December 2025

Here's our Christmas card again to start December.

The SBOs decided to make a Christmas card as well. So cute!

Student Government decided to ask for donations for the Gold Rush Charity fundraiser at some of the basketball games and concerts. Here's some of the boys counting the cash in the faculty room. They are such great kids.

The Freshmen decided for their lunch fundraiser that they would use the splash tower and do soak a Freshman. People paid to soak them in cold water.

One Saturday we helped with the Christmas Extravaganza. Taking and organizing donated items for student at Cottonwood.

Then it was the Sami Claus party at the ranch!

We had the CHOICE Jr Board over for their holiday party and gift exchange. They are a great group of kids.

Mark was asked to be head tennis coach at the high school. They wanted to do a social media spotlight for him so he pulled out the old yearbook tennis pictures.

We went to Italian Village as a family one day. Kids weren't happy when I pulled out the camera, but the sky was pretty behind them and I will miss them when they aren't around.

Mark held his Christmas work party at the new Brazilian place, Fogo de Choa. It was pretty fancy I hear!

Brian went to his DECA competition. He won a medal for his test.

Then came our big evening fundraiser for Gold Rush. We decided to use the fireworks that were cancelled at the Homecoming game to try to get attendance at a stomp. We also had Santa come for visits and invited the community to that part.

Brian was the DJ for the student stomp and he did an amazing job!

Overall it was a fun and successful night.

Mark made  some lamb roasts for the boys to try for one Sunday dinner when we did not have company.

Brian had a few more swim meets.

The last Gold Rush Fundraiser lunch was sponsored by the Senior Class Officers. They did Senior Sundaes and made a good amount of money!

Mark gave us our Christmas presents early. He got us electric hand warmers for skiing. Thank you, Mark!

The last day before Winter Break was our Gold Rush Assembly. We had to move it that morning from the auditorium to the gym because the Forgotten Carols took over the auditorium. The kids were super sad about it. But they pulled together and made it work. It ended up being a fun and relaxed assembly. Then the SBOs exchanged their gifts afterward.

Then Christmas break began! Hurray! I was so ready for this break.  The boys wanted to watch Lord of the Rings and play Monopoly with Mark. I joined them in watching Lord of the Rings and started working on getting caught up on all these blog posts. The blog really is something I want to keep. At least for a small record of our lives. I am not great at journaling otherwise. 

One day Timmy and Luke cooked Yakitori for us. It was a delicious dinner.

The boys went skiing a bunch of days and I went a couple of days. Sadly this has been the worst snow year in history. But slowly lifts and runs have been opening at Brighton.

Then it was Christmas Eve! My favorite day! Mark and Timmy cooked all the taco meat and we had a fantastic dinner at the ranch. Then of course we did the nativity program. The big news this year was that Evan got engaged the day before, so he and Grace were Mary and Joseph.

Christmas morning at our house was opening a bag a treats for the boys. All of their ski gear and season passes were their Christmas gifts so there wasn't much to open. It was kind of nice that getting gifts was not the focus.

Alice made breakfast for us so we went over to her house.

Then Mark prepped the prime rib and we got ready for the big Christmas dinner at our house.

It was a lovely time and fantastic food. Some of the kids helped me complete my puzzle and others played laser tag outside.

The next day we went up to Oakley for some airsoft. I really enjoyed playing even though I pretty much got destroyed.

Not pictured in December:

-Ward choir rehearsals and Christmas program. The boys sang part of silent night as a duet and then Brian finished the song as a solo.

-The boys and Jenny played the cello for the retirement branch party.

-We ate lots of amazing food with the Hsiao family like Happy Lamb and Cafe Anh Hong.

-We have included relaxing for Christmas Break.

-The boys and I made our final decision to attend the CHOICE Jr Board trip to Ecuador at the end of February

-Jenny had surgery (to help with stress incontinence) on Dec 29 and is taking a bit of time to recover. 

-Jenny actually got caught up on the blog for the first time in years.

November 2025

November began with the Monster Mash Dance. It was fun, but not as awesome as the Homecoming Dance. The DJ was not as good and we just didn't get the turnout we wanted. 

Timmy was a parrot and Sawyer was a pirate. Brian was sick during the dance but went anyway. He didn't get the pictures from his date, but he was Travis Kelce and Savannah was Taylor Swift.

We had a CHOICE Jr Board meeting at our house. My Dad gave a little presentation about the beginning of CHOICE.

Mark and Brian were both very very sick in October and November.

I tried to remain healthy and to enjoy the changing season.

I am trying to grow my hair out, but it has been a struggle. I want to cut it off so badly sometimes.

The school looks beautiful in November. I love the trees as I walk in.

One night Timmy and I were in the hot tub and Timmy pointed out that the sky looked colorful. He was right. We could see the Northern Lights! Brian was asleep and stressed inside, but he loves the Northern Lights so I went and woke him up to come see. He came and got in the to observe with us.

The boys and Mark helped take an entire horse trailer and truck bed full of food from the Stake to the Food Pantry. It took them a better part of a Saturday. There were many families in need because of the Government shutdown and many not receiving their SNAP benefits.  

We were given tickets to a BYU football game. While we were in Provo we checked out a house that was for sale. We realized pretty quickly it was in need of demolishing and rebuilding to be useful and that is not a project we want to take on right now.

We went to our favorite Provo restaurant, Carrabba's, before the game. They have the best filet steaks ever!

It was a fun BYU game and a fun season overall!

At school we started the Gold Rush Charity Fundraiser activities. We planned different activities to raise money for the Ronald McDonald House Intermountain Chapter that would take place for about a month, ending in an assembly. The SBOs started off the lunch activities with selling sodas.

Brian had a few swim meets in November. He did well despite missing a lot of practices from being sick.

Student Government helped to support the big musical our theater and arts department put on. They did Seussical this year.

I spent another morning at the temple.

And then visited with Daniel for a bit following. I miss him immensely.

The next week's Gold Rush lunch activity was put on by the Sophomores. They sold wax strips for people to purchase and wax their legs. Here's Timmy getting his legs waxed.

Brian joined the second day. Check out those bare patches on their legs.

Mark's aunt and cousins and kids came into town for Thanksgiving. It was fun to see them! Mark took the kids for a hike.

He also took us all up to the ranch to play airsoft. I played again and had a blast!

We went to eat at KOU and of course it was delicious!

Then it was Thanksgiving time! Mark and I hosted and it was a very nice and successful Thanksgiving!

Mark's turkeys turned out amazing!

The kids played Among Us on Thanksgiving. It was kind of fun to watch them play together.

Brian got his hair permed at the hair school. He looks very handsome.

We went to try this Taiwanese Boba and shaved ice place.

It was delicious and fun to go with Luke and Sunny.

Another beautiful morning in the temple.

Thanksgiving ended and the Christmas season began! I'm glad the boys didn't like my collage Christmas card I made from random photos throughout the year. They thought we should make a card with just one family photo. This got us to take a photo after church one day. Thanks boys!

Not pictured in November:

-Endowed for Life pizza at our house

-School

-Work

-Outdoor Boys fireside

-Jenny teaching RS

-Church work and meetings for Mark

-Mark and Brian still sick