2018 :: week 4

January 20

Elder Gifford Nielson was the visiting authority for our Stake Conference this weekend and the stake presidency and bishops met with him a few times throughout the weekend. At their post-conference meeting they took this picture. Anthony has been bishop now for 3 years and 3 months. Of the nine bishops in our stake only four have been in longer than him, though one of those was called the Sunday before. In other news, our van would not start before church and my parents graciously picked me and the kids up to take up to the meeting. Anthony left early with our Kia. Luckily we still all fit in the Kia and were able to use it to get around the rest of the day. Our van battery is officially dead. That night we watched the Chiefs take on the Patriots in the AFC championship game. Will (and all of KC) was left heartbroken with the result.

January 21

Because Anthony was busy with church related things most of Saturday (baptism in the morning and meetings all afternoon and evening) it was nice having a Monday holiday. We were able to get the battery replaced in our van, make a trip to IKEA, and most importantly spend time together as a family. We bought a new dresser for Will at IKEA. In the coming months we are going to do some room swapping. That evening we played Sleeping Queens and watched a few episodes of the Carmen San Diego show on Netflix. Throughout the weekend and rest of the week the kids have played a pretend version of Carmen San Diego. Whenever Elliott tells me he is looking for the gumshoes it makes me smile.

January 22

Wednesday was scheduled to be the 100th day of school, and as such each of the first graders was asked to come to school with a shirt with 100 items affixed to it. Lauren chose 100 hearts and plans on wearing her shirt for Valentine's Day too. We spent some time after school getting the hearts arranged just so and then I glued them on with a glue gun. That evening we were hit with an ice storm followed by about an inch of snow. The ice combined with the cold temperatures caused the district to cancel school for the following day, thus pushing pack the 100th day to Thursday.

January 23

Every family needs a Will. Every time it has snowed this year, Will has taken it upon himself to shovel our driveway. The last storm was big enough he needed some extra help, but this time around he was able to clear the driveway on his own. I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for 10:45am Wednesday morning. Our road was a little slippery, but as soon as we got on the main roads in our neighborhood the streets were fine. I know the district has to take a lot of factors into consideration before cancelling school, but I am fairly confident our kids could have made it to school just fine. Oh well, it was nice having a quiet day where we didn't have to worry anything other than getting to and from my appointment.

January 24

I have been helping with reading fluency tests in Lauren's classroom on Wednesday mornings for the past few weeks. Because school was cancelled on Wednesday I went in on Thursday instead. I got there just as the first graders were ending their march through the school and lining up for a picture in the cafeteria. It was fun to see how creative the kids were with their shirts. The exciting extended family news of the day is that Hillary gave birth to Lucas, three weeks early!

January 25

Elliott and I have been delivering Meals on Wheels to the OPN4 route every Friday for the past 18 months. When I have our baby we will be taking a break, I haven't decided yet when we will start up again. A lot of it depends on the temperament of baby #4 and how well my recovery goes. It has been a good way to get out of our comfort zone in the community and get my kids involved in service. Our route took us a little longer this week because of all the ice. Turns out a lot of the home-bound and elderly people we visit aren't great at shoveling their walkways. Good things we had our boots.

January 26

Here we are, reading scriptures before bed, post bath. Lauren, Will and Anthony took turns reading verses and Elliott climbed on Anthony's back. Elliott gets very excited when we talk about John in the scriptures. Another busy Saturday with de-cluttering (in preparation for the room switches), a basketball game (Will's) and a ward activity.

2018 :: week 3

January 13

As usual when there is bad weather attendance at church goes way down, and though the weather wasn't great Sunday there was no real reason to cancel church. We are still getting used to having church at 10:30am. The first week we barely made it on time. Not that we weren't ready, but I wasn't paying attention to the time and then all of the sudden we need to get out the door fast! Starting on the half hour is tricky. We used to aim to leave at 12:35pm for 1pm church, now we aim to leave by 10:05am for 10:30am church. This week we were a solid ten minutes early, I was very proud.

January 14

Elliott really wanted to build a snowman and so for our family home "early evening" activity Anthony helped the kids build a snowman. We have FHE early because Anthony and Will have basketball from 7-8pm most Mondays.  It was harder to build than we expected because the snow was much more powdery than it was on Saturday. We put our pilgrim hat on him and called it the "Greatest Snowman," after the parody by Eclipse 6. Elliott request this song on youtube several times a day.

January 15

In his second and probably final Pinewood Derby, Will did himself proud. After losing every heat in every match last year, he won several heats and a few matches this time around. Phew, got that monkey off his back! This year we bought some weights and I think that made all the difference, though Will thinks it may be because he painted it in Chiefs colors instead of Royals.

January 16

It's been awhile since I documented my growing belly. I am now 33 weeks and 4 days pregnant, but who's counting? I am feeling a lot bigger this time than I did with Elliott. One of the pros of being pregnant in the summer is that I was able to stay active longer, between the longer days and generally good weather. I attend water aerobics a few times a week, but several classes have been cancelled due to inclement weather and up until it got icy I was trying to go for walks in the evening. My balance is not great and I don't feel as comfortable walking when there are patches of ice. The main pro for winter time is I don't overheat nearly as much. I had a lot of lower back and tailbone pain in November and early December, but that has mostly gone away this month. My acid reflux seems to be unaffected by the season, bad all four times.

January 17

Elliott has been a real champ this week! He went through a rough patch in the weeks before Christmas, but his behavior and attitude have been pretty close to perfect ever since the new year. We started full on potty training him last Thursday and he has had only one accident since then! Part of why I put off potty training him was I didn't want to have to stop and take him to the bathroom all the time when we were out. Turns out, potty training him while in my third trimester isn't very inconvenient because I have to stop and go to the bathroom all the time when we are out and about. We ran a bunch of errands Thursday morning and in the afternoon took a nap together. Elliott has really matured a lot in the past few months. I am so grateful for the time I have had to spend with him. I love my little buddy.

January 18

We've gotten into a routine of making homemade pizza on Friday evenings and then watching a family movie together. This week we watched The Princess Bride and Elliott has been running around yelling, "inconceivable!" ever since. 

January 19

This weekend our stake held stake conference. Anthony had an afternoon/evening chock full of meetings and I was a bit annoyed that we had to drive separate cars. It turns out it was a good thing because the car battery on the van died and it was nice to have two cars! The battery appears to be at the end of its life because we have had to jump it three times in the past month.

2019 :: week 2

January 6

 The first Sunday of the new year marked many changes--new start time, shorter length and Elliott's first Sunday as a Sunbeam. He was very excited to start attending Primary with the big kids, but confused as to why I was staying in nursery. I guess he thought I was only there for him. His class is small--just three kids--but they are all pretty good buddies. I never got around to taking a good picture of just him, but it was fun to see him sitting in the front row. Later in the week he started singing "My life has a gift, my life has a plan," which we have never sang with him before, so we know he retained something.

January 7

It was great having Hillary in town! Hillary and I spent the morning talking, then we met Anthony for lunch at Q39. Barbecue was a bit of a dangerous choice for two women in their third trimesters with acid reflux, but thanks to some antacids we powered through. After the kids got home from school we went out for ice cream at Betty Rae's. Hillary's friend Katherine had recommended it to her and it lived up to the hype. We had to get ice cream before dinner because Lauren had her monthly Girl Scout meeting at 6:30pm, then Will and Anthony had basketball practice at 7pm. That night the adults stayed up way too late (2am!?!), proving once again that we don't get to spend enough time talking with our siblings.

January 8

One of the highlights of my day is meeting the kids after school at the park. My kids are able to walk home by themselves, and sometimes they do, but Elliott and I like to go up to the park and visit with our friends. These parents have become my good friends over the past few years and I am grateful for them.

January 9

 Elliott's love for the Greatest Showman is still going strong. Also, I love sitting in our front room on sunny days. It is nice and bright and helps me feel happy. I think it is mostly pregnancy, but I have struggled with feeling very motivated this week.

January 10

 I have avoided actually potty training Elliott for months. We'd work on it a bit, but I wasn't willing to fully commit. As my due date draws closer, I've started feeling more stress about getting this done. This weekend seemed like the perfect time to hunker down and get it done. The meteorologists were predicting a big snow storm over the weekend and Anthony had work commitments that would keep him away all day Saturday and Sunday, so starting Thursday evening we went full throttle. Elliott was excited to get started and I have been pleasantly surprised by how well things have gone.

January 11

Friday evening Anthony found an old-school Carmen Sandeigo game online and played it with the kids. Will has played a version at school and was telling us about it at dinner and it piqued our interest, so we did a google search and found a game similar to the one we played when we were in elementary school.

January 12

 Saturday started with the promised snow and more. By the time all was said and done we got about 10 inches. Not everyone got as much, but there were parts of the metro that got over 11 inches! We busted out our snow clothes and played outside off and on all day. It was the perfect sort of storm--lots of snow, but not very cold so you could really enjoy yourself.

2019 :: week 1

December 30

We had originally planned on staying in San Antonio until Monday, but decided to leave Sunday after church instead. It had now started raining on top of being cold and many of the things we had wanted to do were outdoors. We went to church and then hit the road back to KC. The trip did not turn out like I hoped, mainly because we were hoping to escape the cold winter weather and it only seemed to follow us South. Even though it was a solid 20 degrees warmer in San Antonio than Kansas, it is hard to feel like an overcast 45 degrees is warm.

December 31

Because of our later post-church start to our drive home from San Antonio we got home pretty late Sunday night. We took things slow on Monday besides a little post-trip clean-up. It was nice. That evening we went to my parents' house for a small dinner and they had cheesecake square for dessert in honor of Tony's birthday. We rang in the new year around 8pm with the kids, and then Anthony and I watched several episodes of Jeopardy before going to bed. It was just what we needed, but all three kids asked why we didn't have a party. We are going to have to up our game next year.

January 1

The boys wrestled for a bit on New Year's Day. We had another quiet day and it was just what our family needed to recover from the go-go-go of the holiday season and our road trip.

January 2

Life started to return to normal on Wednesday. Anthony had to work and the kids and I had a more normal non-school day schedule. It was really cold, so we met our neighbor at the Foundry Church. They have an indoor gym and playground. Then we ran some errands and did our grocery shopping for the week. I had worked on a meal plan the day before and it was nice to fall back into our routines. That night Anthony had church meetings, Will had Cub Scouts and the rest of us went to the community center so I could get some exercise. While I prepared dinner, the kids had a dance party in the TV room. The John kids love to dance!

January 3

Thursday morning we had a great time at the Diggins' house. Carrie and I were roommates at BYU and always enjoy catching up with each other. Our kids get match up pretty well age and gender wise and got along really well that day. Will and Josh were born just as week apart in 2009 and love sports, Legos, pokemon and music. Lauren and Gwen are both in first grade and love crafts, dancing and imaginative play with various dolls. That afternoon we got to go see Mary Poppins Returns with Memaw. Another great day!

December 4

The kids and I finally got around to vacuuming our van Friday. The carwash I like to use was closed earlier in the week for the holidays and then extreme cold. I like getting the kids involved in the clean-up, especially since the biggest messes happen in their rows.

December 5

Another busy Saturday! We spent the morning discussing some of our beliefs with our neighbors who saw The Book of Mormon musical earlier in the week. Then Anthony worked in the yard and I worked on getting the rest of Christmas put away in the house. Elliott spilled half a gallon of milk on the ground in the afternoon which set me back a little bit. Will had a basketball game in the afternoon and they kept it close, even though they were playing with the minimal number of players due to a stomach virus terrorizing his team. Anthony turned the high beams on in our KIA while he finished up the yard work and Will took advantage and worked on his game too. By the time we went to bed we were all exhausted from a long, productive Saturday. Also, we saw on Facebook that one of our friends is in San Antonio this weekend for a "girl's trip" and she reported that it was in the 70s and gorgeous. I am trying not to let that make me too frustrated about the bad weather we encountered, but such is life!