Basketball Weekend

Friday started off normal enough.  I did some laundry.  After the kids got home from school they wanted no-bake cookies for dessert, as I was in the process of making them when Aaron came home.  He's been so busy since the beginning of the year, I had forgotten that Fridays were supposed to be half days with his new schedule.  Of course he didn't get home until 3:45, but it's better than 6:30 like most days.  At the beginning of the year he also started a new position at the hospital as chief of staff.  It's only for one year, however this week he found out they have a monthly meeting on the 3rd Tuesday of the month, which just so happens to be the nights I have my Relief Society Meetings.  So I guess I'll be taking the kids from now on, until David is comfortable enough to watch them at home.

After snack I got myself ready, and got some dinner ready.  Aaron and David left for the basketball game early.  The 6th grade band members were invited to sit with the pep band to see what they do (and have soda and treats during the 3rd quarter). So Aaron took him early, and I came with the rest of the kids after dinner.  When I did my shopping on Tuesday Melanie indicated she would rather walk than have me carry her into the store, but she only had socks on, so I decided it was time for me to start having her wear shoes. So I put them on her before we left for the game, she loved it!


We got there just after half time for the girl's game.  It was 38 - 6 or something ridiculous like that.  The girls ended up winning by quite a lot.  The boys came on to the court to warm up, and I was about to go get some popcorn for the kids to share.  Carol P* behind me tapped my armed and said, "Tell Aaron that man needs help."  So I told Aaron, and he jumped up and ran over.  He was in the row behind us about three people over. He had passed out, but came around quickly.  Aaron told someone to call 911, and he stayed with him, to see if he could figure out what had happened.  I knew it could be a while, so I took the kids down with me to get popcorn.  I didn't want to be in the way, and I didn't want my kids gawking, and asking questions so I just stayed in the lobby, and we ate popcorn.  It took about 5 minutes for the paramedics to get there, but another 15 or 20 before they left.  Eventually the man walked down the stairs and they took him to the hospital in the ambulance.  The crowd cheered for him as he left.  So the boy's game got a late start, but the scoring was about the same as the girl's game.  Did you know if one team is up by 40 points they keep the clock running?  Now I do.  Melanie was not content to just sit anymore.  She wanted to walk around.  It was difficult to contain her.  I enjoyed the game, but was glad when it was over, Melanie was exhausted.

Saturday started earlier than I would have liked.  Melanie was up before 6:00.  I fixed some breakfast and got everyone else up.  Aaron and Timothy were going to a Cub Scout sledding activity.  With Timothy being accident prone we figured it was better to have Aaron there just in case.  Luckily there were no injuries.  At home we just did some chores, and things of that sort.  I worked on my last blog post.

I convinced the kids to wait and do their screen time when Timothy got back.  Mostly because Aaron and I wanted to go to a wedding reception.  The plan was to take Melanie with us and let David, Timothy and Amy stay home and watch a movie while we were gone for about an hour or so.   It worked out pretty well.  Except we had to leave a distraught Timothy because he hadn't finished his chores by the time we left and they started the movie.  Eventually he got them done and joined David and Amy watching the movie.  We we enjoyed the reception , and got to see a few people and talk to the new couple.  We didn't stay long.  I had started some dinner before we left, and planned to warm it up when we got back.  We ate quickly and then Aaron took Amy and Melanie to the game, and I took David and Timothy with me to a rehearsal for David.  He has an ensemble piano recital next week, and they practiced together that evening.  I took Timothy with me so there would be less for Aaron to have to deal with.  Timothy doesn't really like the basketball games anyway.  The rehearsal didn't take long, and we made it to the school before the girl's game was over.  It wasn't quite a runaway but we won.  The same with the boy's game.  Although toward the end it seems like every shot was falling, and there were a lot steals going our way.  I got really frustrated with Melanie though.  She didn't want to sit still at all.  I let her run around the lobby for a bit before half time, but she was still antsy.  We tried to have her walk back and forth down a row that was mostly empty after halftime, but she still tried to climb under my legs, and then started crawling backward down the stairs.  I told Aaron I was ready to go home.  So Aaron took her out.  We made it through the game.  Then it was home and off to bed. Another late night for the kids.

Sunday morning Melanie wanted to wake up at 5:30 am, and I was not about to do that, so I took her down to the couch, and we slept until 7:00 - that was better.  Everyone else was still sleeping, but I knew everyone need a shower or bath, so I started some breakfast, and got everyone up.  After breakfast I cleaned up, and gt Amy and Melanie in the bath and Timothy in the shower.  I had to get him out so David could take a shower.  Eventually I was able to get myself ready, and then we were off.  On the way I realized I didn't bring any tissues in case Melanie needed some.  Aaron said I should grab from the stand before church.  That's when I remembered I was supposed to go early to practice our song.  We were early enough to run through it once so it all worked out.  Myra Faye isn't playing the organ for right now, but she still agreed to accompany for us.  I found out on Friday her medical issues are a couple of brain tumors that she is getting radiation treatment for.  There's not much I can do but pray, and so I do.

With Melanie sleeping in I didn't get her to nap before church.  So I had Aaron take her for most of sacrament.  I gave the opening prayer, and after the youth speaker (one of Aaron's deacon's) he took her out to get her to sleep.  Cheryl gave a great talk, and then we sang.  Besides a couple of missed notes on my part, I think it went well. It was much easier to sing in a group, much less nerve wracking!  Then Br. K* gave a talk, and it was off to Sunday School.  Phillip taught, and I got to sit next to Julianna and baby AJ.  They gave me a sweet thank-you card calling me "Auntie" Emma.  I am loving being an honorary aunt.  My nieces and nephews are too far away.  Melanie slept through the entire Sunday School lesson as well.  I took her at the end and Aaron left to teach his lesson.  I conducted and Melanie was sitting on the floor making faces at me through the chairs occasionally saying, "Mom", and smiling.  Jennie gave a great lesson, and Melanie was so good eating her Cheerios, and playing on the floor.  She wanted me to put her shoes back on, and then she didn't want to sit still anymore.  But she was good.  After church Aaron and David went home teaching, and I tried to put Melanie down for a nap, but she wasn't tired I guess.  I made some cupcakes with Amy for refreshments.  After 45 minutes I gave up on Melanie taking a nap I got her out of her crib.  We played for a bit and then I made frosting for the cupcakes.

I spent way too much time on the cupcakes, and by the time Aaron got home around 4:30 I hadn't even thought about dinner.  Mirna had called and wanted to bring some fresh eggs over.  She brought 3 dozen!  By the time she left it was 5:15, and we didn't have a lot of time to fix dinner, so we warmed up some tamales from the freezer and Aaron made some taquitos, and I made a salad.  Melanie was so tired she was falling asleep during dinner.  After dinner we had FHE and then it was off to bed.

Monday was a pretty lazy day.  At least, I didn't get out much.  I just did stuff at home with the girls while the boys were at school.   I gave the boys haircuts after dinner.  I needed to catch up on my posts because I'm going to be busy during the day.  So if you don't see me post for a while, here or on Facebook know I am still alive, just busy.

Unusual Tuesday

David brought the cat in to play with. Melanie had fun with her too.

So much for staying caught up on the blog.  Last Saturday after Aaron got home we had dinner.  I think we followed the BYU basketball game, and that's about it.  I gave Aaron a haircut, and he finally shaved off the beard.  Hallelujah!  Sunday morning Aaron had to go into the hospital fairly early to see 4 patients before church.  Melanie was up early enough that I put her down for a nap before church, but it took her 20 minutes to go to sleep, so I had to wake her up to get to church on time.  She was mostly well behaved for church. I enjoyed the talks.  Crystal, Katie S*, Rebecca W* and Michele B* were released as the Primary presidency.  Becky G* is now the president, her counselors are Sherry E* and Celise B* and they took Bonnie G* for their secretary, so now the RS doesn't have a secretary :(  We will miss Bonnie.  We'll have to fend for ourselves until we get a new one.  Becky will do a great job.

Melanie got a little tired toward the end of Relief Society, but still didn't fall asleep on the way home, so I fed her lunch and got her down for a nap around 2:00.  We didn't do much else.  We did get to Skype with my family as it was my Dad's birthday.  That was fun, but it always gets a little crazy as everyone tries to show off.  David wants to play the piano, Timothy wants to make silly faces, Amy wants to show off her toys.  Crazy kids!  It was great to see them though.

Monday was a day off for the kids, but not Aaron.  I really had thought I would get to go somewhere with the kids, but it was a gloomy sort of day, I didn't feel like going any where, or spending money especially with the things I had to deal with.  Here's what happened.  Saturday night Aaron and I purchased the flights for our summer trip.  I few minutes later I thought, "I'd better print a receipt", but when I went back to the window it was back at the home screen. I had nothing to print.  I didn't worry about it since I figured I'd just print it from the email it sent me.  But I didn't get an email.  I waited until Sunday morning, but still no email.  And there were no charges on the credit card I used.  Suspicious.  So I sent a message to them through their webpage, but didn't expect a response since it was a Sunday.  Sunday night after at dinner time we told the kids our plans:  This summer we are going to DISNEYLAND!  The kids were excited, even David who already figured out that's what we were doing.  I left too many clues.  Open webpages, a book I ordered etc.  Monday I still hadn't received an email, and now the price for the plane tickets had gone up.  I didn't know if they would be open on a holiday, but I thought I'd better call them.  After an hour - yes an entire hour - on hold I gave up.  I texted Aaron to let him know, so he started a chat online.  After 20 minutes he had a conversation with a rep, we confirmed that the tickets were never purchased.  It seems someone else purchased the last tickets at that price before we entered all our information. Grrr!  However there was nothing on the website telling us that, the screen just returned to the home page.  So even though I thought I was done researching, I started again.  This time we decided to go with a package.  Yes, it is more expensive, but it does come with some perks, so we decided to bite the bullet and just do it.   We compared AAA with Costco's deals, and decided to go with Costco, however since there were 6 people in our group I had to call to make the reservation instead of doing it online, so I did that the following day.  I felt bad that I wasted so much of my time doing that when I should have been playing with my kids.  At least they got to play together, until they started fighting, and then I really didn't feel like playing with them.  After Aaron got home from work we had dinner and I can't remember if we played a game or what - oh well.

Amy and Timothy played with structures while David watched a movie.

Tuesday was a bit of a different day.  Usually Amy has preschool, but Crystal needed to move it to Wednesday.  That was fine with me, it just meant I needed to do my shopping Tuesday instead of Wednesday.  Unfortunately when I went to drop the boys off at school the battery had died on the gate, so I spent 10 minutes trying to get the pins out of the gate so I could open it manually.  I called Aaron to let him know what had happened.  I called the school to let them know we would be late.  Once I was on my way Terry (the gate guy) called.  I told him about the problem we had that morning, and he said he would come over that afternoon.  I dropped the boys off, and went home to get ready to go to the city.  Terry was there (to get the battery charged before he came over that afternoon).  I was talking to him and Aaron happened to return my call, so they talked for a few minutes.  Then I was finally on my way.  I had hoped Melanie would nap on the way there, but she didn't fall asleep until I was about 2 minutes away.  Our last stop was Costco.  She was so tired.  I gave her my wallet to play with.  She fell asleep on the way home, and then I unloaded the groceries, and fixed some lunch.  I checked on her periodically, and about an hour after we came home she woke up, so I fed the girls some lunch.  I knew she wouldn't make it until bed time, so I still gave her another nap around 2:30.  While she was napping I called Costco travel and made the reservations!  So glad that is done!

 I got a call from David saying he forgot one of his piano pieces.  So as soon as Timothy got off the bus I woke up Melanie and we took it over to Crystal's.  Since he only had 10 minutes left of his lesson we just stayed there.  The kids played for a bit and then we went home.  When I checked my email there was a newsletter from our security company.  That reminded me that I needed to change our credit card information.  Since I shopped at Target during the scam period our credit card company decided to send us new cards.  Since I use that card to pay our monthly bill I had to change that information.  That's when I couldn't find my wallet, and as I retraced my steps I realized the last time I saw it was when I gave it to Melanie at Costco.  So I called Costco and luckily they had it.  But I wasn't able to pick it up then, so I had to go the next day.  About then I got a text from Julianna telling me they were going to have a foster child placed with them that evening - a newborn baby boy!!!  I was so excited for them!  I knew they had a crib but wondered if they needed anything else.  After texting her later that evening I gathered things I wasn't using anymore.  Then I realized I had given away all of my baby boy clothes to Jennie C*.  So I called her and asked if she had baby boy clothes to give to them, and she did!  Wonderful.  She also let them borrow their bouncy chair.  While I was gathering things I made dinner and got ready to go to the RS meeting.  Aaron got home, and I took off. 

Joyce put together a great meeting.  We talked about new goals, and three people presented about some things that could be goals for people: scriptures study, education, and journaling.  Julianna arrived a few minutes late with her adorable little boy.  I got to hold him for a little bit.  As if I wasn't baby hungry already - I know Melanie is only 15 month old.  After the meeting Cheryl, Julianna and I practiced our song with Myra Faye.  She mentioned that she wasn't sure if she would be able to play on Sunday, she was having medical issues.  If she can't play then Crystal will play for us.  I helped Julianna take all of her newly acquired baby items out to her car and then went home. I got home just before 9:00.  What a day!!!

Wednesday was a little less crazy.  After morning exercise for me and a nap for Melanie we went back up to Costco to retrieve my wallet.  I got back in plenty of time to have lunch and take Amy to preschool.  I also dropped off a book for Phillip and Julianna.  It's not like they got any instructions when the baby was discharged from the hospital.  Once the boys got home from school we had a snack and I made dinner. Cub Scouts was at 5:00 instead of 7:00 because they had a guest speaker.  So when I went to pick up Timothy I dropped off dinner to the I*'s and brought the cradle as well.  They are going to borrow it for a while.  I was a little (OK a lot) frustrated with Timothy.  He misplaced his neckerchief, but instead of telling me that, he said he was ready for scouts.  Then when I went to pick him up he wouldn't come, I had to ask him 3 times.  Even though I reminded him the girls were in the van by themselves (David was home watching the oven for me), and that I had a  dinner I needed to deliver. When he finally came he then said he couldn't find the water bottle he had received that night.  I told him he could get it on Sunday, but instead he ran out the other door to look for it.  After I tracked him down he finally agreed to come, and then Crystal said she saw his book and water bottle in the hallway.  So he went to get them.  Why does he seem to move so slowly when I am in a hurry?  Afterward I was embarrassed by how I reacted.  I really need to be more patient.  When we got home David had taken dinner out of the oven, and Aaron had come home as well.  We ate dinner, and then Aaron and David were off to scouts/mutual.  I was still reading to Amy when they came home.  Melanie didn't sleep well that night - she had another stuffy nose!

Thursday was a more normal day.  Amy had preschool, and that's all I can think of really. That evening there was a BYU basketball game, but I just followed it using gamecast.  It got really exciting toward the end as we tied it up and it went into overtime.  We were down by 7 with about 70 seconds left, so Aaron gave up and went back upstairs.  Somehow we came back and it went into 2OT, it even went into 3OT, but we lost 110 to 114.

Videos

Two videos that wouldn't load before:

Melanie is 15 Months Old!

Here's a few pictures I took of Melanie on Saturday morning:

 She looks so much older with those little pig tails!

 saying "cheese"!

This little keeps me on my toes.

• Sometimes she's content to play by herself, other times she won't let me put her down.  Evidenced by her one of two words she pronounces perfectly - "up" with emphasis on the "p".  The other word is "mama".  
• Sometimes she'll just sit and look at a book, other times she is pulling everything out of the drawers, and cupboards, and helping me empty the dishwasher - while standing on the door of course.

• She still puts things in her mouth. Last week while Amy was drawing with markers Melanie wanted to try too.  She was having fun drawing and the next thing I know she had put the marker in her mouth bit down, and pulled the felt right out!  What a mess that made.  Thank goodness for washable markers. 
• She's also in a biting phase.  Not all the time, just randomly.  Mostly she bites me.  Although she did bite Aaron's toes yesterday during FHE.
• She loves to play with her new car

• She loves music and loves to dance

• After two months of refusing to go down the stairs by herself, she finally decided to try it again, unless I'm in plain view, then she wants me to carry her.
• She says "Psss" while signing "please".
• She says "uh oh" especially when repeating after someone or dropping something - usually off her high chair.
• She will pant when we say "dog" (or "cat" or "horse" or "cow").
• She laughs when other people laugh

• She says: "Shhh!"
• She coughs when other people cough

•  She can nod "yes" and shake her head "no".  Only when I say the word "yes" or "no", not in response to a question.

Melanie is so fun.  She finally slept through the night (once) last week.  But now she is waking again with another runny/stuffy nose.  She is generally happy, and more friendly with others compared to Amy, but still prefers Mom over anyone else. 

I've Been Busy Dreaming and Planning

I was all caught up and now I'm a week behind again.  Not there has been much going on here.  I don't remember what we did Thursday night.  Friday the kids were back at school, Aaron back at work.  The day before my exercise bike up and quit!  When Aaron got home from work on Thursday he told me that the K6s were getting rid of their elliptical machine.  So I texted Crystal and asked how much she wanted for it.  She called Friday morning and said I could come and get it anytime.  I had to go somewhere in the morning (I can't remember where - the store?) so after Melanie's afternoon nap I took the girls to pick it up.  No one answered the door, so I started loading it in the back of the van.  Daren and the boys arrived when I was almost done.  Daren helped me fit it in and I took it home.  I had to move the bike out of the way and set the elliptical in its place.  Now we have to get rid of the bike, unless someone wants to try to fix it.  Friday night after dinner we went to the high school basketball games.  We got there around half time for the girl's game.  The game was further than we expected.  We found some seats and enjoyed the game.  The girls won their game prettily handily.  The boy's game didn't start out that great.  At one point we were down by nine, but toward the end of the 1st quarter we made a come back, and then with less than a second left we got the ball, and the player stepped into bounds dribbled twice and threw it from the opposite free throw line (about 3/4 of the court) and made the shot!!!  It was amazing!  From there the score was a little more even, and in the second half we took off and won by a fair amount.  Melanie got really tired, and didn't want to sit on my lap.  Aaron took her for a while, but it was too noisy to sleep.  I ended up taking her and letting her wander around.  Then found a less crowded spot near the door and let her walk up and down the empty row.  She enjoyed that.  I felt bad for leaving the rest of the kids with Aaron, but oh well.  David came down and sat with me for a little bit too.  It was fun.  I've missed going to basketball games.

Saturday after morning chores Aaron took the kids geocaching and I got some things done around the house - mostly prepping dinner.  Aaron went up to the city to map out the video they were making the next week.  I got dinner ready and the sister missionaries came over at 5:00 for dinner.  That night there was a BYU basketball game on, so we watched that after dinner.  That's about it.

I took this picture of Melanie (I'm not sure why), but she's cute!

Sunday was a good day. I'm so glad that Amy isn't having any problems going to her new class.  They have the 4 and 5 year olds together, and Sis. B* is teaching them.  Amy does great with her.  The nursery is so small right now.  It's only Eli and Marshall until Melanie goes in (still 3 months away), Brody is 6 weeks after that, and then it's about 6 more months until Brynn comes in.  David is glad he's still in the same class with Sis H*, and he'll get to be with that class for the rest of the year.  Timothy seems to enjoy his class as well.  He can't remember his teacher's name, ("She used to do cub scouts" was all he could remember) so I'll have to figure that out on Sunday.  I enjoyed church.  Nothing stands out to me really, just great talks and lessons.  I did stay after for a bit to practice the song that Cheryl, Julianna and I will be singing in a couple weeks.

Aaron couldn't make any home teaching appointments so it was a quiet afternoon at home.  We played, and had dinner, and FHE.  Aaron did the lesson.  Amy picked the activity, and Timothy chose the dessert.  I didn't want to have too many desserts around the house, so I asked Timothy to pick the dessert we had with the missionaries, so we could have the leftovers for Sunday night. 

another cute picture of Melanie - I tried pig tails for the first time

Monday I was excited to try out the elliptical.  Let me tell you, I have been pampered by my exercise bike.  Sometimes after riding for 40 minutes my legs felt like jelly, I loved it.  After 2 minutes on the elliptical my quads hurt.  Yikes.  I didn't make it very far.  I only went 20 minutes, and that's with several stops and starts.  This will definitely be a harder work out.  But I'm gonna stick to it!  After a great workout and shower etc.  I didn't do much else.  I take that back I spent a lot of time on the computer planning our summer vacation.  I've spent a lot of time researching flights, hotels, rental cars etc.  That's the main reason I haven't blogged in over a week.  I've been on the computer, but not blogging.  I've also been back at exercising, so that takes extra time too.  Once we get everything booked (tonight hopefully) I'll have more time for blogging, and playing too hopefully.  More on the destination later.

That night we had another family activity.  This time building with structures.  Mostly I just kept Melanie away from everyone else's creations.  Aaron had a cool idea.

Timothy did this one

After the kids went to bed Aaron went over to the resident's apartment to hook up the washer and dryer.  On his way home he saw a drunk driver, and called it in.  He had to follow her until the police came, and then they came over here to get his written statement. 

Tuesday was a fairly normal day.  I exercised in the morning.  Preschool was canceled because Eli was sick.  I had to run something over to Aaron after lunch, and pick up my prescription at the pharmacy.  I got Amy an ice cream cone at McDonald's on the way home.  David had piano after school, and that's about it.  That night after dinner I went to book club (it was rescheduled because of the icy roads the previous week) and Aaron took ALL of the kids to the basketball game.  He's a brave man.  Granted he only went for the boy's game and it was a pretty quick game.  I think we won 70 something to 30 something.  We got home around the same time.  It's a good thing because I had only brought the car keys, and not the house keys.  I would have been locked out if the game had been longer.

Wednesday I didn't do my usual run to the city.  I only needed a few things, so I opted not to go.  Instead it was exercise and more computer stuff, as well as playing with my kiddos.  The boys had scouts/ mutual and I had a presidency meeting.  Amy was so good and played downstairs almost the whole time.  Melanie on the other hand needed constant attention.  She either needed a drink, or me to hold her.  I didn't get to take a lot of notes.  At some point that day I realized we were planning our vacation right on top of one of the activities I'm in charge of.  Luckily I work with awesome people who said they would help me out!


Thursday was pretty normal as well.  Amy enjoyed preschool. The kids had school, Aaron had work etc.  I exercised, and did stuff at home - pretty boring day.  Friday was a little better.  The girls and I went grocery shopping after Melanie's morning nap.  The rest was pretty uneventful until after dinner.  Aaron had spent the entire day in meetings in the city.  He got home around dinner time.  Aaron was on call, and had several patients to see in the morning, and then a baby was born, so about 30 minutes after he got home he had to leave again.  Most of that time was spent getting sign out, and then info on the baby.  After he left, the kids wanted to watch a movie, so they watched The Rescuers and then it was off to bed.  Aaron got home about 10 minutes before the movie was over.  I was just getting Melanie into bed.  After the kids were in bed Aaron and had our date night movie.  We got The Princess Bride for Christmas, but hadn't had a chance to watch it yet.  We did some laundry (ironing and folding) while we watched, but then got to just be together.  I was reminded why that is such a great movie.

As for today Aaron was at the hospital for most of the morning.  He dropped off David at the church for the merit badge round up, and the rest of us cleaned up the house.  Aaron got home just before lunch time, and then picked up David at the church.  He is now out shooting a video for work, and the kids have been watching their screen time, and I have been blogging.  That's it!  Now you are caught up!

My Amaryllis and Snow

Monday the kids went back to school.  It was a back to normal.  I finally got my exercise in.  After about a month of neglecting it it felt good, although I only lasted about half what I normally do.  I'll work my way back into it.  I even had a green smoothie.  Melanie begged for some, so I shared.  I think she liked it.

 I've been watching my amaryllis grow and bloom.  Watch the progress!

Christmas Day

January 1st

January 5th

 January 7th

 later that evening

January 8th

 This morning (Jan 9th)

This is bright spot because outside on Tuesday morning it was cold and icy.  There was freezing rain overnight.  The roads were very icy.  So much so that Aaron almost became the 12th car in an 11 car pile up.  When I woke up there was a 2 hour delay.  I was glad when they canceled school.  I didn't want to drive on those icy roads, and I would have had to wake up Melanie to take the kids to school.  So we spent a lazy day at home.  Some games, some movies, and a forgotten piano lesson.  Oops!  By 4:00 in the afternoon it started snowing.  I wasn't sure how much it would snow or long it would stay, so I took some pictures.  Who knows it might be the only snow we get this year.

 It snowed for a couple of hours, and we got about an inch or so.

 The kids wanted to play outside, so I let them

 Timothy made a little snowman

 he took a couple of pictures of it

We didn't do much else that evening. Book Club was postponed.

Wednesday the boys went back to school, and I went to the city to stock up.  I only went to Fred Meyer and Costco, but I stocked up on a lot of items.  I was glad that I Amy talked me out of going to Target.  I found out later there was an accident on the freeway (right by the exit to Target) about 20 minutes before I would have driven that way.  I passed by that spot 30 minutes before it happened.   Since I went to Costco I didn't take the freeway, and didn't know about the accident until I saw it in Thursday's paper.  I'm was glad not to be stuck in the traffic, Melanie was already fussy as it was.  It's getting harder to run errands in the morning.  It means she misses her morning nap, or rather it gets delayed by a lot.  She fell asleep on the way there, but woke up when I got her out of the van, and she was exhausted in Costco, and fell asleep on the way home.  It was 11:00 when we headed for home.  I let her sleep until I unloaded everything and got some lunch ready.  I woke her at 12:00 because I wanted to make sure she still got an afternoon nap so I could get things done at home. 

 Despite her cold, Amy wanted to play outside in the snow.

 After dinner Aaron and David went to scouts/make up piano lesson.  Then it was bed time.

Thursday (today - yay I'm caught up) the kids went to school.  I tried to use the exercise bike, but it malfunctioned, so I ended up doing an ab workout.  My exercise plan is not working so well right now.  After lunch Amy went to preschool, and I went to the bank with Melanie.  Then she got a nap and got some things done at home.  Now the kids are home, and it's their turn to use the computer, so I'll sign off for now.

Happy New Year!

It's 2014!!!  Everyone else got to sleep in until 8:00.  Melanie however decided she was going to wake up at 5:55 am!  Boo!  So guess who woke up early?  Just me.  Oh well.  Eventually I made breakfast and fed the crew.  I may have had candy for breakfast.  We didn't have much of a plan for the day.  Aaron was on call all week, but he didn't get called in Monday or Tuesday night.  Eventually he went in to see a patient that morning, and had to go back at some point during the day.  Otherwise he was home.  Apparently I ate way too much junk food, because my stomach was upset pretty much all day.  Lunch consisted of leftovers.  David invited Taevon over since he couldn't the night before.  He arrived around 1:00.  Around 2:00 Elizabeth picked up Timothy and he went to play with Sam.  When Aaron got back from the hospital he took Taevon and David over to the church parking lot to ride around on their electric scooters.  Then they did a little geocaching and picked up Timothy on their way home.  I mostly just played with the girls.  Except that Amy wasn't feeling well, and slept for a good chunk of the day.  She missed lunch.  When she woke up I fed her a little something, and then she said she was cold.  Melanie was napping, so I told her to wrap up in a blanket downstairs.  She fell asleep again for 2 more hours!

However she was feeling fine when we mentioned that we were going to eat the gingerbread house.  We had forgotten to do that on New Year's Eve, so it was done on the 1st. 

The 2nd was another work day for Aaron, and another play day for me and the kids.  I'm trying to remember what we did, but apparently I did a lot of blogging.  I'm still trying to catch up.  More games and movies and general playing.  Nothing too exciting.  Friday was similar.

Saturday the 4th was a little busy.  Aaron was no longer on call, so he was able to come with us for the church cleaning.  We had a lot of help, so it didn't take long.  We came home and got ready for Lydia's baptism.  The rest the K6s had family in town was for the baptism.  It was great to be there to support them.  I was also able to jump in and lead the music.  Aaron was one of the witnesses too, and stood in on the confirmation.  It was a great program.  She had two wonderful speakers, her grandmother and her "honorary" grandma, Nancy S*.  Or as she said her oldest BFF.  Those two are great friends!  Lydia often sits with Nancy at church.  What a great thing for both of them!  Melanie was a little wriggly because she was tired.  She never did end up going to sleep.  We enjoyed one of Carol P*'s delicious cakes for refreshments.  I got a small piece to share with Melanie, but she protested.  Apparently she didn't want me to feed her bites of my cake, she wanted her own to feed herself.  So after she calmed down I got her a small piece of her own, and she devoured it, and then ate Amy's cake that Amy left behind.  When we got home I fed her some lunch and put her down for a nap at 12:30.  She only slept until 1:30.  That was her only nap for the day, and it wasn't very long.

Aaron took the kids geocaching.  They had a lot of fun, and stopped by the chocolate shop on the way home.  It's sad that it's closing, but she says she'll still do special orders and catering at out her home.  The overhead is just too expensive.  After a simple dinner we went over to Phillip and Julianna's to celebrate Julianna's birthday.  Both of them were under the weather, but still invited people to their home to celebrate.  It ended up just being us and the N* family.  They are in the neighboring ward, but are still in our town and attend school with our kids, and Jennifer comes to the book club here. It was fun to see them again.  They introduced Wackee 6 to the K9s so we got to tell them about the fun we had playing on New Year's Eve.  We stayed for about an hour, but then had to leave so I could still get the girls to take a bath before bedtime.  Melanie was acting a little silly since she only had one short nap that day.  One funny thing: I was sitting on the couch and Melanie wanted me to pick her up.  I sat her on my lap, but she stood up and pushed my back like she wanted me to lean forward, when I did so, she crawled behind me and sat down.  She wanted my seat!  That stinker!  Aaron had driven separately because he was attending a pot-luck dinner.  It was a farewell for one of the physicians at the clinic.  It was actually Dr. W*, the doctor for me and my kids.  I have to choose which of the others I want to be our PCP.  So the kids were in bed when he got home.

Sunday was a fast Sunday.  One of the great things about living in our small town is that we are the only ward in our building.  Yes that means we have a great responsibility to care for it, but it also means we don't have to change times every year.  I love our time!  Anyway it was a great Sunday.  I even got Melanie to take a nap before church.  So we didn't have to get her to sleep while at church.  Of course that meant she was a little fussy during Relief Society because she was getting tired.  We didn't get home until almost 1:30, so I fed her some lunch, but she was tired, so she went down for a nap.  Aaron got a nap in too.  The kids were having a hard time getting along which meant it wasn't a very restful nap for Aaron.  Eventually we had some dinner and FHE.  Aaron made a delicious pecan pie for dessert.  We Skyped with Aaron's family for a bit before going to bed.  And that's about it.