Merry Christmas

 We started off the week with one last Christmas concert for Anna - that made 10 for her this month - not counting the ward choir stuff.  Encore performed at The Grotto and I got to go hear them in a beautiful venue!  She did amazing and it was wonderful to listen to them!  

Tuesday we held our Bagna Caulda night.  We had a good turn out and lots of food was consumed and lots of singing was done.  It was a wonderful night with wonderful people.  

I got gingerbread house kits for the kids to decorate.  They had fun - well the younger 4 kids had fun - the older ones just ignored it and did their own thing.  

Dan and I tried to make sure we had everything ready for this weekend by Thursday since there was bad weather predicted and we wanted to make sure that we would have everything we needed in case we couldn't get off the hill.  Sure enough, Thursday evening, the snow (?) set in.  It wasn't really snow - it was frozen rain - but it was enough like snow that the boys had a fun morning on Friday sledding down the hill next to our house.  Temperatures were below freezing so all the ice didn't really melt until Saturday.  

Thankfully it melted enough in time for us to go to our friends house for Christmas Eve.  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner with the Blanchards, and the kids all had a blast acting out the Nativity.  They especially loved all the costumes!  

Then we headed home to open our Christmas Eve presents and read the Christmas Story in the Bible and then put the younger kids to bed and get everything ready for Christmas morning.  

The older kids got blankets and pillows instead of PJs this year - and they were a big hit and ended up with the older kids all burritoed up in their blankets and rolling around the floor together and giggling!  

With Christmas on a Sunday, we did things a bit differently this year.  We got up for church and let the kids dig in their stockings a bit so that they could grab their breakfasts.  Then we got ready for church and headed out.  We had a second beautiful Christmas program with beautiful music and testimonies.  I was playing the organ and Anna was directing the music.  I also sang O Holy Night.  I had a sweet lady come up after and tell me that her cynical teenage daughter had cried and had a spiritual experience as I sang - and it is those moments that are why I love singing.  I am so grateful for the times when the Lord has taken my meager offering and magnified it to touch hearts.  After church, we went to a new member baptism and then with anxious kids, headed home.  

The kids finished their stockings and we began opening the presents.  It was so fun watching them and their excitement.  

We spent some time on a zoom call with the Francone family.  It was wonderful to chat with Grandpa and my uncles and cousins and hear about what they have been doing recently and their holidays.  It was also nice to reflect as I talked about our holidays on just how blessed we are.  

In the afternoon, Dan and I took a walk.  As we walked we found it kinda crazy just how many sheriff's cars with sirens went by us and we found out why a bit further into our walk.  We were met by a very nice police man who kindly asked us to walk another way home since there were pointed guns.....  Sigh... so we turned around and took another way home.  It was a beautiful day to be out walking though since the weather had finally warmed up!  

After a Christmas dinner of crepes and fruit, we had a fun evening playing games - and trying out our new family game Hand to Hand Wombat.  

Last Week of School this Year!

 We started the week out with a bang.  David and James had pajama day at school which is always the favorite spirit day - they rarely bother with the other ones - so they both went in their coziest pajamas!  I had my usual morning work out, then I had to pick Eileen up from one appointment and drop her off for her final at school (which took about 15 minutes) and then pick her up from that and somewhere in there, I had to get the grocery shopping done and get lunch.  

Monday evening was our Cookie Cookout.  We just did the sugar cookies and decorating, the rest of the cookies got done at various times during the rest of the week - but that was all we had time for before Anna had to leave for her rehearsal.  

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, Anna had the Yuletide concert at Mountainside high school.  Between playing with the band and the pieces that she was accompanying on the piano - she was in a quarter of the numbers and did an amazing job!  Evelyn went on Tuesday, and I went on Wednesday.  It's a fun concert and a fundraiser for the band and I love seeing Anna so involved in music!  

I had water polo on Tuesday and Thursday and Dan and the teens had youth activities on Wednesday.  We finally managed to finish up the last of the dentist appointments this week - now we have a 6 month break before we have to figure them all out again.  lol - but at least their teeth are all healthy.  Eileen made a neat comment after her appointment about making sure that she makes and goes to dentist appointments when she moves out and goes to college,  even though she doesn't really like going to the dentist.  She's getting so mature.  :)  

Friday I met up with some friends for our last ladies lunch before the new year and before kids get out of school, we had a nice lunch and a fun time talking! 

In the evening, Dan and I went to a Hawaiian themed Ugly Sweater Party.  It was a fun party with a bunch of our friends from the ward and we had a fun time eating and chatting and playing games.  

Saturday morning, Anna and I were up early to go to our rehearsal for Peter the Rock.  Then we grabbed some lunch and hung out until water polo at Parkrose.  We had fun playing and had a fun court 6x6 which was a lot of fun!  Then in the evening, Anna went to babysit Taz and Kai, then Aaron and I went to Tigard for open polo.  We had a fun time and had a big group, but I was tired by the end!!  

Today was our ward's Christmas Program (kinda our first Christmas Program, but who's gonna complain about more music!)  Our ward accompanist was going to be gone next week, so we had our 3 choir numbers and one other musical number today with testimonies.  It was wonderful.  The other musical number was one of the young women playing the violin on O Come, O Come Immanuel.  She did amazing and I got to accompany her!  It was a wonderful program!  And there will still be a few more musical numbers next week!  YEY!

After church, since we didn't have choir, we finally got around to dropping off our Christmas Cookie plates!  We had fun singing and saying hi to friends and sharing our favorite Christmas Cookies!  

Anna had her Encore Fireside tonight - she's got one last performance with them tomorrow, but this was their last fireside.  And she did amazing - she has grown so much as a pianist from learning and performing this piece.  She has also grown as a singer from singing with the choir.  I'm so glad she's had these opportunities!  

Christmas Busy

We are officially into the crazy busy Christmas time of year.  We had a rather crazy busy week this week.  Between getting stuff ready for Christmas and school activities and Christmas parties and Musical events, all on top of the usual stuff, it's been a crazy week!!  

Evelyn was on stage crew for the middle school play and this was tech week, so she had rehearsals at the school every night this week.  Then she had her performances Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  They did Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Dan and I went to see it on Friday, and had fun.  The kids did a great job and had a lot of fun doing it!  

Eileen enjoyed her quiet stay house/dog sitting at Aunt Sandi's house.  Dan brought her home with him after work on Tuesday and then she and I went to the Relief Society Christmas activity.  It was really nice and the food was yummy and the program was really nice too!  I had to take off a bit early to get to water polo, and Eileen got a ride home with a friend.   

Wednesday was a combined youth activity talking about FSY this summer and the kids came home excited to go this summer!  

Thursday, I went to Dan's work to do the company pictures.  Jon likes how I do them because I'm fast and I'm willing to be paid in lunch.  So I took quick pictures and then had lunch with everyone in the office.  And no this wasn't his official picture, but it's my favorite.  :)

Friday we had a bunch of dentist appointments.  I had mine in the morning, I walked over right after the Zumba class in the morning, I was a bit early and the patient before me went a bit long, so I got to sit in the waiting room reading for a while.  They felt bad about making me wait and gave me a couple Starbucks gift cards, but I honestly didn't mind waiting and quietly reading.  :)  Eileen and Dan also had appointments this week and thankfully all went smoothly - no cavities and all is well.  

Saturday was crazy....  Anna and I went to our Peter the Rock rehearsal, but we could only stay about an hour, then we had to take off to get Anna to her Tuba Christmas rehearsal.  I dropped her off downtown and then headed back to play water polo with the Masters group and had a great time - I was playing well which was fun!  Then I grabbed a quick lunch and headed back to go listen to Tuba Christmas.  It was so much fun - a huge group of tubas and euphoniums and a huge crowd gathered to listen.  It was fun to listen to Christmas music, even if it was out in the rain and Anna had a lot of fun doing it.  It was wet and rainy, but still a lot of fun!  

After, we went home and did scriptures and prayers with the kids before heading out to take Aaron to babysit Taz and Kai and then going to the company Christmas party.  It was a fun night of chatting and eating and it went longer than expected - everyone was much more eager to chat this year and 3 hours later and it was still going strong.  Dan and I finally got out of there and got home with Aaron, then I grabbed Anna and we headed out for open polo and played until 11.  It was a fun evening and it's fun getting to know more people in the community.  After 3 hours of playing water polo today, I was pretty ready for bed though!  

Church today was great - great talks and primary went well.  Ward choir after was wonderful - I love Christmas music and it's such a great group of people!!  Then in the evening, Anna had her Encore fireside at our church building.  It was such a wonderful fireside and she did amazing.  They wanted kids to accompany where possible and Anna was the only one who was willing to try doing one of the parts for Joy to the World because it was crazy hard - but Anna has never been one to shy away from doing hard things - she worked so hard to get this ready and she did SO well!!!  It was an amazing piece and she did an amazing job!!  The whole fireside was a wonderful experience with the spirit there so strongly!  

Christmas is Coming!!

As usual, on the Monday after Thanksgiving, we decorated out tree for Family Home Evening.   We had a fun time hanging ornaments and drinking egg nog and listening to Christmas music.  We got the stockings hung up.  David learned the hard way to not pull on them and gave himself a good scratch to the head.  

Tuesday was back to school for the kids.  Back to all the busy schedule and the added crazy of the holidays.  I had water polo on Tuesday and Thursday.  The kids had their youth activities on Wednesday.  The girls were at the church building, but Dan and Aaron had their activity here - they did a movie night with treats and popcorn.  They had a fun time and the two younger boys and I watched Slumberland upstairs in our room to keep them out from under Dan's feet.  

On Friday, Anna had her tech rehearsal for her concert.  They didn't want kids driving in Portland at night, so I drove her and her friend Valery to the rehearsal and got to sit in and listen and watch.  It was a lot of fun to hear - but it was very strange being on the observer side and not the choir side!  It was so neat getting to watch Anna have these awesome experiences though!  

Saturday was nuts.  Anna and I left early for Peter the Rock rehearsal, then she and I grabbed a quick lunch before I had to drop her off for her matinee concert call time, then I hung around waiting to go to the matinee concert.  The concert was amazing - her choir did a great job - it even brought me to tears - it made me feel a bit like my dad.  But it was a wonderful concert and Anna did an amazing job.   

In the evening, was the ward Christmas party.  It was a lot of fun.  I was asked to sing O Holy Night and I think it went well.  The food was good, the people were awesome and we had a great time.  

Eileen is staying down at Sandi's house and house/dog sitting while Sandi is out of town.  I think she's enjoying the taste of adulthood - mostly.  But we miss her here at home.  :(  

Anna had an evening concert too, so she stayed there until after the second concert when Dan picked the girls up and brought them home.  It was wonderful, but a long tiring day for them!  

After getting the boys to bed, I took a quick walk, then I went to Open Polo down in Tigard.  It was fun, but very different from Masters.  It was nice to get in some playing time since I couldn't play at Parkrose today because of the concert.  h

Church was wonderful - we had a really nice fast and testimony meeting and a great time in primary.  Ward choir went well and it's exciting to get to sing Christmas music!!  We got some snow today - it didn't stick very much because it never got that cold, but it was enough for James and David to build a little snowman in our back yard.  James has been praying for snow for awhile now, but I don't think this was enough for him - he wants it stuck all over the roads so he can sled down the hill next to our house.   It was enough to get swim practice cancelled for tomorrow, but not seminary.  :)   

Anna had her choir's first fireside performance tonight out in Gresham.  We are looking forward to the one next week here at our Stake Center.  Dan and the kids and I watched the Christmas Devotional and then played around for a bit before getting the younger kids to bed and playing games.  

Giving Thanks

We have much to be thankful for!  Monday, for Family Home Evening, we had fun making little Turkey Table decorations with the kids.  They all had their own fun little personalities and we had a fun time together making them!  

The weather was nice enough for the kids to get to play after school on their last day of school this week.   As usual they had fun playing with friends and I was glad to have them playing outside.  

Wednesday we mostly spent our time getting ready for Thanksgiving.  Cooking and cleaning and all that fun stuff.  Plus since we bribed the kids to get the cleaning done, they played video games after we got the cleaning done.  

Thursday was more cooking getting everything set up for Thanksgiving dinner.  It was fun, since we had a small group, Dan and I pulled out the nice china for the adults!  We had Sandi and Lisa and her family over to Thanksgiving.  It was a lot of fun and the kids had fun playing together.  It was so nice to see Stephen and Lisa again and their kids are so cute!  

Friday morning, we headed out to the tree farm to pick out our Christmas tree!  The boys requested that we go to the same place as last year.  It was pretty drizzly, but they still had a fun time choosing the tree and roasting marshmallows and getting a toy from Santa and playing on the playground. 

When we got home though, we realized that we should have brought a measuring tape....  

We had to cut off a few inches (or feet) to make it fit!  LOL  But it's a nice tree and the kids are looking forward to decorating it next week!  

David decided to make a Christmas List.  He wrote it himself with a bit of spelling help from mom.  He was so funny - he also put down how many of each he wanted - there was a 5 after toy, and a 2 after stuffie, but he changed them to 1's.  

Saturday was pretty relaxed.  Anna and Aaron and I played water polo and Dan took the younger boys to the library.  Then we had a pretty relaxed afternoon together.  

Sunday was great!  Church was wonderful with some great talks in Sacrament meeting.  Primary was fun - though numbers were small.  It seemed like half the ward was sick or travelling.  :(   

I can't believe it's already Christmas time - the year seems to have flown by.  The kids are all super excited for Christmas though!  

It's fall!!

We've had a fun and busy week!  We had the water polo end of year banquet on Tuesday.  I had made up a slide show to play at the banquet and it was a big hit - the kids loved seeing pictures of themselves and each other.  Fun was had by all, then I got to go to my first night back at Thills masters.  

The weather has been cold but dry this week - so there are TONS of leaves in piles all over the place and the boys have been having fun jumping in them and playing in them.  And of course, having their picture taken in them.  It has also meant that the boys could stay after school to play most days.  On Friday, we had a fun time playing the monster game - where I ran after them trying to catch them and tickle them.  

Wednesday, the youth activity and the primary activity days activity were combined.  The youth put on a great program about temple preparation and James, though he went grumpy, came home happy, so I figure that's a success!  

On Thursday, I went to Melonie's house to crochet and chat and we had a nice time and I worked on the stuffies for Jen's kids and got a fair amount done.  We had fewer people at Masters on Thursday and I was in the field most of the time, but it was a lot of fun!  

Friday, I had lunch with some of the ladies from church and we had a fun time chatting.  I found out my friend Joe from Beaverton Swim Center is the brother in law of one of my friends, and that we had just missed meeting a couple times before we finally met at the water polo practices.  

In the evening, Evelyn had Acro, then went to her friends house for a movie night after.  Dan and I went to the temple, then out to dinner.  

Saturday was the usual busy - rehearsals for Anna and I.  Aaron and Anna and I went to water polo and Dan took the kids to the library for more books.  In the afternoon and evening, was our Stake Conference.  Dan went to the leadership meeting, while I hung out with the kids, then we both went to the adult session with Eileen, then after we went to Shari's with some friends for pie and fun.  

The Youth devotional and general session of Stake Conference were today.  I got to go to the youth session since I was leading the music and it was wonderful, then our family was performing a musical number for the general session - All except Eileen and James who didn't want to.  It went well - David stole the show and was adorable enough to make up for any other mistakes that may have been made.  The talks were wonderful!  As usual our afternoon was spent playing games and crafting and naps were had by some.  

Championships and a Cloak

It's been a busy week heading towards the end of the season.  Plus Dan has had a busy week with work and getting things ready for a new big release next week.  Between school and water polo and working to get Evelyn's cloak done, we've been a bit busy!  

We had some really nice weather days where the younger boys were able to play at the playground after school which was nice - still cold, but at least sunny for a while.  It's always nice to be able to let them play and have fun with friends!  

The kids had Thursday and Friday off (well Eileen and Anna just had Friday off, but the younger kids had both days off) but I spent most of Thursday cleaning and cooking and then Anna and I spent all of Friday down in Corvallis for the championships.  

We had one last team dinner before the State Championships.  Thursday night, the girls came over for food and fun, then I sent them home to get to bed and get rest before our early Friday morning game.  

Friday morning, really early, we drove down to play Grant.  We weren't really on our game though and we lost the game that we should have won.  It was disappointing, but the girls played hard and gave it their all.  Anna and I stayed for most of the rest of the day to watch the games and hang out with friends.  It was fun getting to chat with the other coaches and Anna enjoyed chatting with friends on other teams.  The one plus to losing was no early Saturday morning game, so Anna and I headed home in the evening.  The downside to heading home was me really wishing that I could be down there watching the games and wanting to know how everything was going....  There were some pretty big upsets in the end!  

Anna got to go with Aaron and Evelyn to the multi-ward youth activity on Saturday and I got to go to rehearsal for the Peter the Rock.  I was also glad that I got to go play with the masters group because that was the only time all day that I wasn't thinking about the championships and wondering how it was going.  In the evening, we went over to Sandi's for a big birthday party.  We had fun dancing and playing games and eating pizza.  It was fun to hang out with Sandi and to get to see her new house!  

David is quite the social butterfly and had another birthday party this weekend.  He had a blast at the Lego Minifigs place with his friends.  

Church was wonderful!  The choir sang and did a wonderful job!  After I had some meetings, but then after, I was finally able to get Evelyn's cloak finished.  She has been asking me to work on it all week and it's finally done.  I love the fabrics she chose and it came out beautiful!  We left quite a bit of fabric on the bottom so that we can increase the length when she grows.  

Halloween & Playoffs

We had a fun Halloween.  Evelyn had a friend join us for Trick or Treating, James mostly went and hung out with Caleb and his siblings, Anna and I were accidental twins and David found one of his school friends to hang out with while we were out.  We had a fun time, then Anna and Aaron and I took off a bit early for water polo practice, which as you might guess was poorly attended...  

James had a primary activity on Wednesday, David was there too since I stay to help out usually, and the kids had a blast acting out Bible stories with costumes and props and such!  

Eileen's 18th birthday was on Wednesday.  She had classes on Wednesday, so Dan and I took her out for lunch on Tuesday instead, we had fun eating sushi and chatting in between her online classes.  Eileen wanted a cheesecake instead of a traditional cake, so she had a white chocolate cranberry cheesecake!  yum!  She also got flowers from Grandma and Grandpa Cox and notebooks from Grandma and Grandpa Jones.  

On Thursday, Eileen had a field trip for her marine biology class.  She needed a ride though, so I got to take her and hang out with her at the zoo!  We had a super fun time watching and playing with the penguins.  I would have thought that watching penguins for an hour and a half would have been boring, but it turned out to be a lot of fun.  Eileen had a tassel that they would follow and so we would play with them and had fun observing lots of human interaction!   Then on our way out, we got to see the trainers feeding the otters!  It was so cute!!!  They would hold out their hand for a little otter high five and it was so fun watching them with their keepers!  I love otters!  It was a rather chilly and windy day, but we had a great time together and Eileen got herself a couple stuffed animals as a souvenir! 

Friday was the beginning of State.  We had our first match on Friday afternoon against Tualatin and beat them easily.  We then had a few hours to hang out and wait for our second game. Our second game didn't go so well.  We weren't playing our best, but even that would have been ok - what was most frustrating was the reffing.  My girls were called out over and over again for things they didn't do leading them to be upset and frustrated and to play worse.  We had known it would be a hard game, but having the refs do that was much more awful than losing.  

Saturday, Anna had an Encore event for most of the day, I had a rehearsal in the morning which was a lot of fun and then in the evening, Dan and I went out to see a movie.  We went to see Ticket to Paradise which was cute and had dinner.  

Church was wonderful!  We had an amazing fast and testimony meeting with a lot of the youth bearing powerful testimony!  What an amazing generation of kids they are!  Our afternoon was spent with ward choir and games and chatting with family.  

Fun and Family

We've had a busy week with school and activities and water polo and such.  We had our last game of the season on Tuesday.  We did our Senior Night before the game to celebrate our awesome Seniors.  It was fun, but a bit bittersweet - They are amazing kids and we will miss them next year.  :(  

Our boys lost the game, so they are done for the season - their practices from here out are optional.  The girls won and are heading for the State Playoffs next weekend.  I promised the girls some of our homemade oreos if they won Metro, so on Wednesday, I brought them their reward.  They were a big hit.  While eating her second cookie, one girls asked if I would be her mother.  I told her yes - and that they were all already my girls - to which Maddie said "we know"  <3  

We had a busy weekend - Anna had a dance with a friend from Water Polo on Friday night - their church was having a dance and invited her to go - she had a blast!  

Saturday, Anna and I had our first practice for Peter the Rock.  It was neat, but we didn't get music yet.  :(  I'm looking forward to singing again though!  

Aaron and Dan had a service project in the morning and had a good time working hard and helping out a neighbor.  

After, Aaron, Anna and I went to play water polo - we had a good turn out and had a lot of fun!  It's neat to see how much they have grown!  

In the evening, John and Melissa and Isaac and Adam came over for dinner and games.  We had fun playing together and then after they headed home for the evening, Dan and I headed over to a costume party that some friends were having.  We didn't really have costumes, but we had fun hanging out with friends and checking out their creative costumes!  

Today was the primary program!  The kids did such a great job!  I got to sit with the Sunbeams and we had a blast trying to keep them from fighting and running away and playing with the lights.  They are such fun kids - but a handful!!  

After church, I headed down to Salem for the water polo seeding meeting.  It went about as expected, though not quite as well as I'd hoped, but it is what it is and I'm looking forward to State.  Had a nice time chatting with a couple of the other coaches, then headed home for tithing declaration and family fun time!  

Rain!

We've had a busy week!  School, orthodontist appointments, water polo, ward parties and activities.  

We have nice weather early in the week, so we took advantage of it and spent as much time after school playing as we could.  As much as I will be glad for the rain, I will miss the idyllic days of standing in the sun chatting with other parents while the kids run and play with their friends.  

We had water polo games on Tuesday and Thursday this week - but it was obvious by Thursday that they were dragging and tired and burnt out, so we spent Friday playing games.  Still got them a work out, but hopefully a fun one.  

Friday evening, Dan and I went to the temple together and ran into John and Melissa there!  So after, we went out and got some dinner together.  The boys had a Trunk or Treat at the school that Anna took them to, and Evie had her Acro class.  

Saturday was not as busy as had been planned, but still busy enough.  We had a fun ward harvest festival with chili and games and trunk or treating.  The kids had fun dressing up.  I took Eileen out to get the last of the stuff for her costume - the only Link shirt we could find was a kids large - but thankfully it fit.  We had fun and there was a great turn out!  

After the ward party, Anna and Aaron went to the Stake Dance and had fun while Eileen and I sat at home and hung out in the craft room.  

Dan thought Aaron and the guinea pig looked funny watching videos together on Aaron's phone.  

Church today was wonderful - the choir sang and did a wonderful job, and then we practiced for the primary program next week.  After, we had a nice quiet afternoon playing games and hanging out together and chatting with family.