Claire was baptized a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints on February 14, 2026! Valentine's Day, kind of memorable. It was such great day. She was the first baptism of the day. Her grandpas said the prayers, her brothers were the witnesses, Maggie played the piano (and did a fabulous job), her uncle Joe gave the talk, and Matt performed the baptism and confirmation. She had so many people there to support and show love to her! I am so proud of her and the amazing girl she is!

Afterwards we went to Meredith's church because I couldn't get mine and hers is the next closest. We had a little brunch and just visited for a while. It was a great day!

For Marianne's birthday in February all the adults went to dinner in Salt Lake and then went to a candle light string quartet concert that Shelley found. It was such a fun night because it was so different from what we normally do. The dinner was delicious and we had an entire basement room of an old house in the Avenues to ourselves. The concert was fun because the quartet played a list of old 90's hits. I knew almost all of them. The building we were in was awesome. It was the Ladies Literary clubhouse from 1877.

Claire turned 8 in January. She was so cute and so excited! She wanted a fun cake so I tried my hand at an 8 to celebrate with Grandma Jenkins. Then on her actual birthday we had our traditional doughnuts. 

The best part of your 8th birthday being a Jenkins is your Special Day! Grandma Jenkins and all the aunts go with you to watch you pick out your baptism dress and then get your ears pierced and do lunch. Claire had been looking forward to this for a long time.

We went to White Elegance in Layton and they had a lot of dresses for her to try on. She tried on every single option and then narrowed it down to her three favorite and tried them all on again. This is the one she decided on. It was fun to see her try on every dress and tell me why she did or did not like them. I think this was the winner because it was super comfortable and long sleeves are warm. 

After Grandma bought her dress and shoes we went to Rowan in Farmington to get her ears pierced. She picked a colorful flower earring as her stud and was a champ getting her ears pierced. She barely even flinched! She then picked to do lunch at Johnny Rockets because she was starving and it was the closest restaurant we could walk to. 

On January 24, I took my three older kids to do baptisms for the dead. It wasn't Kent's first time because he went with some friends a few weeks earlier. It was Corbin's first time as the baptizer though. It was so cool to be in the temple with three of my kids. Corbin was able to baptize Kent and Maggie. 

Kent was ordained to the office of a Deacon on Sunday, January 4! Kent is such an amazing boy! I am so proud of him and he will do amazing things. He is crazy smart and knows way more about the scriptures than I do. He is just like Matt and can remember everything he reads. He also got called to be the Deacon's quorum president this day as well. 

Mark had been super sick, so he wasn't able to be there. He ended up being admitted to the hospital for infection that weekend. 

We went to the Mountain House over New Years this year. We celebrated New Year's early for the littles. I tried to make Claire go to sleep before midnight and new years and that was a disaster. She ended up going back out and celebrating with everyone. Late nights has never been my strong suit as a mom. It is always fun to spend time with cousins though. The mountain house is definitely going to be full of memories. It was fun because the first day there was hardly no snow so they played in the fort and had a fire. It snowed a little over night so there was enough to have the Ranger pull the kids on the sleds and we made a snowman. 

Christmas Eve was our sibling gift exchange, but I really don't take pictures any more I guess. That evening was stories and pajamas at Marianne's. Then the annual Mega-bed sleepover. Maggie got stuck in the crack and only lasted part of the night. 

Christmas morning was wonderful! My kids all got wonderful gifts that they were super happy about. Corbin got some ski gear that he has used once, but there as been no snow at all this year. Our Governor just asked people of all faiths to pray for snow this week because we are in desperate need. Kent got a gun and has already been out shooting once with Matt and Mark. Maggie got some luggage because I am taking her to California in a couple weeks to see Kenna's cheer competition. Van and Claire both got some of the toys they asked for and electric scooters that have already gotten plenty of use. It is weird as my kids get older how Christmas is transitioning from toys to other things. There was hardly anything to put together on Christmas morning. My parents game over to see what everyone got and everyone was ready in plenty of time to go to Marianne's.