2018 :: week 22

May 20

With the rising temperatures I haven't been going for quite as many walks. Sunday morning I was able to fit in a quick one in a quick one before Tony left. He will be performing in a octet in church next Sunday and the group has been practicing on Saturday and Sunday mornings, which means he has been leaving an hour earlier than normal. I am looking forward to it being over. 😐

May 21

My dad came to Will's baseball game Monday night. It is great living close to my parents and having them get to see the kids as they participate in their various activities.

May 22

We took advantage of a gift card and Joe's KC 99 cent kid meals (on Tuesdays) and went out to dinner.

May 23

I have loved getting to spend my days with Elliott this school year. We've had a fun year together. He is such a sweet and loving little boy. He is so inquisitive and always on the go. I love the feeling of his little arms around my neck when he gives me hugs.

May 24

Elliott has fallen in love with Paw Patrol recently. When we were at the Dollar Tree I decided to get him six "pups." He knows all their names and catchphrases, with Rubble and Chase being his favorite. We already have too much stuff, so I rarely buy new things for Elliott, but it was fun to see how pleased these silly toys made him.

May 25

Anthony and I went on a date to see the new Solo movie. My birthday is on Sunday and Matt's birthday is on Thursday, so we traded babysitting with the Wilsons so we could each go out on a birthday date. We went to an early movie, then ate some Pizzeria Locale.

May 26

Saturday was hot! We watched the Wilsons in the evening. 

2018 :: week 21

May 13

Mother's Day! At 11am Anthony asked me if I wanted to speak in church because one of the scheduled speakers was sick. The perks of being married to a bishop never end. He told me I could speak about whatever I wanted related to mothers or Mother's Day. I decided to speak about lessons I learned from my mother that apply to everyone. One--The Lord wants us to remember other people, to seek out the lonely and forgotten. "Every unselfish act of kindness and service increases your spirituality. God would use you to bless others. Your continued spiritual growth and eternal progress are very much wrapped up in how you treat others. Do you indeed love others and become a blessing in their lives? Isn't the measure of the level of your conversion how you treat others? Service to others is what the gospel and exalted life are all about" (Elder Robert J. Whetton, General Conference April 2005). Two--There is power in consistent personal prayer. You don't have to pray with flowery language, but you can cultivate a strong relationship with the Savior through regular prayer. Three--Seek after beauty and find small ways to add it to you life. The 13th Article of Faith says, "If there is anything virtuous, lovely or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things." A vase of fresh flowers or tidy room can foster a sense of peace in a chaotic world.

May 14

This is our neighbor and Elliott's buddy Blasie. He lives a few houses down the street and is two weeks older than Elliott. When we went outside to go for a walk after dinner Elliott was delighted to see him motoring down the sidewalk on his "truck." We delayed our walk and let the boys play together.

May 15

On Wednesday Will came home with an invitation to the Kindness Counts Ice Cream party. Every teacher gets to pick one or two kids from their class to go to the party. The students that are chosen are those who do an exemplary job of modeling kindness in the classroom. Will does a lot of things to make us proud, but this might be what makes us feel the proudest.

May 16

Elliott and I joined the OPC kindergartners for a morning at Deanna Rose. Elliott finally got over his fear of feeding goats and had a great time. Lauren enjoyed playing with the goats as well. I supervised Lauren and her friend Brianna who were very easy to manage. A lot of parents went on this field trip, and I enjoyed seeing some who I don't get to see very often. As soon as the field trip was over Elliott and I headed home to watch the Wilson boys while Emily went to a primary presidency meeting.

May 17

Elliott is getting more involved in the bathing process, insisting that he wash his own hair. He does a pretty good job of rubbing the soap in, but I have to help him wet and rinse his hair. It is so thick and seems to repel water.

May 18

I ordered a new chair for our front room. Anthony sits on it to read his scriptures most mornings.

May 19

The youth went paint balling Saturday. All of the youth, youth leaders and several parents attended.

2018 :: week 20

May 6

The kids were looking cute and the flowers were out in full bloom so I had to try to get a picture. Of course, our 1pm start time doesn't really lend itself to good lighting so the picture was subpar.

May 7

My dad came over Monday night and we planted our garden for FHE. Afterwards we treated ourselves to fudgsicles and Pepaw let the kids and I ride around the neighborhood in the back of his truck. This year we are planting tomatoes, zucchini, squash, basil, cucumbers and peppers.

May 8

Will's friend Trevor came over after school and the kids had fun playing outside.

May 9

Elliott takes his job as helper very seriously. It doesn't matter what he is helping with, zI am trying to nurse our rosebush back to life. We over pruned it last year and it did not recover well. We cut off the dead parts and I've been soaking it a few times a week and it seems to be helping.

May 10

I went to the school and helped in Will and Lauren's classrooms for an hour each. I couldn't help but snap a picture of Will working on a math lesson. I love seeing the kids in their classrooms. They both like it when I come, but they get so shy and will hardly look at me.

May 11

Lauren's class had a Parent Appreciation Program Friday afternoon. We watched a slideshow of the year's highlights, the kids sang "What a Wonderful World," with some sign language, then we ate light refreshments and went through a binder of what they accomplished throughout the year. It was sweet and fun to see how much the kids had grown.

May 12

We worked very hard in the fall to get new grass growing under the west side of our yard. The huge tree in our front yard provides a lot of shade and makes it hard for the grass to thrive. We verticut the lawn and then put out new seed and watered it twice a day for about 2 months. It is so rewarding to see that it actually worked. Now that the weather is nicer I am spending a lot of time working in our yard, and I am finding that I like it. Also in this picture, Elliott is walking towards our neighbor's cat. He loves that cat and will wander off whenever he sees him.

2018 :: week 19

April 29

We are experiencing that approximately the elusive two weeks of perfect spring weather right now and are doing our best to take full advantage. The sun is setting later and we are able to comfortably go for family walks after dinner a few times a week. Sunday Elliott and I stayed home from church because he threw up the night before (he was fine at home all day, but did take a longer nap than usual) and I was feeling stir crazy. That evening we walked or rode scooters around the neighborhood and tried to savor the gorgeous night.

April 30

When Lauren told me she was having a hard time sleeping because he tooth hurt, I initially shrugged it off as a delay tactic to avoid going to sleep. Upon further investigation I saw that her tooth was indeed extremely loose and I was able to pull it out for her. It's fun to watch her grow up and see the young lady she is becoming, but I genuinely felt a little sad knowing that her perfectly-straight-baby-teeth-smile days are over.

May 1

This ended up being a rough week for me. The greenery in the area seems to have exploded and my allergies were in full force, complete with sinus pain and pressure. I got up early Tuesday morning and took a walk around the neighborhood with Will, but after that I stayed inside as much as possible, which was harder than I expected.

May 2

My dad is a saint and came over Wednesday evening after soccer practice to help us get our garden plot ready. He dug out an additional 12 square feet, in the hopes that this year things won't be so crowded. Right as he was finishing up it started to rain. Within half an hour the tornado sirens were going off and we were debating whether or not to go to our basement! It was the first major storm of the year. Side note: Lauren wore a scooter (skirt with shorts underneath) to her soccer practice and it got a lot of attention. Lauren is into very feminine things, but is also very active and loves to be doing things. I love that she is comfortable enough in her own skin to do things her way.

May 3

Elliott's favorite time of day is the thirty to sixty minutes we've been playing at the park after the older kids get out of school. He plays with his buddies Nicolas and Ian (younger brothers of Lauren's classmates Daphne and Breanna) and gets as dirty as possible. Thursday the kids had an early dismissal and Will's friend Porter came over to play for a few hours.

May 4

The older kids had the day off from school due to a teacher work day. Lauren spent much of the day creating little cards and flowers for her friends, teachers and neighbors. Lauren loves to create and her teacher has told me she spends any free time in the classroom at the "art cart" making cards for her classmates. She made flowers and taped Starbursts onto them and wrote cheerful notes that she then put into snack-sized ziploc bags. Because the ones we are currently using happen to have Star Wars characters on them (I got them for 50% off at Target) she told the neighbors she delivered to they were "May the Force (4th)" treats.

May 5

Another busy Saturday. Will's baseball game started 30 minutes before Lauren's soccer game, so it was a divide and conquer morning. As I was loading up the van with post-game snacks--it was our week to provide--I noticed that our right back tire was totally flat. Luckily my mom was planning on coming to Lauren's game and she was able to give Lauren, Elliott and me a ride. After the games Stevie helped us pump up the tire enough to get it to the shop and it was patched in under an hour. Will decided he wanted to start riding a bike again. He had a rough time with his bike last year and had decided he was going to stick to the scooter. The more we pushed him to try the more he dug in his heels. He finally decided the time was right--he was ready to ride a bike again--and he spent hours riding up and down the street and around the block.

2018 :: week 18

April 22

Elliott is such a snuggly little guy. One of my favorite feelings in the world is when he climbs behind me and puts his arms around my neck. Anthony and I both appreciate how easy he makes his bedtime routine. He occasionally will cry or whine, but that is the exception, not the rule. As long as he gets his scripture story and a book to read, he's game.

April 23

Will had his first baseball game of the season Monday night. It was a gorgeous evening to play and watch. Will spent most of the game playing third base. He got thrown out at first, but made a lot of contact with the ball and fouled several times. When we got home from the game and I was trying to round everyone up for FHE, Will wanted to stay outside and play a post-game round of catch with Anthony. Will is at his happiest when he is playing baseball.

April 24

Lauren being Lauren makes me happy. She had a Girl Scout meeting Tuesday evening and made sure to put on her "cape" and Daisy shirt before we left. The January meeting was the same day as Kansas Day where the kindergarteners dressed up like cowboys. She turned her handkerchief into a cape that night and has been wearing it ever since as though it is part of the uniform. As she rode her scooter into the gym and waved to her friends I wished for her that she would always feel so confident and secure with who she is.

April 25

Wednesday afternoon I watched the Wilson boys while Emily went to a primary presidency meeting. It has rained earlier in the day, but the older boys insisted they wanted to play outside so I let them. They ran around the yard and I could hear them yelling, though I couldn't tell you what they were saying. When I asked Elliott what they were doing he told me they were playing "tormatoes," and that tormatoes can "kill us!" At first I thought Elliott was saying they played with our tomato cages before I remembered that Tyler is obsessed with extreme weather. Anthony left a bag of mulched leaves in the backyard that fell over and the boys started grabbing handfuls of it and throwing it around like confetti. I put a swift stop to that.

April 26

 Thursday evening Will and I read a few chapters in an Encyclopedia Brown book. I found the book on a "free" table and thought it might be fun to read with Will. He is a fast reader, and doesn't always read for comprehension. These stories have been good to work with Will and his attention to details.

April 27

Friday evening we went to the Oak Park Carpenter Carnival. It is a biggest event/fundraiser of the year and it requires a lot of volunteer hours to make it happen. Anthony and I each took a turn manning a game and also taking the other kids around to the various games and activities. Will and Lauren each found friends to play with, which made it easier on the parent in charge of Elliott. Elliott was a little grumpy that night, which we attributed to the noise and excess sugar.

April 28

We started our morning at Lauren's soccer game. Her team is really starting to gel together and they played their best game yet! They ended up tying 4-4 and Lauren scored her first goal. When her team met together for the first time at the end of March Lauren had never played soccer before. She had expressed interest in learning how to play, but had never actually played beyond what is done at recess. It is so fun seeing her learn a new skill and her confidence grow as she gets better. The rest of Saturday was spent at baseball practice, working on the yard and getting ready for Sunday. We had plans to go out to eat, but about fifteen minutes before we were going to leave Elliott threw up. :( At this point we started to wonder if Elliott's behavior the night before was due to his potentially coming down with an illness. 

2018 :: week 17

April 15

Getting a spring-y picture with the pretty trees at Shawnee Mission Park is on my to-do list every year. Making a stop after church made sense because the kids would be well dressed and the park is close to our building. Unfortunately, it was very cold and there were a few snowflakes in the air while I tried to convince the kids they wanted to get out of the warm van to snap a few vanity pics.

April 16

During baseball season, Will has baseball practice from 6-7:30pm Monday nights. Tony takes him and stays to help with the practice. Lauren, Elliott and I walked up to the school to pass some of the time before heading back home and setting up for FHE. This week our topic was being kind, based on a Friend summary of President Uchtorf's talk, "The Merciful Obtain Mercy."

April 17

I watched Tyler and Mikey while Emily went visiting teaching Tuesday morning. Elliott and Tyler played in the backyard for half an hour. When I asked them if they were having fun playing, Elliott yelled back, "No play, we work!" Anthony left a yard waste bag full of leaves in the backyard and it had fallen over in the wind. I caught the boys throwing handfuls of "confetti" into the wind. These two are getting to be pretty good buddies.

April 18

Wednesday afternoon while Elliott was napping I cleaned out our fridge and freezer. I try to do fridge cleaning the day before our trash is picked up because then any bad food that I throw away doesn't sit in our trashcan rotting for days. Our fridge is the little engine that could. When we bought our house 6.5 years ago the previous owners said we could have it since it was on its last legs. When we got new flooring in our kitchen we had to move the fridge and I found a stick on the back that said it was manufactured in 1996. It is loud, but it just keeps on keeping on. I have a hard time buying things that are functional, so it will probably stay until it stops working.

April 19

Thursday evening we went up to the school Open House. Both Will and Lauren have had a great year. They've learned a lot and created some neat things. Will told us he made a mistake when he was working on his self portrait and we'd probably easily be able to figure his out. He used the orange marker instead of peach when coloring his skin. Anthony said it was fine, he just made himself look like Donald Trump. For some reason that made me laugh so hard. Will is such a sweet kid.

April 20

My entire world in a single frame. :) Friday night we ate pizza and cookies we bought from the YW for their Girl's Camp fundraiser and played outside with neighbors. Will and Anthony play catch for at least a few minutes every night. The kids are loving the spring weather we are finally having and taking full advantage by spending most of their free time outdoors.

April 21

We had a busy Saturday morning. I got up and went to the early water aerobics class. Lauren had a soccer game at 9am, Will had a Cub Scout service project at 9am, then baseball practice at 10:30am. There was a lot of driving here and there, but things calmed down in the afternoon. We relaxed and finally watched The Greatest Showman . I think we may have been some of the last people in America to see the movie.

2018 :: week 16

April 8

To continue with my anti-1pm church narrative, it snowed on Sunday. What does snow on Sunday have to do with 1pm church? Nothing. Except that it was extra hard to feel motivated to get ready to go once I saw the snow falling. If we had early church it would have started snowing while we were at church and we could have come home at noon, bundled up, and spent the rest of the day in our warm house. Thankfully the snow didn't stick around for long.

April 9

My kids love getting mail. Will had a great mail week. On Monday he received a letter from his cousin Sadie and on Saturday he received a letter from his cousin Weston. I love that my kids are building relationships with their cousins by writing letters. 

April 10

I accompanied Lauren's class on their field trip to Wonderscope--I even got to ride over in the bus for the total elementary school experience. We really loved Wonderscope a few years ago (when Will was 3 turning 4 and Lauren 1 turning 2), but I think my older kids have mostly outgrown it now. The kindergarten kids had fun, but were able to have a fulfilling visit in their allotted 90 minutes. I was in charge of Lauren and her classmate Chloe. Lauren's favorite rooms were the nursery/vet room, followed by the market and then the gym. 

April 11

This week was my PTA week. I am on two committees--Staff Appreciation and Family Fun. This week both committees had events. On Wednesday I arranged a popcorn and candy bar for the staff and picked up a drink for each staff member from Sonic. Sonic donated the 75 drinks. Luckily Sonic is close to the school because I was so afraid of spilling the drinks. I don't think I have driven so carefully since I had an infant on board! On Thursday and Friday mornings I went up to the school in the morning and helped facilitate the Dames and Donut activity. For this activity kids could come up to school and have a donut and juice with a female in their life. Between going to the kindergarten field trip Tuesday and helping Will's teacher prep for next weeks open house on Thursday I logged a lot of hours at the school this week. I am so grateful to be part of such a wonderful school community. Both Will and Lauren have great teachers. Many thanks to my sister Emily for helping me watch Elliott during much of the time I was at the school.

April 12

Thursday was beautiful! When I walked up to the school it felt like spring had finally sprung. It was nice and warm and Elliott and I got together with Stephanie and Kendall to play at the park for an hour before lunch. Elliott is very social and loves seeing his buddies. I think it is very cute the way he excitedly whispers the names of his friends to me when he sees them.

April 13

Lauren and TJ attended the Girl Scout Father/Daughter Luau Friday night. Tony was a good sport and wore this red shirt without complaint. They danced, ate snow cones and had a great time. Both TJ and Lauren have some pretty sweet moves. 

April 14

The Pink Thunder had their first game Saturday afternoon. They don't keep an official score, but Will informed us all as we were driving to the game that he would be. Eyeroll. They took team photos before but I didn't want to pay $22 for the cheapest package so I snapped this one. The girls played well against a team that has been playing together for the previous two years (five seasons). Lauren made contact with the ball a few times, but never really had possession. The game was exciting and much more fun to watch than I anticipated. The girls are all pretty good sports and their coach is a really nice, enthusiastic guy.

2018 :: week 15

April 1

It was an unconventional Easter being that it was also General Conference weekend and freezing cold. It snowed in the afternoon! We had a quiet morning and the kids ate their weight in sugar for breakfast. Our Easter Bunny leaves a basket of eggs for Tony to hide and he hid them while the kids were eating cinnamon rolls. It was our fastest hunt  yet. The kids are figuring out the spots and the cold motivated them to work very quickly. We spent the afternoon watching Conference and then had an Easter Dinner with my parents and the Wilsons. We brought homemade rolls and green beans casserole, our usual. On our drive home from my parent's house Lauren managed to hit Will in the mouth and knock out a loose tooth. Conference was great. It is becoming more apparent to me that when I feel the spirit I feel energized.

April 2

The kids had a Monday off school (and with Friday off the week before making it a 4 day weekend). They have had a lot of time off lately, between spring break and the various unexpected inclimate weather days. I usually try to have an activity planned, but we just treated Monday as a free day. We still did laundry and I went to the gym, but I just let the kids do whatever they felt like. They watched The Prince of Egypt, played legos and pokemon and a little indoor baseball. By the end of the afternoon Will was getting a little stir-crazy. I gave him the assignment to plan FHE and he did a great job. He made assignments, asked people to do the assignments, planned a lesson and came up with some discussion questions.

April 3

Sometimes we call Elliott our little unicorn baby because he is so close to perfect. He's always been so cheerful, friendly, compliant, and sweet. But lately he is showing his age (2). He has become a little more opinionated and forceful about those opinions and has no qualms about communicating his displeasure. He's still pretty great, but now I'm not going to take his good times for granted.

April 4

The Pink Thunder had another practice Wednesday afternoon. The warm-ups were extra important because it was about 40 degrees and windy! I snapped this picture and then went and walked laps around the pond and listened to a podcast. It was much too windy to just stand around! It has been so cold this month, about twenty degrees colder than normal.

April 5

Thursday I got to go on a field trip with Will's second grade class to the Natural History Museum at KU in Lawrence. I carpooled over with some other moms and then toured the museum with Will and his friend Porter. All the hours that Will has spent reading books about animals and watching Wild Kratts have clearly paid off because he was able to correctly identify almost every animal and back up his guess with facts. My favorite moment of the trip was when another kid told Will he had incorrectly identified an animal as a tapir and Will just shrugged it off. When we went over and looked at the plaque and saw that it was in fact a tapir Will started listing similarities between tapirs and anteaters and why it would be so easy to confuse them instead of saying, "I told you so!" like I would have done if I was him. I was a proud mom.

April 6

Friday night Anthony put together a shelf while we watched World War 2 in color on Netflix. We lead a pretty exciting life. Anthony worked from home on Thursday while our front room and entryway were painted. We hired painters because the walls are so high and hard to reach in part. It isn't a huge change--we went from a Johnson County beige to greige with blue undertones. I can tell the difference the most when we get lots of bright natural light. I love it! And as with any home project, as soon as we cross one thing off I am itching to do something else. If only time and money restraints weren't around to hold me back.

April 7

Our Saturdays have gotten so busy! Anthony had to do a few things up at the church in the morning, so he and Will left to go to the church as soon as I got home from water aerobics. Lauren and I cleaned out the toy basket and did a few light chores while the boys were gone. When the boys returned (with a box of Lamar's doughnuts!) I left to go to a baby shower for a girl in our ward. As soon as I got home we went to the Planetarium. We've been meaning to go for awhile and have free passes that expire soon. Elliott especially was captivated by the show. Captivated or scared. When we got home I went out and ran some errands (facebook marketplace meet-up to buy cleats for Lauren and filling the tank up with gas). That evening we ate dinner, went for a walk and then I left to go to a Girl's Night in honor of my friend Brittny who is moving next week.