Busy, Growing Kids

We had a fun and busy week.  Monday was laundry as usual, and after school in the evening, Evelyn had a Student Council meeting.  She is loving this whole student council thing!  It's so cute to watch her grow and thrive!  We had a great family home evening lesson on receiving revelation - we are preparing the family for General Conference! 

Tuesday was a usual day, cross country practice for Anna in the morning and school and fun at home with David.  In the evening, I had institute, it was a great lesson! 

Wednesday morning, Anna had chess club, then David had his doctor's appointment - he had his 15 month check up - he's growing big and he's so smart and funny.  He did a great job and didn't even cry when he got his shots!  yey for fruit snacks!  In the evening, Eileen and Anna had young women's.  Our cub scout starting got pushed back one more week - Aaron is bummed because he will be gone that week for his school's Adventure Camp. 

Thursday was a typical school day again - and in the evening, I had DMCO - it's so nice having it start a bit later so that I can still have dinner with the family.  It's a bit crazy getting home so late, but I tend to be a night owl anyway.  It's been awesome singing with this group! 

Friday after the kids got home from school, Dan and I had dinner with the kids, then headed down to the temple.  It was a wonderful evening - it's nice having David old enough and sleeping well enough that we can leave him home with Eileen and Anna in charge - it makes it so much easier to go!

Saturday, Anna had a cross country meet - she took a minute off her personal best - she is getting better each time - she's such a tough and determined girl!  We had a fun afternoon together as a family. 

Church on Sunday was wonderful - during the last hour, we talked about the upcoming General Conference and how we can make it an important part of our lives.

The Usual

Anna had team pictures on Monday morning with cross-country, so we had to switch up our morning drop off a bit.  Otherwise it was a normal morning.  David and I played and read and he wandered around the back yard checking everything out, then we both took naps. 

Evelyn ran for Student Council at her school and found out on Monday that she had been elected to Student Council!  She is so excited!  I am so proud of her!

For Family Home Evening, we had some friends over to play games and eat cake.  We had a fun time together and the kids had fun playing together too. 

Tuesday was the usual - cross country, school, naps and such.  In the evening, I went to institute - the teacher was really nice and brought a couple cakes for my birthday.  Yum!!   The lesson was wonderful and so was the cake! 

Wednesday was a busy day - instead of the usual church activities, we had a combined potluck activity with the other Melissa ward at the Melissa High School homecoming parade.  Dan and I took the kids and brought some food and ate and had fun chatting then headed home.  After, I took Anna out to get her some new pants. 

Thursday was a usual day - David and I didn't get to spend as much time outside, because it got rainy.  And while he would happily walk around outside in the rain, I wasn't that excited by the idea....  I had choir in the evening - rehearsals continue to be fun and challenging! 

Friday the heavens opened and it rained - a lot.  and it kept raining through Saturday.  Friday night, Dan and I went out on a date after dinner with the kids.  We went to go see Crazy Rich Asians together.  We slogged through a downpour on the way in and out, but the movie was really good!  We had a fun time together! 

Saturday, the kids were starting to go stir-crazy - they had been cooped up inside for too long!  Dan took the kids to the library while David napped and we mostly spent the day relaxing around the house and playing games and having fun together.  In the evening, Dan took Eileen and Anna to the temple while the other kids and I hung out at home and did a bit of cleaning and had dinner, then we played around until they got home for scriptures and prayers. 

If the kids were stir-crazy on Saturday, they were more so on Sunday - and next week isn't looking to be much better weather-wise.  We had fun playing games though and enjoyed being together.  Grandpa Cox came up to our ward today for church to watch the primary program - The kids did an excellent job!  James made some funny faces and I came to a rather sudden realization that Aaron is only 15 months away from being a Deacon...  He was looking way too grown up on the stand....  Church was wonderful - we had a great Sunday School lesson, then I took David and went to help out in Nursery.  He loves nursery - and we had a fun time.  Grandpa came home to have dinner and scriptures and prayers with us before heading home.  It's always nice getting to live near family! 

Birthdays Galore!

It's been a wonderful week.  This week was our first attempt at cooking for profit.  We have worked out a deal with Sandi and Jon where a couple times a week, we cook extra of what we are having and then I send their food down with Dan to work the next day for them to eat it for dinner.  It's been kinda fun so far this week - I sent Sandi a list of dinners we make so she can pick stuff she wants.  So far so good!  

This week was a regular busy week.  We had cross country and school and seminary in the mornings. David and I had some fun - he's been really excited about books lately, so we've been reading books together.  

Wednesday during the day, I had to head down to Allen to run some errands, so I met up with Dan for lunch after David's morning nap, then I went and got some shoes for choir and a bit of more fall-ish clothes for David - we still have hot days, but overall the weather is getting cooler.  

Our evenings are same as usual - Tuesday is Institute, Wednesday is youth activities and Thursday is choir.  

Friday was my birthday and it was wonderful!  Dan took the day off work to spend the day with me.  I mostly just wanted to be lazy around the house, so we played games and ate a yummy lunch, and I crocheted.  Dan gave me some amazing gifts, and made me a VERY yummy dinner of Chicken Tiki Masala and a yummy chocolate cake.  The kids were sweet and we had a fun evening together.  After the younger kids went to bed, we played Dominion with Aaron and Anna and Eileen.  Then when Aaron went to bed, I watched "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers" with the girls.  It was a wonderful day!!  

Saturday morning, Anna had her first Cross Country meet.  She did a great job, but had some trouble with cramps by the end - she was so tough and kept going until the end though!  She was EXHAUSTED for the rest of the day.  We sent her to take a nap when we found her falling asleep at the table while eating lunch...  We didn't see her again until dinner time.  After dinner, we had some friends over for games and cake and ice cream.  (we had to find some way to finish off all the cake we have floating around with two birthdays this week!)  We had a fun time chatting and playing Scattergories!  

Today was Evelyn's 9th birthday.  I am so blessed to have this fun and spunky little girl in my life!  She does so much to help our family out!!  She wanted a Book of Mormon cake this year, so Anna made and decorated her cake for her.  Anna did an amazing job!  Around the outside it said "Happy Birthday Evelyn" and "9 years old."  Our Sabbath day was wonderful.  We did Evelyn's cake and ice cream and presents after lunch and she loved her presents.  Then after church, she got her birthday dinner - she wanted muffins, so we made lots of muffins.  :) 

Dan and I closed off the evening with a game of Phase 10 - but we had either totally forgotten the rules, they changed the rules, or we'd been playing wrong, because it was different in some ways that I remembered it...  maybe it's just been too long since we played...

Fall?

It's kinda crazy, but the weather this week has felt much more like fall in Texas - it's been rainier and cooler and the hot days have been fewer and further between.  Monday was Labor day and Dan and the kids all had the day off.  It was rather rainy and drizzly, and Eileen wanted to go to an aquarium, so we went to the Children's Aquarium and Fair Park.  The kids had a fun time - they LOVED getting to pet the sting rays.  James was looking at one of the big open water tanks and said "mommy!!  that looks like a shark!"  I said " James, that IS a shark!"  and he thought it was the coolest thing ever!  David really loved getting to look close up at all the fish and would point at the fish through the glass and make lots of happy noises.  It's not a huge aquarium (so it was reasonably priced!) so we stayed for a couple hours and headed home - but it was a fun family outing!

David loves helping with the dishwasher now - any time anyone is trying to do the dishes - he tries to help by stacking up the cups and putting the silverware inside them.

The week was mostly school as usual.  Cross Country for Anna, Seminary and work for Dan, school for the older kids and playing and singing songs for David and I.  David's new favorite book is "Hand Hand Fingers Thumb" mostly because he loves banging on things.  He is growing so much every day!  He loves to figure things out and copy his big siblings.  The girls had their Young Women's activity on Wednesday, Anna loves it, but we are still trying to convince Eileen to at least participate!

We've been thinking a bit about the possibility of home schooling Eileen, she doesn't feel like she learns much at school.  As part of thinking about that possibility, we've been talking to other's who homeschool, and looking at options.  We also emailed her teachers to see what they had to say about her.  All the feedback was positive and said that she got along well with people and did really well in classes and is a wonderful student.  It was kinda strange to us to see the differences in the way Eileen describes her school experience and that way the teachers described it.  It was obviously the same story, but told from very different viewpoints.  The school will be doing Beauty and the Beast later this year, and I'm trying to convince her to try out for Belle.  Her voiced concern was her ability to memorize lines - which Dan and I both found amusing since she memorizes movies by watching them just once or twice...

Thursday was my DMCO rehearsal.  It was raining as I headed down - it was kinda crazy, because on the way, I met a wall of rain - before it, the road was dry and it wasn't raining, then I drove into the storm and it was pouring.  Rehearsal was wonderful!  We got voiced after practice, which was so much fun!  I keep worrying that they will change their minds and put me on another part - but so far, I'm still a first soprano :)  It's been fun, and the arrangements and wonderful!

Friday, after school, we went to the Tolbert's for dinner. We had planned to meet at the lake, but once again it was rainy and so we had to move things to their house, but we still had a yummy dinner and had fun playing games.

Saturday was another drizzly rainy day.  The kids mostly didn't like Saturday since it involved a lot of cleaning the house, and the car and their rooms.  But we let them play on the switch for a bit while Dan and I went to the grocery store.  We are going to try something with Sandi and Jon's family where they pay us to cook for them.  So we needed to do our weekly shopping a bit earlier.  I'm kinda excited!

Sunday was wonderful - it is generally my favorite day of the week.  We had a nice morning of playing games, and crocheting, and taking a walk in the (finally) not rainy weather.  Dan pulled out a little rubber band shooter and found Evie and James and hunted down all the older people in the house - finally setting up a sneak attack on me from the top of the stairs.  They would shoot at me and hide under a blanket - then one of the kids would run down to collect the rubber band and try to look and act innocent doing it.  It was hilarious for me - but even more so for the kids who were giggling up a storm!  Then a yummy lunch and some nap time.  Church was wonderful!  David had other friends about his age in Relief Society today and he spent half the time running away from a cute little girl who wanted to hug him and hold his hand. :)  After church, we had a nice yummy dinner of waffles and then got the kids ready for bed before playing some games with Anna.  Then the girls went to bed and Dan and I played a game of Dominion.  Now it's time to head to bed and get ready for the coming week!

New Adventures

This week was full of new adventures, but it started off normal enough.  The kids had school and are mostly still enjoying it.  Eileen is still not crazy about school, so much so that Dan and I have actually started talking about homeschooling possibilities.  She is so bored in many of her classes that it seems like she could get a better education at home... I don't know, Dan and I aren't crazy about the idea, but we will see. 

Monday was a normal laundry and grocery shopping day.  School and fun with David.  But nothing too exciting.  Tuesday was the usual school stuff again, plus I got to go to institute in the evening. 

Wednesday Anna had the morning off for cross country, but otherwise the day was normal.  The girls had their young women's activity in the evening.  Evie has decided that she wants to run for student council, so we got her some poster board and she made up a bright rainbow poster and elections are next week. 

Thursday morning was Dan's first day teaching Seminary.  He said it went well and when I talked to the parent of one of his students, she had said that her son loved Dan's class.  He's going to be great with the kids!  The Relief Society had an activity where we met for lunch at a restaurant in the area.  It was fun and I had a great time chatting with some of the amazing ladies in our ward.   In the evening, I had my first practice with DMCO.  It was really fun to sing with the group.  The director is amazing and the music is wonderful!  It's a huge group compared to the other groups I've sung with.  I had a great time seeing old friends from Evening Song too!  It was so great to be back singing with a group of this caliber!  After, my voice was tired though! 

Friday was a usual school day and some fun together playing in the evening.  On Saturday, we headed down to my parents house after David's nap.  We were doing a combined birthday for all the recent and soon to happen birthdays.  We had cake and hamburgers and guac.  The kids had a blast swimming in the pool.  Dan forgot his swimsuit and just jumped in in his clothes, and the kids thought that was the craziest thing ever! 

Church today was wonderful.  We had a nice quiet morning playing games together, then the girls and I went to ward choir.  Fast and Testimony meeting was great!  And Dan took David so I could help out in Aaron's Sunday school class, so I got to enjoy the last 2 hours of church with out having to wrangle a baby.  In the evening, we had the sister missionaries over for dinner, it is wonderful to have them in our home!  Sister Liu laughed at our horrible Chinese, but she was sweet! We closed the evening with some games and chatting with Gene and Ann.  All in all it was a wonderful day - and now the kids are looking forward to their day off tomorrow!