Yes... it will!

The week started out pretty normal.  Swim practices - though mostly pretty easy ones as they are getting ready for Districts.  Fun with friends after school.  Work and school.  Then snowmageddon hit!  Thursday it began snowing and it everything shut down!  We got two days mostly stuck up on the hill enjoying some peace and quiet.  No swim practice, no work for mom, no school for the kids and no districts on Friday.  David had a blast sleeping over at Paxton's house on Thursday and they boys had tons of fun sledding and playing in the snow!  

Evelyn had wanted to do a Galentines Day with her friends and we planned for Crepes for dinner.  Then the snow hit and so instead we ended up with a bunch of her friends who were willing to walk to the house over for dinner!  They had a ton of fun sledding on the big hill and hanging out together at our house and Sophie's house down the hill.  

By Friday, most of the snow on the roads had melted, so they tried to cram all of districts into one day.  The kids both swam really well - both PR'ed in both their events - and Aaron broke a minute on his 100 Free!  The swimmers in general did a great job - it was so neat so see all their hard work pay off!  

Sunday was back to the usual - chuch and choir and family!  And even after 4 days together, we still like eachother!  

Will it or Won't it snow...

This week was supposed to be the week of snow.....  We got some snow up on our hill on Wednesday - enough for me to not feel safe trying to drive the small car down the hill - and make me late for work, but within an hour, it melted and I was able to make it after all.  It was a bit exciting to see it all falling and sticking, but it didn't last for long....  Now there is snow predicted for next week, but we will see!  

This sweet little boy just has so much love to give!!  He found some chalk after school and wrote this on the playground for me!  Despite snow and rain, there was really only one day this week where we couldn't stay and play after school because of weather.  It was snowing when I picked him up, but not sticking.  But I had come straight from work, so I was not dressed to sit outside in the cold!  

One of the Master's swimmers during the afternoon practice had lost his bag with keys and phone.  He was afraid it had been stolen, but turned out later that someone had thought it was lost and found and instead of giving it to the lost and found in the front office, he gave it directly to security services later in the week.  But the poor guy was stranded and stressed and I was getting off work, so I offered him a ride to his appartment to get his spare key - then went straight to get David.  

On Saturday, Dan and I drove out to do a dance class and go to a social dance - not really Dan's favorite thing to do, but we were there for a special night!  And Dan decided to make it even more fun by actually dancing with me!  Sandi's boyfriend James proposed to her at the dance and she said yes!  We are super excited for her - James is a great guy! 

Less Sick...?

Thankfully this week I've been mostly feeling better - been able to get back to most of my routines.  On Monday, the kids didn't have school.  I took some of the kids to the library.  Eileen really wanted to go and James wanted to go, so of course David wanted to go and Paxton was over, so he came too.  The younger boys had fun doing the little library scavenger hunt and James and Eileen found the books and movies they wanted.  

Thursday was the big Literacy Night at the school, so I went with David for a bit, then we took off early with Paxton and his mom to get the boys to swim lessons.  They had a fun time with friends and then had a fun time swimming!  

Aaron and Evelyn had a swim meet on Friday against Sunset.  It was not the regular place or scheduled time, so it was a bit stressful, but the kids swam well!  

Saturday morning during my swim, my shoulder really started hurting, so the teams resident PT looked at it and gave some suggestions, I took them all, but still tried to play water polo that night at Open Polo.  Probably shouldn't have, and ended up getting out early.  

Sunday was the usual - church and choir.  Plus Sandi and James came over to play games!  I had signed up to chaperone for Encore this month - and Dan was super sweet and went to chaperone so I could see Sandi.  Unfortunatly, Evelyn may have a bit of what I had last week - but hopefully it stays mild.  

Icky-Sicky

Monday started out the usual busy.  I went and swam, came home and took the kids to seminary, walked David to school, went to work out, then walked home.  After I was exhausted and feeling crummy.  So I laid down, but the further into the day I got, the worse I felt.  Dan ended up doing the shopping and picking up David and I spent the day resting and trying to not get too sick....  It didn't work.  I called in sick to work on Tuesday and Wednesday I already had off, so I mostly took those days easy.  I didn't go swim on Tuesday or Thursday, but since I had already committed to do the 1-Hour swim on Wednesay morning, I went and did that.  It was a bit rough at first, but not too bad.  I kept a pretty consistant pace (thought probably a slower one that I needed to) and I managed to swim 2 miles in the hour.  I didn't stop and tried out my new mp3 player.  Even sick, I was glad I did it!  

Thursday I was starting to feel better and getting sick of being cooped up at home, so I went in to work - since it was a short shift anyway.  After, I picked up Evie and Aaron who were home after finals and we went to their swim meet.  We swam against Jesuit.  The kids did a great job!  Evie took 3rd in her 200 IM and Aaron took 3rd in the 500 Free.  It's so awesome to see them pushing themselves and growing!  Evie had friends come to watch her and cheer her on too!  

David had swim lessons this week - Paxton's parents took them on Tuesday since I wasn't feeling well, then I took them Thursday evening.  

Thursday was James' birthday.  We had to kind of squeeze it in between all the other things going on, but he wanted Ramen for his dinner and he wanted an ice cream cake.  He got a sweater from Grandma and Grandpa Jones, some Legos from Grandma and Grandpa Cox and some books and a Parkour class from Mom and Dad.  

By Friday morning, I woke up to a sinus infection that was hurting all the way down to my teeth.  So I made a doctor's appointment. I skipped Zumba to rest, but couldn't get my shift off, so I worked, then headed home to get David from school, then I went to my doctor's appointment to get some anti-biotics and get this thing gone!!  

Saturday morning was a youth temple trip, Dan took the kids and they had a great time.  

Saturday I was already starting to feel a bit better, so I went to swim, then to a couple water polo scrimmages.  Then in the evening, Dan and I met up with Dave and Stephanie and Carson at Fogo de Chao for dinner.  It was such a fun evening with yummy food and great company!  We are already planning to get together again in a couple months!  

Today, I'm definitly starting to feel better - though I worry that David is starting to come down with something.  I spoke in church today, and the choir sang.  Thankfully since my voice is still a bit shot, I was off the hook for Primary for a special adults and youth meeting our ward was having.  

In the afternoon, we had some friends over to play games and then after dinner, there was a fireside for youth and parent to introduce the new theme!  It was great!  Now for bed and hopefully we can all get back to our usual healthy lives!  

More Swimming and more fun

Once again, a busy week with work and friends and school and sports.  David is doing swim lessons 2 days a week with his friend Paxton.  They love it and they get to see their friend Anna there too.

On Thursday Aaron and Evelyn had a meet against Aloha, so it was fun to see all the Aloha kids too.  Both kids swam well - though both were tired and Aaron didn't even get to swim one of his events because there was a bit of a situation as the meet was getting going.  One of the girls on the other team fainted after warm-ups.  She didn't hurt herself, but the EMT's were called and the start of the meet was delayed by half an hour or so.  So they ran all the varsity events back to back - which was exhausting for all the swimmers who then had to swim back to back events with no rest and was emotionally difficult for everyone, plus they had to cut most of the JV events.  

Thursday, after school, while I was taking Evelyn to her meet, David went home with his friend Anna and hung out with them and they took him to swim lessons and then he came home with Paxton.  When he got home, he asked if he could have a sleepover, so we said yes since there was no school on Friday.  Then he wanted another sleepover on Friday night.  I caved and said yes, but he was super grumpy by Saturday evening!  

Dan has been working on a game scoring app - it will eventually work for multiple games, but for now,  he is working on getting it to do everything we want it to do for Dominion.  He's really put a lot of thought into it and it's really awesome so far!  He tested it on Thursday when he went to go play Dominion with James and Ben and it worked great - He even won a game and got to show it off to me :) 

Saturday, between the usual crazy - Dan and I met up with John and Melissa at the temple for a session, then after for dinner at Thai Basil.  It was so good to spend time with them and time at the temple! 

Saturday and Sunday have been our usual busy - I let the kids have fun drawing on the chalk board during primary - but with a purpose - they were supposed to listen for important words and then draw pictures of them on the board as we sang - we only had 4 kids in primary today, so I just let them all draw all they wanted and it worked great!  

Birthday and Friends

We've had a fun and busy week.  On Monday, I met up with my friends Sara and Emily for lunch.  We had a great time together!  It took us longer than usual to get together, but we finally managed it!  And as always, it was so worth it!

Aaron turned 17 this week.  We couldn't get him to decide on a birthday dinner or a cake, so his brothers convinced him to choose Sushi for dinner and I had Dan grab him a Bunt cake.  We got him a sports bag and a banana snuggy for his birthday - and he seems to like them enough to use them!  :)
 

On Thursday, Aaron and Evelyn had a swim meet.  It was against Westview and Evelyn swam the 200 IM and Aaron did 100 Fly.  I am so amazed by them - they are really pushing themselves to do hard things and they are doing them amazingly well!  They were both exhaused by the end of the races, but they did so well! 

Evelyn had Honor band this week - rehearsals and then her concert.  She is so amazing and has come so far in her flute playing and as a musician!!  

On Saturday, David had a primary activity.  We took the primary kids to the temple and went to the visitor's center and did a scavenger hunt and went into the atruim and then had some fancy hot cocoa after to warm back up.  It was wonderful!  

Then after, I went to Parkrose to play water polo, then I had to go to an inservice meeting for the lifeguards, then I headed down to Open Polo.  After the 40 people we had last week - it was a bit skimpy this week with only 12.  But we had a good time!  

Church was great - we are adjusting to the new time and figuring things out, but it's great!  

Happy New Year

We've been enjoying our Winter Break with the kids.  We are mostly taking it easy.  I swim in the mornings, but then come back and nap for a bit until the kids get up.  We had a fun outdoors swim practice on New Years Day - it was tons of fun and a great way to start the new year!  Anna has been having a blast with friends and sewing - she went on a vest kick and has made a whole bunch this week!  She has been picking up some shifts for work and having fun with her siblings.  

On New Years Eve, we got together with a bunch of friends for a couple hours to chat and eat and play, then the some of the kids went to the youth dance, some of them came home with us and some just stayed home.  :)  David went to do New Year's at Paxton's house and I went home to work on a puzzle and eat spinach dip and watch movies!  

While Paxton and David partied, Nicole came over to help with the puzzle and we had a great time chatting and working together and we managed to get it finished before it got too late.... ish....  Since the puzzle was 80's themed, Dan put on Tron: Legacy and Eileen while complaining a bit at first eventually got really into it!  :)  

We had some fun this week using gift cards and such - I got a gift card to Hobby Lobby and used it to get a new cutting mat!  Nice to have one that's not torn up and got cracks and glue stuck to it and other things....  

David loves leaving little notes around the house - and I thought it was cute when i found these taped to the oven...  

This week has included a lot of workers in and out of our house getting our bathroom and kitchen finished up.  The kitchen stuff is all done - the tile is done on the shower and the grouting it put in - next up is sealing it and putting the glass back in - then we will finally have our bathroom back!!!!  

The girls had fun fun together using some face masks that Anna got for Christmas - they had fun goofing off and being girls together!  

Saturday morning, we took Anna to the airport.  :(  We are sad to see her go and will miss her - but it's been so great to have her home and she is off doing amazing things!  Aaron and I dropped her off, then went to play water polo at Parkrose - we had a great turnout and a lot of fun!  Then we headed home for a yummy dinner and some family time.  Then Evelyn and I went to Open Polo.  There was an INSANE number of people there - including people I never expected to walk into Open Polo - we had nearly 40 people there and it was crazy croweded, but it was fun!  Evelyn had a couple friends come to watch her play - their favorite part was watching a goalie get hit in the face.... lol 

Our Sunday church time is now early morning - 9 am.  It was great though and we had some kids in primary that David knows from school, so it was really fun to have them!  After, we did some napping and playing and eating an early dinner before choir.  Then choir practice.  

Our family scripture time was a bit silly.  Dan and Evelyn sat on the smaller couch - then Evelyn said there was room enough for me too, so I squeezed in with them (already 3 people on a 2 person couch) then David came and crawled on to me  (so we now had 4 people on the 2 person couch) so I made a silly comment about how there were 4 people on the small couch and only 2 people on the big one, so James and Aaron came over and joined us on the small couch, and we read scriptures like this....  It was fun!  Silly, but fun!

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!