Pictures - the first and the last

Goodness I LOVE taking pictures. My girls know this. Ken knows this. I love the memories. I love looking at my pictures. I just love them. 

This is the last picture of took of this year, it's my people. My little family is my everything.

This is the first picture I took in 2021, a candy bonus. I'm going to read into that!! To me it sums up 2021. What do you see when you look at this? A mistake or a bonus? What do I see when I look back at 2021? I see so many silver linings, so many blessings, so many happy memories with my family. I know that we have been blessed and this year for us, was not the same year that it was for others, and that makes me grateful and it humbles me. Life is fragile and beautiful and wonderful. 

New Year's Eve

I really don't know how to sum up the last year. (Clearly I didn't think about what I was going to say before opening this post!) Year two of the pandemic. We did online school in January and part of February, we were online again from the middle of April to the end of June. Which means that we were in school face to face for part of February, all of March, half of April and from September to December. Online was hard for everyone. Our family had a fairly quiet summer. I tried to plan things for the girls, but it felt quiet. I needed that. We went another entire year without seeing any family from the states. I last saw my sister during the summer of 2019. This is the longest I've ever gone without seeing her. When I stop and think about it, it makes me cry.

This year we've been healthy. We've had a few minor colds/coughs but we've been healthy. We've had each other. Milo joined our family this year. Ken and I have been employed. We've been outside more and walked more. The girls have had good teachers. We've struggled through some things, but with our faith and access to counselors and great teachers and doctors, we're making good progress!

Mostly thinking about this year I just feel grateful, so entirely and completely grateful. I love my life. I love my Ken, my kids, my faith, my job. I'm just so grateful for the life I'm living.

This past year we tried to write down a weekly gratitude. We missed August and September - oops! (Not sure how we missed all of August and September, but we did pretty well otherwise!) Last night we went around the table taking turns reading the slips of paper. It was fun. I want to do it again next year, and not miss any weeks!

Fiona Goes to the Beach

Today on a morning walk Fiona jokingly wondered why her cousins don't take her to Hawaii with them. She then proposed a series of photos - "Fiona Goes to the Beach." (Fiona's captions are above each picture.)

1. Lying in a beach hammock.

2. Posing next to a turtle. (It was a real turtle shell, randomly at the park?)

3. Under the beach umbrella.

4. Ready to dive in!

5. Fiona: After a long day at the beach, they walked home.

Nineteen

 A quiet dinner at the Keg is okay.

And a cold dark walk by the lake in Port Union? 

Happy Anniversary my love!

Christmas Postcard - 2021

 

Eight and a Half

Fiona is eight and a half, and on the way to the grocery store told me that she's almost ten! (I told her she had to wait to get her ears pierced and she wasn't too excited about that, but it's been easy with Alice taking care of herself and I think 10 was a good age, hence the excitement about being closer to ten!)

In any case, Fiona is loving all things Christmas and being festive. She's doing better in school every day, and her little testimony is so sweet. We were reading in the Book of Mormon scripture study book last night about Abinadi and King Noah. When Abinadi was killed she cried, so confused at why he was killed. She has such an inquisitive mind and she thinks deeply about so many things - all of my girls do, they really amaze me!