Thursday, January 25, 2024

January

January is usually a really hard and long month for me, but this year it seemed to go by faster than normal. I wanted to post about the happenings and fun little times in our household for the month.

We started the first Saturday of the year with such a special and memorable experience of Paige getting to go inside the temple for the first time to perform baptisms for the dead. She was so excited and ready! We decided to go as a family for her first time so that I could walk her through every aspect of it. She wanted Nate to be able to baptize her and we took Pops we we had enough priesthood to do everything needed. Pops and I got to witness her being baptized and we took a few family names which was another cool experience. There were so many other "first timers" there and it was just such a sweet experience. It is so special and amazing seeing your own children have the desires and experience the things of the gospel that bring them closer to Jesus Christ. Pops even treated us all to ice cream afterwards. Nona kindly watched Baylor and McCall for us so we could have this experience together. I did find out that Margaret has never done baptisms for the dead so next time we do it as a family, we will have to bring her along.
Paige thought she was so funny with the swim diapers and I guess McCall thought it was funny too. :)
And we caught this sweet moment on camera. McCall has been folding her arms for prayers and it's the cutest thing ever. She even says amen, though most of the time she says it before you are done with the prayer. :) Sometimes she will say her own little prayers especially when I am cooking her breakfast because in her little mind once she says the prayer, it's time to eat.
Three cute girls ready for bed. I'm so grateful to be their mom!
Paige finished up the gymnastic season and had 2 meets in January. She has loved it so much and her confidence has grown and she loves doing the beam.
The judges in our opinion weren't quite fair on their scoring and Paige got a really low score but she handled it with such grace and optimism compared to her questioning parents. :)
I got to go with Baylor on her school field trip. I was in charge of a group of 5 and we had so much fun. We went to the Kid Quest Museum in Bellevue.
It was Baylor's first bus ride and she must have had fun at the museum since she fell asleep on the way home.
Front row seats for watching Bluey.
Lazy Saturday of playing Mario Kart. (Not pictured is the tears when it was done! Video games are not my favorite and it seems whenever they play them someone is in tears.)
Paige got to compete at the Varsity meet in gymnastics as a 6th grader and first time ever doing gymnastics! Her team ended up getting 3rd place and they all did amazing! It was so fun to watch Paige every week and she loved the whole experience.
Go Paige!
Little helpers cleaning up afterwards.
Paige got to go the the temple for the second time in just a month since we went as a youth group. We had the biggest group go that we have had in awhile and it was such a good experience. Paige was most worried about having one of the young men baptize her but she did great and loved the whole experience.
Gymnastics banquet.
Paige and Baylor had dental check ups. I took McCall with me to watch for the first time and she was very observant and a little unsure about it all. Every time they moved Baylor's chair, it would make her cry so hopefully overtime we will get over that fear.
Yesterday we had a pretty nice day for January so we enjoyed being outside for awhile. McCall got to splash in puddles and Paige and Baylor got to ride their bikes. And I got to be their personal photographer as I followed them around because they are all so cute and I want to capture all the moments with them because they are growing up way too fast.

Ice Skating

The first Wednesday in January we went up to Bellevue and took Paige and Baylor ice skating for the first time. It was a really fun experience and they both wanted to stay so much longer. We got there right when it opened since I knew that they would both need the skate helper and I knew they had a limited number. It was so fun to watch them and help them along the way. They both struggled at first and I wasn't sure if they would ever get it, but by the end they were both skating on their own.
It was really fun to see the progression in both of them. Paige struggled even with the skate helper at first. She was not really understanding how to move her feet and after lots and lots of laps around and she said she would watch how everyone else was moving their feet, she finally got it. She decided to give up the skate helper and relied on the wall and me to help her stay on her feet. She had lots of falls (even pulled me down once!), but she always got back up and tried again. She loved it so much by the end and didn't want to leave.
Baylor wasn't quite strong enough to push the skate helper on her own at first since she didn't understand how to move her feet correctly either. So I helped push from behind until she got it. She also said that she watched other people's feet in order for her to figure out how to do it on her own. (I have some smart and observant little girls!) Eventually she could push it on her own and while I was helping Paige stay on her feet, Baylor was just zooming around, doing laps. It was so cute to watch because I would be looking away for awhile, focusing on Paige, and I would look around to find Baylor and she would be on the other side of the skating rink with a big smile. She also ended up giving up the skate helper and tried it on her own. She picked it up way faster than I thought she would and lasted the entire time. She isn't as persistent as Paige so I thought she would give up after about an hour or less (we ended up being there for about 2 1/2 hours!), but she also didn't want to leave and they both want to go again.
It was so much fun!
Dad's little buddy. She enjoyed walking around with dad and finding us and enjoyed lots of snacks while Dad was our personal photographer. 
The city all lit up when we left the skating rink was gorgeous!
This was such a memorable evening that I always want to remember!