Beauty and the Beast

It's been a busy week.  Like really, crazy busy.  Dan left for a conference in California on Monday.  We had a great lesson together on Monday for FHE.  Eileen had dress rehearsals until 6:30 on Monday and Tuesday.  I had institute on Tuesday night - the older girls were nice enough to put the littles to bed so I could still go.  The kids had piano lessons on Tuesday.  Wednesday was Activity Days and Scouts and Young Womens.  I was glad the they cancelled the dress rehearsal for that night - it was a relief from one stressor. 

Finally - Thursday night arrived.  Eileen sang beautifully - I managed to get a recording of the whole thing.  They did a great job - there were a couple sound issues, but that is to be expected on the first night of a play.  She was such a beautiful and perfect Belle!  Sandi came up with the kids (Jon was with Dan in CA) and my mom came up to watch also.  We had friends from church come to support also - it was wonderful!  

Dan got in later that night.  By that point - we were both pretty tired.  Eileen had performances on Friday and Saturday as well, but she wasn't the lead on the other two nights.  She's feeling a bit under the weather now - but I often have the same thing happen to me after a big stressful performance - so hopefully it won't last too long and she'll feel back to full soon.  It was so awesome to get to watch her do something new and difficult and do it well!  With all of Eileen's performances, Dan and I did our Temple day on Saturday morning.  Then we spent the rest of the day cleaning up and recovering from Dan's trip :) 

Church was wonderful - I'm trying to work to get David to like nursery better - but it's meant that I've spent a lot of time in nursery lately.  We had a family from ME1 over for dinner - Dan knows them because she is one of the other Seminary teachers.  We had a fun time with them! 

Zoo Fun with Family

Eileen has been busy with getting ready for her play next week.  I've gotten a bunch of pictures of Anna wearing Grandma Penny's clothes - Dad likes to see them and I think it does his heart good to see them.   

Our week was busy - full of institute, young womens activities, choir practice, piano lessons, practices, and family time.  There is a solo in one of the songs for the choir concert and we had to send in a recorded audition, so I spent a bunch of Friday getting that done and sent off - it was strange - I've never auditioned for a solo that way before.  

I talked to Dan about wanting to make memories with the kids with outings and such, so on Saturday, we went to the Zoo with Grandpa Cox.  We had a great time!  We watched the bird show - and Eileen got to participate - fed the birds, rode the carousel and petted snakes.  It was a fun day together!   The kids didn't even argue or fight hardly at all!  

 Church was great!  I ended up in nursery during 2nd hour - David has been having a hard time the last couple weeks, I think i'm going to have to take a bit of time to get him used to nursery again. 

James' Birthday

Monday, the kids were off of school because of the holiday, so we had some friends over to hang out and play.  They all had a great time together playing games and jumping on the trampoline.  It was such a fun day!  

Tuesday was back to the regular schedule - we had piano lessons and institute.  The kids had school and Eileen had her after school play practice.  

Wednesday was James' birthday - he wanted Nachos for dinner, and a pokemon cake, so Dan made him a pikachu cake and he loved it!  It was funny - when he opened the present from Grandma and Grandpa Jones, it had been packaged in a dryer sheets box and he was rather confused about what it was that he had gotten until he realized that he had to open the box to find his actual gift!  

David is getting to a very fun and funny stage.  He is at that stage where he loves to have things happen exactly as he expects them to.  When we put his dirty diaper in a garbage bag - he has to put the diaper in while I hold the bag, then after I tie it up, he carries it to the back door and waits for me to open the door and carry him out to the big garbage can so he can drop it in.  And he has many little routines like that - and he gets upset if things don't happen the way he expects them to.  He found a scoop the other day and found the rabbit food and started scooping up food, carrying it to the rabbit house and dumping it inside - and since the bunnies hadn't been fed yet that morning, and he was putting the food mostly in the right place, I let him do it - and he did it over and over and over again!  It was so cute! 

Friday evening, Dan and I went to the temple - we needed to take the names we brought through initiatories first, then we did a session.  It was wonderful!  After, we headed home for a late dinner. 

Saturday, we started off by cleaning the building and then getting donuts.  Then we got the house cleaned up for James' birthday party.  We borrowed a bouncy castle from our real estate agent and the kids all had a blast jumping on it all day.  Anna and I decorated Poke-ball cupcakes and the kids all had a great time! 

The Sabbath was wonderful.  Church was amazing - the talks and music was beautiful!  Two of the talks were people in the ward talking about their favorite hymns and then we sung those hymns - it was beautiful!  Anna and I both wore clothes from Grandma Penny - I've been trying to remember to send pics to my Dad so that he can send them to Aunt Pam.  After church, we had choir practice, and treats, followed by lunch and naps.  In the evening, we went to the house of a family in our ward for a combined lesson from the Come Follow Me manual followed by dessert.  yum! 

Family Fun!

David loves to sing and he's been learning Baby Shark from his siblings - he sings along and tries to make a baby shark with his fingers!  He also wants to sing along anytime anyone else is singing too!  

Otherwise, we mostly had a normal and un-eventful week.  Monday was laundry day, Tuesday was piano lessons and institute, Wednesday was Activity Days, 11-year old scouts (since Aaron isn't in cubs anymore) and Young Womens, Thursday was a relief society activity.  We had our annual painting activity.  It was a lot of fun - but I'm obviously not a very good painter!! 

The kids had Friday off of school, so we had a fun and relaxing day at home.  Anna had her all-region band practice on Friday and Saturday, then the concert on Saturday afternoon.  It was really good!  She seemed to have had a really great time! 

Church was wonderful - I subbed in Evelyn's primary class.  It was fun since the class was mostly my cub scout boys.  It was nice since I already knew all their names.  We had a great lesson, and I think they even listened to some of it! 

After church, we had some friends over for dinner - We had yummy waffles and then had fun playing games! 

Back to School

Evie and Anna both decided that they wanted their hair cute, so we walked down to a nearby hair place and got appointments for the girls, then they both chopped most of their hair off.  They both love their hair cute - I think they both look really cute!  I'm glad they are happy with them.  The place and people who worked there seemed really nice.  

Thursday was Aaron's birthday.  He's 11 now and I can't believe he's less that a year from becoming a Deacon!  We had a fun time with Grandpa and Sandi, Taz and Kai coming up to eat cake and ice cream and have a fun time.  

Friday, the kids all had awards ceremonies - David and I basically spent the whole day at the school for the award ceremonies.  They were all excited to see us and it was fun.  All three of the younger kids got awards for perfect attendance.  Aaron got awards for math and P.E., Evie got awards for A honor roll and reading, and James got awards for A honor roll and reading too.  They all did a great job!  

On Saturday morning, Anna and I headed down to my parent's house to help Grandma and Aunt Sandi sort through Grandma Penny's clothes.  We actually managed to find a bunch of things to fit us. Anna had a lot of fun trying on things and picking clothes.  I picked out some things for Eileen too.  It was neat because some of the clothes had a note that she put with them on the hanger about where she bought it, or spoke of an event to which she wore it.  It was neat to get a glimpse into her life.

Sunday, each of the girls wore something of Grandma Penny's to church.  Evelyn even wore one of her scarfs.

Grandma Penny

This week was a bit rough.  I got a call from Dad on Tuesday that Grandma Penny had passed away.  We got things set up so that I could go out for the memorial service and to help Mom and Dad out with Grandma's things.  We couldn't afford to take the whole family, so I was the only one who went.  Evelyn was trying to convince me to take her until the last minute.  She was so cute and sweet despite how many times I explained to her that although I would love to take her, I couldn't. 

We had a fun New Year's Eve.  We took the kids to a family dance party that the ward had.  We went and danced and had fun and counted down to "fake New Years."   Then the younger kids went to bed and the rest of us watched Princess Bride while I did a puzzle. 

Thursday evening, I headed out to Utah - everything went wrong with my flights, but I finally made it into Las Vegas airport where I then got a shuttle to St. George.  It was a long evening, but I made it safely and got through a book.  :) 

Friday morning, I went to help mom out at Grandma's apartment.  We needed to get things packed up and decide what was coming back to Texas, which was going to be donated, and which things just needed to be thrown away (I love my Grandma, but I'm not wearing her old pantyhose)  Sandi arrived along with Taz, and We spent some time at the mortuary getting a few last minute details figured out. 

Saturday morning, we headed to Hurricane for the memorial service.  It was really neat getting to listen to my Dad talk about his mom.  We also got to meet up with some of her friends out in Utah.  There were really some wonderful people!  I am so glad that I got to meet them and that I had the chance to get a glimpse into her daily life in Hurricane - that wasn't a side I got to see - when we came to visit her - we were visiting her, not all her friends.  I am grateful that she had such wonderful people in her life!  Sandi and I sang "Amazing Grace" and after - the ladies gave a nice luncheon. 
We spent more time cleaning up in the afternoon and found this - the original recipe card for Pumpkin Chiffon Pie!!! 

Saturday morning, Dan took the kids to clean the church building - they had a good time and did a great job!

Sunday morning, bright and early, I flew back to Texas and arrived in time to miss Stake Conference.  We did get to start the Come Follow Me manual though and so far, it's been WONDERFUL!  I'm so grateful for an inspired prophet that helps learn how to better teach our children the things that are most important!  

Christmas!!

 So Monday morning, bright and early, Dan took Evelyn to Walmart to pick out a fish.  She managed to pick a lively one, so hopefully he will last!  His name is Gregory.  She loves him very much.  She takes very good care of him.  I'm so proud of her - she found a way to get something she really wanted, she worked hard for it and now she's taking care of it. 

I had to run some errands in the morning, Mom and Sandi and I decided to help out a bit with Grandma Penny's clothing presents - we looked at what she sent, decided who it would fit and then filled in the gaps.  After, I met up with Sandi to talk a bit about some bad choices the boys had made Sunday night, then I headed home after a long day that I would much rather have spent with my family...  In the evening, we had a family home evening, we read the Christmas story from Luke 2 in the bible, then the kids opened their Pajama presents.  Dan did such a good job picking them out - we all loved them! (though apparently Eileen doesn't much like mine...)

Dan and I had mostly gotten stuff wrapped before - so after the younger kids went to bed, Anna helped with putting bows on presents while I stuffed stockings.  Everything was ready and we were ready for bed at a decent hour

 Christmas morning!  The kids came down and we all opened stockings, then we paused for breakfast.   After breakfast, we came back for the rest of the presents.  The kids loved it and loved their gifts.  It was funny to watch them open their gifts from each other.  James got Dan a plastic hook for his hand - totally sure that it was exactly what he wanted for Christmas.  I got a pink squishy toy.  :)  David was funny to watch, he didn't quite know what was going on - but he loved pulling stuff out of his stocking and he really loved roaming around the room and claiming all the stuff his siblings left lying around.  :) 

This is Eileen with her favorite Christmas gift - a Lucas the Spider plushie.  I think that even topped the yarn and books.... 

Dan got me the best gift ever - he got me a picture of Ruth and Naomi.  He is such a sweet and thoughtful husband.  He knows me so well and he is just so amazing!!!  I opened it up and started tearing up - and he says "so I guess I did ok?"  :)  We called his mom later to make sure they had gotten their gift and when she spoke about it she got teary too - so Dan won the Best Christmas Gift Prize two times over this year!  

After some fun with our gifts and a bit of cleaning up, we headed down to my parents house.  We opened presents and had a yummy late lunch early dinner of finger foods.  David was funny, because he would get excited about one gift and not care about opening the others!  We all had a wonderful time together!  

David has decided that he likes his toys - he thinks putting these finger puppets on toes is the funniest thing ever!  

On the day after Christmas, I took Anna to the American Doll store in Dallas to use her gift card.  She got her first real American Doll and a couple outfits.  She was quiet the whole time, but I think she really enjoyed getting to check everything out and pick her own doll and her own clothes.  She has played with it and posed it and dressed it up and chatted with her friend Nevaeh about her doll for most of the last few days.   

Most of the rest of our week was quiet - James and I have been a bit sick, so I haven't had much energy to go places.  Which is too bad because the weather was mostly good.  Dan had the day after Christmas off, but then went back to work the next day. 

Thursday, we had some friends over to play games - we had a fun time playing Code Names and Apples to Apples.  Anna and their oldest daughter played with us too, so it was a fun group! 

Friday, Dan and I went to the temple, we got to do some sealings for families that we have been doing the work for for a while now.  It was so neat to get those families finally connected! 

Saturday was another mostly lazy day - I was running a fever, and James was still sick too - hopefully this passes soon so we can enjoy our holiday! 

Church today was great - or what I got to be there for was great.  I came to choir, but we had a low turn out :( Fast and Testimony meeting was wonderful - Evie and Aaron both got up to bear their testimonies!  James wasn't feeling well - so I took him home after Sacrament meeting - it was just as well - we both had fevers when we got home, so we both took some Tylenol and took a nap.  We spent our evening playing Dominion with Aaron - he loves getting his hour up and getting to play with mom and dad.  

Last week of School

Well - this was the kids last week of school before Christmas break!  There were lots of parties and early release days.  I had some Christmas shopping to get done - not much, it was mostly finished, but a couple small things that needed to get done.  I met up with my mom and helped her find stuff for the kids and got a couple things done myself.  It was a nice morning!  

Tuesday was the end of Semester for Institute and we were supposed to bring Christmas treats - only a couple of us did, but it was still a great lesson with yummy treats!  

Thursday, Dan's company had a company Christmas party.  We snacked and played White Elephant.  Sandi ended up with "The Poop Game" which the kids had a fun time playing with - and I am exceedingly glad that it didn't have to come home with us!  We got to take a water bottle home.  A nice one!  The gift Dan brought to give was a fish with a fish bowl and food.  Evelyn fell in love with the fish and was heartbroken when we wouldn't let her take it from Tammy (who ended up with it) so she could bring it home - she named it and everything.  She realized that she could earn money to buy her own fish with a little work - so Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, she worked hard cleaning stuff and earned enough money to buy herself a betta.  We told her that she could get it first thing Monday morning.  I think she is almost as excited for that as for Christmas. 

Friday evening, we let the kids decorate gingerbread houses - they came pre-built from Walmart with decorations and frosting included, so the kids had a great time decorating their houses and eating the candy.  

Saturday evening, we went caroling with some friends in the ward.  We walked around their neighborhood and sang songs and handed out Christmas treats.  It was a lot of fun!  We had so many people, that we split into two groups and Eileen even went with the other group.  There were a bunch of pre-teen girls pushing David's stroller and they thought it was the cutest thing that he was singing along too.  He loves to sing!  It's so cute!!!  

Sunday we just had a 1-hour church with beautiful Christmas messages and music.  After, we headed home and got things ready for a Christmas party.  The kids had been missing Bagna Caulda night at Frank and Tina's, so I made my first ever solo batch of Bagna Caulda.  We had friends from the ward along with my parents and Sandi and her kids.  The Bagna Caulda was yummy and we had a wonderful time singing Christmas songs.  It reminded me a lot of when we used to go to Doug and Lisa's house in California and ate Bagna Caulda and sang Christmas songs!  We managed to get a very musical group together and the sounds of Christmas songs was glorious!!  

And Christmas Cookies!

This week we had a bunch of sickieness. :(  Monday started our great.  Evelyn gave a wonderful FHE lesson where we made up a service jar to help us in our goal of serving each other this month. 

Tuesday was a usual day - we got a lot of rain though, so Anna didn't want to walk over to the gym to work out.  :)  I watched Dana's little girl again - she and David get along well and she's easy to watch. Anna had a school book report due - she wanted to decorate a cake to go with the book - and this is what she created - it's a fondant covered castle and grass all over - then when you cut into it, the layers are red, orange and yellow to represent the fire in the story.  She did such an amazing job and worked so hard on it! 

Wednesday was an abnormally quiet day.  The girls didn't have young womens because there was a youth temple trip the next day.  So we had a nice quiet family time evening.  Eileen came home sick from school.  I wasn't feeling great either.  She was running a fever, so she came home and rested. 

Thursday Eileen was still running a fever, so she stayed home - she went right back to bed and slept until 1:00 - but she was feeling a bunch better after.  She was still coughing a lot, so she wasn't able to play her flute for the middle school band concert that night though.  She came with me to the concert and Dan stayed with the younger kids to get them to bed at a decent time.  Anna's band was awesome.  James lost his first tooth finally!  He was so excited!  And now he's got a cute little gap.

Eileen went to school on Friday - she really wanted to be there for her writing UIL.  When I picked James up from school, he was down another tooth.  Friday evening, Dan and I went to the temple.  We dropped Evie and James off at Aunt Sandi and Uncle Jon's for a sleep over with Taz and Kai.  They took a Book of Mormon with them so that they could do their scripture reading and prayers - and they even remembered to do it!  It made me so happy when they talked about it.  Dan and I had a great session and I ran into a friend from Colorado who is moving down to Dallas area!  We stopped at IHOP for dinner after, then headed home. 

Saturday was a fun and busy day.  Dan started off the day early, taking Eileen and Anna down to the temple.  After, Sandi and the kids came up to decorate cookies.  My dad came by for a bit also.  We had a fun time chatting, and the kids playing and everyone making and eating cookies!  Then in the evening we had our ward Christmas party.  It was wonderful - the decorations were amazing and the program was beautiful.  It was a great evening! 

Sunday morning, I got together with some women in the ward for a musical number.  It was a lot of fun singing with them.  Then i came home, ate lunch and got ready for church.  I headed to choir and we got our Christmas song going.  Church was great - the musical number went well and the talks were excellent.  I spent 3rd hour in nursery with David - he was a bit tired and cranky.  Poor kids - I think next year's time will be much easier on him.  After church, we enjoyed getting to go home and have dinner together.  :) 

And More Christmas Music

This week was the usual busy.  Eileen and Anna both have after school activities, but just when I think I'm going to take the younger kids straight home after school, something happens and I end up having to pick them up...  Monday was the usual busy with laundry day.

Tuesday was a great institute lesson.  The kids were busy with school stuff and all the usual fun.  I watched my friends little girl so she could go to her doctor's appointment.

Wednesday the kids had all sorts of church activities.  Evelyn and Aaron had Activity Day's and Cub Scouts.  I officially don't have cub scouts anymore - so it was kinda crazy just waiting for them to get done.  Then Eileen and Anna had their young women's activity.  The youth were going caroling to help advertise a bit for the Nativity Concert this weekend.  They had a great time.  Eileen had managed to make a new friend who listened to her talk about her stories - she was so happy when I picked her up.  I'm so glad that we are in a great ward with such great youth.

Thursday morning, I met with the new cub master to help show her the ropes and pass on all my papers and stuff.  Dan got the stuff to make bath bombs with the kids and they had a blast making and using them! 

Friday was a typical school day mostly.  Anna had her all-region band audition - she got 14th chair for trumpets!  She got home late though.  Evelyn had a Student Council activity to get the school ready and decorated for Breakfast with Santa.  She had a ton of fun decorating and hanging out with her friends.

Saturday morning, Dan took Evie and James and Aaron to Breakfast with Santa at the school.   They had a great time, then hurried over to the church for Children's choir rehearsal.  We had our final rehearsal before the concert!  It has been so much fun doing this children's choir - they are great kids!

In the evening, we met up with Josh and Dana for a double date dinner then met up with some more friends at the Brian Regan show.  We had a great time!

Sunday was the big Nativity Concert.  Church was wonderful - then we helped set up the church, ran home for dinner, then came back for the concert.  The children did a wonderful job and all the music was beautiful!  The place was packed - tons of members and friends from the community all together celebrating the birth of Christ!

Christmas Music!!

This week has been rather crazy!  Monday was a bit crazy as usual.  It was full of laundry and grocery shopping and school stuff and family home evening.  We got our Christmas Tree at Home Depot and then headed home to decorate it!  The kids had a great time decorating the tree and listening to Christmas music.

Tuesday the kids had school as usual.  Anna usually stays after school for an hour to use the weight room and work out.  Next week, Eileen is going to be staying after all the time for play practices.  Tuesday evening, I had choir practice - we were sneaking one last rehearsal in before the concerts this weekend.

Wednesday evening, the girls had young womens and I had a Nativity concert meeting.  Otherwise, our day was mostly the usual school stuff.

Thursday was nice and relatively quiet - nothing going on in the evenings for once, so we enjoyed a nice evening together.  In the morning, David and I went out and did some Christmas shopping.  Then we got home and I put David down for a nap and did some Christmas present organization to try and figure out what we have for which kids.

Friday, things got really crazy!  I had an early rehearsal - our dress rehearsal - we were there for 5 hours, on our feet the whole time and singing the whole time.  It was fun, but tiring.  I got home and crashed.

Saturday morning, The kids and I had the children's choir rehearsal.  It went really well - we had a few more people show up - I think we will have a good sized little group!  After, I went home and took a little nap before getting up and heading to our concerts.  I had to get there around 3 - and our first concert was at 5 - then our second one started at 8.  It was a lot of fun!!  My parents and Sandi and Kai and Dan and the girls came to the first concert.  I think everyone had a really great time.  Anna was a bit anxious to go though since she had a beehive party - so I didn't get to see them after.  I got home after 11 pm totally ready to crash!

Church today was wonderful - we did a special second hour talking about the new "Come Follow Me" for individuals and families.  I am really excited to dive in and try it out.  After church, the adult choir met to practice for the Nativity Concert and Stake Conference next month.  The only downside was the total lack of Christmas music during the meetings...