The Year Ends

Christmas Morning dawned bright and early!  David woke us up at 8 am (the earliest we said he could wake us) and we headed down stairs to begin the Christmas Fun.  I got the obligitory stairs picture - including some "I don't want to be awake yet" kids!  We called family and opened presents and stockings and ate breakfast and then spent the rest of the day having fun together - playing games and playing with toys and just enjoying the relaxing day!  

James had fun all week working on his many lego sets.  He was super excited to build them!  It's been so fun to have all the kids together and having fun together!  

Anna and Eileen had fun making shirts together.  They got this fabric and were able to make two different shirts from the pattern - one for each girl! 

Saturday, the kids had the new years dance - the church did it a day early since New Years Eve was on a Sunday - they went and had a blast!  Mom went to open polo and also had a blast!  

In the evening, we went to the Olsen's for a New Year's Party.  David has been looking forward to this all weekend.  He was asking every half hour after church if it was time to go to the party.  So when we finally went, he found all his favorite people and hung out with them.  The adults played a fun game of Charades with "The Dude" and we all had a blast being silly and talking.  Dan and I took the younger two home around 9.  David went to bed and James stayed up playing games while Eileen, Dan and I worked on our National Parks Puzzle.  Anna, Aaron and Evelyn all stayed at the party with their friends until a bit after midnight.  Dan and Eileen and I managed to finish the puzzle - they go a lot faster when I get some help!  

Christmas Break Begins

We've had a busy week of Christmas fun!  On Monday, Sandi and the kids came over to decorate Christmas cookies.  We had fun together and made a big mess together.  :)  Anna and Evelyn also had an Encore performance Monday evening, so they missed a bunch of it, but we saved cookies to decorate with them.  After decorating, James went to spend the night with Taz at Sandi's house.  

Tuesday was my day for finishing off the last of the Christmas shopping.  So I took my friend Shelly to the max station, then played with David until some of the other kids got up, then I headed out to hit a few stores and do some shopping.  In the evening, I went to play water polo and Dan came too.  He's been joining with the masters group in the evening and it's been fun playing with him.  :)  

Wednesday was a day of cleaning and cooking and getting ready for Bagna Caulda night.  We had a great time with friends and family eating lots of yummy food and singing songs!  

Thursday was pretty chill.  Aaron had a couple parties with seminary friends this week - and the kids had optional swim practices that they went to when they could.  Dan and I had water polo again and he's getting less tired after!  

Friday afternoon, Sandi and the kids came over one last time to exchange gifts.  They had a blast playing together and opening presents.  Jon has the kids for Christmas and Sandi is heading out to Utah to be with James for Christmas.  The kids also got gift cars from Sandi - David used his right away to get a nerf gun that looks like Thor's hammer, but expected that it wouldn't arrive until New Year's Eve.  

It arrived Sunday afternoon....  He's been shooting our wall with "sticky darts" ever since.... 

Saturday was full of water polo and making sweets for our Christmas cookie plates.  We went to parkrose masters and had a blast, and the kids and I went to Open Polo and had a blast too!  We got Spritz cookies, shortbread, and peppermint bark all made up and ready for Sunday!  

Sunday was the big church Chrismtas program.  The girls and I did a musical number.  The girls did an amazing job and I accompanied them.  I also played the organ and Anna led the music, but getting asked to play the organ was a bit last minute, so I didn't play very well.  :(  It was still a beautiful meeting though.  After, we headed home and had lunch and got cookie plates ready (and mom took a nap) then we headed out to give out Christmas cookies and sing carols.  We had a fun time together and loved singing and giving out cookies!  

The boys were VERY eager for their Christmas Eve gifts, so we had an early dinner once we got back, then cleaned up and did scriptures - which was reading the Christmas story in Luke - then we opened our gifts.  Dan got Anna and I matching pajamas - not realizing that they were matching until too late, but we have fun being twinsies!  

Here we all are except Dan who took the picture since he got slippers and they are hard to see in a picture.  :)  

After, we played games for a bit, then sent kids off to bed so we could get Christmas ready.   We finished off the last of the wrapping and brought stuff downstairs, I stuffed stockings and we set everything up for tomorrow morning.  Now it's time to sleep and wait for tomorrow! 

Exciting Adventures

Monday we finally got to decorate our Christmas tree.  We had fun drinking egg nog and hanging up our favorite ornaments.  James found an ornament of his that had a piece of ribbon in it that was as long as he was tall when he got the ornament, and is now about 6 inches short - it's fun to see how much he's grown.

We are watching Popcorn this week while Sandi is down in Texas with my parents.  She's been great and the dogs are getting along great!   She loves to sit on my lap to get petted.  

The weather this week has been mostly nice in the afternoons, so we've been able to stay and play after school.  We also helped a friend this week picking up her son from school.  He stayed and played with us after school, then walked home with us, then we drove him to his house.  He and David had lots of fun playing together and chatting on the way home and being silly.  

On Thursday, the kids had a swim meet.  It was fun to watch them swim and they all did well.   It was a meet against Aloha and it was fun to see a bunch of friends there!  

David has had a loose tooth for a while now.  This week on Wednesday, David had a dentist appointment.  He walked in with a loose tooth, and walked out with a tooth in a box.  He was so excited and scared to death that James would steal his tooth....  Funny thing was that James lost his first tooth exactly 5 years ago.  He said it didn't hurt at all and it just popped out!  

Late Thursday (really early Friday) Eileen's flight got into PDX.  I picked her up and brought her home for her Christmas break.  It's been fun to have her back home again!  

David has been super excited all week for Friday.  It was an assembly, his class party and PJ day!  He was so excited!  His friends mom sent me some pictures from the Christmas party.  He had so much fun!  

Saturday, we did some Christmas shopping with the kids and then I went to watch Anna in Tuba Christmas, then met up with Dan and Aaron at Parkrose for water polo.  In the evening, I went with Aaron and Evelyn to Open Polo and Anna met us there after a Encore Section Leader meeting.  

Me and the other two wives of bishopbric members planned together to get our husbands matching Christmas ties.  We picked them out and each sent them with their tie on today with out them knowing they would all be matching.  They found out when they went to meetings in the morning and got a kick out of it!  :)  The ties came in a pack of 4, so we gave our sons the other ties.  We had our sons match up with their friends.  It was fun!  The choir also performed today and did a great job!!  We had a little holiday party with primary and the kids did great! 

In the evening, we went to the Encore concert - they did an amazing job!  It was so neat to go hear them and even better to get to sing with them for a couple numbers!  I'm so grateful that they get to be part of this program!  

Holiday Fun - finally

Dan was out in Texas for the first couple days this week helping my parents.  My dad is getting better and was loving being able to get outside to walk, even if it was just a little bit.  There are still ups and downs and I'm glad Sandi is going out next week, but it's good to see the progress.  And good to see him happy.  

The week has been crazy busy.  Between school and work and sports and music, finding a time to go get a Christmas tree has been hard, and it was feeling like it was hard to feel like Christmas time with out a tree.  

Thursday Anna, Aaron and Evelyn all had their first swim meet of the season.  They did an awesome job and it was fun to watch them and see my other polo players too.  Aaron was supposed to get out of school early to get a bus to the meet, but missed it, so he called me and I had to get home from picking up David really quickly to get him to his meet, and he still missed the first event.  

Friday evening, we went to Home Depot to pick out a tree. We've got it up in the house and on Monday we will decorate it, but it's finally feeling like Christmas!  

Saturday morning was the ward Christmas party.  We all had a lot of fun eating and playing and chatting and singing!  

After, Dan took a nap while I spent some time cleaning up, then we went to Parkrose for water polo.  There was a great turn out and we had lots of fun!  We got home with time to shower and dress for Dan's company party.  We had a fun time chatting and eating and won some prizes in the raffle.  A good time was had by all, then we headed out.  Dan dropped me off at open polo on the way and I met the kids there.  There was a good turn out and we had lots of fun.  Plus I was playing better than last week which was great.  :)  

Sunday was crazy busy.  I went to a different ward where I had been asked to sing as part of their relief society Christmas program.  It was fun to be able to go to Relief Society and it was a wonderful meeting.  After, we had ward choir practice, and stake choir practice, then dinner and the Stake musical event.  Anna and Evelyn had an Encore concert tonight also, it was sad to miss it, but since I was singing in the musical event and directing the choir, I needed to be there - thankfully there will be another one next week to see!   Now it's time to rest and get ready for next week's busy-ness!

Texas And Home

 Last Sunday, at midnight, I flew out to Texas.  I slept on the plane and got to my parents house around 6:30 am.  My mom was up and told me to nap for a bit, then meet her at the hospital.  I got there later that morning and we chatted a bit about how things were going and how I could best help, then I stayed and chatted with dad for the rest of the day so my mom could get a bunch of things done.  All signs pointed to him being released from the hospital on Tuesday.  He was up and moving and hating to sit still, but he really seemed to like his doctors and nurses and other hospital staff that came in to visit him.  He seemed to know them all by name and was always glad to see them!  My mom seemed really glad to have someone else to listen to Dad and keep him company.  I sat and listened to all his new stories and some of his older ones and crocheted.  I even learned some things I never knew before - it turns out that my grandpa was a boxer as a young man!  It was a nice quiet afternoon and my mom was able to work out and be at the house for the garage repairman.  Then when he was headed to sleep for the night, we headed home and headed to bed ourselves.  

Tuesday morning was filled with all the bustle of getting him checked out of the hospital.  Then getting him loaded into the car and home and settled at home.  He was resistant to parking on the couch because he said his Dad had died watching TV on the couch.  One of the big problems for him has been getting him to eat.  He has been nauseous and had a hard time finding any food appetizing.  So my mom and I have been spending a lot of our time trying to cook food he loves, but trying to do it with in the "low fat, low carb, low sodium" restrictions.  He at least seems to like our cooking more than hospital food, so I guess that's something!  He started small with some protien peanut butter stuff he likes.  Then progressed to chicken and broccoli which he ate all of.  Tuesday night, he fell asleep on the couch, but wasn't comfortable there and struggled to get a goodnight sleep.  

Wednesday morning he showered, which took him and my mom nearly 2 1/2 hours, he ate a great breakfast, then mostly had a good day, but in the evening we had a bit of a scare.  He was feeling pretty poor in the early evening as we were getting dinner ready, then when it came time to go to the table for dinner, he was staggering over and even mom's help wasn't enough to steady him, it took both of us to get hime safely to his seat.   We started to wonder if the medication he was taking to keep his blood sugar from going too high had made it drop too much, so we gave him a fudgesicle to eat - that was about all he could stomach at the time anyway.  He ate it and right away started feeling much better.  He was able to eat a little dinner after that, but still not much.  We tried to get a hold of his doctor, but couldn't.  We decided that he should skip the medication for his blood sugar until we heard from the doctor.  Then we tried to get him into bed.  He had decided that he didn't want to sleep on the couch, and was determined to get into his bed.  The problem was that his bed is WAY too high for him to easily get into.   So it took both my mom and I the better part of 2 hours to get him settled into his bed.  Then my mom and I took shifts sleeping so that we could help him if he needed to get up in the night for any reason, since he was totally unable to get out of bed on his own.  

Thursday we finally heard from the doctor and had some travelling nurses come to check him out and try to figure out just what had happened.  They were really nice and he really liked them.  They ordered some tests and took some blood and gave some good advice.  Advice that my mom and I had been trying to tell him all along, but now that it's coming from a nurse, he believes it.  :)  We've had a hard time finding the balance between letting him take care of the things that he is stressing out about getting done and not letting him stress his body out.  He's having a hard time admitting that his body shouldn't be doing the things it usually does.  

Friday, I took a walk down to the donut shop to get some Kolaches and donut holes - every once in awhile, I wonder if I was just imagining how much better Texas donuts are - I wasn't.  They are just so much better than even the best donuts here.   My mom got in a Costco run and we got some thing set up around the house for my dad so that he can get some things done with out having to walk upstairs to do them, then it was time for me to pack and head to the airport.  

The flight back was long but easy.  I napped part of the time and hand a nice time chatting with the other people in my row for the last bit.  The kid next to me had recently joined the Marines and finished boot camp and the older gentleman on the end was an Army vet.  The Marine was a sweet kid and asked a lot of questions and told some of his story.  I got home around 8:15 and went in to give David a hug and kiss, then got an hour with Dan before he headed to the airport to take that same midnight flight down to Texas.  He arrived safely Saturday morning.  

Saturday was nuts here.  David had a primary party in the morning with his class.  He had a blast with his friends and teachers!  Anna and Evelyn had an Encore rehearsal in the morning to get ready for their concert on Sunday.  I had a water polo mini-tournament in the afternoon, then we all went to hang out in Portland area for a bit after.  It was a fun evening with friend and a fun time playing water polo - though I didn't play very well.  :(  

In the evening, the teenagers had a fireside while I got David and James to bed, then Evelyn got a ride home and Anna and Aaron met me at Tigard for open polo.  It was a fun group there and we had a blast - I was still playing poorly, but it was fun at least.  

Sunday was also busy.  Church was wonderful.  James had his temple and priesthood preview meeting - I can't believe he will be in young mens in less than a month.  After church, we had ward choir and stake choir, and I had a practice with some ladies for a musical number.  James and David went to the Provance's house for Frankie's birthday.  Then we went home for dinner and scriptures.  I had a fun time chatting with Eileen and crocheting for a bit - now I'm tired and it's time for bed!   

Dan says things are going well in Texas.  My dad is still having his ups and downs, but overall, the progress is upward.  I think having Dan there has been good for everyone's sanity, but I'll be glad to have him home!!!