Oh Hey There, Blog

Birthdays:

It's birthday month. Anders is 18, Addie 16, and I'm 43. It's cuckoo. Anders and Addie threw themselves parties. Love it. 

For my birthday, Nils and I left the kids and went to St. George on a whim. We looked at the temperature there and saw that it was going to be 63 degrees, so we left a half hour later. We've never left the kids alone, so it was pretty weird, but also fine because they're big and can handle themselves fairly well. We had a grand time. We were gone for 28 hours. We hiked 5 miles, (Red Mountain Trail), got some lunch and ice cream, and headed home.

I had a birthday luncheon with some friends in the neighborhood, and another good friend from our old neighborhood invited me to lunch a few days later. It was really nice, especially after so little in person socializing for the last year. I was able to get together with a couple of my childhood friends last week when one came into town. They came over here and we talked for hours and hours until 2:00 in the morning. So, 43 is the birthday to beat. 'Twas an epic birthday month indeed, and a great reminder that I'm hugely blessed by the people in my life. 

The YouTubes:

January-March are historically slow months for our YouTube channel. Dunno why, but it seems to be universal and nothing to panic over...except when revenue is cut in half from December and you wonder what in the world you're doing with your life. Now now, I know in my heart that everything is fine, but I do like to be melodramatic about it. Anyway, we've had lots of sponsorship opportunities to pursue this month. These are companies that want us to feature their product in a video. Usually they want us to do this for free, plus they send us their product. 

Welp, here is a good opportunity to determine your worth and put it out there. We will no longer do promos for free, cuz we gots a mortgage to pay and children to feed from this gig. I've gotten quite adept at naming a price that we feel is fair. I would say 75% of companies are not willing to pay that price, so we all move on with our lives. However, 25% will either agree to said price, or negotiate further. It's my favorite. We've gotten 9 sponsorships this month. Some are completed, some are in the pipeline and scheduled, and some are still in negotiations. This is the most we've ever had, so it's super exciting, and it helps offset the slower months. 

We feel like slapping ourselves every day, since we get to basically do whatever we want as a job without leaving the house, and we somehow earn money from it. Is this real life? I hope so. 

Nils is a Seeing Man:

Nils purchased a Groupon for Lasik/PRK in December. Why pay full price for someone to put lasers in your eyes, amiright? His surgery was on January 11. He had to have PRK due to thin corneas. It's been almost 3 weeks, and my baby can SEE! He can see, and he paid half the cost. This is a very Nils thing to do. Anyhoo, what a miracle laser eye surgery is. He's had bad vision his whole life, and can now see perfectly. Amazing. 

Photos in no particular order:

Sometime/someplace, Addie procured an inkwell unbeknownst to us, even though it's the 21st Century. A couple of days ago, she spilled said inkwell, so she's looking for a new home. She tried to clean it up with the carpet cleaner, but ended up just smearing it everywhere, so like I said, she's looking for a new home. 

I'm kidding about her looking for a new home, but this is just a great example of why we can't have nice things. We're slowly working on getting this horrific mess out with Oxiclean soaks, which take hours and hours each time. #blessed

Aani was eating her party pizza like a barn animal, so I had to document.

Just a picture of mah boo in Santo Jorge

Addie and Aani practicing backstroke on the rug

Birfday in St. George

Ava selfie

Addie's birthday party taco bar

Addie has a real passion/gift for taking the most unattractive pictures of herself as possible. She makes weird faces and laughs and laughs at the pictures. So, in case you're wondering, she is a smart, intelligent, cute girl, who tries as hard as she can to look like a weirdie in pictures. This was her opening her birthday presents. She was clearly very excited. 

Anders bought Pip a track suit and put some gold chains on her. When he dresses her up like this, she doesn't move. She just stands in one spot, and we laugh and laugh.

My adult son.

We played Jackbox TV games a couple of weeks ago, and Ava had us rolling with this one. Just had to document so we never forget. It was supposed to say "Wife Bag. When you Forget Your Wife."

We made a cairn on our hike in St. George. It looks much bigger than it really is. ;) 

Anders and his buddies are playing basketball again. Good times indeed.