January

 On New Years Day we joined the Skeens and Bundy's for a fun snow shoe excursion in the property behind their house next to the river.  It was beautiful!  Although it was a cool 17 degrees, we still had a fun time.  Our intention was to make a fire and have some hot chocolate- but alas- the hot chocolate packets didn't make it in the backpack so we just had it when we got back to the Skeens. 

I absolutely loved having Kylee home for 2 weeks.  Brody was only able to stay for one since he had to get back to study for his prequalifying exams, but since she had 2 weeks off of work, she was able to stay longer.  We had a great time working out together, going to lunch a few times, going shopping and going to Orem for a day and visiting the Romneys, Claire, Rich and kids and Syd and Rafe. It was so fun to see everyone! Another thing we did quite a bit of was sitting in the hot tub- especially after a work out. It was so cold that the foam in the hot tub was turning to ice and parts of Ky's hair was turning frosty--- January was definitely a deep freeze month in Utah.



 Jessica had to work quite a bit so missed out on some of the fun, but she was around the afternoon we spent making cards.  I love having a collection of wedding and birthday cards and gift tags so I don't have to buy them.
 
 We went to the Brigham City Temple one night.  It was so pretty!  We hadn't gone to the open house, so we were especially excited to go and see it for the first time.


 
 I can't even put into words my excitement and anticipation over Jake getting his mission call.  He had his interviews with his Bishop and Stake President the middle of January since you can submit the papers 120 days before you're eligible, and he wanted to get them in as early as possible and go as soon as school gets out in May.  His stake president told him he was going on vacation and probably wouldn't get them submitted until he got back on the 27th.  Unbeknownst to us, he did submit them before he left, so Jake's bishop called him on the 22nd to say that it was on the way and it should be at our house by Wednesday (23rd) or Thursday (24th).  Jake decided to keep that information to himself and surprise us.  For the past few weeks he had been checking the mail every day when he got home from school around noon looking for a letter from his friend Corey who is in the MTC.  On Friday the 25th, Brad went out to get the mail about 10 minutes before Jake got home and found the call.  When he showed it to me I could not believe my eyes.  I just kept staring at it (with tears in my eyes) and not believing that it just arrived without any notice- and on a Friday no less.  Well, to make a long story not so long, Jake had a fun time trying to make us think the call wasn't real before he fessed up to knowing he had been expecting it for a few days.  It still didn't explain the arrival of it on a Friday until I noticed the mail truck drive by about 2:00 that afternoon delivering the mail for the day.  I then put it all together. For several weeks, unknowingly, Jake had been retrieving the priors day mail, so it's entirely likely that the call actually came on Thursday and SAT IN THE MAILBOX for about 21 hours before Brad's discovery of it Friday morning. . . ah well- it makes for a out of the ordinary story of how he got his call!  We only had to look at the unopened letter for about 6 hours until we could gather everyone he wanted there (except for 2 friends who had other commitments). It was great to have Ky and Brody join us via Skype.  It almost felt like they were here.  I'm so happy Jake is happy about where he's going and that we have 4 months to prepare.  It was fun calling and texting friends and family to tell them the great news.

 

 

 I decided to consolidate my 7 family photo albums into scrapbooks (I think I'll end up with 3) so I've spent a lot of time this month doing that.  My pages are very simple and I try and get as many pictures as possible on each page.  Beginning this year my plan is to make digital scrapbooks so no more getting photos developed.  What a change that will be. 

The bottom right picture is how they looked in the photo album, and the top picture is how it looks in the scrapbook.

 We've gotten quite a bit of snow this winter, including a foot of snow this past week.  I'll take snow over below freezing temperatures and sicky inversion any day.