A View of the Hills: January 2021: Lincoln's Close Call, Gwen's Birthday, Casey's Endowment and Nyle's Birthday and Baptism

It's a New Year! So many we know were anxious to leave 2020 behind. But honestly, 2020 was an amazing year for us! We had the chance to spend so much more time together as a family than we ever had before and we all learned how much we really like each other. I'm mostly speaking for myself, but I do think my family would agree with me on some scale.

One day after being out selling golf balls, Lincoln comes home with this! I gasped and asked what happened, thinking someone had punched him. He told me he got hit with a golf ball, which has always been a fear of mine, since we live on a golf course! He had been riding his bike around the area where he likes to sell golf balls and was struck by an errant ball, even before it hit the ground so it was with a lot of force. I was so worried that he had cracked his eye socket. I called my brother, the face surgeon, to ask his opinion. He recommended we get it checked out as it could have damaged the socket which could cause his eye ball to sink into his socket. I took him and for a CT scan and fortunately, all was well. The damage was only to the tissue, not to the bone or nerve. What a blessing! It was a bit of bummer for Lincoln because not only did it really hurt and look bad, but he had had plans to go hang out with his friends at a trampoline place since it was a day off from school and there was no way he would be jumping around with this injury. After we made sure everything was ok, it didn't take him too long to heal up. What a blessing!

End of the Semester and Report Cards come in: Straight A's for all of my hardworking kids!

January began as it always does with a bunch of birthdays. It was a big year for both Gwen and Nyle. Gwen turned 12 and is now a Young Woman! And Nyle turned 8 and made the decision to be baptized!

Gwen's Birthday Comes First. She enjoyed her customary crepe birthday breakfast with whipped cream in the mouth.

Gwen's brothers don't forget her. They made her some wonderful homemade gifts. I love that my kids do this for each other--I've never once asked them to make a gift for each other, but they always want to.

Since Gwen practically lives in the 3rd floor, where her Barbie house is, we decided to get her an Echo so we can drop in and talk with her from time to time while she's up there and we're downstairs. It's been enormously helpful!

Some things that are great about 12 year old Gwen:

She continues to be super creative. These days her creativity is employed in making furniture and accessories for her Barbies and their home. She also enjoys creating worlds centered around her stuffed animals and telling her brothers all about them. I often joke that she's going to be the next C.S. Lewis and create her own Narnia. The worlds she has created are called Jerpan and Gerpan for her animals Snowflake (the Queen), Bamboo, Tom, and countless others. She mostly creates the stories off the cuff. Maybe someday she'll write them down.
She has been continuing in her piano study. We discovered Simply Piano last year and since she has a bit of a stubborn streak and doesn't really enjoy lessons we decided to let her continue learning with the app. It has really helped her learn to read notes. This year she entered Junior Festival and is playing a beautiful song. She has such a soft touch and can catch on so quickly. She's a natural!
She has been doing very well with virtual learning. She continues to receive good grades and always amazes me with how quickly she can grasp a new concept or fact.
She continues to be very diligent with her chores and piano and has settled into a good routine every day that helps her complete her chores and school work.

Nyle's turn with the whipped cream

On Nyle's actual birthday, we were up in Richfield, Utah so we could join Casey as she received her endowments--a particular treat since most temples are closed for proxy work. Since we weren't at home, we bought donuts to share with everyone on his birthday.

Snow! We were so lucky to be able to enjoy some snow--not too much, but just enough. Zach had fun being the fun-uncle. He spent much of the morning pulling kids around on sleds with the 4-wheeler. He did so much pulling that he completely shredded our sled and we ended up throwing it away up there.

Sara, West, Zach and Nyle

While at Jodi and Chris' for Casey's endowment, the men had to test their physical limits: Tim arm wrestles one of Heston's buddies

Zach, Ned and Tim had a push-up contest. Ned won.

Nyle's Baptism

Nyle's Baptism

Even with the world in Covid, we were able to enjoy having a lot of family come support Nyle in his decision to be baptized.

Some things we love about 8 year old Nyle:

Nyle is strong! He is so fast on his bike and loves to race anytime he gets on it. We often ride up to play with friends in the neighborhood. Nyle likes to ride ahead and then stop and get off his bike to wait for West and I to catch up.
Nyle is smart! I love watching how his brain works. It works different than mine. He'll catch on to things so fast and I often am amazed how he sees things at a different angle than I do. He has been working hard on his writing this year, something he doesn't necessarily love, but has nevertheless become so much better at! He also has discovered that he enjoys reading "I Survived" books which are about people surviving various natural disasters and experiences.
He is becoming quite the musician. This year he has been registered to participate in Junior Festival for piano. He started lessons about a year ago and has an amazing ear. He also can pick the music up pretty quickly. He quickly memorized his two pieces and even played one of them for his class virtually when they had a talent show.
Nyle is disciplined. It's something he truly works on. He knows that he can be a bit impulsive and he has been working on managing himself. One way he exhibits that is that in the past, whenever he would receive candy or treats for any reason (Halloween, holidays, birthdays, etc), he would eat it all in a hurry. This year after Halloween, he asked me to hide all but a small portion of his candy for him. Then every week or so, he would ask if I could pull it out so he could get more candy. He still has quite a bit of candy to this day and now knows where his candy is, but still has the discipline to not eat it all. I'm really impressed with him on this because it's something that was a weakness for him and at his tender age he has determined to turn it into a strength.