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

 

Messy daycare nap time.

Seth's class did the show what you know.  He's the one in the front in the green jacket.  He also got his name drawn for getting in the 1000 minute/month reading drawing.  He was so excited to get a prize and Evelyn was pretty jealous.

YW's and YM's was a life-sized foosball game.  It was such a blast.  The day before that, Ada and I had taught the Priest's in the other ward a fencing class.

And of course we had our dentist visit this week.  Sam and Mom both had cavities.  Sam also had his best visit behavior wise.  

Peter spent the night with us.  Putting him to bed was so funny.  He looked straight like a soldier.

We got a chance to do the puzzle that the Hansen's gave us for Christmas too.  It was a fun puzzle.

 

This week

A friend of mine, Ramona, passed away this week.  She's been battling stomach cancer for more than a year now.  She only left because her daughter laid down next to her and held her.  She told her that everything was going to be okay and it was okay to leave.  She passed peacefully in the arms of her daughter.  I love this woman.  She's always thinking of others outside herself.  I'm also glad that in the last year, she was able to reconnect with several family and friends that had come to live in the US.  When they heard the diagnosis, they were flying in from Kansas and driving in from Las Vegas to visit this kind woman. Love you mamita.

Evelyn loves to cuddle grandma.  She's getting big enough that it's getting harder to though.

About two weeks ago, I set up some quilts in my front yard and neighbors and friends would come by and help tie them.  We're donating them for the refugees that have been coming in to Utah from Afghanistan.

My YW finally let me teach them how to fence. I LOVED it.  Jer was amazing and helped me out since I'm still not fast on my feet.  Seth kept begging everyone to fence him and that was fun.

These two.... I love how much they love each other.

Just one more game of the soccer season.  Ada's worked hard this year.  She's not only the only girl on her team, she's also the youngest and she can still keep up with those boys.  She joined the team at 13 and the rest of the team is 15-16. They don't have any subs, so she plays hard for the whole game. I'm hoping to recruit another girl or two to her team before spring season, but we'll see.  

Sam has a big team and is for the first time, the oldest on the team.  He's loving finally feeling like he's back in the groove after taking a year and a half off.  I'm looking forward to next year when both him and Ada can play on the same team.

Jer's doing a good job coaching Seth's team, unfortunately I don't really have pictures because him and Ada play at the same time on opposite sides of the fields.  Jer's coaching so I go and cheer for Ada.

Yesterday's games were wet and even started getting a little light hail.  Luckily we came prepared with umbrella's, coats and plastic bags to sit on.

 

New School year

So, we started school two weeks ago, but I'm only having time to record it now.  For the first time, I have all 4 kids in the same school.  So far they are loving it.  Ada loves being with her best friends, Frankie, Taevia, Luke and Brenden.  Sam respects his teacher, so he's being kind.  Evelyn just loves being there.  She really likes her reading teacher.  Evelyn is loving her new ballet studio and it does make her feet stronger.  Both her and Ada fall less and Ada doesn't sprain her ankle nearly as much.  All three of the older kids decided that they want to do school clubs this year.  Evelyn signed up for Art.  Ada signed up for yearbook, 6th grade play and art.  Sam and our carpooler, Logan, signed up for chess.  They both wanted to do orchestra, but I need to find out if they can do that one without already knowing an instrument or not.  Sam knows how to read music, so they might let him learn an instrument.

I thought I'd have a rougher time with all of them gone, but I haven't had any hugely down days.... I did cry Seth's second day to school.... but that could have been the medication I was on.  I was put on a non steroid anti inflammatory to try to get my feet to finally stop hurting once and for all.  After three days on it, I noticed that I'd been super emotional about everything and crying.  I looked up side effects and mood shifts were one of the rare side effects.  I stopped taking it and they got me a new one.  So far, the new one has helped my foot and hip not feel like they're burning all the time (I popped my hip out during a Karve class with Ada)…. They make me tired and a little nauseous, but I'm willing to put up with that for a week or two so that I can be DONE with foot pain.  10 years is quite enough. 

While they've been at school, I've been ministering to my ministering sisters, cleaned out my sewing room and mended the mending pile, de-junked the toy room, and done lots of planning for the next few weeks.  I'm officially done teaching fencing.  It's really sad for me, but the kids weren't chomping at the bit to stay and it was a good time to leave.  Ada doesn't really enjoy it.  Sam does, but he'd rather focus on soccer.  Evelyn was a very good beginner, but it's really not a good sport for her or Ada because of their feet.  Seth didn't care one way or the other.  We stopped because of two things.... the coach is pushing us to register the kids in competition fencing.  Currently we've been spending about 4 hours a week fencing, competition would put us up to about 8 hours of practice and a tournament ever other weekend.... which is another 8 hours on those days.  The other reason is that the new club is requiring that we register everyone, including me, yearly as USFA members.... that's a good $500 a year commitment as well as club fees and equipment.  The last owner let the kids fence for free in exchange for me teaching.  This one is willing to let one fence free for me teaching, but it would be $80/kid/month for the other three. Time and money.  So, love you fencing, love you fencing friends, but we're done.  All the kids told me, "We can just have family fencing days mom!"  That's true, we have the equipment, but I need to remember to make that happen.  It's still sad for me. I think I'll like being done once I'm used to the change though.

This kid started Kindergarten a few days after the rest.  He has Frankie's mom as a teacher and couldn't be happier.  I was a little worried about him not being able to sit still during class, but so far he's doing great.  He's my only child that didn't start school already knowing how to read and write.... so it will be an adventure.  He comes home and talks about coloring and playing with the kid next to him.... but he can't remember what the kid's name is.

Finger signing K for Kindergarten

He was happy that Uncle Seth gave him a Link shield for his birthday... He went and found all Sam's Link stuff and has been wearing it everywhere.