The Atkin Family: January & February

It was back to real life in January, as real as life could be with the boys only in school part time and the girls still at home in the middle of a pandemic. Eve still loved her baths:

In early January, we went out to eat at our favorite restaurant we found in Clovis--Colton's Social House.

Eve was in the stroller but she was there. This was the first time we talked to the kids about possibly moving. This would become a common topic of conversation around our house for months. We moved to Clovis with the promise that we'd stay at least for all of the girls' high school careers. Unfortunately, a pandemic starting a week after we purchased our home threw a wrench in things. Joe's job that we moved there for changed and he didn't have any work while the courts were closed. He ended up leaving and found another job temporarily but networking around the area was tough since we didn't know anyone and it felt so hard to get to know people. The girls were supposed to start in-person school after the Christmas break but with cases rising, that got delayed. We started to wonder if they'd be able to have much of a high school experience at all there. We loved our house and felt like we could be happy in Clovis but we just didn't know if we wanted to stay there long time with things the way they were. We talked the whole thing to death until we finally made a decision months later.

Also early in January, Eli was baptized! We were able to do it at the church but with less than 10 people. It was just our family, Grandpa Allen, and the bishop who came and everyone else logged in on zoom to watch. We were so proud of Eli and it was a sweet experience.

I love that smile.

My friend Mari sent me these pictures from her computer:

Natalie gave the talk and did a great job. We were so glad Grandpa drove all the way down for it. Eli really wanted sugar cookies like a lot of kids would have in Fremont for their baptisms so we made those. I was given this temple cookie cutter that we used. Unfortunately, they didn't look quite as good once they were frosted:

We laughed about that. It was a great day!

Here are some more Eve pictures:

You can kind of see her teeth coming in in those pictures. She was probably our kids to get her teeth the earliest. That made nursing difficult at times!

Over Martin Luther King Day weekend, we booked an airbnb in Pismo Beach for a fun getaway. It was such a great weekend! The place we stayed at was really nice, we had great weather, and we loved Pismo Beach. It was our first time there.

Eve always loves the beach:

Eli loves getting buried:

Our place had this amazing rooftop sitting area that we took advantage of as much as possible:

More beach time:

We found some tide pools one day although there wasn't too much to see:

Eli loved this hearty rock:

It was the perfect weekend.

Eli got to start sparring in karate and loved wearing his gear (he didn't love sparring so much, though):

Here's a little snapshot of home-school in January:

The girls were in their rooms doing the same thing.

At the end of January, we drove up to Greenwood and got to enjoy tons of snow that had just fallen:

We went sledding and Natalie made this cute little snowman:

We ended up driving to Jerome again from there for a weekend. Lizzie had just turned 16 and James was set on making sure she went on her first date so he set up a group thing. They made gingerbread houses, played games, and watched a movie, Her is a picture he sent of them--Lizzie and Caleb. It sounded like she had a great time and we were all thankful to James and his friends for making it happen.

Then it was back home to daily life:

Look at those teeth now:

Eve learned to say "hi"--her first word.

Eli got to have a little Valentine's party in school:

He's in the back of the top picture.

Natalie decided that she wanted to make a gourmet breakfast, lunch, and dinner one day and boy did she deliver!

Then she made this pavlova for dessert:

We were well-fed that day!

Eve discovered the tupperware cupboard and would frequently dump everything out until we figured out a way to lock it:

One day, Natalie was riding her bike to the stores near our house. She loves doing that and buying snacks or treats she wants. This time, she was about to cross a driveway for the gas station there. She was paused waiting for a car that stopped so she assumed they saw her but they didn't and ended up hitting her on her bike! The lady was nice and her mother happened to be in another car nearby so she helped a lot. She called us from that lady's phone--that was sure scary news to hear! The mom was able to fit her bike in her car and she drove her to our house. Natalie was fine, thankfully, especially since she wasn't wearing a helmet, but she was pretty banged up and had bruises for months: