This was another sick Christmas. And I don’t mean that in the modern slang of my children in which ‘Sick’ means ‘cool’. I mean that half of us were sick. Levi came down with the flu, Liberty got mono (yes, her brothers have used every kissing disease joke known to man, but we really have no idea how she got it) and I was recovering from an on again, off again, head cold. We had a sick Christmas back in 2015, but the kids were mostly better by Christmas day that year and I was the one in bed with the flu.

The lead up to this Christmas was also pretty lame with both kids finishing up the semester and crazy busy with finals and projects. We hardly had time for our favorite traditions. Even the Grinch got put off till Christmas Eve.

We were supposed to go skiing in Utah the weekend before Christmas, but I was sick and the kids were wiped out from school and so we canceled the trip.

Christmas morning, the kids slept in till 6:45. Yes, I said “slept in” because at our house on Christmas morning, that is a late start for my insane children. Cade was also up super early and he actually called his siblings and they got to look at their stockings together. You can see your parents when they come to town and you can call your siblings on Christmas morning to do stockings. It’s a new world in the mission field! But I’m so glad they got to be together. He also got to call in and facetime us while we opened presents. With how everyone was feeling there really weren’t a lot of pictures, but here’s what we’ve got:

Reagan’s response to his skis was pretty funny, but I’m too lazy to edit this video. So just skip to 45 seconds in and you’ll be able to hear it.

These next two pics are Rock’s attempt at a food commercial, that, or product placement:

Liberty felt really awful but she soldiered through Christmas morning. Levi’s fever didn’t really hit hard until after presents that morning and both tried valiantly to put together the cool lego’s Reagan got them.

They both finally gave up and went back to bed. Then Reagan decided to eat a hazelnut applet and cotlet even though he is technically allergic to them and had to take a bendadryl because of the allergic reaction. Then HE went to bed. I was not feeling great, so I took a nap as well. Twas the day after Christmas and all through the house not a creature was stirring except for…Rock.

I got this cool video from Cade on Christmas. This is him and his Zone Leader.

A few days later when the kids were feeling a little better, they were able to finish their gifts from Reagan.

The kids had no energy, so we decided to do a Harry Potter Marathon. We watched two movies every day for 3 days until Rock’s parents came on Sunday. The movies are great, but they can’t fit in all the good details so now Levi and I are reading them again. Levi has spent hours reading and I was reminded that he blew through the series the first time when he was home sick from school for a week when he was in 3rd or 4th grade.

We got Rock’s parents one of the cool mystery puzzles Rock got the family last New Year’s. It was supposed to be something to do to ring in the new year, but they’ve had so much fun, we finished it this morning! (New Year’s Eve)

On New Years, these sweet angels showed up on our doorstep with a “Mono” blanket for Liberty. lol!!! So fun. They visited with my socially starved social butterfly for twenty minutes on the front step. They even brought some sparkling cider! It really cheered Libby up.

She and I rang in the New Year watching the first half of the first half of Harry Potter 7.

Here’s to all the adventures we’ll have n 2025!!

Levi doesn’t love having birthday parties. I’ve tried for several years to get him to do one and this year I decided I was going to do one anyway. So we threw him a surprise party that totally took him by surprise. It was great! He had already been planning a date with some friends so I got them involved. Their job was to get him back to our house after eating dinner downtown. All his other friends came to our house and waited patiently for an hour because Levi was having too much fun downtown and his poor friends on the date couldn’t get him to leave! A grandpa was given kidney stones to get him home. But it was worth the wait. Wish we could have gotten his face on film, but this video is still fun!!

Rather than real gifts, which Levi didn’t want, we had a white elephant gift exchange with a twist. Levi got to steal the last gift and whoever brought the one he wanted, got a prize. The prize winner was a bottle of sparkling cider and a body pillow. lol.

Happy Birthday to a great kid!

Cade passed his one year mark last week! I cannot believe it’s already been that long! It’s been really cool to see him grow during this last year. He’s had hard times for sure, but he’s had really awesome times too. He is more sure and confident of himself and the Lord. He’s developed his ability to accompany music on the piano and he’s used his singing talent to bless those in his mission. He’s becoming a great leader and a hard worker. I’m so grateful to be able to watch it all happen. Congrats on this milestone, Elder Hymas! We love you!

Those two things aren’t related in any way, but it sounded fun. In November I went down to celebrate Sarin’s big 30th birthday and I hitched a ride on this cute stud’s motorcycle. He just drove me from his house to Allie’s, but still-wild ride!

The last time I was on a motorcycle was 24 years ago with a guy I was dating who was, come to think of it, about Reagan’s age. It was really weird to be on one with my kid! Reagan was a very responsible and safe driver and even bought this awesome pink helmet so girls wouldn’t have to go without when he gives em a ride. Which is good, cause when I was on the motorcycle in college, I didn’t have a helmet! Shhh. Don’t tell my children.

We had a great Thanksgiving. We had Cam and Allie this year, so that means…. Smoked Turkey!!!! Thanks again Cam for the delicious turkey. Here are the highlights from the day.

Our day started with two bald men in a kitchen…

Sarin also made a French silk pie for the first time in her life, (for those who missed it, that life is 30 years long now) and that’s just a little embarrassing, so we’re not going to put a picture in. 😉

For dessert we had almost as much food as we did for dinner! 6 pies plus 3 other delicious desserts! It was ridiculous!

We missed Cade, but got to talk to him on the phone. The people who fed him dinner asked for food they liked from home and he said Jello Fluff. So she made this for dinner:

On Black Friday while the girls went shopping, the boys went shooting. Levi was in heaven. Once again, Cam’s expertise was a blessing. After shooting clay pigeons, they shot up some old computers, because why not?

We had so much to be thankful for this year!

Levi finished up his 2024 Cross Country season at the start of November.

Centennial won at a meet in Idaho Falls:

Districts:

His team came in 7th and made it to State! In addition to the boys team making it to state, ONE girl made it as well! She’s super fast and she’s also the one Levi took to homecoming. 😉 Here are some fun pictures from their State dinner.

Levi is pretty proud of these state sweatshirts. He wears each new one almost every day.

State

Levi struggled to do as well as he would have liked this season, but he continued to be a big cheerleader for his teammates. He could be seen at most races running along side the course cheering them on. And at the end of year banquet he won the award for Most Inspirational and I could not have been more proud.

October blew by us this year. Here are the highlights.

First Choir concert ever with two kids in the same concert! Next year they are hoping to be in the same choir!

Libby invited friends over to decorate Halloween cookies and they really went crazy. They named every single one.

Reagan recently read Pride and Prejudice and he and Rock and I had some fun discussions about the male/female mind. When he came up for his birthday, he and I watched the movie and he decided to be Mr. Darcy for Halloween. He bought the topcoat, (which we learned is technically called a “great coat”) the boots, the pants, he shaved his beard and did his hair like Matthew McFadden. He looked pretty awesome!

We had the cousins over that weekend as well. The boys love to go to great lengths to set up these dart gun fights, tearing apart my couch and basement to build fortifications and barriers but the actual fights never last more than 5 minutes. Someone gets hurt, or mad or bored.

Cade has been training a new missionary the last two transfers and is enjoying mission life, learning a ton, and loving the fall in Colorado. This helmet is courtesy of a ward member.

And just so you remember what he actually looks like:

We carved pumpkins this year with friends which was fun.

Levi was in charge of the pie eating contest at the ward party. It was a smashing success. And he even competed.

Levi and Libby hang out in the same circle of friends right now. All of Levi’s friends have younger siblings that are Liberty’s friends and Libby and her friends are all friends with the older kids. So we convinced them to do a Halloween party. We had about 35-40 kids here and it was crazy but fun. They wouldn’t let us plan any Halloween games, (they were too cool for that, apparently) but I snuck some dry ice into the punch.

School started and now that Liberty is in high school, these two are back in the same one again!

Liberty LOVES high school so far. She’s in student council and is involved in what feels like-EVERYTHING! She’s also friends with many of Levi’s friends so the overlap of all they do is pretty fun.

Reagan surprised us with just this picture about a month ago as his way of telling us he’d bought a motorcycle.

His brothers think it’s amazingly cool and though my prayer list has gotten longer because of it, I’m happy he made this long time goal a reality. It helps that my brother in law, who owns a motorcycle himself, has been helping to steer Reagan in the right direction, ie, the safe direction, with the whole process.

And here’s another crazy picture you won’t expect…

Your eyes are not playing tricks on you. Times are just changing when it comes to mission rules. Rock was in Denver on a business trip, which is about 40 minutes from where Cade is serving and now days there is some leeway on seeing your kids! He took Cade and his companion to dinner.

Also in September, Levi went to Homecoming for the first time. Here’s the poster he used to ask his date:

And here is the ask. Seriously best one I’ve ever seen. Even tops my knight in shining armor prom ask!

She answered back with this:

They did the day date here and it was super fun! Five couples making cakes with one blindfolded and the other handcuffed. It was a riot-literally.

When they were all done, nobody wanted to eat their creations so they stacked them on top of each other and sang Happy Birthday to Levi’s date, who was turning 16 the next day and who, incidentally, is the fastest girl on the cross country team.

This boy planned the entire day date, purchased all the supplies for it, remembered to pick up his corsage, and…forgot to pick up his suit from the dry cleaners before it closed. We had to scramble at the last minute to find pants and a suit coat that would work. Luckily, he was able to pull this off, but there was some very real panic for sure.

Levi spent all summer trying to get his friends to go on a backpacking trip and he was finally successful in August.

These four had an absolute blast up near Stanley for a few days. And other than some car trouble at the end of their trip, it went off without a hitch- for which we mothers were very grateful.

The very next weekend he went camping with another group of friends. They got REAL down and dirty.

Some things never change……

We got to spend some extra time with our Wesel cousins this summer while Derek and Penny worked on their house remodel and got some time alone before Derek left for a deployment.

We had just Rosie for a day. She and Libby had lots of fun doing girly things.

Then we had all the kids over for a couple nights. We made Rock’s pizza with them and it was a big hit.

Libby and Rosie made a cake together

It was lots of fun and we plan to have them over a lot while their Dad is gone to give their mom a break.

We went to Coeur d’Alene in July. We tried to go some place different, but Liberty and Levi really wanted to go back to Coeur d’Alene. We stayed at an awesome farmhouse aribnb up in the hills above the lake. It was a huge property we were hoping Levi could explore, but it turns out there was barbed wire blocking half of it. But he saw a porcupine our first night there and we saw deer and turkeys and quail every day. We also almost got hit by a big elk trying to run across the road, but she turned back just in time. Levi was hoping to see a cougar because every road had cougar in the name and Cougar Bay was just down the road, but thankfully, he did not get to see one up close and personal. It was a beautiful and peaceful place to stay.

The only thing it was missing was a weight rack. So Rock improvised.

Our first full day there, Levi went fishing in the river and Liberty and I went to a ballet store in Spokane Valley to get her newest set of pointe shoes.

And just in case you are wondering, because I was, once you are a pro, dancing for a company, the company pays for all your shoes. Thank goodness! They are NOT cheap! That night the four of us ate at a restaurant on the water and watched the sunset.

The next day we rode the Hiawatha trail! It was really fun to finally be able to do this!

That night Rock and I went on a date and dropped the kids off in downtown to get their own dinner and wander around. It’s really nice having older kids, I gotta say!

The next day the kids and Rock went rock jumping at Tubs Hill. I got all three of them jumping in this video!

It was so hot that day! So we got some gooeys at the resort. Check out how big these ice creams are!

And that was Coeur d’Alene; relaxing and beautiful.

My sisters and I went to Sun Valley for a couple days and then Rock switched them spots. It was very smoky much of the time, but the girls and I got a good hike in with some good views on our one clear morning.

Sun Valley is awesome but everything closes early. One night we really wanted some ice cream and there was nothing open! As a last ditch effort we went into a small convenience store hoping they might have a small freezer section. But instead we found this:

The first night we were there I was really sick with a weird chills/fever/stomach bug and though I had big plans to hike more and bike around the trails once Rock got to Sun Valley, I didn’t feel a ton better by the time he arrived. But on our anniversary we managed to fit in a bike ride through a beautiful neighborhood at the foot of one of the very first ski lifts.

We had a nice dinner that night and then headed home right after breakfast the next morning because I was still not feeling great and Sun Valley and surrounding mountains were so smoky we couldn’t see much.

Not our best getaway, but a couple lackluster getaways is pretty good for 23 years!