2018.

2018.

Honestly, it was mostly a blur with a few highlights. 

We had lots of company visit, finally took all 4 of our kids together to Disneyland, and went on a few weekend trips. We played, we tried new things, and laughed more than we cried.

We spent a lot of time with both of our families, and those are my favorite 2018 memories. The "Redneck Slip 'n' Slide" with my family, axe throwing with Jill & Vince, bowling with Paul's family, Little America with my family, escape room with Paul's brothers, just to name a few.

Drakey Boy {3 years old} - We potty trained the baby, and with that means no more diapers in our house. Holla! He became less cranky, and will actually sleep through the night. Miracles do exist, PTL. He is obsessed with dinosaurs, his blankies, Coke, movies, and "his bone"-{phone}. Drake was the first in our family to break a bone, and he took it like a champ. His arm was all healed up in a month, and he was back to his wild ways.

Bina {6 years old} - We finally had to squash the habit of not wearing pants around the house, she is still distraught about it. She is a total homebody, and hates school. She pretends to not know how to do things, just so someone will do it for her. Sabrina had to get glasses this year, but you would never know it...because she always forgets to wear them. She is easy going, and awesome to have in our family. Sabrina is obsessed with Jojo Siwa, YouTube, dancing, and make up.

Devin {8 years old} - It was the biggest year for our boy. He graduated from therapy {both OT, and his regular therapist}. You can find him drawing, making origami, playing sports, riding his bike, or watching YouTube. He got braces on to fix his grill, and they may never come off at the rate his teeth are growing in.

Savannah {14 years old} - She officially acts like a teenager, it took her a minute to figure it out. Savannah babysits on the weekends, tunes us all out with her music and headphones, and loves her Utah Jazz. She made a good group of friends this year, and now doesn't dread school as much. She started playing Junior Jazz, and still plays her viola. She now quotes Friends episodes, and has binge watching down pat.

Paul {foooor-ever 32 baby!} - Paul managed to sneak in a trip to his happy place this year with Shane, Las Vegas! He expanded his business, and stressed about it for an insane amount of hours. He still loves to watch the housing market, and dreams about moving one day. If he is not working on getting our house repaired, he is relaxing on the couch to his favorite TV shows.

Evonne {37 years old} - I finally got to live a life-long dream of mine, being the Chick Fil A cow, yup...that is me! I managed to keep a semi clean house, cook dinner almost every night, pack a astronomical amount of sack lunches, and keep everyone alive. I consider that a pretty successful year. I kept #sellfamilyadventureaday going this Summer, and hit rock bottom after it was all over. I just love the active, go-go lifestyle, and coming down from the high of Summer is always a tough one for me. I deleted Instagram, and cut back on my other social media stuff. It was all good changes for my mental health.

Stitch-y {the rodent} - He is STILL ALIVE! Can you believe it? Neither can I. Our Black Friday special has made it in the Sell House for more than a year! He is fat and happy, and only escaped a time or two..and appeared to have a roaring good time while out of the pen. Savannah didn't appreciate all of clothes being chewed through in her laundry basket, but Stitch apparently loved it!

We look forward 2019, and cross our fingers it is a good one for us. We have a surprise for the kids, and maybe it will make it on the blog when it all goes down. We are thankful for the people we have in our lives that stick with us through all the crazy. We sure are lucky, even if we like to complain about the injustices of life.

Happy New Year friends. 

Thanksgiving 2018

This is the first year that we have spent Thanksgiving with my side of the family since Savannah was born, so 2004. It worked out that Jeff and Deanna were already going to be coming the week before, so we made plans for everyone to meet up in good ol' SLC.

Although Thanksgiving dinner was underwhelming at the Zermatt, it was so fun to be together (minus Kyle + family who joined us later). After dinner we went back to a condo and played games, and laughed ourselves silly. Lots of teasing, and a few tears...but it felt like a real holiday with so many people together. 

The next day we all checked in to the Little America to keep the party going, and it is a tradition of our childhood. Emilie had planned so many fun games, we went swimming, we went to Temple Square for lights, we stayed up late chatting, and icing on the cake was the scooters that some of us enjoyed seeing the city on.

We went to lunch and Nickelmania after checking out of the hotel the next day, and it was the best way to end our weekend together. We ended up with an astronomical amount of tickets, which means lots of prizes with happy kids.

Something about a long weekend with family to make you a little more thankful for who you are related to. Our family can be messy, but we are learning to be more accepting, a little more forgiving, and trying to work on the here and now. 

I came away loving everyone a little more, and realizing how much I love spending time with my people. We are crazy, loud, and I love it all so much. 

axe throwing double date.

We planned a fun double date with Jill and Vince. Axe throwing is all the rage here in Utah, I don't know about everywhere else. These places are popping up like crazy. So, we had to go and see what all the buzz was about. 

Paul is always looking for people who will go to sushi with us, since I don't love it. It just isn't as much fun if you don't get to share a bunch of rolls together. Turns out the Kings like sushi. So, we went to Tsunami, and then headed axe throwing after.

Some were better at axe throwing, uhem, Vince. Some were terrible at axe throwing, uhem, ME. I was awful, like embarrassing. Would I do it again? For sure, hopefully one of these times I actually get better.

roller coaster.

Man, I have been a roller coaster of emotions since having our last baby. Constantly trying to find my happy, sometimes being lucky enough to be content in the moment, but mostly just after finding it sinking back into the deep hole of comparison/failure/not good enough blah-business. It takes me a solid 2 years to get my good ol' self back after having a baby, and I think it is finally coming around...just took a little longer this go around. Thankful for those few friends and my family that have been able to stick around until I got "me" back.

I had a few good "ah ha moments" last week during Conference Weekend. As I have been processing all of my thoughts, I decided there are a few simple things I would like to change. I know I have more than a few to work on, but I am hoping if I start with just 3 or 4 I won't feel overwhelmed and quit {which is what I normally do}. 

I decided to bring this blogging business back again, for 2 good solid reason. I want to always look at the positive, and be thankful. When I use to blog frequently, it made me do that. Blogging made me look at the everyday mundane stuff, and see all the good that happens to my family!

My 2nd solid reason, I love having a good place to journal. I love remembering the simple. I love having a place that I know my kids can look back on, and read how I felt about Mothering, life, them! When I started this online journal, it felt good to get it out. I am ready for that again.

So here I am, hoping to change, hoping to journal the happy.

orchestra concert

Savannah is now in her second year playing the Viola. This year she has a new instructor, and she has complained more about playing. The instructor is a little more intense, and requires a lot more out of the students. 

She just had her first concert this year, and they sounded so beautiful. Like, I couldn't believe the noticeable difference from last year! I guess the intense instructor is paying off, because the kids have really stepped up! 

I am so proud of Savannah. She does so well in school without any nagging about doing homework, so responsible. 

a visit from grandpa and grandma sell

The week that Grandpa and Grandma came just so happen to be a busy one. We had dentist appointments, Pack Meeting for Devin, parent teacher conferences, temple recommend interviews. So, we played the whole week pretty low key. 

We did manage to squeeze in cookie decorating, Nickelmania, the pumpkin patch, genealogy library, a temple trip, a trip to the yogurt place, and lots of studying the scriptures. 

general conference 2018

This is the first year that I decided to be really prepared Conference weekend, and actually plan things so that we could watch and enjoy it. I can't say that we have ever fully watched, and it actually had lots of talks that I knew I was meant to hear. 

My kids were so well behaved, and were excited to see all the games and listen. I was so glad that I did it, and will be making all these things a tradition in the future. It does make it easier the older your kids are to have things like this go off a little smoother. 

The big hits were... 
making ties out of play-doh
listening for words and getting a lego for each word, then building something from them
a treat for certain "hard" words
killer breakfast food for both morning sessions

We had other things planned, but the kids were happy to repeat most of these for every session. 

fall soccer season

This is the first time that Savannah hasn't played soccer, and wasn't interested in playing at all. Devin is still loving it, and is improving with every game. He does struggle with the constructive criticism, so we have had more frustrating times and tears this season than in the past. 

Devin plays well with his team. We are seeing more passing, and less clumping together. It is definitely more fun to watch. This season was the first time he has been nailed by a ball, and you could see the impression on his stomach...definitely knocked the wind out of him.

frightmares playdate.

Devin was lucky enough to be invited to go to Frightmares at Lagoon with his cute friend. He hasn't been in a couple years, so the last time he went he was too small for the bigger rides.

I thought he would be golden on all the scary rides, because we just returned from Disneyland. Turns out the rides at Disneyland ain't got nothin' on Lagoon. Devin started crying on the Cannibal, but it only lasted a few seconds...and was fine. He even went on it again.

He was even able to sleep over at their house, and couldn't stop talking about how awesome everything was. I am so thankful that Devin is able to make friends so easily, he definitely is a social boy.

44 anniversary date.

I decided that since Mom and Dad Sell would be celebrating their 44th anniversary while they were staying with us, we needed to go out on a hot date with all the siblings + spouses. We have never gone on a huge group date with all 10 of us! 

Mom picked Olive Garden to go to for dinner, and they were so sweet to bring out a dessert to celebrate. 

We decided we didn't want the celebrating to end at dinner, and went to Round One bowling. It was nice to laugh, and joke! We did teams - boys vs girls, and I totally pulled it out for the girls with the highest score of 120 {I know, not impressive!}.

It is kinda fun having everyone grown up spending time together. We decided we need to make it a tradition of a big group date, and maybe even doing it more than just annually.

Kuwahara's Pumpkin Patch

We had never been to Kuwahara's Pumpkin Patch, and after reading all the reviews online...I wanted to go check it out.

Maybe it was just the day we picked, but we didn't last long...and it was a little disappointing. One of the kids immediately stepped in the mud, and was grumpy for most of our 20 minute trip. 

I had heard about these really cool displays, like Nightmare Before Christmas...but they were just okay. They do have tons of the cute face cut out props to take your pictures with, which my kids loved. Maybe I just talked it up too much, and had visions of detailed displays that you paid to walk through. 

We all laughed about uploading our pictures on Facebook, and them telling a completely different story than our actual trip to the pumpkin patch. Don't believe everything you see on those social media sites, this trip wasn't that fun.