2023 :: week 13

March 26

The young men in our ward embarked on a field trip during the second hour on Sunday. A ward member that lives a few blocks from our church building has not been able to attend church and the YM walked to their home and administered the Sacrament.

March 27

I dropped Lauren and Ashton off for honor choir Monday afternoon. I have enjoyed getting to know him better this school year and I appreciate that Lauren's circle of friends is expanding as she participates in this choir.

March 28

My friend Alayna invited me to a "Favorite Things Party" Tuesday night. This favorite things party was focused around books and each brought two copies of a book we enjoyed and we each got to go home with two new-to-us books. We also played a few book related games and ate delicious treats. Alayna is a wonderful hostess. I brought The Psychology of Money and came home with The Bookwoman's Daughter and Edenbrooke.

March 29

Finally our daffodils are beginning to bloom! The down side is that my allergies have been out of control! Poor Elliott, Miles and Will are suffering too. Wednesday evening Lauren I and went to the "Back to Camp" meeting for the girls their parents. Lauren is excited to go to Girl's Camp this year and we are excited for her! I have mostly really great memories of Girl's Camp.

March 30

Elliott had his first baseball practice of the season Thursday night. While Elliott practices with his team Anthony runs a mini practice for Miles and a few other younger siblings in the grass. Several of Elliott's friends have younger siblings Miles' age--at least three of his teammates have younger siblings that will start kindergarten Fall 2024. 

March 31

The weather Friday was all over the place, but the one consistent was wind. In the afternoon I worked to throw away a bunch of garbage from our garage and also took pictures of a few items to post on the "Buy Nothing" facebook page. We are exiting the stroller era of parenthood. At our peak we had four strollers, and now are down to one. 

April 1

Saturday afternoon I had another load of things to take to Savers. Lauren wanted to browse for a bit and we ended up making some really great finds! Several Who Was? books in great condition, a Minions memory game and some cute clothes for Lauren (including this outfit). It makes me smile seeing the 90s styles of my childhood make a comeback. Anthony flew to San Antonio for a work conference in the morning so it was just me and the kids for the next four days.

 

2023 :: week 12

 

March 19

Miles snapped this selfie during church. I don't let the kids use any electronics during Sacrament meeting, so he must have snuck it out of my bag when I wasn't looking. Tony spoke in our ward this week for his monthly high council speaking assignment about the purpose of belonging to the church.

March 20

After a few too many mornings when mom and dad didn't get up early enough to make scrambled eggs for breakfast, Lauren has taken it upon herself to prepare them. The large servings are for her and Will, the smaller portion is for Miles. Elliott does not care for eggs. In our defense, Tony and I have not been sleeping well lately. Miles has been waking up at night, coming into our room and waking us up, only for him to quickly fall back asleep while to two of us struggle to do so. Miles has really regressed in the sleeping department ever since he turned 4.

March 21

My goal for the remainder of the school year is to declutter our house. I often feel frustrated with the clutter in our house, and one way to cut down on clutter is to pare down on belongings. The school district is running a clothing drive this week and I spent hours going through the kids old clothes and donating the extras to the clothing exchange. 

March 22

Lauren's soccer team practiced at OPC this week because their other field was unavailable. Lauren has gotten really good at throwing the ball in quickly and down the field. I was impressed with how much farther and accurately she is able to throw the ball now.

March 23

Miles spends a lot of time playing basketball in our front room. Like his brothers before him, he has spends hours each week playing imaginary sporting events. 

March 24

The motor on our garage door has been struggling over the past few months and this past week it finally bit the dust. As with many things in this house, it was well maintained by previous owners and outlived its life expectancy. The technicians at Overhead Door couldn't tell us exactly how old our previous motor was, but it didn't have the associated sensors required with all new installs starting in 1993, so we know it was at least 30 years old. Friday our new motor was installed and it is so sleek and quiet. Seriously, I had no idea how loud our garage door opening and closing was until we had the new one. I have accidentally opened and then closed the door because I didn't hear open. We also now have a garage door key pad and two remote controls! 

March 25

Over the past year Will has gotten into baseball card and sports memorabilia collecting. He saw an ad for a baseball card show in Belton, MO, that he was interested in attending. Anthony agreed to take him and the others boys excitedly tagged along. Unfortunately, when they showed up the show had been cancelled. They were not the only people there who had hoped to go to the show so we know it was a real thing. Anthony looked up card stores on his phone and found Coach's Corner also in Belton. They decided to stop by and had a great visit! The owner was very friendly towards kids and gave each of the boys two free packs of old baseball cards, as well as mini binders to hold the cards. Miles especially loves the binder. 

2023 :: week 11

March 12

Anthony and I taught our youth class this Sunday. This week the topic was gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormon. At one point in the lesson we had the kids divide into small groups and find scriptures in that testified of Christ. Class attendance is up this year (about 25-30 kids per class). I let Tony do most of the prep work for this class because I spoke in Sacrament Meeting after being asked on Wednesday night.

March 13

I didn't plan much out of the ordinary for Spring Break and I was already paying for by way of "I'm boreds," and "there's nothing to dos," by Monday afternoon. I took the kids to the library to pick up some books and DVDs and while we were there Will helped Elliott and Miles fill out their brackets. It was hard to tell who was having more fun filling out the brackets, Will or the younger boys?

March 14

One of my goals for the week was to check off a few longstanding items on my to-do list. A few weeks ago we set up Lauren's new book shelf, and she had been patiently waiting for us to build the drawers that went inside. I started this cross-stitch of the Salt Lake Temple around Christmas and needed to stitch the French knots that would be the flowers on the bottom. There was a lot of water build up on the glass in our sauna and so I deep cleaned the sauna seats, floor and glass. I also applied another coat of RainX to keep the glass clear longer. Mikey requested a letter M shirt based off  Alphabet Lore on Youtube. I used freezer paper stenciling and patience to get it done. Each task took less than 90 minutes, and I felt so good after getting them accomplished by the end of the week I have some positive momentum towards more time consuming projects I've been putting off around the house. 

March 15

A few years ago my mom started taking the kids on a one-on-one birthday shopping trip for their birthdays. This past year she was out of commission, but lately has been feeling good enough to get out of the house more. Wednesday after her OT appointment we met up at Target for Elliott, Lauren and Will to do their 2022 birthday shopping trips. Squishmallows, sports cards, and Lego Sets were purchased, along with a book and pack of gum each.

March 16

Thursday we got together with the Diggins family for the first time in almost a year! Carrie made us pancakes for lunch and her and I chatted for a few hours while the kids played. We only scratched the surface of things to talk about. 

March 17

Lauren had been asking all week if we could decorate sugar cookies. I was more focused on getting jobs done than starting something new, and finally got around to it Friday. When the Ules came over Lauren and Daphne went through out cookie cutters and had a lot of fun decorating the various shapes. The littlest brothers saw how much fun their sisters were having and decided they wanted to decorate too. Friday marked Miles' first official playdate with Gabriel and they did awesome. Elliott and Nicholas played at the Ules and were happy to partake of the freshly decorated cookies when Jolie came to swap kids.

March 18

The John boys watched a lot of basketball this weekend. The first weekend of March madness has so many basketball games and now that Will and Elliott are invested in their brackets basketball is on even when TJ isn't home. This week Anthony worked a few evenings (including Saturday) working with SMEs to work on item writing for tests. 

2023 :: week 10

March 5

Miles is 4! It's hard for me to believe that he's that old. It's hard for him to accept that he's that young. In the months leading up to his birthday he wanted to turn seven like Elliott. Miles is one of a kind. He is very social and loves being around people, but he's also shy and does not like getting too much individual attention. He has a fantastic memory, and regularly catches me off guard with what he recalls. Miles loves sports--basketball, baseball, soccer--basically whatever the older kids are doing. Miles is fascinated by mascots and can tell you the name of every mascot in the MLB and many in the NFL and NBA. He looks forward to 3pm every weekday so we can meet the big kids at the park to play for awhile. Miles has recently decided he wants to say every prayer every time our family prays and he gets quite upset when we let anyone else take a turn. When Anthony drives Miles to school in the morning they listen to "Daddy's music," which has lead to him requesting "they're going for speed" aka "The Distance" by Cake and a variety of Beatles songs. Miles hates going to bed, probably due to his terrible FOMO. You can't blame him for feeling like he is always getting left out of stuff because he siblings do do a lot of activities. Miles has a fun sense of humor and loves to laugh, but he suffers no fools. 

March 6

Spring was in the air on Monday and it felt amazing! Elliott, Miles and I met up with several ward friends at Meadowbrook park after dropping Lauren off at choir. The boys had a great time running around and playing with their friends. Unfortunately, as often happens to me when there are dramatic temperature swings, I had a pretty bad headache by the time we headed home. That night I had to lie down while Anthony drove Lauren to and from soccer.

March 7

Matt has been traveling quite a bit for work over the past three weeks. I have been going to the Wilsons once and sometimes twice a day to help Emily walk her dogs. Sometimes I stay at the house and keep an eye on Calvin or else I push Calvin in the stroller and walk with Emily. If the kids are home from school Elliott and Miles like to join me and play with Tyler and Mikey while Emily walks and I watch Cal. Tuesday afternoon it got chilly and wet, but that didn't stop Elliott and Tyler from building nature "beds" out of the Wilson's woodpile.

March 8

Wednesday evening Will played in a band concert. The concert was fairly short because only the 6th and 7th grade bands played. Will switched to playing the euphonium because there about twenty trumpets. He is the "first chair," of the seven euphoniums. Apparently when he was in 8th grade Anthony played the baritone for a few songs. 

March 9

Thursday night was the OPC Open House and 5th Grade Wax Museum. The fifth graders spend the third quarter working on their "American Hero Project." The project entails researching and an American citizen that is a positive role model who is known for making the world a better place. The kids prepare a two minute speech they memorize and deliver to their class and then the school community at the open house while dressed up as the hero. Due to covid-related precautions this was the first Wax Museum at OPC since 2019, which means that Will didn't get to do it when he was in 5th grade (he still did the research and delivered the speech to his class). Lauren chose Eleanor Roosevelt as her subject and did a great job capturing her determined and compassionate spirit.

March 10

Friday was the first day of '"spring break." It was overcast and cold and all I wanted to do was read my book, but the kids were expecting more. They were sorely disappointed in my lack of plans. We ended up having a fun day.

March 11

We have been working to revamp Lauren's room and Saturday afternoon we went shopping to pick up a few things to help her organize. Organizing is one of Lauren's favorite pastimes. A new Five Below just opened up and Lauren was excited to check out the new location. 

2023 :: week 9

February 26

Tony's good friend Beth Guterman-Chu was in town Sunday. She was staying at the Westin, so we met her in the lobby and then walked to Crown Center. The kids played and ate ice cream while the adults caught up. That evening Anthony and I went back downtown to watch Beth and the symphony play at the Kaufman Center. My favorite part of the concert was Tchaikovsky's Manfred Symphony. I had never heard it before, and am not familiar with the poem on which it was based, but could feel the range of emotions. Beth and the other musicians were so talented, it was a privilege to hear them play.

February 27

Miles and I found a spot along Indian Creek to throw rocks after running several errands. The weather was gorgeous and I wanted to do something fun with Miles after he accompanied me on several less fun to-dos.

February 28

On Tuesday Anthony and Elliott visited  Allen Field House for the first time with friends Stevie and Nicholas. The Jayhawks defeated the Texas Tech Red Raiders 67-63. Elliott had a blast, but said his "ears were crying it was so loud." He said his favorite part was the fact that everyone was jumping up and down and having a good time. And that Anthony bought him a hot dog and large Gatorade.

March 1

I could not find Miles at the park after school and momentarily panicked. I was afraid he had started to walk back home by himself, which he has done before. I didn't even notice him sitting with this group of 2nd grade girls. His two main playmates--Gabriel and Hudson--weren't at the park so apparently he made some new friends. Miles let these girls read him a book every day after school for the rest of the week.

March 2

Jill and I took the boys to Science City Thursday afternoon. In the three hours we were there we visited almost every indoor exhibit the boys. Miles has fun with this cousin-buddies. 

March 3

Friday night was busy! Will went with Knox to watch some state tournament high school basketball. The rest of us went to Lauren's first soccer game of the spring season. Lauren's team moved up a division, and though they played well, they lost 5-1. A girl from our stake played for the other team. Lauren scored the Pink Thunder's only goal of the night at the end of the game to avoid a shutout. Her coach had her playing both forward midfield. After the soccer game we picked up Dana and drove to Strawberry Hill for Sarah's house warming party. It was fun to see her new place as well as run into a few friends. We also met a friend of Sarah's who served his mission in Finland, is from the Boston area (Hingham) and has kids that go to the same high school ours will. 

March 4

Anthony and Lauren went to a Daddy Daughter dance put on by a girl in our ward this weekend. They had fun. Lauren and her friends danced together and got the crowd going. Tony injured his knee while doing some solo interpretive dancing (he wanted Lauren to dance with him but she was more interested in dancing with her friends). While they were gone and after the little boys went to bed I worked on making Miles a birthday cake.

2023 :: week 8

February 19

One of the perks of your dad being a high councilor is that you may be called upon to speak with him on semi-short notice. The ward they spoke in was my parents ward that is filled with many of our friends from our old ward so they boys had a friendly audience. All three John men did a great job.

February 20

Monday the kids had the day off school, but Anthony had to work and I had a late morning PT appointment so we were limited in what we could do. Lauren got invited to go swimming with a friend, so the boys and I went to the zoo. To say it was crowded would be an understatement, I have never had to park so far away from the entrance. Elliott predicted he would see three people he knew and we did in fact see three people he knows and a few others as well. We got to see the crocodile, which both Miles and Elliott were excited to see because they have been enjoying the new Lyle Lyle Crocodile movie on Netflix. 

February 21

The gorgeous weather continued and the boys played for over an hour at the park after school on Tuesday. While we were there someone from the city showed up and went into the pool office. He told us they are planning to open Bluejacket this summer--yay!

February 22

I went to a water aerobics class at Matt Ross on Wednesday and the instructor took a picture and posted it on social media. Not the most flattering photo of me, but water aerobics has been a big part of my life over the past ten years and it is fun to have a picture of me in the water. My kids and grandkids or whoever looks at these photobooks I make can see where I spent many hours of my life exercising. 

February 23

Thursday night we went to OPC for the Kindergarten and 1st grade music performance. Each class sang one song, Elliott's class sang "Teddy Bear." After the performance Anthony took the big kids to a multi-stake youth devotional about religious freedom and I walked home with the little guys. The moon and Jupiter and Venus were so bright! The school sits on a bit of a hill and we could see them very well from that vantage point. It was a bit of an adventure because even though we've walked this route many times before, they've never walked home when it was so dark. Miles especially was nervous.  

February 24

Calvin hasn't been sleeping well. Friday afternoon we watched Calvin for a few hours so Emily could take a totally uninterrupted nap. In keeping with our theory that kids are usually worse behaved for their parents than other adults, Calvin was pretty easy for us. Calvin enjoyed watching Miles play basketball and laughed when Uncle Tony tickled him.

February 25

Another busy Saturday. Elliott played his best basketball game of the season in the morning, scoring 12 of his team's 24 points. Lauren went to her friend Ethnie's Harry Potter themed birthday party. When I picked her up from the party we stopped at Hy-Vee where she inadvertently ingested hazelnut that was in a sample. I gave her Benadryl right away and watched her like a hawk, but aside from a stomach ache and tingly lips she had no other symptoms. In the afternoon Anthony took the kids plus cousin Tyler a Lego exhibit at the Central Library, the Baseball Card Store and Collectors Cache. I went to my parents are prepared my mom's pill minders for the next two weeks. In the late afternoon we drove to Kaw Point Park, a park in KCK where the Kansas River joins the Missouri River. If you look closely at the photo you can see the converging currents. It is also one of the places where the Lewis and Clark expedition camped on their 1804 expedition. The kids have had elevated interest in learning about Lewis and Clark because many of the clues in the National Treasure tv show centered around the expedition. I thought we would spend most of our time walking along the trails, but the kids really liked skipping rocks. Miles liked throwing rocks in the water so much he threw a bit tantrum when I made him move on.

2023 :: week 7

February 12

I took this photo when the Super Bowl was over and Chiefs were *officially* Super Bowl champions again. Will was screaming into the bean bag and Elliott was jumping for joy. It was a very happy moment in the John house.

February 13

I got an unexpected call from the nurse Monday afternoon. I assumed it would be about Lauren, who had been sniffling the night before, but it was about Elliott. During recess he had been playing a hide and seek type game and hit his head on a bolt holding the playground equipment together when he was "found." There was clearly a lot of blood even though he was pretty cleaned up by the time I came to get him. Apparently the teachers made everyone vacate that section of the playground while they waited for the janitor to come clean the area and Lauren said she heard from her classmates who went to the nurses office after lunch for their afternoon pills that the nurses office was temporarily closed because there was so much blood. When I washed out Elliott's red shirt in the sink the water turned very red. That afternoon evening I got several texts from concerned parents of Elliott's friends, wishing him well. Rumor spread that he had been sent straight to the hospital. Elliott loved his 15 minutes of 1st grade fame. Thankfully he had no signs of a concussion and didn't need stitches. The wound healed relatively quickly, but we didn't let him play any contact sports for the rest of the week to make sure it healed. 

February 14

Miles was super jazzed about his Valentines bounty, and I felt a little like a cheapskate, after preschool on Valentine's Day. I feel like every year the Valentine's candy and toys get bigger and bigger. 

February 15

Wednesday was a "Red Snow Day," or the day they cancelled school because so many people would be at the Chiefs parade. Because we elected not to go this year, we felt like we needed to let the kids do something fun instead. Will invited Jude, Adrian and Elliott W over for smash burgers and sauna. Anthony made smash burgers, then the boys used the sauna and ran outside in the cold go cool off. After they finished using the sauna they watched sauna competitions on YouTube until their parents came to pick them up. I think they played video games too. 

February 16

We haven't gotten much snow this  year. Miles was jumping for joy that he could "make footsteps" aka footprints in the snow.

February 17

One of the ways our new ward is fostering friendship and unity is facilitating optional dinner groups. Anthony and I met with Greg & Barbara and Greg & Andrea for dinner at Texas Roadhouse Friday night. We had a fun time, even though we got paired up with two couples we know rather well. The Githins live in our neighborhood and Greg served with Anthony in the bishopric. Will has become fast friends with the Benson twins and we've gotten to know their parents pretty well through that association.

February 18

Saturday was the end of the Stake YM basketball season. Will's team was the lowest seed and we expected them to play one game and then be done. However, their first opponent forfeited. No one from that ward even showed up. They just scrimmaged and waited to play a game in the second round. The team they played in the second round had beat them handily during the regular season. However this time a kid from our ward hadn't been able to play in the early season games was there and with his defensive work was able to keep the game competitive. At the end of the game our ward team was up by two point and the other team quickly fouled Will to get the ball back. Will--the youngest and shortest player on the court--sank both of his free throws, ensuring that his team would win. He was super excited, but I don't know if I have ever seen Anthony so proud. The Oak Park Ward boys went on to the win the championship game that afternoon.

2023 :: week 6

 

February 5

During Sacrament meeting Elliott made a list of his current favorite primary songs to sing, which is very similar to the list of songs we sing with the boys at bedtime. We rotate back and forth with Elliott and Miles getting to chose a primary song we sing together each night. "I Lived in Heaven," and "Gethsemane" are chosen the most frequently.

February 6

Lauren participates in an honor choir that meets weekly at the high school. Typically I drop her and a friend from our ward off at the school and his mom brings them home. However, next  week they will practice at Indian Woods, then sing the national anthem at the beginning of the boys basketball game that evening. 

February 7

This semester Will is taking P.E., which he really enjoys. Recently Will and his handball team came in first in the handball tournament. Phoebe and Landon are fellow OPC kids.

February 8

Even though skating was a big part of my childhood, I have done a poor job passing on the love of skating to my children. When both Lauren and Elliott wanted to go to the school skating party on Wednesday night I couldn't say no. Both kids endured some painful falls, but I was proud of them for getting back up again. I spent most of the night working with Elliott and by the end of the evening he was able to make it around the rink a few times without my help (still using the aid of the skate mate). I took a few laps around the rink myself which was a lot of fun. I think I might need to go skating more often this year. 

February 9

When I got up Thursday morning I had no idea it was a snow day. It wasn't until I got a text about needing to rearrange plans that I figured things out. Luckily we hadn't done too much to get ready for school yet and were able to have a relaxing morning. It rained overnight and the rain froze in the early hours of the morning, so the roads were very icy from approximately 5-9am. After that the sun came out and melted things rather quickly. Our school districts really should look into implementing late starts. Regardless, we had a fun "day off." We met up with some ward friends at the church for a Valentine's Party. Then we met the Throssells for lunch at the Costco food court. Then Kendall came over to play with Elliott and Miles, Will and Holden traded cards at Collectors Cache, and Lauren went shopping at Target and Old Navy with Gretchen and Stephanie. 

February 10

Everyone but Will had the day off from school Friday due to parent/teacher conferences. After I got home from visiting with Lauren's teacher Tyler came over to play for a bit. In the afternoon we spent some time with Memaw. Lauren and Will walked to Target together by themselves to buy some candy and soda.  In honor of Tyler's birthday, that evening we watched his basketball game.

February 11

Another busy Saturday. The day started off with two basketball games--Will's at 8am and Elliott's at 10am. Both boys enjoyed themselves, despite their teams coming up short. Elliott had a tough defensive assignment, he was matched up with a second grader a full head and shoulders taller than him. In the afternoon I made some cookies for a RS service project and Tony took Lauren to IKEA to pick up some new shelving for her bedroom. We spent the evening with my mom, eating stir fry and watching Star Wars.