Christmas Parties🎄🎉and the Mattress Mixup!🛏
December 2021
Feliz Navidad!! Wow, I can’t believe that it is Christmas again. It feels just like yesterday that I celebrated it, but back in training.
Last Wednesday was pretty crazy. David took us out to WaffleHouse for breakfast. He gave us handmade Christmas cards. He showed us a picture of how he hung up our peppermint hot chocolate thing for a decoration in his studio. Later, we went and said goodbye to the missionaries that were leaving to a different area or to go home. Then we went to the doctors for Hna. Marvin. She wasn’t doing great. She got an ear infection! The pharmacy took forever to get her antibiotic. To end the night we did a video call with Jose Luis and met two of his friends. One of them sat in on the call named Sergio. They both want to come to church!!
It was nice Thursday morning to not have to drive to transfers. Packing would’ve taken forever, I have made this apartment my home. Hna. Maxfield told us that she needed another mattress because she just got in a trio. So we spent about an hour switching Hna. Marvin’s bed frame, taking down the other bed frame, and shoving it, a table, and a mattress into our car. We were exhausted by the end of that. Two sickies trying to move things. We stopped by and said hi to Milvian on the way to english class. Ana, Debra, and Leo finally came again! We were able to tell them about the ward Christmas party. Debra is 11 and was fascinated by me playing the piano. So I taught her how to play a couple of things. It was really fun.
On Friday, we went and had a lesson with Angel and Caren. It went really well. They still want to get baptized but they aren’t coming to church. Afterwards, we went and worked more on our spreadsheet for people born out of the United States. We are super excited to go and visit these people. Then we went to visit the Sanchez fam. Mariola really wants to come to church. We told her we would help her out with that. We are going to try and have her follow us to church next week. After that, we raced to the Ward Christmas Party 45 minutes away. There were a lot of people there. David brought Jose Luis, Sergio, and two of their friends. Daniel, Ana, Debra, and Johany and her family were there. It was awesome! The food was delicious. I sat at the table with the four guys and tried to spark a conversation. They were very quiet. The only one that would really respond was Sergio in Spanglish. Here is a funny story: I was sleeping when I woke up to this awful smell. I fell asleep and thought nothing of it until it woke me up again. I found our febreeze and sprayed down the room. I thought geeze what is that smell?, it's not me so there is only one other option... Hna. Marvin. She actually woke up while I was spraying it. Then we both went back to bed. It happened again and woke me up! It was terrible and I couldn’t freaking breathe and I could taste it!! I did not enjoy this experience. We gotta watch what she is eating because it will kill me one day. (She gave me permission to share this. She cracks up so hard and can’t breathe when I bring it up.)
We did a lot of contacting on Saturday and then we went to Inman Ward’s Christmas party. We legit got invited by Santa the day before. He told us that he had invited some Spanish people to this one. We got there and kind of “crashed” the party. The Spanish people never showed up, which was sad, but we got dinner and a show. It was a great way to spend our dinner hour. They had a band that played Christmas music and it was awesome. It was my first concert. After that, we went and visited Ana and Leo. Ana was really sick, so we said a prayer for her and said we would be in touch. Then we went and visited Elida and her family. They were about to leave, so we rescheduled for Sunday. On the way home we got Krispy Kremes. It has become our place to go when they cancel. We have been quite a few times. While we were driving home Hna. Marvin saw some homeless people, so we flipped around to give them our doughnuts. I had already bit mine, so we ripped that part off. We gave them the doughnuts and left because it was pretty sketchy.
Yesterday was a really great day. I translated sacrament meeting and it wasn’t too bad. Hna. Marvin got asked 30 minutes before church to give a talk. She was not expecting that, but she did great. There were 5 speakers that spoke for 5-7 minutes each. Daniel, Martin, the Huipe fam., and Yadira and her kids came. It was a little miracle. During Sunday school we talked about The Family: A Proclamation to the World. Families are a really important part of our Heavenly Father’s plan for us. I am grateful that I have my family and the knowledge of eternal families. I am so grateful that I have been blessed with the opportunity to share my knowledge of that with others. We got some snacks after church. It was bribery to sing in the choir, but we had a lesson. Salvador wasn’t there, but his mom was. We were able to teach her on the porch and we are going back next week. After that, we went to go find this guy Mauricio. We had the address and when we pulled up, we realized we didn’t have the apartment number. We prayed and then proceeded to knock the whole building. We felt like knocking the 3rd floor. On the 7th door we met a guy named Nyckole. He is from Puerto Rico. He said he had heard of our English Classes before. He wants to come! We got his number and we gave him a pamphlet. He told us he would like to learn more about the gospel. We knocked the 2nd floor and nothing. Doors opened but they weren’t a Spanish guy. On the 1st floor we met this guy named Bobby. He was super nice and we are going to call him and do a study. After we finished we drove to this other address. It was a Maria I had visited before. She is a member, but is going back to her old church. She is super nice and we are going back later this week. Her cat Paco is hilarious and fat (pic down below). Then we raced home for a little snack and then to our lesson with Daniel. He is doing so great and has such a desire to learn. Millie has such a strong testimony and it is helping him. He is understanding the gospel more and it is cool watching the change happen in him! He has lots of questions. To end the night, we went and taught Elida and her family. We gave her son Daniel and Amanda their own Bibles. They are excited to dive straight in.
We watched The Christ Child tonight. It is a really neat video. As I was watching it, I thought of how much faith the shepards and the wisemen must of had. The shepards listened to the things that the angel told them. Instead of disregarding it, they left the sheep and the lambs to look for the babe lying in a manger. Al Caroway said that they left their lambs unprotected to find the Lamb that was more important. The wisemen must have studied the scriptures and were well versed on the sign’s of the Savior’s birth. In Matthew 2:11 it says, “And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.” These three gifts are very valuable, but the gift of Christ is of an infinite value. I am so grateful that we have the opportunity to celebrate his birth, but even more to celebrate his life.
Hna. Marvin said this the other day and I lost it. I couldn’t breathe because I was laughing so hard.
“Aw man, I got a paper cut underneath my fingernail. Why am I so afflicted?”
Here are some pictures!!:
Sorry pictures are out of order
Merry Christmas 2021
Once again,
another year has come and gone. We have
so many new memories and blessings to be thankful for.
Ethan still has
only two volumes- loud and louder. We
still have to remind him that we can hear him from a mile away and to use his
inside voice. You would think we would
have figured out by now that his inside voice is still extremely loud. Maybe we need to tell him to just think about
what he wants to say and I am sure we would still be able to hear him- ha
ha. Ethan was excited to turn 13 this
year. He has been counting the days to
be able to finally get to watch PG-13 movies.
Now all he wants to do is watch Avenger movies. Needless to say, I am sick of super heroes
and infinity stones, because his list of Avenger movies is infinite!! Ethan continues to grow, and grow. Almost daily he walks past me, pats me on the
head, and reminds me of how tiny I am. The
funny part is that he is only like an inch taller than me!!! What’s crazier is the fact that Ryan did this
to me when he was this age as well.
Another similarity of Ryan and Ethan is their fascination with arm pit
hair. Ryan was so excited for the “hope”
of arm pit hair and now I am reliving this again as Ethan weekly tries to show
me he has some. Sorry bud, not yet. I don’t think a magnifying glass would find
any either- ha ha. Ethan loves being in
the 7th grade. He reminds me every
time we pass his old elementary school how stupid it was and how cool it is to
be in Jr. High. (Adam then reminds him
about how stupid Jr. High is and that high school is better and the fight is on!!!) Ethan was so proud to get a 4.0. and annoys
me by checking his grades daily (and sometimes even more) on his Chromebook. A few weeks ago, Ethan and a friend were
wrestling and he told me that his friend jumped on his face and his jaw
popped. I brushed this aside, as we all know
kids whine and complain when it is convenient.
It wasn’t until about an hour later he looked at me and sure enough his
entire jaw was swollen and he looked like he had been stung by a bee. Woops, I guess he was right this time!! Ethan was also so excited to get braces this
year. We warned him they weren’t
fun. The next day he decided we were
right and now the count down for them to come off has begun!!! Sadly, or should I say, most annoyedly, his brackets
keep popping off and we have to go to the orthodontist way too often to fix
them. Here is a helpful fact to note-
when your brother pushes your face into the net on the trampoline, it will get
stuck on your braces and cause your brackets to get pulled off.
Adam is in the 10th
grade and was not as excited as Ethan to start school this fall. He too continues to grow, however, he doesn’t
pat me on the head when he walks past me.
He is at the age where he won’t come anywhere near me. I have to actually had to bribe him to give
me a hug. He started driving and hopes
to get his license next spring. I am
still hoping we survive his driving and make it to the spring. Just kidding.
He is actually a pretty good driver.
I think this is due to the fact that he was with us while driving with
Jaime and remembers all those near-death experiences. Adam can easily consume 5,000 calories a day
and still lose weight. He eats before
each meal, consumes the meal and then heads to the cupboard for more food right
after he eats. We have actually started
hiding treats from him so he won’t eat everything in sight. The winner of the stinkiest feet in the world
is now not a title that Adam holds.
Ethan has now been passed this torch, not that this is necessarily a
good thing for us. Not only do Ethan’s
feet stink, his friend’s feet stink when they come over. I can be known to get out a can of Lysol and
spray down both Ethan and his friend’s feet.
Back to Adam, he enjoyed being on the track team in the spring. It was fun to go to the meets and watch him
participate in the long jump, high jump, and hurdles. He did very well and even placed in
Regions. Adam can jump 5’6”. That’s like him running and jumping over my
head. Needless to say, I never let him
practice on me, as I am sure he would have fun missing on purpose. But we do watch him jump over our fences in
the backyard. He’s crazy. I have mentioned that it will hurt when he
doesn’t clear them. He apparently has
found that out a few times on his own.
We refer to his as a gazelle (not always a graceful one). Adam comes in handy when I need to him to jump
up into the loft in the garage and get something. He doesn’t even need to use the ladder. Even though his is really skinny, he is
pretty strong. It’s nice to have some
free labor to carry heavy things- this helps make up for all food he eats. It’s so nice to still have a few kids around
so I can make them do the things around the house that I do not want to do- ha
ha.
Jaime turned 20
this year. In February she was injured
on her mission and had to come home for a few months to heal. She had a collision with an Elder while playing
basketball and broke her collar bone.
Poor girl. The Elder lives in Ogden-
only 20 minutes from our house. I joked
that he owes us some yard work when he gets home- JK. Sadly, this is the third time she has had a
broken collar bone in her life- the 5th for our family. (Apparently, Mike’s family genes produced faulty
collarbones, because it definitely didn’t come from my side- ha ha.) Jaime returned to her mission in July and should
be home this June. She loves serving the
people in South Carolina. She not only
loves the people, but also the food. At
times it’s hard to believe she is in the United States, and not in South America,
with all the unusual things she tries.
She would deny it, but she is doing very well at speaking Spanish. Adam
is also taking Spanish in high school; they look forward to talking about their
parents in Spanish when she gets home. We are very proud of Jaime and the influence
she is having on other’s lives. I miss
her a lot, but do not miss her messy room. I go into her room often and bask in
the fact that her room is still clean.
Ryan would be
23. It’s hard to believe that next May
will mark ten years since he left us. We
love him so much and think of him often.
We still go to the cemetery to let off balloons and wear orange to honor
him. We know we will be with him again
someday, and can’t wait to find out what he has been up to all this time.
Alex and Kelsie
moved to North Ogden this past spring.
It is nice to have them closer. I
am especially thankful Kelsie is around so I am not alone with all these darn
boys- JK. Alex has decided to become a
plumber and is going to night school for it.
We are very proud of him and the fact that he is getting good
grades. We are so excited he is now
Kelsie’s problem and that we do not have to ground him and make him do his
homework- Ha ha!! Alex has two horses
and loves to hunt. This fall he was able
to kill his first deer (poor Bambi). He
had some exciting times while hunting and had a mountain lion in his camp one
evening. Yikes. I was reading an article about the deadliest
animals in Utah and a mountain lion was at the top. It also said that encounters were very rare
and not to worry. This goes to show that
Alex has bad luck and solidifies the fact that I will never go in the ocean
with him because with my luck a shark would get us. Kelsie is a CNA and works
at McKay Dee hospital, as well as goes to school. They both definitely stay busy.
One of the
happiest days of my life occurred this spring as I finally graduated from
college. I earned, with sweat and lots and
lots of tears, my degree from BYU-Idaho online in Marriage and Family
Studies. It feels great to be done. Now, I have so much more time to watch tv and
have naps. I only wish Mike traveled
more so he wouldn’t see me taking these naps so often- thus making me feel
guilty and needing to practice some of the things I have learned in my marriage
classes. Presently, I have decided not
to pursue a career because at the moment I am raking in the dough with a new financial
venture of mine. I have started charging
the boys money when they forget to clean their rooms, do their chores, and when
they leave things lying around the house.
Needless to say, I have already made enough to go on a really nice trip-
JK. And speaking of trips, Mike and I
have finally made it to all 50 states.
In November, we marked the last two off our list. The last state was Alabama. I thought it would be nice to walk hand in
hand across the state line together.
Mike thought he should get to cross it first because he has gone on all
of these crazy trips to random states with me all these years. So, we both started walking (not hand in
hand) towards the state line and then we both sped up and made a run for
it. So much for being romantic. I am not sure who crossed it first. I say it was a tie; Mike says he won. I should have tripped him when I had the
chance!! JK.
Mike has still
been working from home. He can not wait
to start traveling again because he is sick of having to wake me up from my
many naps. He looks forward to now going
on trips to places we actually want to go.
He is also glad I am done with school so I am not so stressed out, do
not cry as much, and do not practice all the things I am learning in my
marriage classes on him because I have to write a paper about it.
We love you all and
hope you found joy in your lives as 2021 comes to an end. May you find ways to “dance” though the
storms that come your way in 2022. I
hope we can all be a little kinder, a little more grateful, a little less busy
this coming year, and spend our time in ways that really matter. I am so thankful for this time of year and
all the “Joys” of the season. I am so
thankful for a sweet, tiny babe born in a manger. This tiny babe gives meaning and joy to
life. This tiny babe loves us all
unconditionally. This tiny babe is the
Reason for the Season.
Lotts of joy to you and your family- now and forever
The Lott family
