hooray! (a dentist report :)

image here

Yesterday we spent the afternoon at the dentist with back-to-back appointments for our whole family, and we had great reasons to celebrate:

1. No new cavities! For any of us! I started to get a little panicked as I laid back having my teeth cleaned, looking up at my x-rays they'd just taken and worrying about every dark spot and imagining the dentist coming back to tell me the bad news... (it's times like these when I use all the calming strategies I learned in giving birth to five children. Seriously though.)

But -- no new cavities for me, or Jordan, or any of the kids -- hip, hip, hooray! (All of those dentist chair prayers answered! A few of us do still have a couple things to take care of from before, but no new surprises :)

2.  I was so scared of the dentist when I was young that even driving by a dentist office would make me kind of sick to my stomach with worry. I remember once watching Full House and an episode came on where Stephanie was going to the dentist and I had to turn it off because it made me too scared and worried!  (And obviously it was traumatic enough to have my favorite show betray me with a dentist visit that I still remember it! :) It has been years since I've felt that bad about dentists, but it has still been a process.  So, sitting in the dentist office for 2 hours as we all had our check ups and cleanings, and feeling fine made me also feel so grateful.

Also, Our friend Kelda works at our dentist's office, and it has made our visits a little brighter to have these little reunions every 6 months or so!

a kind comment

Whenever we have a hotel stay, the kids' favorite part is always the hotel breakfast (or pool :) They're always thrilled with the choose-what-you-want buffet (plus juice! and fruit loops!) and the make-your-own waffles. It's fun for me too,  but also always a little stressful since make-your-own waffles with toppings like raspberry sauce, chocolate chips, and whip cream for 5 young kiddos isn't the best combination for fancy upholstered chairs and carpeted floors!

One morning last month when we were in Provo, the kids and I were almost through breakfast when the hotel breakfast host walked over to our table. (Uh, oh I thought!)
"I just have to tell you..." (oh dear!)
"Your family is just one of the nicest, neatest families I've ever seen here!"

Her sweet comment was just so completely unexpected and kind that it has stuck with me and I just want to remember it. I kind of know it wasn't true (or bless these hotel employees!) but it was so kind and loving! She had a busy morning and plenty of work to be done, but she took a minute to come share that moment of kindness with a bit-overwhelmed mom, and it was such a wonderful way to start that day for me.

more snow!

Showing Isaac the progress of her fort

Ellie came home from school yesterday and raced to get her jobs done as fast as she could so she could play in the snow.  Owen just dropped off his backpack and had his snow pants on before I could suggest after school jobs, and he was so excited that I just let it go. And these kiddos just played and played and played until dinner time! I thought they'd be ready to warm up by then, but instead they begged to eat outside on their snow chairs at their snow table... so they had a two person picnic! They finally made it back inside when the sun went down at the end of their picnic and they realized it was a little cold! :)  Such a happy, snowy afternoon!

And, today it is just as beautiful as can be with bright clear blue skies, sunshine, and all this lovely snow!

snow days!

It has snowed and snowed the last few days and the kids have been loving it. Landon is amazing at bundling up bright and early in the morning and clearing our driveway before school (without being asked even!) and Porter loves to help too (And Jordan works hard on this too!). 

We have snow forts, a snow chair (with footrest), snow caves... and piles and piles of boots and coats everywhere :)

I don't remember ever really playing in the snow when I was a kid, but I so love seeing my own kids play! It is just delightful to see them bursting with energy and fun and creativity all bundled up and playing and just totally loving these snowy days!

2018 Year in Review

I love these New Year days. Over the last few days, I went through our pictures from the last year and tried to remember some of the things we were up to in 2018. Mostly I noticed that the beginning and ending of the year were very much work-focused for our family. And all the middle months were very much enjoying our beautiful Logan-focused (that part is probably just because that's when I took the most pictures!)  

Here are some of our Brough Family happenings of 2018 (according to my photo library :) 

JANUARY

LostMyName/Wonderbly was struggling and let Jordan know they could keep paying him for about three more months (!) so we jumped into some intense job searching. 

Also: 

Jordan and I went to the Silicon Slopes conference in Salt Lake, and Kathie flew up on short notice to play with the kids. Owen and Landon played basketball with the North Logan city teams. Ellie had a Blueberry Birthday Party, and Porter had a month of tumbling classes at the local gym. 

FEBRUARY

Jordan was here, there, and everywhere with a month packed full of phone screens, technical screens, phone interviews, and coast-to-coast (and back again if I remember right!) on-site interviews. 

Also, 

Lots of job search discussions and brainstorming and decision making. More basketball for Owen and Landon (plus cheering for the rest of us). Ellie participated in the science fair with her friend (what happens when you change the amounts of baking soda in her favorite muffin recipe?) We made Valentine's for the kids' class parties. The kids enjoyed our snowy Logan world, and I got to see my favorite Dar Williams in concert here in Logan!

MARCH

Jordan started work for Teachers Pay Teachers, and our family had a really wonderful visit to New York!

Also, 

We had a day in Salt Lake and visited Temple Square before we left for NYC. Jordan stayed in New York and worked his first week at TPT while the kids and I came home. Landon, Ellie, Owen & Porter did swim lessons at the University (Porter's first - and he was an amazing little swimmer! Owen finally felt comfortable and started with real strokes, and Landon started kick turns and some diving!) Landon and Owen finished up basketball. Ellie had her Odyssey of the Mind competition. Jordan hung hammocks in our front yard that were enjoyed all Spring, Summer, and Fall. We had a lego robotics demo day with the team we'd worked with through the school year. We had our first family campfires and campouts of the year, and we enjoyed watching General Conference. 

APRIL

We had two fun trips to Provo - one at the beginning of the month to celebrate my mom's 60th birthday and one at the end to celebrate Nathan's graduation from BYU. (And I realized at his graduation that it was just about the same amount of time from when I graduated (2005) until our kids will start graduating (2030-ish) wow!) 

Also, 

We celebrated Easter at home with our family, played basketball at the church and enjoyed some Springtime bikerides. Owen turned 7. We went ice skating a few times, Owen started Spring Soccer, I was a delegate for the Republican caucus. We had our last 'kid party' play group of the year for our house, and more fun preschool time with Porter and his friends. April came for a visit and we got to celebrate her birthday with a fun Green Canyon campfire . 

MAY

May was busy and full with all the end-of-the-school-year things.

Also,
Jordan had fun helping with a kayaking field trip with Landon's classes. Owen played more soccer and had a late birthday party with friends. Landon worked hard on a research project for band. Owen started Logan city track and the rest of the kids started "Dad track". We had fun at Hillcrest's Portuguese celebration (and I contributed by making hundreds of Pão de Queijo). The boys had a Father/sons campout (I can't actually remember this, but I think that's what the pictures must be!) We finished up with Lego Robotics, and the kids finished school for the year!

JUNE

We started our summer break with a road trip to see April in Montana! We had a fun time staying with her and getting to know Missoula a little better too.

Also,
Porter finished Upstart (his online preschool). We celebrated Jordan's (40th!) birthday with another all day bike adventure with stops for pickleball, playgrounds, and fun food. We went camping and had some other fun hikes, and we celebrated Isaac turning two!

JULY

JULY

Ellie and Landon loved going to Harry Potter camp and were such great buddies coming and going each day. And we all found our groove a little better for our summer school time. 

Also, 

we celebrated Independence day here in Logan and trying something new watching fireworks from the school field. We visited the American West Heritage Center (where Jordan and Landon both tried milking a cow!) Jordan and kids went camping. We had a fun visit to Tony Grove with kayaking and picnic-ing. Ellie was part of a kids arts & crafts fair with her friend Aria. We had some fun kid days with bowling and jump zone. We celebrated Pioneer Day with our ward's annual parade, etc.  We celebrated Landon's 12th birthday kayaking with his friends. Landon spent a week in California with Grammie and Grandpa. We filled a basement wall with fabric squares like I'd seen at a shop in Brazil, and we did some more hiking and walking.

AUGUST

We got a short term membership at the gym and I took the kids swimming as much as we could. 

Also, 

We eased up on our summer school days and enjoyed a more relaxed summertime schedule. Landon went to scout camp for the first time, and Jordan joined him for the last few days. We had an end-of-summer camping trip to Bear Lake and other fun walks/hikes/adventures.  We celebrated Porter's birthday with a super-hero party. We did a fruit-fly catching experiment (after lots and lots of delicious summertime peaches). The kids all went back to school, and I started back in to my favorite morning walks. 

SEPTEMBER

We enjoyed another beautiful Logan Fall with lots of outside time.

Also,
Landon and Jordan prepped for (throughout the summer) and rode in the Bike the Bear challenge (50 miles around Bear Lake). Ellie started playing cello. Jordan and the kids went kayaking. Our little garden had a few good things ;) Owen and Porter started Fall soccer and we had lots of great hikes, walks, and bike ride adventures.

OCTOBER

We had a wonderful Fall Break in Livermore and Jordan and I celebrated our anniversary while we were there with a trip to San Francisco.

Also,
We enjoyed more outside time with walks and bike rides and other adventures. Owen and Porter played more soccer. Jordan went to New York for "Camp TPT" and some work time too.  Isaac fell and hurt his eye - "Mine eye is all better now!" The kids loved raking and playing the leaves. We visited the American West Heritage Center again. We carved pumpkins, I helped with a class party, and we celebrated Halloween with a great Uncle Sam, Pigicorn, Mailman, Bat, and Tiger.

NOVEMBER

Jordan jumped into the big tax project at work, and we felt grateful for the time we still got to spend together!

Also,
We voted. We enjoyed a longer Fall and the beautiful place we live. Porter and the boys discovered shoulder angels and caught Jordan for a minute whenever they could to practice their climbing. We got to watch our nephews when our new baby niece was born. We joined with friends in their Service Scavenger Hunt. We had some sick days (welcome winter!) We celebrated my birthday  (with a pinãta even!) The kids were thrilled with the first snow, and we filled thankful trees for our Art of the Month project.

DECEMBER

We enjoyed a lovely Christmastime!

Also,

Our kitchen became a pizzelle factory for a day or two with everyone working together to make pizzelles for our neighbors and friends. Ellie played in her orchestra concert. We got to go the temple with Landon for the first time. We had a few fun days in Provo and celebrated Nathan and Rachel's wedding with them! The kids made themselves graham cracker houses for after school snacks a few times. Jordan worked hard to get things done in a great way for TPT and ended up getting to take some time off for Christmas Break even - hooray! We celebrated Christmas at home with our kiddos. We had a happy Christmas break with lots of game playing,  race track playing, and snow time, and we had a Happy New Year's Eve celebration playing games and ringing in the New Year with Brazil (at 7:00 :)

And, Saturday is the day! (new carpet continued...)

It turns out the carpet installation was a little trickier than expected (we have a weird layout around our living room loop...) so our obstacle-course day has been extended a bit with a repeat coming on Saturday when they come to finish the job. But -- the great news is - I like the new carpet!  I was only able to finally order something because of the 90-day exchange window, but I think this is going to be just fine - hooray!

Other things this week...

+ Back to school for all the kiddos after Christmas break - it's tough to go back!

+ Back to normal work life for Jordan after a successful New Year's Eve launch of all the new TPT tax efforts he's been working on - yay!

+ A pizza movie party in the basement last night while the carpet installer finished up what he could. (We finished Christopher Robin which was very sweet.)

+ Helping in Porter's class yesterday - I always just love this so much. We read about forces and made a little roller coaster and I'm learning these kiddos names and it's so fun to just see Porter as a little kindergartener.

+ And I love each day when I drop him off, watching him walk into the building, just the way Porter does. 

+ Beautiful wintery days - cold, but blue sky and sunshine. 

+ Crazy van doors that suddenly won't open/close as they should. Owen hopped out the wrong door this morning when I dropped him off at school, and I stood there almost in tears trying to get that door closed again with my morning hands! (Later, Landon made the same mistake but offered to close it and I realized after watching him that it would have been pretty tricky even without the stiff hands!)

+ Everything from our living room and reading room is piled up in the bedrooms right now, and it's so lovely having things so clean and empty (plus lovely clean fresh carpet!) that I almost don't want to bring anything back out! Except, it wouldn't take long before all those neat stacks of books covering the floor became quite a problem, and at some point we may want to have real bedrooms with walkways again... I'll enjoy the neatness out here though while we wait these few days to finish the carpet!

Today's the day! (new carpet!)

We've been waiting for about a year and a half to get started on this new carpet! Our basement flooded in the fall (not last fall, but the fall before!) and we had to do some drywall replacement and while we were at it started a few other projects. We also needed to replace the carpet downstairs, but since we'd long wanted to replace the carpet upstairs we decided we'd do it all together. But then we needed to finish the other projects, and paint before carpet, and whatever else... Last Christmas (starting the day after Christmas a year ago!) we had someone come and paint for us almost everywhere. Then we were ready for carpet but we had all sorts of back and forth issues with ordering it and then I just couldn't get myself to choose something else....

Finally (finally!) this October I decided to start smaller and just get some carpet ordered so we could make some kind of progress. With all the steps along the way, and some scheduling issues... here we finally are in January with new carpet in progress!

It was a pretty fun morning with the boys,  moving books with Isaac "I'm helping with the books!", bookshelves with Porter "Did you see? It was way over there and now it's way over here!" And then watching as the carpet installer cut and ripped out the old carpet and pad. And playing puzzles and playdough at the kitchen table so the boys wouldn't get too close.

Hooray for some progress at last! And hopefully I'll love it so we can keep going and finish this project!