2022 Goals

 Here are our goals for the new year!

Physical:

Joseph: Run 2,000 miles

Casie: Run a half marathon in March

Ashton: Improve the butterfly stroke on swim team

Tanner: Play soccer and join swim team

Gemma: Learn to ride a bike (two wheeler with no training wheels)

Intellectual:

Joseph: Learn to officiate a sport

Casie: Play the viola for a special musical number at church

Ashton: Read her Spanish books every day

Tanner: Learn to read (in either language)

Gemma: Learn the letters

Social:

Joseph: Go hiking with friends

Casie: Continue involvement in the community via swim team board and PTA

Ashton: Invite friends to play with her

Tanner: Be a good sport, not cry and scream when his team loses or when he loses

Gemma: Speak kindly to her siblings

Spiritual:

Joseph: Continue interactive family scripture study

Casie: Prepare for the Sabbath day

Ashton: Read the Old Testament Scripture Stories

Tanner: Sit reverently during the sacrament

Gemma: Learn the 1st Article of Faith

2021 Goal Updates

 Joseph

Physical: Run 2,000 miles over the year  (Ran about 1,600 miles)

Intellectual: Practice more soup recipes (Found a soup recipe that he enjoys making for lunch. He makes a big batch once a week and has it)

Social: Play tag games with kids (Definitely plays tag when we visit the parks)

Spiritual: Lead interactive scripture study with family (We did scripture study really well this year. I think we've found what works best for our kids. That doesn't mean some nights are difficult and we only read a verse, but consistency is key!)

 

Casie

Physical: Physical therapy work (I finished physical therapy during the summer and have not experienced the pain and injury again so I'll take that as a win!)

Intellectual: Improve family pizza night. (I found a good sauce recipe and dough recipe. I often forget to start the dough on time so I don't always make it the same way)

Social: Continue to foster non-church playdates and relationships. (Definitely had lots of playdates with people not from church. We know several families in our neighborhood and get together often. I also joined the swim team board and the PTA again so that is helping.

Spiritual: Patience! (I did okay in some areas. Definitely room for improvement)

 

Ashton

Physical: practice piano for 15 minutes/daily (Did decent at. Some weeks were better than others)

Intellectual: Write a long sentence every day (School helped with this. She writes a lot.)

Social: Ask her siblings nicely the first time (Work in progress)

Spiritual: Share a scripture about baptism at Family Home Evening (She did well at this and was baptized last year!)

 

Tanner

Physical: Play coach pitch (the next step up from tee ball)  This goal changed to soccer once he had the choice. Tanner LOVED soccer and is counting down the days until his next season starts.

Intellectual: Learn the rules of football or other sports (This kid accomplished this and then some. He knows more about sports and the rules than I do.)

Social: Get better at cops and robbers! The neighborhood kids get together at least once a week to play cops and robbers. Tanner really wants to get good to beat the 10-12 year olds. (He got better at playing with the neighbor kids overall. Before, Tanner struggled with getting along and playing what they wanted. He enjoys playing soccer with them now.)

Spiritual: Say better prayers (This one is cute because every time he finishes a prayer, he now asks, "Did I improve my prayer?")  Tanner improved his prayers a lot. It is more meaningful and not a memorized prayer of saying the same things over and over again.

Pre-Christmas Festivities

For a few years now, we have made it a point to visit a church that holds a "Night in Bethlehem" activity. It is really well done. The church sets up an entire outdoor city with little stations to learn about living during the time of Christ's birth. It reminds me a lot of Nauvoo. There are blacksmithers, a tannery, rope making, bread braiding, etc. The kids love it. There is also a camel every year plus cookies and hot chocolate. Schools come and sing too. the kids loved it this year and we will definitely be back.

Decorating cookies one night. Lydia just cared about her bowl of sprinkles.

Then, a repeat when we tried decorating gingerbread houses. Lydia just ate the sprinkles and candy.

Tanner got into the decorating more this year. It was fun to see his designs.

For the first time in two years, Ashton's piano teacher actually held an in-person recital. But, it was the weekend of the BYU bowl game so Ashton couldn't attend. She hosted her own virtual recital again and loved that. I don't mind as it allows both families to hear her play too. Plus, she gets to play a couple more songs than normal and she learns how to announce what she is playing and who composed it.

One day over Christmas break, I took the three oldest to the Space Center. It was fun except they got rid of a bunch of exhibits. My guess is due to Covid numbers increasing. The exhibits were just put out over the summer and were really hands-on. It was an okay trip and it got us out of the house for a little bit.

Otherwise, most of Christmas break was spent playing at parks, meeting up with friends, visiting the dentist (no cavities in ANY of the kids!), and driving their siblings crazy.

Thanksgiving 2021

 

Well, this is the only picture I took of Thanksgiving. To me, that means we had a lot of fun. Either that, or I was too lazy to care. Probably both.

We had some friends over from our ward for Thanksgiving. They have some kids around our kids ages so that was nice. We played some new games with them and loved spending time with our ward family again.

The day after Thanksgiving, our ward had the turkey bowl. Tanner went to play as they had a kid game going too. One of the young men is the starter kicker for our high school and Tanner adores him. He got to throw the ball around with Max and play with him too. The little girls and I played in the stands (the game was played at the high school's practice field.).

Temple Visit

 Our stake asked each of us to visit the temple before the end of the year, including adults, youth, and children. I decided to take the kids one day during Thanksgiving break. The kids had a good time. We did a little scavenger hunt and walked around the temple and the grounds. Afterwards, we visited a huge park nearby and had a picnic lunch.

Renaissance Festival

  Some old friends that used to live in our ward visited Texas the weekend before Thanksgiving. The Torres family. Ashton and their oldest were besties when they lived here. Then, they have a kid that lines up within months of one of our kids so it is a perfect group of kids to get together.

They were coming down to College Station to visit family for a quick weekend so we found a way to meet them at the Renaissance Festival. That is as far south as they were going. It was about 2 hours away for us. I took the three oldest and made a long day trip out of it. It was our first time going to the renaissance festival. I'll admit; it wasn't a favorite and I doubt we'll go back. It was crazy expensive! We paid entrance fees/tickets. But then everything else cost money. EVERYTHING! It drove me nuts. Plus, when you go with another family, I felt like I had to pay for whatever the other family was doing. It was fun to see the Torres family though. I would have rather just met at a park and had a fun day outside. Oh well. We learned that we are not missing much by skipping the renaissance festival.

Halloween

 The kids had a good time trick or treating. They made it to the furthest distance from the house before deciding they were all done trick or treating. Of course.

Tanner's costume was the easiest: a soccer player. He just wore his soccer jersey from the season.

Ashton was a witch. Gemma was the cutest squirrel ever. And Lydia wore some fairy wings intermittently. 

 The day before Halloween was our ward's trunk or treat. My sister joined us as she was in town for Ashton's baptism. Gemma loved the bounce house.