Deacon Ordination

On January 8, 2023 Kimball was ordained a deacon in the Aaronic Priesthood by his Dad. I wasn't sure what sort of emotions I would feel, I assumed something along the lines of how big my oldest is getting and how proud I am of him. And while those emotions were felt, the main overwhelming emotions were about Lance.

I was completely surprised to feel so much love and a deep, deep gratitude for this man that I married 17 years ago. When looking for a husband of course I had the long ridiculous list of qualities I wanted in a man and let's be honest, that "perfect" guy does not exist! As President Hinckley said, "Aim high. But don't aim so high that you completely miss the target." (That isn't a direct quote). The main quality that I wanted was someone who would be able to give myself and my future children priesthood blessings if we ever needed them. That's it. That's all I wanted. When Lance and I were dating the spiritual promptings and direct messages were loud and clear, almost an audible voice at times, even palpable if that's possible. I listened and I followed every prompting I received.

Here we are almost 18 years later and looking back on my awful pregnancies, complications, Ezra's handful of scares, and Cora's entire medical journey, I have used the Melchizedek Priesthood countless times and it has made all the difference. Heavenly Father's power that Lance has used to bless me and my children with over the years has been a tremendous blessing. I am so grateful I married Lance and for the man that he is!

While it has now been a few weeks since Kimball has held the Aaronic priesthood, he has brought a very special spirit that I feel in my home. The only way I can describe the feeling is special. Something not tangle has been added to our home and I feel it. It is lovely and warm and just special. I look forward to the young man Kimball will become and anxious to see who he becomes bearing this priesthood.

Which Do You Choose?

Kimball is ALWAYS doodling, probably his favorite hobby. He came to show me this piece of paper and I was properly shocked and impressed. So many observations for an 11 year old!

The large box is labeled good on the bottom with a host of people flocking to the box. Within the box is youtube, snapchat, tiktok, and shows 93 million likes. On top of the big box it says BAD in large letters but isn't visible from the people's perspective. The small box says good all around it and contains family, fun, sports, mistakes, learning, fitness, sun, and art with only a few people running to that box.

I thought Kimball had a real keen perspective on how he views the world and the people around him. I can't explain how many people he's said has received new smart phones, smart watches, new playstations, new VR sets, etc. from Santa. All these kids are in his class and he feels left out because he's the only one without these gadgets. Last week some kids were calling him poor because he doesn't have a phone and while this does bother him (the teasing) I was very happy to see how he really feels from this drawing. I explained to him how even if he did have a phone, it wouldn't be smart and would not have any social media or editing apps; the phone would strictly be used for calling or texting only certain individuals. We have talked about the online world and predators who pose as children/friends/classmates and the grave dangers behind that. We talked about having good mental health and hours of phone usage isn't healthy physically or mentally and the toll it takes on our emotions. We talked about what things in life really matter, what things really bring genuine happiness and help us grow in all aspects of our lives. It was a really good conversation and of course, this conversation happened before he drew this picture. I guess some parts of what I said actually stuck with him.

This picture is also very similar to Lehi's dream which he didn't realize until I told him. It brought up a really good conversation about why we need to hold on the iron rod and really follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost. I'm so thankful for Kimball and even though his anxiety is difficult for both of us to deal with, he's such a sweet and very smart boy.

Sometimes You Just Need Ice Cream and Snuggles

 

School Art

This picture was taken at Ezra's kindergarten Christmas party and was featured in the school's newsletter for the week. They were having hot cocoa and cookies with a movie. I love his hat, her cocoa cup, his little baby toothed grin, and the cookie crumbs all over his mouth.

For thanksgiving Cora had to disguise Tom Turkey so she turned him into Tina Ballerina.

Cora's leaf art

Kimball's self portrait and self description

2022 in Review

• Had our annual staycation in Hayden, ID at Triple Play
• Replaced ALL the doors and trim inside our house. It's now a year later and I'm still trying to get the painting done.
• Kimball got braces
• We all got COVID which was mild. The kids made epic box forts from the door boxes.
• Lance and I saw Wicked
• Ezra has surgery on his tongue and his speech began to improve immediately
• Attended our fist legit Passover with our good Jewish friend and Rabbi, Brian Staples
• Lance had his scars excised and redone only to have them grow keloids again. Now we are onto more aggressive solutions.
• Jerusha visited us and we enjoyed Silverwood with her
• Lance turned 40!
• The kids and I went home to visit family. We enjoyed a short vacation in Boise, attended the Watson reunion, and headed to Twin Falls for a while. We did all the usual four wheeling, swimming, Halle's foam party, helped Grandma Cox clean out a few storage rooms, went to Elba to see the cabin, had July 4th with Tim's family, etc.
• Cora got baptized!
• Cora and Ezra both learned to ride bikes without training wheels
• Lance sang the national anthem at the Coeur d'Alene rodeo
• Camped on the Pend Oreille river
• Lance went on several trips by himself: 2 to the UT/AZ border to help the FLDS folks, took Kimball with him to Twin Falls to visit Kempton's family, went to DC with Donna and John to visit Kempton before they left for Russia. (I think there were a few more trips but I can't remember them all).
• Lance and I went to the opera, La Traviata
• Mask mandates and social distancing finally lifted!!!
• Ezra started Kindergarten
• Cora was officially diagnosed with dysgraphia, which is difficulty with writing
• Ezra started BMX and both boys raced this year
• I went to UT for 5 days for a girls trip - the most therapeutic thing ever!
• Lance auditioned for and performed in the Messiah in Coeur d'Alene
• Lance and I went on a Caribbean cruise without the kids for 7 days
• We bought Riplinger's funeral home and turned around and sold the business portion of it. We own the real estate and equipment.

Christmas!

After our cruise we only had 4 days until Christmas. I will probably never do another vacation in December, there's just too much going on and it's too stressful getting Christmas ready in such a short amount of time. We also had to skip some of our traditions. The kids made a nativity stained glass craft and our usual gingerbread cookies.

Christmas Eve! Kimball didn't go to bed until midnight so I was so tired. It was also Christmas Sunday but after our cruise I got sick and didn't go to church. Kimball and Daddy sang a duet in church and they did such a great job! 

I got Adam some cigarrett gum, he looks so natural, haha.

The kids' presents they made for us in school. These are always my favorite gifts.

Our annual Bell Tower christmas dinner was at Churchill's this year. So delicious! We were missing Stephanie who was sick and Milla who was out of town.

 

Caribbean Cruise Days 6 & 7

Welcome to Costa Maya, Mexico! Look at that incredible view from the ship. All of the ports we've been to have been tourist death traps - local people trying to sell you anything they have with super inflated prices and the pier is like a maze, it's really difficult to get out. Once we FINALLY figured out how to get off the pier, we enjoyed our beach day. We took a two minute cab drive to the beach where it was crowded with lots of tourists. You could rent a beach chair for $25 or a beach bed for $50. But if you walk a bit further down like we did, you escape the noise and crowd and can get a beach chair for just $5.

This was literally my view for the whole 4-5 hours we relaxed on the beach.

We both napped a little and ordered lunch. The natives just come to you, you don't have to get up at all, it was kind of nice and lazy, haha. People came walking by with boards of their handmade stuff trying to sell and then a waiter came with a menu and asked us what we wanted for lunch. At one point I got up to find a bathroom and a guy said while presenting with his arm, "Si! Si! Look at all this ocean we have!" I got a good laugh at him. While walking back to the cab we had suspiciously cheap massages right there on the beach. It was only $25 for an hour. But they were one of the best massages we ever had.

This was our last formal night for dining and I wore the Honduran dress I bought from the little girl.

Our last day was spent on the ship and we just relaxed before heading back home to our daily lives of work and tasks. I must say, the ship had amazing food but my favorite were the oatmeal raisin cookies. They were chewy and just delicious. Every time they were out I saved 4-6 and took them to my room for later.

A special thank you to Mom for taking care of the kids for us while we were gone. There's no way we could have gone without her and she missed a lot of Christmas festivities at home while she was out of town. She sacrificed a lot and we appreciate her so much for doing that for us!!! We love you, Mom!
 

Caribbean Cruise Day 5

On day five we arrived at Belize City in Belize. Sort of. There is no dock so we anchored off the coast a ways out and had to be taxied to the shore by tenders. Our excursion was touring the Lamanai temple ruins!!! This is what I was looking forward to the most and it didn't disappoint at all. We took a 1.5 hour bus ride to some body of water where we took a 30 minute speedboat ride to arrive at the ruins. Quite a journey just to get there.

Here are a few vans with no sides or roof so they built a roof over the top, haha.

I have to start by saying these grounds are just incredible. Once there, we walked about 15 minutes through the most beautiful jungle! The jungle was just as impressive as the temple ruins were. Of course it was hot (85* and very humid and this is their cold season), but the jungle was just incredible! I could have explored it for hours on end.

We saw a family of howler monkeys

Then all of a sudden we arrived at the ruins. Simply breathtaking!

It's interesting to me how they used these round rock to build but then covered the rock so everything was precise and linear.

View from the top of the temple

The backside of the temple has not been excavated. Of all the ruins on this site, only 2% has been excavated and they estimate that an additional 600 buildings are still uncovered. Wow.

We walked another 5 minutes and came upon the second temple. We were not allowed to climb or touch this one but it was taller and bigger than the first temple.

Some kids in our group stumbled upon a fire ant colony and got bit a few times. Then we came across this guy - a boa constrictor! He was really fat.

About 100 yards from the second temple is this ball court, identical on both sides with this round rock in the middle. The loser of the game was sacrificed.

The center of the court lines up perfectly with the stairs of the second temple, you can see it through the palm trees.

The third temple, we were not allowed to touch or climb this one either.

You can see to the left, below the guy standing there is a little mound. This lines up with the center of the temple and in the mound was found jaquar skulls and human skulls from sacrifices.

A Mayan calendar rock that fell from the temple.

Taking our 30 minute speedboat ride back to the tour building. We had another authentic meal of rice and beans with fried plantains. It was all really dry and not nearly as good as our Honduran lunch. Then the 1.5 hour bus ride back to our ship. We attended a concert that night which was a tribute to Adele, it was so good!