Tis the Season

We had a fun Christmas!  The holidays aren't quite the same without Miles cracking jokes, teasing everyone, and pulling out some amazing gift giving.  But it was fun to have all the first things with Soleil too.  I feel guilty having fun when he's not here, and then posting about it!  But he's really staying busy on his mission and he likes to hear what we are doing at home, so that is good!

Highlights:

We had our annual hotel sleepover in Salt Lake.  We went to Red Iguana, watched games and build the Office lego set, watched the Office, shopped, had some great pizza at Settebello, saw Wonka, got new sweatshirts for everyone to go with our pj pants, ate dinner at Caffe Molise, and basically stuffed ourselves sick.  Two restaurant meals in one day is too much honestly.  I think we may switch it up and do something different next year!  We started doing this hotel sleepover when our kids were teens because at home they just wanted to leave and go be with friends.  So it was our way to capture them for a couple days haha.  We would see the lights at Temple Square (now under construction) and do our sibling gift shopping.  Now its probably tricky with babies and work schedules etc so we might need to modify next year.  But we loved it and it always feels great to have everyone close.  Our weekend ended with Savannahs beautiful wedding!

My grandma used to say I looked like a Kewpie doll, but I think Soleil does too

Savannahs beautiful second dress!  She looked so pretty and I was so impressed that she planned her whole wedding while working, going to school, taking care of a toddler and being super sick with morning sickness.  She's amazing.  I didn't get a good seat for photos cause we had to sneak in a couple minutes late.  I had vertigo in between setting up and coming back for the wedding.  
Took my meds and was happy to at least make it, even if late!  

We went with Elise and Ethan to watch Soleil meet Santa at the Outlets.  She was so adorable and just wanted to touch the beard.  Soon she got a pouty face and Elise swooped in and rescued her before she started crying.  

I've always wanted to make gingerbread houses from scratch.  We did it one year when I was young and I always remembered that and how fascinating it was and so exciting that we actually baked something with real sugar in it.  I felt like I was making the house from Hansel and Gretel.  So last year I bought the Judy's Gingerbread PDF with recipes and frosting. 

I think we got the gist of it and I'm sure we can improve next year!  I really wanted candy windows so we did the crushed up jolly ranchers.  I think we will just keep a lot of the candy etc for next year.  It wasn't very expensive and was fun to have more of a variety to decorate the houses with than what just comes in the kits.  It definitely took awhile to bake all the gingerbread for everyone.  I really enjoyed the process and so did Elise.  

Next year I'm going to buy some isomalt for the windows so they can be clear.  And our little bases were basic.  So we can level up on that as well!

lets be real, the Golden Grahams for breakfast after this was what they were more excited about

It was our last Christmas Sing at the elementary school.  We brought Soleil along since she really enjoyed the Halloween Parade.  She likes seeing kids and they love her!

Quiet Christmas Break

Soren and I have been staying home since our ski day.  He seems like he may have the flu.  Luckily so far no one else in the family are sick--yet.

Its been fun to find shows with him that he hasn't seen before.  Soren came along when his siblings were a little older so there are quite a few classic Disney shows that he never watched on repeat like they did.

Yesterday he built the Up house Lego set and watched Up.  I love that show, especially the dog translators and how Russell and Carl need each other.  Russell is such a cute character.  The ending is just adorable when Carl shows up to his special night getting his "assisting the elderly" pin.  Up makes me cry like 50 times in a row but I still love it.

Its been kinda fun to spend more time with Soren too since these days he's always wanting to hang out with his friends. 

I told him a few months ago that we are heading into a new part of life and that I'll take him and his friends places so I can spend some more time with him.  My intention wasn't to make him feel bad, but I noticed he spent a lot of time with me wrapping presents and watching Christmas shows after that.  Aww sweet Soren!  He's been getting super close to Jared and loves to do all the boy things.  And that makes me happy.  But I kinda miss my mamas boy too.

This past month we had to buy all new clothes for Soren!  He grew out of everything he owns overnight.  Even the free school t-shirt he got in August looks really small.  He is very excited to be in Young Mens next week and to pass the sacrament in church.  He is about as tall as me!

The garage measuring wall!  I need to transfer these somehow so we can paint eventually!  Its always fun to measure when someone looks like they've sprouted up.

Also he is suddenly getting very competitive!  We had some real issues with a high stakes Settlers of Catan game recently.  We play Perpetual Commotion a lot and Simone and Monet are really good and I always lose but its fun anyway.  

Simone has had a lot of fun this break.  She has been climbing a bunch with this mild winter so far and is feeling really strong and excited for bouldering regionals coming up.  She loves making pots on the pottery wheel Jared bought last Christmas.  This year she's made a lot of new friends that have been super fun.  One new friend came over one day and made pots, and then they went to her house and made these cute quilted climbing pants and used her friends embroidery machine to put some cool details on them.  I love seeing how happy she is to have friends that like a lot of the same things she does.  Each year she says she's not going to play lacrosse again, and then someone from the team asks her to play again and she remembers how fun it is to be on a team and she changes her mind!  So at this point I think she will be playing lacrosse.  She is not sure what she wants to do after graduation.  She only needs a few more credits so she could graduate early if she wanted.  But also I have a strong preference for not skipping over fun parts of childhood to rush into being an adult.  I know there are hard times in high school and sometimes it sounds fun to just get it done.  There definitely were some hard times for me!  But even then there are good lessons and it usually gets better pretty quick.  If I'd missed out on the second half of my senior year that would have been all the best memories of high school.

We went to Tucanos with Nana and Papa and the whole Utah crew.  There were a LOT of us!  Like 30 I'm guessing?  maybe more?

Anyway a sports team was sitting close to us and they kept staring at our huge group and I just wondered what they were thinking!  We could see they were athletes.   I told Elise I was going to have Jared ask who they were.  Cause I let him do all the extrovert things like that.  haha.  And when he came back to the table he was one step ahead of me.  He'd already talked them and it was the University of Wyoming basketball team in town to play BYU the next day.  And then he told me that he thought about telling them "good luck" but he wouldn't have been sincere.  haha.  He predicts they will get creamed by BYU who is ranked well this year.  I guess we will see in a couple hours!

Skiing with Soren!

hard to smile with goggles on!

The past two years Miles took Soren skiing so often that he got really good!  Miles would just go down hard runs and Soren had no choice but to follow.  It made him really good and I think he was super proud of himself with how much he improved in two seasons.  

I'm hoping this season Soren can help challenge me too.  

I took Soren and his two neighbor friends to Solitude on Wednesday and it was good for me to get a feel for it again.  The girls were about the same level as me. Next time I need to send Soren and his friends on their way so I can not be worried I'm holding them back!

Yay to one day down!  I'm a bit of a chicken when it comes to these things so just beginning is always the hard part.  But I'm excited to improve.  I'm going to be practicing my growth mindset.  And it was really fun to ski with Soren and his friends!

Favorite Things

 Because I went to Germany, I missed my friends' Favorite Things party.  I love that party.  Its always fun to see what other people love or have found.  

So anyway, pretend I'm an influencer and here are a few of my favs this year.

Laird Hot Chocolate with Anthropologie Festive Bistro Mug!  The Hot Cocoa has adaptogenic mushrooms, and is super delicious on the stovetop with milk.

Dry wipes from Amazon!  I love the idea of facial wipes but have super duper sensitive skin so I can use my normal La Roche Posay cleanser with these.  They are so soft and I can use one two times.

Elise bought me this clean perfume last Christmas and I loved it so much!

If you can get your hands on a Doterra Myst diffuser do it!  They plug in and are motion activated.  I would buy ten more if I could.

I think we've purchased 5 of these now.  I love them cause they are blackout masks!  No light gets through these babies.  Which is super good for sleep.  I am going to send one to Miles on his mission cause with all their different apartments he doesn't always have good blinds.

These doTERRA Bubble diffusers are another hot item.  Very tough to find but we sneaked out of convention 45 min early to be at the marketplace right when they opened and scored as many as they would let us buy.  Sadly out of stock but hopefully they will produce more so we can all have a houseful of them.

Hazy Harbor Shop Whipped honey and tallow moisturizer is literally the only thing that has been able to heal my cracked eyelids.  And I've tried a lot of creams.  Cheap ones like aquafor, and more expensive ones from the dertmatologist and from fancy spas.   Elise also found this and I really love this one without any scents.  The vanilla scent still irritated my skin and she loved that one.  So she and I switched because this nonscented works best for me.  This is $15 but there are always freebies and the shop owner is so nice and often includes free stuff and coupons.  I love this so much and am so happy to have found something that works!  Tallow is a trend I think but it is natural and has been super helpful for me.  

4 months for Miles

 Apparently I deal with my emotions by writing.  So when you see the last seven or so posts about Miles, its cause I miss him and it helps me to write.  And partly I want him to have a good record of his mission and I know he isn't really writing home much.

We talked to him today for p-day again.  He is going into his 17th week and the time is going by so fast.  He is such a thoughtful kid.  I love how he thinks a lot about the people he lives with and is serving with.  He has a generous spirit and loves to make people smile.  

He made tacos yesterday with some of the seasoning we sent when he left and a bunch of guys slept at their place for zone conference and so they all loved the tacos.  Brazilians don't eat tacos and he said they really liked them.

He loves his new area in the neighborhood of Ipiranga.  He would love to stay there next transfer but he knows he is being transferred out.  His trainer is really good at teaching and Miles is hoping to learn more Portuguese so he can teach more often.  But he loves what a hard worker this elder is.  They had 34 appts this week, and had 7 people come to church and 9 to a ward Christmas party.  They are teaching a great family and they have a goal to be baptized by February.

He bought some protein powder and olive oil and I guess those things are very expensive in Brazil.  He is looking for healthy snacks and I'm really glad he is doing that!  I love that he is enjoying the X3 bands.

He said these last two weeks he is understanding a lot more of the language.  So he's happy to be making progress.

Mango Trees and the Holy Ghost

Yesterday we talked to Miles again and it was so good to hear from him.  He's having me send him recipes for weird stuff like Baked Beans.  Lol.  He's happy and amused by all the things in Brazil that are different and gets a kick out of trying new things and also sharing American things.  I noticed he wears his Mossy Oak shirt from Wal Mart like every p-day haha.  Nothings changed.

He told us that there is a horse down the street that just lives on the cement with its baby.  And I was so confused because I've never heard of such a thing!  But he said the owner lives in the house and the horse and baby are tied up outside at night and he give them hay on the sidewalk.  And then in the day the horse pulls a cart.  But he said the horse pulls it like extremely slow like he can walk faster than the horse so he's not sure why anyone would pay to ride in the cart.  Anyway, kinda sad.

But I told him how when I was eight we went to Mexico and we were so excited to go horseback-riding on in this place called Yelapa near Puerto Vallarta.  So we get our horses and mine is name Paint and we thought that was so cute!  We started riding and pretty soon my horse got tired of walking and wandered off the trail and found a mango tree and just ate mangoes for awhile.   I didn't know what to do,  this little stubborn horse wasn't about to listen to an 8 year old gringa.  I was so disappointed.  And rotten mangoes are really stinky. 

And Miles said, "huh, I wonder if the Holy Ghost feels the same way about us sometimes." 

And I thought that was funny.  Yes interesting comparison.  He's trying to get us to go in the certain direction and we just park it where we want and don't listen sometimes.

He asked for a ton of Warheads for Christmas so he could give them out to Brazilians who don't have sour candy.  And we saw one of his videos of him giving them to his housemates and its pretty funny.  I tried one before we sent them and I have to admit I hated it.   Haha.  I like the Zots though.

They have had some great contacts and are excited about the people they are teaching in their area.  He was able to get his Christmas package and was very excited to use the folding fan we sent and the filtered water bottle lid from Clearly Filtered and also the massage gun for his super tired feet and legs.  He said the soles of his feet are so thick now he could probably walk on coals.

Also he was sad because they met a woman and he thought she must be pregnant with triplets she was so big.  And later he asked his comp how many babies she was having and he said it was a tumor.  And apparently she's too poor to have it taken out.  Way sad.

Miles Transfers

First picture Miles took with himself in it in Brazil!  I grabbed a few off his mission page.  

Funny because he is so predictable.

 Miles had another great week.  He had transfers and is in a new area in the city.  This is the least safe area in their mission.  But I don't think its too bad.  He's excited to be in a new place with the same awesome trainer.  His mission president usually doesn't have the same trainer and they don't stay in one area very long, they usually switch each transfer.  So Miles wasn't expecting that and he was excited to stay with this Elder.  Jared and I think that sounds tough to bond with the investigators but there must be some reason for it.

This week they had a lot of appointments like 38, and then did an escape room on P-day.  They had some good sushi too.  

He bought a cowboy hat to go with his belt buckle and sat on a Lion at the playground.  Its a pretty funny looking Lion actually.  

We told him that his cousin was in Montevideo and in the winter they had no heat and were cold all the time.  He said that sounded pretty good right now cause midsummer in Brazil is HOT.  Got up to like 114 or something like that.  

He said he's happy.  And that makes me really happy too.

Miles week 11

 Today I got to talk to Miles by myself because Jared and Soren went on a boys trip to California!  It was super fun to talk to Miles today and I felt like it is so much easier to have a back and forth conversation when its just the two of us.

His friends are all over the world now!  Cameroon, Tahiti, Mexico, New Zealand, Chile, Brazil, Texas, etc.  

I'm missing him a lot!  But it helps to write and share!  So I'll do that.  I told him we were reading scriptures with Soren at night and Soren is so thoughtful and he actually seems to really enjoy it (which is so nice!) and Miles asked me to teach Soren the plan of salvation and said he didn't truly understand it until the MTC.  So I'll for sure do a lesson on that for Soren.  But I'm more excited to have my child who was always cracking jokes during scripture time making suggestions.  I've been waiting a long time for this!  I love when these kids really grasp the atonement and the plan of salvation.  

He said they walked an hour and a half to visit a family they got a referral for and they are incredible!  He's excited about it.  Three hour round trip, dang!  I'm so proud of him for doing this and having such a good attitude about it.  Its been over 100 degrees lately and he's trekking around in that heat and humidity and doing hard things.  

He is going to teach one of the lessons this week.  So that will be interesting to hear about next Monday.He also wants me to make sure Soren is practicing basketball.  Haha.  I love that he's parenting Soren from Brazil.

I am putting his Christmas package together and that's always fun too.  There aren't a ton of things he needs yet since he just got there and he can buy a lot of things there.  But it was good to know what not to waste the postage on!  

We talked about family and friends and the gospel and it was so good to see his face and to catch up.  I don't know how moms did missions before they could talk to their kids each week.  I'm so grateful that we can!  He's not taken a picture with himself in it since he got to Brazil.  And I got nothing from the MTC either except one from his friends.

Jared had a lot of fun at his reunion, and he and Soren have been to the beach and went to Knott's Berry Farm today.  Jared can't ride the big rides anymore so they brought Phoebe to go on the rides with him.  And he sent me a video and now I'm really jealous!  But also, its nice to be home on my normal schedule, working out, tending the baby, and getting all the stuff done at home.  Its been quiet and so nice!

Pretty cozy!

Elise told me I need to replace these sofas stat.  Yeah, we've had them for 15 years now.  Maybe it IS time.  

Halloween 2023

Cute Soleil in her adorable bumblebee costume was fun!  She hated it at first but she was also probably just tired.  She is having a growth spurt and learning so many skills right now!  Yesterday she grabbed her toy and her foot for the first time.  She is very particular about how she is held and likes to be facing outward, but don't squeeze her tummy too much, and definitely don't sit down while holding her.  She's adorable but I do not know how Elise has been taking her to school all this time!  She is hopefully going to be hanging out at home with Papa and Mimi.  I'm not sold on my grandma name yet, but also I do think its helpful to have a grandma name.  When my grandma was alive we always called her "my white haired grandma" cause my kids already had multiple other grandmas and that's just how we distinguished her!  And it was a mouthful.  So something different is sometimes good.  She loves Jared!  And I think that is so cute.

We brought Soleil to the Halloween Parade at the school!  She loved it!  Our last one.

Simone's last minute snail haha

Aunt Marge had fun seeing the kids in their costumes

Cute friends picked a theme this year

Miles week 10

I think I'll blog Miles's weekly calls because I don't think he will be writing as often, for sure not weekly and I want to remember what he has said!

We got a sweet letter from Bizeng.  Elder Zhu is serving in Arcadia now!  We are very excited for him to be out in the field.  He was in the MTC for a very long time learning English, but it was pretty long for him because he'd already lived in New York for a time and had a head start on it.

Here is Miles's letter from last week:

It has been forever since I’ve sent out an email so it's gonna be a long one. I left the MTC about 3 weeks ago and it has been great. My only complaint is that it is super hot. Also I don't speak Portuguese so that has been super weird.  I’m learning a ton of words but still can’t understand that well. Also my companion is super cool. We look really funny walking around. He's from New Jersey so learning to teach has been awesome.  But the first week was great. I'm in a town called Sertaoziñho about 20 minutes from the big city here. Aside from the heat, the city is great. 

We have been teaching a ton of people. There is this little family we teach and I didn't really know what was going on in the lesson so I just started playing cars with their little 5 year old kid and then all of a sudden we started taking his moms cigarettes which was pretty funny just because I had no idea that's what we were doing. She is doing awesome though. We started at 5 a day and now she is doing 1 every other day. We're hoping that we can get it down to zero. The funny thing is she only had one box that we took from her so when we ran out we didn't want her to go get the ones she likes and have that many in the house so we just bought them ourselves. Which is really funny because we just look so awkward buying cigarettes. 

Another funny thing that happened is this week it rained so much. and it was pretty cool cause I like the rain but man that was a crazy storm. We were in this little salgado store that is kind of like a bakery and the roof started leaking through the screws in the fan and shorted out the light and it was crazy. Also there's this little forest behind our house where there are supposedly monkeys  but I haven't seen one yet. I see toucans back there a lot because there are fruit trees. Every night I see one sleeping in the same spot.  I bought some bird seed at one of the many pet stores here and put it on the ledge and he came and ate some and we got a picture. We had zone conference which was cool but I couldn't understand very well so I didn't get a whole lot. 

The second week here I got an infection in my foot from my blisters and it swelled up pretty good and I couldn't walk great but after a few doctors they gave me some antibiotics and now it's good. The hospitals here are crazy.  The waiting room had like ten people with broken bones just chilling for like 3 hours next to people that are dying from fevers. It is wild. 

The food is awesome here and tastes amazing but they only eat once a day really. The other day we went to this guy's house and he had a fish tank full of like a hundred big fish and he just cooked them up for us while he played his guitar and sang. It was pretty cool. I'll send a video of that too. Sometimes you can walk around and just pick fruit off the trees hanging over fences as you walk by, especially mangos and stuff like that which is awesome. We were eating at a member's house and it was lasagna so I had a ton but she just kept putting more on my plate.  I had so much food that I ended up just falling asleep right there. 

I also had to give a talk in Portuguese on Sunday and I don't think anyone understood much but they told me good job so at least they understood a little. Also we play board games a ton before bed and I found Settlers of Catan in Portuguese and it's awesome. Also we have four Americans in our apartment so that is so fun too. Anyways I'm pretty sure that's everything I would love to hear from you guys!

His foot is doing good.  He had interviews with his Mission President and one of the activities was getting mummified with TP in a game on Halloween.  Its fun for me to see his photos because he doesn't really send any with him in them, so I get them off the mission facebook page.

Miles makes sure to plan his calls for when Soren is home from school and I think that is so sweet.

Today he called while he was at a market in Ribeirao Preto ordering food.  They have two of their investigators that want to be baptized and he's excited about that.  But he and his comp fasted for 24 hours for the mom who is trying to quit smoking so she also can be baptized.

He gets to play Settlers of Catan after 9pm and on p-day and he looks forward to it.  The other guys in the apartment speak Portuguese to strategize but Miles is starting to understand what they are saying.  That's kinda fun!  His companion is American but is fluent in Spanish so learning Portuguese was easy for him!  Miles said he speaks to Miles in Portuguese until later at night.  I think that is so cool!  That way they still get to talk a little in English because sometimes for a greenie that is really helpful in getting to know your comp and just having that little carrot at the end of the day.  But still they are helping him be immersed in the language.

Miles bought a watch and a belt with a huge Rodeo Style buckle that he's excited to wear to Zone Conference.  Haha.

One of the guys in the other companionship they live with has a nice set of clippers and cuts Miles's hair.  So he's keeping it shorter now which looks great.  

He always seems happy and adjusted to the work and everything.  

During this crazy rainstorm this bakery had water coming through the fan like a shower head.  And then the other light started sparking!  Yikes.  And Miles wearing his socks and Birks in the flooding.  With his infected foot.  ew.