Exercise is Good...So are Pants

This has been a fairly typical fun and busy week.  Monday the kids didn't have school because of President's Day, however, Anna, Aaron and Evelyn all spent at least some part of the day at the school for the UIL competition.  

Tuesday, I went to work out as usual and David had a blast playing with his friends.  In the afternoon, Anna had a track meet while I took Aaron and Evelyn to piano lessons.  Anna did well in her track meet!  Here she is passing a couple girls in the last lap!  Dan also had an Elders Quorum activity in the evening. 

Wednesday was fun!  We had a homeschool field trip to the Animal Shelter.  Eileen and David both really seemed to enjoy it.  Then we headed home to have lunch with Dana and Addy and Aria.  We had a fun lunch and play time with the kids.  Then we had youth activities in the evening and Dan had some fun hanging out with his friends. 

Thursday was choir for me and Eileen and Anna.  It was wonderful!  I came home rather exhausted, but I loved it!

Friday morning, after helping get kids to school, Dan took off for Austin for a quick work trip.  He wasn't going to be gone too long thankfully!  He did a great job - well enough that he was asked to go do it again in Florida - that same weekend.  He said no.  I'm so glad to be married to a man who puts his family first!  He came safely home on Saturday afternoon!  Anna had her Solo and Ensemble competition Friday evening - she got the highest possible score! 

Saturday was a slow sort of day.  The kids all slept in, so we had a nice quiet morning.  Then Anna and I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon making her second pair of pants - she now wants to make enough pants to be able to wear them every day of the week!  We had both really been enjoying this time together and Anna has really been enjoying learning to sew and make her own clothes. 

So this week was the first week of the competition that Mom's personal trainer is doing, so I've been trying to make an effort to be more consistent in my exercising.  I tried working out on the Ring Fit one afternoon, but having the kids "help" and make other comments drove me nuts.  However watching David try to do the exercises with me was adorable :)  He's such a sweetie - as long as he gets his nap!  :) 

Sunday was a wonderful day!  Church was great - the talks were great!  The primary kids did a great job listening and singing and I got to spend Junior primary snuggling with a sweet little sunbeam who was a little nervous about being there.  After, we had fun playing games together and chatting and reading scriptures. 

Music and Love

It's been a crazy busy week!  Monday was the recording session with MCO.  Julie Ann and I headed out around the same time Dan took the kids to school and headed down to the Meyerson Center.  We were there from 9 am to 8:30 pm with a lunch and dinner break, plus a couple short breaks here and there for bathroom and sitting down.  The youth of the choir (Including Eileen and Anna) arrived around 4:30 and then we finished up the last two songs that had the youth in them and even got out a few minutes before the scheduled end time of 8:30.  After, we hurried out to take Julie Ann to the airport for her flight home, then I got the kids some food, then dropped off our carpooling friends and finally headed home to collapse on our beds.  It was a crazy, busy and wonderful day! 

Dan was amazing and took everything on by himself today - he even made waffles with David for breakfast.  Now David is obsessed with cooking and wants to help with everything we make in the kitchen.  If he sees us starting to make something, he goes right to the stool and drags it over to the counter and waits to help! 

Tuesday was much harder than I realized it would be.  I was so tired and sore.  I did our usual workout and it seemed so much harder than usual after a long crazy day of recording!  We still had a great time and David had fun playing with friends.  Then after I put David down for his nap - I put myself down for one too!  In the afternoon, we had piano lessons, robotics and then in the evening, Evelyn had a meeting about middle school.  She was so excited and had a blast. 

David loves to help set the table - and as part of that, he gets water for everyone!  It is so sweet!  He doesn't usually get very much in each cup, but it's so sweet of him to serve everyone that way!! 

Wednesday was a crazy day.  David and I were out running errands all morning.  We had library books to return, repairs to pick up, craft projects to prepare and more.  After school, the kids had primary and youth activities.  We made pipe cleaner ninjas with the boys and since then, that is all James wants to do, we not have an army of pipe cleaner ninjas around the house. 

Thursday morning, David and I went to a little Valentine's Day party with some friends from the ward.  We had a great time playing together and eating lunch together and giving each other valentines.   Thursday evening was choir practice again.  It was great! 

Friday was Valentine's Day.  Dan had heart shaped biscuits for us for breakfast and I had gotten some candy for the kids.  In the evening, Eileen watched the kids, Anna went to babysit for another family in the ward and Dan and I went out on a date.  We had a yummy dinner, then went and walked around the game store until we picked something. 

Saturday morning, Anna and I went to work out with Mom and Sandi, then we headed home and Dan went for a run and the kids and I did a bit of clean up before our babysitter got her and we went with Eileen, Anna and Aaron to the temple.  It was a wonderful evening with them!  After we went to Chili's for dinner and dessert.  We had a lot of fun chatting with them and goofing off with them. 

Church today was wonderful!  It's been nice getting to sit with the kids.  Primary went well - the kids were pretty well behaved!  in the afternoon, we had a family from the ward over for dinner.  We had a fun time eating and chatting with them.  Then Eileen, Anna and Aaron headed for a Stake Youth fireside.  After our friends went home, we got kids to bed and played some games with Evelyn and chatted with Dan's parents.  Jessica had her baby tonight!!  She is so beautiful! 

Snow?

Once again, I was awful at taking pictures this week.  It was mostly a week full of the usual busy-ness.  School and extra-curricular activities, piano lessons, robotics, choir, UIL, band, track, seminary.  

Wednesday youth activities were cancelled for weather.  We got a tiny bit of snow - such a tiny bit that if I had tried to take a picture of it, no one would have realized there was snow in the picture... so I didn't bother.  But it was enough to have David running all over the house yelling "It NOWING!!!!!" over and over again.  His enthusiasm was adorable.  :)  The rest of us were a bit sad to have the youth activities cancelled though.  :(  

Thursday was choir and it was wonderful!  Friday evening, Dan and I went to the temple and did some sealings.  It was a so wonderful to finally get those families sealed together!  We grabbed a quick dinner on our way home, then I headed out to practice the organ.  Evelyn and James went to go sleepover at their cousins house.  They had a awesome time, but they came home very tired and a bit cranky.  

On Saturday, I went to work out with my Mom and Sandi and my Dad took Evie and James and Taz and Kai on a walk while we worked out.  Anna and Eileen and Aaron went to the temple with some friends and then stopped at IHOP on the way home.  Dan attempted a long run in training for his marathon, but he struggled a bit and came home a little early.  I went to practice on the organ again, then we collapsed!  

Church was wonderful - the talks given were wonderful!  Primary was a little crazy today, but we survived.  After, we had a "Linger Longer" with lots of yummy food!  We cooked and brought 8 lbs of pulled pork - it all disappeared.  Evie also made cookies to bring - those also vanished.  It was lots of fun though.  Dan and I went with Aaron so he could get set apart as the Secretary in the Deacon's presidency.  It was wonderful!  because we were late, we almost missed our pulled pork!  :)  After, we had a primary teacher training meeting, Anna stayed to help watch kids during the meeting, then she and I headed down to the airport.  I signed up to help host one of the visiting orchestra members for the recording tomorrow, so we picked her up from the air port.  Turns out she also crochets, so we had a fun chat about things we have made and shared pictures and projects - Evie and Eileen also had fun showing off their projects.  We had a low key snack session instead of a real dinner, then had fun playing games for a bit before putting kids to bed.  Now I need sleep before tomorrow's recording session!

Back to the Norm....

Well apparently I did a bad job at taking pictures this week...  Grandma and Grandpa Jones headed home early Monday morning - everyone was sad to see them go - especially David.  Our week proceeded with it usual busy stuff - laundry on Monday, school, Family Home Evening, and more laundry on Monday. 

A lady in our ward was looking for some one to turn a logo into a vector file for her, I told her I could, so I spent some time in the evening working on that.  Then she came over on Tuesday to help with David so I could work on it some more.  It was a doodled pictures with lots of little parts, so it took some work, but I finally got it done on Wednesday.  Tuesday was also my work out class in the morning, piano lessons after school and Anna's robotics club, plus Anna had meetings about getting ready for High School. 

Wednesday, the youth had their activities - they had a great time.  The girls were doing a family history activity and they were supposed to bring a food from their family - Eileen made and brought Shortbread cookies.  mmmm  I practiced on the organ and then we headed home with out forgetting Aaron :) 

Thursday was choir, rehearsal was great and I got so spend a couple minutes chatting with Megan.  Her daughter is singing with the choir this year - and both girls are excited to get to be there together.  Eileen keeps saying that we need to have them over so we can hang out outside of choir so they can actually talk.  :) 

The kids had Friday off school.  Except Eileen.  So Anna and Aaron had a youth temple trip in the morning - they needed help with driving the kids down, so I offered.  David came with me so Eileen could get her work done.  Anna and her friends schemed together to be in a different vehicle than their younger brothers who are all new deacons.  It was pretty funny.  :)  They were even willing to give up the heated van to avoid the dreaded younger brothers.  While the youth did baptisms, David and I walked around the temple grounds and waited in the van watching Thomas the Tank Engine and he even went to the bathroom in the temple.  He was very excited about his temple trip and has been talking about it ever since - the "going potty in the temple" part was a big hit apparently....  He cracks me up - but I'm glad it was a special experience for him! 

In the evening, Dan got home a little early to get Aaron ready for their camp-out that night.  They had a great time with a good sized group of young men and their dads.  They even got to sleep in cabins and the weather was nice, so I don't think Dan minded it too much!  Anna and I went out so she could spend some of her hard earned money on some art supplies.  Somehow we instead ended up getting patterns and fabric to make her some pants....  but not the art supplies... 

Saturday morning, Eileen was willing to watch her younger siblings so Anna and I could go work out with Sandi and Grandma.  Mark was there this week, and he kicked our butts....  We got home and Eileen had dozed off on the couch, so I asked her if she was feeling well and sent her to bed - she slept most of the day, so I think she wasn't feeling great, but Evie was very helpful with David, so it worked out ok.  Dan and Aaron went to help someone in the ward with an antenna, then he went for a run.  Anna was very eager to get to work on her pants, so we got to work and I realized that with the type of fabric she had picked, it would be best to surge the edges, but my serger needed new blades, so we took it to a local repair place and I spent a crazy amount of money to get it fixed up and tuned.  Then I took Anna to the one craft shop that had been closed the night before for the art supplies she wanted.  We got home and had a yummy dinner together.  Then I took a bath and Dan watched a movie with Eileen. 

Church today was great - it was nice to be able to sit with my family - Evie was complaining last week that I never get to sit with them, so she was excited.  We had a great evening after church, Anna and I worked some more on her pants - getting patterns cut out, then Dan and I went on a walk with the four younger kids - the weather was just perfect!  I love Sundays!!