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!