2023 in a Wrap

2023 was a big year. I turned 30! I had a baby! I read 56 books. I tried at least 30 new cookie recipes. I also watched 2 of my siblings move far away. I went through not 1 but 2 job layoffs with Andrew which lead to financial stress and lack of insurance. As a result, Andrew and I have grown closer. Andrew got to be around our newborn much more than he would have. There's a silver lining in everything. My word for 2023 is rollercoaster. We have had some high highs (Ahem Penny) and some low lows. I'm grateful I have my family on this wild ride with me.

My matching girls! Thanks Grannie for the outfits!

I could look at my cookie goal for 2023 and say I failed. I set a goal to make a new cookie recipe every week. There are 52 weeks in the year, so I should have tried 52 new recipes instead of just 30. 30 new recipes is still a lot! I think I even forgot to write some of the cookies I tried down, so I probably made even more. Confession-- sometimes I branched out and made bars instead of cookies. A few honorable mentions for your sake (you're welcome):

• Mel's Kitchen Cafe: Soft and Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Coconut Cookies. Recipe HERE.
• Butternut Bakery Blog: 6 layer Peanut Butter Smores Bars. Recipe HERE.
• Mel's Kitchen Cafe: Salted Peanut Butter Cup Chocolate Chip Cookies. Recipe HERE.
• Six Sisters' Stuff: S'mores Kiss Cookies. Recipe HERE. (This recipe I found before 2023, but after reading my blog, Andrew couldn't believe I didn't include it. This recipe is well-liked by many and I made it countless times this year.)
• Becca Jackson (If the Cookie Fits): Chocolate Chip Applesauce Cookies.

Recipe: 1 stick of butter, 1 cup of sugar, 2 eggs, 1 cup of applesauce, 1 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp ground cinnamon, 1 tsp ground nutmeg, 1/2 tsp ground cloves, 2 cups of flour, 2 cups of semi-sweet chocolate chips. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Use a big scoop to scoop on to a greased baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Should be light brown on the edges, and not gooey in the middle. (If using a smaller scoop, cookies will only need about 10 minutes of baking time.)

If you have a cookie recipe that is worth my time, please pass it along!

You do what you gotta do to get those cookies made.

This year I started a secret journal where I write down how I actually feel about a book (so nobody can read my review on Goodreads). I don't want to offend anyone. Here are my opinions--take them with a grain of salt. 

GOODREADS : MY YEAR IN BOOKS

Pages read: 18, 841

Books read: 56

Shortest book: "Are you there God? It's me, Margaret?" By: Judy Blume

Longest book: "Illuminae" By: Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff

Average book length: 336 pages

Most Shelved: "I'm Glad My Mom Died" By: Jennette McCurdy

Least Shelved: "Lasagna Means I Love You" By: Kate O'Shaughnessy

My Average rating: 4.6 stars

Highest Rated on Goodreads: "Without The Mask" By: Charlie Bird ("Highest rated" surprised me. I disagree.)

My top 9 reads this year are (in no particular order):

• "The Many Lives of Mama Love" By: Lara Love Hardin-- This book is raw, a true story, and mind-blowing. A PTA mom gets addicted to drugs and this book is about her journey in jail. There are some f words and it is heavy, but oh so worth it.
• "The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett" By: Annie Lyons-- This book is heartwarming. It's about an old woman who is mad at the world. A new neighbor moves in and becomes her best friend. It is full of voice and I got to know and love the characters.
• "The Measure" By: Nikki Erlick-- This book made me think a lot. It's a great book to discuss, so if you read it, drag a loved one into doing the same. I proposed it for book club in 2024. I can't wait to hear if others would prefer to see the length of their string or not know. (The length of your string indicates how long you will live.) 
• "Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers" By: Jesse Q. Sutanto-- This book is light and witty. The main character owns a tea shop and is nosy and notices details. I fell in love with the characters and laughed out loud lots. Is it the best murder mystery you'll read, no. Perhaps it's the funniest though.
• "The Housemaid's Secret" (The Housemaid #2) By: Freida McFadden-- This book is a thriller and I binged it. I enjoyed it even more than the #1 book in this series. After reading several of this author's books, I give Freida two thumbs up. Her twists are unpredictable.
• "Happiness for Beginners" By: Katherine Center-- This book is about a recently divorced woman who ends up going to a wilderness survival course. Nothing like the great outdoors to heal and teach you.
• "Carrie Soto is Back" By: Taylor Jenkins Reid-- This book is about tennis. In case you don't know, I am a big tennis fan. It brought me back to all the tennis tournaments I've watched. If you aren't into tennis maybe it is not your jam? This book has language.
• "Prison Healer Series" By: Lynette Noni-- These 3 books are considered fantasy. Say what? They're very mild/ light fantasy. Gobbled up the whole series. Gifted this at a favorite things party.
• "Lasagna Means I Love You" By: Kate O'Shaughnessy--This book is about a child who ends up in foster care. Mo yearns for family and finds it through the most unexpected way: recipes. The book lists actual recipes and ingredients and I even tried one as one of my cookie recipes this year. (The recipe was no good, but the book was great.)

Book Club Reads This Year:

• "The Afterlife of Holly Chase" By: Cynthia Hand
• "Dinosaurs A Novel" By: Lydia Millet
• "The Dance of Anger" By: Harriet Lerner
• "American Dirt" By: Jeanine Cummins (I had already read this book and didn't re-read it this year.)
• "The Inmate" By: Frieda McFadden 
• "The Downstairs Girl" By: Stacey Lee
• "Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1)" By: Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
• "The Prison Healer #1" By: Lynette Noni
• "Digital Minimalism" By: Cal Newport

Cheesy Rom Coms I enjoyed and finished quickly:

• "This Time Next Year" By: Sophie Cousens
• "Hello Stranger" By: Katherine Center (some language)
• "The Love of My Life" By: Rosie Walsh (some language)
• "This Time It's Real"  By: Ann Liang

A book I started and didn't finish:

• "All the Ugly and Wonderful Things" By: Bryn Greenwood-- Ew. I got 88 pages in and stopped. It creeped me out and foreshadowed an adult/child sexual relationship.

Books I wish I'd skipped:

• "Not a Happy Family" By: Shari Lapena-- Predictable.
• "Finlay Donovan Jumps the Gun (Finlay Donovan #3)" By: Elle Cosimano-- Was in love with this series until this book came out. Sorely disappointing. 
• "The Anthropocene Reviewed" By: John Green-- So much hype. Not for me. I felt like the essays were random and unrelated. I wanted more plot.
• "The Inmate" By: Freida McFadden-- I have really loved her other books, but man did the plot at the end just get more and more far-fetched and bizarre. Everyone at book club agreed.
• "Illuminae (The Illuminae Files #1)" By: Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff-- Not my kind of book, but I stuck it out. Lots of characters and ships to keep track of. After hearing me talk about it (mostly complain about it), Andrew read it. I really sold that one apparently.)
• "A Place For Us" By: Fatima Farheen Mirza-- So slow and too long. When I finally got to the end, there was a beautiful message, but I wished for more resolution.

I'm not going to list every single book I read. If you're mad, come search my house for my secret journal. To all the books I didn't write about, I'm sorry. I liked you at least somewhat. And to you readers, please send your favorites my way.

A few other pictures from this month...

Gingerbread house decorating

Making sugar cookies

The zoo! 

Our kids had free passes (thanks PBS kids adventure pass) and we went on a $5 weekday, so we only had to pay $10 total to get our family in. Whew, it was a zoo. So so packed. We saw the Hartwells from our Pleasant Grove ward. I'm glad we didn't pay full price for this experience. The elephants and rhinos weren't there and a slide on the playground was closed. Once we rode the carousel, that's all the kids needed. We had a terrific time even with the endless crowds and near empty exhibits. After this excursion, Andrew suggested taking the kids out of school sometime next year to go to a popular place at a less popular time. Avoid going on December 29 (The last $5 weekday). 

While I wouldn't have picked all of the events that happened this year, they are shaping me into a hopefully better person. I've even branched out of my usual gym class (high fitness) and have now added a Barre and Surge class into my routine. I went to yoga too! What! 

Stay tuned to hear my intentions for 2024! I'll give you a hint... One of my goals is food related once again...

Christmas Adam and Eve in Eden

We're still sleepy and on a high from our holiday festivities. We had a marvelous time in Eden, Utah with the Dittos. It was a packed house! There were 49 of us and 5 people were missing. (Nathan and George who are serving full-time missions and Alex, Alexa, and Quinn.) We spent 4 nights there and enjoyed them to the fullest. I don't think I touched my book which says a lot. Games occupied most of our time. There were always people to play with which was great. I stayed up hours past my bedtime. The plan was to go skiing/snowboarding but due to lack of snow, most people decided not to bother. One afternoon, the crew went to a retro arcade to celebrate Brent's birthday. (I stayed back with Penny and Izzy.) 

We were never hungry and man does being in charge of a meal for that many people require creativity. For dessert on Christmas day, I quintupled my rice Krispie treat recipe. My mom trained me well. There were leftovers. For the lunch we were in charge of, we had 2 extra loaves of bread. Our car was packed to the brim full of food (I made over 60 cookies), gifts, and packages for Grannie with all of the gifts she sent to our house for her dozens of grandkids.

It was chilly

We decided to bless Penelope while we were with so much family. It filled my heart to be surrounded by many loved ones. It was hard not to have my parents there in person, but zoom helped lessen the blow. My sister and grandma also watched virtually.  Andrew gave Penny a solid and wonderful blessing. We are smitten with sweet Penny. In James' words, "we should have wrapped Penelope up and put her under the tree. She is our gift from heaven." Wise boy. Christmas Eve was even more special than normal with Penelope Elise's blessing. She has changed me.

My friend Valerie offered to make Penelope's blessing dress which was extremely thoughtful and touching. Wow, is Valerie talented. The dress was exquisite and she even made a bonnet too. How will I ever repay her? I definitely won't be offering to sew anything for her that's for sure.

The Ditto Christmas traditions are excellent. For the talent show on Christmas Eve, Isabelle performed a dance. For the nativity, our kids were the stars-- Mary, Joseph, and baby Jesus. We had a smorgasbord of all sorts of food on Christmas Eve. I contributed pizza (obviously) and salted peanut butter cup cookies. Like always, we did our favorite things exchange. Ryan had the same favorite thing as me-- Reese's animal crackers from Costco. Clearly I know what's good. Andrew gave Chick Fil A sauce as his favorite. We also did a white elephant exchange. I ended up with teeth dentures. Thanks a lot Logan (the dentist). Good thing I'm saving those for the next Ditto white elephant exchange, so watch out. Andrew got a hairy belly fanny pack. Glamorous. If only I had picked my own gift... Kelly also made the all brothers hike movie. It's always a surprise to see footage of the dangerous adventures they attempt like biking when it's pitch black outside.

We nearly forgot our kids existed while we were in Eden. They got loads of attention and there were toys galore. The house has an epic playroom, they went hot tubing a time or two, and even got on their snow gear to go sledding. Penny was very popular which was expected. Even our niece who doesn't like babies (not pictured) just had to have a turn holding our delightful babe. Our kids have slept in significantly every day since we have been home. They are worn out from all the excitement.

I'm not sure if the Dittos will stay in Eden again which is a bummer. There are too many of us now! I'm so grateful for the time we spent with family. I cherish it more than ever now that many of my family has moved away. Since our return home, the kids have been occupied with their new Legos. Andrew got me an air fryer for Christmas and let me just say that it's going to be dangerous to have that crispy french-fry making machine so close to my fingertips. The air fryer had 2 uses within 24 hrs of opening it.

Christmas time is magical and this Christmas was no different. Having a baby made December even more meaningful. Much to Isabelle's dismay, we forgot to set up a Santa trap and catch Saint Nick. Maybe next Christmas when we're in Brazil we will catch the big guy.

Highlights

Here are some recent highlights:

Penelope is now smiling!! 

Boy is she good at it. She smiles very frequently and is the cutest.

Thanksgiving!

Holidays have changed since lots of my family has moved. I wasn't sure what Thanksgiving would look like this year. In all honesty, part of me was dreading it. I did not want to host. My cousin Sara mentioned having Thanksgiving together and I jumped at the chance. My uncle Doug and aunt Sheri hosted in their beautiful home in Highland. It was magnificent. My kids were spoiled and loved. Izzy wept when we left. My kids got to hot tub! Sheri even had a Thanksgiving craft for them to do. She also had candy turkeys for everyone and advent calendars for the kids. She made hosting look like a piece of cake. I made the rolls and the 7 layer dip. I could hardly walk I ate so much. We stayed for hours. I am so grateful. Jessica, Chris, and George last minute decided to drive to Utah and they joined too. Joel was also there. Grandma was delighted to have so many great-grandkids in attendance and insisted on getting a picture.

Grateful

Grannie came into town!! 

    We made the most of our time together. We played games for hours. She made us her famous Chicago dogs from her mission. Grannie met Penelope. She accompanied me to a relief society activity and made a beautiful and festive centerpiece. We even watched the Great British Baking Show championship together. Grannie babysat one morning while Andrew and I snuck away to do sealings. We also went to the Orem Temple House, a live nativity, and had lots of BYU Dittos over for Sunday dinner/games. What a lovely weekend. Izzy sobbed the day after Grannie left. We all miss her! We're looking forward to seeing her and dozens of Dittos at Christmas.

Playing Rook-O-Lee. We also played "Just One" and "Idiot." Everyone stayed 4 hrs. It was delightful. We missed Dallin/Alysee and Tyler/Hailee who were out of town.

We saw Santa...

    Izzy told Santa she wants a pickaxe. hahaha. What!? After asking her to explain further, she said she wants a pickaxe so we can finish removing the stubborn tree stump Andrew has spent hours trying to take out. How thoughtful and helpful of her. After talking to her more, we learned Isabelle actually wants princess Legos.

Low quality pic, but I couldn't skip the story

Isabelle had a dance recital...

    Izzy is at a new studio this fall and wow, it is intense. She had a mandatory dress rehearsal the evening before the recital. Bless Andrew for taking her and dealing with a snowstorm all while I was quite ill with mastitis. The recital was at a high school in Saratoga Springs. On Saturday, many dancers had to perform in both recitals. Each recital is 2 hours long. Fortunately Isabelle only had to perform in 1 recital because she is in one of the youngest classes. Most dancers are supposed to arrive an hour prior to the recital. Thankfully, Izzy's class only had to be there 30 minutes early. Many families plan to be at the recital all day. What an event. In fact, many chaperones are needed to help and several sign up just to have early access to buy recital tickets. One of the chaperones happened to be my old young women's leader. What a blast from the past to see Lori again! Buying the recital tickets was quite an ordeal. It took over an hour to just get to the purchase page. Big shoutout to Joel for coming. Grandma wasn't feeling well. 

Isabelle is a confident and good dancer. She knows the moves and was graceful. I was surprised when I saw her after the recital. She couldn't hold back her tears any longer. Her costume was hurting/rubbing up against her neck. Poor girl. We gave her flowers which mattered a lot to her. We'll see if I can keep up with all of these dance moms. (They helped me fix Izzy's hair, so her hairpiece was more visible-- of course after I already took the pics.) I don't know what I'm doing and read through the 6 page recital information thoroughly. Talking to these other dance moms each week is something I look forward to. They are the nicest ladies.

Kennedy (who was in Isabelle's preschool last year happened to be in the same dance class as Izzy this year. What a pleasant surprise.)

Lydia is also in Isabelle's class. Lydia's mom is a family friend.

Can you tell tears were just happening??

We're looking forward to many more highlights this month one being Penelope's baby blessing!

Family Pictures

We got our family pictures back and I'm thrilled! Malia did a terrific job and we are so grateful for her. These pictures were taken on Saturday, October 14, so Penny was 4 days old. Our Christmas card this year is extra cute.

Penelope now smiles and it is the sweetest. So in love with my family of 5!