2015 :: week 3

January 11

Sunday evening we had dinner with my parents. After we feasted on fried chicken, mashed potatoes and carrots Will took on Pepaw in a few rounds of Spot It! We survived our first week of afternoon church, and the first time the kids have had afternoon church in their lives (though we did have 11:30am church the in 2010 when Will was a baby). They were confused that I made them eat lunch before church, didn't each much, and then were frustrated when I made them wait an hour for dinner.

January 12

I don't know why this picture flipped, it was landscape when I took it. Will helped me with our FHE lesson by illustrating some of the stories we talked about. He insisted on writing what the picture illustrated in the life of Christ on each picture: 'Blessing' the Nephite Children, getting baptized in the River 'Jordan's flow,' and the 'First Vision.' The final picture is Will and Tony at a Royals game on Fireworks Friday. Our lesson was about Christ being an obedient son, so Will decided we needed a picture of him and his dad having fun together too.

January 13

After water aerobics Tuesday night the kids played in the Explorer Room at Matt Ross for awhile. Will climbed to the very top. I have distinct memories of having to climb up in this equipment 18 months ago to help him down because he was too scared to move up or down.

January 14

The weather finally got above freezing (37 degree high) and the kids decided it was playgroud weather. Will begged to go to the park and though I wasn't in the mood, I knew that spending another afternoon indoors with restless kids would be a punishment to me, so we walked to the park. They climbed a bit and then both wanted to get in the swings. They felt a lot colder after spending time in the swings. Also worth mentioning is we went grocery shopping and saw the actor who played Al in the TV show Home Improvement (he's in town preforming at the New Theater Restaurant).

January 15

It was even warmer Thursday so I decided I'd spend an hour raking leaves in the front yard. When we came home from Boston our front yard was COVERED in leaves. Some had fallen from our trees and most had blown from down the street. Will was excited to help and very proud of the rather large pile he raked all by himself. Jokes on him though, now I know he is capable so he's stuck raking leaves with me as long as he lives at home.

January 16

We had a rough week behavior-wise with the kids. We're all experiencing a bit of cabin fever, Will especially likes to get outside and run around. I took the kids to Pump it Up! and they were able to jump and run and play to their hearts' content. Both kids had a lot of fun, they especially enjoyed ganging up on me in the Coliseum inflatable, pelting me with the balls. Lauren would help retrieve the balls and give them to Will who would then throw them at me. They seem to get along best when they have a common enemy, me.

January 17

Saturday evening the sister missionaries in our ward (Sisters Fa'anunu and Buckhave) came over and helped us rake the leaves in our backyard. They heard me complaining about the leaves and offered to come help. I wasn't going to push them to do it, but then they texted me Friday night and said they wanted to come over and help the next day. They were awesome helpers and again Will had a great time working with them to amass a giant leaf pile. The trees in our yard (pin oaks) tend to hold on to their leaves longer than most and drop them a bit at a time all winter long. Most of the leaves are finally bare. It was nice having the missionaries help, they had better attitudes than Anthony and I do and the additional adult labor made the work go so much faster.