Happy Thanksgiving

We have so much to be thankful for this Thanksgiving week!  My Dad made it in safely on Wednesday, I spent most of the evening cooking - Dan got off early to come home and play with us.  

Tuesday was Chorale rehearsal for me - we had solo auditions and I got a solo - despite being VERY NERVOUS during auditions - and I'm very excited since I will be singing it in the church building right next to my Grandpa's home and so he and some of my other family will be there! 

James found the white board and markers on Wednesday and spent nearly an hour concentrating on coloring his beautiful pictures - he was so focused and intent on his picture!!  He wouldn't even look at the camera! 

Evie gave Grandpa a concert and played all her favorite songs for him.  

Thursday morning, we took the day easy - we didn't have much cooking to do since dinner was going to be at Stuart and Rebecca's - so we spent the day enjoying the amazing weather.  We took the kids to the church parking lot to ride around on their bikes.  Aaron has finally gotten motivated to learn to ride a 2-wheeler and is getting pretty good now!  Now we just gotta teach him to brake with the brakes instead of his shoes....  Evie is getting pretty good too, though we had a near accident when she was heading for a snow bank and couldn't figure out how to steer or turn and so she let go and fell backwards - fortunately I was right there to catch her and she didn't even scratch herself.  

Anna had lots of fun making "Olaf" and made him a snow home and everything.   

Dan tried to ride off on Evie's balance bike....

All in all, we all enjoyed the GORGEOUS weather!  Then in the evening we headed over to a wonderful dinner with the family.  The food was delicious and we all had a wonderful time! 

The next day we spent some time in the morning running some errands and getting our Christmas Tree with Grandpa.  Then in the evening, we spent time decorating it.  The kids have so much fun looking at their ornaments and looking at my old ornaments.  

Saturday morning, Grandpa left to head back to Texas and we settled back into our normal day - mostly, we started the morning with a trip to the park since the weather was still just amazing - the kids had a ton of fun running around, riding bikes around and playing.  Then I took Eileen to flute lessons - her teacher says she is VERY happy with her progress and it usually takes students much longer to produce the nice sound she is producing!  We then spent the afternoon cleaning up before letting the kids finish watching "Free Birds"

Sunday was wonderful - I've been teaching Eileen's primary class lately and it's been so much fun - I love the Old Testament stories and I love showing the kids how they relate to the Book of Mormon, the New Testament and our lives today.  It's so neat to feel the spirit teaching the kids and to see understanding and to watch the excitement as they get it!

I also had the neat opportunity today to chat online with a friend of Dan and I's who is a member of our church and has faith but is struggling with some of the LDS culture.  It was really neat to talk to him and hopefully help him remember that faith in the gospel is the important part.

My craft room has been occupied by our wonderful family for the past month now, so when my mom and dad went home this weekend, I was a bit excited to get to use it again and spent some of James' nap time sewing and working on my niece's quilt and had some fun teaching Eileen and Anna to sew and letting them sew a bit using some of my old scraps of fabric.

Relief

After a crazy Monday full of grocery shopping, dentist visits and laundry, we got up early Tuesday to meet with Amber after we dropped the kids off at school.  Tina came to sit in on the meeting and help out.  We got things altered some so that we can start actually being parents to our kids again, instead of just helping others do it for us.  I reveled in the pleasure of it by taking James to my Allergy Shot with out Grandma having to tag along.  It's amazing what you take for granted, and what you miss when it's gone.  It's been nice to be able to take the older ones out for some one-on-one time too.  I've been able to go bike riding with Eileen, take James and Evie for walks around the block, and take Aaron to get a birthday present for a party he was invited to.

Having Grandma around has meant that I could put James down for a nap and still pick up the kids from school.  Choir was fun - always nice to get out and get time to sing, and I'm grateful to now have an assistant section leader to help out.

Last night, Dan and I took advantage of our in house baby sitter to go out to a movie with Newel and Becky.  We saw "Interstellar" and had a great time together.

My Grandpa is doing a Christmas Carol Sing at his Retirement Home and thought the kids might be able to do something this year.  I talked to their Piano teacher, Stephanie, about helping them get some music ready for it.  Today after church, Anna started playing Away in A Manger, and Eileen started playing the flute along with her!!   It was so fun to watch them make beautiful music together!

While they did that, Daddy and the younger three made beautiful cookies together.

Our ward choir performed today, and I think it went really well!  Bonnie is doing such a good job taking over and she is so willing to serve and to try and be what the Lord needs her to be!  I've been worrying about getting the Christmas Program ready and I think I'm finally starting to pull things together.  

I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving - this month has just whizzed by.  But the kids only have 2 more days of school, my Dad gets into town on Wednesday and then Thanksgiving.  

Wishing and Hoping

These changes are starting to feel normal, and the craziness is starting to feel routine.  Our week has mostly been normal stuff.  Grandpa has been coming over in the afternoon to help with picking the kids up from school so that we could let James nap.  James is much more pleasant when he is allowed to nap when he needs to nap.  The funny thing is that I feel like we are a lot less busy right now.  In September and Fall, it seemed like James and I were always busy - allergy shots, babysitting, driving friends to doc appts, helping people in the ward, and visiting friends.  In comparison, this week seems rather slow....

Weather turned south on us this week.  Lots of snow (well - lots of snow for November in CO) and some really cold temperatures.  Eileen has been having fun measuring the amount of snow in our back yard.  She has been taking a reading every morning and recording it.  It made driving a bit dicey, but so far, we are all safe and sound! 

James still likes me to come in and read books to him before naps and bed time and sometimes, he doesn't want me to leave - and sometimes, that means that we doze off together, and sometimes that means that Dan feels the need to snap a pictures of our nap.....

Friday evening, Newell and Becky came over with their family to make Jam.  We ended up making about 13 1/2 gallons of jam with them.  Turns out we didn't really have to, but now, at least, we probably won't have to make jam for another 3 years, and we will have some yummy home-made gifts to give this Christmas..... (umm I mean - no - family members who read this.... we won't be doing that.....ummmm)

Today was wonderful - I've started getting ready for the Ward Christmas Program which is exciting!  We had some wonderful talks in Sacrament meeting, and I got to give a fun lesson in primary.  We started by talking about journals and how they help us remember things that have happened - then we talked about how the scriptures can serve the same purpose - to help us remember.  We talked about some cook Old Testament people and some cool Book of Mormon people and it was really neat to talk to the kids and teach them.  I love the Old Testament and I love teaching it to these 8-9 and 10 year old SMART kids!

Tonight we headed over to Frank and Tina's for Frankie's birthday.  The kids just love playing with cousins and it was fun to see and chat with family.

This week is going to be a bit busier, but at least I've got help.

Lately I've felt a bit redundant.  There's so much help that I feel a bit useless at times.  At least James still makes me feel necessary by demanding that I do everything with him.  I've felt like I haven't gotten to spend as much time with the older kids though because James wants my attention and the older kids are happy with Daddy, or Grandma or Aunt Tina or Great Grandpa or Uncle Frank.  Feeling like Supermom may leave me exhausted, but it also make me feel good about myself.  Or maybe being busy just leaves me with less time to dwell on the things that upset me.  Either way - I think I need to put myself to work...

Recovery

We had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa Jones this week.  Ann and I got the kids clothes sorted and moved to the right drawers - We made sure everyone had clothes in the right sizes and none of the wrong sizes anymore, their drawers were neat and clean - we'll see how long that lasts!!  Dan and Gene took down the rest of the fence in the back yard.  We think we might have finally gotten rid of all our mouse house guests.  Tina came up Friday night to mind the gap between grandparents, then my Mom got in Friday evening.  The kids are getting spoiled rotten with all this attention and grandparent time!  Saturday was mostly spent cooking and running errands.  My mom came out intending to stay as long as we needed her - knowing that it might mean months.  So we are trying to make sure she is as comfortable as it is possible to be in someone else's home.  

Saturday night was the ward Chili Cook Off - Dan made Chili, I made dessert and corn bread.  Dan brushed up and his balloon animals and I practiced for my song with Crystal.  Then we went to the church building with my mom, Frankie and Logan and Frank and Tina for a yummy and fun night.  We all came home stuffed and tired!  

Church today was wonderful.  We had some great talks from our High Council speakers.  The first was about following the prophets council to get our food storage and finances in order.  I felt strongly during the talk that our ability to pay for a lawyer when we needed one was a blessing we received for trying to follow that council and faithfully paying our tithing.  Just one more (of the many things) we have had to be grateful for as we have gone through this ordeal.  

So here's Dan doing his balloon animals for all the kids (even some not-so-little kids) The kids just LOVE it!  (and I think Dan likes being the "cool dad")  

The kids were playing games waiting for the chili judging to be done - including "Duck Duck, Goose"  James only got the "Duck Duck" part - so he walked around the circle patting everyone on the head and saying "Duck" I finally came over and helped him with the next part :)

......

How do you attempt to place a title on a post like this.....  or on a week like this....

This week was fall break - it started out like a normal happy crazy week.  Monday we had a few extra kiddos playing around the house and hanging out with us.  The kids had a blast running around and playing together.  Then in the evening, Eileen's friend Morgan came over to spend the night.  The kids had a blast carving pumpkins together.

Tuesday started out normal enough.  Dan headed out to help out with a young women's activity, and the kids were in and out of the house playing in the yard.  In the afternoon, all the kids came inside and I asked where James was.  The kids didn't know, so we started looking around, then we started searching the house and back yard top to bottom.  Not finding him anywhere we started combing the neighborhood - then we began calling in neighbors and church friends to help comb the neighborhood.  Eventually I called the police and we learned that he had escaped on his tricycle and gotten a couple blocks away before being found by a neighbor and taken to the police department.  They put him in foster care for the night and Child Protection Services started calling and investigating.  They came over Wednesday afternoon and examined our house, talked to the kids, put a "Safety Plan" into action and finally got James home to us, safe and sound on Wednesday evening.

Now Dan and I are being investigated by CPS, charged with child neglect and we are not allowed to be with our children unless an approved "Safety Monitor" is present.  Currently that means Aunt Tina or Uncle Frank.  We are working and getting other family members approved so that they can have a break and get on with their normal lives.

Friday morning, we had a meeting with the CPS people again to try and nail down a bit better what is going on and how it's going to work.  We think it went as well as could be expected.  Grandma and Grandpa Jones came out Saturday morning to help out - with 5 adults and 5 kids in the house, it's a bit crazy here, but at least it's not a bad crazy.

Friday night was Halloween, we took the kids to the ward truck-or-treat.  The kids had a blast playing with friends and collecting more candy than any child should ever have..... multiply that by 5 and our home is now overflowing with junk.....

Saturday morning, while Dan was picking up Gene and Ann from the airport, I was at the temple for a wedding.  It was so nice to have a bit of peace amid all the heart break and pain and worry of the last week.  Best of all was the reminder that regardless of what happens here, we are an eternal family.  Saturday evening, we went to the wedding reception, then went home exhausted from a long day.

Church today was wonderful.  Fast and Testimony meeting was wonderful, the support and love offered by the ward was wonderful.  When CPS is telling you that you are an awful parent, it's kinda nice to have 30 people telling you that you aren't.  

Today is Eileen's birthday, poor girl has had a rough week leading up to her birthday, but she is an amazing girl.  I can hardly believe that I am the mother of a 10 year old - but she is the best oldest daughter anyone could wish for.  She is intelligent, sweet, loving, creative, talented, and beautiful.  I am so glad she joined our family 10 years ago and I love getting to watch her grow and become more amazing every day.