Icky Sickies

James and I have been sick all week.  Mostly it's just made him tired and cranky, well I guess that's mostly what it's done to me too...  He's been coughing alot, Dan's been coughing and a bit congested, Aaron's been a bit coughy and congested and I've been so congested that my whole head is throbbing, my teeth ache and I've got a sinus headache....  Monday morning, I took my friend and her son down for a doctor's appointment in Colorado Springs, her car had broken down and she needed to get to this appointment for her son.  She was really sweet and took us to lunch after.  We got back just in time to drop her and her sweet son off, then head over to pick up Evie and Aaron from school.  Eileen and Anna got picked up after needle arts club, then I had to try and get as much laundry done as possible.  FHE with an awesome lesson by Anna and grocery shopping finished the day off.  

Tuesday was supposed to be preschool, but with 2 sick people here, we cancelled it, and James and I rested most of the morning, I let him play on my tablet to help him rest a bit.  :)  Payton still came over in the afternoon before we picked up the kids from school.  Mostly we just tried to take it easy.  

Wednesday mostly ended up being the same.  James and I just rested and watched Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood.  In the evening, Dan didn't have YM again on Wednesday, so he took Aaron to cub scouts and Eileen and Anna to activity days while I went to choir.  I sat out in the pews though, instead of with the choir so I didn't infect everyone.  It was really neat to sit out there and hear from a different perspective.  

Thursday James and I met up with the other preschool kids and their parents for a field trip to Chick-fil-A.  The kids had a blast playing on the kids play area and hanging out with friends.  James was especially happy to get out of the house after being cooped up for 2 days straight.  After we walked over to Hobby Lobby to look around and have fun.  James picked out some fabric for me to make use to make things for him.  After picking the kids up from school, they had piano lessons and then we had to rush over to the school for the 4th and 5th grade music performances for the girls.  Eileen and Anna did well - Eileen played her flute very well, and Anna did an awesome job on her recorder.  They are so talented!  After, we headed home, did scriptures, then I headed to the church building for Institute.  I think the lesson went well.  I love studying the Old Testament!  

Friday we had the twin 2 year olds of some friends over.  They have a new baby and I thought they might like to have a few hours of time with just the new baby.  They were good little kids, mellow and willing to eat anything.  Thankfully weather was nice, because they were happy to roam the back yard all day, I just had to watch them carefully since they were both a bit prone to putting things in their mouth - things like dirt and sand and chalk and dirty snow.... :)  James was so good and helpful and sweet until about 11 at which point he got sent to his room, then fell fast asleep.  He slept until the twins went home and I had to wake him up to get the kids from school.  After school, the kids had to clean up and get everything done so that they could watch a movie with the sitter.  They got a babysitter and Dan and I got to go to the local high school's production of "Ragtime"  The musical was really well done.  The orchestra was almost as good as some professional groups I've sung with, and the actors/singers all did an amazing job.  After, Dan and I stopped at Village Inn for dinner/dessert.  

Sunday was crazy.  The kids and I walked to church in the morning (and home again after) church was wonderful!  After, was ward choir and stake choir, followed by dinner and bedtime.  Dan is so sweet and supportive of all my music insanity.  My sinus headache hit a high point today, I spent most of the day with a pounding headache and sinus pressure so bad that my teeth hurt, now I'm ready for bed!  

Here's a pic of my silly boys wanting a silly picture.  :) 

Keeping Busy

This week I've been running around like crazy just trying to keep up with everything.  Monday was laundry and groceries as usual, James' friend Payton over in the morning and afternoon, and Eileen and Anna starting up with Needle Arts Club.

Tuesday was preschool for James.  It is at our house right now.  The kids were great, we talked about water safety and the kids were great, but it's always rather exhausting!  Then Payton came over, the girls had choir after school and then the usual homework and piano practicing.

Wednesday was crazy.  After dropping the kids off for late start, I headed over to my friend's house to take her and her son to the hospital for his surgery, then James and I headed home.  After picking the kids up from school, I headed home and Crystal came over to practice our musical number.  She sounded wonderful and didn't need extra practice, but it was probably good that she wanted it, because I'm not the best piano player and it was good for Eileen to practice her flute part.  In the evening, Aaron had his Blue and Gold and got some awards!  He just LOVES cub scouts!

I had choir, but Dan didn't have YM since their activity was on Thursday this week.

Thursday was preschool again, then in the afternoon, the kids had piano lessons and Dan went with the Young Men to the Ward Temple Night.  I spent the evening at home with the kids cooking!  I was trying to get as much ready as possible for my Pride and Prejudice Party on Saturday.

Friday I spent more time getting things ready and Dan helped get things set up.  Dan took the day off to help too.  In the afternoon, I went to the Temple with Crystal and then we grabbed some dinner at CPK on the way home.  After I got home, Dan and I had one of his friends from work over with his wife for games.  We had fun playing and chatting with them.

Saturday was totally nuts.  Eileen had a meeting at school in the morning, then Dan went to Brother Braun's viewing for a bit, then I had a girls camp meeting at 10, then Eileen had flute lessons at 11, then I met up with Crystal at 1 to rehearse again for the baptism at 2.  The musical number went well.  I didn't mess up too bad, Crystal sang beautifully, Eileen played well and the only problem was the Eileen was polishing her flute and mouthing the words during the song....  Dan and I had a talk with her after about proper etiquette for that situation, then Dan asked her why she thought she was supposed to look at the singer.  Eileen's response?   "To make them feel uncomfortable?"  Then we headed home and began setting up and finishing food prep for the party!  Dan got the projector ready and helped me get the food out and set up, then took the kids and the puppy and headed for Dwayne and Nicole's house.  We had around 15 people here.  Tina came and Becky and Becca came along with a bunch of friends from the ward.  We had a great spread of food and we all had a blast watching Pride and Prejudice for 6 hours and eating lots of yummy food!  Turns out we had just the right amount of food - not too many left overs, but plenty for everyone!  Now I just need to plan another one!  :)

Sunday was the usual crazy, church, choir, stake choir and fun with kids and then to bed!

Happy Valentine's Day!

This has been a week full of Valentine's Day fun.  Monday when I did the grocery shopping, I got the kids their Valentines for school.  Tuesday, after telling them that they had to do their piano lessons and homework first, they divided up their valentines and got them ready for their school parties.  Anna had trumpet in the evening - she's really doing great!  

Wednesday, James and I went to the library with Tayanna and Nicole.  Storytime was a lot of fun and James even listened to some of it.  I think he mostly likes going so he can sit in my lap and boss me around for an hour....  After, we had our normal after school craziness followed by our even crazier Wednesday evening schedule.  

Thursday, I got a text from my institute teacher that she was sick and was hoping I could sub for her.  Of course, I said yes!  I spent most of the day studying about King David in 2 Samuel and enjoyed really diving into it.  Subbing also gave me a new respect for Sara and what an awesome teacher she is.  The kids had piano lessons in the afternoon.  Evie has been really excited about walking Koopa lately, and with the nice weather I've been willing to let her, but Thursday evening, James and Rose tried to go find Evie, except she wasn't out walking, she was having her lessons.  Thankfully they both made it home safe, but we had some major talks with James after that.  Thursday was also James' preschool Valentine's Day party.  The kids had so much fun exchanging candy and playing together.  

Friday was the Valentine's Day parties for all the school kids.  So they all came home loaded down with junk.  But they had a great time.  Dan and I went out for dinner with Jeremiah and Becca to Outback.  After, we came back to our place and watched Men In Black.  

Saturday we headed to the park, we had hoped to watch one of the youth play in a rugby game, but got mixed up on the time.  Eileen had flute lessons, and we finally managed to get Anna's trumpet mouthpiece pulled out.  In the afternoon, Dan ran a couple errands and I rested (aka - I sat down and dozed off...) 

Sunday morning was our traditional Valentine's breakfast of heart shaped biscuits.  The kids always love this fun tradition and the fun Valentine's candy they get.  Church was wonderful, lessons were wonderful and for once, James stayed in Primary the whole time.  I got to go in and talk to Aaron's class for a few minutes which was fun too.

After church, I got together with a few others to practice for a musical number next week, then headed home to find cinnamon rolls with pink frosting and scrambled eggs and fresh fruit for dinner :)  

I am so blessed to have a wonderful, sweet, humble, kind and thoughtful friend in our ward.   She is our ward choir director and an amazingly dedicated woman.  I have always felt that as a singer, I am responsible to support her and sustain her in her calling as best I can and have often subbed for her when she was out of town and done musical numbers with her and today I got an AMAZING thank you gift.  This incredible book with autographs in the front cover and beautiful music and beautiful artwork along with a sweet note that brought tears to my eyes!  What an amazing gift!

YEY!

Well, it's been a long and crazy week.  Monday was the usual craziness.  Payton and James had tons of fun together and Koopa is mostly getting used to the two of them and figuring out how to stay away from them :)  In the evening, we had the Elder Missionaries over for dinner, and had yummy food followed by a great lesson.  Then we had laundry and grocery shopping.

Tuesday was a snow day - a rather expected one.  After doing their practicing, I conned some clean-up out of the kids, then let them play video games most of the afternoon. I totally messed up dinner though, so after spending another 45 minutes fixing it, we finally ate at nearly 7pm.  Then got the kids to bed.

Wednesday started out with the kids starting late.  And then we were running a bit late getting out of the house, and I was stressed out about it, so I didn't do a head count, and Aaron wasn't in the car, so I had to go back and get him.  Then we headed up to pick up Nicole and Tayanna, but shortly after leaving, we had to turn around and drop them back off.  By the time James and I got to the library, we had totally missed story time.  But we returned our books and picked out a couple of new ones, then we headed home for lunch.  In the evening, Aaron had cub scouts, I had choir and Dan had Young Men's.  We had our first try at Eileen as babysitter.  In order to make sure she could easily contact us, we got her a cell phone.  She has to keep it at the house right now and it's functioning as a home phone while she is in charge, but it will be her's outright when she turns 12.  She is rather excited about it.  She loved getting to carry it around while she was babysitting and feeling like a grown-up.  She did a great job and we felt ok about it since it was only for an hour and a half and Dan was only a 5 minute drive away.

Thursday the kids had off school, so we had a full crazy day.  We started with James and preschool in the morning, then we picked him up from preschool and headed straight to piano lessons, followed by an orthodontist appointment for Anna, then we finally got to go home and start dinner.  After, we put the kids to bed, and I headed to the institute class.

Friday morning, James was supposed to have a doctors appointment and we were running late again ( I really HATE being late...) and were told when we got there that because we were 10 minutes late, they couldn't see us and we had to reschedule.  So feeling rather annoyed, I then dragged them all to my allergy clinic so I could get my allergy shot, then we headed home for lunch and packed up.  When Dan got home we packed up the car and headed up to Wyoming to visit Steve and Claire.  (well actually we ran a couple errands first, but then we headed out)  We got there just in time for dinner, the the kids watched a movie while we chatted.  Elise is very excited about doing hair recently, but since her only sister doesn't have much hair, I was more than happy to play guinea pig!  I love having my hair played with and done!  This was just one of her fancy creations.  After seeing me get my hair done, the girls also wanted theirs done.  After putting the kids to bed, we played games and chatted.

The next morning, the kids wanted to play games too, so we played killer bunnies and dominion, which is a bit of an adventure when you are trying to play with a 6 year old.  :)   In the afternoon, we headed back home to get ready for church.  Eileen had flute lessons, I had some butter to pick up and We had some grocery shopping to do to get through the rest of the weekend.

Today was wonderful.  We are still working on getting James and Evie to sit still during Sacrament meeting, but I do think they are getting better, slowly but surely.  Classes were wonderful and after church, we headed home for an early dinner.  Evie, Anna and Aaron all bore their testimonies today!  After dinner, I took a little nap and Dan and the kids made peach cobbler.  They the kids had some and went to bed and we had some friends over to eat cobbler and play games.  It was a lot of fun!

Koopa is doing well, we are still working on the house breaking and he still has some problems, but as long as we keep him out of certain areas of the house.  He really likes to have accidents in the boys room....

Oh and the title of the post is a yey for the Broncos winning the Superbowl... not that we watched, but still, glad they won.  :)