Lots of music

Well this first picture is what happens when older siblings feel like providing blackmail photos for later - he has glittery eye shadow on too...

This has been a busy, but fun week.  Anna had Soccer tryouts, Eileen and Anna had band UIL and their bands both did really well!  I even got to go listen to Eileen's band playing.  Evie and James had piano lessons.  James had a class musical presentation that he had lines in.  It was really cute!  I had rehearsals for our upcoming concert on both Thursday and Saturday morning.  I went to work out after rehearsal on Saturday and - that was on top of the normal everyday life stuff.

We had an insane hail storm here - the sounds it made on our windows made us nervous about having broken windows - and I was sure our poor new van was going to be dinged up badly.  We had neighbors have their fences blown down and Sandi and Jon ended up with some bad hail damage - but thankfully, our van escaped any noticeable damage!!  Thank goodness for tender mercies!!

David loves going for walks outside - so since weather was mostly nice (during the day at least) we went on lots of walks and played in the back yard a bunch, but weather seems to be getting colder again, so he's not going to be happy about that!

Friday night, Dan took me out for a date - we drove 5 minutes to the Malt Shop so we could wait half an hour for milk shakes (they lost our order!) but they were sweet and gave us the bigger size for free.  And they were yummy and we had a fun time standing around and chatting!

My friend from Colorado has been making these gorgeous wreaths - and she sent me a couple - they finally arrived on Saturday, and we pulled them out and hung them up!!  The kids loved pulling them out and checking out everything about them. 

On Saturday, Dan and I ran down to Home Depot - we were looking at borders for our flower beds, but didn't decide on anything yet.  David found the riding lawn mowers and he loved them!  

We were sitting together for scriptures and prayers and David was teaching his siblings how to do baby shark by singing to them and moving their hands for them - it was adorable!! I tried to get a video of it - but as soon as I pulled out the camera, he had to come over to see it.  I turned the camera around and managed to still get him to sing to himself and I still think it's so cute!!  

On Saturday evening, we had friends over for a grown up's game night - we had a great time playing Code Names and eating yummy treats!  It's been fun getting to know Lia's family - and having friends in the neighborhood!

We had a great sabbath!  Our Sacrament meeting and combined meeting were wonderful!  We had a great turn out for ward choir - Suzie is doing such an amazing job at getting people to come!

Back to routine

This week has been getting back to routine after spring break.  I was sore still after working out with my mom last week - but it faded away in plenty of time for me to get sore again this week  :)  

David still wasn't feeling great and had a fever still on Monday, so I took him in to the doctors office just to make sure there wasn't anything that needed to be looked at- he's been particularly grumpy and that combined with the high fever made me worry a bit.  But it was nothing more than a virus, so we take care of him and wait for it to pass.  

This is the kids leading the music for family home evening. 

Dan's company had a big release this week - and since it was a software based release, it was mostly on his shoulders - so he has worked alot this week - including pulling an all-nighter at work on Tuesday evening.  Anna had a track meet on Tuesday too, but the poor kid didn't get home from that until nearly 11pm - so she was exhausted.  Eileen was willing to watch the kids so I could go to institute - but David was really cranky about going to bed and wouldn't let Eileen put him down - but he would let Evelyn.  

Wednesday, I ran down to Allen to stop at the Hobby Lobby for a skein of yarn that I needed to finish a baby blanket, then I met up with Dan for a quick lunch - but he's been rather crazy busy all week.  In the evening, we had Scouts, and Activity Days and Young Womens.  

Thursday evening I had rehearsal - it's been so much fun singing with this group - I'm looking forward to the upcoming concert - but I can't believe we are only a few weeks away!  

Friday morning, the elementary school was doing an awards ceremony for the UIL kids.  Evie was getting an award for getting 4th place in Spelling.  She did a great job!  Only 2 kids at her school placed at all and she was one of them!  David was a bit cranky by the end, but I could hardly blame him since we had to go straight there after dropping Eileen off and didn't get much breakfast first.  

In the evening, Dan and I went to the temple and did some sealings, then we met up with people from Dan's work - they wanted to do a going-away party for one of the ladies there.  We all went to a Karaoke Bar - Sandi and I had fun singing together and I gave the lady leaving her baby blanket (now on to the next one) but Dan and I were tired and while I love singing, we would both rather be home.  So we headed home.  :)

Saturday included some cleaning, working out with Mom and Sandi, enjoying the beautiful weather, a birthday party for the younger kids and grocery shopping for next week.  We had a good time together, and slowly but surely, Dan is recovering from his all-nighter.  :)

Today was wonderful.  Church was wonderful - the primary kids sang a beautiful musical number and they did a great job!  The talks and lessons were so great and I chatted a bit with some of the ladies in the ward about getting their daughters into MCO with Eileen next year.   Choir turned out well - we had a decent showing and they sounded great - even though I dropped a new song on them for Ward Conference in a couple weeks!  Our ministering brother stopped by to visit today - it was really nice to have one coming again!  He was a really nice guy - his family is new to our ward and his wife came to choir today!

Spring Break

Well it may be hard to tell from this picture, but the kids are on spring break this week.  Eileen and Anna really enjoyed their time in Colorado - They loved getting to see family and going on walks with Grandpa.  They loved getting to see old friends.  I couldn't get them to send me any pictures though (despite frequent reminders) But Grandpa sent me this one! 

Here in Texas though - we had a drizzly cloudy first couple days, but by Wednesday afternoon, it was clearing up and becoming a beautiful day!

Evie and James have been having a lot of fun crocheting.  They have used up a bunch of my leftover yarn, lost half my crochet hooks and made a TON of oddly shaped little crocheted bits that are all over the house, but they had fun and kept quiet enough to let me sleep in a bit!  :)  This is Evie's pig that she made up all by herself.  She then moved on to making a doll - I need to take a picture of it - she's pretty cute - now she wants to make clothes for the doll.

Thursday, we took a couple of Evie's friends down to the zoo.  It was my first time driving the new van in traffic and busy parking - the zoo was packed!  It wasn't too bad!  I didn't hit anyone!  The kids had a great time at the zoo and had fun looking at the animals and riding the carousel and then on the way home we stopped for some treats.  They all had a great time and It was a lot of fun!

Friday the girls were home - but they had been up since early to catch their flight, so they went to bed pretty early - Aaron really wanted to watch Newsies during his hour up, so he and I watched it together - he really seemed to like it!  

Saturday morning, Dan had to take the van in - there had been a recall on some parts, so we had to have it checked - it ended up being fine.  He took David with him to hang out while they were checking it.  I went down and met up with mom for a session with her personal trainer - it was fun - and great to spend some time with her - but I am SO SORE today!  :)   In the afternoon, after David's nap, we ran by the library so Aaron and Evie could change out books, and then we went to the park.  Even the kids who grumbled a bit about going seemed to have a great time - we went to a different park than we usually go to which made the younger kids happy.  David loved going down all the slides.  Even Koopa came and had a (mostly) good time.  It was a beautiful day and fun to all be together!

Church today was wonderful!  The choir sang today and they did a wonderful job!  The talks and lessons were great!!  This past week I helped a lady in the ward by taking care of her cat while they were out of town.  The cat was a real sweetie - she was a bit shy at first, but by the end, she would come up to me and let me pet her.  They were really kind and gave us some yummy bakery bread as a thank you!  We had a great afternoon, playing games, crafting together, making music, and listening to some conference talks.  (and a bit of a nap and some ministering)  All-in all, it was a wonderful Sabbath day!

David has had a fever since Saturday evening, and as a result, he's been cranky (he's usually very sweet) he couldn't make up his mind - he would ask for one thing and then change his mind the next second - but spent most of the time after his nap wanting to play the piano (and getting mad when anyone else tried to play) and wanting to play Anna's trumpet and singing.  He's already such a musical kid!!

A week with the Jones'

We've had a pretty typical week.  Monday was full of laundry and grocery shopping and school and such.  Tuesday was a school day and piano lessons and institute.  Wednesday was our ward's February Feast party night.  We brought some yummy potato salad and had fun chatting with friends and eating pizza.  We really have a great ward and we all had a fun time.  Evie invited a friend from school to come with us and Dan was excited because it meant that we got to use our van to carry our whole family and one additional person!  :)

Thursday evening, was the elementary school open house and art show.  We got to see the kids class rooms and a bunch of their work, and some of their art work.  We made all the kids come to support each other - I think Eileen and Anna were less than thrilled, but they dealt with it.  After, I headed down to choir practice.  We had sectionals this week - it was a great chance to dig into the notes and get things nailed down.  It was a lot of fun!  James gave himself a hair cut - it's interesting.... and needs to be fixed... 

Friday was the kids last day of school before spring break!  I babysat a couple kids in the ward for a friend, and we had a fun time playing and jumping on the trampoline - David was sad to see them go.  :(  In the evening, we picked up a babysitter for the younger kids, then took Eileen and Anna down to my parents house to get ready for their trip to Colorado with Grandma.  Then Dan and I headed down to the temple for a session.  We grabbed some dinner to go on the way home so we could get our babysitter home at a reasonable hour. 

Saturday was a unusually relaxed day.  I got to sleep in some, then we spent the morning enjoying the gorgeous weather.  The kids washed the cars, David and I walked up and down the sidewalk.  After David's nap, we went to Costco.  Dan finally got his TV that he's been wanting for 5 or more years now.  He's very excited!  :)  We had a yummy dinner together and we watched a video about the new Temple opening in Rome Italy.  Then Dan and I enjoyed the new TV by watching a movie together. 

I've been trying to make the girls send pictures of their trip - but most of what I got today was pictures out the window of the plane.  Eileen was excited to be able to see the plane's shadow.  So i sent her a picture of my shadow.   He sure is a cute shadow! 

Church today was wonderful - there were some wonderful talks given and a great lesson in Relief Society.  We had a pretty good turn out for choir and Dan made yummy lemon bars for a treat.  The girls were supposed to spend today at church in the Sable Ward and with friends from Aurora - but I can't seem to get them to send me pictures of much.... 

In the evening, we had some friends over for dinner and chatting - we had a fun time together getting to know them a bit better! 

Track and Family Fun

Monday was a momentous day - our old van finally died.  In fact, it died multiple times on the way home from school pick ups - thankfully they happened on small empty roads, so it wasn't a big deal and we didn't have far to go, so we still made it home.  That night while I folded laundry, Dan spent his evening getting us a new huge van.  We have upgraded to a 12-seat van and the plan is to have this last for the next 10 years or so until we can downgrade.  The kids have all been super excited to have a new van where they can spread out and not sit next to each other.  

Anna had a home track meet after school on Tuesday, so we bundled up and headed out to the field to watch her run.  She did great and got a PR in her mile time again - she's almost under 7 minutes for her mile!  We then booked it to piano lessons for Evie and James.  I had institute in the evening, but ended up having to leave early because I had taken the car, but hadn't left Dan the only key for the van, so he couldn't go pick Anna up from her track meet.  Her phone had died so we had no way to contact her and figure out how things were going, so I headed over only to find out that there was still a half hour left to go in the meet.  Oh well - I just wish I'd brought a warmer jacket!!  

Wednesday was the usual with Young Women's in the evening.  Thursday was much the same with me having choir in the evening.  After choir, I had a good time chatting with Jenny - it helped me figure out what options we might have for Eileen if we have her sing with the choir next school year. 

Friday we got to go to the Melissa Middle school play - they did Mary Poppins.  A bunch of the kids friends from our ward were in it.  They all did a great job and the kids all had a lot of fun - David even did a really good job even though he was up way past his bedtime! 

Saturday was busy, but fun!  Dan took the older girls and went to the temple - they met up with Grandpa Cox and did baptisms and then went to lunch after.  I took the younger kids and went to a baby shower (our ward is raining babies!)  I just barely finished up the blanket for her the night before!  We all had a great time!  In the afternoon, Dan went to go get a second key for the van so we don't have a repeat of Tuesday where I strand him with out a key....  Then Dan took the kids to the library so I could make dinner in peace and quiet and with out cute little boy help! 

Church today was wonderful - we really had a great Gospel Doctrine lesson on the Sermon on the Mount - it's amazing how much there still is to learn from it!  After church, we had choir, but we didn't have much of a turnout.  :(  Maybe because it's fast Sunday.  Before choir started - I found David sitting on a chair reading a book - it was so cute!  He is so full of personality! 

Yarn and Friends

This has been a fun and busy week.  

Wednesday, the girls had their Young Men/Young Women combined activity - every year in February, the Bishop and his wife host a "love fest" where they teach dancing and such.  And then they all dance together.  It's a lot of fun!  Anna had a blast - when I got there to pick them up, they were having a great time!  Eileen doesn't like the loud music, lights or touching people, so she mostly went and hid in another room for most of the activity.  

Thursday, I had choir and it was great!  We had a different director than we usually have, and he was amazing - it was a great rehearsal and lots of fun! 
Anna also had a track meet on Thursday after school - she did awesome - she got a PR in her mile and took 4th place in her 800. 

Friday evening and Saturday morning, Dan and I went to the viewing and funeral for a brother in our ward who recently passed away - Dan teaches his daughter in seminary, so we wanted to be there to support the family.  We've only been in the ward for a year, but every time I talked to him, it was because we were out in the halls with cranky children - like Dan, he was a great father and husband, always supporting and helping. 

Saturday afternoon, we got to go down to the temple, then we met up for dinner with some friends from the ward.  We had a great time and ate yummy food - then after making the staff annoyed with us for not giving up the table, we invited them back to our place for dessert and a game.  They promptly trounced us in San Marco.  But we still had a great time!  And we didn't manage to scare them off or make them sick of us, since they invited us over to their place for dinner this evening. 

So Evie, James and Aaron have been very into crocheting lately.  Evie and James have both managed to figure out how to do more than just a chain now and Evie has gotten rather enterprising and creative.  She began making pillows and blankets and little bags and then started selling them to her friends at school!  The only problem is that they have made some bad choices about cleaning up after themselves and being responsible with my yarn and hooks, so after finding a huge chunk of my yarn cut up and all over the floor, I took away the crocheting privilege for a bit.  Evie was devastated - which was when Dan and I found out about her little business, so I said that maybe she could do some supervised crocheting in order to make the things she had promised. 

Lots of Love!!!

Monday evening we had a Family Home Evening lesson where we talked about John 4 and Christ teaching the woman at the well.  We even managed to get the kids to read the chapter before our lesson so they were prepared too!  In the evening, we got a rather shocking call - a man in our ward had been in a car accident with their oldest daughter and had passed away in the accident and their oldest daughter was in the hospital.  It has shaken the whole ward to have such a tragedy happen to people we know and love.  I had spent just the day before this call in the nursery with his wonderful wife and Dan teaches one of their daughters in Seminary.  It has been very heartening to watch the ward come together to support and give their love to them. 

Tuesday was a pretty normal day - School for the kids in the morning - Anna is on the Track Team and so she gets dropped off early each morning.  In the evening, I had institute class which was wonderful. 

Wednesday, I finally managed to get in to the doctor so I could get my prescription re-filled - and a recommendation to a dermatologist.  Then in the afternoon, I had to pick Eileen up early from school because she was sick.  In the evening, the girls had Young Women's and I had choir.  Choir practice was awesome - we got new music - lots of fun high notes!  YEY! 

Thursday was Valentine's Day - we started with our traditional Heart-shaped biscuits breakfast - early so we could eat with Dan before he left for seminary.  The kids got some chocolates and then headed to school, except Eileen who stayed home sick.  We took her in to the doctor on the recommendation of the school nurse who gave her a note to stay home through Friday.  In the evening, Eileen and Anna watched the kids so Dan and I could go out for a dinner date - we went out for Mexican food and enjoyed ourselves!  We went someplace close and got home in time to kiss the kids goodnight before settling in to watch Ant Man and Wasp. 

Friday, Eileen was still home from school and Dan stayed home from work and asked his team teacher to take the class on Friday.  They both stayed home and slept in and rested trying to get rid of their colds.  Dan was awake and nice enough to watch David while i went to the Dermatologist.  In the evening, we had a fun family movie night - we watched The Incredibles 2 and ate popcorn.  Then we put the younger kids to bed and I watched Newsies with Eileen and Anna (at least until Anna got too tired and fell asleep.)  I managed to get them hooked on the music and so we had fun watching and singing along.  Eileen even managed to get David to love the music and sing along with the soundtrack in the car.  It's so cute!! 

Saturday was a bit crazy busy.  I got to go to a baby shower in the morning - it was fun and I had a great time!  While I was there, Dan took the kids to the library and Costco.  We met up back home and did some food prep and a Come Follow me lesson before heading over to a friend's house for dinner and games.  We had a great time - the kids all get along so well together and even though their kids are a bit older than ours, they are still great with the younger kids.  They are such a great family.  We had fun playing the bean game and Five Crowns - Aaron played with us.  I won the bean games, but Aaron smoked us in the few rounds we played of Five Crowns that we played before we had to get the kids home and to bed.  He totally shut us out!  After we got the kids to bed, I made a quick run to the grocery store before we all crashed!

Sunday was wonderful!  We had choir before church to prepare to sing in Sacrament Meeting.  The choir did a wonderful job.  I had picked out our song months ago - knowing that I wanted to do Marriage for Eternity for the Sunday after Valentine's Day.   It ended up fitting PERFECTLY with the messages shared during the meeting.  It was such a blessing to see the Lord's hand - even in a seemingly small detail.  The messages were wonderful!  I even got to go to Sunday School since David did well in nursery today.  In the evening, we had the sister missionaries over for dinner and a message, then Dan and Aaron and I played games - Aaron wanted to play Five Crowns and The bean game again - I smashed them both in Five Crowns.  Dan won the bean game - then it was bed time! 

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.