Flashback Update: Rori's Birthday Party 2017

Darwin:  Rori turned 6 in January of 2017.  We had a family party to celebrate, and the traditional cake and presents.  She wanted a pink themed birthday party, hence all the pink you see.  We also had a pinata for her this year as well.  There's not a lot of text for this post, just enjoy the festivities!

The traditional flowers for my birthday girl.

Our beautiful birthday girl showing that she is 6, then being goofy in coke-bottle glasses.

Fun with balloons and static electricity.

Tal playing with Rori's birthday balloons.

Loading the loot into the pinata.

We played a game where each person had a sticky note on their forehead with an animal on it.  Then we acted out each other's animals and had to guess what it was.

Then we had a bubble gum blowing contest.

Now it's pinata time!

And presents!

And cake!

Rori preparing her new fairy garden she got for her birthday.  

Happy birthday sweetheart!  We love you!

Flashback Update: 1/3/17 - SNOW!

Darwin: Christmas and New Years break from school and work is over, but the morning we had to go back to school it snowed...immensely!!!  In our part of the valley at my parents home where we are currently staying we got around 18 - 20 inches of snow!

As I was busting my back shoveling snow, making a beeline for my car, anxious about being late for work, Kiara came outside and said the Nebo School District has phoned an automated message about school.  "Pheww!"  I thought.  I knew they were going to call it a "snow day" where they cancel school.  Kiara said the automated message stated that school is still in session at the regular start time.  "WHAT!  Are you FRICKEN kidding me?!"  (I can't recall if I said that out loud or not.  Probably out loud, emphasis on "loud".)  The audacity of this district!  Within 10 or 15 minutes Kiara came out again and said that the district sent out a new automated message.  "Ah, they have come to their senses."  I thought.  "Their calling it a snow day."  She said the message stated that that there would be a two hour delayed start.  "What?!  What are they thinking?  Is it so wrong to call a snow day?"  Long story short, at school, many of my students said that where they lived (Payson, Goshen, Genola) they didn't get nearly as much snow, around 4 - 6 inches.  For that reason the district decided to not call it a snow day, but to delay it for necessary schools.  Later I found that teachers were suppose to be there at the start times to see to the students that did arrive early.  HA!  Stuff that!  It took me the full two extra hours to dig out the Suzuki and the Pilot.  Hard work, but it did make for good memories and fun snow activities later that week.

Kiara was taking video as I was cleaning the snow off the top of the Pilot and I about fell off.  :o)

Beautifully scenic!

The odd marks in the snow behind Aurora were left from the snow that packed against the side of the Suzuki during the Christmas break, showing the wheels and side body of the car.

"Silently, like thoughts that come and go, the snowflakes fall, each one a gem."

- William Hamilton Gibson

A Famine of Updates

Darwin says:  As many of our readers may have noticed (if we still have any followers, but mostly for our own record) there has been an extended period of time since we have posted on our blog.  This is mostly due to the ability to upload photos onto our blog posts as you can see our plea for help in the last blog post.  Even though I originally taught Kiara how to do a blog when we first started, I have allowed her to take the lead in updating our family affairs.  After getting frustrated about not being able to post photos, not knowing where to find a new venue to do so, and our lives getting so busy, we have sadly put our blog in the back of our minds.  Well, this year for Christmas I wanted to surprise my sweet, dear wife by taking the lead to renew our blog posts.  I will simply start by giving a brief update on where we are at now, and future posts will back track some of the events from the last year and a half that we have missed.

Long story short, raising our children has been more difficult than originally imagined.  (You parents reading this are probably laughing your trash off right now, right?)  But we love them so, so much!  Aurora is now in the second grade and has become an awesome reader.  The "20 minutes reading every day" rule has been challenging to get her to follow through most days, but has really paid off.  Savannah has started kindergarten and is also doing awesome in her reading.  Talmage is our sweet poster boy.  So happy and giggly most of the time, and boy does he have curls to make Ebeneezer Scrooge smile.  Kiara is still working at Vivint and is rocking her job with total awesomeness.  She knows her work so well that her coworkers look to her for advice and guidance.  She is also often requested to go into corporate to meet with other departments and managers higher up to work on ideas to improve the company.  I'm still working at Springville High School (which I started back in August of 2017) teaching Astronomy, Geology, Environmental Science, and Physics.  Planning for four different classes has been challenging, but it has also been very enjoyable to teach science lessons all across the gamut.

I look forward to sharing some of our life events from the last two years, and for what is to come, so stay tuned!

Blog Update - A call for help!

I just sat down to try and blog about January 2017.
Yes, I am that far behind.
Don't judge.
At least I'm still trying! :)

BUT I just hit a brick wall!!
The photo storage site I use to post my pictures (photobucket.com) now wants to charge me $40 a month for me to post my pictures on a 3rd party host site (a.k.a. my blog).  Oober frustrating!  I'm not willing to pay $40 a month to keep blogging.

I'm not very tech-y or up to date on the latest technology so if there's anyone out there who still reads our blog and has any suggestions on other sites that we could use, I'd really appreciate any tips that can be thrown my way. You can leave me a comment (comments are kept private until I approve them to be posted so if you leave your personal info for me to contact you, your info will be safe with me!) or if you have my email address/phone number, please contact me!

If I can't figure out another solution, this may be the end of blogging on Luckily Got Lucky.  It would be a major disappointment as this has been my main source of recording our family happenings and has been our family journal since 2007.

Super sad!

A letter to Nastassia.

Dearest Nastassia Grace,

Believe it or not, it has been 5 years since we found ourselves holding your tiny lifeless body in our hands.  We still wish every day that it had all turned out differently and that you were here with us blessing our lives with your sweet spirit.

I had a long letter planned out in my mind with lots of things to tell you but I think this song sums it all up in a more beautiful way than I could ever put into words.

Longing for you and missing you every single day.  Until heaven, baby girl!

Love, Mom

Play-doh, Snow and New Years Eve!

Play-doh!
The girls got new play-doh in their stockings this year.  They love to play with play-doh!

Our Christmas cowgirl playing with play-doh.



Savy makes some great faces!

Rori made some yummy ice cream creations!


Snow!
I mentioned in my Christmas post that we got fresh snow for Christmas.
Here's some of our pretty snow!


Talmage wasn't feeling really great so he didn't get a chance to play in the snow but the girls loved it and definitely took advantage of the chance to play in that fluffy, cold, white stuff!


Snow tracks!

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!


Our little snow girl!

Savannah making another snow angel.


This kid loves to eat snow!


Winter time is so much fun!

New Year's Eve
Also, tonight is New Year's Eve.  It's pretty low key.  Aurora fell asleep in the tub.  Scary!  And I won't post a picture because it's actually pretty creepy, although we did take a picture to document it.  We're so super glad she's okay!  Talmage went to bed at his normal bedtime and the girls both fell asleep on the couch watching the latest Ice Age movie.


Time to watch The Martian!
Bring on 2017 and lots of new adventures!
Happy New Year!