Christmas in Utah

On our way to Utah.  These masks crack me up.  It is such a crazy time we live in.

When we got to Utah we had a wonderful welcoming committee!  We are so grateful for Nana, Grandpa, Aubrey, and Maren.

After we went straight to Uncle Preston and Lauren's to play.  The first thing the kids did was run to the snow and eat it!  They were so excited to see and feel snow.!

We did a lot of reading with Nana and Grandpa!!!

I enjoy the chats and activities we do at Nana and Grandpa's

Play in the snow!

Homemade snow-cones

We have so much fun with uncles and aunts.  

There were a few moments during the stay that I got tears in my eyes because my kids are so blessed to have so many fond memories with their uncles and aunts!  Thank you for being so sweet, playful, and fun with each of them.  There are times that I feel like my kids don't remember me when we stay because they are having so much fun with others.  At first it used to bother me and now I am so very grateful and I wouldn't change it!

I was calling Brinley the Snow Queen because she spent a lot of her time outside (and without a coat).

We went on a family walk and Claire read the signs.  She is such a great reader!  We are impressed with the big words that she can read.

Games with Nana

I love this smile!

Cousins!

Shooting

This was a fun highlight: The Harry Potter Party

There was a sorting ceremony, potions class, train ride, eating chocolate frogs, and a delicious dinner of fish and chips.  To end the night Sabina shared her Harry Potter advent book.  What an absolute fun evening!

Thanks so much for those who organized, plan, prepared, and presented at this wonderful event!  I know that my kids will remember this forever.

Enjoyed the decorations

Thanks to Preston sharing his telescope and passion for space, we were able to see the Christmas star.  It was amazing.  It is really fun because our science unit right now is studying planets.

Even though this picture is blurry, I love how Trevor is free with his hugs for the kiddos!  So sweet!

Ash making fries with Grandpa

Trevor went to the gym with Derek.

Brinley and I went on a special date and we bought Brinley scriptures for her 8th birthday.  She is really excited about the ones she picked!  She is looking forward to being baptized in April.

Humanitarian Project

Granny and Gramps had us over for a delicious breakfast.  We enjoy spending time with them at their house and get to talk and catch up.  We sure love spending time with Granny, Gramps, Chris, and Kelly!

Maren brought her cat Leo to come play.  He is hiding under the bed because he is afraid of strangers. 

I love how cute the kids look all on their tummies.

Derek also went to the gym with Scott.  Derek loved sharing his passion of fitness with him.  Derek shared how impressed he was with his dad.

Nativity

Thanks Nana and Grandpa for the Christmas PJs!

So adorable!

Behind the cameras

Ruth Ann is so sweet.  For Christmas she gave all her kids a binder of all their artwork and projects from their childhood.  Derek was tearing up as he was going through his. Thanks so much for the priceless gift!

Maren and David bought the kiddos a brush because when they visited for Thanksgiving, David had this small brush and the kids envied it.  David is getting all the works done for his own hair.  (Did he give the brushes for them or himself;))

Merry Christmas

Spiderman!

I enjoy going to my parents house for the holiday.  It is full of Christmas top to bottom, from taste to sense.  My mom's superpower is being the best giver!  I am so impressed with how she buys things so individual according to their interests and hobbies.  WOW!  That is a true talent!

Thanks mom!

 

My mom made this cute tutus for the girls!  They love to play in them and even last night they went to dance in them.

We have been looking forward to going to the cabin for months!  We were so excited to have snow so we could go sledding!

While we were at Bear Lake, we played a lot of games, ate a lot of food, and went sledding multiple times!

It was so beautiful when it snows. 

This was a magical moment for me we everyone (including all the adults) were outside together sledding.  It was fun to laugh, enjoy, and work together to make the path for the perfect sledding ride.

Hot tubbing with the cousins!

The crazy kids would get out of the tub and roll around in the snow and then come back it.  

So much laughter and fun!

The view is so beautiful!

It was Uncle Skyler's birthday while we were there and Katie made this delicious cake and she was teaching the girls during the process.  It was so much fun to see the art and creativity.  It is WAY delicious, we are going to attempt making it for Ashlyn's birthday.   I can't remember what it is called, but it is a Cake by Courtney (she is from Utah and popular for her cake recipes and classes). 

The Martinson family can be pretty competitive.  It seems like anything can be turned into a competition. The face off of Skyler and Derek.

It is so fun to see these HUGE smiles and lots of laughter when cousins are around!

The cake in process.  I wish I would have taken a picture of the final product.  This is what is looks like on her website. 

Derek: We were all out hot tubbing when I told Ash that she should challenge her sisters and cousins to go see who could lay out in the snow the longest before getting back in the hot tub. Well, she did, but no one accepted the challenge, so I went out with her. I was sure that it would be 30 seconds or so before she gave in and we could get back in the hot tub. Boy was I wrong. I started off being cocky, trying to get in Ashlyn's head. I told her that it didn't even bother me and that I could stay out in the snow forever. Well, she just kept laying. After about 5 minutes in the snow, she somehow picked up a crazy motivation factor and started exuding this confidence that there was no way that she was going to lose. One of her cousins asked her if she was going to sleep out in the snow. She said, "If my dad is still out here, I will be too." So I gave myself a time of one more minute then I was going to get back in the hot tub. My toes started hurting. The time came up and I gave up. Later she told me that she was getting close to giving up as well but she wouldn't let me know it. I was very impressed with her will and her poker face attitude. She's mature well beyond her years.

More sledding

The "big" kids like to go on the BIG HILL (that is what the kids call it).

Ashlyn says that it is the best!

After everyone left, we decided to stay another night with just our family and my parents.  It was so nice to spend an extra day and soak up the quiet environment (in and out of the cabin...haha), view of Bear Lake, grandma and grandpa time, and wrapping up the end of our vacation.

Instead of buying sibling gift for each other, we spend money doing something up together.  Aunt Lissy had a great idea to go ice skating.  Bountiful just opened up an outdoor ice skating rink this year and we heard great things about it.  Everyone was so excited!  Ice skating is something the kids have never done before.  It was a blast!  

We were scheduled at a perfect time, we arrived when the sun was out and our session ended in the dark.  They had fun Christmas lights, fires, and the Bountiful temple shining on top of the mountain.  It was a beautiful night with fun people.  

Then at the end we had a pizza party and hot chocolate at Grandma and Grandpa's

Minnie is so sweet to the kids.  Minnie is and will always be a kid at heart.  She is draw Brinley on the sketch board and doing a fabulous job.

Goodbye to wonderful family and beautiful Utah!

The new SLC airport is beautiful inside.

Waiting for the plan and they are devouring books.

Love my bookworms!

We got back to Texas and Emmett said, "It's so warm!!!"

We did something different this year and did an advent calendar for Christmas.  We read a scripture verses and then there is a discussion question.  I loved how quick and simple and very thought provoking it was.  I got it from Brooke Romney's etsy shop

Drawing... I love seeing these!

We are back into homeschooling again, but I am adding a 5th child into the rotation.  He is excited to do school for him.  I think he loves the one on one time with me and he loves to learn.  We started with the letter A and apple activites.  He is loving it!

Something that my new coach (I am doing a life course with Derek) said a few weeks ago is that happy people set goals.  It has made me reflect and the proudest moments of myself is when I set a hard goal and work hard to achieve it.  Well I started to reflect that with my kids. So each kid has set a goal and we are working on it for 2 weeks. 

Ashlyn: workout

Brinley: French Braid

Claire: typing

Desi: clean her room

Emmett: preschool

We love and appreciate the time that Nana and Grandpa skype the kids everyday to read.  I contribute my kids love for reading from them!  Thank you so very, very much!  Words can't describe how grateful I am for you both!

Ashlyn learned how to play chess a few months ago from Nana and she is kicking Derek's butt (some of the time).  Derek and I went on a date and he brought it up 3-4 times how frustrated it is that Ashlyn is beating him at chess. ha ha

Derek and I got Cutco knives for Christmas and Derek cut his finger the first time using them!

Grandma this girl head is getting some great use! Thanks for the gift

We were driving in the car to go on a hike and it was so quiet.  We looked back and everyone was reading a book. 

Claire has been wanting to read the Magic Tree House.  She reads a page and I read a page.  She is doing fantastic.  We read the first book in 2 days. 

During the Christmas Break I stated a book called Tiny Habits.  The author talked about how he started a tiny habit where he would do 2 push-ups after going to the bathroom and he has progressed from them.  Guess who took on that challenge...ME!  I also set a goal to drink 100oz of water/day so guess who is doing a lot of push-ups...ME!

It is going well.  I am very committed and there is power in consistency, but  by the end of the day my form is ugly...ha ha.

I have also set a HUGE goal for me and it is really going to stretch me.  Derek and I were talking about goals and how happy people set and achieve goals and that started me thinking about the goals that I have set in my life.  The one that sticks out to me the most was when I set to lose 15 lbs in 4 months and it was scary and I didn't know if I would be able to do, but I did it!  I weighed 165 in Sept. 2019 and by Christmas I weighed 150 lbs. I was so excited because I did a lot to change my habits.  I started using the Sweat App (which taught me how to weight lift), I started drinking protein shakes, started counting macros, used the Clean Simple Eats Cookbook (which I absolutely love), and a lot of tiny changes that seem like not a big deal, but add up. After losing all the weight, I have maintained for a year and now is the time to cut again.  

This is going to be a stretch and it is a bit scary, but I know that I can do it.  I want to lose another 15 lbs to weigh 135 lbs by my birthday!!!  This is the weight I was at when Derek and I got married!  I don't normally write/tell people numbers, but I am determined to get there (in 12 weeks) and I want to be accountable (social pressure;))

WISH ME LUCK!!!

The whole year of 2020, I took a life course class by Brooke Snow.  She taught self improvement princples and intergrated them into gospel principles.  It was absolutely amazing and I have grown and learned so much!  I have witnessed the grow in myself in all aspects of my life.

Well this year 2021, Derek and I are taking a life course from her coach!  I am so excited to do this with Derek.  It will be a lot of fun and it is great to have an accountable partner that pushes me to be my best self! 

Here's to another year of self improvement!