Last two weeks

These next 4-5 months are going to be busy and hectic, so I'm just going to drop a few words on the amazing things happening lately. 

Evelyn loves doing diamond dot art. Since it's not a daycare approved activity, she exiled herself to my craft room (which is currently half daycare napping area and half storage area).  The cat thought that she'd help keep her company.

Sam has been asking Jack to play pokemon with him.  He's so sweet.

Officially accepted to three colleges and had one official scholarship offer for $3,500/year for 4 years.  We'll wait on pins and needles to see what's next.  She's still waiting for one more college to respond and another couple months to see if she qualified for any other scholarships, then the hard part.... making a decision.  I think she'll know by April what she's going to do next. 

On Sunday, Jer and the kids played marbles.  It was emotional and cute. 

Helping me with the laundry.

Evelyn and I went to the parking lot and took her first driving lesson.  She was so hesitant, but now she's pretty excited.  I think I'll just have to jump in with her and not wait for her to ask me.

The youth went to the temple for their activity this week. (Payson temple) Jer went with them to help Seth with his first time.  It was a good experience. 

I was the "treat" parent for Seth's play practice last week.  It was fun to watch all these kids (especially my own) to have so much fun singing and dancing. 

Evelyn's class is being evaluated for pointe shoes.  It's time to do some serious consideration on whether its's what she wants to do or not.

The kids' charter school was inviting alumni to come and introduce themself to the current student body. It was fun.  Sam had AP Stats that he couldn't miss.... but we'll miss this school.  13 years here and we love them.

I trapped the cats in my room while the electrician was climbing in the roof.  They kept eyeing the hole in the ceiling.  

I woke up from my nap and had another napper on me.

On Friday, we got to go to the Orem Temple together as a whole family.  My heart was so happy. It was one of the truly joyful experiences of my life.  Watching everyone being witnesses, being the baptizers and the baptizees. All three of us girls went to wrong way in to the dressing rooms.  The temple has theirs on opposite sides than the ones that we usually go to.  I loved seeing Seth's happy face surrounded by his family and doing service for past family. 

Ada cleaned the microwave in preparation for our chocolate party.

We held our neighborhood chocolate party in Jan instead of December.  It was nice to get some space for festivities during Christmas.  We got to visit with our nephew, James.  He's a delightful man and it's fun to hear about all the things he's planning and wants to do someday.

Seth has been wanting snow all winter.  There was a tiny patch in front of McKay's house.  He was thrilled.

This last Sunday was a day to appreciate and celebrate.  Our beloved, Devin, is now an officially missionary.  He's the first in his mom's line for 3 generations.  He's kind and compassionate.  He'll work hard and grow amazingly.  We drove up to hear him speak and then sat in the parking lot and listened to our amazing nephew, Henry, give his welcome home talk.  You can tell that he his Christ centered and that he has the love of God emanating from him.

Jer bought a new fencing jacket.  Him, Ada and Sam decided to try it out in the front yard.  It was fun to watch. Especially with the daycare.  They were fairly excited to see swords.  Sam and Jer also went to the park to play pickleball.

The kids went with me grocery shopping.  They went to help me.  I usually go by myself or with Jer.  Seth almost didn't know how to handle it.  He was very impressed with the receipt, and the kids had fun trying to guess how much money I'd be spending. I did spend more with them there, but it was fun to have their input.

Magic game break.

Emma, Evelyn, Maddie, Rose

 

February

 

We got together with the Hansen's and Aubrey/Corbin and Joseph to dip chocolates and play games.  While we were together we got to go to the edge of the hill and take a look at the march of the planets.... all 8 planets are on the same side of the sun.  This apparently only happens every 30 years.  It was neat to share it with our kids, cousins and Grandpa and I was telling them that next time we'll share this with their kids and Dad and I will be the Grandparents.

Dad, Jon, Millie, Sam

Millie, Seth, Walter

Ada and Evelyn

Jeremy helped me hang my first stained glass window project.... here's to many more!  

Evelyn using the window as a light table in her ballet outfit is just an amazing thing for me.  It makes my heart smile.

I've been trying to take the cats out on their leads to wander the yard... they are not fans and I almost lost Vinn while she was climbing in the apple tree and the harness came off.  Whoops.

Ada took this picture because she loved seeing what a wonderful dad and daughter relationship they have.

Chocolate party

We all had the flu last December when we were going to do the chocolate party.  We rescheduled it for January and it went well.  There were so many people that asked where Jer's cute dad was.  It was so cute. 

Sam's "taller"

 

December proceedings

Jer the chocolatier.

I was getting the daycare kids their snacks when this baby decided that she was hungry.  Seth was so cute.  He went in there without prompting and started singing to her and bouncing her.  I wish I could have recorded it, but I needed to finish feeding the toddlers and warm up her bottle before she got too desperate.  My heart took a picture though.

We did a rush to get our tree this year.  We had an hour between daycare getting out and Evelyn's dance class.  We decided to rush and get it.  Ada was late getting home from school because of play practice and she decided to stay and hang out with a friend at the elementary school playground.  We called her to get home quick.  We all got ready for dance and potty breaks.  By the time she got home and we were all in the car, we only had 30 mins to drive to Provo, get the tree, drive Evelyn to dance by our house and then home to set up the tree.  I grabbed a coat for Ada so we didn't have to wait while she went in to get one and it had already gotten pretty cold.  I told her to hurry into the car and told her that here's her coat.  She got so mad at me.  She couldn't possibly wear her coat because she was wearing her hoodie.  I told her she could wear both but not zip up the coat, and she didn't want anything to do with that answer.  We were running late so I told her to not worry about the coat and just jump in the van.  She told me to chill.  I lost it.  I just did 10 hours of daycare, got people dinner, got Evelyn ready for dance and told Sam that I'd take him to the insta-care after grabbing a tree.... then in waltzes my teenage daughter who had just come from playing at the playground and tells me to chill because she doesn't want the coat I had thought to grab as I went out the door.  I get that she's a teenager and was probably just misreading what was going on but being told to chill when I was working so hard to take care of everyone really hurt.  Teenagers.  I won't hold it against her, but I really hope she learns from it.

Sam and I got dropped off at the instacare while Dad took Evelyn to dance.  I really think that Sam had a sinus infection after having RSV for two weeks.  The doctor said that he thinks it's the flu.  He never did any nasal swabs or anything.... and I'm stubborn.   I still think it was a sinus infection.  Sam spent 2 days with a fever. We gave him decongestants and air humidifier in his room.  No one else has caught it so...Ada just caught the RSV... Sam, Jer, Seth and I all had it, so maybe Evelyn will get it next or hopefully not at all.

Ada had her Christmas choir concert this week.  She did a great job.  She's been assigned to be an alto.  She has a nice warm tone and large range, but I think she is an alto to balance out their sopranos.  You could hear them really well, but not so much with the altos.  I think Ada brings out their part in a good way.  Because I hear her singing all the time, I could pick her out, but I don't think you could just pick her out without being familiar with her voice.  I could also pick out Dani's voice.

For YW's we taught about DSLR cameras.  They are a dying breed.  Only Ada and one other girl knew about them at all.  We showed a couple tips and then let them have fun.  This is one that Ada took.

Ada and her friends Christmas shopping.

Finishing up chocolate dipping for friends that didn't make it to the party.

Sam had his band concert too.  I missed it because I had a concussion migraine.  I didn't think that a jr high band concert was the best venue for me at the moment.  Jer says he did great.

Annual grinch picture.  We forgot to get a family picture at the tree lot though.  We were in a bit of a rush.