Amber and Dan's Blog: Mid-February

Monday was a school holiday for President's day. Ali watched my kids while I ran to the store for groceries. Ashley was still out of town and didn't want to risk her kids getting the tummy bug from Candy and Megan so we didn't play with them Monday. We ran to Academy to pick up some shin guards and cleats for Megan for soccer. It was a pretty quiet day overall. We met up with Ali and her kids and another friend at the park in the afternoon to ride bikes and play. Then home for dinner and FHE and bed.
Tuesday I had my OB appointment. Baby is doing well, I am doing well. No signs of labor yet. Megan, Brooke, and Candy had their dentist appointments in the afternoon (Jack is so jealous every time we go--they get these tokens to "buy" toys from a little vending machine and boy does Jack want one). Then we ran home for Megan's piano lesson.
Wednesday I picked up Ali and her 4 year old and we headed down to the Children's Museum for playgroup. The kids had a blast. I let the girls ride bikes in front of the house after school and Candy finally got it! 2 wheels and she's off! She was SO excited and has asked to ride bikes every day since then.
Thursday while Candy was at joy school, Jack got to help me organize closets and clean the floor and do other errands. It was a good get-work-done day around the house. Megan had her 2nd soccer practice. She is all smiles as she runs around.
Friday was warm enough to break out the baby pool and some water toys. I mowed our front yard in the morning (Candy rode her bike while I did) and then Ali's 4 year old Luke came over to play in the water and Jack and Candy had fun. We got a replacement for one of the swings that was broken, so I replaced that while they splashed around. Friday night was our night for babysit swap. Just the Tracy's and the kids were good.
Saturday we got to watch Megan's first soccer game--it was pretty entertaining. Megan told us she wanted to be goalie when we were on our way there--we told her that her coach would decide who played where. Sure enough, right before the game started, we looked up and Megan was putting on the goalie jersey. Keep in mind that Megan's entire exposure to soccer at this point was her 2 practices. She'd never really watched a game. So the other team made it down the field, right in front of the goal and took a shot. Megan blocked it by kicking it away--right to the other team. They took another shot and she kicked it away again (at this point we realized that she didn't know she was allowed to pick up the ball). They got it in on the third try. And Megan carefully got the ball out of the net with her feet and kicked it to the ref--hilarious! Her turn as goalie was over after the first quarter and miraculously they were only down 2-1. She had fun trying out the other positions too. Good thing it was a scrimmage. It was fun to watch. In the afternoon, Ali's son Alonzo was baptized along with another kid from the ward. I got to lead the music and Dan and Ali sang a duet. It was really nice. We went to Ali's for refreshments afterwards and ended up staying to play and have pizza with them and learned a new card game, Castle that we'll have to teach you.
It was a good Sunday. Dan didn't have early meetings and it was nice to have him home as we all got ready. He wasn't with us at sacrament meeting, but the kids did well overall. Jack was the busiest, so I didn't hear too much of the talks. After church was a quiet afternoon. There was a dessert night to thank our outgoing bishop in the evening. It was fun to look back on his 5 1/2 years as the first Bishop of our ward.

Jack passed out Tuesday after we took Candy to joy school. He's starting to be able to sleep anywhere. In fact, he slept on the floor in the corner of the Relief Society room for almost all of Alonzo's baptism service.