Funny kids

Evelyn got glasses this week.  While we picked them out she kept looking for some that would make her look like a librarian.  When she got them back, she wore them on her first day and she got soccer pictures.  She showed Jer the pictures and she asked if Jer could find her in the picture.  She was disappointed when he could.  Then she said that, "Some people have a hard time telling which one is me because I'm not wearing my glasses."

Sam was teasing that he didn't recognize her with her glasses on.  She got all teary eyed and said that she didn't like that.  I explained that he wasn't bullying, he was trying to play with her.  I told her about when my sister had to wear an eye patch and she got picked on at school.  My Dad told her that she was a pirate and that she stole his heart. 

I asked the kids in the car what I should teach to the Young Women about being Grateful this Sunday.  Evelyn said, "Being grateful helps you feel the Holy Ghost."  (I loved Elder Uchtdorf's talk called 'Grateful in any Circumstances' from the April 2014 conference.)

Seth has been particularly clingy this week.  Every time I sit down to help anyone with anything that doesn't have to do with him I get smashed and climbed on.  His favorite is sticking his face on mine and pushing hard.  I'm still trying to figure out why, but we've had lots of conversations about being kind and using words to ask for things instead of climbing all over me.

Ada's party

My sister hosted a wonderful party for Ada and Vivian. Because she was sick Ada missed it but she was all care bearing up here at home.

Waiting

By the time I pick up kids from school we only have about 15 minutes to pick up kids from their clubs. We have four clubs week between our carpool. Some days I rush people home and come back and pick up the people from Club.  Other days I take kids to the park for 20 minutes. We can't use the school Park so we go to the one at the library. The kids generally like this. They also like their clubs. Ada is doing two art clubs, Sam is doing Chinese club, and Laurel is doing musical theatre.

Waiting for fencing

Conference lunch

Since we had two kids recovering from the flu we stayed at home for conference. Conference was beautiful. Jeremy made his traditional conference lunch. Buttermilk pancakes, eggs, and bacon.

Nella's bday and the Fall Festival

The smoke finally started clearing up after 3 weeks of being restricted to our home.  My bronchitis has started to calm down along with the smoke and my wonderful sister helped me with an inhaler because mine expired forever ago. (I had one when I had pneumonia).  Seth is also getting better.  Last week, we got together at our house to have a barbeque to celebrate Janelle's birthday with our family and some of her friends.  It was so fun.  Earlier that day we'd gone to the Thanksgiving Point Fall Festival with Janelle, and Sharon's family.  The main event was a pumpkin weighing contest.  We left before they'd finished, but one of them was over a ton.  The guy was asked what he does with the giant pumpkin after the contest.... he said he takes them to the zoo and lets the elephants eat them.  I think that would be fun.  I don't usually like to spend money at fairs because of how expensive they are, but I've been teaching a piano student and had some cash in my wallet.  I told the kids they could choose one treat.  The girls wanted cotton candy and the boys wanted flavored ice.  Jer saw some crepes and decided to get some for the family to share.  SOOOOO good! We got one with nutella and bananas and one with turkey and avocado....

As a catch up for the last three weeks, we've been hanging out in the house... I finished a lot of things that have been on my to do list, but not all.  We still did soccer on the occasional days that the air cleared up.  We had our garage flood again, but not as bad this time.  Jer figured out where the water was coming from and got that blocked off.  We were so grateful for the rain.  After so many fires in all directions around the valley, it was a blessing to get rain.  The faith of the people praying for rain is so appreciated.  There have been several small things that are definitely God's hand.  After the first full week of fires, the county held a fast and that Sunday there was rain right over the fire when there wasn't rain in the forecast.  There were 6000 people displaced from their homes and none of there were left homeless.  None of the over 1000 firefighters were hurt.  And the next Sunday there was again rain when it wasn't in the forecast.  The third Sunday there was rain in the forecast, that gave everyone enough forewarning to sandbag behind the homes in mudslide areas and no homes were lost yet again.  And now we have snow on the mountains too.  There was even one instance that they called Miracle Mountain.  There was a gust of fire that set a separate mountain on fire.... and overnight it put itself out for no reason.  I'm grateful to get to see these miracles.

We've been to the symphony twice this year with Jim and Judy.  Both times were amazing.  Both times I was trying not to cough.  Once, there was an animal protest in the mall food court.  People that believe that animals are not meant to be food were dressed in black with tape over their mouths and carrying signs back and forth.  They got kicked out because it was not a public area like a street or a park.

Today we get to listen to General Conference.  I'm so grateful for the ability to do that even with little kids at home.  We were supposed to spend today up helping Sharon and Brad in their yard and then having a birthday party with Ada and Vivien for their shared birthday.  Sharon was doing a CareBear themed party for Vivien and Ada said that she'd love to join in too.  She made CareBear ears for people to wear and we made rainbow suckers.  And then Seth and Ada came down with the flu and we spent most of the night cleaning kids, diapers (Seth has been peeing the bed and I'm so glad that I decided to put a diaper on him before diarrhea last night.), and bathrooms.  Needless to say, we're not going to her party.  She cried for just a minute, but she was happy that Janelle offered her a Harry Potter themed evening when she's better... eased her pain a little I think.  She loves spending time with cousins and it's sad when that can't happen.  Let me just say that I'm glad that our kids are to the point that they know how to throw up in the bathroom instead of in their beds...

Check ups- The day before getting sick (I don't think we caught it there because of incubation periods), we went to the doctor for a check up for Seth and Evelyn.  Seth's doing great and looks healthy.  He has a speech impediment that they might have us do speech with him in kindergarten, but it's overall not a big deal.  Evelyn on the other hand had so much to process.  She needs glasses,  has high arches that causes her pain through her feet, knees and even her hips, and is being screened for ADHD.  I made an appointment with the podiatrist and the doctor recommended her playing soccer in really good tennis shoes, not cleats.  I have an appointment for her eyes soon and filled out the paperwork for ADHD for the second time.  I sent the other on to her teacher and I'm waiting to get that back before I proceed there.  I don't want to medicate her unless she starts to feel frustrated, but I do want to have the diagnosis to let the teachers know that they need to spend an extra brain cell on her education.  She's gotten a little better at coping, so she might be fine.  She used to have a hard time sitting at her seat and would stand and sway at her desk.  Now she tells me that she can sit and not wiggle, but she also tells me that she's counting her wiggles or tells me about all her daydreams that she does to keep still in her seat.  That means that she's not really paying attention.  She's reading at a 4th grade level, but she's behind in math.  I went through her math homework with her and she's been telling me that she doesn't have homework... then she received a packet of 13 pages of homework that she hadn't turned in yet.  I asked her about it and she said, "Well, math just isn't my thing." Hmmmm....

Some funny saying the last couple of weeks, Seth wanted me to make him chocolate milk.  I had the stuff on the table from making Evelyn some and I told him to go get a cup.  He looked at me and very seriously said, "My hands are busy." I arched my eyebrows at him and said, "They're busy?" He turned around and got a cup.

We drove through Alpine loop last night to see the colors before getting more snow on them.  We stopped in Sundance to use the bathroom and Evelyn says, "Sundance!  Like the dog!  We should bring them here!"  (My friend's dog is Sundance because they like to hike up the mountain.)

Evelyn, Sam, Lance, Janelle, Jeremy, Seth Ada, Emma

Vivien

Millie's 8

We were so blessed to be able to make it to Millie's baptism this last week.  While we were sad to miss Samuel's baptism a couple weeks before, I feel blessed that we can see cousins/nieces/nephews as they get baptized.  Especially now that Evelyn is thinking forward to her own. 

Ada the goalie

Ada is actually a pretty good goalie. She gets mad when she makes a mistake but honestly she does a very good job.

Soccer

This little Evelyn is funny. She usually tries to play defense during her soccer games when at that age they don't teach defense. Her coach usually lets her but occasionally he tries to get her to do something different. This last game he told her you're doing a great job back here but I want you to go up there and get a goal. She just looked at him said okay, went made a goal, Hi-5 him and then went back to defense. I just laughed the entire time. She came back to me during her break and said now you owe me an ice cream mom. I told her sure.