Birthday Baby

 

In anticipation of this week's huge snowstorm, we took Ella out for her birthday dinner on Friday night to Chevy's.

They gave her a sombrero and came and sang to her at the end of our meal, which she thought was very fun!

Then on Saturday night, the snow came..... we woke up to a Winter Wonderland and have been stuck inside every since!  Church was canceled on Sunday, work was canceled for Dave today and it's already been announced that school is canceled through at least Wednesday.  All activities of every kind canceled and we're all just hunkering down staying warm!  I've been working on neglected projects like going through old clothes and sorting my way through the storage room.  I actually love days like this where we're all together and have time to do the things you never otherwise have the time to do!

It's bitterly cold outside..... but beautiful.

Happy Birthday, Ella!  

Our little caboose is 13!

Last night, we gathered around and shared our favorite memories of Ella and opened gifts.  So grateful for our Ella Bella Boo.  She has so much personality and I can't imagine our family without this crazy, fun, thoughtful, athletic, boisterous little girl.  Love her so much!

It's a big birthday week for us having our oldest celebrate her final teen birthday and our youngest become a teenager.  We now officially have FOUR teenagers!

Happy Birthday to Lacey!

 

Thursday was Lacey's 19th birthday.  I'm the very unique position of working in the same place where I gave birth to her.  My office is literally across the hall from the Mother/Baby unit at Franklin Square Medical Center where I delivered Lacey.  So, I soaked it in for a few minutes when I arrived at work on Thursday thinking of and reliving the events 19 years ago that day from when my life changed forever as I became a Mother. 

This is the very first birthday Lacey is celebrating away from home.  Her roommates made it special for her by decorating her door and hallway with balloons.  They also put all these funny, homemade birthday signs all over the wall and also made her pancakes for breakfast. 

That evening, they all went out to dinner at Chipotle (Lacey's favorite).

And also went ice skating.  She had a great day!

The following evening, my parents picked her up and brought her back to their house and invited all the extended family over for a pizza dinner and cheesecake dessert.  In addition to my parents and Lacey, Ryan and Carrie and their kids came, Reagan and her boyfriend came, and my cousin Seth's wife Cari and their four kids came, so it was a houseful!  Unfortunately, they didn't get any pictures 😦. But so glad Lacey could spend her first birthday away from home and her last birthday in her teens being celebrated by her friends on Thursday and her extended family the following day 🩷🎂🥳

Three Threes For Number Three

 

Ella had a big game last weekend!  She played against one of her good friend's teams (here they are all smiles and still best of friends after a tough, close game where they went head to head on the court!) and they were neck and neck the whole game.  Ella gave it all she had scoring not one, not two but THREE 3-point shots that were all nothing but net.  She was so excited!  She got in her groove and it was so fun to watch and cheer her and her team on to victory.... by just one point 😅

Way to go Broadneck Bays! 🏀

Snowboarding into the New Year

 

Tanner has taken advantage of the January weather by hitting the slopes twice so far..... He went out to White Tail with two of his buddies last week....

And went back again yesterday with his Scout Troop to Round Top.  He loves having all of his own gear and hitting the slopes as soon as he gets there.  🎿⛷

2025 In Review

Summary of 2025:

TRAVEL: 

January:  Amelia Island, Florida (Kerry)

March: South Korea (Dave)

April:  Paris, Loire Valley, Giverny and Iceland (whole family)

And Chicago (Kerry)

May:  Lake Erie, Sandusky and Kirtland Ohio (Kerry and Lacey)

June: Italy (Rome, Florence and Milan -Dave and Lacey)

July: Norway and Amsterdam (Dave and Kerry)

And Key West Sailing Adventure for Tanner

AUGUST:  Guatamala for Tanner 

And Yellowstone/Montana for Kerry

SEPTEMBER:  Utah for Lacey and Kerry

OCTOBER:  Utah for Dave (Surprise trip to visit Lacey!)

  

And that's a wrap for Strom family 2025 travels!

Books:  

I didn't read a ton because I got into Podcasts (my favorites are Megyn Kelly, Ben Shapiro, The Nerve, Nothing Major, MK True Crime and How Rude Tanneritos) a lot more this year.

But among my favorite reads were:  The Housemaid by Freida McFadden, Table for Two by Amor Towles, Booth by Karen Joy Fowler, None of This is True by Lisa Jewel and The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese (which I'm currently reading and will hopefully finish today - it's a loooooong book but very well written!).  And I continued meeting monthly with my bookclub. 

Here was what we read:

January: Planning Meeting

Feb: skipped

March: Vera Wong's Unsolicited Advice for Murderers

April: Digital Minimalism

May: Restless Wave

June: The Women

July/August: off for the summer

Sept: 

Oct: George Orwell Essays

Nov: The Covenant of Water

Dec: The Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis

PETS/ANIMALS: 

We FINALLY got rid of fleas (thanks to me and Lacey who did all the work this entailed which was a MAJOR undertaking!) which our poor kitties contracted as a result of our foster pets :(. And Lacey threw a party to celebrate!  It was very fun and cute.  Salty, as usual, was amenable to the costumes and celebration and Peppa, as usual, was not.

And then in April took in four more foster kittens.

These are fosters #22-25 for us since we started fostering. 

Lacey, my kitten lover foster mama with Tiny Tim, Belle, Lucy and Brick.  Since there were four kittens, each kid got to name one.  Can you guess which on Tanner named? 🤔

And then in June,  after two months of taking care of these tiny ones, we got them to where they needed to be physically and socially and said good-bye to them in June when they all found good homes.

And also in June, we celebrated six years of having Sunny and Raven, Tanner's geckos

AUGUST:  We took in Fosters #26, 27 and 28

Cola, Sprite, and Pepsi

SEPTEMBER:  Saying goodbye to our foster kitties

OCTOBER:  Salty got sick..... we took him to the Vet on 10/25/25

NOVEMBER:  Our Sweet Salty passed away, the morning of Thanksgiving, tucked in bed between Dave and I

Burying him in our backyard. 

SPORTS

January:

Riley and her basketball team started off the year by winning the MLK Classic Tournament.

FEBRUARY

Riley and her basketballl team participated (and WON!) another tournament - this one over Presidents Day Weekend.

And Ella and her basketball team wrapped up their season

MARCH

Riley and her basketball team became County Champtions!

Last time playing together since after this, they all separated to go to three different high schools. Nice to end their time together with a County Championship win!

Lacey made the Varsity Tennis Team and was selected to be a Captain.

Riley's final season playing NGLL Lax with MD United East started.

And Ella went to Richmond, VA to play in the Jefferson Cup.

APRIL

Lacey's tennis team had a HUGE win over Broadneck, their biggest competition and rival

And Lacey and her doubles partner were one of the deciding matches.  It was a nailbiter with them winning in a match-deciding tiebreak!

Tanner participated in a Martial Arts sparring tournament

And medaled!

Ella's LAX team had a HUGE Victory over Hero's, the #1 team in the Nation.

And Lacey had Senior Night following their last regular season home match.

MAY

Lacey and her doubles partner won counties and advanced to Regionals

JUNE

Riley and Ella both participated in several big out-of-state LAX tournaments including Live, Love, Lax andn Lax for the Cure

JULY 

I took Lacey and Ella to the DC Citi Open where we started the day by meeting Taylor Fritz.

And Medvedev

And ended the day with a Ben Shelton autograph!

AUGUST

Riley made the JV soccer team!

SEPTEMBER

Ella made the first ever Severna Park Middle School basketball team (they just started doing Middle School sports this year) and was one of only 3 7th graders to make the combined 6th/7th/8th grade team and started off with a 3-pointer in game one!

They went undefeated all season

October

Riley's JV Soccer team won the County Championship!

NOVEMBER

Ella tried out for and made the first-ever Severna Park Middle School Flag Football team. They only lost one game all season, won the championship game and Ellas scored several touchdowns during the season 🏈

DECEMBER

Dave, Ella and I traveled to NYC to see BYU take on Clemson at Madison Square Garden

Buzzer-beater 3-pointer for the win!

EDUCATION MILESTONES

February:

Lacey found out she got into BYU!

June:

Lacey graduates High School

AUGUST:

Ella starts 7th Grade, Riley starts 9th grade and Tanner starts 12th grade

Riley starts High School (and early morning seminary)

Tanner starts his Senior year of High School

And he also took a semester-long 3x/wk course to become a volunteer Firefighter!

Lacey moves away from home and gets settled into her first dorm.

And starts her first day of College majoring in Pre-Nursing

MUSIC and SCOUTS Combo

MARCH/APRIL

Tanner participated in his High School's Rock and Roll and Ella participated in her school's Mary Poppins

NOVEMBER:  Tanner completed his Eagle project!

He custom made cubbies for the local animal shelter

Before

After:  Two rooms re-painted with new pet furniture installed

Tanner and Riley both spent NYE with friends but here are the rest of us ringing in the New Year together last night!

As with every year, there were highs and lows of 2025. But we are grateful for each other and for all we were able to experience together.

Happy New Year and may 2026 bring health and many wonderful memories and experiences!