June 3-9

Here we go again with another chapter of the VA Stone saga....

So we were in week two of the Austin Ridge Rapids swim team schedule - we have practices starting at 4PM and ending at 6:45 Mon thru Thurs and a little shorter (4-6) on Fri. Everyone from Brittany down to Hans is actively practicing with the team, we are still working with Daniel and then Brittany and Alli will not compete at the swim meets as they have decided that belly flopping off the starting blocks is not a good idea...

Mingled with those goings on we had soccer parties for Hans and Daniel, Orchestra concert for Allison, soccer practices and a tournament for Michael, youth activities, a piano recital for all and various other miscellaneous outings to play tennis or to the pool etc.

The Orchestra concert was lots of fun with a little craziness because this was the same day as the soccer party for Hans and we had to run home for the camera - just little speed bumps though.

All of the kids (who participated) did great in the mock swim meet we had on Saturday morning and then we had a great time listening to our sun bronzed swimmers tickle the ivories as well at the Recital. Daniel and a few siblings headed off to his soccer party and then the whole family headed south for the soccer tournament. Michael's team won their tournament game with Michael playing great defense and setting up their third of three goals. We capped everything off with a fun cookout at Aunt Merica's house on Saturday and are now, Sunday evening, thumbing this update on the Blackberry from the Stake Center before Britty and Allison sing in the choir for Seminary graduation.

Mylinda continues to work miracles with the pebbles and I am enjoying setting years of crazy maker wasteful processes aright at work. We also have a champion crawler in Gideon and a potty trained little Lucy who expands her vocabulary by hundreds of word a day it seems. Never a dull moment and always reminders of the many blessings we enjoy. Sure love you all and would love to have any of you visit whenever you would like!

May 27-June 2

The week began with a Sunday full of meetings for everyone. Brittany and Allison are participating in two different special youth choirs. Brittany, Allison, and Michael are all in their class presidencies so have meeting associated with that. It keeps them all quite busy on Sundays.

Monday was a different kind of Memorial Day for us. We celebrated Mylinda’s birthday. First we had an amazing breakfast and then we went shopping for swimsuits since swim team started this week for everyone. After shopping we came home and had a super yummy birthday lunch and then, per request, worked on building a special shelf for the dinning room. Next we had an amazing dinner of ribs etc. and then a game of Phase 10. We were invaded by several of our teenage friends which was great fun and then they stayed for cake and ice cream to finish off a wonderful day. I received so many birthday wishes from so many wonderful people. I felt ever so loved.

Tuesday it was a little tough to go back to school after such a fun long weekend. Allison and Michael had their “at school” classes so I was driving back and forth for that. All the kids had piano lessons. Aunnika and Catherine had sewing lessons, and then it went like this. I ran Allison to a special Orchestra rehearsal to get ready for her concert this week, then went strait to the community center to update everyone’s pool passes for the year. I then came home and grabbed Brittany and Michael and then went and picked up Alli and dropped them all off at the pool for swim team. I came home and fed Gideon and then left with Aunnika to pick up Michael’s two teammates for soccer. We dropped Aunnika off and picked Michael up and drove out to soccer practice. I then drove right back and got Catherine and drove her to swimming. Allison and Brittany had walked home in the mean time. I dropped Catherine off and picked Aunnika up and then came home to help get dinner ready. As soon as Mike got home he took Hans and Daniel to swimming and I went to drop dinner off to a ward member and pick up Michael from soccer. We all got back home a little after 7 at which time Mike and I went to play tennis for a few minutes and then we went to drop off the dinner again after a call that they were now home and ready to receive it. We got home at 8:30 when we finally got to eat dinner, The kids had already had devotional without us and The little ones were headed to bed. We got them settled in, visited with the teens, and then finally all went to bed. What a crazy day.

Wednesday all the kids had swimming again. They are all getting a great chance to improve their skills, as swimming is not something that we have ever spent much time with before. Hans had soccer practice too so he went to half of soccer and then we went and I traded Mike spots at the pool so he could take the big kids to youth activities at the church.

Thursday was swimming again along with soccer practice for Michael and then Daniel had soccer too. This schedule is gonna kill us but thankfully this was our last week of this soccer schedule. Michael got invited to participate on an older team in a tournament this weekend so he’ll have practice for that but the little boys are done for the season.

Friday was most significant in that Brittany took her drivers test and passed with a perfect score. HOORA for Brittany. Now she just has to get a few more driving hours and wait until July 5 and then she will have an official drivers license. (It works kinda weird here) Friday night the big girls and Dad went to an eagle court of honor while we had our pizza and movie party here. The girls then went to a friends house and Daddy came home to hangout with all us really cool folks.

Saturday all three soccer games were at the same time to Mom took Hans and a few siblings to his game. Dad took Daniel and a few siblings to his game. Michael had to get a ride with a teammate. It was crazy but everyone had a good time. We then all came home and did our house cleaning jobs and then Dad, Mom, Brittany and Michael went shopping with Brittany at the wheel. It took forever but we finally got home and got the kids ready for their evening and then Dad and Mom went out on our date. When we got home we put the little ones to bed and then watched Batman with the big kids. It was a wonderful day, a wonderful week, we have a WONDERFUL life!

May 6-12 2012

Once again Mike was out of town all week. This week he was in Memphis Tennessee. He got to go on a tour of Graceland, Elvis’s mansion. He said it was pretty neat. He also got to go to several fun restaurants.

Those of us who remained at home Enjoyed having Nephi and Melanie with their sweet little Andersen and Grace, here with us for a few days.

Monday Michael had an orthodontist appt. again and finally got the appliance we’ve been going to all these appointments for. He also had a soccer game that night and while they didn’t play awesome, he reported having a fun time. We all went and cheered for him and had a fun time watching.

Tuesday after a full day of school, piano lessons, and sewing lessons, Aunnika and Catherine had activity days and Michael had soccer practice. Brittany and Allison held the fort down here at home.

Wednesday afternoon, Brittany had an oral surgery consult and he suggested that she get her wisdom teeth out so we set up the appointment for that and then got home in time to take Hans to his soccer practice. Brittany drove us there for her driving practice time and while Hans practiced soccer in the rain, Brittany practiced parking between cars. We set up camping chairs and cones all around a parking spot and she only “crashed” a few times. I was glad I didn’t have her practicing on real cars J. The oldest three all had youth activities that night and must have had a great time cuz when I went to pick them up they sure didn’t want to leave. By that time it was pouring rain so they asked me to crank up the music in the car and they danced in the rain with some friends. They were sure wet when they finally got in the car.

Thursday was a slow day. We just added Michael and Daniel’s soccer practices to the mix of the day. Brittany drove us in the van to Daniel’s practice. It was a VERY scary drive there on narrow winding roads so we took a different rout home and that was way better.

Friday Mike got home so I went and picked him up and once again we sat in traffic forever and then went grocery shopping again. When we got home, we got daddy and the boys packed up and they headed out for a father and sons campout. I think the little boys favorite part was the cannon that Andrew Fellows took up. They loved seeing that fired off. They also report having met a man that is 100 years old and only looks about 40! Here at home the little girls watched “Barbie and the Twelve Dancing Princesses” and the big girls and I watched “The Vow” . Definitely a girl night here.

Saturday morning I took Brittany and Allison and Jenna Walker to the church to clean for the Young Women’s cleaning assignment. Only two other girls showed up and no leaders! After dropping them off, I got everyone else that was left here and went and picked up Daniel from the campout and took him to his soccer game. Mike took Hans to his soccer game a little while later. Daniel scored the first goal for his team and they won umpthing to 3. We then went and joined the others at Hans’s game. He also scored a goal for his team and they won 6 to 3. We came home and did a little cleaning up and went and got some stuff for Brittany’s prom hair. Mike took Allison and several friends to a stake youth activity. We then took several kids and went to Michael’s soccer game. This game was much more fun than Monday’s and his team won. We hurried home and I got to make a hair clip for Brittany and then did her hair for prom and got her all dressed up. She was so so beautiful! Allison went to “Avengers” with some friends while Mike and I went out on our date and Michael babysat here at home. Brittany finally got home glowing. She had such a wonderful time. And then we all went to bed!

Happy Easter to all!

We were having a big discussion about all the hype and time and activities that are Christmas and how Easter is really not that big of a deal in our culture. If there were no Easter, there would be no Christmas and that sort of thing. We talked about how we could make easter a really huge deal and do activities everyday for a month leading up to Easter Sunday. But then as I thought about it, I decided that one of the things that I really LOVE about Easter, is that I get to enjoy it. There isn't the stress of doing all the "traditional" activities and making sure that everyone of our friends and neighbors and relatives gets a gift or card etc. I like that we don't make a big deal (at all) about easter eggs and such. We do color eggs and hide candy eggs but it's just a little activity that we do at some point close to Easter. On Sunday, we have a big nice easter dinner that we all prepare together and we enjoy reading about the Savior. And I really really like the beautiful simplicity of Easter.

So with that lengthy pro-logue, here was our Easter celebration for 2011.

It began on Friday. I filled a big bowl with candy, the kids got their own eggs and filled them and then Mike and I hid them in the back yard. The kids then came out for the great egg hunt. The weather was nice. The location was prime. There are, as always, a few eggs that we never did find.

Saturday was FREEZING as we anticipated (thus the egg hunt on Friday) so we chose an indoor activity, that of coloring eggs. It was fun and not a single person ruined the clothes they were wearing. Now there's a miracle!

Then on Sunday we prepared and enjoyed our Easter Feast. We all worked together preparing the meal so it was fun for everyone. We then all really enjoyed eating the meal together while talking about some of the things we think about and love about this beautiful holiday. It was fun to hear the kids answers but I'm sorry to say I can't remember them.

We are so very thankful for the Savior, for His atonement, and for the great blessings of repentance and the resurrection.

Broken bones and such

Caution: Some graphic images are contained in this post and may be offensive to some viewers!

March 29th 2011, Mike came home from work early to get some work done on the house, I left for a Dr. appointment. Soon after I left, Mike was walking down the stairs with his hands full of tools on one side and little Lucy on the other. He missed a stair and fell partly landing on Lucy's right leg. He heard his toe make a loud crack sound but didn't think anything of it at the time due to his concern for Lucy who was crying and quite upset. After about an hour, Lucy had calmed down some but was still crying a bit and wouldn't crawl or stand or put any weight on her right leg. Mike was afraid it might be broken so he called me as I was driving home from the Dr. and told me what had happened. I'll admit that I flipped, but just for a second. I met Mike and Lucy at an urgent care clinic. It was at about this time (nearly 2 hours later) that Mike realized his toe hurt a bit. He took his sock off and his toe looked down right ugly! At the clinic they did X-rays of both Lucy and Mike and both had broken bones. Lucy had a buckle fracture in both the tibia and fibula just a little below the knee and Mike had several breaks in the middle bone of his big toe. After 4 hours at urgent care, Lucy got a splint and Mike got a really cool shoe.

This is Mike's foot on Wednesday morning.

I didn't take a picture a few days later but that's when it looked it's worst with the whole end of his foot all swollen and bruised. It was pretty nasty. (this is the "graphic" image and I think it's really grodie! The rest are totally cute!)

Lucy got a splint. It was big and awkward but she was fine with it and happier that prior to having it on.

On Wednesday afternoon she went and saw a pediatric orthopedist and got her cute purple cast on. Doesn't she look so pleased with her pretty trophy?

She certainly didn't let it slow her down. It was on for three weeks and by the end of her cast wearing time she was almost walking in the thing. Kids are so incredibly adaptable.

Here we are at the Dr. just before she got the cast off.

And here she is with the cast off.

It took her a few minutes of experimenting and then when she realized it was ok to bend her leg, she was off. She crawled out into the hall and held Daddy's fingers and walked around the clinic. She was a hit cuz she's so dog-gone cute!

Friday morning, Lucy was off and walkin'. She'd taken a few steps prior to the whole ordeal but now she decided there was no point in waiting any longer. I have a cute video of her walking but it doesn't want to up load so you'll just have to trust me on this one.

Birthday Princess!!

Can you even believe she's really one!

Our sweet Lucy An had her first birthday on Saturday.

We started the evening with her favorite dinner, Potato leek gratin and boiled carrots.

She loved it and ate a ton.

Next it was time for gifts.

There were, of coarse, no shortage of fun presents.

Better than that though, there was no shortage of attention.

Each of the kids enjoyed helping Lucy unwrap the gift that they were giving her.

She got lots of buttons to push that make noise.

Everyone made her wonderful cards.

Everyone LOVES LUCY!!!

And now the big moment we were all waiting for. The cake!

Lucy had never legally had sugar. She got it a few times by snitching things out of siblings shelves, or finding something left behind. A few times someone snuck her a bite of illegal sweets but this was it. This was the moment when she would get sugar and just be able to have at it.

It started with just a little taste, and then a handful or two.

Lucy was certainly pleased with what she discovered.

After that there was no slowing her down. She really loved the stuff.

Down to the last finger-licken good bite.

It was a really fun celebration. I just can't believe that my baby is one year old. It really does seem like that went so so quickly. Lucy is such a delight. She is so much fun and so very silly. She loves stroller rides and watching the kids play ball. She loves her dollies and hugging them. She likes to play peek-a-boo and clapping games. Lucy gives such sweet hugs with pats on the back included. She is never lacking for attention as everyone around her instantly adores her, but especially her family. What a treat our sweet Lucy is.

Conference Contest

Each General conference we choose a treat and make several versions of it and then choose our favorite. This session was rice krispy treats.

It was between traditional marshmallow with cinnamon bears, scotcharoos, and traditional marshmallow treats.

And the winner is.....

Traditional marshmallow treats with cinnamon bears!