The Feeling of Freedom

 This girl is SO READY.

She's been practicing in parking lots since she was in 6th grade. 

Hours?

Oh. 

She's got her hours. 

And she passed with flying colors.

The forgotten week

That five days in between Christmas and New Years is just weird. Routines are off, meals are a hodge podge of leftovers, stale treats and heating up tater tots. 

It's no man's land.

We're in a holiday fog.

We managed a few things...

AJ picked up her official driver's permit!

I'm working on my paint by number. It's coming along,

The ward held their ice skating party....it was "winter raining". 

I sat in the truck. I draw the line at watching ice skating and getting soaked. I had a nice nap and Megan took pictures for me! I know I'm lame and totally no fun.

Even though I bark at her alot and tell her to "stop parenting your sisters", I am really glad that she's so good at stepping in when I am snoozing in the truck. 

We held our 3rd annual Power Hour at the gym and Mark set it up so that there was a big rowing race at the end with little boats to show who was winning. It was super cool. People suffering on the floor is a sure sign. 

I'm glad this weird week is over. Lets take down the tree and get organized. 
 

Self Reliance

 Don't look know, but I think Bug can officially start the lawn mower. 

First Day of School

 We are down to the final trio. Megan is taking the semester off of school and building up her bank account while she considers her next move, Mathew is working for a hospital in Rexburg, ID doing IT, and Ethan is happily married to Kassie and working at CED in Sprinville, UT. 

Everly is starting her 6 grade year at CST and pretty excited to be in band and theater. I'm pretty excited to say goodbye to elementary school life! We're movin on up!

Laneybug is a Junior at Olathe South and is confident and self assured. Their class lineup is pretty sweet and after many years of curating and nurturing a solid and supportive friend group, this year is looking promising!

AJ is starting 8th grade and is homeschooling from the start (hooray!). This leaves lots of time for hanging out with mom and saving Mathew's reindeer beanie from getting donated. That was a close call. 

Here goes another school year!

Mathew's 21st takes a turn for the better

Mathew lives in Idaho. He's a grown up and he works at a hospital in the IT department.

That means he won't be here and I won't be able to bake him a birthday cake.  He's in that stage of life where money is way better that random stuff, so his gift was us paying the property tax bill on his car...wah wah....needed, but lame

He did ask for each of us to write him a letter, but naturally, I failed to mail those on time.

Picturing that boy sitting in his apartment alone on his birthday with no gifts makes me want to poke an eyeball. 

I scheduled a Walmart delivery for early afternoon.  A cake, ice cream and candles. 

I felt pretty good about that, until I imagined us all calling him up, singing to "Happy Birthday". He blows out the candles and we say goodbye. He turns hangs up and there he is....alone. With a walmart cake and a bucket of ice cream to eat alone. 

This is effective mom torture. 

Luckily, Mathew decided to drive to Utah when he woke up. Ethan gave me the heads up, I canceled the saddest grocery delivery ever and Ethan and Kassie had him over for cake. 

I'm so so so glad! 

We were on a trip to Omaha (at a restaurant with the Flynns), Megan was home in Kansas and Ethan, Kassie and Mathew were together. 

I love these Facetime moments 💕

Happy Birthday, Sweet Mathew! While the rest of the world is off getting drunk on their 21st birthday, I am grateful that you find joy in a roadtrip, exploring, stopping for good food and finding family.  You are on the right track!

Sunnyside Farewell

This is it. 14 years of Sunnyside Elementary are coming to an end. 

Everly is 5th Grade Graduate!

 She enjoyed taking photos with some of her friends

We watched intentely for her photos to come up on the final slide show. She was clearly the best kid there. 

We really will be so sad to leave Miss Frieberg. She was the perfect mix of love and discipline. 

One final cookie in the cafeteria....

And that's a wrap!

I love her. She is sweet and funny, kind and confident. 

She's ready for middle school!

Ethan And Kassie's Open House

Ethan and Kassie are coming! And Kassie's parents are coming! Holy smack, we gotta clean this house. What if they find out that we aren't especially great at cleaning our bathrooms. 

It's definitely too late to repaint the basement. I had good intentions!

But the flowers are gorgeous, the photos are lovely in their thrifted frames, the plates and cutie-pie caramel corn cone holders arrived just in time. 

Mark is smoking the butts!

4 almond bundt cakes and 7 Chocolate Lovers are ready for display and slicing.

The spread is set! I love the weathered wood with the silver frames and pink roses. Makes my heart happy. 

We set out the tables and I prayed that the shade would move into place.

People started to arrive and Ethan got to introduce his sweet bride to the people he loves. It was so fun to hear him say, "This is my wife, Kassie!"

It took us about 10 minutes of watching people cook in the sun before we knew that we would need to go to the shade. It was not going to come to us. Kyle, Janelle, JD and Katie jumped in to get everything shifted over. 

Sooooo much better. 

We settled in to greeting everyone and introducing our friends to Kassie's parents. It was a beautiful day. Julia and Sara kept the food full and the forecasted rain did not arrive. 

The garden was sparce but manicured. But the new fence looked so nice and the lawn was green and pretty. 

The Asiatic Lilies did me a massive favor and chose this very moment to bloom. The only last a few days, so this is nothing short of a wedding miracle. 

Dad's roses were not as flashy, but just as beautiful. I need to plant more of them.  

We had a lovely time chatting, letting kids play in the swings and holding Audree's new baby boy. 

And just like that...it was over. Folks went home, we froze the ridiculous amount of leftover food (why can't I learn to cook a normal amount??), delivered extra cakes to the deserving and breathed a sigh of relief!

All that is left is to hang around, convince Kassie that Winnie isn't scary (she is totally scary) and get to know our new in-laws!

Sweet Benevolent Universe, it didn't rain!