Spring Break!!

Well this week has been insanity!! We started out with an early morning doctor's appointment for Aaron who had been complaining about his ear hurting. After the expected diagnosis of an ear infection, we went to the grocery store to get his prescription, did the laundry and took James to get pictures taken.

Tuesday began with Becky and the kids coming over to play in the morning. We always enjoy having them come play, and it had the added bonus of being an incentive for the girls to get their rooms clean. After, we went to piano lessons for the girls, and that evening, Morgan came over to spend the night. The girls had a blast - so much so that they didn't go to sleep until after 1 am.

Well as you can imagine, after getting so little sleep, they were rather tired the next day. They still had fun playing together and we spent part of the morning at the park. After watching Eileen lay down on a bench at the park, I took them home for lunch. :) They played together happily the rest of the day, and Eileen was sad to see her go.

Thursday, was the day we planned to leave for the cabin. The kids were very excited about packing their Trunkies (a Christmas Gift from Grandma and Grandpa Cox) They did all the cleaning and piano playing that I asked them to do, and then they were allowed to pack. They loved it and before lunch, they had them packed and lined up by the back door - all ready to go.

Unfortunately, even the best plans can be ruined. After lunch, Anna started complaining about her ear hurting. James had been very cranky and fussy for a couple days, so I called the doctor and got them appointments for that afternoon. So instead of leaving for the cabin after Dan got home at 3, we took the kids for a doctors appointment - where we found two more kids with ear infections - then to the pharmacy to get the medication for Anna and James. Finally around 6:30 we got on the road. We arrived at the cabin - much later than planned, and laid the kids down to sleep and started getting the cabin turned on after the winter. After following all the start up procedures, we found that we still had no water. We finally decided that there must be a pipe frozen somewhere between the creek and the house. Newell and Becky arrived and we spent the night, figuring that we would decided what to do the next day.

Friday, we decided to hang around until lunch, then head home. The kids weren't happy, but they understood and to make it up to them, we set up a tent in the back yard and let them camp out back there. Becky and Newell stayed with all the kids while Dan and I went to see "The Hunger Games" James was nice and slept the whole time for them.

Even though we were looking forward to the cabin, we were glad to be back to watch General Conference, instead of just trying to listen on a radio. Dan and I enjoyed all sessions, and the kids even sat down and watched a fair amount of it.

Saturday during priesthood session, the kids and I went to the Haight's for an Ice Cream party. The kids had a blast running amok in their basement and the grown-ups enjoyed conversation and games. Evie refused to leave my lap until the ice cream was passed out - at which point she went outside to eat - only to find herself being sprayed with the hose. She came back in and wouldn't leave my lap again. Between sessions, Eileen proved to Dan that she could ride her 2-wheeler all by herself all the way to the park, so Dan took her to get a new bike. When he brought it home, he informed Anna that she could get a new one too, once she could go all the way to the park on the old 2-wheeler. She has been practicing ever since. For the rest of that day, she came down and would tell us "I rode it this far with pedaling!!!" And hold her hands about a foot apart. The next time, her hands might be 2 feet apart. Dan and I assumed that was really the distance she was going on her own... boy were we wrong.

We took the kids to the parking lot of the church building to let them ride around - and Anna was all over the place! Dan and I could hardly believe our eyes!! The kids all had a blast - Evie was so cute on her tricycle. Aaron kept saying every time he went past me "I'm going ALLL OVER THE PLACE!!!!" Evie would stick her tongue out of the corner of her mouth whenever she was really concentrating.



Here are the two girls on their big girl bikes!!


And Aaron with his new haircut! Dan told him that he should get his hair cut, so that he could be sexy too - Aaron promptly told him "I don't want to be sexy"

The Calm Before the Storm

This week started off normally, piano lessons, preschool and playing. On Wednesday, my dad arrived in town for some business meetings, and as usual we enjoyed having him stay with us. Amazingly my dad seems to always have business trips to Colorado around the same time that I have concerts, so he was here for my Friday night concert.

The girls brought their first ceramic art projects this week. They were so excited by them! Anna's "Pinch Pot" was made to look like a Christmas Tree with a star and ornaments. Eileen's "Coil Pot" is a perfect sized dish for her little nick nacks.


The girls are very excited to be on spring break now and are eagerly looking forward to a week of sleeping in to 7am and doing TONS of stuff - we will see just how much of their desired activities I have energy for.... Either way, I'm sure we will all be totally exhausted by the time the girls go back to school!

The weather this Saturday was just WONDERFUL - mid 70's and sunny - we enjoyed spending most of the afternoon outside working in the yard and riding bikes. (well the kids rode - I walked to keep pace with Evie) The kids just had a blast and have been talking about getting to go outside and ride bikes all during spring break!


Haha - well James is sleeping and as Dan says - I'm wasting sleep time - so I'm heading to bed - I'm sure next week will be sufficiently long to make up for the shortness of this one!

Whether the weather....

The weather here has been mostly beautiful. It's been windy too - but also sunny and warm. As a result we have been able to spend a lot of time outside enjoying the weather.

Eileen decided this week that she was ready and wanted to learn how to ride her bike with out training wheels on. She spent most of the week riding around the back yard - Dan and I figure she wanted to practice on something softer and more forgiving than concrete. When she sets her mind to something she works hard to accomplish it - and this was no different - she worked hard and is now a two wheel bike rider - She is still a bit shaky on the steering, but she is getting there!



Evie has been sick for some of this week - with a fever and runny nose, the fever made her rather snuggly - which I thoroughly enjoyed when I wasn't feeding James - hopefully James won't get sick from all the times Evie coughed on him when she needed to cuddle while I was holding James too. She seems to be doing a lot better now. Fever is mostly gone and nose is dripping less - now we just need the cough to go away.

Saturday, the kids spent most of the day cleaning (the girls room was a disaster zone) and riding bikes - Dan took each of them for rides around the block - they loved it!

Since Evie was sick and I was teaching a lesson at church today, Dan took Evie and James home after Sacrament Meeting. Since it was a beautiful day, the kids and I walked home after church. The kids didn't much like the wind, but it was a nice walk. Aaron pooped in his pants about half way home - I could tell - not just be the smell being blown back to me, but by Aaron beginning to use what I now refer to as the "poopy walk"




I had concerts this weekend - I tried to make sure that Dan had some milk for James, then I left poor Dan with 5 cranky kids - for two nights in a row. Thankfully he is an angel and never complains about it. I think that the bottle might have caused some problems though. For the last 2 nights James has woken up every 2 hours. The problem was that he didn't want to eat and go back to sleep, in fact he didn't really seem to want to eat or be awake - I would nurse him back to sleep, but it wouldn't last long. We finally figured out the problem today - serious gas. After an afternoon of almost constant unexplained fussing and refusing to eat - he spent 5 minutes passing gas and filling his diaper - after which he felt MUCH better. - go figure - LOL - for those of you who really didn't need/want all that info... sorry. :)

Gaps

It's been a bit of a crazy week - Dan was out of town most of the week, but we still found plenty to do. Anna lost her first tooth on Wednesday - she now has a cute little gap on the bottom row and says it's harder to eat apples. :)


We kept busy with our usual grocery shopping, piano lessons, preschool, choir, and play dates. My visiting teacher was sweet enough to take the kids for a morning so that I could get some rest...too bad James had other plans.... :)

Thursday night I had a Relief Society activity - I dragged all four kids there since they had the nursery set up, and had a great time. The kids were great - but were all rather tired the next day.

We were grateful to welcome Dan home on Friday just in time to rescue the house before it fell into total ruin. Between the total lack of sleep (I rarely got more than 5 hours of sleep in a night between feeding James and getting the girls to school) and a rather crazy schedule (James doesn't like to give me time to eat....) I was starting to come down with a cold - so Dan sent me to bed (once again James didn't want to cooperate....) and here it is 3 days later and I'm still trying to recover on sleep.

The weather has been beautiful recently, so Saturday for lunch, we packed a picnic and headed out to the park. The kids all rode their bikes there (with me walking behind and ensuring safe road crossings) and we met some friends there and had fun enjoying the beautiful spring-like weather.

Saturday night was Stake Conference - the young women in our ward were doing a babysitting fundraiser to help pay for girls camp, so we took our kids there and went to the adult session together (one of the very few times we have been able to go together since we have been married) I was singing as part of the special musical number and the talks were wonderful. Wonderful reminders about having faith and hope, even when life gets tough.


Sunday Dan and I dragged ourselves out of bed and got our 4 cranky kids to the general session of Stake Conference. (They had been kept up nearly 2 hours past their bed times) The speakers were wonderful (and once again I was singing with the choir) I just wish I had been able to hear more of them, 5 attention demanding cranky kids can distract...

The girls have tomorrow off school and Dan has the day off work after his trip, so we are looking forward to having the whole day together. Well actually, mommy is looking forward to being able to run some errands with out 5 kids in tow. :)

Life Happens.....

The week started out normal enough - school, piano lessons, family home evening, homework, chores, etc. Dan, Aaron and I had dentist visits this week, not fun - but nothing too miserable.


As we approached Dan's first - post baby - trip, we were grateful to find James sleeping more at night. We have been getting stretches for as long as 5-6 hours at night. My biggest concern now is trying to fit feeding in around our regularly scheduled life. I am also grateful that with all the laundry to be done tomorrow that we have the new washer and dryer.

Dan left for LA last night and has been enjoying Japanese food out there. Life has now gotten insane for me, thankfully we have friends who are sooo helpful.



This morning, between the insanity of trying to get myself plus 5 kids ready for church (all of whom still need some help - even if it's just hair) trying to feed James and getting the stuff necessary for going over to Stuart and Rebecca's house right after church, I managed to get to church with out Evie. I had gotten everyone else in the car and then out her coat on her and sent her out to the car, then went about collecting stuff - then got in the car, not having seen her anywhere else I assumed she had gotten in the car and got in and drove to church. I was rather confused when we got to church and I couldn't find her after we had all gotten out (especially since my kids all said that she was in the car!!) I finally drove home (while a kind Sister from church kept James and the two older girls while Aaron and I went home for Evie. I found her there covered in make up and holding her blanket and crying having just realized i was gone. She had been with me while I was getting ready for church - I had done her hair then out a bit of eyeshadow on her for fun (after which she said "now I'm pretty!!!!") I guess she decided she needed a bit more. *Sigh* I feel like a bad mom.... but at least it wans't for long - our church building is only a 2 minute drive away. I got back just as church was starting, and the girls stayed sitting with their friends (who set very good examples for them of sitting reverently) and so I had a relatively non-stressful church meeting.

After we headed over to Stuart and Rebecca's to celebrate the March birthdays. The kids just LOVE hanging out with their cousins, and they loved eating crackers and cake for their lunch. We headed home for dinner (which included a rather messy blowout from James and a bath for him while I was trying to cook) then baths for everyone else and scripture reading and bed. As Dan says.... "One day down" and too many more to go!!!

Evie loves James and loves to hold him - this week while she was holding him she told me "I need to burp baby James.... but first I need to feed him" Then she lifted up her shirt and kinda looked at herself and looked at James for a minute then put her shirt back don and informed me that she was done.

Who let the kids out?

My kids learned a new song this week... They have been walking around all week singing "Who Let the Pigs Out!" then snorting like a pig - even Evie sings this.... It's hilarious and cute for about the first 5 minutes, then everyone starts looking at us funny and it gets old.... :)

Monday was President's Day and the girls had the day off school. Eileen has been itching to go to the library and the aquarium and the museum... well I thought I might have energy enough to conquer the library with 5 kids, so we set off. I didn't realize until after we arrived that they were closed for the holiday. So trying to do some quick thinking and trying to keep the kids from having a total meltdown, I noticed the mall across the street and thought the play area might keep them happy for a bit. We all had fun - we ran into some friends there and the kids had fun getting their wiggles out. As we packed up and headed out, I stopped for a minute to chat and Aaron wandered off, not realizing we had stopped. Thankfully our friends helped out with searching for him and we found him after a few minutes of mommy in a panic. He had headed towards the bathrooms, since he didn't really know which way we were going.

Our week went pretty normally, piano lessons, choir and school. We had preschool at our house on Tuesday, it was nice to start getting back into routines, and the kids loved having friends over. Thursday was a Chocolate themed Relief Society activity - It was nice to get out and eat junk food :) Plus the ladies there made sure that James was held and entertained the whole time - so it was nice to have a bit of a break.

The weather has been beautiful mostly - we had one day with a bit of snow, but mostly it has been sunny and warm. We have had fun playing outside and even had most of the windows open in the house on Saturday.

Saturday was kinda busy. I had a rehearsal for Stake Conference with for a musical number I am going to be part of. Also, a friend in our ward threw me a baby shower with yummy food and wonderful friends! We are now fully stocked on diapers for the next few months at least. We had a nice family home evening this week where we talked about our names and what they mean. We told the kids about the grandparents that they were named after and a little about those grandparents. Dan and I are blessed to have had the examples of some amazing grandparents and love to have the chance to teach our kids about their fore bearers. After talking about the kids' names, Dan asked them what his name was and where they thought it came from - our smart kids quickly figured out that his name was Daniel and he was named after the biblical prophet Daniel. When asked what my name was - the prompt response was.... "Mommy!!!"

On Our Own

Well with Dan's parents around for a few more days, we got a few more projects done. We now have blinds on one of our windows, a ladder up into the attic, a stand for our washer and dryer, some more food in our deep freezer, and a plan for our backyard. We sent them home exhausted, but we are truly grateful for their desire to help us make our new house a comfortable home!!

Valentine's Day was fun - we enjoyed celebrating together. Dan made us all heart shaped biscuits for breakfast. The girls enjoyed their school parties and the candy they got. And with some help from Ann, I made a giant heart cookie for Dan and cupcakes for everyone. LOL- well I'm no award winning cake decorator, but they were fun and yummy, and the writing is legible - which is good for me. :)


So now we start adjusting to life with out extra help. Thankfully I have the best hubby in the world who helps soo much!! It does scare me though when I think about all he does - I really don't know how I am going to manage when he has to go out of town in a couple weeks....

I am also amazed at how fast James grows - I can't believe he is almost 4 weeks old - he's almost out of the 0-3 month old size. He is getting better about sleeping at night - but still not quite where I would like him to be... he is usually ready to be awake around 5 am - which is a bit early for me - if we can adjust that to 6 - it will be about right for getting the kids off to school when Dan is gone.

Blessed

The title of this post has a double meaning this week. We are so blessed!! James has been a good, healthy baby - he sleeps well (just not always at night) and it is so fun to watch him grow and watch his older brothers and sisters love him. Evie has had a runny nose for the last week, so it was no surprise when James got a bit stuffy for a couple of days. He hated it, but he seems to be feeling much better now. In fact, I would say he is one happy baby! Dan was sitting and playing with him and coaxed a couple adorable smiles out of him!


Grandma and Grandpa Jones arrived on Thursday and have been keeping busy ever since. My dad arrived on Saturday in the midst of putting up lights in our upstairs rooms. The boys spent most of the day hanging light fixtures and ceiling fans in our three upstairs bed rooms and the main room - THANK YOU!!!!!!!! The house is so much nicer now! I think we exhausted my poor husband though..... Dan even took me out on a date to home depot to pick out the ceiling fan for the front room. Now we just need our blinds.... :)


The grandparents and the Bessendorfers gathered with us today to bless James. The kids loved being together for church. Eileen and Zoe were basically inseparable. Evie was talking the whole way there about "see Zoe? See Jacob?" She just loves them! We even managed to get them to stand together for about 3 seconds. :)


James was an angel during the blessing, he was quiet and alert the whole time. My mother-in-law took pics of the whole family, but I'm going to have to convince her to send them to me....


And of course my handsome little man. Evie heard me call him that and walked around for the next half hour calling him "little man."


Aaron and Evie have seemed to adjust so well to this new addition to our family, Eileen and Anna seem to have gotten a bit moody recently - I think that maybe this adjustment is getting to them a bit - I wasn't really expecting that, and I have been trying to make more of an effort to include them and show them how much I love them. They are such good kids and so helpful, but since they are at school most of the day, they don't get as much mommy time as the other two.

All in all - life is good - I am tired, and Dan is tired, but that kinda comes with the territory. I am surrounded by amazing people - both old and young - who love me and support me. I have children who shower me with sweet hugs and kisses and a husband who would run himself to the ground to take care of me and help me (though I try not to let him run himself that hard) How many women can say that the only time their husbands don't listen to them is when she is telling him to stop doing dishes and go lay down!

Adjustments

Well my baby boy is almost 2 weeks old now. It's amazing, but he has already grown! He's holding his head up more and is already starting to get bigger. The kids just dote on him - they love to hold him and play with him.

I still feel like I'm healing - go figure but an 8 lb 10 oz baby is harder on your body than a 7 lb baby. I thought I was up to a simple trip to Costco - but I was wrong - Dan keeps asking me if I want to get out of the house - usually this much time stuck in one place drives me nuts, but for now I am content to stay home and heal.

Aaron had his 4 year old check up this week (yeah - a month late was the soonest they could get us in) Dan took him (Dan took this week off work) when he got his shots - all he said was "owww!" He's such a brave big boy!! We also took him for his 4 year old pictures ( and by we I mean Dan) he had a blast - hamming it up for the camera - and he looks so handsome!

Eileen and Anna had Thursday and Friday off school - Friday would have been cancelled anyway for show - we got nearly a foot and a half - the kids had fun playing outside in it and Dan helped Aaron build a snow fort - Aaron mostly had fun knocking it down!

My mom went home on Monday - we were sad to see her go, and Evie spent most of the rest of the week looking for her and asking "where's grandma?" This week we have had to adjust to no Grandma - next week we get to adjust to Daddy being back at work, It's a good thing I have such good kids to help me!


Dan took me in on a date last night - knowing that going out wasn't really an option, he made me a wonderful fancy dinner right at home - a yummy steak, baked potato, and asparagus, plus candles and sparkling cider! I am married to the sweetest man ever!!

Welcome Home James!

Well after all my griping, last Sunday night once again saw me pacing around the house with some rather painful and regular contractions. Around 2 in the morning, I decided that they were regular enough, painful enough and not going away enough that we ought to head into the hospital. Unfortunately we chose a busy night at the labor and delivery department.... When we got there they took us into a closet sized room, with an uncomfortable bed for me and a small hard chair for Dan, we waited an hour or so before someone could get there to check me and see where I was at. I was between 3-4 cm dilated, they decided to wait a couple hours and check me again. Dan stretched out on the floor to try and sleep a little and i tried to doze between the contractions and the worry. Before the nurse came back, Dan had to leave to take the girls to school, while he was gone, she came back and found that I hadn't progressed at all. She said that they couldn't admit me. I explained to her that my labors go fast and that if these contractions weren't real, I wasn't going to be able to tell the difference when they started being real. She nicely told me that I could walk around the hospital if I wanted. Well, I still had to wait for Dan to be done dropping off the girls, so I went and walked around and had a bit of breakfast. I went back up to tell them I was going home and they informed me that they had changed their mind and that they were going to admit me and start some pitocin and get this going. The only place they had room for us was in the high risk area so the nurse was excited to have an easy delivery ahead of her. They started the epidural and the pitocin. The on-call doc came in to check on me and found that I hadnt progressed much and for the next couple of hours, I didn't see anyone but my hubby and my nurse. At this point a couple of residents came in and checked me and found me dilated to 8 cm. They set up the equipment and I started pushing. Less than 15 minutes later, we had a new healthy baby boy. Unfortunately for me the epidural was really mostly just working on one side, so I felt the whole thing. It was probably a good thing that they didn't let me hold him for very long before taking him to be cleaned and checked, between 36+ hours with out sleep and the fatigue of labor, I was shaking like a leaf. By the time I finally got to hold him, It was so bad that I threw up all over myself and him too, now of course with my stomach empty, it was even worse, plus they wouldn't give me and pain meds until they were sure I could keep it down.... Anyway, I finally got my baby boy - clean and healthy and all we had to do was wait for a room to move us into.

We have named him James Allen Jones, he was born at 3:34 on January 23rd weighing in at a whopping 8 lb 10 oz (making him my biggest baby yet!) and 20 inches long. He is a remarkably calm baby - he hardly fussed while they were cleaning him off, in fact he hardly fussed the whole time we were there.

Somewhere in all the insanity, my mom had arrived, she came by, as well as the family in the area to see us. Dan brought the other kids in to see him - Evie is just enamored with her baby brother and all the kids have been very sweet and helpful. We spent the next couple days sleeping, feeding and recovering, before coming home on Wed afternoon. I made the mistake of trying to jump back into life and found that I really needed to slow down and take it easy.



James has a bit of jaundice and we have been getting him poked to check him out for the last couple of days, but it's looking like all is well and he probably won't have to go under the lights. Now I just need to learn to put him down - it's just so hard when he's so sweet and snuggly!!

Still Waiting.....

Well after 3 days this week where I thought we might be heading to the hospital, it's a bit depressing to find myself still very pregnant. But despite some very strong and fairly frequent contractions, they eventually slowed and mostly stopped and here I am still looking and feeling like a beached whale.

I have been rather reluctant to venture too far from home for fear of finding myself too far from my hospital, so life kinda has felt like it's on hold this week. We have mostly been home bodies. A friend from church took the kids on Friday and let me have a bit of a day off, it was wonderful! The kids had a great time and didn't want to leave, after it seemed silly to drive home just to turn around 20 minutes later and go get the girls from school, so we went to the library for a bit and had fun reading and doing puzzles. Otherwise our week has been uneventful... Next week will be more exciting, I promise :P

Waiting

It feels like we are all just holding our breaths and waiting. We keep going about our every day lives - piano lessons, school, church, play, work, doc appointments - but behind it all there is a feeling of holding our breaths and waiting. The newest addition to our not-so-little family is doing his best to make his presence known. He kicks and wiggles all day and I wait somewhat impatiently - feeling like it could be any day now (of course maybe that's just all the pushing he does on my bladder...) The kids are excited - they are excited for Grandma Cox to come back out and excited to meet the new baby. (I say kids, but I don't think Evie has any clue what is about to happen.) We had some friends over on Tuesday with their new 1 month old baby - I spent some time holding her - and Evie would climb up with me and look and pat her head sweetly and was very gentle with her. But after about 10 minutes or so (longer than I expected) she looked at me and said "Put baby down!" very clearly. She liked the baby and was ok with mom holding the baby, but the baby's time with her mommy was over and it was her turn now.


In addition to all the waiting, this week we celebrated Aaron's 4th birthday. We hadn't even come close to getting rid of all the junk food from the holidays, and now we have more cake around our house. Dan made Aaron a race track cake with real hot wheel cars on it. He loved his clothes from Grandma Penny and his Spider Man toy from Mom and Dad (Dan feeling a need to get him a 'manly' doll) Happy 4th birthday little man!!! We LOVE you!

Finally, just a fun little picture of the girls all dressed up for church... maybe I should have waited to take the picture until AFTER I had done their hair all pretty, but really - when it comes to getting 3 who are smiling - you take what you can get and be glad. :) Plus - they are all wearing 'new' dresses. Eileen's is a new Christmas Present from Great Grandma Penny, Anna's is Eileen's old dress - but it's new to her, and Evie's is Eileen and Anna's old dress - but once again new to her.

Back to Life... Back to Reality

Well - the family has gone home, the kids are back in school and life is slowly returning to normal (at least as normal as it can get when I look like a beached whale and am about as useful....)

Tuesday we met Grandpa for lunch at a place called Holly West which I guess has been around and visited by my grandparents for MANY years. It was fun - but since (as usual with my family) we were running late, I had to drag the kids out early and before they were quite done eating to get the girls to their piano lessons.


Wednesday the female part of the family went to California Pizza Kitchen to have a little baby shower for me. I LOVE the food there (probably a good thing that the nearest one is over half an hour away....) and ate way too much with a stomach that is already being encroached upon by a baby - but loved the food, loved the time with family and loved having a no-kids lunch out!

Thursday was another doc appointment - not terribly exciting - it took all of 10 minutes for the Doc to measure me, listen to the heart beat and say I'm doing well. Aaron and Evie didn't even get to finish the snacks I brought for them. Thursday was also the family send off - they were wonderful about doing all the clean up from their stay so that it didn't create extra work for me - and even un-decorated and took down the Christmas tree.

Saturday Anna had a birthday party to go to for a friend from school. It was at a local pool - she had a BLAST - she loved playing with her friends in the water for a few hours - and since the only reason she had to get out was to eat cupcakes and pizza - she was happy. She didn't even complain when we had to go home!

A Testimony

Eileen is going to be turning 8 this year. Since her 7th birthday, she has been eagerly looking forward to her 8th birthday and the opportunity to be baptized. I talked with her earlier today about what it means to get baptized. I talked to her about the promise in the scriptures - Moroni 10:4 and how he tells us that if we want to know that the scriptures are really the words of God - all we need to do is read them and pray about it and the Lord will let us know. I explained that we would like her to listen to these words and find out for herself. She thought about that for awhile and then with some help from Dan, she wrote out her testimony and then got up to share her testimony during Fast and Testimony meeting at church. It was so sweet to see and hear her talk about her own knowledge of eternal truths.

...And a Happy New Year

We mostly spent our week recuperating and trying to get everything ready for house guests. We threw all the kids into one room and were actually able to get each family into their own room. We finished up Christmas Presents, cleaned house, and blew up air mattresses. The kids had a blast playing with their new toys and were entertained enough between that and the gorgeous weather to let Dan and I get everything done. (And still leave time for me to take a lot of naps.)

Family started arriving on Saturday morning - all the flights were delayed - so they were later than anticipated, but eventually they all made it safely. We got everyone settled, then headed over to Grandpa's house for Bagna Caulda and a bit of New Years Eve fun. Then we came home, put the kids to bed and got out the puzzle. :) Sandi and I mostly worked on our traditional New Years Eve Puzzle, while Dad wrapped presents and Dan and Jon browsed Netflix.

Sunday, I had a musical number during church and Sandi and I finished the puzzle. (Dan even helped some) :) And Dad and Grandma Penny wrapped more presents.

Monday I woke up with a bit of a head cold. I struggled through the morning, then finally gave up and took a nap...all afternoon. While I napped - the rest of the group went bowling. Of all the kids, Evie had the highest score... :) Haha - they used a ramp thingy and bumpers of course.


Grandpa Francone, Doug and Mark all came over for dinner and then we did our final Christmas Gift exchange. I love being able to spend time with family - and it's been such a blessing to have all our Colorado family around us and so much of the rest of our family gathered here with us. I am looking forward to a few more days with them. I'm not even so eager for the kids to start school again with them around :P