2019--Year In Review

2019 has now finally come to a close. It was a BUSY year and there was so much that we accomplished. Even more that we wanted to, but will still be working on this year. Here is our year in Review:

JANUARY
We started out our year in Hawaii! A place we love. Lady Hiva went for a ward camp and then we stayed a week longer for a family reunion. We laughed and laughed and laughed. It was so much fun. A good way to start the year. We celebrated Koala Bear's birthday while in Hawaii.

FEBRUARY
February we celebrated Valentines, one of Lucky Dragon's now favorite holidays. He also lost a tooth! He was so proud of himself.

MARCH
March, like JAN and FEB, was full of service and helping others. So we celebrated Lady Hiva. It was so much fun to do that! She is our most favorite person. We also put our cake skills to work for the Relief Society Birthday Party she planned for the women in our congregation.

APRIL
Finally starting to thaw, we welcomed April. Easter brought more family fun and games. Lucky Dragon and I filled Easter eggs with crickets for cousins to find. It was so much fun. We went hiking and tried to find as many outdoor activities we could do. Lady Hiva was released as Relief Society President and Dust was called into the bishopric.

MAY
Dustin made a trip to Chicago, and Lucky Dragon graduated Kindergarten! He did so well. He loved being in school and learning. Our new family activity is to go on bike rides in the evening. That is made it easier with Rocket (the truck) joining our family! And again, we celebrated Lady Hiva with Mother's Day.

JUNE
We had Father's Day celebrations in HAWAII!! It was an unplanned trip, but we had so much fun being there. We spent as much time as we could at the beach. I think Lucky Dragon and Koala Bear could search for shells all day long.

JULY
We joined Northern Utah for July 4th celebrations and went down to Beaver to join Grandma Ginger on the 24th as a celebrated citizen. We all got to ride horses through the parade. We also celebrated Lucky Dragon's birthday!

AUGUST
August was really busy! Papa and Pluba came home from their mission! We celebrated Dust's birthday and the birthday of our family in California at Disneyland. That was unplanned and SO MUCH fun! Dust then spent a week in the mountains at Girl's Camp. Lucky Dragon started French school.

SEPTEMBER
We chased all the autumn fruit that is delicious in Utah and looked at the beautiful changing leaves. We also hosted some youth and primary kids to "Turkey" for our mission prep for the primary kids. Dustin was moved back to Salt Lake City for work.

OCTOBER
October is ALL about Halloween as much as possible! We saw lights, ate candy, trick-or-treated three or four times.

NOVEMBER
November brings in CHRISTMAS!! We did all we could to show gratitude to everyone around us.

DECEMBER
#lighttheworld begins! The month was full of lights, family, gifts and having such a fun time. We did all we could to remember the real reason for the Season. It was an amazing experience and a perfect way to end the year.

Sleep? Who needs sleep? It is Christmas!

Who needs sleep? This weekend we packed in all the fun and celebration that we could find. We started off by doing a quick trip to Beaver to be with the family there. We did lip sync performances, played family feud, and a gingerbread house competition. Needless to say there was plenty of competing going on. 

 We have to make our celebratory stop at Sees candy. We joined the line to 47 other people that were doing last minute shopping. But a holiday would not be a holiday without Lady Hiva having some See's chocolate.

We then spent Christmas Eve with cousins playing board games and seeing Christmas lights. It was so much fun! The kids all loved being with each other. Dance Revolution on the X-Box got out all the energy for the evening.

Lucky Dragon and Koala Bear set out cookies and carrots. Luckily, they leave some carrots for the "reindeer" so Santa and his helper can have something more than cookies to eat while they set out gifts. 

This year our congregation Primary gave each family a "manager" with the challenge to place straw in it for each good deed or act of service throughout the month of December. The goal was to have each strand make the cradle softer for the baby Jesus. It was such a great way to focus more on the Savior and doing good deeds all December. We tried to serve others and to find ways to point out when others served us. Jesus sat on the park bench of the German village like a homeless person until we could set him in his cradle Christmas morning. 

Earlier in the month we had been studying all the bible accounts of the birth of the Savior and tonight we also studying the Book of Mormon account as a family. 

 Lucky Dragon made a shoe in French school and learned about Joyeux Noel traditions. So we made one for Koala Bear too. That way they both had a shoe filled when they woke up.

 We started the morning by watching the "Christ Child" again. We wanted to remember that we are celebrating the birth of the Savior.

 Then before they opened gifts we placed baby Jesus in his manager now full of good deeds from the month. We talked about all the experiences we had and expressed which ones we remember the most about serving and giving to others. It was so special to start the day off that way and hear what they loved about service.

 Christmas Day afternoon we had Lady Hiva's family over. We spent the day eating, playing games, putting on skits, and exchanging presents. It was so much fun!

 Lady Hiva kept my family tradition of having orange rolls for Christmas morning. Look at her multi-task! She is amazing!

All ready to unwrap the ball for a game! 

 The 4-Square Tournament.

 Koala Bear was so happy that her cousins let her do their make-up too! They are good sports.