Winter Band Concert

 Tuesday the kids were back in school once again! I went shopping finally! There were piano lessons that afternoon, and that's about it. Wait, I think there might have been a Relief Society activity that night, but I don't remember.

Wednesday was pretty normal. While the boys were at mutual, the girls had a dance party.


Thursday, besides helping in Melanie's class, we went to the boys' band concert at the high school. First up was Jazz band

Timothy played piano for Shiny Stockings

David's solo




We listened to the choir, then concert band was up next.

Instead of an all girls group this semester, some of the boys convinced Ms. L* to do a boy's group. Mens' Chorus, or as they nicknamed it "Dad Choir". They even convinced David to play trumpet for one of their songs.

I don't remember much about Friday or Saturday, but I got this picture of Allison. What you can't see is the earwig she was chasing, and trying to pick up.

A few more pictures:

Lots of snow!

messy hair after wearing knits hats to play outside in the snow

hot chocolate is a must after playing in the snow

I love that Aaron and the kids were all playing together, well except Allison, I kept her inside with me.

Breakfast for dinner on Sunday

Pep Band and Birthday Fun

Friday I got I video of Allison going down the stairs by herself.

There was a basketball game that night

 I got a video of David as the pep band leader


and one of Timothy of the drum set

It was a pretty lopsided game!
Saturday the kids finished the puzzle

Allison turned 10 months old, but was grumpy and had goopy eyes. Pink eye continues to plague my girls.

She was not happy about sitting or laying on the blanket

She did take a selfie with me

That afternoon I went out to lunch with Julianna for her birthday. Allison didn't sleep as long as I had hoped, but I waited to nurse her until after we finished our meal. It was fun to catch up with Julianna in person.

Allison still loves to dance even when she doesn't feel well.

There was another basketball game on Saturday night. Amy decided to join the kids in line to get high fives from the team during the line up.

It was another lopsided win, as expected.

Sunday the girls wore their matching dresses. They didn't come in Allison's size.

Fast Sunday, first Sunday with brand new callings, the new ward was coming together. Lots of callings were issued. I was getting a team teacher. With the new Sunday schedule - two hour church, we will only have Sunday school twice a month. We have team teachers so we have two deep leadership, and we are sharing teaching duties, which means I will only teach once a month!!! I taught that week since my team teacher hadn't been officially called yet. It was weird to go home after Sunday School. But also nice to have that extra hour.

We did our study for the coming week that evening. The younger three don't have their own manuals, but the rest of us do so we can write things down as we do our personal study. I don't remember much else about the evening.

Fall Band Concert

Monday there was no school for the kids. David went to work, and the kids stayed home while I took Allison and Michelle shopping. For some reason I only went to a couple of stores. I think I ran out of time because I needed to pick up my chocolate order. The chocolate was supposed to be there at 1:00. They were a little late. So I ended up with two sleeping kids in the car. But Allison woke up, and I had to feed her right around the time the chocolate arrived. Eventually I got my chocolate (and Shannon's) and headed home. Allison wasn't pleased with Michelle being asleep. But oh well. I drove home and the kids help unload groceries while Michelle slept. Shannon picked up her chocolate later than afternoon.

Tuesday, I don't remember why but I had to go back up to the city and finish my grocery shopping. Then we headed back home. That afternoon I waited all day for a pkg to arrive (Aaron's new phone). After they failed to fix a volume issue they sent him a new (refurbished) phone. We had to sign for it, so I hoped it wouldn't come while driving kids to a from piano lessons. It didn't. Luckily we know the Fed Ex Express driver, and he told Aaron what time he thought he'd be there. Unfortunately he was running behind and we had to leave for the band concert. We had just barely arrived when he called asking to be let in the gate. I explained that we had to leave for the band concert. Luckily Aaron hadn't left from work yet, so the plan was Greg could leave it without a signature since he had verbal consent to leave it. Aaron left from work and picked up the phone on the way to the concert a few minutes later.

First up was concert band. Timothy played timpani, xylophone, bells, vibraphone and marimba.

 

 

 Then the choir sang

I know a couple of those kids! It was nice to see more guys in the choir this year.

 Then it was time for jazz band

 David had a solo

 Then Timothy had a solo on piano



Then David had another solo

The concert was amazing as expected. Aaron and the boys went out for a treat afterward, and then came home. I was just getting the girls ready for bed.

Wednesday, I can't remember much. I took the Yukon in for an oil change. There was mutual, I think. Thursday I started helping in Melanie's class. Or maybe that was the week before. I can't remember. I go in after the morning recess. Then I went up to the city, again, I can't even remember why, I mailed  a pkg, but that wasn't the main reason. Aaron I had texted to ask if he needed anything and he said he didn't, but that we could meet for lunch at Costco. I knew he wouldn't be home for dinner, so I thought that was a great idea.

I got a cute video of Allison making noises.



That evening Aaron had a few meetings at the stake center. One was an area broadcast which he had to listen to as he drove there, and then an auxiliary training. In between meetings our photographer dropped off the photos along with a gift. I was excited to see them!

Meanwhile at home Melanie and Michelle rolled a car across the floor while I fixed dinner. Aaron got home late that night and we looked at the pictures. I'll have to post my favorites.

Friday I don't remember much until that evening. Aaron took the kids to the football game, and I took Allison to a Favorites Party. Julianna and a friend of hers were hosting. Shannon, Michelle and Madi were also going, so Shannon offered to drive. Allison fell asleep about 20 minutes before they came to pick me up, so I put her in the car seat carrier to sleep. She didn't last long after we got in the car. She was not happy to be in an unfamiliar vehicle, with unfamiliar people. I ended up nursing her while she was strapped into the car. That seemed to work. She was happy after that, but I couldn't nurse he on the other side haha! The Favorite's party was fun. I've only ever done one hosted by Shannon, and that was great. That time we brought two of our favorite things. This time we brought 4 of the same favorite things, and then took home four of someone else's favorite things. The food was great. Allison was mostly well behaved. She wanted to crawl all over and take things off my plate. I gave her snacks to eat, but she kept dumping them on the floor. I'm sure some of the other ladies wondered why let her eat off the floor. Anyway, it was a fun evening and we got to talk and eat and I didn't get to talk to Julianna as much as I had hoped to, but we ended up talking with different people. Oh well. I knew I'd get to see her again soon enough.

More Birthday Celebrations

I just discovered some pictures I forgot to post because I hadn't added them to my June album.

 Cute Allison

 When she woke up somehow she knocked her binky out of her mouth and it landed on her head.

Allison wearing sunglasses

Random things about Allison: while in Hawaii she became an expert at rolling over, and started rolling both ways. We also realized that she no longer had blue eyes. They are definitely brown. She has a dark blue ring around the outside, but they are definitely brown now.

 A few more birthday pictures

You can catch a glimpse of the blanket my mom made. 

Monday was finally feeling like summer break. We were done with vacation, and unpacking, and cleaning and doing laundry from vacation. Aaron and David were working everyday, and I was home with the rest of the kids everyday. Timothy really stepped up and did a lot around the house. He also became really good at taking care of Allison when I needed to shower, or switch sprinklers etc. We didn't get into too much of a routine. We shopped, cleaned, weeded, read books, went to the library, swam in the pool, and the kids got their screen time, and played games together. It was an altogether pretty chill and boring break, for the most part.

Unfortunately David's ukulele got dropped and cracked, so I took it to a shop to get it fixed. Luckily it wasn't too hard to fix. David also got all of his paperwork together to turn in for his Eagle Scout application!!! I tried to get our underwater camera film developed, but Costco doesn't do it anymore. However I found out that Walgreen's does.

I dropped off the paper work for David at the scout office, and found out they had to cancel scout camp for Camp Bonaparte because of downed trees after a horrible storm. We also did shopping for Timothy's birthday a little late.

Monday we picked blueberries from our our bushes!!!

 So close to 2 lbs!

Tuesday Timothy opened more presents.

Thursday I went back up to the city to pick up David's paperwork, but it wasn't ready. I hoped it would be ready by Saturday for his board of review. That night we had a birthday party for Timothy. He invited a few friends over and they played, had pizza. Even Benjamin A* got to come. He happened to be in town with his mom.

 He asked for a simple cake with blue frosting. The 14 was made out of candles.

 After cake and ice cream they watched a movie and then his friends went home.

 I was excited to see my lilies were almost ready to bloom.

 The sunset was gorgeous as his friends left.

Friday I had an appt for Timothy for his scout camp physical. It's official, he's taller than me. I had to bring all of the kids, but Amy watched Melanie and Michelle in the waiting room, so I only had to bring Allison in the exam room with Timothy and me. It was a pretty exciting morning for the kids, a truck brought in half of the manufactured home that was going in across the street.

There were a few cars waiting until it moved. Around noon Lincoln came and borrowed a few of the kayaks.

 Later that afternoon the other half of the home arrived.

That evening Aaron and I had a double date with Phillip and Julianna. It was for Phillip's birthday. We drove to their house first. While there we were checking up on David. He was going to the movies with some friends, leaving Timothy in charge. We were trying to figure out why he wasn't where he said he would be. Then we realized Luca was going with them, and Lincoln hadn't returned with the kayaks yet, so maybe there were picking Luca up at the end of his kayaking trip. That turned out to be the case. They had a few mishaps on the river and it took much longer than they had expected.

Aaron drove us to Red Robin. We enjoyed a delicious dinner. We shared a dessert that we could barely finish with 3 of us eating it. Then we went back to their house and played a game. Eventually we headed home and went to bed. It was a fun and full week.