2022 was a great year for our family, full of making memories with those we love! As the year draws to a close, I wanted to share some of our highlights each month.
January
Creation was big part of January! (we need something to get us through the cold weather). Ben created prototypes for his games (both paper prototypes like this one and digital ones) and the girls created all sorts of art projects.
Ben turned 33 at the end of January and I made my first Angel Food Cake!
And just surviving January (the coldest part of the year) is always a highlight for me. January can be so hard, but once we get through it, we start seeing warmer days and I love that.
February
Ben ran a tournament most months during the year and Ashtyn got to go to one with him in February. She had a great time!
In February, we also got to see a lot of cousins, including from North Dakota and we loved every minute with them.
In February, Ben and I also took a cha-cha class here in Vernal. It was fun to do a dance class together and Ashtyn loved that Ben would teach her cha-cha at home.
March
Cousins were still visiting in March, so we got lots of time with them 💗
This is a picture from March, but this is honestly just a highlight from the entire year for me--nursing Oliver with Rylee snuggled up to me.
Ben and I also took Oliver with us while we went to visit Jeremy and Katie and our friends Quinn and Jo in Eagle Mountain, where they both had recently bought houses. It was super fun to go visit them and the girls loved having a sleepover with Grandma Dee!
April
April was a busy month. One highlight for us was Easter and all the Easter activities we did leading up to it.
On Easter, we went hiking with Ben's cousins and it was so much fun that we want to make it a tradition!
Ben and I also had our 9th anniversary! My mom came out and watched the kids (even Oliver, who was nursing at the time) overnight and it was super fun to have so much kid-free time together to celebrate.
And a visit to West Jordan after Easter for my Grandma Sue's Easter egg hunt! We loved seeing everyone and staying with Grandma Dee.
May
We started going back to story time in May (we stopped during the pandemic when they didn't have story time and then we had Oliver, which made it hard to go). All the kids love story time, even Oliver.
Summer means four-wheeler rides and walks out in the creek 💗
May also was the month Ashtyn did her spring piano recital.
June
The beginning of June, Parker turned 6! She had an Aladdin birthday party with a cookies and cream cake, and then went to Walmart to play at their arcade for her date.
Another big highlight of the month was Ben and my "Almost kid-free weekend" in Jensen. We had planned a trip to Texas with Oliver (since he was still nursing) but realized that it was not going to be very reasonable to take a baby with us, so we changed our plans to stay closer to home. It was super fun to get away, even with Oliver and because we were so close, we were able to leave Oliver for a night with my mom and actually be kid-free for a day. We stayed at an adorable, internet-free AirBnB in Jensen (about 20 minutes from our house) and did some hiking up by Dinosaur Monument.
Because of the pass we got, we also got to take the kids back to Dinosaur Monument later that week with Ben's Dad. It was their first time there and they loved it.
Summer always means lake days. One of the fun things about Vernal are how many cool lakes and hiking trails are nearby.
At the end of June, our whole family got Covid (somehow we had managed to avoid until then). It hit us hard and we spent the rest of the month surviving and recovering.
July
We were able to get over Covid to go out to my grandma's big 4th of July party and we had a blast there! It's always one of the biggest highlights of the year for us.
We also took the kids to the rec center to swim and everyone loved it, even Oliver!
Another staple of summer for us are hot dog roasts at Grandma and Grandpa's house!
A highlight of the summer for Ashtyn and Parker was their Broadway Babies class, a one day class where they learned some songs to perform. Ashtyn especially loved it.
In the summer, Grandma Dee also came to visit. Her visits are some of our favorite days of the year!
The girls had some friends in the junior show James and the Giant Peach, so we went to it together (Ben watched Oliver).
And one of THE biggest highlights for the girls and I was our Lagoon trip! The girls all love rides and we have such a blast doing stuff like this together!
August
In August, we had the Anderson Family Reunion, and Ben's siblings who live out of state all came back for a visit. We absolutely loved spending time with everyone.
Another highlight for the girls was when they found frogs in our window well!
They were sad to let them go.
And Rylee turned 4! She had an Encanto birthday party and went hiking for her birthday date. She loves that she is "big"!
We did Oliver's birthday party early, so we could do it with cousins before they went home. He had a train party and loved the balloons most of all.
One final highlight was getting ice cream cones as a family. We earned it by doing our dishes right away and filling out a chart. The girls absolutely love when we do things like this!
September
We got to celebrate Oliver's actual birthday with cupcakes from Coldstone and a hike with family.
One big highlight for Parker was losing her first tooth! She actually had a shark tooth for a few months before losing it, so I was relieved when it finally came out. She has lot a few more since then.
Ben and I also started agressively working on paying off the house in September. We've been working on it since Ashtyn was about 6 months old (saving up for and then paying it off early) and our goal was to finish paying it off by December. We didn't quite make it, but we are going to be able to do it at the beginning of 2022 and are so excited!
We also did more hikes with Ben's cousins! Fall is the perfect time to go hiking.
Another highlight was a doubles Super Smash tournament that Ben ran. I was originally going to team with him, but he ended up teaming with someone else, but Ashtyn got to team with Dalin (they got 7th out 10 teams) and we roped Koy and Makenzie into coming.
October
One highlight for the kids of this month was going on their golden ticket dates with Grandma Lindi and Grandpa Danny (their Christmas present each year is a golden ticket that they can cash in for a date throughout the year sometime). Rylee went hiking, Ashtyn went swimming, and Parker went to the arcade. They all had so much fun!
A really big highlight for Ashtyn was her birthday date. Because she was turning 8, she got to drive out to Thanksgiving Point with us. She liked everything there, but her favorite was the butterfly biosphere (she loves all things butterflies!).
A big highlight for Ben and I was when he was asked to speak at the BYU Game Dev club in Provo. We got a babysitter and went out together. It was a lot of fun and Ben did a phenomenal job.
The girls and I went to the corn maze as well (Ben watched Oliver) with Navy and Makenzie.
Another big highlight for Ashtyn was that she got a "friend party" for her birthday this year. She had a butterfly theme and loved having her friends all there!
Ben and I also got invited to an escape room by some friends of ours.
It was our first time doing one and we had a blast!
Another fun thing Makenzie and I did was throw a Halloween party for the kids!
And, of course, Halloween!
November
One fun highlight of November was Donovan and Jessica coming out with Kolson! We loved seeing them, especially with how fast Kolson is growing.
One of the biggest highlights of the year was Ashtyn's baptism. My parents and younger brother came out and it was a beautiful day watching her take this first step on the covenant path.
Because of Ashtyn's birthday, we got to spend time with my parents and younger brother in November!
Then of course, Thanksgiving!
After Thanksgiving, the girls and I spent the day at Vernal Holly Days together!
December
One highlight for Ashtyn in December was her Christmas piano concert. She worked really hard on her songs and did a great job.
In the middle of the month, Oliver and Rylee got hit with some sort of sickness that seemed to last forever and really wiped them out.
One highlight for me this year was reading in the Book of Mormon. I had been feeling discouraged and having a hard time, and I felt prompted to spend more time reading in the Book of Mormon. It has brought me such peace and strength as I have followed that prompting. I am so grateful for the strength of Christ in my life and for the Spirit's guidance in my life.
Acting out the nativity on Christmas Eve is a tradition from my own childhood that I always love!
Christmas was such a wonderful way to end the year for our family!
A huge highlight of the year for me was Jon coming out to stay with us the week leading up to Christmas. I loved spending so much time with him and am so grateful for his love and friendship.
After Christmas, we got to drive out to Grandma Dee's house for a few days!
And the final highlight was my birthday! I turned 30 and it was my golden birthday! My original plans were dashed thanks to snow in the canyons, but we were still able to make it a wonderful day. I got to relax in the morning with the kids and then we got a babysitter in the evening to go to the temple and then to dinner.
It was such a wonderful year, despite any hardships we had. I am so grateful for my husband, my kids, and all the wonderful people who are a part of our lives. We are truly blessed and I look forward to what 2023 will bring us.
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