2019 :: week 43

October 20

Memaw and Pepaw have been traveling for the better part of the past two weeks, first to Idaho, then Utah. They arrived back home on Saturday night just in time to help us celebrate Lauren's birthday. In honor of her birthday they let Lauren plan the menu for Sunday dinner and she choose spaghetti, garlic bread and salad. Aunt Emily is always a big help with Miles. He loved smiling at the man in the mirror while Emily was holding him.

October 21

Happy Birthday, Lauren! Lauren is an wonderful person, and each year we get to spend with her is better than the last. Lauren is a thoughtful friend, nurturing leader and creative playmate. She works hard to achieve her goals--like skipping bars while crossing the monkey bars--and has the calluses on her hands to prove it! She is a bright light in our family and we are so grateful to have her. After school Memaw picked her up and took her on a special shopping trip to Target. Post shopping trip we had Memaw and Pepaw and the Wilsons over for dinner and doughuts. We had a great day celebrating our favorite daughter.

October 22

The happiest part of my Tuesday was that Miles slept great in his own room! Due to a mix of procrastination and struggle to rearrange the bedrooms, Miles has been cohabitating with his parents for the past 7 months. I was beyond ready for a change, but finding a spot for Elliott proved to be difficult. He is going through a difficult-to-share-a-room-with phase. It's hard to articulate what makes him such an undesirable roommate, but it seems to boil down to the facts that he wakes up earl and likes to play with the toys his siblings don't want him to touch. Will and Elliott are temporarily sharing a room until we think Elliott and Miles can share. This seems to be the best solution because Will is also an early riser and has fewer tiny things for Elliott to explore.

October 23

Lauren had her final practice of the season, and keeping with tradition the Pink Thunder girls hosted a scrimmage against parents and siblings. Anthony, Will and Elliott got in on the action. Elliott held his own and even got to throw the ball in at one point. Lauren grew a lot as an athlete and soccer player this season, and I genuinely enjoyed watching her play.

October 25

Papa and Nana arrived Wednesday afternoon and brought with them a box of Anthony's old baseball cards. To say that Elliott has LOVED going through them has been an understatement. He doesn't know who most of the players are, but he can recognize most of the team logos and he likes organizing them into piles by team.

October 25

Friday the kids were off school and Papa and Nana took the older three kids to Science City. While they were getting their science on, Miles and I ran a few baptism related errands. That evening the kids got dressed up in their Halloween finest and we went to the OPC trunk or treat. Will was Whit Merrifield, compelte with dark eyebrows and goatee. Elliott was Mookie Betts, complete with eye black and gold chain. Lauren was a jaguar and painted her nose and whiskers on by herself. Miles was a zebra. On Saturday evening we went to our ward trunk or treat. At that event Anthony, Miles and I dressed up as Napoleon Dynamite characters. Anthony was Napoleon, I was Rex Kwan Do and Miles was Tina the llama.

October 26

Saturday morning Lauren Jean John was baptized by her father, Anthony. It was a beautiful service that reminded me of how very blessed I am. Lauren is a planner and she planned a program full of females. Two of her maternal aunts (Laura and Emily) served as witnesses and both grandmothers spoke (Memaw on baptism and Nana on Holy Ghost). She invited several of her friends from school and was very pleased that most of them came. I felt very loved as the room filled up with our friends and neighbors. Both times my children have received the Holy Ghost I have been struck by what seems to me to be a symbol of protection when they are surrounded by righteous men who love and care for them. I hope the covenant that Lauren made this day along with the companionship of the Holy Ghost will help her make wise choices in life and protect her from the pain and sorrow of sin. She is naturally very nurturing and has been doing many of the things that she has now covenanted to do--she keeps the commandments, sets a good example and is compassionate with others.

2019 :: week 42

October 13

Elliott and I went for a walk Sunday afternoon. I took some pictures of him on my new iphone 11 to see what the camera was like. My phone had been acting weird for several weeks before basically quitting on me at the beginning of the month. It was acting like a tablet--I could send texts when I was connected to wifi, but the cellular part of my phone, the part that makes it a "phone" would only work sporadically. When we were in Mexico Anthony's friend Tony offered to get anyone an apple phone with his employee discount so I finally bit the bullet and bought a new one.

October 14

Lauren's friend Theo got a new puppy and the kids at the park were enjoying playing with him at the park after school. My kids say they really want to get a pet, but I don't think any of us are ready for that.

October 15

Anthony was in Miami for the week at the annual ICE conference. I made the kids take a walk with me after dinner. It feels like fall and I like it!

 

October 16

I spend so much time driving. On this day I drove Elliott to and from school, picked Will up from Math Club and dropped Lauren off at soccer practice. It is a good thing I like our van. Poor Miles is so patient with the amount of time he spends in his car seat.

October 17

I love history and US history is one of my favorite areas to learn about. I have been listening to Accidental Presidents through audible and am enjoying it so much I am looking for mindless tasks to do so I can listen more.

October 18

I never know exactly how Elliott gets into something, but his current "thing" is Mookie Betts of the Boston Red Sox. He asks me to paint eye black on his cheeks, puts his Red Sox hat on, grabs and bat and suddenly he is "transformed." He requests Mookie Betts highlight reels on youtube over and over. He decided he wanted to dress up as Mookie for Halloween so I ordered a shirt for him to wear. He put it on the moment we opened it.

October 19

Miles and I took a walk Saturday evening. I am still having a hard time wrapping my brain around the fact that I have four kids. He is such a good-natured little guy and I love him so much.

2019 :: week 42

October 13

Elliott and I took a walk around the block Sunday afternoon and I tried out the camera on my new phone. I got an iphone 11 after my phone started to randomly stop working a few weeks ago. It was essentially a tablet--only occasionally allowing me to make calls. Anthony's friend Tony works for Apple and when we were in Mexico he offered to get me a phone with his employee discount. I finally bit the bullet and got one. It is so much money, but also so hard to be without a functioning phone. The nicer camera is a bonus.

October 14

We have settled into a pretty nice weekday routine. We play at the park for about an hour after school each day. I like to head home around four so I can have a few minutes to think before I start making dinner. It is nice that so many friends come to the park. Several of our friends have dogs they bring as well. Lauren's classmates Sammy and Theo both have puppys and the kids were fascinated with them and how playful they are. The boys were nice to let the girls take turns with the leashes.

October 15

Anthony headed to Miami for the annual ICE conference. I made the kids take an after dinner walk with me. The weather is starting to really cool off and you can feel fall in the air.

October 16

I spend so much time in our van these days. Driving Elliott to preschool, picking up Will from Math Club and taking Lauren to soccer were my destinations today. Miles is a patient baby, logging many more hours in his car seat than I'm sure he'd prefer.

October 17

I have been listening to the book Accidental Presidents by Jared Cohen this past week and I am obsessed. I have been looking for more chores and mindless things to do so I can keep listening. I have always loved history and been especially fond of learning about US presidents and this book has so much interesting information.

October 18

Elliott's current obsession is Mookie Betts of the Boston Red Sox. He had been telling me for at least a month that he wanted to be Slugger for Halloween, but then a few weeks ago he changed his mind to Mookie Betts. I'm not sure what triggered the Mookie fever, but he all in on Mookie, or Mook as he calls him. I ordered him a shirt for his costume and he put it on right away.

October 19

Miles was a bit irritable all day, so I finally took him for a walk after dinner. It is hard being the baby in a busy family, and he does a pretty good job of putting up with us. When I think back to how I scheduled my days around Will's naps I feel a little guilty at how things are for Miles. I regularly lay Miles down to take naps when I know he isn't quite tired enough to really want to sleep, but know that the window of opportunity is short before we have to pick up Elliott from school or drive an older sibling to practice.

2019 :: week 41

October 6

We spent a majority of the day watching General Conference. The kids built a "fort" on the side of our house using the steps to our garage and various material they foraged from the back yard. It was actually pretty impressive. I love watching them be creative together.

October 7

One of the many cool things about playing at the park after school is the mixing of ages. In this picture there are girls from 4th grade, 2nd grade, 1st grade and kindergarten playing together. These girls carried this stick around the park for a good 15 minutes. Who knows what they were doing, but they were getting along and having fun, so I'll take it.

October8

Our windshield wipers were in a bad way. I bought new ones at Costco and attempted to change them myself. Thanks to the magic of youtube (and a little help from Stevie) I was able to do it!

October 9

I came across this idea in the book I was reading (The Behavior Gap) and thought it was worth remembering so I snapped a picture. "We often resist simple solutions because they require us to change our behavior...We'd rather look for a magic bullet: something to save us from the day-to-day grind of simply doing the work that needs doing."

October 10

The older Miles gets the more I think he reminds me of Lauren as a baby. Her baby pictures really look like him. She sure loves him, and is a devoted big sister. She helps me get him going in the morning and dotes on him after school and in the evenings.

October 11

I love this kid. And he loves to cuddle with me. The kids were off of school Friday so we had a mostly quiet day at home.

October 12

On Saturday I went to a lecture at the library given by Helaine Olsen, author of The Index Card. She talked about women and their relationship with money. She didn't say much that I didn't already know, but it was exciting to hear about topics I am extremely interested in. Now that I am coming out of the newborn fog I am looking for ways to get more engaged in the community and involved in family finances and education.

2019 :: week 40

September 29

Sunday was the last day of our trip. We planned on leaving at 10am, so we got up early and took one last quick walk on the beach before we had to pack up and leave. Miles was not sure what to make of the waves. He never seemed upset, but he had a quizzical look on his face most of the time we had his feet in the sand and water. We drove back to San Diego with the Tames and the Curries and enjoyed visiting with them in the sketchy white van for a few final hours. We had a relatively easy flight home that unexpectedly ended up landing in KC 45 minutes early. We had a such a wonderful time on the vacation, but it was great getting home to our kids and sleeping on our own beds.

September 30

I had piles of pictures and school papers to go through on Monday. I found this picture Will drew of our van going on a roadtrip. When I asked Will about it he said he was jealous of our trip to Mexico and wanted to know what our next roadtrip is going to be. We don't have anything planned--time to plan one!

October 1

It was a gorgeous morning and Elliott and the neighborhood gang played outside for close to three hours before Elliott and Bennett had to go to school. Elliott loves playing with his friends and I love that they entertain each other so well. It certainly makes my life easier!

October 2

Wednesday morning we met Stephanie and Kendall for a free puppet show at the community center. Afterwards we had a little bit of time before we had to drop Elliott off at school, so we made a quick stop at Target and saw a black Kia Soul in the parking lot. Whenever Elliott and I see a Kia Soul we get excited. Sometimes if we are in a parking lot we take a picture to send to Anthony or Aunt Emily. Since we have taken a few picture of this type I got "fancy" with my photography.

October 3

Thursday was my dad's birthday. After piano we went to my parents' house to celebrate. My dad is a great Pepaw, dad and friend. He has generously spent HOURS working in our yard this year. He is supportive, kind and keeps things entertaining.

October 4

We went to the pre-homecoming SMS Kidfest on Friday evening. Will invited Knox and Porter to come with us, and the boys stayed with Tony for the game.We brought some pizzas to eat and the kids had fun playing the carnival games. Lauren and Elliott spent a lot of time in the bounce house while Will and his friends played the soda ring toss over and over. I think they collectively won a dozen small bottles of soda. Tony said the boys drank all the soda and then wanted to buy skittles at the game. So much sugar!

October 5

Saturday afternoon we went to Bennett's birthday party at SuperKidz Club in Mission. It was a rainy day, so an indoor play place was the perfect place to spend a couple hours on Conference Saturday. Even Miles had fun in the "baby zone." When we moved into our house Will was 19 months old and I was pregnant with Lauren and the next youngest kid on the street was in kindergarten. Since then eight kids have been born to families on our street. It can be chaotic at times, but I am so grateful for these kids and the network of parents we have on our street.