Last Day of May

Another busy day. My parents came to first meeting and then headed out. Here's what they rest of us did:

Ross--took Jill with him to Sunday School and combined adult meeting (she fell asleep in second meeting). He also packed for LA work trip and helped me organize my stuff in our  closet.

Andrea--made a cookie pie, sang in the choir, subbed as primary chorister for both hours, rocked Emma and took a nap.

Allen--picked to solve math problem on chalkboard (of temple count) during sharing time.

Abby--her name was read in Sacrament Meeting and primary in acknowledge of her baptism.

Jane--talked lots in primary and walked with me down the street to return primary singing binder.

Emma--hoarse voice, nap in rocking chair with mom after church, conducted FHE.

Jill--very snuggly, not feeling well. Starting to say more words like, "No. My turn."

Baptism Day

Nice day yesterday. I dropped the kids at school, the girls played in the backyard with bubbles and bikes, we did playdough at the table, we went to the fish hatchery, had lunch and quiet time, Ross got home early from an interview and went grocery shopping at Walmart for me!, we watched "Love Surreal", picked up kids from school, finished movie and kids played, picked up pizza for dinner, two babysitters came so we could go to the temple (we all rode in our van), very special time together, stopped for pies at McDonald's, and came home to brown meat for lunch preparations today.

Today is Abby's baptism. We're excited to celebrate this special event. She is going to wear a corsage. We're bringing the programs (I created a triple one!), a corsage, an 8x10 of her for the table, and a flash drive with 5 Bible Video clips to watch during the intermission part. I'm playing the closing song on the piano and Amy is leading it. (I remember playing for other ward baptisms when I was 14. Now it's my own daughter!) To celebrate this special event we're having a lunch (Mexican Fiesta with tostadas!) and ice cream sundaes (and other baptism-related treats) after at our house. It's nice my parents and Amy's family could be here.

  Triple Baptism May 30 2015 Program

Pix: Abby's Jungle Drama B-day Party from 5:30-7:30, May 22nd

Abby was the "Safari Guide" who wore the hat and kept us on schedule. The kids first decorated a favor bag and then throughout the party would add prizes and treats to it. We hung "vines" around the room, played games (some created by Abby, like the pin the tail on the monkey--check out the Safari schedule for more game names), ate dinner (chicken BBQ sandwiches, chips, apples, carrots, "Tropical" punch Capri Sun), had jungle-animal cupcakes and then play practice for Abby's jungle show she wrote. The party ended with the play performance.

Pix and Video: Grandparents Day, May 22nd

Colorful Invites

My parents and Amy's family stayed over in SF and will be back for dinner. Hoping to get caught up on laundry and cleaning and dinner prep while they are gone. I ordered Abby's corsage yesterday, went to the library, worked on laundry, and updated the triple baptism program (which was requested to be used as a template for next month's triple baptism). I checked our DVD for disney codes (a tip from Amy) and earned lots of points. Probably half of our movies still had codes inside. Ordered Barefoot Executive for free which is a movie I loved as a kid. We also CLEANED her room and threw out half of what she had in there (she's so decorative with boxes for animals houses and piles of costumes and art supplies and old school work--it was starting to overtake her room and look messy) and she really fought me at first and now she LOVES it. She was up until 10pm last night and woke up at 5:30am (we told her to go back to bed) because she was so excited to do more organizing on her shelves. I peeked in hoping she'd be back in bed, at least reading, but she was working on her shelves. She's going to be a such a grump later.

Here's some pictures from my phone from this past week, including baptism invites (only part of them, but I love the colors), more birthday breakfast, a YW "invite" handout (with a jungle and baptism invite on my mind, my YW handout became and invite too!), and just taking a quick break. I still need to download pictures from our camera... stay tuned!

B-day Photos from Ross's Phone

Ross just emailed me photos taken within this week, including Sutter's Mill (Saturday), birthday breakfast (Sunday), Capitol Building statues (Sunday late afternoon) and Abby's crafty gift from from Catherine in Texas. Hopefully I will download photos from our camera and dump them on the blog soon.

Two of Amy's Movies

The girls had fun playing together. There were some fights over toys and crying too, but overall people did okay. We played in the backyard with bubbles and chalk, I made pasta salad for lunch, during quiet time we watched "Beau Jest" (and I made cookies and dinner while we watched), after we picked up kids from school (and homework was done) we all went on a walk/bike ride to the park. After enchilada (cottage cheese chicken), guacamole and beans dinner kids played (mostly in the toy room), Amy's girls had baths, we had kiss cookies for our scriptures 'n dessert and kids went to bed. Grown-ups watched (and laughed at) "You Again". I hardly took any pictures. It was cute to see the girls holding hands and dancing to the music on the keyboard.

Today the Amy's family and my parents are going to San Fran with plans to see some fun things. They will be back Thursday night. While they are gone I hope to catch up on laundry, cleaning, errands, and prepare things for Abby's baptism this Saturday. Jane and Emma have their dentist appointment too.

Cousin Play

Plans today: kids have school, girls will play with cousins, maybe a movie for the adults during naptime, an outing to fish hatcheryafter school, chicken pasta salad for lunch and enchiladas for dinner, evening play at the park after dinner. It's SO FUN having family here!

We left our beach ball at Tahoe

We're at Lake Tahoe. We hiked to Eagle Falls, after lunch at McDonald's at South Tahoe and then played at Baldwin Beach. It's been gorgeous! The wind picked up before we packed up from the beach and sent out beach ball sitting song towards the casinos on the Nevada side. We had fun watching it go further and further away. Now we are driving on the west side on the way to Truckee. Hope to meet Amy and Jake near there.

Abby's Birthday Was Wild!

... so it was very fitting that we had a "jungle" party with friends on Friday.

Today...

• Abby's 8th birthday. Grandpa made breakfast cake and eggs and Grandma set the table. 
• During breakfast Andrea got a call to sub as primary chorister for only the 2nd hour.
• Andrea had a beehive meeting before church. She drove a separate car.
• After Sacrament Meeting a trip back out to the van was in order to get scriptures out for older two.
• I went to primary to do the music. Jane and Emma waved and Jane got up to run over and hug me and I tripped over her feet. Then I heard them give 8 comments during sharing time about feeling the Holy Ghost: "You feel happy." (Jane)... and she raised her hand again, "you don't be mean." (Jane) ... "and we don't pinch" (Emma)... "and we don't cry (Jane). The primary secretary was really good to validate the twins' comments and many other praimry kids. I learned that my kids know what they are NOT supposed to do. Many teachers looked over at me and smiled after Jane's many comments.
• Ross opened Sunday School meeting and called on my parents to give the opening and closing prayers.
• I did opening part of primary and then taught "Love at Home". I had about 20 minutes. We went over the chorus. We "drew" out the pitches (high and low) as we listened. We played the copy game. We used actions and sign language. We found rhyming words. We sang standing. We sang with our eyes closed. We put our voice on an "elevator" for the high part and learned what an octave was. To test their knowledge I held up colored sticks and if they were wearing that color they would raise their arms, while still singing. By the end I was proud at how well they knew those words.
• I ran from primary to stage for Young Women opening part and found my mom there. Then we broke into classes and I taught the beehive lesson. We reviewed the month's lessons, talked about the power of scriptures of the scriptures (using a conference talk by Elder Scott), learned the 3 D's (decide, daily, document... which all three turn into desire) and filled out "treasure" invitations to better our scripture reading. 
  
  
  
• After church I stayed with Abby and she had her baptism interview with the Bishop. (He said, "So, Abby, what is happening?", and he was probably expecting "well, today's my brithday" or "I'm going to get baptized soon" and she said, "I have an older brother and three sisters at home. It's kind of crazy." So in her world, "what's happening" is a crazy house!)
• On the way home I had Abby remind me to stop at primary chorister's house so we could drop her binder off. Then we got and had a leftover pizza lunch dished out by Ross, There was one more Hawaiian piece for me!
• We got shoes on and loaded in the car for a ride downtown. We saw the Capitol Building (went inside and outside it was a concert and an orange tree that caught our eye), Sutter's Fort (just saw the outside because they were closed--we sat by the water fountain) and Ross's office. And we had snacks and treats in between. Abby said it was the best birthday ever because we had a nice breakfast, went to church, went downtown and, my favorite part of her comment-- Grandma and Grandpa we here and not just calling on the phone to sing to her.
• We had "More in the Oven Casserole", broccoli, and cantelope for dinner. Then we had glow-in-the-dark balloons and sound tubes and more jungle cupcakes and ice cream.
• Kitchen was cleaned and kids were tucked in bed after 9:30.

Birthday Email to Abby from Grandma S

Happy Birthday Abby!!!  You are 8 years old!! 

You are a darling girl Abby!  I remember when you and I walked Allen to school when you lived in Texas.  That's when the twins were born.  We wrote a song, "It's a Lovely Day!" as we walked through the acorns all over the sidewalk.

     Abby's favorites are: the color turquoise, the book "Charlotte's Web", the number 7, the song "Que Sera Sera, Whatever will be will be" and "How could the Father tell the World".  She likes Chihuahuas and dolphins.  Her favorite place to visit is the LIBRARY and Utah!  Her best friends are Stella, MIchelle, and Sophia.  The sport she likes is swimming.  She likes carrots, peaches, macaroni and cheese, and kiss cookies.  She likes the movie Mary Poppins, Christmas, all seasons, Friday because its computer lab day and sharing day.  She like coco her stuffed animal, jump rope and tether ball.  We love you Abby!!

Love,

Grandpa & Grandma S