Snuggles

After a long day of work, cooking dinner, making treats for a work lunch tomorrow, going to an SEP for Adam all I really want to do is crash on the couch. Good thing this little guy still wants to snuggle with me! 

Practice

Audrey and I have ukuleles. Audrey also has a violin. She is great at both instruments. I am far behind her. But we have fun practicing. We try to do it whenever we can. She has become my teacher. Last night I played Are You Sleeping which we practiced from our ukulele book. I was quite proud of myself. When we were done Audrey played a few Disney ukulele songs on her violin. They sounded great! She is so good at both instruments. 

Headphones

Grant got a pair of headphones for Christmas. But, they didn’t quite fit. We told him he could by himself some new ones with his own money. So Grant loves to research things he is interested in. We told him he had to think about it for a few days before he made his decision. While he was contemplating, he gave me quite the earful of everything about headphones and how I should also get some, and how they absolutely had to have noise cancellation. So, I also found a pair because I find it annoying that my Bluetooth earbuds often fall out while I am exercising. We got them today, and we are both loving them at the moment. I am hoping Grant will be happy with what he has for at least a few years. We shall see. 

Early Morning Reading Session

We had to take the truck into get worked on. James had to take me to school so we had to bring Adam. I told Adam on the way in that he needed to let me get my work done. I found him a Peppa Pig book. Read him one story and then let him sit at a table to look at the rest of it. And he did! He “read” his book out loud for  whole 25 minutes and I got some work done. Super proud of him that he let a book get his attention for that long. 

And when I say early I mean early. We were at the school at 7:45. 🙂

Something nice

We challenged Grant to do something nice for Adam today. This morning I was up and exercising, while trying to make pancakes for breakfast. Grant volunteered. He needed some help making the batter, but flipped pancakes, poured syrup on them and cut them up for Adam. I was happy he did this!

I hope we remember to challenge hi everyday to do something nice for others. 🙂

Growing

Adam is getting so big.  I found him like this:

Stretched out on the arm of our couch. Pretty soon, he will not be able to do this. Glad I caught him when I did! 

Haircuts

Audrey and I both got our haircut from a gal in our ward named LaDawn. She is wonderful. She does a thorough job and really cares about how it looks at the end. I am sad that she is moving but happy that she can be with her husband more. She’s cut our hair a few times and we love her doing it for us! 

Her house is amazing and we love her doing our hair. She did say that she could stop and see is and cut our hair as she has a daughter in St. George. I hope so! We will miss her! 

Stake Conference Sunday

We got to go to our stake conference today at 10. We heard some great talks about being prepared and preparing our youth for missions. We took our 3 there and they all did pretty well. Adam got up around 7 and played a good while on his iPad  the he didn’t get to have it for three rest of the day and so he was off. But Grant got him to play super Mario u on the Switch and he had fun. Adam was very hard though. He has a hard time when we say know and will keep asking the same thing over and over so you think he doesn’t understand what you are saying? It is very frustrating and it tests my patience. It’s not just about his saying no. It’s about every aspect of his day. He has a hard time remembering things. Anyway, today was great. We got stuck in the parking lot driving out of conference. We had to have some other men help push us. We got home and has red chicken with potatoes. Grant helped make blondies. It was a good day. Also, we read our scriptures at dinner and Grant even commented on how much he liked it. 

Us in stake conference. 🙂

Weekend Chores

This morning James, Audrey and Grant had to go to the Youth in Zion at SUU institute. They heard some amazing speakers. They had to be at the church T 8 and th they were home a little after 11. While they were gone, Adam and I hung out. He played outside and on the Nintendo Swotch while I cleaned up the whole top part of our house. It needed a lot of work. I mopped, vacuumed, cleaned and organized and dusted. I got to go through my nightstand and put things back in the proper place. It feels good to know where things are again. My next goal is to clean out Adam’s closet and dresser. The have gone through our kitchen island, office, Adam’s toys, our coffee table. Still have more to do, but I like just doing a bit at a time. It is way less overwhelming to organize this way. At the end of the day, some cuddles were in order from Adam. We also took Adam and Audrey out for lunch. Grant didn’t want to go. 😔 He is on a walking spree and that is all he can think about. He is asking for a tread mill for his birthday! Also got to spend time with Audrey in the hot tub. Love these days with my family. 

Lunch with Audrey, Hames and Adam at dad’s office. We had Costa Vida. 

Couldn’t leave out sweet little Betsy. 😘

It’s Friday!!!

Fridays are always a good day! For me, it means only Kindergarten at school. So I can get a lot done with tons of Prep time. I love this year for that reason. Also, I get to come home early and spend time with the olders. Grant had to work today with James at his job, so I was home with Audrey. I baked cookies, and we watched Alice In Wonderland. Actually, I fell asleep and Audrey watched a bit by herself, but I must have needed. I feel so much better! Anyway, at work, I am going to get more bookcases, which means more places to put books. I am excited for this! I can finally put out all of our books in an orderly way, instead of stacking them in front of other books. Adam had bowling today at Crimson. He was in a silly mood, but he participated. The first time he went he didn’t participate. 

My boy

After a day of school, swimming, and Crimson-Adam comes home like this:

He’s so fun! 

Made a yummy dinner which Audrey helped me make. She liked it!

Did word search puzzles. Tried to have Grant join me. He did for a bit, before he gave up. We were racing, and I kept finding words. He did help me find a word I couldn’t find though. He’s fun! We love him! 

Blessed with three! 

A Busy Day

Keeping up with everything these days can be a bit much. Wednesdays are hard because we have Audrey’s Violin lesson and it’s also papers. We have Audrey roll and Grant delivers. Wonder how long this will last. We really ought to train Adam. Anyway, I was able today to make dinner before the papers got delivered. It was a relief. Sometimes Adam has speech and when that happens, dinner is rough since I am not home preparing it. Trying to document these busy days.

They are fleeting. Here is a random picture of Betsy. We sure love her. 🙂

Martin Luther King Holiday

This Martin Luther King Day showed us all at home. James and I did some errands in town while Adam was at Crimson. We are a lunch Applebees, got rid of our old PS4 at a pawn shop, bought spa chemicals, and went shopping. Picked up Adam who had a great time at Crimson. Now we are all chilling out at home. Feels like a Sunday. Grant took Betsy on a walk. 

Then later he rode on the stationary bike and took 

a nap. 

I have to mention this because he always says he doesn’t take naps. 🙂

Grants Fitbit Argument

After we got back from Audrey’s show, Grant wanted to explain to us on why we should get him a Fitbit. Audrey got one for her birthday and I think Grant was a little jealous. But he has a smart Watch! The only one in our family to have one. This was how it went down:

He brought the easel up from down stairs and 

wrote categories and tallied them. 

The result is Apple wins of course! I hope he can be happy with what he has! He still gave really good arguments for each one, and he researched and compared each feature. He is so knowledgeable about this kind of technology stuff! Love him! 

Audrey’s Frozen Show

We got to see Audrey in her Frozen mini musical last night! Great crowd! Took her friends. She did great. I love her facial expressions. She’s hilarious!

I missed her line, but I feel like I got to enjoy it more since I didn’t have my phone!  Anyway, we got to see the cast after the show. 

So fun! She had a great time!

Audrey’s Party

Audrey had a get to get her with friends for her party. We went to Bullochs and had ice cream. I bought them each a fluffy beanie boo. They played Apples to Apples Disney version. It was an easy laid back party. They had fun!

They are also really cute with Adam! 

Dudes and Donuts.

Our school had our annual dudes and donuts event at school. This is where students can bring a  friend, dad, grandpa, anyone they think is important to them and have a donut at school. Super cute to see the kids and their dads. Our cute dad got to bring Adam. 

They are the cutest! I had to help them since they were understaffed. Normally, I miss it. But this year it was on a Friday. Our cute kiddo and James had a great time!

Full Week Back

We had our first full week back from our Christmas vacation. It’s good to be back in the routine, but I am missing those lazy vacation days. We do have a day off on Monday.  Not sure what we will do, but a break is nice. New Year’s resolutions have been going so far so good! I wanted to blog more-doing that. Reading Book of Mormon and keeping up with the Come Follow Me scriptures for the New Testament. Keeping up with my Word Search calendar. I recently Lenard how to knit, so I am wanting to keep up with that. It feels good to have Adam’s dental work done. Audrey had a great birthday and is having friends over on Saturday. She is also in the Frozen play and family will be coming up to see that on Saturday as well. Had a chat with my sister Steph and Kirk that we would have Thanksgiving at our house this year. So of course my brain is thinking about all we need to do to get the house ready which so far includes new blinds or shutters for our windows and finally finishing our French doors. 

Happy Birthday Audrey!!!

Today we get to celebrate Audrey who turns 13 today! She is kind thoughtful, caring, creative, fun, and funny! We live her and we are so glad she is in our family! 

She has certainly grown up these past years!

Had fun decorating her cake. Grant and I took turns writing and had fun trying to out do each other. 

I think I won!

She wanted to have Adam help her open her gifts after he insisted. 🙂

Baby-sitters club actual novels that I had when I was a kid. She loved them!!

She asked for a homemade birthday cake. I delivered, but I hope she liked it! I had fun making it!

One happy girl!!!

Audrey’s Braces consultation

Pulled Audrey form school this morning to take her to her braces consultation. She looks thrilled. 

We discovered from this that she is indeed ready for braces. Grant also had an appointment this morning. We were able to get them for a bit before I went to work. Always so glad to see them when I can. Came home from work to an empty house. Adam has Crimson, Audrey had musical theater and Grant had to work. They all come home later like close to 7. I was able to make dinner, Clem up, and also bake Audrey’s birthday cake. A productive few hours to be sure! Her birthday is tomorrow and it will be fun day for sure! 

Christmas Salt Lake Trip!

In the middle of December, we scored some Lindsey Sterling tickets in Salt Lake. We gave them to Audrey as part of her Christmas. She is a huge fan! We decided to stay the weekend. We did a whole bunch of things in Salt Lake like shopping, Temple Square, and seeing Music and the Spoken Word do a taping. We had a great time! We stayed a few nights.  The kids shopped for each other. We ate yummy food. It was freezing cold. We walked a lot. We rode Trax. Some good family memories were made! 

A lot of people say we look alike. Could it be true?

Lindsey Sterling put on a fantastic concert!

Audrey was a lot more pleasant than this picture portrayed. 

Visiting the awesome buildings and learning about church history. Got to visit the Beehive House as well. All the kids behaved. (The first time we went 10 years ago, this was not the case.)

Adam got tired of walking. 

A great family picture for next year’s Christmas card. 

Inside the conference center for Mysic and theSpoken  Word. Got to hear some great singing and even enjoyed a special presentation afterward. It was awesome. Every time I go, I am so glad I went!

The Conference Center was beautiful. 

Got to eat yummy food at Chuck-A-Rama on the way back. Grant was excited they also had pizza. 

Adam ate a bunch and then enjoyed ice cream. Fun had by all. A great pre-Christmas trip!

Conner’s Homecoming Weekend!

Packed up the kids and we took off for Salt Lake. Stephanie’s family lives in Evanston still so Conner will be coming back there. We decided to make a fun weekend out of it. We took the kids to a Utes basketball came where they got whooped 70-60. We rode the Trax train which Adam enjoys riding, but hates waiting for it. Played a fun game of I Spy with Audrey. Looked at old pictures on Dad’s phone. Ate yummy food-churros from Costco are delicious

. 

This is the only picture I could get because I did not want Adam to have my phone. He played with Lightning McQueen and Mater fro a good portion of the game. Doug the Pug seemed to entertain when those toys got old. 

We had great seats. Too bad they ddn’t win.