Christmas Time!!!

Grandma and Grandpa Cox flew in on Monday!  We love having them around!  

Monday afternoon, I took David to the doctor.  His ear had been hurting him and we took him in to get it checked out - sure enough, he had an ear infection and so we then had to wait an hour to get his medicine.  

Monday evening, we had our Bagna Caulda Christmas party!  We ended up with a TON of people there!  We did a baked potato bar in addition to the Bagna Caulda.  Almost all the food got eaten - and it was all so good!  Friends brought yummy desserts and some other goodies and it was a wonderful night of eating and caroling and chatting!  

Tuesday, Grandma helped me finish off the last bit of Christmas shopping.  The rest of Tuesday was spent wrapping presents and getting everything ready.  Food was cooked and stocking stuffed and Dan and I made the Christmas Eve gifts.  We did our final advent calendar pieces and opened our Chrismas Eve Presents (neck warmers for everyone - including Grandma and Grandpa) 

Finally the younger ones went to bed and the presents and stocking stuff was all brought down and set up for Christmas morning.  

David had asked when we could open presents on Christmas morning.  We told him that we could open presents when everyone was up....  He wasn't too excited about the idea of waiting until Eileen's usual wake up time of 1 pm...  So I told him to talk to her and see when she was willing to wake up.  After some negotiation, he convinced her to get up for presents at 9 am.  So at 9 am, we all gathered to open our stockings - then as usual, a pause for breakfast followed by the rest of the presents! 

In the evening, we went to Sandi's house to do Second Christmas.  We did all the presents from Grandma and Grandpa and our gifts to eachother.  Grandma and Grandpa got the kids all a trip to iFly for Christmas.  We were able to get all of us in for our session Friday night before they headed back home Saturday morning.  For the most part - the kids LOVED it.  Anna wasn't that crazy about it, but David was SO EXCITED - he was grinning like a maniac throughout the whole thing!  

Friday afternoon, all the ladies got together for Pedicures!  It was so fun!  

Saturday morning, Grandma and Grandpa headed home.  :(  Then we mostly got back to our regular schedule.  Dan and David built a fun little candy dispenser.  Aaron and I went to Parkrose.  Anna worked.  Then Anna and Evelyn went to a little party with friends for a bit before meeting me at Open Polo.  

Church today was wonderful - we had a baby blessing and a missionary return - so the chapel was a lot more crowded than usual even with people gone for the holidays.  

Last Week!

We've had a fun week.  Anna got home on Tuesday!  We've all been so excited to have her back!!  On Wednesday, Anna and I went to Yuletide at Mountianside.  It was a great show and we had a fun time watching!  Evelyn did an amazing job!  

This is the time for Christmas parties, and the Zumba class I go to had a little Christmas party after our class on Friday.  It was fun with lots of chatter and food and a little gift exchange!  

I took Friday off work so I could get some Christmas prep done - so I ran some errands, then met up with Dan for lunch.  Then I got home in time to get David from school.  He had a blast at his class party!

Saturday, Anna and I went to Tuba Christmas for a bit, then headed to Parkrose to play water polo.  It's so fun having her back!  

The in the evening, we went to watch Evelyn and Encore at the Grotto.  It was fun going and the choir sounded even more amazing in that venue and Evelyn did amazing on her flute and vocal solos!  After, Anna and I headed to Open Polo.  

Sunday was the combined Christmas program.  It was amazing - the choir did a wonderful job and all the performances were great!  The rest of our Sunday was mostly spent getting ready for the next week!  

Busy Week

This week we hosted a team dinner for the Swim Team.  Nearly the whole team came and the house was packed.  They also brought TONS of food, so we ended up with tons of leftovers.

Wednesday night was also the youth activity - gingerbread decorating.  James and Dan had a great time.  

The team dinner was in prep for the first swim meet of the season.  They swam against Beaverton, so I got to see Luke and Chris too.  The kids all did a great job and it was a lot of fun to watch.  Unfortunatly, we ran out of time and had to cut some JV events.  I also made the mistake of not lifting properly when helping set up the blocks... so my back was hurting for a couple days after.... 

 

Friday, after school, I picked up David and Paxton and took them to Walmart to get birthday presents for their friend Sebastian for his birthday party of Saturday. The boys had tons of fun looking - but were very indecisive in actually choosing the present.  Then we went back to our house for dinner and the boys had fun making birthday cards to go with their presents.  

Friday night was the Ugly Sweater Party with a bunch of friends.  We had a great time hanging out and eating and chatting.  While Dan and I were at that, David and Paxton were having a sleepover at Paxton's house.  

Saturday was the usual busy.  I swam in the morning, then went to a masters swim team Christmas party.  It was fun to get to know some of the other swimmers a bit better.  Then I took Aaron to Parkrose for water polo.  In the evening, we went to the Ward Christmas Party - but by then David was starting to not feel great, so we got him some dinner and took the boys home.  Then in the evening, I went to open polo.  I took some of the leftover dessert from the team dinner and got it finished off!  It was fun - but not the usual group - we had a bunch of college kids back and playing - they were nice, but then they took off early.  

We finally got work started on our shower this week.  It's exciting to get it done, but also has included some of the usual frustrations with this type of work....  On the plus side, we no longer have a hole in our celing downstairs.  

Sunday morning, David was sick and staying home from church.  Dan stayed with him while I went to church with the rest of the kids so I could do primary and choir.  I also went to Evelyn's fireside in the evening down in Lake Oswego.  David was still running a very low fever, so he won't be going to school tomorrow....  

Back to the Normal

After a week off for Thanksgiving - it's not taking us long to be ready for the 2 weeks off for Winter Break!  

We've been busy as usual with school and work and swimming and such.  David is loving to read - he's getting into the Diary of a Wimpy Kid books and I found him trying to read and walk to school at the same time and thought it was so cute!   

Aaron is getting ready to start his new job at Aloha pool.  He won't get his lifeguard certification until after Christmas, but he's going to start shadowing swim instructors so he can help with teaching swim lessons.  Then he will start guarding after he's finished his certification.  This week was mostly onboarding and getting paperwork done.  

This week, the kids had a special fireside with Elder Stevens of the Quorum of the 12.  It was an aweseome experience for them, but it was also crammed into the middle of a crazy day.  I swam in the morning, then ran a couple errands before grabbing the kids and Paxton and heading to the church to help clean.  Then we got donuts.  Then I took Evelyn to the Winter Market at Mountainside and had fun browsing and running into my water polo players!  Then I took Aaron to Parkrose to play water polo,  then the fireside, then I went to open polo.  Basically, I started at 5:30 in the morning and was constantly going until 11:30 at night.  

Sunday was church and family fun.  We needed to soften some butter for dinner, so David insisted that we use his new favorite method of softening butter - dog pile.  The butter may have gotten squished more than softened, but it was funny! 

Evelyn had her first Encore fireside of the season - it was out in Portland.  They sounded amazing - Evelyn's flute part sounded beautiful and it was a wonderful concert!  I can't wait to go to the other ones!  

Swimming and Such

This week was the start of Swim Team.  I went in on Monday and Tuesday to help out some.  I had a blast working with the beginner swimmers.  They are great kids and we got a lot done in the short amount of time we had.  

The kids had a youth activity with swing dancing.  They had fun - even though James didn't want to go at first, he had fun eventually.  

We had a fairly normal week with water polo and swimming and school and work. 

On Saturday, we had some friends over for a Friendsgiving.  We had David's friends and their parents and siblings over.   It was a fun night and the food was amazing and the kids had fun running amok together.  The older kids were a bit done with it all long before it was over though.  

Sunday was wonderful!  The choir sang their Thanksgiving song and did a wonderful job and now we are on to Christmas music!!!  

David pulled his tooth out in church - then he came into primary bleeding...  But he's super excited to have his tooth out.  

Thanksgiving

With the kids off school the whole week, we have been keeping busy.  Monday was the usual busy with laundry and grocery shopping and such.  Plus we had to get things ready for Grandma and Grandpa coming to visit.  

Tuesday, I had work in the morning and Dan took the kids to the temple.  Then in the afternoon, Nicole and I headed out to the coast for a girls craft night!  We checked into our room in Rockaway and got some Indian food for dinner and then had a blast all evening watching Hallmark Christmas movies and crocheting and eating.  We had a great time and are already looking forward to doing it again next year!  

Eileen was helping out a couple in the ward by dog-sitting their dog while they were out of town.  But there were some hang ups including getting locked out of their house and having to walk the dog all the way back to our house in the cold night.  She was way too cold and it took way too long, so Dan and I kinda tried to take over the dog-care for her after that.  

I had swim practice all week - but Thursday morning was at an outdoor pool - I haven't done that for a long time and it was cold - but a ton of fun!  Then in the afternoon Sandi and James came over and Mom and Dad arrived.  We also invited Ed and Bambi and Erin to join us since they weren't able to be with their families.  They fit right in and we all had a great night.  David especially loved learning magic tricks from Ed and Dan.  

Friday, I swam and went to Zumba, then we collected everyone and headed to the Christmas tree farm.  We saw Santa and played in "snow" bubbles and got a Christmas tree!  We roasted Marshmallows and had hot chocolate. 

We spent some time after taking down the Fall decorations and putting up the Christmas decorations.  And of course - decorating the tree! 

Saturday morning, I went to swim, then met up with some of the team at My Favorite Muffin for some breakfast.  We had a good time chatting and eating.  One of the guys said that one of the other swimmers who has played water polo with me said that I was a phenomenal goalie.  I was suprised!  But it's always nice to hear something like that.  

After, we finally got around to making up the cookie dough that Eileen and I made last week.  We cut out lots of fall cookies and made up frosting and decorated cookies.  Evie and David worked together to get the butter up to room temprature.  

We had fun decorating and even more fun eating!  Then I took Aaron and my dad to Parkrose to play/watch water polo.  Dan met us there after doing some skydiving in the morning.  It was a fun group and we had a great time! 

I also took Evelyn to open polo that night after everyone else was heading to bed and we had a blast - it was a fun group - including a friend back from college for the holiday!  

Sunday we had church and then after, we went down to Sandi's for dinner and fun.  Dinner was great and after, we crashed my Mom's call with Grandpa and the uncles.  We sang and chatted for a bit and had a great time.  The younger cousins all did a great job mostly sitting still and participating before being cut loose to run amok some more!  

Getting a "week off?"

With our water polo season over and marching band season over, but swim team not yet started, we kinda had a week of down-ish time.  Evelyn still had tutoring and time with friends and her band concert and I got to go play water polo on Wednesday for the first time in a long time (and sadly the last time for awhile....)  

We all had Monday off for Vetran's Day.  I took James on an outing to the mall to walk around and talk and look at things.  I let him get a cute little stuffie and we had fun wandering around Bath and Body Works smelling stuff and picking out some things.  We also had fun looking at all the nerdy stuff in Box Lunch and checking out the Lego Store (though it was super crowded, so he didn't really want to stay in for too long.) 

Tuesday was David's field trip.  He had been looking forward to it for a long time.  Their grade went to go see Cat Kid Comic Club, the Musical.  He was in a group with a friend.  Her mom, who is also my friend, was chaperoning and sent some fun pictures to me of the kids and their exciting day!

Thursday was Evelyn's band concert.  They were amazing!!  The whole show was awesome, and Wind Ensemble did a band arrangement of O Magnum Mysterium!  That is one of my favorite choral pieces ever and it was neat to hear a band arrangement of it - plus I found out the the composer grew up in Beaverton and is a BSD alumni!  

After, the band kids went to Cold Stone for ice cream and celebration and fun.  Evelyn of course wanted to go, but I wasn't able to get her out of there until 10 pm - so I didn't make swimming Friday morning!  But she had a great time with friends and the ice cream was yummy! 

Thursday night was also David's swim lessons.  He did a great job and had a lot of fun with his friend Paxton! 

Evelyn has really been enjoying driving and wants to drive every chance she gets.  But her legs are shorter than me and Dan's.  So every time she gets in the car, she adjusts the seat.  Then when Dan or I next get in the car, we find ourselves squished up against the steering wheel or with our knees in the dashboard.  It's become a joke where we each complain about the other being too short or too tall.  

Saturday was crazy busy with swimming and water polo.  Plus I worked a lifeguard shift in the morning during the Water Polo State Championships.  It was fun to see and talk to people and watch water polo!  We also had Stake Confrence.  Dan had a leadership session while Aaron and I were at Parkrose and then He and Eileen and I went to the adult session.  Eileen was part of the musical number and she did an amazing job!  

Sunday morning was the general session of Stake Conference.  It was wonderful.  The choir did an amazing job.  The talks were wonderful and it was overall just a great morning!  

Then we had crepes for dinner!  

End of Seasons

This week marks the end of the Fall season High School activities.  On Wednesday, Evelyn had her banquest for the end of Marching Band.  They had a great season and she had a blast hanging with her friends!  Dan and I went for some of it, but had to leave to get me to water polo practice.  

Thursday, the girls had their play off game against Sam Barlow.  They played well, but we still lost.  After they were all feeling down - both about the loss and about the end of the season, so I took them all to Five Guys for a late lunch and a last hang out together.  We had a good time and spirits were much higher after!  

Saturday was the Water Polo Banquet.  The food was great and the company was great, and I only cried a little.  They are amazing kids and it was a blast to get one last hangout with them!  

On Thursday, both Dan and I went to donate blood at the church.  I was a little tired after, but not too bad.  

Saturday morning, I was planning to swim, but when I got up, for some reason I decided to take a day off.  I wasn't really tired, but I stayed home, and was glad I did.  Not too much later, David came into our room sobbing after having a bad dream.  He said that in the dream I died.  I can't imagine how much worse that would have been for him if he had come into our room after that dream and I had been gone.  I still got to go play water polo with Aaron at Parkrose and at Open polo, so it's not like I lost all my time to exercise.  :)  

David had Thursday and Friday off of school for parent/teacher confrences.  He found an old Coupon Book I had made for the kids and has started wanting to use them all.  He got Dan to take him on an outing to Subway on Thursday.  He had a sleepover with Paxton at our house Thursday night, then hungout at Paxton's house most of Friday.  Then Saturday, he wanted me to take him on an outing to go look at stuff at the mall.  We had fun together!  Later that day, I mentioned that since none of the kids had school on Monday because of Veteran's Day, I could do the same thing with him on Monday and he seemed super excited about it!  

Sunday was busy, but wonderful!  Church and Primary were great and after, Stake Choir went so well!  It was amazing hearing the choir and instruments together!  Then I went to the Encore rehearsal to chaperone.  It was so awesome to hear their rehearsal - they really sound amazing!  

Halloween

I can't believe October is over.  This was a busy week!  On Monday, we carved pumpkins with the kids.  They had fun and got creative! 

Tuesday, the water polo team had a game against Westview.  The girls won, the boys lost - but they had to forfeit because we only had 6 players there.  We've been dealing with a lot of sick kids this season.  

Then Wednesday, we played Hillsboro - at their pool.  It's an outdoor pool - which isn't always fun in the cold and wet, and is even less fun when the refs admit that they can't see anything, and are making some poor calls because of it.  We lost both games, but the worst part was the standing outside in the cold and rain for far longer than necessary...   

Thursday was Halloween.  I picked David up from school in my costume.  It is super soft and fluffy and he loved it so much that he snuggled with me for at least 20 minutes straight!  

After a fun dinner of halloween chicken nuggets, orange pasta-roni and salad, we went trick or treating with some friends!  We had a fun time, even though it was a bit cold and rainy.  My costume did an admirable job of keeping me warm out there!  

Then Aaron and I had water polo and Evelyn had band stuff.  We had a total of 3 kids at water polo - so we mostly just had fun.  But I had planned a whole fun Halloween themed work out including Zombie free style, Frankenstien Strokes, grave yard kicking, and mummy shooting.  So we did the work out on Friday.  :) 

Friday evening, Dan's parents arrived in town.  They felt the need to do a bit of extra cleaning in the boys bathroom before they used it!  But the boys had fun working with them!  We also had dinner with a couple in our ward and some other families in the ward.  The wife is from Thailand and she cooked a wonderful Thai dinner for us!  It was so yummy and I ate way too much!  

Saturday morning, after my morning swim, Dan and I went with his parent to the temple for Seth's Endowment.  It was so wonderful to get together with so much of the family for this special occasion.  After, everyone came over to our house for lunch. Dan smoked up a pork shoulder and we had a great time talking and eating and hanging out!  We also did a little birthday celebration for Eileen and Dave.  This was where they pretended to blow out the candles since we hadn't gotten our camera out fast enough for the real thing. 

After lunch, Dan's parents headed home, and I went to Parkrose to play water polo.  It was a fun time and then we headed home.  In the evening Dan took Jacob and a friend of his out to dinner at Fogo de Chao.  They had a great time together.  Mom and Aaron went to open polo and also had fun.  

Sunday was great!  Church was wonderful.  I had to leave a little early to be on the water polo seeding meeting.  The seeding meeting went about how we expected it to for the girls team, but right now it's looking like out boys won't play in the playoffs even though teams we beat will be playing.  It's a little frustrating, but it was nice to have some of the other coaches have my back when I spoke up about this seeming like punishing us for something we have no control over.  But he said he would talk to the board about it and that's really all we can ask for - but I don't know that it will change anything for this year.  

Sandi and James came over with Taz and Kai to play games and hang out.  We had fun playing Settlers of Catan and Sandi beat us all in record time.  

Teenage Adventrues

We've had a busy week.  Evelyn has had her usual marching band and tutoring and school work and friends.  The kids had no school on Friday, so Evelyn spent the day at the pumpkin patch with friends.  They had a great time together and posted some cute pictures!  

Water Polo all week with our last home game on Thursday.  Since it was our last home game,  it was also senior night.  It was fun celebrating these amazing kids and all they have done!  They played well, but the reffing was all over the place.  Dan helped out at the table and so naturally it was the best run table ever.  :)  Our boys were playing with no subs at all, so they were all tired, but they played well and the girls had a rough game with the rough play, but they were amazing.  

We are dog sitting Sandi's dog Popcorn while she is down in CA doing an Iron Man.  As of right now, she is still going strong!!  David loves Popcorn and she is very sweet with him - but she is having tummy troubles :(  

Thursday night was the Trunk or Treat at the school.  David went with his friend Paxton and met up with Dan and James there.  He had a blast running all over and getting candy and wearing their costumes.  

This weekend was Homecoming.  Mountainside won their homecoming game - Evleyn was of course playing in the marching band and Dan was helping out with the pit crew.  Then on Saturday was the Homecoming dance.  Natalie and I worked to help her get ready.  Though, I'm not sure we were much help.... (at least I wasn't)  But thankfully she is naturally beautiful and looked great!  

And here she is in the dress that Anna made for her!  

Saturday was busy with water polo and marching band stuff plus Evelyn's homecoming and Dan and I going on a date.  But it was a wonderful busy

Today in church was the primary program.  The kids did an amazing job and we had a fun time partying it up after during second hour.  Ward choir is now getting into the full swing of Christmas music which is always wonderful.  Stake Choir was also amazing.  The songs are coming together so well!!  It is so neat to hear them come together and make beautiful music!!  

Competitions and other fun things

We've had a busy week.  Aaron and I have had water polo all week - plus we had a game Tuesday night.  The boys lost and the girls won, but they both did well.  

Evelyn has been busy with marching band and tutoring.  Plus she had a marching band competition on Saturday - they won their competition!  

Wednesday night, the youth had an activity planting flowers at the temple.  It was a great service project and they had a great time.  

On Saturday, Dan participated in his first Cross Fit competition.  He and his partner competed in several rounds trying to get as many reps and as much weight as they could.  Dan did amazing and he and his partner took first in their bracket!  

Dan had a great time, and David and I had a great time watching him and cheering him on and meeting some of his cross fit friends!  

After, David and I headed to the park to meet up with some friends for an informal pumpkin patch.  David had fun carving a pumpkin and playing with friends - but he was a bit groggy while we were there, having fallen asleep in the car on the way.  

After, I took David to a birthday party (yes another one) and then Aaron and I went to Parkrose to play water polo.  We had a great time!  The parents of one of my players was there at the end for a LOWPO thing after, and it was fun to see them!  Then I picked up David and grabbed some Chick-fil-a for dinner and headed home.  We did dinner and scriptures, then the kids had an activity and a dance and I went to open polo.