December 8-14, 2025

Katie has been babbling a lot lately. I was making scones and she came up to me and babbled but it sounded like she said, "I wanna touch it." I said: No, you can't touch it. Katie: Touch it? I said you're welcome and Katie copied me and it sounded really good! We played a game where she would sign "again" and I threw her onto Mary's bed. She would climb down and we would do it again. She likes to stick her tongue out when she is talking and it is super cute. She took 12 steps all on her own on Saturday!
Mary got upset this week when she got the hiccups and when she could see her breath when it was cold outside. She said, "I'm smoking! I don't want to smoke. Katie started crying and Mary said, "Katie is making sadness."

Monday Dad slept in until 10 am (recovering from a long flight and jet lag). We got up to Logan by 1 pm and got some delicious Cafe Sabor. We went to First Dam to eat. The girls loved running around. We went to USU campus and had fun walking around. We went to the campus store where Mary wanted to get some bracelets but threw a fit when we told her no, so we almost left right then. Dad took Mary around campus while I took Katie back to the car to theoretically grab the stroller. I moved the car up to the parking garage by the arts building and then yelled at Dad about not coming to help me. I went on a walk around the city cemetery to cool down then we met up again and got ice cream from Charlie's. I'm always amazed by how delicious it is. We drove up Logan Canyon for a bit then got Spudnuts on the way out of Logan. We stopped in Ogden to get the Pie on the way back to Wendy's house. We had dinner with Wendy and Andy and talked about Adam's divorce then we all went to bed.
Tuesday I woke up at 4 am MST and my mind was racing with everything that needed to be done that morning so we could get on the road and get home. I got myself ready then went outside and loaded up everything I could. I got the trash out and put everything in the car in a way that would make the car ride easier (snacks and water at my feet, diaper bag accessible, not squishing the little girls as much as possible, etc.). I found Wendy's gift that Dad couldn't find the night before. Then I went back to sleep. Wendy went to work and Dad saw her off. We got the girls up at 8 and we left Wendy's house. We stopped off in Tooele so Dad could drive us down memory lane. We fell in love with Stansbury Park and made a plan to move there in the next 10 years. Dad wants to become a patent agent and move us to Utah in 2026 then hopefully start going to law school in the evenings in 2027. Theoretically he would be a full IP lawyer by 2031 and, God willing, he can start his own practice by 2035 and we can live wherever we want. That's what we talked about the whole drive home and over our Taco Time dinner in Elko. It was a relief to be home after a long 12 days away.
Wednesday we went Christmas shopping with the girls in the morning and they picked out their Christmas presents. I gave Dad the side-eye on that one but hopefully it doesn't destroy the magic. Dad was excited to start working on his puzzle and we spent the rest of the day watching Christmas movies.
Thursday was more of the same. Friday I got up early and exercised, showered, wrapped all the Christmas gifts, and cleaned the house. We drove to Reno and the girls played in the play area of Meadowood Mall. Paul got a soft pretzel from Aunty Ann's and I got a yummy cinnabon cinnamon roll. We got Chik-fil-a for lunch then went to Costco.
Saturday I cleaned in the morning, taught violin in the afternoon and grabbed groceries and pizza on the way back. I was super frazzled and angry all day, I don't know what was wrong. Then when I was teaching violin I was tuning my student, Alex's violin and his pegs kept slipping then I was tuning the E string and it snapped. Luckily we don't use the E string for the recital song but I was already having an off day and that rattled me pretty good. I messaged his mom and she was super nice about it. I was supposed to practice Carol of the Bells with the piano and drums teachers for Fernley Performing Arts but of course I grabbed the wrong music book and even if I had grabbed the right one it was in the wrong key. I told them I couldn't practice today but they pushed that they wanted me to participate so we'll try again on Friday. I got it transposed from G minor to E minor. Hopefully it will sound good. I had some cuddle time with Katie while I calmed down. That night we sold some Legos then walked around Lowe's. We drove around looking at Christmas lights. We got home to cookies from the Chapman's, then a secret Santa gift of pears and a note saying it was the first day of the twelve days of Christmas. We'll see if it continues and if we can figure out who our secret Santa is.
Sunday Mary and I went to church together. There was the Christmas relief society program during the second hour. I stayed after with Christa, Penelope, Lindsay, and Sarah Johnson to practice Hark! The Herald Angels sing for next week. I grabbed McDonalds for us on the way home and we watched Christmas movies in the afternoon. We went for a drive and looked at Christmas lights around Fernley then came home and watched Santa Claus is coming to town while drinking hot chocolate. The Gochenour's brought a little treat for Mary and our secret Santa brought the second day of Christmas: two bottles of Dove soap and a bag of turtle chocolates.