Brielle's 15th Birthday

 My sweet Bri is 15, and she's driving! Brielle recently changed her school schedule so that she has online classes on A days and in-person class on B days, which means she is home with me every other day. It also means she got her birthday off of school. She did have that day, so we went to Tepenyaki the night before the celebrate with the family. We spent the morning of her birthday assembling the new vanity she wanted for her room. Then we had an appointment to go to Brigham City and get her learner's permit. Luckily she passed the test the first time! She wanted to drive home but after she drove from the DLD office to Costa Vida for lunch, she decided she might need more practice first. After she got home from cheer and Tim and Bus got home from basketball we finally got to sing happy birthday and eat her tres leches. All in, it was a very good day. 

Brielle is impressive. I feel like that's the best word for her. When she gets it in her mind that she wants to do something, she does it. This year she made the level 3 cheer team, taught herself guitar, and improved her grades to a 4.0. She also decided that she wanted to make money on YouTube and posted consistenly for about 9 months before she got monetized. She figured it all out herself and now she's making good money. She stretches every day to improve her flexibility, works out consistently. I wish a little bit of her hard work and motivation would wear off on me! She's also a sweetheart and a mama's girl and I just love her so much. 

Ava's a teenager!

 Ava just had her thirteenth birthday and it was great day! She took the day off school and slept in, and then she and I and Brielle went to Cafe Zupas for lunch and got some Swig. Then she got to go across the street and get her nails done. She got cute some cute frogs on her nails. Her grandma and grandpa stopped by for a visit, and then we went to Texas Roadhouse for dinner. She got airpods and a Coach bag and some random stuff. Successful birthday.

Ava is seriously wonderful. She is so loving and kind. She is quick with a complement and you'll almost never hear an insult from her. She has a great group of friends. She works hard in school and gets good grades and her teachers love her. She took orchestra this year and was excelling at the cello and then decided to quit that haf-way through the year and take art instead. She is curious about other people and will talk to anyone. She is naturally strong and talented. But her heart is the best part. She is just such a sweet, fun, easy person to be around. 

Happy Holidays

 The holiday seasoon flew by, as it always does now. But we had a great time!

We hosted Thanksgiving at our house this year. Since we put the carpet squares in the big garage upstairs its pleasant to be out there, and there is a ton of space. It worked really well for everyone to be able to move around and talk to everyone, and for the babies to have some space to run around, or people could go inside with them to rest. We had nearly the whole Arbon crew, plus Pop and Ryan, so 44 people in total. It's so fun getting everyone together, I love it.

The weather has been record-breakingly warm so far, which made it a little harder for me to get into the Christmas spirit. I pulled out the decorations a week or two before Thanksgiving (Ava had been asking since Nov 1). But then it just hasn't snowed! I didn't realize how much that cozy feeling of being inside with the tree while its cold outside impacts the whole feeling of the holiday, but it really does. That aside, we had a great time.

We hosted the Arbon family Christmas party here as well, and it was so fun. Sue and Angie do a great job planning the whole thing, and Sue brought the cutest decorations. It was the Arbon Reindeer Games and I was on the winning team with Bus. We did pretty well in the relay games, but then we killed it in the trivia. Trivia is my bag.

We spent Christmas Eve with my family, as usual. Kelson and Lexi didn't come up at all this year, though. We had our Mexican food feast and did the nativity and Night Before Christmas and Books. I love my family's chill Christmas Eve. It is so different without my mom. She has been on my mind constantly.

Santa brought the whole family new Iphone 17 pros, minus Bus, who got a Gabb watch and giant bean-bag chair. That was their big gift, and they got some little things from us like clothes and toys. They let us sleep in until 6:45, which is the lastest it has been in a while! 

For New Year's Eve we spent the day shopping for a truck (which we both hate doing) for the business and then went to dinner at Maddox with most of Tim's family. Then we spent the rest of the evening stocking up on supplies for the business to try and spend as much as we could before the end of the year. So, super fun. Nothing rings in the new year quite like stress buying 250 ft rolls of electrical wire and toilets.

So on to 2026. If it's anything like last 40 years, it's going to be a good one.