Sunday, November 30, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. We had a nice and quiet day. I felt like I spent a lot of it cooking and of course it only took the kids about 15 minutes to eat it. It is all about the memories, right? I am not so sure, though. I think they would have been just as happy eating pizza as long as we had the grasshopper pie. I decided that next year we are spending Thanksgiving in San Diego. I will bring the pie and make turkey sandwiches on the beach. I can dream, can't I?

Happy 6th Birthday Lauren




Wednesday was Lauren's 6th birthday. I think she had a pretty fun day. She spent the morning at our friend's house playing and having cupcakes. It was like a party! Luckily, Lance was off in the early afternoon so she didn't have ot wait until after dinner to open her presents. She chose pizza, red jello (with nothing in it), cinnamon biscuits and pink cake with pink frosting. She wanted pink writing on it also but we talked her into purple instead. We so grateful Lauren is in our family. She is smart, funny, loving, and silly. We love her!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

My Awesome Kids


My kids are awesome. Wednesday morning, I went to have my hair cut. I was gone a lot longer than anticipated. I came home to smiling, happy children who had finished their schoolwork on their own and who had cleaned the entire house! The dishes were done, dishwasher cleaned out, every item was picked up off the floor in every room, and lunch was on the stove cooking. It made my whole week!

Friday, we had our little co-op group come over here. We talked and read about Thanksgiving, made some Indian headbands and turkeys out of apples. We had a great time.

Devon had his last soccer game yesterday, and it was not a pretty game. The opposition was an amazing team. It was a bummer for Devon to end on that note but he had a good time at his soccer party that night.

Jason had a campout with the scouts on Friday. They didn't stray to far and just went to the lake. He said they were up to about 3 in the morning doing "nothing". I am sure the upcoming teenage years will bring more expressiveness out of him.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Happy 2nd Birthday Chloe!

We can't wait to see you at Christmas!

Kidney Stones and Primary Programs

Well, the election is over! We were so focused on Prop 8 that everything else seemed to take a back seat. We are glad it passed but we know it will be an ongoing battle. In the wee hours of the morning on Tuesday, I woke to Maddie needing to use the bathroom. I realized Lance was not in bed. He had been pacing around the house for an hour in severe pain. It became clear that he needed some help so I quickly dressed, woke up Jason to hold down the fort and drove Lance to the emergency room. I have never seen him in so much pain. He was literally shaking. The good news was the ER waiting room was pretty empty and they were able to help him fairly quickly- still not fast enough. Once the IV and pain meds kicked in he was a whole new person. Thank heavens for modern drugs! They quickly did a CT scan and find the tiny little bugger. I still can't believe something that small could cause so much pain. It still took two days to completely pass but he wasn't in the kind of pain as before. That was a fun experience for us!
Today, our children were in the yearly primary program. Devon, Lexi and Lauren said their parts very well. Our Primary meets with the Spanish Branch's primary and it was great to see and hear all the children sing the chorus of "Called to Serve" and "I am a Child of God" in Spanish. It was a wonderful program.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Prop 8 Countdown

I can't wait until the election is over! And yet, I am a little concerned about what the outcome might be on certain things. Lance and I spent yesterday morning hanging door hangers for prop 8. Of course, it was pouring rain. I had a little nostalgic feeling come over me for my mission. I remember being tired, cold and soaking wet for much of the time. However, just going up to a door and hanging something on it was much easier! We came home dried off and dressed the kids and left to a busy corner by the mall to hold our signs for prop 8. I was told up and down this busy street there were around 2000 volunteers for prop 8 holding and waving signs throughtout the day. Most of the children thought it was kind of fun to see how many people were there supporting the same thing we were and all the cars that honked for it. It was great to see so many of our youth, families and older folks. Of course, there was oppostion but not even close to the numbers we had there. We stood on sidewalk with our signs for about an hour and a half. By then, the children were cold and tired. We now have eight pages of people to call before Tuesday to remind them to vote.
We have all recovered from our latest "bug", thank heavens. I had a little bit of a burnout week last week on school. I think I have had too many other things on my mind. The children didn't seem to mind. And, of course, Halloween didn't help. We had a fun chili cook-off and trunk or treat. The children came home with plenty of candy to last and have been making trades all weekend. Hopefully, fair trades- you know how older brothers can be! It started raining at the end which was nice because it helped everyone leave a lot quicker for the cleanup committee. But it is over and now we can start on the next holiday. Christmas music is already playing, thanks to Lexi.