February second week

We're doing fine down here, the days keep flying by. Today marks 20 years since Grandpa Hanis passed away which is pretty crazy to think about. Mom was pregnant with you and Dad had just bought the boat and I was in 7th grade. I remember I had talked with Grandpa the day before with him in the hospital. He was such a fun grandpa and I loved him so much. He had been so excited that Mom and Dad were having a baby boy. It's nice to remember him today. Monday I took the kids grocery shopping and Jack was not the happiest camper, but we picked up his friend Max on the way home and they were so cute playing til naps.

Jack taught our family night lesson that night and we watched the church video about the first vision. 

Tuesday I ran with Kyra and Dan's sister Ali, got the girls to school early for tutoring, and ran some errands in the morning.  The kids had piano after school.

Jack and Emily are so fun to be home with all day, they are cute buddies

Wednesday I had to run one of Kate's bridesmaids skirts over to Carrie's office so she could drop it off for me (the girl lives right by Willow Pool).  Then I headed to playgroup.  It was almost 80 degrees but the park was shady and there was a breeze and it was pretty perfect weather.  We stayed all the way til naptime.  The girls rode bikes again MOnday with no problems and Wednesday morning, but I was feeling anxious waiting for them on Wednesday afternoon.  Just when I had Jack and Emily ready to get in the car and find them I saw Megan come down the street--but just Megan.  Brooke had been playing around and taken a fall around the corner from the house, so Megan got Brooke and Candy and their bikes out of the road and rode home as fast as she could to get me.  I was pretty proud of how responsible Megan was!  Brooke was scraped up and bleeding and scared but she was ok.  A neighbor had seen Brooke and Candy crying out there and waited the 5 minutes with them til I got there.  Megan had activity days and then I went to the temple and did a session.  It was really nice to be in the temple.

Thursday I ran early again.  This time we decided to run as fast as we could for the first mile and we cut a minute off our usual pace but then we were DEAD!  Haha, it was fun.  I watched Ali's little boy that morning and Dan worked from home.  We had a meeting just before lunchtime about Brooke's dyslexia testing with the principal, dyslexia specialist, couselor, her teacher, and Dan and I.  The short story is that Brooke doesn't seem to have dyslexia (yay!) but she is really bad at spelling and will receive some extra spelling focused tutoring in school 1-2 times a week.  So hopefully that helps her and we'll keep watching.  If she still struggles, we can retest her next year.  It was our nephew Alonzo's 9th birthday, so after school their family took us bowling and had us over for dinner and cake. 

Friday the girls had their valentine's day parties at school, so I did heart hair-dos and sent them with valentines and boxes to collect theirs in.  I hosted Jack's little playschool and we did V is for Valentine and made heart shaped sugar cookies and they exchanged valentines too--really fun morning.  We had babysit swap that night and Dan and I did sealings at the temple and grabbed frozen yogurt after.  We hung out with the other babysit night couples for a bit before waking the kids to go home.

Saturday was a charity sewing bee at the church.  We made a bunch of pillowcases, tote bags, and fleece blankets.  Megan came and helped me sew on the machine some and she tied two fleece blankets.  All of it was donated to a group that helps kids in the foster care system.  Megan and Candy had parties to go to int he afternoon and we had family movie night (watching Harry Potter 1).   Lots of fun.

Today was a nice morning.  Dan was home most of the morning to help us get ready and we got to church on time.  I was on my own for sacrament meeting which is always an adventure but went fine overall.  He helped with Emily during my class time and I had her again for sharing time but she was good.  We had a really nice day as a family today, lots of game playing (I taught the girls rummikub!) and laughing and not as much squabbling which was great.

Emily is almost totally weaned as of this week, and she is a big fan of holding her own bottle of milk.  She seems to like whole milk just fine, so that's good!