"It's Always Fun When Grandpa Comes"

When Grandpa comes to visit and brings a bunch of hot sauce, it's time for a hot sauce taste test. We cut up some chicken nuggets to dip in the sauces (and had chocolate milk as needed) and we had a great time. Even though Grandpa likes them "watery eyes, burn your taste buds" spicy, none of these had quite that level of heat. We were all able to enjoy the experience with burning tongues that didn't last too long.

 

We gave Jet a container with regular ketchup to dip his chicken nuggets in because he wanted to be involved. A couple of family members decided not to participate and that's just fine.

 

Catching Up January 2025 Part 3

January 19 was Brew a Potion Day and National Popcorn Day and Whisper "I Love You" Day. There were definitely whispers of "I love you" that day. Somebody made popcorn. 

I'm not sure what this is. It definitely looks like some sort of potion. It's possible it is Chicken Tortilla Soup since that was what was on the menu plan for that day. Catching up isn't always easy when I'm making assumptions months later.

 

January 20 was Penguin Awareness Day. We ate fish sticks and started watching some penguin movie.

 

January 21 was National Hug/Hugging Day and Granola Bar Day. Some of us ate granola bars. Some of us also got some good hugging in.

January 22 was Hot Sauce Day. Lucky loves hot sauce and puts it on a lot of things.

Speaking of Lucky and his love of hot sauce, for Christmas he got a bunch of little bottles of hot sauce so one evening, we had a taste test, starting with what was supposed to be the mildest and working our way to the hottest. We dipped chicken nuggets in them to try them out. I'll be honest, that was fun.

January 23 was Pie Day. I made a pudding pie using a homemade graham cracker crust that had been sitting in our freezer for a long time.

I also had a Relief Society activity that night.

 

January 25 was A Room of One's Own Day. 

January 28 was Blueberry Pancake Day. I think we had blueberry pancakes. I think. But I don't see pictures so... who knows?

That day, Lucky went to an event at the Orem Library: Winter in Narnia. He made a shield and a dragon and did other activities. 

While he was at his event, I was left unsupervised. I only had two items on my list to check out but... I ended up with a lot more. After I took this picture, I picked up even more to check out. Tee Hee. I love the library.

 

Other Things That Happened in January

Jeremy, Nichole, and Jr. went on a birding field trip the first day of the year. All three of them are participating in the birding challenge this year so they want to get out there among the birds. It also helps Nichole with a biology assignment.

Yep. Real birders go out in weather like this.

The three of them also went to the annual UCB dinner at the Golden Corral. Since I wasn't able to go, Jeremy made a sign of me holding Jet. It said, "Hi. My name is" then had my name with an arrow pointing to my face and Jet's name with an arrow pointing to his face. The sign was based on my Catch of the Day picture from December 11.
Also at that dinner, Jeremy and I were introduced as new officers in the group's leadership. We get to collect bird of the month articles for the monthly newsletter. It was so nice of them to think of us and ask us to help out in that way.

There's actually been quite a bit of birding already this month for these three.

In 2019 we studied the New Testament for our scripture study. In 2020 we are studying The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.
We've challenged everyone to read and finish the Book of Mormon by the end of the year for their personal scripture study, besides us studying it together as a family. Lucky is using a chart from The Friend Magazine for January 2020. He is excited to be reading so many verses (not every single verse of every single chapter for a 6 year old, there's a list). I am amazed at his reading. He was not reading much when he started kindergarten. Now he's reading words like "commandments" and "accomplish." Those are not kindergarten words.

The Friend Magazine has lots of great ideas for studying the Book of Mormon. It also has other fun things. For Family Home Evening treat one night we had cookie dough dip which we dipped graham crackers in. That came from the January 2020 Friend.

A friend gave us a cheese, sausage, crackers set. Jeremy found several kinds of cheese on sale at the store and we had some crackers in the pantry and ham and pepperoni in the freezer. So we had a cheese, meat, and crackers night. The kids had fun trying out the different kinds. The hit of the show, though- the sweet hot mustard that came with the set. Lucky especially loved spreading it on his crackers. It's fun to try something new when the kids are up for it.

Juggling BBQ

It's that time of year again.  We were able to go to a friend's juggler's BBQ again this year.

Nichole was very interested in joining in the juggling this time since she's had quite a bit of experience now.  She was able to learn some new tricks while we were there. 
On the way to the BBQ, we had scripture study in the van.  We discussed the 10 Commandments in Exodus, including the commandment, "Thou shalt not steal."  We let the kids know that you shouldn't take other people's things without permission and definitely not with the intent to keep them.  Then we explained since we were going to a BBQ, "Thou shalt not steal... except while juggling."  That was one of the tricks Nichole learned this evening- stealing- taking the juggling balls from someone else while they're juggling and keep juggling them yourself.

She also learned to pass six juggling balls between two people.

All that juggling was good exercise and good fun.  The boys kept themselves content with the bounce house again.

And with food.

This year we contributed some interestingly flavored chips and something that's new.  Limited Edition Swedish fish Oreos.  Yep.  Now those are interesting.  They are not the best tasting.  Our kids liked them, though. Interesting kids.

In general the chips were better.  The Greek Tzatziki and dill pickle flavors were my favorite.  I didn't care much for the Brazilian ones or the biscuits and gravy.  The cheddar bacon mac and cheese I could take it or leave it.
Great time this evening.