Wednesday, January 3, 2018

Merry Christmas 2017

Merry Christmas 2017 and Lotts of fun for the upcoming year!!!

Another year has come and gone.  Once again, we have been super busy but have had so many blessings.

Ethan was excited to turn 9.  Of course, he’s already counting down till he is 10.  He has informed me that he is moving out when he is 16.  So, I guess we had better make these last years count.  He is planning on being a doctor, in the army and an astronaut.  That will be good because he also plans on paying someone to do all the work at his house so he can just go on vacations.  Sounds like a good plan to me.  He has enjoyed playing soccer.  He is one of the biggest kids on the team (not a surprise) and is known for his hard kicks.  Sadly, a few kids have gotten it in the gut by accident.  Once he kicked off from the center of the field and actually scored.  It was pretty funny.  I don’t know if the point actually counted, but it was pretty exciting regardless.   Ethan still loves being in cub scouts.  He was thrilled to go to cub scout day camp and got his first pocket knife.  He started taking piano this fall and is doing great.  He also thrilled us by joining the school choir.  But one of he and Adam’s greatest accomplishments was when he added a huge basketball sized hole to the wall in our room above our garage.  It totally popped out the sheet rock and you can see the insulation.  It is huge!!   We were proud of him for telling the truth and glad no one was hurt.  Now I just wish he could tell the truth and be honest when I ask him if he has brushed his teeth.  Crazy boys.  It never ends with these two.  He and Adam were also sword fighting with sticks a few months back and now Ethan has a scar across his face by his mouth.  At least his eyes weren’t stabbed and he has a good story- right.

Adam is 11.   He plans to live with us forever.  I guess that will help balance out Ethan moving out in 6 years.   Adam loves to read and play sports.  Too bad he can’t read a book on not getting holes in his socks.  He has favorite socks that have holes in them and so he wears another pair of socks under them so he can still wear them.  Good idea, right??  NOT!!  Why not just wear shoes in the first place and then you won’t have holes!!!  He ran back a pick-six this fall during one of his flag football games.  I am proud to say I finally know what a pick six means- even though I don’t know why they just say that he made an interception and ran it back for a touchdown.  That would make more sense because what the heck is a pick??  And last weekend we went to see some Christmas decorations in downtown Salt Lake.  There were some pretty amazing exhibits done completely in candy.  Adam loves candy.  His comment was, “That’s a waste of candy.”  He didn’t notice the beautiful artwork of the candy, but just that he would have rather eaten it then made it into an art project.  Funny boy.  Adam also enjoys scouts.   He will never forget his first camp out this fall while he was helping with dinner and cut his finger opening up a can.  He was very brave.  He probably could have used stitches but we mended it on our own and it looks almost normal now.  Adam may or may not have gotten a note from a girl in his class telling him she likes him second best to chocolate.  Shhhh.  Don’t tell.

Jaime turned 16 and is officially of the dating age.  Mike pulled out the guns as she had her first date to a group dance this fall.  Luckily, we have Ethan to sick on all her dates and to protect her.  Jaime finally got a sister as we had a German foreign exchange student live with us for two weeks in September.  It was a lot of fun and Jaime is trying to talk us into sending her to Germany now.  Jaime still loves to read and sleep.  I need to find her a book about a princess who gets turned into a toad because she wouldn’t clean her room or make it to the bus stop on time.  Wink wink.  Jaime was thrilled to get her learners permit.  Now, we just need a good supply of Valium to give to her dad as he takes her driving.  And speaking of Valium, Jaime had some dental work done this year.  She took a Valium and it didn’t kick in until about two hours later.  We knew something was wrong when she was stuttering and wobbling around our house like she was drunk.  I got it on video and it was hilarious.  I barely got her up the stairs so she could sleep it off in her room.  I can’t wait till she gets her wisdom teeth out.  I am sure we will definitely get some good video then as well.

Ryan would almost be 20.  He would be half way through his mission.  We miss him so much.  We are so thankful we will see him again someday.  It has been special to see the physical similarities between he and Ethan.  It will be fun to see if they continue and if Ethan ends up with the same curly hair that Ryan had.

Alex still lives up in Logan.  He is currently working for a meat processing company.  It’s exciting he is actually getting paid to cut up animals with knives instead of just for a hobby.  He continues to go through vehicles and is back in a yellow one again.  Are you kidding me.  Are there actually that many yellow vehicles out there and now in less than a year he has owned two.  He still loves to hunt and fish.  His boy scout skills came in handy while hunting this fall and he got stranded in the mountains.  He had to start a small fire to keep him warm and to keep the wild animals away.  Sadly, he lost his first elk to whatever wild animal was up there.  But we are glad he wasn’t lunch as well.

I have officially joined in the homework with the kids this year as I started back to school.  I started BYU Pathway Connect Worldwide.  I am taking classes online through BYU-Idaho.  It has been a great experience.  I do admit my first day I was in tears and almost threw my computer on the floor (not kidding) , but I pushed through and have learned a lot.  I did have to have Jaime help me at times as she obviously knows more about the computer than I do.  Who am I kidding, even Ethan knows more than I do.  And Mike helped me as well.  I am proud to say that I got A’s in both classes.  Now I look forward to the $5 we give the kids per A.  I can’t wait to spend my hard earned $10.  The money is definitely worth all the hours I put in these past three months.  (Mike just told me the money is going towards my phone.  Darn)  My math class starts in January.  I will need a Valium to get through that.  And Mike and I will probably need counseling afterwards as well.  Ethan is really good at math.  Who knows, maybe he will tutor me as well.  In 2018 I am going to make it my New Year’s resolution to gain ten pounds so I can be able to mark something off my list for once.  Darn, I wish I would have made that one of my goals for this year instead of exercising, which of course I didn’t do for another year.  Or maybe my goal will be to exercise once next year.  I am pretty sure I can do that.

Mike is gearing himself up to be my math tutor in January.  He might need a Valium to get through that.  But, he thinks it’s pretty cool he is married to a college co-ed.  I have reminded him that that doesn’t mean that I look like a college student- sorry.   He has healed from his Achilles surgery from last year.  He does have a big scar still and sadly lost his job as an ankle model.   He does have cute feet so maybe he will just have to try his luck with those.  He was our handy man this summer and learned how to do some electrical work.  Thank goodness he only electrocuted himself a few times.  You tend to learn more quickly when the results may or may not hurt.

We have enjoyed some fun family adventures this year.  We were blessed to be able to attend a pioneer trek as a family.  It was fun to pretend we were a pioneer family and the little boys had fun pulling the handcarts mile after mile.  We bribed them and they pulled the last 3 miles all on their own.  It was money well spent.  We also toured Mt. Rushmore and enjoyed the beauty there.  Mike and I were blessed to be able to go to Okinawa to visit my parents while they are on their LDS mission there.  We dodged two typhoons with this trip and almost got stranded in Okinawa when I accidentally forgot I had a pocket knife hidden in my purse when going through security.  Mike commented, “I am one of those people.”

We are thankful for all the wonderful memories we have made.  We are so thankful for our friends and family.  And we are especially thankful for our Savior and his life and his love towards us.  We wish you all the best this coming new year and hope you will allow the love of our Savior to light your life as well.

Love,

The Lott family

(way to long since I have blogged  I will catch up in the next post)

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