March is here!

Some weeks fly by and are great and some weeks are a little harder in different ways and this week was a little harder for me.  But we've had a nice weekend and that always helps things reset for a new and better week ahead.

Monday we rode bikes to school and as soon as I got back with Jack and Emily we ran to pick up our grocery order.  Dan needed to exchange a work shirt we had bought so after I put the groceries away we ran to Costco to wander around and change out the shirt.  I watched my friends 2 littlest boys so she could go help clean the temple.  The girls rode bikes home and we hung out with our neighbors playing outside in great weather before dinner.  Dan was also cleaning at the temple (that's why we did family night last Sunday).  I got the kids to bed and he got home around 8:30.

Cutie baby--one week til she's one

Our neighbors just got their kid a pet snake for his birthday--Megan and Brooke took turns holding it.  That thing will be 5-6 feet long when full grown!

 

Tuesday I ran with my friend and after slower runs last week, we were down around 10 minute miles again so that was good.  The girls had tutoring before school and I took Jack and Emily to story time at the library.  That was fun and we had some time before lunch and naps so I took them to visit Mom's grave with me.  I don't think I had been since before I had Emily.  It is always nice to be there and think about Mom and talk about her with the kids but it always takes a bit to recover from too.  I got to go to my book club that night which was a nice time out with friends.

 

 Wednesday was warm again--like low 80s but it was a little overcast and very pleasant for playgroup at the park here in Fall Creek.  We had lots of friends come. 

Emily ignored the little pieces of sandwich I had torn up for her and instead gnawed on that whole apple for like 40 minutes.  She was SO happy with it!

Thursday I ran with Kyra and ran errands in the morning, got the oil changed in the car, etc.  I am planning to coach swim team again this summer, and they are trying to be more formal with their hiring process, so I received my official "offer" email that day.  I was a little bugged because they dropped the hourly wage from what they paid last time AND dropped the amount that you can receive as a bonus at the end of the season, so I spent the afternoon thinking through a counter-offer email.  The girls did basketball camp with Aunt Ali after school. 

Friday Jack had playschool and I got caught up on the house and I sent my counter offer to the swim team president--hopefully they will sweeten the deal a little!  It was a fantastic weather day--70 and bright sunshine, so I met up with Ali after playschool to chat while the kids played.  Megan, Brooke, Candy, and I all ran a 2K race in The Woodlands that evening with a huge group of people from the ward and neighborhood.  My friend Shelly has a daughter Kaitlyn who is Brooke's age.  Kaitlyn has spina bifida (her back didn't close when she was still in utero) and had this amazing surgery done before she was born to close her back.  She still has spina bifida, but with the surgery, lots of therapy and hard work, she was able to walk/run the race this year--something her parents initially thought would never happen.  They did a ton of fundraising to benefit the place where they stayed when she had the surgery in San Francisco (it's like a rondald mcdonald house).  Anyway, we met up with Dan and Ali's family at the mall there for a quick dinner, race packet pickup, and then the race itself.  They had us run in waves and (of course) our group was in the last wave so we had waited nearly an hour to start our race after the first group started.  But that's ok, it was fun.  I stayed with Candy and she ran most of it and had fun.  It was really pretty there along the woodlands waterway--trees all lit up and the little river running between and we were on the path right along the water. 

My big girls and me with Kaitlyn

 

 

Saturday morning Dan played in a 3 on 3 basketball tournament at church and had fun with that.  I took the kids to do some birthday shopping for Emily while he was there.  Emily's little friend Ellie turned one on saturday so I took Emily and Jack to her party.  We got home at dinner time and watched the kids of another family that night (they will watch ours when we go to the rodeo next week). 

Emily and her friend Ellie.   

It's been a nice, drizzly Sunday.  I can't believe that 1 year ago I was out riding around in Shad's new boat, not knowing Emily would be born the next day.  It's the first fast Sunday in almost 2 years that I've been able to fast, so that has been challenging but great too :).  Testimony meeting was great--as usual, Brooke bore a nice testimony and there were lots of others who shared too.  I taught today and with 2 visitors the class felt HUGE (11 kids).  My new team teacher started today which was great since one of our kids needed some extra attention today.  It was all about the printing of the book of mormon and I kept remembering our trip to the grandin printing press back in 2010.  We'll have choir practice in a bit and it's still raining, so we'll probably play games with the kids all afternoon. 

One year ago!

Still February

We've had a nice week here. 
Monday was a day off of school for president's day.  I had ordered my groceries so we picked those up at 8.  It was really raining so we went with Dan's sister and her family down to the children's museum.  We had a fantastic time there and it made the day go by fast.  It was not crowded at all and as we left, they handed us a calendar of when the next "sensory" day would be--a day where the museum is supposed to be closed except to kids with sensory disorders!  OOPS!  Oh well, I asked them when we arrived if they were open and they said yes so I did my part!  For family night it was my turn to teach and we watched a video from lds.org geared to kids to help them avoid pornography and bad media.  There are kids at school that already have their own phones and such, so we want to make sure our kids know what is appropriate and what is not.

Tuesday started early with a run and then tutoring before school for Megan and Brooke. I got caught up around the house and did laundry.  I took Jack and Emily to story time at the library and we have a new children's librarian who is AWESOME!  It was so fun.  Just piano and the usual homework after school.

Wednesday we went to the fire museum for playgroup again.  We had a good turnout and it was really fun.  I watched kids for one of the activity days leaders in exchange for her giving Megan a ride which worked out nicely. 

Thursday I went running and then spent the day playing with Jack and my friend's little boy.  She is in charge of an event at school where they teach all about different disabilities and teach empathy and inclusion.  I had her almost 2 year old son from 9 am to 2:30 pm, but he is really easy going and he and Jack played well.  Candy, Brooke, and Megan had their first basketball camp with Aunt Ali after school and they loved that.  We had our dryer repaired that afternoon too.

Friday I took Jack to playschool and ran errands for a bit before going visiting teaching.  My companion just started teaching seminary last week--she was called to teach the 5 am (!) class for athletes that can't make 6 am work.  SO EARLY!  She's amazing though and doing a great job.  She has a son in the class too.  We watched our friend's kids that night so they could go to a workshop at church.

Emily's new trick--pushing a toy and walking behind it.  As you can see, it was really nice and warm this week, 70s and 80s.

Saturday was busy.  We took Dan's car in to have his brake pads changed and then dropped him at the church for a family history class, home for lunch, picked Dan up, took Megan to the Woodlands for a birthday party, walked around and had lunch at the costco in the woodlands, picked Megan up, picked Dan's car up, came home, took Brooke to a birthday party, had carrie over for dinner, picked Brooke up, had dinner, played games, said bye to Carrie, watched BYU play Gonzaga in b-ball, and went to bed!

Candy loved matching Emily yesterday.

 

We borrowed this little toy from a friend for the time being so Emily can wander all over the  house. She's getting pretty good at steering and loves that tiny baby doll in it too.

 

It's been a good Sunday.  Dan was home with us til we had to leave for church so that was nice to have his help getting everyone ready.  The kids were really good for sacrament meeting (except Emily who was super tired).  The talks were great--about opening our eyes to opportunities to give Christlike service all around us.  She talked about a time when she was a young teenager--her parents had just gotten divorced, the home she lived in with her mom and sisters was destroyed by a flood, they were in a car accident that totaled their car and they were living in a hotel.  They hadn't been to church for 2 Sundays because they had no transportation to get there.  Someone from the ward called and chewed the mom out a little bit for keeping her kids home from church--as soon as she got off the phone, the Mom just dropped to her knees and prayed for help.  A bit later, the phone rang again, again it was someone from the ward, but this person simply told the Mom they'd noticed they weren't at church and they missed them--was there anything going on that they needed help with?  The Mom broke down in tears and explained that they didn't have church clothes for the kids since the clothes were ruined in the flood and no means to buy more.  That person bought dresses for the kids and made sure they got back to church.  It's amazing what a difference we can make when we approach people in love instead of judgment.  The rest of church went well, it was a little busy to teach ten 9-year-olds by myself with a very tired baby, but we got through. 

Valentine's Week

We've had a great week here. 

I did grocery pick up on Monday morning and spent the day getting caught up around the house.  I finished the last bridesmaid skirt and dropped it off at Jenn's house after I picked up the kids from school.  Dan taught FHE about the last supper and talked about how special it was and how the sacrament is like that every week.  He emphasized being reverent during the sacrament, and they were pretty good today (6 days later), so maybe it sunk in!  I tried to do our taxes that night but had computer issues...my IT guy worked on it for 2 hours and we went to bed. 

FHE treats

So Tuesday (Valentines day!) I started backing up our entire computer to prep for erasing the whole thing and starting over :). I ran with my friend in the morning and we had a neighbor over to play with Jack before lunch. I made heart pancakes for the kids before school and then we had a fancy dinner of grilled steak, mashed potatoes and gravy, meatballs for the kids, green beans with a little bacon--super good. Dan brought me some lovely flowers too. It was a nice, low-key valentines day.

Wednesday was a little cool, so we had playgroup inside at the mall. Lots of friends came and it was really fun. The kids rode bikes in the nice weather with the neighbors after school.

Thursday I ran again first thing and then spent the rest of the day re-installing Windows and all our programs and such. It took a lot of my day, but it worked! I got our taxes done, wahoo! I took the kids to a ward member's house after school so they could have rollerblade "races" with one of their kids--he's in 4th grade and he and Megan had been talking all week about who would win. I told them they couldn't race but they could play follow the leader. They all had a blast.

Friday while Jack was at playschool I folded laundry and washed material to hopefully make quilts before too much longer.  We had cousins over to play after school and dropped off the kids for babysit night.  Dan and I ran some errands and met up with our friend Colette and Richard (he's our bishop) for dinner at a pizza place and a movie at their house after.  It was really fun. 

Saturday was a full and busy day!  Kate Eccles got married.  Dan had to go fill the font in the morning (but had a sub go to the actual baptisms since we had the wedding).  We dropped our kids off with friends at 10 and the sealing was at 11.  I loved it.  It was pretty awesome to be with my 3 closest childhood friends and their spouses and all our parents (I hope Mom got to peek in too!) in the sealing room along with lots of other old-timers from the MW 2 ward that have known me since I was born.  We grew up in a great ward family--I never felt too bad that we didn't have extended family members close by in Houston because the people in our ward became our extended family.  Bishop Pratt sealed them.  After the sealing we took a few group shots and then Dan headed to be with the kids.  I stayed for more pics and then went to a luncheon at a Mediterranean grill across from meyerland plaza.  It was yummy.  And then to the Maplewood building (beechnut building?) for the open house.  It was in the primary room.  Dan and the kids met up with me there and Dad and Sally came back for it too.  It was really fun to reconnect with lots of people from my youth.   

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!

February!

We've had a good week here, lots of our usual stuff happening. Things still feel a little more quiet without the Tracy's around, but we are all adjusting. I ordered my groceries online and picked those up on Monday morning after taking the girls to school. When we got home, Jack went to a friend's home to play and I was able to get a lot of sewing done. I finished another skirt and started the 3rd one. Candy was on family night that night and she talked about forgiveness. Megan was SO excited for treats that night because she had planned out her treat and made it all herself as a goal for the Faith in God program. She made waffle cone parfaits with vanilla yogurt and blueberries on top. Yum.

Tuesday started with tutoring for Megan and Brooke before school at 7:30, then I picked Megan up at 11:30 to take her out to see Shad--new wire and 8 more week, but she may get her braces off after that!.  Then back to school for her and piano after school.  Megan and Brooke have both made great progress with their piano this year and it's fun to hear them play.  I finished the 3rd skirt that evening. 

Wednesday was beautiful weather, sunny and near 70.  We rode bikes to school.  At 10 I went back to the school to watch Megan and the 3rd graders do a "bike rodeo" where they learned bike safety from a sheriff and did some bike obstacle courses.  Then I took Jack and my nephew Luke and Emily to the park for playgroup.  School got out early and I told the girls they could ride bikes home by themselves if they stayed together--they did great!  And it was nice to just wait for them at instead of going to pick them up.  I took all the kids back to the park for a while and then home for naps and more biking with neighbors after quiet time.

My kids and some of the gang of neighbor kids they love to play with

Friday we biked again to school in the morning.  Candy was pretty excited to celebrate the 100th day.  They got to parade around the school and did lots of 100 activities.  Kat Barney (talbot) came over in the morning while Jack was at playschool to try on her skirt--it fit, yay!  It was fun to catch up with her.  Chad just got engaged, they are getting married in April.  I folded laundry and made pizzas and we hosted babysit swap that night which was busy and fun.

Saturday was a busy day in the yard.  It had cooled off a little (it was in the 50s), but it was great for weeding and mulching the front beds, putting out fertilizer, and clearing the weeds from the garden boxes.  It looks great!  I'm excited to get the garden going in a few weeks. The kids rode bikes while we worked and Dan's sister and her family came over to play and have lunch. 

snuggling during Saturday morning cartoons

It's been a nice Sunday.  Dan left early for a meeting at 6 but came home again near 7:30 which was a nice surprise to have help getting everyone ready and out the door on time.  Testimony meeting today was nice.  The themes I heard were that God is real and he is aware of our individual needs.  Brooke bore her testimony (she does it every month almost) and did great.  My class today was about Joseph translating the first 116 pages and losing them.  We talked a lot about the lessons learned from this story--the importance of praying and listening to God's answers, how repentance is available to all of us, and how it feels to receive answers to prayers.  We had a really good discussion on how sometimes the answer from God is "No.".  I talked about how when Mom was sick we really wanted and prayed for her to be healed and how the answer to those prayers was "No" but that in spite of that we felt peace and learned to trust in God and his plan.  One of the girls in my class is the daughter of my friend who passed away from meningitis 4 1/2 years ago and that daughter made the sweetest comment in the discussion about how we can feel peaceful during hard times because we know that we will see our loved ones again.