November!

It's been a whirlwind week around here.  I'm exhausted! 

We started off with Halloween last Monday! 

Here was Emily being a cutie in the morning.  She was still pretty congested and coughing but her fever was gone Monday morning. 

And here is our officially official 9 year old ready to head off to school on her birthday.  She was so excited.

I put Emily in the little pumpkin outfit Megan had worn the day she was born.  It was huge on Megan then, and tight on Emily now, but oh so cute.

Brooke woke up with a fever on Monday morning.  So even though she was dressed and ready for school, she got to stay home to hang with me, Jack, and Emily.  I panicked a bit when Brooke woke up sick because I had places to be during the day, but thankfully Dan was able to work from home after about 10 am so I could still get everything in.  

I got my grocery shopping done, ran home to put it away with Dan's help, and ran back to the school with a Happy Meal for Megan and cupcakes to share with her classmates.  It was a fun lunch.

Here is Brooke modeling her finished wig.  My first attempt at wig making, but it turned out fine and Brooke loved it.

Our lovely Jasmine.  

 There just wasn't time after school and before dinner and trick or treating to actually carve pumpkins this year.  So we compromised and Dan oversaw the painting (and watched BYU basketball) while I got dinner going.  Megan requested egg drop soup.

After dinner, we got everyone dressed up and Ali and her family came over so we could all trick or treat together.  Love this crew.  We started trick or treating at 6 pm and were back home by 7 and had the kids in bed by 7:30.  Dan and I got to watch a scary movie (the one time a year I am willing to watch one with him).  I didn't even have nightmares :).

Tuesday Nov 1:  Brooke was home sick again. It was picture retake day for Candy and I forgot, so hopefully she smiled cute since her hair was a little crazy!  We laid low during the day and she and Jack had a blast playing.  It was actually really nice to have Brooke home to entertain Jack--they both loved it and it gave me time to get laundry done and stuff.  Megan had piano after school.

Wed Nov 2:  Brooke was back to school.  I picked up my nephew Luke for playgroup at our favorite park.  The weather has been so warm still, but nice in the shade. 

Thu Nov 3:  We tagged along for the joy school field trip to the butterfly museum.  It was so fun.  We had a picnic lunch at the base of the hill by Miller Outdoor after.  Ali watched some of my kids after school (I kept Brooke and Emily) so we could go do some birthday shopping for Jack and get some presents for a toy drive that night.  We had a RS activity that night where we wrapped all the donated toys and that was a lot of fun.  I ran back to the store after it for some last minute things for Jack's party on Friday.

Friday Nov 4:  Jack turned 3!  Baba turned 93!  I sent the kids to school and then got busy getting ready for hosting playschool.  It was the letter I (I is for insects) and the kids were adorable.  I invited Jack's other friends outside of playschool to join us from 11:30 to 12:30 for his party.  We had lunch, ate cake and ice cream (red cake and red icing like Lightning McQueen), the kids colored Lightning McQueen pages and ran races in the backyard, and then we opened presents.  Jack was SO happy all day long.  I kept Ashley's kids at naptime that day so she could do some service.  When Dan got home from work we opened presents from grandparents and us and then had a fast dinner.  There was a family dance at picnic at the school that night.  It was so fun.  In PE for the last month the kids have been learning dances and they performed them all--each grade level did a dance and then there was a K-2 number and a 3-5  number.  There were also family dances--chicken dance, cotton eyed joe, and hokey pokey and a mother/son-father/daughter dance to end it.  The girls were so excited to share with us and it was a blast.

3 years!

Red Cake!

Friends!

Running...

 

Jack was swinging his little hips side to side and jamming while we sang to him.  He's so fun!

Jack and Mal after the party.  She's holding a container of oreos that he's "sharing" with her.  They are the cutest friends.

Family present time.

Emily tried sitting at the island like a big kid on Jack's bday.  She did pretty good--she liked gnawing on the granite!

Saturday Nov. 5:  Dan had his 2nd half of his sailing course so it was me and the kids all day.  Megan went on a field trip with the A Days girls to the temple to walk around the outside.  She had fun.  While she was gone we ran some errands.  Brooke had a school friend's birthday party and we took the other kids to babysit swap at the Tracy's.  We had dinner with our neighbors that are in the ward and went to a movie. 

Sun Nov. 6:  Emily is 8 months old!  She's rolling all over the place, still scooting backwards only, babbling and happy all day long, and she got her first two teeth on the bottom in the past week!  She's seriously the happiest little chubby baby and we love to kiss on her squishy cheeks. 

3 crazies in the tub before church.

Dan had early meetings so he was gone and with the time change overnight it was a rough morning before church.  We picked up a friend's daughter (her other kids were sick) and we made it before the meeting started so I'll take it.  Sacrament meeting was interesting.  The beginning was typical, nice testimonies (especially one by my friend who talked about trusting in the Lord to let things work out for you just as they should even when it's not the way you may have wanted it to happen), but after the sacrament they announced that at 45 after we'd be singing our closing song and having a closing prayer but could we all stay in our seats after that.  Our stake has been doing a pilot program for the church where it hosts self reliance classes and the church is rolling it out in other areas and making videos for lds.org as resources as it gets rolled out.  They were highlighting a lady in the other ward in the building, but the photographers had some scheduling conflicts so after our official close of the meeting, we got to stay for a mock meeting where her Bishop called her up to talk about the self reliance program and they both gave short talks.  So we were all extras.  It was so weird to have cameras in the chapel!  She ended up sitting on the end of our row, so Jack may be playing with his cars in the background!  Other than that, it was a normal Sunday.  My class was about Mormon and the destruction of the Nephites.  It was crazy to realize that he had been singled out by the prophet to keep the records when he was just 10--one year older than my class kids!  AFter church and dinner we played games as a family and navigated some tantrums (ahem, Brooke, ahem) and then sent them all to bed.  Dan and I watched a newly released training about Teacher's councils that was live yesterday but we missed it with him sailing.  Elder Holland presided and it was great. 

Emily has been hating her medicine this week (she's finishing out an antibiotic), so she's also been annoyed at baby food but she actually ate some tonight. 

8 months and getting so big!

 That's it for me.  I'm glad to be done with birthdays for a while.  Now on to Thanksgiving and Christmas!

Pre Halloween!

We've had a good, fun, and busy week as usual. 

Monday was grocery swap.  We shifted things a little later than usual so I ended up having Ashley's kids here for nap time which made it an easy swap day for me--shopping without kids and then having all the kids asleep here!  She even picked up all the school kids on her way back.  Jack picked from the nursery manual for FHE and taught us about loving others. 

On Monday Ashley brought us here baby size snow white costume for Emily this year.  Candy had to put her new costume on too.  SO CUTE!  And Jack couldn't miss out on the fun.

Tuesday I watched Ashley's little boy in the morning while she had a doctor appointment.  Ali watched Jack and Ashley's little boy for me for a few minutes so I could run to a parent teacher conference with Candy's teacher.  She is doing great as a kindergartener.  She is testing right where she needs to be (or even a little ahead) and is very kind to other kids and well behaved in class.  Her teacher loves her (not that I'm surprised, Candy is a pretty loveable kid!).  Our piano lessons got cancelled because of sick kids at our teacher's house so that made our after school routine easier.  I took dinner to an elderly sister and then after the kids were down I went to book club.  We were discussing Harry Potter 8--so fun!  And my friend who hosted had just been to London and got to see the show live.  It sounded awesome. 

Wednesday we had playgroup at a close by park.  I took Ashley's kids there and we had fun playing until noon when I picked up the school kids for early release.  Then we met up with my visiting teacher (Colette, my friend) and Ashley at a park to play for an hour before naps.  Then back to the school to play while I had Brooke and Megan's conferences.  Both of them are doing well too.  Brooke is the one that has the hardest time with reading, but she is still on grade level!  YES!  And Megan is on grade level too.  Both of them will have tutoring in reading before school on Tuesdays to make sure they stay caught up.  After conferences I watched the younger Tracy kids while Ashley took the Megans to A Days.  Dan went to the temple after work so he was home late but he got to see Sally on his session and had a great experience. 

Thursday was Dan's birthday!  37, wow!  I met up with my VT companion and one of our sisters at the park again so we could let the kids play while we chatted.  It was fun.  And it was ANOTHER early release day.  So we picked up the big girls and came home to get the house cleaned up (or at least some of it!) and start making Dan's bday dinner.  We did homemade cafe rio pork salads which are delicious and a lot of work.  Ali and her family came for dinner and the Tracy's joined us for ice cream after.  I think he had a good birthday overall. 

 My favorite picture from his birthday!

Friday was the kindergarten story book parade--totally adorable. Candy was in heaven marching around.  From there we went home to meet Jack's playschool friends and caravan down to the zoo.  They do a "zoo boo" where the kids can trick or treat and do other halloween activities all over the zoo.  We had a great time.  When I laid Emily down for a nap as we got home I noticed she felt VERY warm.  Like 102.7.  Yikes.  So I gave her some tylenol and a cool bath and laid her down again.  She couldn't sleep though and was just laying there panting and miserable.  I called my doctor and she got us in for a last minute appointment.  Ashley picked up my school kids for me and I had Jack and Emily at the doctor.  She was breathing so fast that we almost got to visit Texas Children's!  But thankfully, after a breathing treatment and some ibuprofen her fever came down and so did her breathing.  She even had a chest x ray to rule out pneuomonia.  She didn't have pneumonia, but her x ray showed gunk in her lungs (very technical terms here) and she also had RSV which is a respiratory virus that is rough for little babies.  So we came home with an inhaler and antibiotics.  We skipped out on date night after that excitement and had a quiet (but long) night with Emily sleeping in our room and being up pretty often through the night coughing. 

Happy kiddos at the Zoo Boo (Jack is sitting on the B)

Sad, miserable, adorable, baby.

Saturday we had a relaxed morning and I made a chocolate cake for Megan's 9th birthday tomorrow.  We did a small party for her this year--just 5 friends were invited to go roller skating with her.  Shad dropped Chloe off a little early and then her other friends came--Alonzo, Kat (another 3rd grader in the ward), and Megan T.  The 5th friend was sick and had to miss.  When they arrived we did cake and ice cream and opened presents.  Then I loaded up Megan and her friends and took them to roller skate for about an hour and a half.  They were all a little timid at first (although Megan has been using Brooke's rollerblades a lot and did great) but had fun and no one was seriously hurt.  A few blisters and sore bums from falling.  I took them to CVS and let them each pick a candy as their party favor and then I dropped them off at their homes.  Chloe was staying to sleepover so after the party we had dinner and got the kids ready for our ward's trunk or treat.  Dan and Emily stayed home to let Emily rest.  I took the other kids and it was a great time. 

Brooke has been losing teeth right and left.  She pulled out her second front tooth at school on Friday.

 

 Our group at the skate rink.  The mom of the girl with the helmet once broke her hip rollerskating so she was really worried about sending her daughter--so she sent her with a helmet.

Chloe (police officer), Megan (Joy from the disney movie Inside out), Brooke (Jasmine), Jack (Lightning McQueen), and Candy (Snow White)

It's been a great Sunday.  We went to Shad's ward so we could be there when Zach was ordained a deacon.  With Shad's kids helping my kids stay busy, I even listened to the speakers and they were great.  They talked about living the gospel in your home and the first speaker talked about how while her family went to church each week, her parents were new to the church and she missed out on many gospel basics.  She bore a really tender testimony of how important primary teachers, young women leaders, and seminary teachers were in her gospel education.  It made me want to be a better primary teacher!  Then after Sunday School we waited in the hallway for Priesthood opening exercises to finish so we could join the deacon's quorum for Zach's ordaining.  Shad, Dad, and Dan were in the circle and a bishopric member and it was a really neat experience!  The first grandson to turn 12.  After church we all went to their house for a yummy dinner and cake to celebrate all the birthdays (Sally, Dan, Zach, Megan, Jack, and Carrie).  Fun times. 

Don't worry.  Despite being super sick, Emily is still a ridiculously cute and mostly happy baby.  She was sad so we gave her a bath this morning.  I think she liked it.

Mid October

We are good here.  It's been a fun week.
Monday was grocery swap and I started cutting out Candy's costume.  FHE was by Candy and we talked about the good samaritan and serving.  That is one of our kids' favorite stories and they all love acting it out.  We got to act it out 4 times with them all taking turns being either the injured man or the good samaritan!

Cute Halloween babies.  They just can't smile at the same time.

Tuesday I gave my friend Ashley a ride to a doctor's appointment and then Megan had a filling done at the dentist.  We had piano that afternoon and while Dan was going out to dinner with his work team (their boss was visiting from England) I did more work on Candy's costume.

Wednesday I started on sewing.  I watched my nephews for a bit in the morning and then we had playgroup at this cute little pumpkin patch at a church in kingwood.  Jack picked out a pumpkin and loved doing the activities there.  After about an hour there it started to rain so we headed home by way of Costco.  We had friends over to play after school and I spent another evening sewing while Dan was out to dinner again. 

Adorable and chubby 7 month old.  I have pictures of Candy walking around in this same outfit at 14 months!

Jack's favorite at the pumpkin patch--the corn pit

Thursday Megan had a project due.  It was supposed to be on an "everyday hero".  She picked me!  When I noticed that a week ago I told her at bedtime that I felt so loved that she would pick me--she immediately rolled her eyes and said, "Mooom!  I just picked you because you're always around so it's easy to think of traits for you!"  Well thanks for that Megan--I'm your default!  #bubbleburst #keepingmehumble
Haha, but she did a good job on her project and hopefully her teacher agrees.  I took Jack and Emily to the zoo Thursday morning.  We ran into a friend there and that was so fun to hang out with them and see the animals--they were all superactive!  It was warm but cloudy and I think they were all happy for a break from the ridiculous heat of the last week.  A cool front blew in Thursday night.  Dan didn't have work meetings that night, but he did have a church meeting, so I did more sewing.  

Friday Jack had playschool and I had my last tennis class.  The weather was 60s with clear skies, just fabulous.  I finished up Candy's costume and she was so excited.  I can't get the pics off my phone yet, but there will be plenty after next week!  Dan came home from work early since he'd been gone so much during the week so that was a really fun surprise.  We dropped the kids at babysit night and played tennis for an hour or so.  Dan is WAY better than me, but I'm much better than I was!  We had fun there and came home to watch a movie. 

Saturday was my birthday present day!  Dan had gotten me tickets to hear Dave Ramsey speak (he has a financial radio show that I love).  It was an all day conference, kind of like education week at byu--we heard 8 speakers through the day on lots of topics (marriage, finance, parenting, retirement planning, being intentional, generosity, etc).  Also, we were right by the Air Show so on breaks we got to watch the planes--the blue angels were there! 
The speakers were great and it was especially fun to get a whole day with Dan.  One thing we both liked was how almost all of the speakers touched on their faith in Christ as they spoke--pretty neat to hear them share their faith so naturally as they spoke about other things.  Carrie watched all our kids the WHOLE day and they all lived to tell the tale. 

It was my favorite sacrament meeting of the year today--the primary program!  Megan sang in a small group number and Brooke and Candy had speaking parts.  Megan sang so confidently, Brooke remembered her part perfectly, and Candy smiled big!  She knew her part, but the leader helping messed up and had the girl before her say Candy's line and then Candy didn't know what to do!  The songs were great and there were at least 2 kids from the neighborhood there to see the program.  I love hearing all those little voices singing and speaking and sharing their testimonies.  Pretty cool.  We took a walk to visit cousins after dinner today and enjoyed the lovely weather some more. 

Jack got a haircut this morning before church and we spiked his hair down the middle.  I tried to get a pic before he slept on it at naptime, but he was being so wiggly!  He looked pretty sharp in his blue vest and slacks and blue glasses and spikey hair!