December Moments - 2020

December Moments:

We had remote learning for almost two weeks in December.  A little crazy.  But don't Sofie and Noah look cute learning...in their pj's.  

Here's Kira learning.  

I still remember my sister Melissa making these sticks with Isak and Kira while we were doing Sofie and Noah's newborn photoshoot.  💜

Isak and Kira drew self portraits.  Here's Isak's.

Here's Kira's.   Remember the photo just above of her learning?  This is the same shirt and hairstyle.  She put a lot of detail into her picture.  She even colored half her eye green and the other half blue.

One warm day while Isak and Kira were in school, I took Sofie and Noah to the library and then to the "Turtle" park.  There were two sweet girls there too.  They all played together and climbed on the turtle for a picture.  

It's always nice to get out to the park.

Waiting for the bus!

I started my own coding Instagram to post the different coding projects I've done and am working on.  It's called codealittle.  I was pretty happy to reach 50 followers...almost all of them are coders too.  Yay!

Cute Kira practicing the piano.

Isak playing the piano.  He memorized his song Malaguena.  

Waiting for the bus again.  :)

Noah and I have a thing we try to do often.  It's our way to connect.  We rock and watch a little show together while Noah drinks milk.  Every night when I tuck him in, he asks, "Mommy, will you snuggle me and drink milk and watch a show tomorrow?"  💙

Dad made Marshall Paw Patrol pancakes!!  

Sofie snuggling with her favorites.  The artwork behind the rocking chair belongs to Sofie.

Ready for a walk...

Noah brought his claw.  A favorite Christmas gift.  And comes in handy for hard to reach things.

The lighting was so perfect...Look at that Sofie girl!

Funny Kira...

My boys. 💙

Everyone hopped in.

Got one of Isak before he ran away.

Check out Noah's jump!

See Nels's face...Noah had just tripped and fell down for the third time.  Walks are nice, but challenging at the same time.

We timed it nicely though, the lights came on at the end of our walk so we enjoyed the neighborhood lights.

And our house.   We're adding a few more lights every year...

Isak discovered the sudoku and other puzzles in the newspaper.  This kept him busy for a while.

Christmas braids for Kira.

Christmas ribbon for Sofie.

Sofie played in the snow for a bit.

And with everyone else.  Even Noah played for at least 5 minutes.

I like this picture of Isak.

Sweet Kira.

Isak made this fort with buckets of snow.

Another tea party with brownies and hot chocolate.

She knows how to do it!

Snow cone... :)

December 31 - New Years Party.

We got Race to the Treasure for Christmas.  Sofie loves it.  It's a collaborative game.  You work together to get the treasure before the ogre gets it.  Sofie and Noah pronounce ogre "yogre."  :)

So we played it a few times.

We ate chili, cornbread and chili dogs for dinner.  

We played Pie Face.  

So funny!  Everyone loved it and laughed and laughed!!

It totally got me...check out Isak's laughter!!!

We ate our little white donuts.  They are Noah's favorite.  He ate his before I could take a picture.  

No worries...he got another one.  :)  

We ate ice cream.  We popped popcorn.  The kids wanted to watch Home Alone 2.  So we did.  We put together a 500 piece puzzle of Jackson Hole while we watched the movie.  Nels gave me that puzzle for Christmas.  We also played Mastermind.  A fun two player game.  Then bedtime at 11 pm  We had a great time and really enjoyed being together.

And that was the last day of 2020.

Here's a few Accomplishments and Highlights of 2020:

• I read the Book of Mormon.  Emma.  Romeo and Juliet.  Way of King Series. Fahrenheit 451.  And probably a few more YA fiction.  Lots of kid books too.
• I wrote a children's book, submitted it for publication and received my first rejection letter.
• I potty trained NOAH!!!!  This was huge for me...and him.  No more diapers for the Nyborg family.  Yay!
• Sofie and Noah learned to ride bikes with training wheels.
• Kira and Isak learned to ride bikes with no training wheels.
• Isak and Kira progressed with piano.  Ended the year with Isak in level 2 and Kira in level 1B.
• We went camping once!  Yay.  
• We went to Idaho and Utah.  We went to Jenny's wedding!  I was SO grateful we all got to be there.
• We hiked and biked in Utah and Illinois and Wisconsin.
• We went to Door County, Wisconsin.
• I made 5 videos of our family adventures on youtube.  
• Isak and Kira were baptized December 19, 2020.
• And of course, we adapted to remote/home school learning, hybrid learning and all things related to the world wide pandemic.  
• This year had highs and lows.  I know I struggled often with anxiety, sadness and a heaviness in my heart and mind.  I often felt like I wasn't being and doing enough.  That I wasn't a good parent and I'm doing it all wrong.  Strong feelings of fearing failure.  I also felt exhausted a lot and wanting to escape life.  Things that helped...rest, self-care, spiritual things (prayer, scripture study), Jody Moore's podcast.  
• 2021 - I hope to laugh more with my kids, not take myself and life so seriously!!  To be okay with imperfection and failure...because it happens.  I hope to have more moments of joy and peace.  I hope to create a better life for me and my family.   
• I know this blog shows the happy side of our lives.  And that's okay.  Because this is where I come to remind myself that I do have a good life worth living.  💖 

Farewell 2020.  Welcome 2021.