Beautiful Rain

This was Anna's last week of sports camp, and she had volleyball camp all week in addition to that, so she was gone from 9:30 - 12:30 Mon - Thurs.  She had a great time and learned alot and is all excited to keep running and working out. 

Monday morning, after Anna's athletics, we headed down to my parents house to spend time with Grandpa and swim in the pool.  After swimming all afternoon, we did a little Christmas in July with Grandpa.  The kids had fun and loved the thoughtful gifts that Grandpa chose for them!  After, we had dinner there before heading home for bed.  David promptly fell asleep in the car on the way home and then didn't want to sleep when we got home... 

Tuesday morning, Grandpa came up to visit with the kids and I for a bit.  It was cute - he sat on the couch and showed them family pictures and told them all about them.  The kids had lot of fun showing him how much they loved the things he gave them and all in all, we had a very pleasant morning.  In the evening, I had institute - I've really been enjoying class! 

Wednesday was a nice and slow day with a nice easy dinner.  I think the kids are looking forward to church activities starting up again after this month is over.  It's been strange having Wednesday nights so quiet.  

Thursday ended up being quiet - Anna was going to have doctors appointment to get her vaccinations, but they had to reschedule because the shipment of shots hadn't come in on time.  Plus there was no volleyball, so it all ended up being a slow boring day. 

Friday my mom came up to help out with David so that Dan and I could go to the temple.  We got to do a bunch of sealings, including some for Dan's family and helping out with some other's names.  It was a wonderful afternoon.  We stopped for a quick dinner on the way home, then headed back in time to get the littles to bed.  

Saturday was rather insane.  We got up early and got to go and serve by cleaning the building - then we headed for donuts!  After, we got home with Anna having just enough time to shower and get ready for a class party with her Sunday school class.  After that, Dan and Eileen and Anna went with some kids from Dan's class down to the temple to do baptisms.  They had a wonderful time.  While they were gone I built up David's water toy from Great Grandpa - it was a bit of a pain since none of the screw holes were drilled...  But David, James, Evie and Aaron all loved playing with it.  Then after that, Dan dropped the girls off for their stake youth pool party and got back just in time to have dinner with the Sister Missionaries - their DA had cancelled and we are always happy to have the sisters in our house!  We have a new sister missionary - she's from Taiwan and we had a good time trying our our little bit of poorly pronounced Chinese on her.  She corrected some of our pronunciations and was very sweet and encouraging!  

Today was wonderful.  Ward choir was lots of fun and Church was great!  The talks in Sacrament meeting were wonderful and then I helped our subbing in nursery for the last 2 hours.  The kids were great and we had a fun time.  The 2 hours went faster than I thought they would!  This evening, Dan had a meeting to get him ready for his new calling as a seminary teacher.   

Hot Hot Hot!

We had a fun week this week.  Monday afternoon, I took the kids to a splash park - the one near our house was closed on Mondays, so we found another one in Mckinney and headed there.  Then, that evening, we went to the pool for FHE.  We had a fun time playing together.  David loved the swings at the splash park and all the kids loved getting wet and cooling down - the weather here has been scorching hot!!  

Tuesday was uneventful, but nice.  In the morning, I got to chat with Julia for a while - David saw me talking on the phone and walked over as fast as he could waving his hand and saying "hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hi" so excited to talk on the phone!  It was so funny!  Then later when I was chatting with Kay, he did the same thing.  In the evening, I got to go to Institute and it was wonderful.  Brother Carpenter has a very different teaching style than Sister Ker, but still wonderful lessons.  

Wednesday, after picking up Anna from her sports camp in the morning, we headed down to my parents house to visit with Grandpa Francone.  He is stopping in to visit for a bit!  The kids were excited to see him again and it was wonderful to see and chat with him a bit!  

Thursday was much as usual.  The kids played at home - we got some cleaning done and David and I got a snugly nap in.  We didn't get to play volleyball.  :(

Friday, we had a relaxed morning, then I took the kids down to the library in the afternoon.  They had a good time checking out books and playing in the kid area.  Then we headed home for a fun evening together.

Saturday was a fun day, especially for Eileen - Sandi has access to a horse through her sister in law, so Eileen got to go on Saturday morning to ride the horse.  She had a great time.  We spent some time in the afternoon getting the grocery shopping done for the weekend and cleaning up.  Then after we did scriptures and prayers, Dan headed out for a priesthood activity.  I made up some freezer meal stuff and tried to get David to sleep.  I finally gave up the wrestling match and put him down and wonder of wonders, this time he fell asleep after about half an hour of crying instead of just constantly escalating!  So we tried it again today for nap time and bed time, and each time he's fallen asleep faster.  Thankfully, we may finally be getting him on a schedule!

Church was wonderful today - our Relief Society lesson was really wonderful as usual - all our R.S. teachers are wonderful.  What I heard of Sunday school was also wonderful, but David fell and bonked his head and started screaming and I had to take him our to calm him down and it took awhile, so I didn't get to hear as much of it as I would have liked.  After dinner and getting the younger kids to bed, we played some games with the older kids - Anna soundly beat all of us in Dominion and of course, Dan soundly beat us all in Boggle.  Dan was nice enough to let me win a game of Dominion after all the rest of the kids went to bed so I didn't feel quite so bad.  :)

Back to Texas

Monday morning was spent packing up and cleaning up to get ready to head out.  On our way back to Dave and Stephanie's house, we stopped at a nickel arcade.  It was much fancier than the one by our house in Colorado - but also more expensive.  We had a good time though and it was a fun little bit of family time.  

Tuesday, we got up and packed up one last time before heading home.  We got a good start and made good time to Portland, so we had time to stop at the Temple and show the kids where we were married, we walked around the grounds and the Visitor's Center before heading to the airport.  The trip back went well - David slept for a good amount and though he got a bit fussy at the end, it wasn't too bad - there were enough empty seats that we were able to take his car seat on with us so he could sit there for the flight.  He loved looking out the window and was very sweet!  

Wednesday Anna got up early to go to her sports camp - but the rest of the kids (except David) slept in and we mostly took it easy, recovering from the trip.  Dan picked up Koopa from my parents and picked up his car from the repair shop.  I mostly did laundry and got stuff put away. Thursday was once again a nice slow day.

Friday, I took the kids down to the zoo.  It was hot, but otherwise a nice day for the zoo.  The kids had fun checking out the animals and riding the monorail and the carousel.  We let them play in the water for a little bit to cool off - but then we needed to get going home.  We headed home and had an adventure of a trip - not only did we get to enjoy traffic, but then James got sick and threw up all over the back seat.  twice.  Evie (who was sitting next to him) was REALLY not happy.  But we made it home and had a nice evening together.

Saturday was mostly spent cleaning up.  Dan took the kids to the library to check out new books and turn in reading logs, then we cleaned up the kids bedrooms a bit and had a fun sushi dinner.

Church today was wonderful.  The messages and lessons were just amazing as was the musical number.  We had the sister missionaries over for dinner and had a great lesson from them and a great bit of cheesecake that Eileen made last night!

Oregon Here We Come!

This week was crazy busy - we spent most of the early part of the week getting ready for our trip.  We did lots of laundry, as little cooking as possible and some shopping to get some needful things and some not quite as needful but still fun things.  We took the kids to the dollar store and got them some things that they could do on the plane and in the airport waiting.  

My dad was in town for the week, so Dan and Sandi and Taz and Kai met up with the Kids and I and Grandpa Cox to go out on the boat.  Evie had a fun time learning how to waterski.  And everyone had a fun time in the tube and playing in the water - it was a fun day to be out on the water and be with each other.  After, we had dinner with Mom and Dad before heading home to get tired kids to bed!

Wednesday was the 4th of July and while we mostly just took it easy and got packed and did laundry, we did have a great time at the ward 4th of July breakfast.  The food was great and the company was even better!  

Here's David all ready to go!  He loved trying to roll the suitcases around and trying to climb into them and take out all the clothes... 

Thursday morning, we headed down to the airport bright and early to catch our flight to Oregon for our family reunion.  We got the family matching shirts so that we could have an easier time keeping track of the kids - thankfully it went well and no one got lost and everyone got on the airplane with no drama.  David slept for most of the flight and did great for the rest of it.  We got into Portland and headed towards Dave's house.  We stopped for some food and got to Dave's just in time for dinner and then getting the kids to bed.

The next day, we headed down to the beach, stopping at John and Melissa's on the way for lunch.  We got there a bit early and helped Gene and Ann decide which families would go where, then went down to the beach for a bit.  The kids loved it!  The rest of the family got in that evening and we had a great time together.  The kids quickly found cousins to hang out with, and basically ignored us for the rest of the week.  It's so fun having so many cousins to hang out with and play with - even solitary Eileen found a kindred spirit in Mason and they had fun watching tides and talking about her stories and his ideas.  

Saturday was spent mostly at the beach.  Eileen was determined to get all the way in the ocean water - and she did and loved it.  David loved the sand - so much so that he started just picking up fist fulls to shove in his mouth....

In the evening, we did a fire down at the beach and had a fireside with Grandma and Grandpa then roasted marshmallows.  The Evie and Anna slept with their friends.  The boys slept on the bunk and Eileen managed to claim the other bedroom at our cabin.  We had a great time playing games after most of the kids were (kinda) down for the night.  

Sunday morning, we got ready to head to church and managed to get a family picture before we left with everyone at the reunion in the picture.  We headed to the branch for church - we doubled the size of the congregation and had a great time - some wonderful talks and lessons were given and the people were very sweet and friendly! 

Even David had a friend to play with in addition to all the teenage (and pre-teen) cousins who loved to help hold babies.  He has a cousin who is just a couple months older than he is and it was cute to watch them play together - not just parallel play, but actually hand each other things and try to give hugs.  

In the evening, we all got together for one final program and then geared up for one more fun night together! 

Two Birthdays and No More Cast!!!

We've had an eventful week!  Monday was the usual - Anna had her sports camp in the morning.  Then after, we headed down to meet grandpa at his church building so she could practice volleyball with him.  Other than that, Monday was a day for laundry, and grocery shopping and Family Home Evening.  We had a simple activity that involved eating pie... :) 

On Tuesday, David turned 1 year old.  I can't believe it's been a year already - he's so big and so funny and so full of personality!  He loves his older siblings, he loves to play and explore and eat (as long as it's what he wants) and he hates to sleep....  Anna had her sport camp in the morning again, and she rode her bike home from it so that I could go get my hair cut.  I headed down with David and met my mom who watched David while I got my hair cut, then I headed home.  In the evening, we had my mom over for a little birthday dinner and party for David and Anna.  Anna chose spaghetti for her dinner and Angel Food Cake for her cake.  David loved his first taste of cake and we had a fun evening together.  After scriptures and prayers, I headed over to the church for Institute. 

Wednesday was Anna's birthday.  She had her sports camp in the morning and rode her bike home again so that I could take Eileen to her appointment.  She went in to the Orthopedist to have her cast removed!!!  She has been so excited about it ever since.  Every day is some new moment where she is glad to have the cast off.  Everything from "Mom!  I can open doors again by myself!"  to "I get to swim again!!!"   In the evening, Anna got to go to her first Young Women's activity - and she and Eileen were equally excited because they were going swimming and Eileen could swim again.  

Thursday morning Anna had to miss her sport camp to go to her yearly check up.  We had her and David scheduled at the same time.  I really hate paperwork....  I hope we don't move again just so I don't have to do all the paperwork for new schools and new doctors and such again....  After, I took the younger kids down to Grandma's house and Dan, Eileen, Anna and I went to the temple.  We went and did baptisms and confirmations.  It was so wonderful to be there with my two amazing and beautiful daughters!!

Friday morning we took it a bit easy,  I wasn't feeling well, so I went in to the doctor (ugh...more paperwork) but they weren't very helpful - they said come back on Monday if you still feel bad and we will do blood work...  after the appointment, we met some friends from our ward at their pool for fun with friends and swimming. 

Saturday, Anna had a couple friends over for a little birthday party - we had hamburgers for lunch and then went swimming.  We all had a fun time.  I was a bit dumb and got distracted during putting on sunscreen and never got Dan to put any on my back, so now my back is red... but at least the rest of me is fine.  :) 

Church today was wonderful.  We had a wonderful fast Sunday.  Evie was so sweet - she fasted the whole two meals and told me when I asked her what she was fasting for that she was fasting that I would feel better.  She's such a sweet, fun and spunky little girl!