Mars

In 2019, we told the kids that if they read the Book of Mormon that year, we would take them each on a trip of their choosing, with only us parents as traveling companions. Addie was the only one to meet the challenge, and when we were planning where she wanted to go for 2020, the world started stinking on everyone so we couldn't go anywhere. 

(Addie has now taken over writing) Now it's 2022, and boy have things changed! I'll write your blog, I guess, like vicariously write your blog. Anyway, hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. My name is Addie and this is my blog now, but my mom is "still in control." Now that the world is only half stinking, we were all, "let's go somewhere!" Addie was feeling saddie, and her orchestra trip to Disneyland got canceled, so we were all, "How about Disneyland?!" 

Well, come March 15, we slept in, got on a plane and flew to Los Angeles, baby! We got in an Uber with a man who drove kinda fast and he drove us to Anaheim. There we got in the hotel and found a lifeguard chair next to the elevator, which of course I had to sit in because I'm a lifeguard! I fake whistled at everybody who walked by. No one walked by, but if they HAD, I would have fake whistled at them. "GET OFF THE LANE LINES!"

We got on our Disney gear and walked to the park around 4 pm. First we tried to ride Space Mountain, but it closed. WE RODE JUNGLE CRUISE!!!!!! I saw three ducks while we were in line. We got some beignets, mint juleps, rode a few rides, I got a porg, I got cold and I took my mom's jacket. Then there was a rave. "That's a fire remix... actually." We went to Downtown Disney and then we went back to the hotel. Zzzzzzzzzzz (we went to sleep).

Cue us waking up low-key kinda late the next day, but that's okay, because we still went to Disneyland! I made a list of all the rides we had to hit that day, such as: Space Mountain, Splash Mountain, Rise of the Resistance, Matterhorn, Haunted Mansion, Indiana Jones, MONORAIL, etc. Oh Boy! Did we have an adventure in hitting all those rides! I ate 4 beignets in the line for Haunted Mansion. Indiana Jones closed while we were in it, but that's okay because we still made it on the ride. 

Now, it's time for me to tell you about the Monorail. So I was all, "We gotta ride the Monorail! Essential!" We said, "okay, it closes at 7:00" so we go there at like 5:30 and there's this LADY at the entrance who was all, "Monorail is closed right now," so I was like "OH NO" and we hoped it opened soon, so we went to Adventureland while we waited. We were thinking we would try to ride Indiana Jones, but the line was long and we didn't want to miss the window for Monorail. We sat there while mom took a long time to go to the bathroom (the line was long), and I cried because I thought I would miss my chance to ride the Monorail. HOOOOOOOOO BOY WAS I STALKING THAT DISNEYLAND APP!!!!!!!!!!!! And eventually we saw that the Monorail was open! Mom was still in the bathroom so I texted her "I HAVE AMAZING NEWS!" and she didn't see it at first, but right then she walked out of the bathroom. 

We jogged (not ran) all the way to the Monorail station! They told us it was a one-way trip to Downtown Disney, and we were like WHATEVER as long as we get to ride on the Monorail. And boy did we ride on the Monorail. We got on there, enjoyed our trip to Downtown Disney, and saw that we could get a ride back to Disneyland by getting back in line. I dropped my ears on the other side of the fence, but someone getting off the Monorail handed them back to me very nicely. Then the gates opened back up and we went on the Monorail again! While we were riding it, there was a really chatty lady next to us. She talked a lot, and then we got off. #worthit 

Also, there were ducks! I took so many duck photos. Down below, you can see a photo of ME next to a DUCK! In the end, I got to ride all the rides we wanted to except for Small World, but that's okay. Woooooooo! Disneyland!!!!!!!!!

The End

Other stuff also happened in March. #irrelevant

Addie on Monorail

Mills Rasmussen and company left after being seated...(monte cristo was $30 🤢)

Matterhorn wooooo

I got this cool VIP card during the Matterhorn ride!!

Front seats 🤪🤪🤪🤪

Addie Eats a Beignet, circa. 2022

Castle selfie in which somebody is drinking water 🙄

THATS A DUCK!!!!!!!

Top 10 photos taken right before disaster

RAVE WOOO PARTY YEAH ALRIGHT

We Touched The Butt

11pm dinner😋😋

vrooooooom back home

Okay, here's the other stuff that happened in March now that Addie's done with her riveting Disneyland rundown. (PS- We were gone for 48.5 hours total. It was nutso.)

Guess who Pip loves the most? 

Jazz game with Nils and Anders. Bein' a Jazz fan is pure heartache, man. 

Love walks with my boo! 

End of Swim season banquet for these two- they're swimming in the second picture. Isn't it realistic? 

Had a RS meeting with the stake, and there was this cute spread at all the tables. I texted Nils, "It's like the priesthood is in charge of this," to which he replied, "Totally looks like an EQ presidency meeting, but not as fancy." H-I-L-A-R-I-O-U-S.

Did a picture hanging video last week, and I had the idea to have all the pictures be of Nils with his tools. You really have to be paying attention to catch it. #truefans

Dave and Doug are our neighbors and Nils' BFFs. I saw them at Costco and texted Nils, "They're my friends now."

There's this exercise park at the top of the neighborhood and it's got these funny machines around the perimeter. It's so random. 

Got some fancy new equipment! I'm doing a li'l more filming when I have time, so I can't wait to be educated with all this machinery. 😳

We've had our best month ever for YouTubes, it's been crazy! Things are slowing down and going back to normal, but that was a fun little ride. Now if we can figure out how to do that every month, we'd be set. :) 

The kids are well, Anders is contemplating his life's options which is good news! 

Addie is dying to be done with school- mostly physics and math. She never has to do them again after this term, which she's thrilled about. She plans on going to MTECH next year for medical billing and coding. Also she got 31 on the ACT without studying, so a smart cookie she be.

Aani is a great kid, she's excited to move on to Westlake next year and leave middle school behind. She's got pretty good friends and has become more selective about who she spends time with, which is showing maturity. She gets good grades. She tends to be a little anxious about lots of things. One of the most common phrases out of her mouth is, "I'm so nervous, I have (fill in the blank) tomorrow!" 

Ava is looking forward to middle school next year, and wants to play the oboe in band. She still tumbles and loves it. She's in the class presidency in her church class and enjoys YW. She's a good kid and we love her. 

Février

Hey gang. February is over, and I canst hardly believe it. It's been a fine month, just fine and dandy. 

We had a 15-month old video go totally nuts randomly, and get over 1 million views in a week. 

We created a follow-up video to the video that went totally nuts, and are waiting for the follow-up to go totally nuts. ;) 

Notice how it says 943K more than usual, hahahaha. How do we have any money?

Behind the scenes of squeaky floors part deux- tearing up carpet for the views....

I took this picture while cooking dinner one night, because Nils had to turn off the electricity for filming purposes, and I was cooking in the dark by the light of my phone. Good stuff. 

We had another ministering check-in this month, and it was a huge win! We had an amazing turnout. The food was delish, we had the YW and women come and it was just fantastic. 

We went out for a fancy Valentine's dinner with our friends the Marriotts and Griffins. Nils and I shared a tomahawk wagyu steak. People said we couldn't do it... but we ate the whole thing and it wasn't even difficult. Piggy piggies! It was delicious, oink oink.

There was a daddy daughter activity a couple of weeks ago. Look at my cute people.

Aani and Ava went out with us on Saturday night for a big night on the town- we went to dinner, and then tried to go to the mall, but all the stores were closed because no one will work anymore... so we went to Super Target and had a blast.

Fun with animals:

Pip being her weird self

Phred the Phrog was getting sprayed with water and seemed to be enjoying himself. Aani has decided she doesn't really want to keep Phred, since he doesn't do anything, she can't hold him, and he's high maintenance. We have to buy live crickets every week, keep his terrarium in tip top shape, buy distilled water for him, which is nearly impossible to find in these crazy days. 

So, anyone want a frog? 

Look at all these birds! Birds kinda scare me.

I know you're dying for a skin update! I'll try to be brief. In October I started eating gluten again to see what would happen. I enjoyed 3 month of eating all the things, and my skin went totally crazy, even crazier than it has been in a year. So, while I enjoyed some food freedom, my skin went to hell in a hand basket. After my birthday, I went gluten-free again and my skin started to improve. Then, I started receiving injections of Xolair a little over 2 weeks ago, and it's improved even more. Is this the magic bullet? I know not. I'll get the injection every 4 weeks, and hope to see more and more improvements. If it doesn't help in the long run, I feel like I'll be back at square one. My dermatologist worked to get it for free for me, which was right nice of him. Otherwise, it's $1200 a month, and who in the world can afford that? Le sigh.

This lovely photo of my legs is actually showing healing for the first time in ages. None of the sores are open and active, which is huge. It's been all over my body at the same time and it's pretty hellish.

That's pretty much February. Thanks for reading, and you have yourself an amazing March, ya hear? 

Janvier

What! The best month of the year is coming to a close already? How can this be? I guess we'll just have to bide our time until this time next year. 

Birthday Month:

Kids who are old enough to buy whatever they want are hard to shop for.

Poor Addie has to scrape the old car off in the mornings. Wearing a blanket instead of a coat is a thing the kids are doing these days, and it makes no sense but what are ya gonna do? 

Fun with Puppies: 

Kevin and Tonya's dogs had puppies again, and we loved playing with them. While holding a puppy, it's really difficult to not want to buy it and take it home. Nils was the voice of reason, fortunately. 

The Guitar:

Nils has spent one day a week for the last year filming the making of this guitar. It's 100% custom and handmade by a luthier. It came back from the finisher last week, and it's quite beautiful. YouTube video coming at some point. 

Zion:

Nils and I headed down to Zion for a product course for a few days. Once again, going to these things opens our eyes to so many possibilities and changes our mindset entirely. It's pretty crazy what people can do and are doing. Exciting things to come! 

And, Zion NP is okay, I guess. 

We found licorice ice cream on the way down, and since Nils is one of the 10% of humans who loves licorice, he had to partake. It was pretty yummy, and I only think licorice is okay. 

Facetime call to make sure the children were alive. They were alive and obnoxious as ever. 

Pip was so traumatized by us leaving her, that when we got back she crawled into Nils' duffel bag and slept in it all night. She's got some issues she needs to work through. 

Nils is over the teacher's quorum and had a few of them over for a pasta dinner last week.

Aani was caressing Nils' face and he was concerned.

What's going on:

Addie and Aani just finished up their competitive swim season. Swim is a lot of time and a lot of commuting, but they have had a great time and a great experience, and lots of friendships have been made. They both want to do club swim here in a couple of months, so the busyness will continue on. They both babysit regularly, and have been offered a job by a neighbor of ours who has an eBay business, helping out with that. Lucky girls. 

Ava continues to do tumbling, be on student council, and hang out with her friends. Her room is still a disaster 99.9% of the time, even after she's forced to clean it thoroughly every Saturday. It's really quite stunning how easy of a time she has messing it up. 

Anders is still working a big boy job, making big boy money, and wants to buy a house. He has a real estate agent and everything. Sure will be interesting to see what all of this leads to, but he's got a good head on his shoulders so we're not too worried. 

Our business is growing and doing well, and we're super excited for this upcoming year and all the possibilities. Our first year was kind of a test for us, and now we feel more confident in investing more money into it.

My skin is worse than ever! I have tons of pictures but won't post them because no one wants to see that, but trust me when I say it's bad. I will start getting monthly injections here in a couple of weeks, so all the prayers going up that it is a solution. 

Other than my crappy skin, things are pretty good 'round here. Just slather me in Benadryl gel and I'm good to go.