Christmas 2021

This was our first Christmas at our new house. A lot happened in 2021, so it was a nice time reflecting on all the good new things we had in our family, such as our new house, neighborhood and all that it entails. 

George started school this year and even though kindergarten was a mess for the first few months, he was at least getting used to everyday school by Christmas time. 

Elena started school at Spectrum Academy this year and that has been the best experience for her! The school curriculum and schedule leave so much room for Elena to be herself without fear of getting in trouble all the time. Her teacher Miss Kaylee loves her to pieces and that bond they have makes school even more enjoyable for Elena. She's learning a ton and has already caught up on a lot of missed material she didn't learn at Montessori. 

Charlie is still at French immersion at Belmont Elementary (George goes there too) and he literally goes there still because he loves his best friend there named Declan. French has been too hard for him, and mainly because he hasn't learned to try to pick out what is being said to him. He goes through the motions in French class but is still somehow doing his math work, which is relieving (all math is taught in French). It was very cute seeing him perform a Christmas song in French at their Christmas program.

Charlie's Christmas Program at Belmont Elementary 2nd Grade French Immersion

George's Christmas Program at Belmont Elementary Kindergarten class,

He didn't sing a word! He at least did some of the song motions with his classmates...

Looking at Christmas lights is a family tradition now. Turns our Lehi has quite a few homes that do light shows. It was fun driving around and looking for them.

Grandma Debbi brought this gingerbread house kit and built it with the kids. I love when Grandma and Grandpa spend time with our children!

Annual gingerbread houses tradition. Kevin and I didn't help at all this year, which is the first year ever we haven't had to do that.

Cheeky George in his Christmas PJs

Christmas Eve tradition of getting new Christmas PJs

Elena's Christmas kitten,,,

All of her presents! I guess it was a bit too much ;)

A visit to the Aquarium

Watching Home Alone 2 or 3 on repeat this Christmas. They found Home Alone 3 especially hilarious (kind of terrible for us adults in the house lol)

Charlie enjoying a Christmas gift from my friend Polie.

Elena at her Christmas class party. Her teacher sent this photo to me in an email. I love her so much!

 

Winter Fun 2021-2022 Part 2

 The other activity we did as a family while in Park City was taking the kids skiing, teaching them to ski. 

Elena and Charlie have gotten a lot more confident and actually enjoy skiing now. Last year was the first time they skied, so this year they've grown in every aspect and their lessons from last year sunk in this season. 

George is harder to teach. He hasn't responded too well to us teaching him, so we're (Kevin mostly) are having to hold him with the ski leash and follow behind him. That's pretty painful to do as you're having to pizza down the entire hill and get frustrated as George does not respond to the suggestions to turn this way or that. Eventually he'd end up on the "Magic Carpet" area - essentially the beginner's hill with a conveyer belt that takes skiers to the top and you ski down a fairly flat area with a whole lot of other beginners. 

George also gets tired very quickly at this age and he's usually done skiing after an hour of being up there.

Kevin and I started taking turns skiing with either Charlie and Elie or with George. Usually I start with Charlie and Elena and do 2-3 runs with them, by then George is ready for the magic carpet, so I stay with him there and Kevin takes a few runs with the two older kids. 

We are so happy that it's our family sport and truly hope George becomes more teachable next season as he get older and more mature. 

The last time we went skiing it was just me, Elena and Charlie, since George didn't want to go. Kevin took him on a Daddy - Son date instead. We had a great time skiing and when we got down to the bottom to go home, we saw that Toyota was doing an event. We got our faces printed on a cookie and the kids created their own logos that ended up on a ski hat that they gave to them as gifts. Super fun!

It was also dumping snow like crazy so by the time we got to the car our cookies had gotten wet through the paper bags they were in. Good thing I took a picture of them for a memory! :) 

Winter 2021-2022 Fun Part 1

I work for Surefoot, which is located in Park City UT. I go into the office to pick up mail and file paperwork every so often. I used to go every Saturday but that has changed as my work responsibilities have shifted towards doing a lot more Payroll work, and digital Accounts Payable filing. We made it a point to do something fun while we're up in Park City. 

Kevin introduced us to this park last winter. In the summer it's a mountain biking park trail/skate park/dog park/ and kids playground. Pretty cool place we've enjoyed taking the kids to.

In the winter it's an awesome place for sledding. The kids have a great time playing in the snow.

Here are some pictures of the one time we went this winter. 

Yoana Life Recap

I will try to catch my "journaling" up to what has been going on in our lives and I'll start by a basic recap of activities I've been up to.

 

Sometime in 2013 I decided I wanted to pursue a nursing degree.

 Occasionally I get woken up by powerful thoughts that seem to come from somewhere other than myself (who knows, possibly inspiration?). One morning in 2013 I woke up to the thought that I need to figure out how to become a nurse. It seemed really out of nowhere, but I decided to look up what it would take and realized that I can go back to BYU and take some classes - the University of Utah offered an accelerated degree for people with a bachelors degree, so I would just need to make sure I took the 10 prerequisites required. They were various basic and mid level biology, chemistry, nutrition, and anatomy classes.

 Being a mom and at home as much as possible was still my priority and has stayed that way for all these years. Kevin and I were living in an apartment in Provo at the time but I somehow found someone willing to watch Elena for a few hours each week, so I could attend 2 classes at BYU. Then in 2014 we moved to Saratoga Springs into Kevin's brother John's basement. I kept going to school doing 2 classes at a time, while my sister-in- law Rachel watched Elena for a few hours each week, so I could keep attending my lectures. I became pregnant with Charlie not long after I started school in 2013 and BYU only gave me 1 year to get my classes done (long story on how their post-graduate studies work), so I was rushing to get through most of these 10 classes before Charlie was born. I ended up completing 7 of the 10 and then did 2 more online through BYU independent studies while Charlie was very young and left one final class that I could take online for when it got closer to applying for the nursing program. 

The University of Utah strongly encouraged medical experience, so I took a CNA course and started working night shifts at Osmond Senior Living in Lindon. It was a brand new Assisted Living and Memory Care facility and my first exposure to working with the elderly. I had found my niche! I had never realized how much I enjoyed hearing people's life stories and helping feel comfortable in whatever way they needed. I was not bothered by some of the "gross" aspects I had assumed were part of the job - it felt so natural to help someone shower or toilet them etc. Perhaps becoming a mother had changed my perspective on how good it feels to see someone else enjoy human contact and help. Before long I started working as a med tech as well - the person that gives the residents' medications and talks to the nurse about any potential medical needs you're seeing.

We still lived in Saratoga Springs so it was a 30 minute commute to work 3 nights a week. I was working 8 hour shifts from 10pm to 6am, I'd come home and sleep for 2 hours and get to bed early that following night. Being chronically sleep deprived from having little ones had already prepared me for this routine. I didn't mind it.

With my helping to provide a little bit of additional income, Kevin and I were able to buy our first home. It was in Pleasant Grove - much closer to Lindon, where we both worked.

I got pregnant with George (unplanned but totally wanted) towards the end of 2015 and had him in July 2016. He was in fact named after one of my favorite residents at Osmond Senior Living - an 90 something elderly gentleman who loved the Savior more than anyone else I had met. He used to have me sing for him when I'd tuck him in at night- a privilege I kept only for my kids ears due to low confidence in my vocal abilities, caused by being surrounded by much better voices in every ward I ever attended in Utah. He'd sing with me. His favorite hymn was "How Great Thou Art" and every time he sang the verse about how he would stand at the Savior's feet and worship Him we'd both cry. He knew his Savior and was ready to meet Him. I couldn't imagine a better fate for my little boy growing inside my belly at the time. So George he is! 

I took a break for a few month after I had George, then came back to working as a med tech at Osmond Senior Living until my closest co-worker moved to Spring Gardens Assisted living, just up the street from there. I moved to working there in huge part because of her. It did help that they had 12 hour shifts so that I was finally able to work full-time in the 3 shifts I was used to working. While working there I applied to the U of U's accelerated nursing program but I wasn't accepted.

In 2018 I got a job at the American Fork hospital in hopes to expand my medical experience and have a better chance of getting into that program. I worked there for 2 years - up until I ended up switching career paths because I was given the opportunity to work from home with a pretty ok pay. That might have been the hardest decision I ever made because it meant giving up on my goal of becoming a nurse, and doing something completely out of my comfort zone. Doing a job from home, so I could be with my kids a lot more as they're getting older was a huge blessing in my eyes.

I have now worked at this other job for 2 years this coming July. When I started, I used to question my decision fairly often because now I sat at a desk in front of a computer, and I was missing the human interaction and fulfilment from working with patients. It seemed odd to many that I made this choice, but I don't regret it, I can't. I work in a team that relies on me and I have learned so much about myself over the past 2 years. I am doing work I never thought I had the mental capacity to do and find odd fulfillment in being able to perform it well. I am also at home with my kids, I no longer leave the house to work, and I no longer stay up all night multiple nights a week. Kevin and I were able to move to a home we love and plan to live in for a long time. I am still trying to piece together whether the thought that woke me up that one morning that I should be a nurse will lead me to fulfilling it some day when the kids are older, or whether it was meant to lead me to a path of discovery of my capabilities and interests that does not necessarily mean I need to be a nurse. I don't know the answer today but hope to find it as I keep walking this road of being a working mom. 

Stay tuned!

 I used to be very active on Facebook and Instagram up until the Covid-19 Pandemic hit in 2020. 

I am not a political person, and both social media platforms turned into a space to vent your political opinions. While I was in full support of being socially conscientious and caring about those around/doing your part to prevent the spread of the virus, I really didn't feel right about posting my opinions. It felt like being a hypocrite and pretending I know or go out of my way to do more than I was actually doing. I really wanted to maintain a sense of normalcy, but continuously realized my world won't ever be the same again.

So I stopped posting, except occasionally because I hated not being able to keep the "journaling" of my life I was accustomed to via social media. It's taking me 2 years to remember there are other ways to do this. So here I am again, if anyone wants to know how we're doing, here you go. :)

My Mom's 1st Live General Conference

This was exactly a year ago. We took the kids and my mom to the pumpkin patch in Springville. I think it's called "Jack a Lantern". Sadly, most of the pictures I took were in the Live mode which isn't able to work for this blog. Still, here's a few showing my mom playing with the kids. That's one of her best traits as a grandma - she almost turns into a child when she plays wit them. She enjoyed playing in the corn wit them. My favorite picture isn't here but it captured her being in the pumpkin/corn field. She finds herself in those environments. She loves gardening, planting, picking. When we were children she'd take us to various corn fields to pick corn. It was like manna in those days when food was scarce. 

She came back with a whole wagon full of pumpkins and bought all of them. We had something like 10 large pumpkins last fall and she made us lots of delicious banica with it all winter.

Family Pictures 2016

These were taken last summer. I have neglected to update this blog for years now but it's about time I start recording some things. 

My friend Plamena  took these pictures. We had Jane come to visit and the last time we had my mom and Jane with us at the same time, we took family pictures. Elena was 13 months old then. In these pictures she is 5, Charlie is 2 and George is only 2 months old. 

We took the pictures at a park by Polie's house. Jane had spent the day with Iolly and Venci, they gave her a ride and stayed with us for the pictures. I should have asked Plamena to take a few with them in it but at least we survived the ones we did take. My mom was being stubborn. The kids lost interest quickly. The lighting was not ideal.

This was the year that Jane had found out that she has skin cancer. She underwent lymph node surgery on her leg and has to wear compression leggings for the rest of her life. Not too long after that her house burnt down and she lost most of her possessions. There were some miracles along the way and plethora of amazing people who helped her with clothes, money, furniture, etc. That's the only reason she was able to make it to see us. She is a strong one, this one!