In like a Lion

Weather this week has been nuts.  It's been rainy, and hailing and sunny and snowing and misty and cold and windy.  It really felt like spring has come in like a lion this week.  David and I walked to school one morning and thought it was raining, but when we looked at his black umbrella - it was clearly snow!  Then by the time we got to school it was just raining.   

This week has been full of water polo - playing and coaching, and both at once - It's been a lot of fun working with the girls and getting to know them a bit better.  Friday we had a scrimmage and all the goalies were gone (including Anna who had a date that night!) so I got to play in the cage, plus we had to rope one of the guys goalies into playing too.  

Weather in the afternoons was ok some days and rainy on others, but I had fun playing "monster" with the kids a couple day - monster just involves me always being "it" and always running around trying to tickle the kids.  I can't catch most of them, but it's fun anyway!  

Friday was mostly getting everything ready for our trip out to ID.  We were taking off Saturday afternoon, but I needed to get things ready since I had the Peter the Rock rehearsals in the morning.  

Saturday afternoon when Anna and I got home, we finished packing up and then took Koopa down to drop him off at Sandi's house, then headed out to Idaho to visit Grandma and Grandpa Jones.  We stopped on the way for dinner and made it in in time to go to bed.   

Church today was wonderful - it was really neat to get to go to Relief Society with Ann and Eileen.  Then in the afternoon we napped and played and had dinner and cookies with Rob and Sarah and Lucy and Riley. 

Feels Like Spring!!

This week has felt like Spring!  We have had sunny and warm days - days where I only wore a sweater to pick up the kids and even took it off after running around with them for a bit.  Days where I wore sandals instead of boots or tennis shoes.  Apparently we were so busy running around and playing outside that I forgot to take many pictures....  

Dan got me this Orchid a year ago and I DIDN'T KILL IT!!!  It kept growing and has bloomed again!  

Aaron seems to have strained a muscle in his arm so he took some time off water polo this week - hopefully it's now rested and back to ready to play.  Practices went well and on Wednesday, I got in with the goalies to work steals and lobs, but only 2 goalies were there and able to play.  :(  But they both did a great job!  

Masters water polo was a lot of fun, though numbers could have been better.  Dan had a temple trip with the guys from the ward on Tuesday and then we had a date night at the temple on Friday.  

The younger boys and I had activity days this week.  We had an activity about general conference and prepping for it.  They made activity books and played some fun games and watched a short talk.  It went amazingly well!  They all had a great time and seemed engaged the whole time.  

I spent most of the week sore from workouts - but it was worth it!  I took it a bit easier on Saturday though so I will be ready to jump back in next week!  

Thursday was the big 5th grade concert!  James actually told us about it and performed with the other 5th graders and did a great job!!  It was fun watching James and his friends!  

Friday was St. Patrick's Day and the schools really got into it.  David came home talking all about leprechauns.  He told us the other night that he knew there were leprechauns because his room got messier.  There were blankets that had been moved and so he was sure it was leprechauns that made his room messier!  

Saturday was nuts.  Dan, Anna, Aaron and Evelyn had a ward youth temple trip in the morning.  I had Peter the Rock practice, then Anna joined me there.  We are extending our practices a bit since we are getting close to the concert, so we weren't able to make it to water polo.  Then we got home and Anna had a high school scrimmage - but she forgot the $5 drop in fee - so I drove out to get it to her and stayed to watch.  She was playing really well - she had some great plays and shots in the field and some great blocks in the cage!  Then in the evening, our ward had Pi night party.  We ate yummy pies and chatted with old and new friends.  Then Anna took Aaron and Evelyn and Evie's friend to the dance.  I went home and walked the dog.  :)  

Church was wonderful.  The choir sang and they did such an amazing job!  It's such a blessing to have so much talent and so many willing to share it!  The talks were wonderful and primary went well.  After church, Anna and I spent awhile working on an arrangement of I Love to See the Temple for the choir to sing at Stake Conference.  We got quite a bit of it done and I'm excited about it - now I just have to get it finished and to the choir!  

In the evening, Sandi came over with her boyfriend James to play games with us.  We played Space Base and Dominion and had a great time together.  He seems like a really nice guy!  

Colorado and Snow - but not together....

On Monday morning, I headed to the airport with Sandi to fly to Colorado.  We were meeting up with mom and spending the week together with Grandpa.  I dropped Eileen off with Sandi so she could house/dog sit while we were gone.  Dan took care of the kids for me - the younger boys got spoiled with getting driven to and from school all week - now they are going to have to go back to walking, so hopefully they aren't too sad to have me back!  

Monday, we got in and Mom picked us up from the airport.  Then we headed to Grandpa's where we enjoyed an afternoon together before heading to Olive Garden for dinner.  

Tuesday, we met up with some distant cousins Donna and Judy for lunch across the street.  We had a nice lunch chatting with them!  Then we spent the afternoon walking and talking before making up some dinner at Grandpa's place and showing Grandpa how to use his tv to watch a show he wanted to watch.  :)  

Wednesday, my Dad got in to town, but he was only partly there to visit - he also had work to get done.  We had a nice day together chatting and walking.  

Grandpa has decided that as he nears the end of his life, he would like to give the kids blessing in the style of the Biblical patriarchs.  I am so grateful to have this man as my grandfather!  We are so blessed by his example of faith and devotion to God!  He wanted to get some info from me on the kids to get to know them a bit better first, so we spent some time talking about them, their likes and dislikes - their plans for the future and their personalities.  

Thursday evening, was a dinner that turned into a birthday party.  Doug was making his yummy spaghetti for dinner and most of us were able to be there for the dinner!  My mom spent all week looking at photos and putting them together in to a slide show - both to look at and also to get her brother's input on which ones to keep and which to get rid of.  It was fun to look at the old pictures of them when they were younger - young Frank looks a LOT like Taz!  Grandpa had asked Sandi and I to sing, so she and I spent some of the afternoon getting ready for that.  It went well - but we had an unintended intermission in the middle of the song when the accompaniment track accidentally stopped :) It was a fun evening together! 

Friday, we got together with Tina for a ladies lunch across the street.  We had a wonderful time chatting and eating yummy food.  Then we headed out and I went to take my stuff from Tina's car to Grandpa's place while my mom went to move her car.  Shortly after, I got a call from her - telling me she had fallen in the parking lot and needed help.  We all went running.  She had hit her head pretty hard and landed kinda hard on her arm.  So we got her into her car, and I drove her to the hospital and Dad followed in his car with Sandi.  Also - Tina, though she had left when it happened, had left to go to a doctor's appointment and was already at the same hospital we took my mom to, so she came down to meet me after her appointment.  They took x-rays and CT scans to make sure everything was alright.  Her wrist thankfully was not fractured and there was no internal bleeding.  She had broken her nose, but it was not crooked and didn't need to be re-aligned.  There were so many tender mercies in all of it.  There were kind people near by when it happened to help her and stay with her until we could get to her.  With so much family around, there was plenty of support and help and while it looked pretty bad and was scary at the time, she is doing well now and there was so much love and support.  Family is so important!  Sandi and I were still able to get on our flight home since we knew Dad was still there to be with her and she had no major problems and could be released that night.  Dad had to delay his flight one day, but then was still able to fly home.  She has two spectacular black eyes, but is otherwise doing well.  

I got home late Friday and headed out early on Saturday with Anna for our Peter the Rock practices.  They went well and it is really feeling like the music is coming together.  Just over a month left before the performances!  Saturday afternoon, Dan took me to the gym since I hadn't really gotten to work out all week, so that was really nice.  Then in the evening, I took Evie and Aaron to open polo.  Anna had a date so she couldn't come.  

Today was great, but a bit stressful and tiring.  Daylight savings kinda kicked my rear and we had lots of meetings and such after church.  But the talks and lessons were wonderful and the music was wonderful!  Choir practice went well and then I went home and crashed until dinner.  

Evelyn got the results back from her Flute Solo at the competition last weekend and she got super high scores - she is amazing!  I've asked her to look at the flute part for the ward choir Easter number and she tried it out today with the choir, and did an amazing job, especially considering that she jammed her finger at water polo last night.  :)  

David sneaking up on people....

Where did February Go?

This week the kids were back to school.  They did have one late start day because of icy road conditions, but it was actually kind of nice since that meant we got to sleep in a bit, but then still go to school.  My work out for that day was cancelled though, so after we took the kids to school, Dan took me to the gym to do some of the classes he does some times.  It was a lot of fun working out with him and it felt great to get a work out in!   

We are still getting snow here and there, but thankfully it's not really sticking long and the big snow from last week is finally mostly melted.  Weather was still mostly cold and often rainy, but the David and James still got to play after school a few days with their friends and after driving them Monday morning just to be safe, we got back to walking!  

I started coaching at Newberg this week.  I'm an assistant girls coach.  I came Monday and Aukai asked if I had brought my suit.  I hadn't, so I just helped them through shooting drills.  Then Wednesday when I came, I brought my suit and I got in with the girls and scrimmaged with them, then worked out with the goalies during conditioning.  Anna and Aaron both seem to be enjoying club polo!  I really like the way Newberg runs stuff and the way they approach coaching and building the water polo community here.  I'm so excited to be part of an awesome team of people!  

Between scrimmaging on Wednesday, playing Masters on Tuesday Thursday and Saturday, and then open polo Saturday night - I got to make up for all the water polo I missed out on last week - but I'm tired!!  

Saturday was the Solo and Ensemble competition at the High School.  Aaron was volunteering, Anna was volunteering and competing and Evelyn was competing with her friend Sophie.  The girls did a great job on their performances and I'm so proud of them for working hard to practice and prepare for this!  

Saturday afternoon, we went on a Food tour in Portland with some friends.  We stopped at 6 different places and tried a bit of something from each place.  The food was amazing, We had a blast with friends hanging out and chatting and trying new things.  We spent 4+ hours walking around Portland and eating!  Then I came home, got the younger kids to bed and took Anna, Aaron, Evelyn and some friends to open polo! 

Church was great!  Wonderful testimonies!  We spent the afternoon playing games and relaxing together.  Choir was great and then we had dinner and more games and family time.  

I can't believe it's already March.  I'm heading out of town tomorrow to go to Colorado to visit Grandpa and the rest of the family.  Mom and Sandi are going too, and I'm really looking forward to it, but I'm having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that the trip is tomorrow...  Speaking of which, I need to pack....  

Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow!

The younger kids had all of 1 day of school this week....  Monday was President's Day.  I worked out in the morning, then we mostly spent the rest of the day doing laundry and grocery shopping and hanging out around the house.  Tuesday was a teacher work day and Evelyn and David went to Sister Shum's music camp and had a great time learning about early presidents.  

Wednesday, all craziness broke loose.  Wednesday, I was officially brought on as a coach at Newberg Water Polo club.  I was going to start that night, but then it began to snow.  And snow...and snow.  Anna had her euphonium lessons and on her way back ended up stuck in horrible traffic on the freeways because of the snow - only to get back to the neighborhood and find that she couldn't get the car all the way up to our house.  She ended up having to park half way up and walk the rest of the way.  Thankfully she made it home safely and after that - none of us left the house for more than 24 hours.  (except to play in the snow of course!)  

It started out light, but quickly started piling up fast - enough that Evelyn was able to make this snow man before she and James had to head to bed.  James had an hour up because by Wednesday evening, they had cancelled school and seminary and everything else for the next day.  It was probably just as well - our hill gets treacherous when it's covered in 6 inches of snow...  

By the next morning, we were in a winter wonderland.  The kids had a blast playing outside and sledding and getting cold, then coming in and having some hot chocolate to warm up.  :)  Over and over again.  James and David would get wet and cold and then come in and change and drink hot cocoa and say they were done outside.  Then an hour later they would start all over again.  We had a massive pile of shoes and gloves and coats by each door along with big puddles of melted snow!  

Dan's parents had planned to come out this weekend to visit and to watch Isaac wrestle at state.  They ended up not being able to make it because of road conditions.  I was supposed to have a performance with the Peter The Rock group and that was cancelled.  Eileen and I were able to get down the hill and head up to Seattle to do a craft show with Claire.  The roads were MUCH clearer as we got further north.  We got in around 8, and had a fun evening chatting and hanging out with Steve and Claire and their family.  Then the next morning, we were up bright and early to go and set up the booth!  Eileen sold her wire wrapped necklaces and her isopods.  The show was pretty slow - not a whole lot of foot traffic - but she did really well.  She had some sales and lots of positive comments and she was so good and brave talking to people and putting herself out there!  She had a great time and wants to do another one sometime!  

After the show, we packed up and headed back down to Oregon with Eileen expressing her wish that we could get together with their family more often.  We got home just in time for me to do snuggles with David and get him to bed.  Then Dan was sweet and took me to his gym so I could get a work out in.  Between the road trip and my water polo and workouts getting cancelled, I was feeling a bit crazy and restless, so we went and worked out for an hour before heading home and to bed.  

Church today was wonderful - it was our ward conference and we had some great talks from local leaders.  After church, David went to a friends house for a birthday party for a bit, then I had ward choir and the Great To Be 8 meeting, then finally home and dinner and family time.  It was a wonderful day - but a bit long and tiring!  Now there is more snow predicted and seminary is already cancelled for tomorrow... We will see how it goes.  It's precipitating, but not necessarily snow yet...  

The Good, The Bad and the Furry

We've had some great weather this week - there was some really cold weather, but also mostly afternoons with weather good enough to play outside, so the boys have had fun playing after school on the playground.  

Tuesday was Valentine's Day.  We did things a bit different this year.  For starters, we kept it pretty small this year, and second, we did our heart shaped biscuits for dinner instead of for breakfast.  With 3 kids in early morning seminary, we didn't want to miss half the family, and we didn't want to wake up the younger kids that early and we didn't want to cook them twice, so we changed it to dinner - so only Anna missed it....  

Wednesday was Activity Days.  When we got to the church early to set up, James said he could see bunnies, so naturally when I went in to set up, he stayed outside to try to catch the bunnies.  Turned out there were 4 of them.  He caught one and was petting it until I convinced him to let it go and go inside.  Then another boy came who flat out refused to go inside when there were bunnies to be caught.  He managed to catch 3 of them and had me and the sister missionaries and his dad holding bunnies.  We didn't know where they belonged or how long they had been out or what to do with them, but we finally convinced the boy to let us release them and go inside for the last 15 min of the activity.  As you can see - they were not wild rabbits, but domesticated ones that had been pets at some point.  They were pretty sweet and relaxed when held, so they were used to being held.  

Friday morning, I had a doctor's appointment - just a normal visit - but the parking was awful and because it took me 15 minutes to find a parking space and another 10 minutes to walk back to the doctor's office, I was late.  :(  Then after, I headed out to meet up with some friends for our monthly ladies lunch.  I feel so blessed to have found some wonderful friends here!  

Friday, Dan and I went to the temple and met some friends there, then after went out for dinner.  It was a nice little date night!  

Saturday Anna and I had our Peter the Rock rehearsals and water polo.  Rehearsals are going well - the songs are really starting to come together.  It's been really neat to work with this group and with Don and Mike on this musical production!  After water polo, a bunch of us went out for drinks/food to celebrate the return of one of our regulars from Italy and his becoming a US citizen.  He's a really nice guy and a good player and it's nice to have him back.  It was also fun to just spend some time with the water polo people just socializing and chatting.

While we were gone, Dan took the kids to the library and they came home with the usual piles of books and a Theremin.  I couldn't believe that they had a Theremin to borrow at the library!  David has been having a blast with it.  He's been loving getting to experiment with it.  I think some of the older kids are getting a bit annoyed with it, but I think it's pretty cool...  

The talks in church today were wonderful and the choir sang and did a wonderful job.  Primary was, as usual, a mixed bag with some forward progress and some craziness.  Near the end of church, I found out that my old college roommate Libby had passed away.  I haven't keep in touch with her really, but she was an amazing human being.  She was such a good example to me and I am who I am today at least in part because of the example she and her sister set of living the gospel.  My heart aches for her family, but it's been a bit hard not being able to find out what happened.  As a result though, I was able to have a nice chat with a mutual friend of ours.  

Swimming and More

We had a fun and busy week full of school and swimming and seminary and friends and water polo and more!  

David is so funny - every once in awhile, he complains about not getting to do the dishes, so I let him do the non-breakable and non-sharp dishes and he loved it.  lol  He had a great time loading up the dishwasher.  

James decided he wanted to make home-made oreos, so he did most of the work, but then Dan had to finish them off when it was James' bed time.  He did a great job following the recipe and making the cookies though!  

Districts were this week for swimming.  Anna's events were all on Friday and she did a great job!  I volunteered as a timer and had fun watching and cheering and seeing my water polo kids!  

 Dan and I went to the temple Saturday evening.  All the Saturday water polo was cancelled because of districts, so we were able to go to a 5 o'clock session, then meet up with Sydney and Cody after for dinner.  It was a nice evening and wonderful to be in the temple.  

Church today was wonderful and choir was great, then we had a wonderful evening playing games together and chatting with family.  

February already....

 We've had a fun, busy week full of all the normal stuff.  School (except Friday - heaven forbid we have a full week of school....) playing at the playground after school.  Hanging out with friends.  Swimming and water polo.  Family time and friends.  

We had some friends over to join us for scripture study and dessert on Monday for FHE.  Dan and Eileen made a peach cheesecake (consensus was that it was really yummy - but would be better with fresh peaches)  

Monday during the day, I went over to meet with Don Anderson - the director for Peter The Rock - to discuss music and get a bit of his vision for the work, and of course, chat about music and listen to music.  It was a fun morning, and I'm getting really excited about this show and getting to help with it!  

Tuesday I signed up to volunteer as a chaperone for David's field trip.  The Kindergarteners went to see "Dragons Love Tacos" in Portland.  The kids had a lot of fun and it was a cute little show based off a cute children's book.  I had fun hanging out with David and some of his friends.  Then we had tacos for dinner for David.  :) 

Wednesday my friend Melonie came over to craft and chat and have lunch together.  It's always nice visiting with her and sharing projects. 

I had water polo on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings.  Anna had a swim meet on Thursday afternoon and did a great job.  She's a bit frustrated with her coach though - she's been mostly swimming JV, and while she's not as fast as most of the varsity swimmers - she's much faster than most of the JV swimmers, so she's a bit frustrated with where she's being placed.  

The kids had Friday off school (except the college kids) and David had a doctors appointment to get his vaccines updated.  Then in the afternoon, David and Evie went to a Valentine's themed music camp with Sister Shum

Saturday, Anna and I had Peter the Rock in the morning, then right after, we headed to Parkrose to play water polo, then home for the afternoon.  Aaron and James went swimming with Caleb and his family on Friday and Saturday.  

Saturday night, I took Anna, Aaron, Evelyn, Evelyn's friend Natalie and Caleb to Open Polo.   I think they all had a fun time, but Caleb was tired and complained of sore muscles the next day!  It was a fun evening though!  

Sunday was wonderful.  I was playing the organ and it went well, primary went well and choir went well!  We had a fun evening with the Sister Missionaries coming over for dinner.  Dan and the youth age kids had a fireside in the evening, then after, we had fun playing games together.  

Music and Water Polo

We had a busy week.  Evelyn got the part of Scuttle in her school play so she has play rehearsals after school a couple days a week.  She also had her band concert on Thursday evening. It amazing to hear these kids and how good they are - especially when you consider that most of them learned their instruments during COVID with most of their instruction being virtual, and then last year the teacher situation was a bit crazy, so the have overcome so much and learned so much and they did amazing!  

Anna had two swim meets this week - one on Thursday during which I helped out with timing and one on Saturday evening.  She did well and it's crazy to think that the swim season only has a couple more weeks left in it.  

Eileen had a friend over on Friday night to cook and play games with.  She was teaching him how she makes rolls and mac and cheese.  They had a fun time together.  Eileen was so fun to watch - confident and teaching something she enjoys.  

Saturday I had "Peter The Rock" rehearsals in the morning - but Anna didn't since the instrumentalists weren't practicing that day.  We were preparing to sing for an audition so we worked on the 2 pieces for that.  Don - the music director - asked me to be the assistant director, specifically working with the women and to act as a back up for him in case of emergencies.  I'm pretty excited and looking forward to helping fill Don and Brad's vision for this show!  The music really is beautiful and it's a great group of people!  

Saturday night, I took Aaron and Evelyn and 2 of her friends to open polo.  We all had a great time!   I always enjoy playing and the girls especially had fun playing and chatting together!  

At masters polo earlier in the week - goalie Dan has been helping me and working with me to get better - and it's been awesome.  He's an amazing goalie and it's great having someone pushing me and helping me remember and do and practice.  

There has been mostly good weather after school this week so the boys have been able to play with friends after school and I enjoy getting to know the parents and just being outside!  

Fun with Friends!

 The weather here has been all over the place this week.  We've had rain, snow, sleet, hail, and sunshine - all within the space of a couple hours....  fortunately most of the afternoons had clear enough weather for the boys to stay after school and play with their friends.  James spent the whole week super excited about his birthday party on Friday.  He was counting down to it.   We made pizza and got a bunch of junk food and let the kids have fun.  The plan was to watch a movie, but they only got 20 minutes into the movie before they were unable to sit quietly any longer and began running around playing again.  James was in 7th heaven and everyone else just avoided them.  One of his friends was super sweet and polite - saying "thanks" for everything and cleaning up after himself.  I think the craziness of the other kids got to be a little much for him because after a bit, he came down and started cleaning the kitchen and playing games with David.  

James had Activity Days this week and he had a blast playing gaga ball and running around - as did David.  

Anna had a group date on Friday going bowling.  Evie had Acro and Aaron also contrived to escape from James' party.  I had water polo, the kids had school and it was a mostly normal week.  

Dan and all the kids had Monday off for the national holiday.  But we mostly just took it easy - I still had the work out in the morning, and David wanted to come too.  We still had to do laundry and grocery shopping, so it was a mostly normal day for me - just with the kids and Dan around to help out and hang out with.  

Dan and I went to the temple on Saturday night and ran into some friends from the ward there, so invited them to go out to dinner with us after.  We had a great time doing sealings and a great time chatting and eating yummy food with friends!  

Church today was wonderful - after we had choir and dinner and then I had a stake relief society fireside.  Then I got trounced in a game again.  :(  

Now we are getting ready for James' birthday tomorrow.  He's very excited to be turning 11!  

Happy 15th Aaron!!

This week was a mostly normal week.  The kids had school and activities, Dan had work, and I had water polo.  Weather wasn't too bad, at least good enough that the boys could spend some of the days playing at the play ground after school with their friends.  Evelyn was having fun Monday after school teaching David some math.  He loved it and was so excited to learn!  She was so patient an such a good teacher!

Eileen found a recipe for shrimp potstickers and spent a couple days making messes in the kitchen and experimenting with the recipe and seeing what she liked best.  Then she spent at least half the time they were making them trying to keep Anna from eating all of them.  Eileen liked some of her trials more than others - Anna just wanted to eat all of them...  

On Tuesday, Aaron turned 15.  This kid is amazing - he is one of the most chill kids ever.  He's gotten really into anime recently and has been experimenting with streaming his gaming.  He picked "whatever" for his birthday dinner - so we made beef stew.  And his cake choice was just as specific, so Dan made him a devil's food cake.  

Evelyn found a guinea pig crochet pattern and decided that she wanted to make a mini version of the guinea pigs.  This was her first one - and it game out really cute!  She is totally smitten with it and with her little guinea pigs.  

The kids had Friday off.  I still went to my workout in the morning.  Eileen still had classes and Anna took the other teens to the temple in the morning.  In the evening, I went to accompany one of the young women in the ward on an audition recording.  She is a wonderful kid and super talented and I had a lot of fun learning the piece to play with her.  

Saturday was a usual busy - Peter The Rock practice in the morning, water polo in the afternoon.  The usual Saturday library trip and dinner and family time, finally, I took Aaron to Open polo in the evening, and we convinced Evelyn to come with us next time we go.  :)  There was a nice girl there who was an 8th grader and didn't really know what she was doing, and Anna spent some time working with her and helping her out and teaching her!  It was cute to watch! 

Church today was wonderful!  The primary kids were a bit crazy - hopefully soon they will get adjusted to the new year changes and things will calm down a bit!  James and David got to go over to Lydia's house after church - which is their favorite thing ever - then we made the switch at ward choir.  We had the sister missionaries over for dinner and a lesson.  Then we spent the evening playing games together!  

Back to Crazy

The kids had Monday off - and so did Dan, but we mostly took it easy - grocery shopping and laundry and such.  It was nice to have an easy day and do some napping after the holiday weekend.  We had a pizza night for dinner and watched a very silly movie about soccer players and Weird Al and mutant monsters....  But we had fun! 

Tuesday it was back to school.  There was lots of rainy weather this week - but still some nice afternoons for playing after school.  We stayed a bit too long on one day and I'd forgotten umbrellas, so we got soaked on the way home and I finally caved and asked Dan to pick us up when it started pouring.  Of course with crazy Oregon weather, by the time he got to us, the rain had slowed back down to a drizzle again.  

On Wednesday James had his Activity Days activity.  It went really well and the kids all had a lot of fun!  David loves it when I stay and help because he can then stay and play too and he loves getting to go to the activities!  Wednesday was also youth activities and Evelyn had Honor Band rehearsal.  Plus for the rest of the high school swim season, Masters is on Tuesday/Wednesday, so I had masters that night too.  

Thursday is not open for Masters right now because it's being used for high school swim meets.  So I had a fun time watching Anna swim in her meet and had fun chatting with parents and recruiting for water polo and talking with friends and others there.  Anna swam well - she was pushed to the Varsity 100 Breast Stroke when her other event was cancelled, and got the top Mountainside time.  Then she had to turn around and swim the JV 50 breast right after.  

David is so funny - he LOVES the watch we got him for Christmas.  It was a fairly cheap one, but he loves to wear it and tell the time from it.  He's gotten better at recognizing his higher numbers because of it and he loves to keep track of the time and when things are supposed to happen.  He also wants to make sure the battery gets charged like mommy and Anna's watches.  So he either clips it into Anna's watch charger or puts it on top of my watch charger like below.  He told me earlier today that some times he watch needs to charge for a whole day so that he can keep wearing it after.  He's so funny!  

Evelyn had Honor Band rehearsals all day on Friday, and Anna had a friends birthday party to attend.  Note that the "Ate All The Cake" sign is probably accurate....  :)   

This weekend was rather nuts.  Evelyn had Honor band practice in the morning, then her concert at 3.  She did an amazing job and she had a great time!  

I participated in my first tournament in over 20 years.  I signed up to play on a masters team at the THPRD new years tournament.  We were kinda the B-string team, so we didn't win any games, but I had a blast and had a couple good blocks including a 5-meter shot block and blocking a 1-on nobody shot from a friend on another team.  It was two days with 4 games and tons of fun!  Somehow it all managed to fit.  I was able to play the games and still be at Evelyn's concert, church, and choir practice. Dan took a bit of video from one of my games and this is a still from one of them.   

Church today was wonderful.  The testimonies borne were so sweet!  Primary was a bit crazy, but we survived and the kids learned and had fun.  

We had some friends over in the evening to play games and now after a very long week, I'm very ready for bed....  :) 

Family in Town

We were so glad when Grandma and Grandpa Cox made it in to town safely.  So many other people had been having problems getting where they were going that we were very grateful that their trip went off with out a hitch.  They got in late Sunday and went to Sandi's house for the first couple days.  We met down at Sandi's house for Christmas with Grandma and Grandpa and brunch. (lunch)  I still went to work out in the morning and the delivery with Dan's smoker happened just in time for me to get home, shower and then we were all ready to head down to Sandi's.  The kids had fun opening and exchanging presents with family.  My parents found it amusing since both Sandi and I had gotten some power tools for Christmas, while the guys hadn't gotten any.  

Tuesday morning, we met up at Defy to have fun with the passes from Grandpa.  The kids mostly had a blast!  Anna's knees were bothering her after a bit so she sat down and it wasn't too long before Eileen was tired of the crowds.  All of my kids were sweaty and tired by the time our hour and a half was up.  We had a fun morning together though!  

In the afternoon, we made up Bagna Caulda again to have with the family.  We had lots of fun and lots of food and sang songs together and had fun.  Dan took Evelyn to go watch her friends in the Nutcracker and had a great time together.  Then in the evening, I got to go play water polo!  

Wednesday after working out, we met up with everyone for lunch at Sushi Hana.  My kids all LOVE sushi, and Eileen has convinced my mom, but my Dad and Taz and Kai weren't huge fans - all my dad wanted to eat was rice and all Taz and Kai wanted to eat was fruit. :)  After, the boys went back to Sandi's house and the girls went for pedicures!

James slept over with Taz for a couple nights and Kai slept over here Wednesday night after she went with Evie to an Ice Skating thing her friend had organized.  

Thursday afternoon, we had our Murder Mystery Dinner.  Sandi organized it and planned the menu and stuff.  The older kids and the adults had roles to act out and the younger kids got to act as waiters and servers and we all had a blast.  Those with roles got to dress up and we had fun being silly!  

In the evening, Eileen had a babysitting job and I had water polo.  My dad has been having fun taking the kids on walks to get his steps in.  They all love going for walks with him - even David who complains about walking to school....  lol 

Grandma and Grandpa headed home on Friday.  It was so great to have them come out to visit!  

Saturday was New Year's Eve.  There were lots of plans for New Year's Eve.  Eileen was babysitting again and was not really sorry to miss the noisy party.  We started out the evening at a party at a friends house.  The kids got to hang out with their friends and have a great time.  Then around 9, Dan and I took David and James home.  Evelyn stayed to hang out with her friends and Anna took Aaron and some friends to the youth dance.  David headed to bed when we got home and James immediately got on Roblox and started watching Naruto.  I pulled out my puzzle and got started.  The evening was quiet but nice.  We almost missed midnight!  Then Dan headed to bed while I waited up to make sure all the kids got home safely.  Eileen was the last one home at nearly 2am.  Then just as I was getting ready to climb in to bed, Evelyn threw up.  Something hadn't agreed with her stomach and it came up.  Once she got it all out, she was feeling much better, but there was still a bunch of clean up to do before we could get to bed!  

That made even our later church start time feel early, but we were so glad we went!  The talks and lessons were great!  I was subbing on the organ and things went well and I had a nice chat after with a visitor who was saying nice things and asking questions.  Primary was a bit crazy (which was not really a surprise after last night!  After church, quite a few of us took naps, since we were all tired after last night, but David was bright and chipper and happy!  We had fun playing our new Wingspan expansion and hanging out together.  Now I'm looking forward to bed!  

Merry Christmas

 We started off the week with one last Christmas concert for Anna - that made 10 for her this month - not counting the ward choir stuff.  Encore performed at The Grotto and I got to go hear them in a beautiful venue!  She did amazing and it was wonderful to listen to them!  

Tuesday we held our Bagna Caulda night.  We had a good turn out and lots of food was consumed and lots of singing was done.  It was a wonderful night with wonderful people.  

I got gingerbread house kits for the kids to decorate.  They had fun - well the younger 4 kids had fun - the older ones just ignored it and did their own thing.  

Dan and I tried to make sure we had everything ready for this weekend by Thursday since there was bad weather predicted and we wanted to make sure that we would have everything we needed in case we couldn't get off the hill.  Sure enough, Thursday evening, the snow (?) set in.  It wasn't really snow - it was frozen rain - but it was enough like snow that the boys had a fun morning on Friday sledding down the hill next to our house.  Temperatures were below freezing so all the ice didn't really melt until Saturday.  

Thankfully it melted enough in time for us to go to our friends house for Christmas Eve.  We enjoyed a wonderful dinner with the Blanchards, and the kids all had a blast acting out the Nativity.  They especially loved all the costumes!  

Then we headed home to open our Christmas Eve presents and read the Christmas Story in the Bible and then put the younger kids to bed and get everything ready for Christmas morning.  

The older kids got blankets and pillows instead of PJs this year - and they were a big hit and ended up with the older kids all burritoed up in their blankets and rolling around the floor together and giggling!  

With Christmas on a Sunday, we did things a bit differently this year.  We got up for church and let the kids dig in their stockings a bit so that they could grab their breakfasts.  Then we got ready for church and headed out.  We had a second beautiful Christmas program with beautiful music and testimonies.  I was playing the organ and Anna was directing the music.  I also sang O Holy Night.  I had a sweet lady come up after and tell me that her cynical teenage daughter had cried and had a spiritual experience as I sang - and it is those moments that are why I love singing.  I am so grateful for the times when the Lord has taken my meager offering and magnified it to touch hearts.  After church, we went to a new member baptism and then with anxious kids, headed home.  

The kids finished their stockings and we began opening the presents.  It was so fun watching them and their excitement.  

We spent some time on a zoom call with the Francone family.  It was wonderful to chat with Grandpa and my uncles and cousins and hear about what they have been doing recently and their holidays.  It was also nice to reflect as I talked about our holidays on just how blessed we are.  

In the afternoon, Dan and I took a walk.  As we walked we found it kinda crazy just how many sheriff's cars with sirens went by us and we found out why a bit further into our walk.  We were met by a very nice police man who kindly asked us to walk another way home since there were pointed guns.....  Sigh... so we turned around and took another way home.  It was a beautiful day to be out walking though since the weather had finally warmed up!  

After a Christmas dinner of crepes and fruit, we had a fun evening playing games - and trying out our new family game Hand to Hand Wombat.