Special Moments

Last Sunday for family home evening we read The Living Christ and talked about how important it is to share our testimony of the Savior.  Then we told them we were going to start our traditional Christmas scripture reading this month.  Lila said she really wanted to do the chocolate countdown again (I bought a chocolate advent calendar for them last year from a neighborhood kid doing a fundraiser), but I could still see the buckets of Halloween candy so we decided to make our own candy countdown with plastic wrap and ribbons and the kids love it.

Yesterday, Lila danced at the Festival of Trees.  It was a crazy morning. . . the girls had their last gymnastics class from 9-9:50, then we had Activity Days from 10-11--I unfortunately could not stay for the whole thing as I had to do Lila's hair and make-up so that we could leave by 10:45, I sent Steve and Andrew early with the van so we could leave it at the store to get the tires rotated and balanced (an overdue task--we tried to do yesterday, but unfortunately it was way too busy).  We walked around the trees, watched Lila's performances then walked around with her for a bit.  At 1:30 we decided to go to lunch.  Steve knew a good authentic Chinese place nearby so we went there with tired kids and I was a bit nervous about how the lunch would go.  The kids were great.  They each ate with their chopsticks including Andrew--it was so cute to see him use them with both hands to lift a noodle or one grain of rice into his mouth.  They all tried all of the different dishes and Lila and Ellie even told the owner thank you in Chinese.  A lady sitting across from us came over and complemented us on how well our children were and how impressed she was that they were using chopsticks.  It was a happy moment to enjoy together!

The evening was just as lovely, we made individual turkey pot pies (to finish off our left over turkey) and the kids each rolled out their dough filled their bowls and then decorated the tops with the scraps of dough. Andrew kept running around saying, "POT PIES. POT PIES."  Steve played music while they brushed their teeth and they danced and howled to a song it was so cute.  I love my family!  I'm so grateful for Steve and the great Dad and partner he is . . . we might actually survive adding another to our clan. :)

Feeling so Blessed

I really have been feeling truly blessed and grateful for my many blessings.  Steve had a crazy couple of work days before Thanksgiving--the guy put in 30 hours and was home at noon on Wed.  We finished getting ready to head up to Mountain Green.  We had decided to stay the night there so we could brine the turkey and then be there early Thurs for dinner preparations.  Unfortunately, Lila had started running a fever. She was tired on Tuesday and I let her take a little rest after school and then Wednesday she said her throat hurt and she had a low-grade fever.  We called Jake to see if we should cancel our plans to stay Wednesday night (we didn't want to get little Anson sick), but we all decided it would be ok so I talked with Lila about washing her hands a lot and keeping her distance from Anson, which was so hard for her because she loves that little guy.  Mimi got the girls quilting blankets for their American Girl dolls and we just hung out.  

Ellie accidentally stitched her pants to her quilt.

We did not get a good night's rest the night before Thanksgiving and I did not sleep well the night before that so I was tired on Friday and just took it easy while Steve took Dad and Grandpa black Friday shopping at Lowe's.  We had pizza for lunch and sang Happy Birthday to Grandpa Olenslager for his 84th birthday over a piece of pie.

 

Saturday we setup Christmas decorations and decided to ride the train down to see the lights on Temple Square.

Waiting for the train to take us to Salt Lake.

Great Grandpa Olenslager and Andrew on trax heading to temple square.

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It was a cold night--25 degrees so we went into the visitor's center to warm up before heading out to catch the train home.  Even Andrew was saying, "cold. cold."

We had hot cocoa and donuts afterwards.  Andrew was so excited when we got to Krispy Kreme, he kept saying, "donut" and the hot and fresh light was on so he gladly held his hand out for his free donut. :)

Side Note: Lila's fever broke Thanksgiving day so we thought it came back on Sunday, but without any other clear symptoms. I dropped off a urine sample at the doctor's office this morning waiting to hear if she has a UTI . . . poor girl want her to be healthy.

12/1 Update: Just got back from the doctor because after nap time Lila had rashy feverish cheeks.  She has strep . . . doctor thinks that her daily UTI medicine may have been masking some of the symptoms of strep which is why the fever may have been coming and going and she only complained of a sore throat one day.  I'm just glad we got an answer and 24 hours on the antibiotic and she should be doing a lot better.  Another interesting note is he saw Andrew with us and said strep is usually a school age illness and they don't typically see it in kids 3 and under so thank goodness for the odds being in our favor on that one.
 

One Year Older and Wiser . . .

I don't know about the "wiser" part, but I've always like that primary song. It was a fantastic birthday. I spent yesterday canning chicken with my friend and she brought me flowers and chocolates (so thoughtful). Then my sister came by and we canned more chicken.  It was really a crazy day yesterday with everyone having dental cleanings, school volunteering, canning 90 pounds of chicken, Ellie's book club, and I went to the Relief Society Activity so when today came I was tired.  I took Andrew to Sam's club after dropping the kids off at school (what can I say we needed milk and eggs and other essentials).  Steve skipped his usual Wednesday lunch with the guys at work and brought me Kneaders.  We enjoyed lunch together then I took a nap.  The girls were sweet and kept telling Steve they wanted to go shopping for my birthday, but Steve had scouts and so he promised next year he would prep them earlier for my birthday.  I picked a cheesecake up at Sam's club that morning that we enjoyed as the birthday treat.  I feel like I was really spoiled this year I had several friends send me texts and emails from here in the neighborhood to Tucson and Wisconsin.  It was very thoughtful and kind of them to think of me and send me birthday wishes.  I was also a little spoiled in the present department, Steve did a lot of research into some nonstick pans (since we were in desperate need of some new ones) and then even went shopping with me at Station Park and we managed to piece together a nice set from two different stores there at a better price than the sets online.  He also bought me new nice pyrex mixing bowls.  The laundry room cabinets were also delivered last week and he worked really hard on Saturday to get them all installed as part of my birthday present--ahhhhh, I love the feeling of organization (still working on filling up all the cabinets).  My parents came down that Saturday also and Dad helped with the installation and we went to Outback for lunch to celebrate (the food was disappointing, but it was a fun adventure).

Above Left: Andrew is helping me make cookies. I don't know if it is all my new kitchen stuff for my birthday or what, but he has really been into helping me cook. "I mix. I mix." "Egg, crack egg."

Above Right: Andrew prepping for being a big brother--Siena brought down the stroller while we were canning chicken and Andrew has taken very good care of the baby since then, pushing her in the stroller, wrapping her in the blanket, telling us to be quiet when she is sleeping in a plastic bin or something he sees could make a good bed, and then changing the diaper. :)

It's Awfully Quiet Around Here

Just sent this text to Steve:

Me: it's awfully quiet during Andrew's nap time. it's crazy to think this break was almost as long as their summer break (4vs5 weeks). hope you're having a good day! :) 1:02 PM

Stephen Moore: You need me to come home and hammer on something? 1:04 PM

It was a little bit of an adjustment for Andrew and I to not have the girls around today.  As I mentioned above it was almost as long as their summer break, but only 2.5 weeks and then we get Thanksgiving weekend with them. :)  We did a few fun things while off track, like taking our friends to the Gateway Discovery Center to enjoy our membership, the trip to Boise, Halloween fun, Birthday fun, friends over to play in the snow, and I even taught them how to clean the bathrooms (they thought it was great and now we can each clean one bathroom--divide and conquer). 

My Minion is 2

When he wakes up you can hear him saying, "Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad. Dad."  Then when he gives up on that he says, "Mom. Mom. Mom. Mom."  Over and over until someone comes to get him.  Steve went up and when they came down the stairs he noticed the minion Happy Birthday sign we had hung.

He likes the minions, he used to say banana every time he saw a minion (you know on packaging at the store etc there was a lot of minion items this year with the new Minion movie).  Now he can say minion and it is so cute. I had his present and some minion straws sitting at the bar ready for him and he was more excited about the minion stickers on the present and asked for more stickers so I gave him more stickers to put on the package.












We ate breakfast, he ran over and played with his present from Mimi and Grandpa for a bit (they had brought it over earlier in the week before they headed home).

First Snow

Andrew kept saying it's raining and we would say snow.  He eventually ventured out to walk in it and would copy the girls in trying to catch snow in their mouth, but really loved it when Lila would make him a snowball to throw.

Andrew helped me with the apples for our breakfast.  I said you're strong with big muscles so every time he turned it he would say muscles. :)

Steve's 36 . . . I think

To be honest, I'm losing track of how old we are and not on purpose I just get confused--Ellie knows and she'll correct us when necessary. His birthday happened to land on the end of daylight savings time and on a fast Sunday so it felt like the morning kind of dragged on (we don't have church until 1pm). . . he opened cards: one from the kids, one from me and one from his parents.  Then we showed the kids the skis we bought him last week at a swap meet for his birthday (I arranged a birthday date last weekend--we went out to dinner and then ski shopping for him).  It was fun to spend the one-on-one time together and we found a pair of skis for the upcoming season. :)

After church we scarfed down the roast I had made for his birthday dinner (Steve says he can't decide if the smell was too torturous to endure on fast Sunday or if it felt like he was getting some nutritional value from the smell).  Then we had cream cheese filled chocolate cupcakes.  Andrew thought the candles were great and wanted to blow them out instead of Steve--we let him have a turn then he kept saying, "one more time? one more time?"

I was proud of the girls they fasted and never even asked for a piece of candy until after dinner.  Lila even said, "I know what I'm going to fast for . . ." and it was a very thoughtful idea.  Maybe somethings are getting through. :)  We relaxed, watched the BYU Women's soccer game from Halloween night and just enjoyed being together.  Happy Birthday LOVES! 












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