Dancing and Playing

As part of our goal setting this month, David set a goal to finish the children's scripture story book with Dad.  He would remind Dan regularly that they needed to read together, then they would sit down and read a chapter or two.  He finished it and he was so proud of himself after!  

All of the kids except Eileen had Monday and Tuesday off of school.  Monday was mostly a take it easy kind of day, then Tuesday got a bit crazy.  Evelyn and David went to one of Sister Shum's music camps and Aaron went to hang out with his friend.  James went on a major bike ride event with Caleb and his dad.  Anna mostly slept.  Then in the afternoon, Evelyn went to hang out with her friends.    

Wednesday was back to school as usual.  Weather was cold all week, so we didn't get to go to the park as much as usual, but things were kinda busy mostly anyway.  Eileen has had play practices all week after school and they have gone late since they are getting really close to opening night.  

Friday night, Anna had a water polo tournament with her club team.  I went to go watch both games and got her a bit of dinner between.  They had a rough first game since they were playing the masters team, then a pretty easy second win.  Anna says she's really enjoying water polo and she seems to be doing alright with the elite team.  

While I was at the water polo games, Dan was putting David to bed and he sat talking to him getting him down, and they had the funniest conversations.  David apparently has an amazing memory.  

"I remember when mom was little and slid down the stairs"

David: "Remember when you were little and inside mom's tummy"

Dad: "that's not how it works, David"

David: "What do you mean"

Dad: When I was little, mom was little also" 

David after thinking for a bit: "nope!"

Saturday was a cleaning day for us - at least in the morning, and David loves to help vacuum.  Then he gets mad if you try to finish it off for him after he says it's done! 

Dan came home from the grocery store with some of the little pies, The kids grabbed the ones they wanted and then proceeded to hide them all over the place so no one would take the one they wanted.  David loved his pumpkin pie and drove Evelyn crazy by eating it straight out of the middle.  

Saturday night was a youth dance - Aaron's first.  We carpooled with some friends and they both had a great time.  Anna came home exhausted after a long day of school service, birthday parties and dancing.  Aaron said he had fun and he even danced with a girl.  But they were both a bit tired for 9am church on Sunday morning!  
 

At night when I put David to bed, we have a routine that he doesn't like to vary from.  It includes brushing teeth and a story and then me setting a timer on my phone and while the timer counts down, makes me lay down next to his bed and he snuggles on top of me and chatters with me.   Then when the timer goes off, he has an elaborate "kiss mommy goodnight" ritual that includes 15 kisses in a precise order.  

Anna was feeling much better today after a good afternoon nap, then she asked Evelyn to teach her how to play the flute.  Anna loves music and loves to learn new things and wants to know how to play everything! 

Exploring

 It's been a fun, but rather different week.  Aaron and Evelyn had Thursday and Friday off of school, but no one else did.  The weather was beautiful so we spent most of the afternoon at the park.  Aaron saw a kid at the park playing with a soccer ball and went over and passed back and forth with him for awhile.  A person walking through the park saw them and told them that his fence had a goal painted on it and that they should go use it.  So they did and Evelyn realized that she knew the kid from school, so she joined them.  Evelyn then saw him again at the park on Friday too and spent time shooting on the goal on the fence and then moved to sitting and chatting on the swings for half an hour.  I'm divided between finding it cute and being low-key worried that this is just the beginning....  

We had fun playing games while they were home, and we had parent/teacher/student conferences.  The conferences went well.  Evelyn is even more of a perfectionist than I realized and we had a bit of a talk about the substance of her work is more important that making it look perfect.  

David had a great time at preschool learning about the letter W (which he calls an upside down M) and whales and other ocean life!  

James had his primary activity this week and Caleb went with him - but they were so impatient to go and they decided that we should walk there since if they walked, they could leave right away.  So we walked.  lol  

Saturday, we had a great day!  In the morning, Dan had a baptism to go to and I took Eileen to get her hair cut.  Then after lunch, we headed down town to do a fun little scavenger hunt challenge.  We had a blast walking around the city and looking for things and taking pictures and videos of us being silly together!  Then we submitted the pictures and videos for points.  We didn't finish all the challenges, but we had fun and got in lots of walking and lots of sight seeing!  

Then in the evening, the girls had book club and the rest of us stayed home and ate muddy buddies and played games.  

Today was wonderful!  Church was great and Dan and I had the Great to Be 8 meeting to go to in the afternoon, then we had some friends over for dinner and games in the evening.  We had a fun time!  After getting the younger kids to bed, we played Wingspan.  

Now we are looking forward to two more days for this long weekend - at least for some of us!  

Hearts and Bubbles

We've had a fun but busy week as usual.  I spent a good chunk of this week trying to find valentines for James for Monday and found none.  I just wanted a box of class valentines and I couldn't find them at any store.... 

School and activities this week were the normal.  Flowers are starting to show up here - the weather has been so beautiful that things are starting to bloom already.  David found a tiny pink flour and knelt down and asked "will you marry me!"  He's such a sweetie!  

Most of David's clothes are hand me downs that have been through at least 2 other kids, so this week we went out and got him a couple pairs of pants that will actually stay up since they have working elastic.  One of the pairs he found were athletic type pants and on the way home, he decided that they were "jogging pants" and so he kept telling daddy that now he could go jogging with him.  So on Saturday, Dan, Anna, Evelyn and David went running together.  David ran all the way around the block and did great!  Dan and Anna were glad he didn't do any more since they were both tired from working out earlier....  

 

We finally managed to find all the things to make the bubble solution that the Bubble Man uses, so we made up a bunch of bubble solution and the kids had fun trying out their bubble trumpets!  They even managed to make a bubble within a bubble!  

Saturday evening we made and decorated heart shaped cookies!  We had a fun time and the kids made some beautiful cookies!  Even James has grown up enough to make some really nice cookies when he wants them to look nice instead of just piling as much sugar on top as possible!  

Saturday evening, Dan and I went on a date, we got a quick dinner, then went to see a movie.  We saw Death on the Nile - I really enjoyed it, but I'm not sure it was really Dan's favorite.  

Sunday was nice, but David was coughing a lot this morning, so I stayed home with him.  He was still coughing by bed time, so we will see how this week goes.  We just snuggled up and listened to bible stories and looked at family pictures.  

February Fun

This week has been a bit crazy.  Mostly I've become a chauffer.  I spend most of my time driving my kids to all the places they are going.  We had a crazy school week.  It was finals week for the High School, so Anna had half days most of the week.  Then all the kids had Friday off for grading (except Eileen since the college is on a different schedule...  Otherwise, it was the usual craziness.  Water Polo, swimming, school, friends, youth activities, gymnastics.  

On Friday, Sister Shum held her Chinese New Year music camp.  The kids had a great time!  

James had a sleepover on Friday night.  He was so excited and they boys had a great time - mostly just playing video games!  While he was there, we had a pizza party and watched the Parent Trap with the kids.  We had a fun time together and one of Evie's friends came over to eat and watch with us.  

On Saturday, we were blessed to get to go to a baptism - I was asked by the Sister Missionaries to play the piano and it was wonderful!  She is such a sweet girl!  Anna had a swim meet in the evening.  It's crazy that the swim season is almost over.  

Sunday was wonderful.  I got to play the organ again today, and while it can be tough fitting in all the necessary practice time, I find myself already sad that it's my last week for awhile.  After church, we had a fun time playing together and reading scriptures together.  

It's fun playing games with David.  He loves to play, but he just wants to play - he doesn't really care whether he wins or loses, he just wants to play and have fun with us! 

Distance Learning Again?!?!?!

This week, James had to go to distance learning.  Thankfully it was only James and only this week (through Thursday)  It was a bit problematic since I couldn't leave him alone for more than a few minutes, but there were still things that needed to be done.  Dropping David off at preschool was ok since James is 10 and it was only for a few minutes, but an hour to go grocery shopping or pick up Eileen?  That felt like too long, and 2 hours to go practice the organ?  Way too long.  So Dan helped out and made it possible, but I'm glad it's done now!  Thankfully he never got sick and the class had no new cases, so they went back as of Friday.  

David has been playing a lot of games this week.  He loves playing Trouble and Sorry and Mastermind (an easy version) with me.  We also had some fun playing this neat little game together!  He was so impressed when I managed to stack everything that he made me take a picture of how I had done it so that he could do it too, then he worked hard (with a tiny bit of help from mom) and got it all stacked up - then of course, I had to take a picture of him with his waiter stacked up!  

David loved preschool and had a fun time learning about X-rays and doctors this week.  He came home on Thursday with a cute little doctor's kit craft he had made and proceeded to try to doctor everything in the house!  

Eileen still is having regular play practices and we are looking forward to seeing the play in March and she's enjoying herself!  Anna is still doing water polo and swimming.   She is doing really well and working hard and dropping time.  It's crazy, but the season is almost over - it felt really fast, but maybe it's because there weren't any meets until this last month of the season.  I think she's enjoyed it and she has really improved as a swimmer.  Evelyn is LOVING gymnastics and looks forward to it every week!  

Tuesday evening, I drove down with Eileen to go to Emmalee's baby shower!  We had a fun time and loved getting to see her and Melissa and Sydney.  Plus she had her baby this week, so we got to see the sweet baby pictures too!!  

... and 10

 Monday was Martin Luther King Jr Day, and Dan had the day off work, so we planned to do something together.  I had an eye appointment in the morning as a check up on my lasik - which is AMAZING!  My eyes are pretty much feeling back to normal again and I CAN SEE!  So we packed up a lunch and headed up to Mt Hood after my appointment.  Eileen wasn't crazy about going, but she was adult enough to not complain out loud.  There was a bunch of snow with a bunch of sledding trails and we spent a great afternoon sledding and playing in the snow.  Then when the kids were cold and done, we drove home.  The movie player wasn't working in the car, so I started an audio book for the kids which most of them enjoyed - at least as many as would have enjoyed any one movie.  :)  It was a fun day and we were all pretty tired by the end! 

We had a pretty normal school week after that - at least until Friday.  The kids had school, Anna had Water Polo practice, Eileen had play practice and there was seminary, jazz band and youth and primary activities, organ practicing and gymnastics.  Evelyn had a dentist appointment on Thursday, she already hates the dentist, but this was a miserable experience for her - she had to have 2 adult teeth pulled and she hated it.  The numbing and even the nitrous weren't working very well for her and she cried for most of it and squeezed my hand the whole time, but it's over and done - and hopefully she won't have to do that ever again.  She still wanted to do gymnastics after though.  

Friday, James didn't have school.  Apparently his class has had an outbreak of COVID, so although he is healthy and fully vaccinated, his whole class is transitioning to distance learning for next week (at least) 

Saturday, we had heard about a show in a nearby town and we took the whole family to see the Bubble Man.  I expected the younger kids to love it and the older ones to maybe be a bit bored, but to deal with it.  Boy was I wrong - it was a fabulous show and EVERY one of the kids was totally engrossed and excited by the whole show.  In fact, Dan and I also really enjoyed it - it was just a great show for the whole family!  It was such a fun little afternoon together!  Plus lots of our friends were there too, so the kids all had friends to hang out with and chat with before the show started!  

Anna had another swim meet in the evening, but I wasn't able to watch this one - I didn't sign up to help quickly enough and there were no spectators allowed. :(  She did well though.  She was put into 4 events - and was swimming a different stroke for each event.  

Church today was great!  I was playing the organ today - which I love doing, even if I'm not that good - and thankfully everyone is patient with me and kind!  We had a busy nursery today, so I stayed in to help out.  Then after church, we had a couple friends over to play games, then in the evening, we celebrated James' birthday with cake and presents.  

James wanted a Naruto cake - so Anna did an amazing decorated cake for him!  

14...

Monday was Aaron's 14th birthday.  He is slowly starting to look and sound less and less like a little kid and more and more like a teenager.  He wanted a banana cake for his birthday and Sushi for his birthday dinner.  I found a banana pudding cake recipe that turned out pretty good!  He loved his new sweater from Grandma and Grandpa Jones and his presents from mom and dad (which included some stuff that didn't quite arrive in time for Christmas) 

David also wanted to give Aaron a present, so he picked out one of his toys to give to him - he said that he was giving it to him so they could play together.  

David can be such a sweetie and such a stinker!  As we were heading back to the play room, he walked ahead of me and farted.  Then laughed.  Then he walked over to where I had been sitting before and stuck his butt out and farted again.  He said " I farted in your place!"  I told him that wasn't very nice and would he like it if I farted in his place.  He told me that I couldn't do that because "you don't have farts stored up."  Yes, this is what my days are like....  But there there are times like this where he says he isn't going to move so that Koopa can keep sitting there.  

I finished this little stuffed bunny for him and he loves it.  He has taken it with us whenever we walk to take James to school or pick him up from school.  Then Super Pinecone (yes that's the bunny's name) will fly all the way there while doing parkour off me and of course holding our hands when we cross the street to keep us safe.  

David didn't have preschool this week because some kids in his class had COVID.  So we took him to get tested this week so he can go back next week.  It took us nearly 2 hours to get the test done, and thankfully came back negative.  

Thursday was Evelyn's first gymnastics class - she loved it of course!  

Friday was my big day.  Dan got me Lasik for Christmas, and Friday was the day.  The surgery itself was quick and while weird and a little uncomfortable, it was quick and mostly painless.  After, Dan drove me home and I was supposed to take a nap.... but I had a hard time sleeping.  So i dozed on and off for the next 6 hours - never really sleeping because it hurt too much after the numbing drops wore off, but by midnight, the worst of it was over and I was able to sleep through the night.  My eyes are still a bit irritated, but no worse than when I wear contacts for too long, and that should go away over time also. 

Saturday, started out quiet.  James played most of the day at Caleb's house.  Dan took the older 4 to the temple along with one of Aaron's friends so we could do all the boy names that Grandpa Jones had sent us.  Then after they got home, he and I went to do sealings and then out to dinner.  

Church today was wonderful, but rather empty.  The Omicron variant of COVID has swept through the area and numbers at church today were very low.  We had less than 10 kids in junior and senior primary.  Our afternoon was mostly spent playing games and having fun together.  

Back to our regularly scheduled program!

 We've had a busy week!  It's fun getting back to all the usual stuff, but it's also crazy!  Anna started club water polo this week - she is still doing swim team too, but some of the practices will overlap.  She is really enjoying both though!  Eileen didn't have school this week - her early college classes started on Friday, so she was home with us for most of the week.  

Evelyn had a big and adventurous week.  She got braces finally.  We knew this was happening and she needs them, but she's been in some pain, but she is also already seeing a difference.  Unfortunately one of her brackets popped off within an hour of getting them on (totally NOT her fault) so we are going to have to go back in next week to get the bracket back on.   Aaron also had an orthodontist appointment this week - but it was just a quick tightening.  

Thursday night, we had the sister missionaries over for dinner.  We ate and then we had a wonderful lesson about being charitable.  

Friday was crazy.  I had offered to host a pasta dinner night for the swim team, so before their first meet, we had a pasta dinner for the swim team.   We had a pretty good turn out and they downed tons of food, but thankfully not enough that we totally ran out.  Everyone seemed to have a good time and they were all polite and grateful and helpful!  David was especially excited to see his water polo friends and spent the whole night hanging out with the girls who were on the water polo team.  

Friday evening, after everyone had left, Eileen and I finished off her cloak! She also really seems to love it!!

Saturday was a bit busy, but the morning was at least pretty chill.  Evelyn had fun in the afternoon making donuts using the donut cutter I got her for Christmas.  They came out really yummy! 

Then in the afternoon, I took Anna to the first swim meet of the season.  I was helping time and it was so exciting to have a real meet again and get to swim with other teams!  Anna did a great job on her races - she even did the fly in the medley relay and did a great job!  She has cut off tons of time since last year, but that was expected with how hard she has worked since last year!  

In the evening, Aaron went and played D&D with some friends from church and Evelyn went to a friends house.  It's nice that they have good friends near by that they can spend time with! 

Church was great today.  Eileen and Anna and I all wore our cloaks!  Sacrament Meeting was great and primary was great, then at the end of church, Aaron and Evelyn and Anna were all set apart in their new callings.  

Family Time!

We started out Monday with a big gathering of the family!  We exchanged presents with my parents and Sandi's family, then we had a fun relaxed afternoon of chatting, eating and playing.  Sandi organized a fun "Family Feud" game for us to play and we had a great time!  My dad loved his gift which was a recording of Sandi and I singing.  We all had a fun time!  

We loved having Grandma and Grandpa here!  We had planned to go to OMSI one day - but it was closed because of weather, so we just ended up hanging out at home.  We made Chicken Pot Pie for dinner one night - my dad was finishing it off, and David decided he wanted to help, so he was trying to steal Grandpa's crust and Grandpa was not gonna let that happen!  It was cute to watch though!  

We took the kids out to spend their gift cards, but the toy aisles were picked pretty clean.  David was excited to get a hat and some new PJ's and some Yoda slippers, along with some toys (including more cars, of course.)  The rest of the kids mostly saved theirs for later.  

On Wednesday, the ladies all went for pedicures, then after we went to a late lunch at Olive Garden.  We had a great time together.  (Most of the sandals being worn in the foot photo are mine - lol) 

While Grandpa was here, I took him with me on my nightly walks with Koopa and we had a great time walking together.  It was nice to walk and talk and be together.  We tried to bring Wicket on the first one, but apparently he's not quite as used to walking as Koopa is and dad ended up carrying him most of the way.  

Grandma and Grandpa headed home on Thursday, and thankfully made it safely, if a bit later than anticipated.  The kids and I spent Thursday cleaning up some and running some errands.  I took Anna out to pick out her fabric for her cloak.  She found some that she loves!  Aaron and Evelyn were both gone hanging out with friends and Eileen had a Seminary movie afternoon with her seminary class. James went to hang out with Caleb, so David and I went with Anna.  

On Friday, Dan had the day off, so we got all the Christmas decorations down, we cleaned up the house - I wanted a clean-ish house to start off the new year.  After, I took Eileen to get her cloak fabric and to Hobby Lobby for a couple other things, then we headed home for a fun New Years Eve!  

James and David watched a movie, then we watched a countdown and did some poppers and sent the young ones to bed.  James had a hard time sleeping though because the whole neighborhood sounded like it was setting off fireworks until after midnight.  Aaron went to hang out with friends from the ward and did the countdown there, Anna had friends over to do make up and then they all went to the dance together.  Evie watched Encanto and I worked on my puzzle!   Dan watched a movie and we had a fun quiet (except for the fireworks next door) evening, then since Evelyn was playing Animal Crossing at midnight, and they had a countdown on Animal Crossing, we just watched the Animal Crossing countdown and then Evelyn headed to bed and Dan and I went to go get kids from their various places.  

Saturday was mostly a slow day, we all slept in some after a late night, and Anna and I started work on her cloak.  It was really a pretty simple pattern and we were able to get it finished today.  She hasn't taken it off since.  

David decided he wanted to start a new year off with a new hair cut, so he asked to get it cut.  Dan decided it was a good time to teach Aaron to do it, so Aaron cut David's hair.  He did a great job - no ears were cut off!  

We had a wonderful Sabbath - the early time slot is going to take some adjustment, but it was nice having the whole day after church.  We chatted with family, worked on Anna's cloak, I made a stuffed cat for Evie (for her coupon) and we played games with a family from the ward.  

Christmas Time Is Here!

We've had a busy week!  Monday morning, the younger kids went to Sister Shum's Christmas music camp and had a great time!  On Monday night, we had our annual Bagna Caulda party with carol singing.  The carol singing part was especially wonderful and the Bagna Caulda came out good!  One of my favorite moments was sitting at the piano surrounded by my kids and their friends and our friends all singing the 12 Days of Christmas at the top of our lungs!  It was wonderful!!   We had a great time with friend and family.  Sandi and Taz and Kai were also able to stop by for a bit after getting home from Texas.  

Tuesday was recovering from Monday.  The kids had been up late and we had worked hard cleaning the house and cooking food and getting everything ready, so we were all tired on Tuesday.  The kids had been a ton of help!  

Wednesday was spent getting things ready for Christmas and the kids decorated gingerbread houses.  Nothing fancy, just the ones from the store, but they had fun and made cute houses!  

Thursday morning, we met up with Sandi and the kids and Dan took a break from work to join us at the Ice Skating rink.  The kids all had a blast, but after an hour and a half, most of the kids were tired, sore or ready to do - except James who could have kept going all day.  He LOVED it - he had Taz had a blast falling on purpose and sliding on the ice and skating.  

While the older kids were still skating and David had gotten tired of it, Dan took David to see Santa who was right next to the rink.  David loved it!  He had such a great time chatting it up with Santa.  James and Evelyn wanted to see him too after we were done.   After, we got some lunch at the food court, then headed home. 

Friday was Christmas Eve.  We finished getting some things ready and doing some grocery shopping to get us through the weekend.  Then we had a wonderful evening reading the Christmas Story and the kids opened their Christmas Eve gifts.  The kids loved the pajamas that Dan picked out for them!  David was especially cute as a baby shark! 

Christmas morning came bright and not too early (thankfully) and we headed down the stairs to open presents.  We took our usual break for breakfast after opening the stockings and then we finished with the rest of the presents.  The kids had a great time and we had a fun little chat with Grandma and Grandpa Jones.  Then we spent the rest of the day playing with our gifts and having a fun time being together.  

Grandma and Grandpa Cox flew in that evening, but they got in late and went straight to Sandi and Jon's, but we are glad they are here safely and look forward to seeing them! 

We got a bit of snow in the evening, but it didn't seem like it would be enough to stick, but Sunday morning, we woke up to about an inch of snow on the ground.  The kids  took the sled and had a blast on the hill until the snow had mostly melted off the streets.  

Church was cancelled, so we did a church lesson at home today which was really nice and had a fun time singing songs together and learning about the Gifts that Christ has given to us.  

In the afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa and Sandi and Taz and Kai came over to hang out and chat.  We had a fun time and Sandi and I managed to sneak away to finish up Dad's present.  The kids always have a blast together and it was wonderful to see my parents and to get to our house to my Dad!