Booo!

It's been a crazy week - but life is always a bit more crazy with out Dan.  We had all the usual things - Choir, school, laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, piano, homework.  Eileen had a field trip to the the Denver Symphony which she LOVED.  Evie got to go to a farm and came home with lots of veggies. 

James has been a bit cranky with Daddy gone, but I did discover that when he's tired and not willing to admit it, he might be willing to curl up on the couch and snuggle up and snooze with mommy!  So James and I got in some good cuddle time!

Friday night I had a concert.  We got to sing at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in downtown Denver.  It's a beautiful old cathedral with beautiful stained glass and a wonderful sound!  We got to sing with an amazing group of bell ringers.  The concert went well and was a lot of fun.

Saturday, I told the kids that if they could get their stuff cleaned up by a certain time, I would take them to Boo at the Zoo.  So after Eileen's flute lessons, the kids got all dressed up and we went to the Denver Zoo for trick or treating and fun events and stuff.  The kids loved it (at least they said they did between all the whining about being thirsty and hungry...) 

After we met Dan at home - he having got home while we were out.  Then I left to go sing with our Stake Choir at our stake's new building dedication.  It was beautiful - I went feeling stressed out and sick, I left feeling wonderful!  

Saturday, I also had to take Eileen to the doctor, she woke up complaining about her ear hurting, so we took her in, found an ear infection, and then went to the zoo.  After the dedication, I went to try picking up her medication again (Dan had tried earlier, but our usual pharmacy had been closed due to an electrical fire) But it was still closed, so we had to go through a LOT of hassle to try and get the prescription sent to another pharmacy so we could get her medicine and get her feeling better.  

Today was a wonderful day at church - it was exciting to see a bunch of new faces!  After our ward had a little social which I left early to go to our final CMC concert.  The concert was again wonderful and because it was earlier in the day - we got to see the light coming in through the stained glass image of Christ as we sang!  I got home in time to play with the kids a bit and then put them to bed.  When I got home I asked the kids if they had saved any dinner for me.  Evie gives me her big brown puppy dog eyes and says "I'm sorry mommy!!!"  over and over - it was so cute I had to forgive them - plus Dan still made me a bite to eat to make up for it :)  

After we put the kids to bed, we had the missionaries over to teach a lesson to an investigator - she seems like a really great person - it was really neat to get to know her and it's ALWAYS great to get to sit in on these lessons and feel the spirit and bear my own testimony!  

Just Breathe

After the insanity of last week, we spent this week just chillin'  - and after doing so good at taking pictures last week, I didn't take any this week :)

We took Aaron in to the doctor first thing Monday morning and it turned out he had strep, so we got him on antibiotics and I was glad to have him back to school on Wednesday after the thread of infecting others was over because he was bouncing off walls.  We got Aaron back to normal only to find that James was running a fever, but oddly enough it made things easier - James wanted medicine every time Aaron got any - and since he had a fever, we felt justified in giving him some Tylenol for it :)  Plus one morning, after we sent the big kids off to school, James climbed into bed with me and we snuggled up and slept in.  James slept until almost 11, and not wanting to wake him, I mostly lazed in bed.  After 3 kids who wouldn't sit still with me for more than 30 seconds once they got mobile, it's kinda nice to have some cuddlers!  Some of my favorite parts of every day are are the times I get to snuggle up with some of my kiddos!  (as long as they don't start fighting over me...)

Eileen and Anna are in the school choir this year and they started practices this week.  They seem excited about it and I hope they enjoy it!

Friday, Dan headed off on another trip - this time to New Orleans.  :(  The kids keep seeing his car out front and saying "Daddy's home!"  Or hearing a noisy car nearby and going "Daddy's coming!"

This weekend was Stake Conference.  We sat with Deb and Marion and James parked himself with Marion and didn't even fuss when I went to sing with the stake choir (this is nothing short of miraculous - he's not even that good with Dan)  Weather was beautiful for our walk there and back and we had a wonderful afternoon and evening together.  Our Stake made some big changes - with some small ones affecting our ward, so it will be exciting next week to see some new faces!

Now I just need to survive this week.... I MISS YOU DAN!

Fun Times

Look at me - I took pictures this week - I even managed to get a picture of everyone in this post - don't know if that has ever happened before.... Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday was the usual busy-ness.  Allergy Shots, dentist appointments, piano, homework, school, doctors appointments, reading, playing, school, choir, etc.  Thursday night, the kids had a Skate City Night.  As usual they had a blast and didn't want to leave.  Evie and Anna both won a door prize of ice cream - they were very excited since mommy is too cheap to buy any.  Evie mostly spent her time clinging to walls, mommy, or any other thing she could get her hands on.  Aaron started out that way - but gradually got more confident.  

Friday, the kids were off school.  We had our friends Piper and Claire come play in the morning, then Addie came and played in the afternoon.  As soon as the kids got stuff cleaned up, we loaded up the cars and met up with Grandpa to go to a pumpkin patch.  We helped Grandpa get a BIG pumpkin and the kids had fun picking out little pumpkins.

The kids loved wandering around finding pumpkins and bugs and whatever else they could find - thankfully they stayed mostly out of the mud.

The pumpkin patch had an admission fee, but they offered LOTS of fun for the price.  The kids got to sit on a cow (Anna's has plastic vampire teeth from a booth in her mouth)

They had pony rides - which Eileen, who is always happy to get on a pony or horse, was ecstatic about and Even James loved it.

They had lots of bouncy house fun - the kids could have stayed there all night.  I practically had to drag James out.

Saturday I was helping throw a bridal shower for a friend.  We spent the morning cleaning, then I spent the afternoon cooking and getting stuff ready.  I think it came out really nice and I think we all had fun!

Today was nice, Dan gave a talk in church - James only let me hear the first half, but what I did hear was great!  After church I had choir and Stake Choir.  Other than that we spent the afternoon playing games with the kids and having fun with them.

Aaron is sick though, so tomorrow is going to begin a whole new adventure....

General Conference Weekend

 We've had another busy week.  Life is always a bit crazy when Dan is out of town - for starters, we miss him!  But also, he is such a good husband, and helps so much around the house that it is difficult for me to keep up with out him.  But in addition to all this - there is the tendency for other things to go wrong when ever he is out of town.  Monday, Anna and Aaron were both home from school sick.  Tuesday, it was Aaron and Evie.  All had been kept home with stomach bugs - the poor kiddos were throwing up :(  Thankfully they managed to get most of it into toilets, but I still felt bad for them.  I felt a bit sick to the stomach most of the week, but only threw up on Monday.  Thankfully my mom was still here to help out.  She left Wednesday morning, but by then most of the sickies were better.

James was tired enough after a couple long days to tell me to lay down on one chair in our front room while he curled up on the other and took a nap.

Friday, Dan got home - I went to get my allergy shot, took Heather to run an errand and got home just in time to have lunch with him!  He came home exhausted though, so I sent him to take a nap along with James while I got some groceries and the kids from school.

Yesterday, we discovered that Evie had gone around the house claiming it as her own.... in sharpie.  We found her name in sharpie in 5 different locations including 3 separate counter surfaces, the refrigerator, the table and Aaron's piano book. We had a little talk.....

Saturday General Conference was wonderful!!  It is always a much needed uplift - plus a weekend mostly off of other things is nice too.  I still took some time to mow the lawn between sessions, but mostly we relaxed!  In the evening we had some friends over for pizza and brownies during the priesthood session.  It was nice having a friend over to chat with - and it was nice sending the kids down to watch a movie and have some adult chat time!  :)

Eileen and Anna were very cute and built a LEGO conference center and temple and they they would go and arrange it every time something happened or changed - so they would move them to be walking out when it ended and have them sitting down during talks.

Then Anna decided a LEGO temple wasn't enough, so she also created a block one with some help from Evie.  

The weather has been gorgeous the last couple days, so after the final session, we spent some time in the back yard playing together and having fun!  Eileen and Anna have been learning how to throw a frisbee at school, so we pulled out the frisbees and had fun throwing to each other and then trying to get it through the hole on the tire swing.