Tidbits

We got to doggie-sit this little cutie for a couple days.  Callie was in love.  And Levi enjoyed having Marshmallow around as well.

This is the freaking giant new High School.  Which is built for like 1500 students.  Guess how many students we currently have?!  256.  Yep 256, including 7-8th graders (who get their own school next year).  

I will be impressed if they actually get enough students to justify this huge school.  It is pretty sweet though!

And Deborah made this utterly awesome mermaid tail for us.  The kids LOVE it.  Rylee was having a rough day and I needed to make dinner, so this is how she comforted herself, lying on the kitchen floor wrapped in the mermaid tail, with the dog as her pillow.

The coolest part was when she swished the tail, she really did look like a mermaid!

At Beach, Must Swim..... even if it is 50 degrees!

 On December 30, we had a lovely 50 degree day.  The sun was out and it was nice.  I took the girls to the beach by our friend's house.  The girls heard "Beach" and insisted that they needed to be in swim suits.  Um.... it is 50 degrees outside and I googled the water temp- 55 degrees.  No way were they going to swim.

Boy did they prove me wrong!

The lovely beach.

Callie testing the water. 

Getting deeper. 

And having a great time! 

That's my friend's awesome kid in the front.  And that is Marian, neck deep in the ocean. 

Delaney and her friend Serenity, making castles. 

 That's Delaney swimming in the FREEZING ocean!

These kids are crazy!

(I did not even take my shoes off to dip my toesies in.)

The other end of the beach, and Rylee industriously working on a castle. 

She was quite pleased with her work. 

And then Marian wanted to be buried in the sand. That was a lot of fun! 

And then she emerged!

It was a good day.

Reviewing 2016's goals....

I made some goals at the beginning of 2016.  I may have proptly forgotten some of them. But I did do a pretty good job on some as well.  So, in all honesty, here are the goals I wanted to do, and how well I did on them.

My Goals
1.  Try 1 new restaurant a month/ Success! I did get to a new restaurant at least once each month. And I'm pretty sure I have been to more than 12 new restaurants this year.  Win!  
2. Get my Visiting Teaching done each month, even if it is a call or a letter. Um.... I got about 80% here.
3. Go on 6 Cultural Excursions- either in a group, with friends, or by myself.  But get out, move away from my comfort zone, and see Japan. I did get out on at least 6 exciting excursions, some well outside my comfort zone (And I'm totally counting Hong Kong!)
4. Sew and finish a quilt for my bed. (I'm on a huge sewing kick right now, but so far, only baby blankets are coming out.) Nope.  Nothing.  Did not even start one.
5. Volunteer at the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society twice a month. I kind of got this.  I actually went in for the first month or two.  Then I just sewed baby blankets to donate.  I earned over 900 volunteer hours, so I'll count it a check mark for YES.
6. Have a lunch date with Dan twice a month.  I think we did this 75% If you count evening dates, closer to 100%.
7. Visit Hiroshima Castle Did it!
8. Go to the Motonosumi Inari Shrine- the 122 Torii Gates shrine. I didn't realize there are like 500 Inari Shrines.  I went to two of them but I don't think I went to this specific one.

Bucket List Goals for 2016
1. Climb Mt Fuji I did it!
2. Do Karaoke  Nope
3. Visit Cat Island  No
4. Go to Universal Studios. Kind of tried to twice, but didn't get further than tentative plans.
5. Go to Kuga Park (when it is open!!) Yes!

Family Goals
1. Media/Tech-Free Wednesdays  Did great till after our summer trip.  Then no.
2. Do our Saturday Chores diligently (as opposed to not often, which is the current status quo) We are doing really well on this!
3. Do a better Job of Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. Ug. I'm sure I meant to make a posterboard with some sort of measuable goals on it.  I think we are better, but not a lot.
4.  Kids cook dinner once a month. Collossal fail.  Josh makes waffles or nachos occasionally, but that's it.  I totally forgot about this.
5. Go out and do more things as a family. Dan thinks we did this, but I don't feel like we really did.  I should have made measurable and specific goals on this one.

How Christmas went Down

Delaney and Rylee left cookies for Santa. (Santa had help eating them.) I don't know why it is sideways.  It was really cute.

The tree was lovely and glorious. 

The stockings arranged on the ...er, couch, with care. 

The magic of Christmas was definitely there! 

Rylee with her stocking, and pleased with her loot. 

I loved that Josh was so excited to see under the tree. 

Callie, wearing the awesome Santa legs hat, and Rylee. 

 Rylee is waiting her turn to open gifts.

My shaggy boy and his gift. 

Marian opening somehing fun. 

It was this cool electro-ball held in a dragon's jaws.  See, told you it was fun!

 Delaney was delighted with her ear phones.

And with her gymnastics shirt! 

And Rylee was so happy to have a digi-bird.  I think it was her favorite gift.

Christmas fun

Daiso has the most random stuff!  What IS this hat?! 

We made gingerbread cookies and the kids had a marvelous time frosting them. They were delicious.

Dan and I had an Ugly Sweater Christmas Party to attend.  I hate sweaters, and long sleeves.  So these were perfect. 

Although I felt rather.... er... busty.