A Good Start To 2025!

We started out 2025 with a quick trip to The Farm to retrieve our inheritance.  My grandpa was a bit of a DVD hoarder, and after he died, my aunt offered them to my boys to try to sell, if they wanted them (otherwise, they were going to the DI).  We decided that we would give it a try and see if we could get anything out of them, but it took us 6 months to make it back up to Idaho to get them.  We had to rent a Uhaul to fit them all in.  We brought my parents with us and were able to load them up pretty quickly.  Now we have a carport bay full of DVD's!  Avery informed me that now WE look like the DVD hoarders, and she is probably right.

Beautiful, foggy Farm.

Grant was ordained to the office of a Priest in the Aaronic Priesthood.

This crazy squirrel keeps coming into my carpool and staring at us through the window!

Ryan got asked to the Sweethearts Dance.

And, a few days later, he got asked again!  We panicked, until he told us that the second girl is from a different high school and the dances are on different nights, so it all worked out!

We went down to Provo to watch a BYU Men's Volleyball game with some friends.  Avery met us there and Grant brought a friend because Ryan was in California with his Choir trip.

Ryan's choir got to sing and record at Disneyland and California Adventure.  They happened to go to California on the day that a bunch of big fires started and spread all around LA County, which was where they were.  They did have to change plans on one of their days (they were supposed to be in Hollywood, right where the fires were), but they were safe and still able to enjoy their trip.

The next week, Ryan got his wisdom teeth taken out.  He was SO funny coming out of the anesthesia!  He thought he was super cool, even in his goofy ice pack face.

He was mad in this picture because a tear fell out of his eye, and he didn't want us to think that he was crying.

Avery told him to smile in this picture.

And then he wanted to look cool in this one.  Then he told her to send it to all her friends.

All tuckered out.

Grant answered his Sweetheart's date.  Ryan also answered both of his, but he didn't take a picture for me.  He did a similar thing though, so we can all imagine what it looked like.

We had our cute friends, the Robert family, from the Marshallese Branch over for Family Home Evening.  The kids are adorable!  They often come sit by us in Sacrament Meeting and we had fun with them at our house.

I worked on lots of sewing this month!  This is my mom's old Candy Stripper uniform from high school and I turned it into an apron.

Ryan opened up his mission portal and is in the process of filling out his mission papers!  So crazy!  He has also been busy this month applying for scholarships for college.  It is coming so fast!

Grant has been practicing every Saturday morning with the Utah Youth Symphony, playing clarinet (which is crazy because he plays the bass clarinet in the high school band.  But, they were more prepared with clarinet music, so he taught himself how to do it.).  They had their performance in the Tabernacle on Temple Square and they sounded so great!  It was really fun for him to play in the Tabernacle. 

Lots of family support.  I am grateful for our good family!

And friend support.  I am grateful for my kid's good friends!

Dustin's great uncle, Gordon, had his 99th birthday.  We went with Lana to the care center where he lives and celebrated with some of his family.

Avery got to ride in a plane with her friend, Wyatt, who is a pilot.

We ended the month of January with Robbie Burn's Night at my parent's house.  This is a celebration in Scotland that my dad said was as big as the 4th of July.  They eat a haggis and light fireworks.  I made the haggis (but instead of wrapping it in sheep intestines, I wrapped it in parchment paper), and everyone else made something delicious from Scotland.  My dad coached me on how to solemnly march in the haggis, to the tune of bagpipes and while Dad was reading a poem by Robert Burns.  At just the right moment I had to stab the haggis and at the end, we all cheered.  What a fun holiday!  My dad said he remembered celebrating it at ward parties when he was on his mission.  I hope it becomes our new Shurtz tradition!  On a side note, we all enjoyed the haggis, neeps (turnips) and tatties (smashed potates which are then fried), plus delicious shortbread and tipsy laird (basicaly a trifle, minus the tipsy part).  And we added in Montgomery raspberry jello salad, because, well, Montgomery of course!