Super Bowl Food

As much as I like college football, I don't really like the NFL.  I haven't seen a game all year and couldn't tell you who was even IN the Superbowl.  Still, as Superbowl Sunday rolled around, I was feeling kind of jealous of all the Superbowl parties (and food) I was missing.  So, I decided to host my own little party in solidarity with all my NFL-lovin' friends!

I made every chip, dip, pizza, and treat like thing I could think of out of the foods in our house.  We just had a smorgasbord of unhealthy options (and a bowl of carrots for good measure).  The kids were amazed that I did it!  It was pretty strange and exciting to them!  

Then, we hooked up our camera to the television and watched a slideshow of pictures from days gone by.  It was so fun!  We literally spent close to two hours "Ooh!"ing and "Ha ha ha!"ing at pictures of ourselves and the fun times we've had over the years.  What a great family night and super party it turned out to be!

!! Winco !!

Well, they've done it!  They've built a Winco less than two miles from my front door.

Do you understand what this means?!?!?  It means that I am less than two miles from the home of $4.00/dozen bagels, a fancy $.35 pop machine for kids that are good helpers, and the world's best bulk food section.  It means that my produce will cost a fraction of what I've been paying.  It means that their grand opening deals were so good that I found myself going back nearly every day for a week!  It means that the Smith's grocery store, located less than a mile from my front door, is trying to compete by slashing prices as well.  In short, it means that another flaxen chord had been added to the ties that are keeping us in Utah.

Random January Shenanigans.

Here are a few of the things that happened to our family in January:

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Alison's school choir performed the National Anthem at a Utah Grizzlies hockey game.  She had a blast riding the bus to Salt Lake City, running through a sound check, then going to a nearby Cafe Rio for dinner.  After the performance, they were able to stay and watch the game.

Of course, out of all the thousands of people attending the game, somehow the puck found my daughter's head!  Yep, she actually got hit in the head with a puck.  Luckily, it just kind of skimmed her - those things could literally kill you if they hit you just right!  

The puck bounced off and landed several rows away, but her friends went into action and retrieved it for her so that she could have a souvenir that would last longer than the bump on her head.

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Joshua began attending senior primary this year.  What a big kid he's turning into!  I had to laugh one Sunday when he asked me, "Mom, what primary class do I go to again?  Is it the Violent 9s?"  I had to refrain from saying, "Yes, son," (if you knew his class, you'd understand - four or five of the rowdiest boys on the planet and two semi-rowdy girls) and instead said, "Close.  It's Valiant 9s, not Violent."

Joshua says he looks like Princess Leia in this picture. 

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Speaking of funny things the kids say, one morning Quinton lost a toy.  He said, "Will you help me find it, mom?"  I said, "Sure."  Then the Little Dictator took a very serious tone and said, "Okay.  Listen up, Mom.  You look in my room and I'll look by the TV."   Yikes!  Aye aye, Captain!

This picture makes me chuckle.  He's at his friend, Easton's house.  They were scared of the popping part so they'd hold each other while the time ticked down.  

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One evening in January, I had Krissy and her kids over for dinner.  After dinner, Payton entertained our boys while Kristin played some new sheet music we got for Christmas.  We stood around and sang.  It was super fun!  Seems like we haven't been able to do that for years! Now that our girls are getting older, maybe we'll do it more often again.

Kristin playing, Nicole, Ali, and McKenna singing. Not pictured, David and I.

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One day, Bronson asked me what "passionate" means.  I tried to explain it in kid-friendly terms.  I said something about how it means that you really like something or someone a ton!  You really have strong feelings about them and you want to be with it all the time.  He sat there for a minute, processing this information.  Then in all seriousness, he said, "Hm.  Okay.   I'm really passionate about you.  And candy."  Ha ha!  That about sums it up for me too!  I'm passionate about Dave, my kids, and candy.

This is the view I get of Bronson most of the time.  He is always clinging to me, trying to touch my hair and sit on my lap, and generally just suffocating me.  He's not joking when he says he's passionate about me!

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David wanted to record Alison's favorite spot for family scripture study for future generations.  She always tucks herself into a teeny space between the bookshelf and the piano.

 She was super excited about her dad taking her picture early in the morning!

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Last December, I once again decided that it would be a brilliant idea for me to dye my own hair blonde.  And once again, it turned out horrifically!  So much so, in fact, that I followed up the home-dye job with a home-scissor job and lopped off about five inches.  It was not pretty, as you can see..

 This picture does not do justice to the orange tint. David was very much like, "Just go somewhere and get it fixed, Kell. Money isn't an issue - just go in and fix it."  You know your hair's pretty bad when David Gee notices it!  He usually doesn't care what I do with my hair!  :)

So when my sister, Kristin called in January and said that she had an appointment for the following day at my family's favorite salon but she wasn't going to be able to make it so she wanted me to go in her place, David acted like it was divine intervention! (Just kidding, but her did encourage me to go). So I went.  And I loved it!  I don't do stuff like that very often.  When I was a single career woman, I went to the salon every couple of months (and bought myself nice clothes and ate at fancy restaurants, etc.) but those days are behind me now.  Perhaps they're ahead of me too, but they are definitely not on my priority list for this phase of my life.  I really just soaked up the peace and quiet, the chemical-ly smells, the pretty surroundings, and the girly conversations.  The hair stylist, Janet (who does my mom, my sister, my aunt, and I think my grandma) did a beautiful job fixing my mistakes, and giving me a much better haircut.  I felt so pretty!

Here's hoping I don't forget how much better this looks and try to do it at home again any time soon!

Now I knew it was going to be expensive - remember, I used to go to a salon every couple of months, but as I floated up to the counter in all my radiant glory I wasn't prepared for the number I was told.  It was under $200, but not by much.  I literally felt sick inside as I paid.  I kept a fake smile on my face until I got to the car, then I cried the whole way home!  I just didn't know how I was going to face David and tell him that I just spent so much money on myself.  I didn't know where the money would come from.  I was devastated.  Of course, as usual in a situation like this, David was very supportive and complimentary and happy to pay - even if he was a bit shocked and also wasn't sure exactly where to get the money.  And of course, as usual, God's tender mercies were again manifested in our lives as David received a bonus that week which covered my haircut with a few extra dollars to spare.  Little miracles surround us every day!  But please make sure to tell me the next time you see me that my hair is the most beautiful thing you've ever seen, because it may be a while before I can afford to do it again.  :)

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Nicki started her basketball competition league in January.  It takes up a lot of time, but that's okay because it's a good, healthy activity and I love watching her.  The other day, she was telling me how she plans to be super healthy and athletic when she grows up.  She said, "I want to have a six pack.  No, wait - no I don't.  To get a six pack, you have to diet.  But I want strong abs under my stomach!"

When I dropped Nicki off at the school the other day, I was taken back by how old she looks!  As I watched her walk in with a bunch of little first and second graders, it seemed like I'd taken her to the wrong school!  She's in that long stretch of time at church known as the last few months of Primary.  She seems so mature and ready for Young Women's'.  I can't wait for her to join Alison and me there!

For that matter, ALL of my kids seem to be growing up faster than I'm ready for!  Where have all my babies gone?!?!?

Welcome to 2017!

Here we go!  2017 is going to be a great year!!!! (I hope).

We started the year off with 9:00 am church.  Personally, I prefer it.  As long as I am prepared the night before, it's not too hard to get everyone ready.  And it's much better for Quinton's nap schedule.

We had the most fabulous and attractive speaker at our sacrament meeting.  I'm trying to remember his name...something like David Guy or David Gee or something...  He was great!

We celebrated with the traditional Christmas dinner of ham and cheesy potatoes.  Since we've created a lasagna tradition on Christmas, I have to move the ham dinner to another time.  It was fantastic and we all ate like little piggies.

  In all seriousness, 2017 is going to be a year of active hope for me!  Each year I try to come up with a word that will guide my actions for the year - it's my version of making New Year's Resolutions.  2016's word was "lead." I wanted to be a good leader to my kids, my young women, my neighbors and friends, and even to strangers.  I ended up having some medical issues that left me lethargic, depressed, and not-so-leader-y.  This year, I was leaning towards the word "hope." I wanted to find a word that expressed my desire for 2017 to be better for me and my loved ones.  But then I decided that "hope" sounded too passive - like, "I hope we make it..." - and I changed the word to "faith."  I am going to try to make things better for myself and my loved ones, relying heavily on faith in the Lord.  That's my plan for 2017.

New Year's Eve

We celebrated New Year's Eve in typical Gee family fashion.  We ate Chinese food!  I'm not sure when it became a tradition for us, but I'm not complaining!  It's the BEST!!!  We bought a ton of food and brought it home this year instead of tackling a restaurant with five crazy kiddos.

Then we turned on a New Year's Countdown Video on Netflix (at about 8:00 pm) and rang in the new year as a family!

Happy (almost) New Year!

Thank heaven Dad got a selfie stick for Christmas!  

Party Animal David!  

Watching the countdown and getting ready to pop the confetti poppers.

Confetti, horns, and hats!  It doesn't get any rowdier that this!

Toasting the new year with fancy goblets and sparkling apple juice.  Once the boys were in bed, the rest of us watched a movie together. We paused it at midnight to cheer on the New Year, then finished it up and went to bed.  We had 9:00 am church the next morning.

2016 was a rough year for our family.  It started with Scott's divorce in January, ended with my dad's shoulder surgery in the last days of December, and filled up with bad news in every month in between.  Hardly a single person in my extended family was spared as we all struggled with medical and mental health, financial burdens, death of loved ones, stress, disappointments, and other trials of our faith. Yet through it all, I was impressed with a stronger conviction of the importance of love and service in our lives and in our families and neighborhoods.   I was blessed to be carried through some dark times by people who love me and I felt honored to do the same for them when they needed it later on.  I hope 2017 proves to be a bit less painful than 2016, but if not...at least I get to experience it with some of the best people in the world and at least I know in Whom I have trusted.

Our Holiday Trip

A couple days after Christmas, we drove to Idaho to spend a few days with our family.  We left in the afternoon and arrived in the evening.  Other than trip to the movie theater to see "Moana" (which was a Christmas present to our family from Grandma and Grandpa Gee), we spent as much time as possible with our family.  The movie was super fun, by the way.  Grandma and Grandpa came with us.  

My heart melted a little bit when I found Grandma Gee playing "Go Fish" with Bronson.  He got the game for Christmas and had pretty much exhausted all his playing partner options in our family in the two or three days since...

We had fun visiting with everyone.  The little kids ran around in the basement and watched movies while we chatted and ate left over Christmas goodies and other delicious treats!  L to R: Kami's head (she was visiting from BYU), Amy, Terry, Kristi.

Amy wanted me to get an instagram account so that we could keep better tabs on each other and our families.  I said, "Yeah, you're right.  I should do that."  So she said, "Do it right now!" and she walked me through setting up my account right then and there!  I am glad she did because I truly do get to see more of our extended family that way. This is the first picture I posted on my account.  It's of Ellie, me, and Amy. 

As you can see, Nicki had a blast!

Just kidding!  She fell asleep on the couch one night, and we had to snap a few photos.

On our last day there, Grandma Gee reserved the church.  It was a brilliant idea!  The whole gang played some rousing tag-type games, someone brought pictures to color, Grandpa brought in pizza, Ellie practiced her violin piece for the Distinguished Young Women competition for us, and David and Nicki played one-on-one basketball.  People could run around and do whatever they wanted!  

We had so much fun, it was hard to leave, but Nicki had a babysitting job to get back for.  So we headed back after another too-short visit to Idaho.  We really appreciated all the effort and energy everyone put into clearing out their schedules so we could spend time with them!  We had a ball!

Christmas 2016

Our Christmas this year was very nice, filled with tradition and peace. We had originally planned on driving to Idaho for the holiday, but the closer we got to the date, the more daunting the task seemed.  When we discovered that my brother David and his family from Chicago were visiting for only a few days, we decided to postpone our Idaho trip for a week.  I felt bad about missing out on all the fun Idaho traditions, but also relieved to not have to transport Christmas for seven people across state lines.

 The Christmas festivities started on Saturday night, when we sang Christmas carols with our neighbors around a bonfire in our cul-de-sac.  We love this longstanding tradition.  As we began singing, the light rain we'd been experiencing all day turned into snow.  Then it turned into SNOW!!! We ended up cutting the activity short so we could get out of the snow.

We drove over to Grandma Church's house (which was a little treacherous with all the snow).  My extended family was there.  We ate a TON of food, listened to my Uncle Mike read the nativity story from Luke 2, sang Christmas carols, and visited for a while.

We came home in plenty of time to open Grandma and Grandpa Gee's presents (pajamas and a book for each of us!), watch the Church's video depiction of the Nativity, and scoot everyone off to bed for a little sugar-plum-vision-time.  

Years ago, we set a hard rule that no one can get up before 6:00 am on Christmas.  The kids are always very good about following it.  However, on this particular Christmas by 6:01 am, they were all up, their beds were made, teeth brushed, prayers said, and they were ready to see what Santa had brought!  

Here's what they saw when they came into the front room.

And here are some pictures of their reactions.

I'd say that by about 8:00 am, we had opened all the presents under the tree.  Boy!  There sure were a lot of them!  Once again, we all got totally spoiled!  

After we opened the presents, David and I went over to the church to shovel the sidewalks.  It was our ward's turn to take care of snow removal and there was a lot of snow to remove!  It took us about an hour (the High Priest Group Leader was there as well) and it was still coming down as we went so it felt like we could have just stayed there! But I really enjoyed spending my Christmas morning serving the Lord in a small way.

Meanwhile, the kids played with their new toys.  They barely even noticed we were gone!  That's Bronson singing into Quinton's new microphone.  Alison is playing with her new laptop (She saved most of the money for this present by herself - we just payed the last few $ to give it to her.  She wanted it because she writes stories all the time.  She wants to become an author). 

Josh got right to work on his Legos.

So did Bronson.

When we returned, I was shocked at the amount of candy that had been consumed in our absence.  Seriously!  I should have set some guidelines or something!

Our two big boys in their new T-shirts playing with their new Switch-N-Go Dinos.

One of our kids bought Dad a selfie stick from the dollar store.

It was a hit.

Our church wasn't until 1:00 in the afternoon.  It was so nice to spend the morning playing, lounging, eating cheese-on-bread, etc.  Then, we all got dressed and went to Sacrament meeting.  The girls and I were in the choir and I got to read a few scriptures as part of the program.  It was very nice (for me, anyway.  I can't speak for David, who was stuck in the audience with all three boys).  

New church clothes all around!  Gotta love matching outfits!

We were home shortly after 2:00 pm.  We just spent a pleasant afternoon together, ate our traditional Lasagna dinner, and had visits from Grandma and Grandpa Smith in the evening.  It was so great!  PLUS, the REALLY great part was knowing that David didn't have to go back to work for a whole WEEK!!!  It was amazing!