January & February 2021

 Here's what our family has been up to during the first 2 months of 2021!

Covid 19 Update: Total cases in Idaho are 172K (30K in the last 2 months).  Total Deaths for Idaho: 1,869 (431 in the last 2 months - that's a great sign that it's declining!).  Total Cases in the US are 28.7 Million (making that 8.7 million new cases in the last 2 months) with 515K total deaths (up from 346K deaths 2 months ago). And Worldwide cases are currently at 114 Million (making over 30 million new cases in 2021 worldwide) and sadly we're at 2.54 Million deaths worldwide (up from 1.83 deaths 2 months ago).

JANUARY:

* More Duck Hunting for Dad! He hunted pretty much every single weekend of the Duck Season! It ended on Jan 31st and he was hunting up until the very last day! He really had a blast and found a new love! He's already looking ahead to this fall when he can go again.

* Dad hosted an Elders Quorum activity of Ice Fishing

* Ben took off several weeks of work to finish writing his 3rd book in the Revolt Trilogy - Amnesty. It was due to the Editor on Feb. 15th and he made his deadline!

* Seth decided to stay at home and do his Winter Semester classes online. He's taking a full course load and spends 10+ hours a day on his studies! That's paying off and he's still keeping his grades high enough to continue his academic scholarship! He also works a couple days a week at Marco's - so he's super busy!

* We celebrated Natalie's Birthday! She turned 19 on Jan 11th and we had fun spoiling her!

* Mom and the kids started back up with schooling and have been having a GREAT time! I just love being able to homeschool and teach the kids! I enjoy planning and prepping and spending time with them each and every day! 

* Aubrie has had TWO paying orders for cookies! One order for Harry Potter cookies (soooo cute!) and the other for 2 dozen "Mermaid" themed cookies for a birthday party. She made $60 for the two orders - go Aubrie!

* Mom and the girls boarded a plane and flew to Nebraska on Jan 26th. Nebraska had gotten hit with a big snowstorm and so grandma and grandpa couldn't pick us up - but Uncle JR did! and then he got us safely back to his house in Lincoln where we stayed the night. The next afternoon, we braved the roads with Aunt Lori and made the trek up to Kearney where we stayed for the next 3 weeks working tirelessly to get them packed up and moved to their new home!

FEBRUARY:

* With mom and the girls gone, the boys were on their own! Lots of chicken nuggets, pizza and cereal were eaten! The boys came to a deeper appreciation for all that is done for them. Seth and Ben stepped up and took Nathan to work and Rugby practice and overall they did a nice job keeping the house in order (at least the place looked nice and tidy when mom, dad and the girls arrived home!)

* Meanwhile in Nebraska - the weather was SOOOO COLD! It was like North Dakota Temperatures (-20 BEFORE windchill) and lots and lots of snow! It made for less than ideal circumstances for moving! In a nutshell, we went through and packed up all 3 levels of grandma and grandpa's house! We made multiple trips to the new house in Lincoln with all of their breakable antiques and got to see Jared, Hope, JR and Lori while down there. Dad flew in on Thursday, Feb 12th and then all 4 of us flew home together on the evening of Feb 17th. 

The weather delayed the original move date (as we didn't want to move in the snow!) so we traded the snow for a -20 day! It turned out to be a blessing though - since it was so cold, schools (and UNK) were all closed so we were able to have several people come help load the trucks (yes, as in multiple trucks... they got 2 26-foot trucks and then will have to get a 3rd one to fit the rest!)... but on the day of the loading, we had quite the crew show up - INCLUDING the D-Line from the UNK Football team! It was almost comical when there was LITERALLY a line of people laden down with big, heavy furniture waiting to get out the front door! After about 6 hours, both trucks were loaded and most everyone had left. As a side note: That morning, JR and Lori's pipes had froze and as they thawed, it began leaking! So after the first truck was loaded, JR and Silas hopped in it and drove it down to Lincoln so JR could help take care of their pipes!

After everyone left, we vacuumed and cleaned up the rooms and then set up the air mattresses. The next morning, we loaded 3 more vehicles with things that we wanted to "hand carry" and set off for their new home! We didn't have long after we arrived that we had to head off to the airport (which Grandpa drove us to) and our time in Nebraska came to a close! Even though it was (physically) hard work and each night I'd fall into bed exhausted (and many nights, I'd have the girls rub my feet because they hurt so bad! haha)... but we were so happy to help and we were able to get soooo much done and we know Grandma and Grandpa were so grateful!

The week after we left, grandma and grandpa went back to Kearney to get the house ready to sell! They refinished ALL of the wood work in the house, scrubbed it all shiny, had the entire house repainted and had the carpets all cleaned.  Aunt Kathryn, Leo and Ezra flew in on Feb 24th to help out and I know they worked super hard as well! They helped with loading the 3rd U-Haul and unpacking/setting up their new house.

An incredible miracle happened with the sale of their home - yes, that is correct - their home is already sold! Some people they knew happened to drive by on the day we were loading up all of the U-Hauls and called later that evening to ask if they were moving. After finding out that they were indeed moving, they expressed interest in looking at the home. After grandma had spruced it up so well, they came over and loved it! Put a cash offer on the home (for exactly what grandma and grandpa were hoping to get!) and set a Closing date for like 11 days later (on March 8th). During those 11 days, they were able to get a home inspection AND all work that needed to be done was able to get scheduled AND completed! Absolutely a miracle!

* Celebrated Valentine's Day there in Nebraska! Grandma made it special and put together little goodie bags (full of fruit, treats AND even a pair of Sweatpants!) for the girls. They gifted mom and dad some $$ to put towards a future date together! and sent home $ for each of the kids at home! They are always so thoughtful and generous!

* After getting back home, the girls had their friend, Lauren, over to celebrate her birthday! Aubrie made a super scrumptious cake - which was super yummy! Lexi also decided to make her a crocheted purse - which turned out really cute!

* Before dad flew into Nebraska, he took mom's van in to get detailed! Mom was sure blown away by how BRAND NEW it looked when Seth picked them all up at the airport! The only thing that wasn't good - was the new dent that somehow has made an appearance by the back tire and no one has any knowledge of it...

* Aunt Heidy and Uncle Tony's 8th Wedding Anniversary was at the end of February and Aubrie crafted some sugar cookies that implemented "their symbol" which is the "&" sign. They were touched that Aubrie thought of them. While she was working on those cookies, mom asked if Aubrie could also make some for a sister in the ward that mom ministers to that had a birthday while they were all gone to Nebraska. In response, she came up with some cute unicorns, rainbows and stars!

* Even though we were super busy in Nebraska - Lexi made time to do some custom crochet work for grandma Carlson! As her carry on for the plane, she took her Crocheting bag and the contents got put to good use when she whipped up a 4 piece American Girl outfit (sweater, skirt, poncho and hat) for Grandma! It turned out absolutely ADORABLE!! Aunt Lori was amazed by it and wanted one too - so it wasn't too much longer before a 2nd 4-piece outfit had been crocheted!

Spiritually Speaking...

* Safety during all of the moving!

* Health and Safety from the Coronavirus with all of our travels!

* The boys safe and sound at home alone!

* Mom received another calling (in addition to her YW Advisor and Youth Sunday School Teacher)... she is now the YW Camp Director.

* Still missing the Temple! But helping the work move forward with Family History and Indexing!

* Daily Enrichments with the kids as part of school - we've started doing an Enrichment 100% devoted to music that reinforces the themes we've studied for Come Follow Me on Fridays. These have become one of my favorites! We discuss the themes we've studied throughout the week (there's usually about 4-5 themes we can list) and then we come up with a song (either from the hymn book or the the Primary Songbook). For instance one of the weeks we studied about the Priesthood and so we sang "The Priesthood is Restored"... I love how songs can teach the sacred principles of the gospel in a way that touches us in such a special way!  It's probably not the most favorite lesson for Nathan - but the girls and I LOVE it!