Great Job, Curly!

We were so proud of Curly last Sunday when he accepted the responsibility of being ordained a Deacon in our church...the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Deacons have many jobs. They have to run their own Quorum of boys about their age (girls have their own program). They have leadership (Noah has been asked to be one of these leaders, but until it is announced on Sunday,
we can't say what ).

Deacons pass the sacrament to members of the church and they collect fast offerings and deliver newsletters. They are in charge of raising and lowering the flag each Sunday. I'm sure there are others, but I'm sure you get the idea.

After he was ordained, we had a grand fiesta with most of his brothers and sisters and their families. My sweetie made enchiladas and tacos. After dinner was over, Curly made root beer floats for those who were not worried about a New Year's Resolution.

Check out how great Bossy looks! She had a gastric sleeve right before Christmas and she has already dropped about 50 lbs.

I thought January was going to be easier, but so far, I'm starting to wonder...

Go Grizzlies!

Saturday was our last day of Christmas vacation and we wanted to do something extra fun. Baby Doll and Curly spent their morning at a Jr. Jazz clinic and then we picked up materials for our Cookie Training on Friday. I don't think I'm ready to start selling Girl Scout cookies just yet...

Then I found out that Teach and Twiz had tickets for the hockey game, so of course I wanted to tag along on their little outing. I contacted the box office and before long, we had (6) $10 seats right next to Teach and Twiz.

The game was pretty exciting! The Grizzlies ultimately lost in overtime, but we didn't care. It was fun for us to be doing something together.

Seems Like Old Times

Teach went back to work on the 2nd, but she said she only had 13 of her 21 students in class. I think her school district was not very reasonable about the length of the break. Now the kids in our district have out all the way until Monday. That gave us sufficient time to put away Christmas decorations, clean their rooms (which they haven't done yet), put away their new Christmas gifts (which they haven't done either), and most important, play a little basketball.

Twizlet took these pics. I didn't know they existed until we got home.

I'm pretty sure I told you that I am coaching Baby Doll's and Curly's Jr. Jazz basketball teams this year. We have had such a long break since we had a game (December 14th), that I reserved a gym and held practices for both teams.

It was like old times having our little Twizzler wrapped in the mobi around my chest while I taught the kids how to play just a little bit better basketball. When my older kids were younger and I coached them, I almost always had a baby on my hip, often even during the real games. Most of my younger kids love to play sports because they watched them from the time they were born... before they were born even.

Our games don't start up again until next Saturday, January 11th, but at least the kids will get one more practice in before we play. Sometimes I wish they wouldn't try to straddle the holidays, but just start playing in January instead. It would sure make things a little easier.

Sometimes I think I avoid easy...

Happy New Year!!

We had a super fun and different New Year's celebration this year! Beauty and The Beast decided that they wanted to do a toddler party (since they have 2 little boys) with all the little cousins. The party started at 4:30 in the afternoon, because they didn't want any of the kids to miss their bedtimes.

We ate chicken nuggets from a catering tray that Bossy won from Chick-fil-A and nachos courtesy of Netflix and Drama Queen's last day of work. As usual, Beauty and The Beast had lots of others treats and goodies for everyone.

While we were waiting for the "Ball to Drop," we had 14 of the older party-goers play a debate game. It was fun and exciting and a little bit biased...not that I'm still pouting... ok, maybe a little, but I still think I won my debate even though the judge overturned the verdict and it didn't go in my favor.

Anyway, our goal was to have midnight happen right around 7:00 pm. Beauty had blown up a huge pile of balloons that The Beast had gathered into a large sheet and he pulled out a tablet and did an actual internet countdown from YouTube. When we got to one, he threw the balloons everywhere!

It was pretty exciting!

The kids all pulled tiny champagne poppers and I had Little Warrior on my lap, so I got to help him learn how to pull one even though his little hands weren't strong enough to set it off. You can imagine what a mess we all made! We even toasted in the new year with tiny bottles of sparkling cider and capri suns.

As we started cleaning things up, Sport decided to stick a balloon to the ceiling with static electricity from Taco's hair and when it worked so well, he just kept sticking them up there. Pretty soon, half the ceiling was covered with balloons!

It wasn't long before he was getting help from the other tall people, with the goal being to get all the balloons to stick before one fell.

Finally, when nearly the entire ceiling was full, everyone started discussing ways to get them to come down. Beauty tried a spray bottle filled with water and it eventually brought down one. Then The Beast thought maybe we could get them to drop with sound waves so he put his subwoofer up on the ceiling and pounded out some rock music, but that only made them dance, not fall.

Finally, an open door brought down a few more, but by then The Beast was tired of the game and he stabbed one with a screwdriver. Then Beauty went after a box full of screwdrivers and pretty soon they were being demolished by anyone who could reach. It was a second chance to "pop" in the New Year.

When the party was over, some of the kids drifted over to our house and picked up the party from there. I was pretty tired since we had actually been partying before noon when we went with Teach's family to see Frozen II. I did manage to pull myself together to go outside for my sweetie's quick fireworks show.

I'm so excited to begin a new decade. The last part of this one has been pretty rough, but I'm hoping for brighter days just around the corner.