delivering treats to a neighbor...

And creating a kindness campaign poster.

Logan was selected as the Student of the Month from his class for showing kindness! He chose Mod Pizza for his dinner out (take out that is) that night to celebrate.

Easton likes to snack all morning long. This morning he ate a whole bunch of frozen blueberries while I was making a smoothie and he had an extremely blue diaper later!

This never happens anymore, but he fell asleep in my arms while I was reading him books before his nap and I had to take a few minutes to enjoy it.

I took him in for his 18 month well child visit and he was not a fan of any of it. He was ok when it was just me and him in the room, but he cried the entire time the MA and doctor were in the room. He hated having to take off all his clothes, being weighed and measured, being examined, and of course the shots! (The spots on my face mask are from his tears.)

For our February combined YW activity we did a Portland Oregon Temple string art. I was in charge of the activity and spent a lot of time figuring out the pattern and preparing for the activity the last week of January. Rog helped by cutting and priming all the wood. I think it turned out pretty well considering it was my first time trying string art.

We decided it was time to begin Easton's Toy Story education, so we watched all 4 of them for some of our movie nights in January and into February. We have quite the collection of Toy Story stuffed animals by now. All tucked in for bed with a few of his new friends! 😂

I got my Felt Ball Garlands (my January project for 2021) made right before the end of January. I actually made them twice because after I made them for the first time Peyton got them so tangled up. After we both spent a long time trying to get them untangled, I decided it would be a lot easier to just make them again. Now I know to be super careful not to let them get tangled! 

My original plan was use them as a decoration for birthdays, but when I realized I had the perfect colors for rainbows, I decided they would be a March decoration. So even though I made them in January, I didn't hang them (and take pictures of them ) until March.

And that was our January!