Happy Birthday Dad

Happy Birthday yesterday Dad! You would have been 79!

We celebrated you all day yesterday by thinking about you, calling mom and talking about you, going to soak in the warm hot springs, eating ice-cream at Dairy Queen, spending time with people we love, and I even wore your sweater all day long.

We love and miss you so much and wonder what good things you are doing in heaven...

Can't wait to see you again someday.

XOXOXOX

 

See the Good

This year we have chosen our theme for Relief Society from Sister Michelle D. Craig's conference talk "Eyes to See" and we are going to "SEE THE GOOD!"

This past Sunday I was able to teach relief society over zoom and introduce this theme and talk about all of the ways we can help each other to see the good in our lives each day. After all, when we have eyes to see, there is so much good around us! If we will pray to have our eyes opened, then we will be able to see God's hand in our lives in ways that we may have never recognized before as well.

We had my brother in law Colby order these journals for us to give out, along with a "See's" butterscotch lollipop! :) Sweets always help you to "see the good!" ;)

My presidency got together at my house and we put together these little gifts for everyone (130 of them) and then went around delivering them before last Sunday so that they could have them for the lesson and introduction for the year. Some people are using these as gratitude journals, some are using them as prayer journals to remember people and things to pray for...I have even been using it to write down the ways I see God's hand in my life, and anything good that happens in my day or good quotes that I don't want to forget! 

We even made up a "GOOD Newsletter" (actually it was my secretary Lauren) that is full of all kinds of good news! We will print up a new one each month and deliver them right to the sisters front doors!

We are hoping that this will be one way that we can feel a little more unified and connected since there was a lot of being disconnected last year with the pandemic.

I really think it will be fun and uplifting for the sisters to get! :)

I am already loving it.

I slip my little copy inside the cover of my planner and take it with me everywhere I go!

The only problem is, that I can tell I am going to run out of room in my journal before the year is through!

And here is the cool part...

as I was reading Sister Craig's talk, she offered 4 things to do to have "eyes to see," and "ironically" (NOT! :) those 4 things spell out the word GOOD.

I love how the spirit gave ME eyes to see this cool little connection so that we could apply it in so many ways to our theme for the year. It is SO good, and so is our Heavenly Father.

I am excited to see all of the good that we will find and do and give this year..SO MUCH GOOD!

 

2020 Christmas Card

This is our Trickett Family Christmas card and letter from 2020.

At a glance it is a review of some of our adventures and memories in the making...

-Clint and I celebrate our 26th wedding anniversary

-We go back to church as a family after months of at home church only(with masks in hand ;)

-Carew and Kara on the wave runner at Lake Powell, our 1st time ever on a house boat!

-Gavin (and Kesslyn) on the sand at Newport Beach

-Kesslyn and her unicorn cake celebrating her 5th birthday

-Kambriella taking a break in the shade while on our hike in Peek-a-Boo and Spooky slot canyons in Escalante Utah

-Dallin overlooking the ocean from the Balboa Island pier at Newport Beach

-Kierra, Riley, and Easton on the back deck of our cabin during Thanksgiving 2020

The back side of our Christmas card was also a first hand account of some of the real tumult that we felt during a turbulent year of living in the pandemic. This photo was taken immediately after the 5.7 magnitude earthquake that we experienced while in the beginning of the pandemic.

Emotions were real, and so are our blessings and our faith.

Again, I am SO grateful for the stability and the PEACE of the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives.

We can honestly say that with the peace that gospel brings, and our Savior Jesus Christ right by our side, 2020 was a blessing in disguise.

We have so much to be thankful for!

 

I'll Go Inside Again Someday

I love to see the temple, Kesslyn and Kambriella will go inside someday, and I will go inside AGAIN someday...

I can't wait for that sweet day to arrive.

We have really missed going there since it has been closed during the pandemic, but we have tried to keep the temple close to our hearts.

When Kesslyn wanted to listen to her new temple night light music box in my bed, it about melted my heart how she just lied there for so long with a smile glued to her face.

She loves the temple too, just like her momma. :)

Christmas In Color

The last of the holiday activities that we did this year was the Christmas In Color drive through light display!

We loaded up the car and drove to the equestrian park in South Jordan where there were millions of twinkling lights set to some of the craziest Christmas music you have ever heard!

After stopping for ice cream at Arctic Circle we drove through this light display with the radio turned up, and the moon roof open!

The girls had a ball poking their heads out the top of the car and dancing around.

And although the lights were fun to see, I was glad when it was over because the flashing lights started giving me a headache. The festivities are always fun, but I am always grateful for the constancy of the One True Light...

..the One we owe EVERYTHING too.

He is the REASON for the season!

 

The Newest Driver

What better activity can a 15 year old boy think of during the winter break than that of getting a driver's permit??

Congrats Gavin on being the newest and 4th driver in the family. :)

 

Christmas 2020

 

I'm finally getting around to one of my lasts posts from 2020, and this one is a special one...Christmas!!!

On Christmas Eve we hosted my sister Tiffany's family and we had a yummy fancy dinner with turkey and salmon, salads, sides, veggies, and appetizers...

Although we were missing some of our favorite people, we were grateful to share with who was there.

Holidays and celebrations really wouldn't be the same if you didn't have people you love to share them with!

And I love these people.

We bring out the best in each other.

And just look at the excitement in the eyes of little Kesslyn and Kambriella!!! Christmas Eve is so magical, especially for children!

After eating our yummy dinner we cleared off the tables and watched Kesslyn put on a little puppet show, and played games until we couldn't hold the long blinks back any longer.

Carew was with Kara's family, and it's Kierra and Riley's year to spend Christmas with his family, so we missed them, and were happy Maicen was here all the way from Wisconsin!

Sweet Kambriella took it upon herself to make a homemade stocking for Peve too! She made a pattern, cut up an old t-shirt, sewed some hand made pom-pom's, added some glitter and voila!  A stocking for Peve!

I thought it was sweet and selfless (we encourage ANYTHING that is selfless!) of her to think of doing that for their kitty. And lucky for Peve, Santa actually left him a few things in it! :)

The Christmas tree always looks so beautiful lit up and full of gifts underneath.

And this is the sweet letter that Kambriella wrote for Santa. :) So sweet!

On Christmas morning Carew was finally the first one awake and so he went through the house waking everyone up. It was around 9:00, which I LOVE. Our kids have never really been early risers on Christmas and I have always enjoyed that. :) Getting a little extra "sympathy sleep" for Santa!

After we had family prayer and brushed our teeth, I made the kids take a few pictures in their Christmas jammies. :)

And it's somehow always been a tradition to take a picture sitting on the stairs, oldest to youngest before going to see the presents!

And their faces say it all!!! :) :) :)

Santa is always so good to my kids. I hope they always are grateful...

It was actually so cute too that Peve curled up in the little manger with baby Jesus and watched the kids open all their gifts! He was reminding them of whose day it really was. ;)

Everyone got new robes and long boards (except Kesslyn who instead got a light up scooter.)

They loved them. They are SO cool. ;)

Kesslyn was thrilled with all of her gifts, but especially her princess Barbie's! Every little girl's dream come true!

But this gift was my favorite one of all...

I ordered for each of my children their favorite temple that was made into a night light and a music box!

They each have one of their favorite songs personalized to play with their temple. Such a special gift, and something I hope they will cherish for years to come.

It was a wonderful Christmas in a year when life was a little different, but yet where our family still had SO MUCH GOOD prevail. But I think that also has a lot to do with the fact that we try our best to also let GOD PREVAIL in our lives. When we do that, things always work out. 

On Christmas night, as one of the last things we did, we all took our Coke's from Japan that Uncle Chad and Aunt Mayumi sent us, and we pulled the tabs into the Christmas ribbon that they were made for, and drank them up! I love thinking of life like that...each day a gift! Each meal and drink and gathering a celebration of all the good that God gave us that day...

Merry Christmas 2020 from the Trickett family!