Sadie Three Months

I am really struggling with each milestone with this girl.  I mean, I want her to grow and develop as she is supposed to, but it's just so crazy how fast it goes!  I should be used to this by now, but apparently you don't get used to this!  She is such a fun baby though, and such a lovely addition to our family.  I can't get over how much she loves her siblings and how much they love her... still even!  Three months later!  She is a little princess.  I know I've said this before, but she is super sensitive!  Things that hurt hurt really bad.  Things that are sad, are really sad!  She does not let an uncomfortable feeling go announced :).  It's actually kind of cute.  But I have never seen this before.  So I'm trying to know how best to care for her.  She is still not making ton of eye contact up close.  I have joked that maybe she's just far-sighted, but maybe it's not a joke?  She is so loved though!  She still spends almost no time NOT in someone's arms.  She gets passed around nonstop.  Still got a bald spot though.  She is mostly happy.  She spends most of her time sleeping or eating, but when we get a moment with her awake, she is smiling!  She is pretty easy to get to smile now and when she smiles it makes her so happy she can't contain the happiness!  I love her little hands and how she holds them in front of her.  She has started trying to suck on them too, which we're anxious to see where that goes.  She LOVES her baths!  She just lays there and soaks it all up.  She likes to look at herself and me in the mirror.  She really loves it.  Probably could stay in there forever.  She is a good sleeper- even at night- she's only getting up once in the night right now, and usually not til the very end.  She is pretty good to go just about anywhere with us- sports games, concerts, plays, church, school stuff, even pinewood derbies :).  She does really well.  I've been pleasantly surprised with all that we've been able to do with her!  Which is such a blessing.  She often sleeps through whole events, such as Music Makers and Playgroup every week.  She's been a lot of fun to get to know.  I really can't get enough of her patience with Molly.  Molly just adores her and is actually pretty calm and soft with her, but sweet little Sadie just eats it up!  Never gets upset with her at all. I've never seen that either.  She has a very calm spirit, very gentle, she makes you want to be very gentle back.  She's a sweet heart.  Super sensitive, but very calm.  She loves to look around.  She is very busy mentally it seems.  Just taking it all in!  I love how alert she is when she's awake.  She likes a clean bumb and plenty of Mommy juice!  It's going to be fun to see what this little girl does with her life.  And the role her sibs play.  They sure love her.  I hope she can always feel that from them. 

Week of 10-20-19

HANNAH HOLM
I really loved Sunday School!  This was my first time back there in several years as well.  I wasn't sure how I would like it even though Nate had promised I would love the teacher Hannah Holm.  I was PLEASANTLY surprised with how nice it was!  I loved her lesson on joy and loved the discussion in the room.  It was a blessing!  10-20-19

ONE LAST PINEWOOD DERBY
The activity day girls got to do a pinewood derby Tuesday night!  Erika and Nate slaved over her watermelon car the day before, making it perfect!  They got off to a very late start- I think we sat there for at least an hour before the track showed up- but once they got going, it was a lot of fun.  Erika's car didn't do quite as well as she had planned.  The pennies were doing weird things and then the wheel was falling off... kind of a bummer, but she handled things so well and was a good sport, cheering for her friends and getting excited for them.  Such a good girl!  Makes me proud.  We were all exhausted when it was time to go home.  Especially Noah and Erika, they'd had their dress rehearsal all afternoon!  10-22-19

KELLY'S BRACES CAME OFF
It happened!  It actually happened!  She went in on Wednesday, Molly, Sadie and I kept the waiting room seats warm for the entire hour and a half, and Kelly got her braces off!!  We were so excited for her!  She looks beautiful!  She looked beautiful before, but now she has straight teeth too :).  I love how happy she is to have them off and how much she smiles!!  This is a fun thing.  She got some sparkling apple juice, popcorn and m&ms to celebrate!  10-23-19

PETER PAN ASSEMBLY
I got to go help with the assembly/practice run of Noah and Erika's play.  It was super chaotic back stage, moving the set and stuff, having no knowledge of how things were supposed to go ahead of time.  But I loved being able to watch Noah and Erika a little from behind.  Got me very excited for Friday and seeing it from the front :).  I'll never forget Noah singing the I'm Flying song over and over and over again the next couple of days trying to get it down.  Such a fun kid.  10-24-19

BRAD RABBIT AND JACK'S RACE
Noah and Erika were at their crazy long dress rehearsal on Thursday so they were unable to go to their races (which I'm still kicking myself for not stealing Erika- she could have been gone for a few minutes), but Jack went for his!  He was so cute this time!  He had decided to just stick with Liam :).  He said, "I just stayed by Liam.  And when he was tired, he just stopped, so I stopped with him" :).  Such a cute friend.  I love how loyal he is to his friends.  He has really surprised me with his running with this Race Cats season.  I have been so proud of him.  And to top it off- Brad wowed us with his rabbit skills :).  He ran with the first three races!  Pretty remarkable!  Made me proud of him too and totally helped Jami out.  Cool kid.  10-24-19

CHARITY'S CHOIR CONCERT
We all made it over to the Davis auditorium.  Not in one piece of course, we had taken all three cars I think, but we made it!  We got to watch all the choirs perform including our favorite- the Madrigals!  They did fantastic!  I loved the tighty whitey song :).  It's so neat to watch Charity excel at her singing and being part of this amazing group!  I love it so much!  So proud of her!!  10-24-19

PETER PAN!!!
Our long awaited peformances were this week!  Friday at 5:00 and Saturday at 7:30.  We had 12 tickets for both nights.  Lots of family support for our cool little actors.  It was so exciting!  The nerves were high, but so was the adrenaline.  We went as a family to the Friday night performance, Nate and I got to sit on the front row- that was nice!  It was SO MUCH FUN to watch our cute Noah and Erika doing what they'd worked so hard on for the past six weeks!  They really blew us all away with their acting skills.  It was a lot of fun to see both of them.  I still can't believe how many lines Noah had to memorize and all the scenes that he was in- he did SO GOOD!!!  He really was the perfect Peter Pan.  And Erika, our little lost boy, Twin #2 was so cute as well!  She really lit up the stage when she was on there.  I really could have watched this play a million times- it was so fun!  The kids loved it too.  I think everyone was pretty blown away by how good they did.  We had to hurry home after on Friday night to get home for the Maughan's haunted forest, but we did go get some Cold Stone the next day before Nate had to go to work.  This was very much celebration worthy!  So Saturday at about 4:00, while Noah was just chilling, trying to relax before his next show, the director calls me and says that Nathan, the other cast's Peter Pan had been throwing up all day!  She carefully asked if there was any way Noah could come and do their show!  I was a little shocked, and kind of worried that this would be too much for him, but I asked him and he was all for it!  He tried not too seem too happy, because that would be rude to Nathan, but I think he was really excited to be able to do it with that cast (Jacob Downs was Hook) and the chance to do the play for an audience one more time was appealing as well.  He was so awesome!  Rolled with all the punches- since some of their scenes had been set up differently.  Did an amazing job!  Everyone kept telling me what a better Peter Pan he was.  That was fun :).  So then we brought him some dinner, and he got all geared up for his cast's showing just an hour after the first one!  Such a cool kid.  This time we had Grandma Hatch, Simon, Grandma Ruthie, Kelly, Brad, Aunt Becky, Aunt Jen, Uncle Chris, Aunt Meg, Jarom and Sam to cheer them on!  They did another great show!  It was so much fun to see it again.  I loved that play!  It made what followed that last showing all worth it.  I had signed up to help strike the set and didn't realize what that entailed I guess.  I had no idea we were doing it THAT NIGHT, IMMEDIATELY FOLLOWING THE SHOW!  I mean, it makes sense, and since it is Laura Brown, I should have assumed, but man, I was not prepared to have them announcing my name over the mic saying that I was talking things down.  We were there for three hours!!  Taking down the set and juggling Sadie and worrying about not being good hosts to our family.  It was nuts!!  We even drove all the way to Centerville to help unload the trailer at their studio.  I was pretty annoyed when we started, but decided I needed to change my attitude and just suck it up.  I was happy that I'd gotten all the hours I needed, since I wasn't sure where those were going to come from.  And I know my kids like to be part of the behind the scenes stuff, so I think it was okay.  Sweet Brad- I don't know what I would have done without his help for sure!  He was amazing.  And Kelly, taking care of Sadie!  Crazy night!  But we survived.  And we loved it!  I think it was a bit of a downer for Noah and Erika, being done and all, but they can sure be proud of themselves and all their hard work.  It totally paid off!  10-25-19--10-26-19

Week of 10-27-19

STAKE CONFERENCE

I loved Stake conference this year!  It was great!  Super inspirational.  I love being uplifted.  I loved feeling like I"m okay and that I am going to get through the challenges I am facing right now.  I know I will.  Thanks to Heavenly Father.  10-27-19

CORN MAZE

Jen invited everyone out to a corn maze in West Jordan.  It was very cold outside, but somehow we managed to have a good time.  I can't believe how well Sadie did!  I mean she was well fed and tired, so it worked out, but such a relief.  The corn maze was fun.  I loved following our maze expert, Luke and Erika as they followed the map.  Kinda funny when they just sort of quit following it.  But we made it out pretty quickly.  I was surprised.  Then we went through the little light exhibit.  Kinda lame, and not worth whatever Jen paid.  It was fun though. I enjoy spending time together like that when we're all together.  We made our way back to Jen's car and had donuts and hot chocolate.  That was a fun night.  10-28-19

BRAD'S SHOULDER

We finally took Brad in for his shoulder.  Sprained rotater cuff.  Physical therapy, NSAIDS, and ice and heat.  Bummer.  10-29-19

PUMPKIN CARVING

Since we were out Monday night, we decided to do our carving on Tuesday night.  Luckily the evening was open!  Charity was even home.  We all love this tradition so much!  It felt like everyone was a little tired this year, but it was still a lot of fun.  I am always amazed at what these kids can create!  Even Molly got into it this year!  It was fun to have her old enough to enjoy it.  10-29-19

ERIKA'S CLASS PARTY

Molly, Sadie and I got to go to Erika's class for her Halloween party.  We did our eyeball toss game- again- but it was extra fun this year!  Something about that class made that game so much fun!  I absolutely loved it!  I had to tell Mrs. Hewett what a wonderful time we had.  Kids were so polite and so much fun with getting excited when they won and cheering for each other.  I love what she's done with some of those difficult kids :).  It was a lot of fun.  As always, we loved seeing Erika in her element.  She's such a fun girl.  I loved it.  10-30-19

HALLOWEEN!!!

We had an awesome Halloween this year!  Nate, Molly, Sadie and I all loaded up with the kids to go see the Halloween parade.  Erika was planning on being a zombie soccer player for Halloween and was too worried about the blood and gore, so she just dressed up as a baby for the school parade.  Jack wore his dolphin costume and Noah his hamburger.  It's always fun to see them in the school parade.  Then after that, we got to run our eyeball toss game in Jack's class party.  It was a lot of fun!  So many good kids and lots of winners made it really fun.  I love being in the kids' classes.  I wish I could do it more often.  We ran off to Home Depot to get some flooring for the playroom, but they don't carry what they advertise on their website- go figure.  So we came home.  The kids had early out so we just waited for them to come home.  I hate to admit it, but I totally crashed on the couch and slept for a good two hours and then it was a crazy mad dash to get costumes and make up on in time to go trick-or-treating with everyone!  Kinda nuts, but we made it out the door by 5:35!  Grandma had come by with Porter and they watched us eat our Broccoli cheese soup in our bread bowls and then took pictures before leaving.  Trick-or-Treating was fun.  We had most of the kids to start out- minus Noah- he went with some friends.  And Charity, she was working til 7:00.  Kelly was planning to go to Whitney's later and Brad had a couple parties he was going to, so we were in and out of it most of the evening.  We got pretty far before Sadie woke up.  She was doing so good in her seat, in the stroller, but didn't quite last as long as I'd hoped.  I was feeling bad about having her out int he freezing cold though, so I just walked her home.  It worked out for the best anyway because I needed to drive Noah and his friends to their next neighborhood, and then Kelly came home to get ready for her thing.  So anyway.  It wasn't my favorite way to spend Halloween, but it was fine.  I imagine Sadie will have more fun with it all next year!  Everyone came home separate times, with their bags of loot.  It's so crazy how much candy they came home with this year!!  I'm glad everyone had a good time!  10-31-19

DAY OFF

Friday was a nice day off!  Why they can't give us the day after Halloween off every year, is beyond me!  I loved it!  I did spend most of the day working on bedrooms, getting Sadie's ready to go, but it was so productive!  We kept saying, "we should do something fun" as usual, but it wasn't until the evening that we finally got out Monopoly and played a rousing game of that- Kelly, Brad, Luke and I.  It was a lot of fun!  It's been so long since I played that.  We played for a good four hours!  Even during the Jazz game!  I am pretty sure I won.  It came down to Brad and I and the money just kept going back and forth, so we stopped and counted.  I had the most.  But really, it could have switched a few turns later.  But it was a lot of fun.  

RACE CATS LAST RACE

It was race day!  Poor Jack and Nate had to miss because of their basketball game, but Erika, Noah, Brad, Sadie and I headed down to Riverton.  It was pretty much freezing temps all the way there!  They were going to be cold!  We got there just in time for Erika's race!  I mean, we only had time to walk out to the start line, realize she didn't have her bib pinned on (Silly girl) and have Brad run back to the car to get it and bring it back!  She did SO GOOD though!!  She knocked almost two minutes off her previous time!  Which was pretty remarkable when I found out she had had to stop for a hurt ankle!  She amazes me!!  Then Noah's race was next- he did awesome too!  I am not sure what his time was, I didn't see the timer because I was juggling Sadie by then (sticking her inside my coat because I left her little coat in the car), but he did awesome.  I was so proud of both of them.  Erika came in 5th I think and Noah 13th!  And this is the big race, so pretty remarkable!!  I can't wait to see what these runners do in the future!  So proud!  11-2-19

BASKETBALL JACK

Jack's first game!  We caught the tail end of it after the kids' races, he was playing great!  He seems to have a pretty good team this year!  I am really excited to watch him play!  Here we go!  11-2-19

REPLENISHING THE DI

We've been working so hard on all our bedrooms these past few months.  We've taken SO MANY trips to the D.I.! Saturday we were completely done with the crawl space, the play room, the boys' room, and Sadie's room, so it was time to move on to the little girls' room!  That room had definitely seen better days!  And I' know it's been almost a year since we deep cleaned it (I was so MIA during my pregnancy), so there was a lot to be done.  It was an overwhelming project even for me, so I stayed in there and helped.  Once Sadie woke up, Kelly basically took over- going through every inch of that room with Erika.  I stayed and helped as much as I could, mostly moral support, and Molly was dead asleep on the floor in Charity and Kelly's room.  But the coolest thing- we had made several piles: stuffed animals that needed to go downstairs, books that need to go downstairs, a bag with D.I. stuff, a bag with garbage, a bag with D.I. clothes, etc. and looking at all of them made me really stressed- it was going to take us more than the time we had that evening to do it all.  SO I called in for reinforcements.  It was SO COOL!  Brad, Luke, Noah, and even Jack came up to their room, and order after order, took things where they belonged and helped us clear out her room!  It was so amazing!  I don't think we would have finished it all til Tuesday without their help!  I loved it!  Then they stayed in there just talking and laughing with us!  Such fun company.  I loved it.  Made the whole project much more bearable.  It's been hard work getting rooms the way we want them, but SO WORTH IT!!  Their room looks amazing now!  Molly is doing really good at keeping it clean too!  Amazing!  11-2-19

Week of 10-13-19

FIRST TIME BACK IN RELIEF SOCIETY
For a first time back to Relief Society, I was very worried halfway through the lesson.  It was not my favorite.  People were getting off on the strangest subjects and things were really going haywire in my mind.  Luckily, Terrie Tenney was sitting next to me and obviously felt prompted to mention that all the teachers had been released and we were getting a bunch of new ones, namely, Barbara Noriega, Jami Caldwell, Sara Laramore, etc.  This felt like a tender mercy at the time.  I am really excited now to have these teachers.  Hopefully Relief Society will be more bearable from here on out.  10-13-19

EARLY MORNING STUDY TIME
So I don't really know how this came up, I can't even remember where Nate and I were when we talked about it, but I have been fighting the impression I've had to switch our family study time to mornings.  Well, I made mention of it to Nate almost in passing, and he latched onto it!  It just took off once he got hold of it.  We had our reservations and wanted to make sure the kids were on board, but it actually seemed like a doable idea.  So Sunday, during family council, we introduced the idea to the kids.  Charity was very vocally excited about the idea and she'd been one of the ones (Charity, Luke, Erika, and Jack) whom I'd worried about with this idea.  So she gave me some hope :).  They all agreed and thought it was worth a shot.  So this was our first week of getting everyone up at 6:30, and down to the kitchen to study at 6:40AM!  It went really well if you ask me!  Everyone was there and even participated a little.  I was shocked!  It shakes up my morning routine a little, but I've been able to get up at 5:00 everyday, shower, study and make breakfast (and sometimes lunches) before waking up everyone else.  So kind of miraculous if you ask me.  It's been so great on the late evenings when I think about how tired I am and don't know if I have it in me to study and then realizing that we already did!  I love that feeling.  So we're going to keep it going I think.  No objections from anyone which is also a miracle.  I think this is something the Lord really wanted for us.  I wish I'd listened sooner.  But it's going great now!  10-14-19

FHE
For our lesson- since Noah had used his good lesson idea for study time one night- we decided to move the boys' beds down to their new room :).  Not the most spiritual activity, but honestly, it was a lot of fun to work together as a family again. Felt like it had been a while.  10-14-19

BRAD LEARNERS PERMIT
So we had tried to go get Brad's learner's on Monday, but of course the DLD was closed for Columbus Day.  So Tuesday we went after school, filled out the form and waited only to find out that there wasn't enough time for him to complete the test that day.  So Wednesday, I agreed to check Brad out of school, during his lunch at least, and take him to get it.  That way we'd be sure to have time and it could count as our fun date and everything!  We were very excited!  Well, as luck would have it, Brad didn't pass his test.  SUCH a bummer! They let him take it again, and AGAIN he didn't pass!   I felt so bad for him!!  They only let you take it twice in a row, he needed to wait another day.  Unfortunately, we were headed to Bear Lake that night for Fall Break and would have to wait until the following Monday.  It was really devastating.  We even got him a consolation shake on the way home. 10-16-19

FALL BREAK!
Wednesday afternoon we all rushed around packing and getting things ready to go to Bear Lake.  We did pretty good getting out the door only an hour later than we'd planned.  We had to drive two cars though, which was less than ideal.  Charity rode with Nate the rest of the kids with me in the van.  We all stopped at Carl's Jr. on the way and then got to Grandma's condo around 8:00pm.  We got all situated, unpacked the car, sent some of the kids' stuff to Grandma's (I think it was Bradley, Luke and Noah) who went that first night.  Ruth had miscounted and only made us sacrifice three of the kids that first night.  It was a fun evening.  We talked with everyone around their fire pit, then played games and watched tv.  Everyone slept well.  10-16-19
Swimming after breakfast- kind of a tradition- we all went over to the pool.  This was Sadie's first experience with a swimming pool and for the most part she liked it.  She looked so stinkin cute in her new swimsuit!  Of course.  The pool was a little cold though, so I wasn't too excited about keeping her in it.  I got out and talked with the ladies.  Ruth held Sadie for the majority of the time, until she got hungry.  When we got back to our place, we showered and then everyone kind of vegged!  It was actually really nice and relaxing for a couple hours there.  Then it was time to go up to Coopers.  Fun tradition.  We all enjoyed each other's company.  The girls sat with the cousins and everyone else sat at a table with Uncle Mark and Aunt Nancy.  Frisbees all around.  That night was kind of a bummer.  Grandma had realized that rather than just three people, we needed to sacrifice FIVE!  Nobody wanted to go.  Charity and Kelly were both feeling crappy, Jack didn't want to sleep somewhere else, and neither did Erika.  There was a lot of arguing and negative feelings that evening and then I suggested that Sadie and I go.  Nate didn't like that idea, so he and Erika ended up going over there.  It was one of the two nights I was going to get to have with Nate on this trip and couldn't believe I had to spend it alone.  But we did.  Such a bummer.  Not that I would have wanted anyone else to have to go either.  It was just such a crappy situation.  I wish we didn't have to do that when we go up there.  Made me really miss my dad's place.  Course we weren't going to be allowed to swim at the condo pool if we stayed at my dad's anyway, so.... anyway.  10-17-19
In the morning, Kelly, Erika, Sadie and I got all packed up in the Prius to head off to Boise for Kelly's tournament.  We were excited about the tournament, but not excited to leave everyone on our vacation.  That was hard.  But we quickly made the most of it and had a lot of fun on the drive.  I about peed my pants when Erika called the llama the "one with the ugly smile!" HA!!  Still makes me laugh.  And all the singing and talking we got to do.  Erika filling us in on her Mustaches for Maddie book every couple hours.  It was long, but a good time.  A short FIVE HOURS LATER and we were in Meridian at the first game for Kelly's tournament.  This was a fun game.  Kelly's team did great!  Kelly did great!  I was really proud of her effort and how well she played.  Made the drive and all worth it!  When the game was over, we drove to our hotel.  The hotel was in the middle of downtown Boise- a huge blessing we hadn't brought the van since the only parking for this hotel for probably several blocks, was in the parking garage!  It was a nice hotel though!  They had a cute sign in the lobby welcoming the Davis Girls Lacrosse Team, which was super cool.  We had been wanting to do something fun that evening and came up with getting take out- Red Robin- YUM! and then going to see a movie at the theater that was a five minute walk from our room... no joke, five minutes!  Too bad we gave ourselves a half hour to walk there! HA!  Actually, it was fine- we sat there in the empty theater just laughing and having a good time before Maleficent II started.  It was a 9:30 movie so we didn't get back to our room til pretty late.  We went right to sleep.  It had been a great day!  10-18-19
We had received texts and pics from Becky all day Friday of Nate and the other kids and all of their adventures.  They had gone to see the Paris Ice Caves and then to Firehouse Pizza for Fh'zookies!  Looked like they were having a good time too.  That was good. 
Saturday, our last day of the trip, we slept in long enough to feel rested, but not past our free breakfast time, thank goodness :).  We ate and then hurried to check out so we could get to Kelly's first game.  I'll be honest, I had been kind of dreading this game ever since I'd looked out the window and saw all the rain and storminess (once I figured out that the building tops were painted white, not covered in freshly fallen snow).  I wasn't super excited about sitting in the cold.  But we made our way to the park, said goodbye to Kelly to go warm up, and then watched as the storm rolled in.  It was an insane little storm! I was super ticked when they saw lightning and had to postpone Kelly's first game!  I did not drive all the way to Boise for one little game!  I had no idea how fast that storm would roll out though!  None of us did!  We decided to go grab some food at Winco when the game was cancelled, and while we were in there, Kelly got the call that we needed to be back there in 25 minutes!  So we quickly rushed out of Winco (slower than we had wanted because Winco doesn't take credit cards and that's all we had), and got back over to the park which had miraculously turned sunny!  We sat there at watched her game, then another one and another, cheering and being impressed with Kelly's balling skills!  She played SO WELL on that tournament!  I think we only won one of the games- and it was one that we totally killed the other team, but it was a great experience for our team and a lot of fun for us.  After that last game, it was time to head home!  We had a long "4 hour drive" ahead of us.  Who knew that four hour drive was going to take us five and a half hours!  Poor Sadie didn't love being stuck in her carseat again.  We had to stop to feed her a lot, thinking that would help her to stop crying.  Didn't work.  As we were driving down I-84, south of course, just before mile marker 116, I saw a deer, in the middle of the freeways, getting ready to run across our lane!  I didn't even have time to think- I just slammed on my brakes.  We were going 80 mph so I can only imagine it helped.  We did manage to hit the back end of the deer, sending him soaring, and creating a pretty loud BANG in the car.  Jerking it a little too, I think.  Poor Sadie did NOT love this.  Kelly and Erika were awakened as well.  Such a scary moment.  I decided after a minute or so that I should probably pull over and check the car out.  It was running okay, but I knew what happened to the Prius when Nate had hit a deer, so I was a little worried it was going to be badly damaged again.  I got out and could barely see anything at all.  It was only after a few scans of the front bumper that I noticed a small chunk of the plastic missing.  Very minor damage.  Pretty remarkable really.  Another little miracle.  Then as I got back in the car, and drove off, it was brought to my attention what a miracle it was that we were even alive!  That really could have not ended well.  And even if we'd been alive and okay, the car could have been really badly mangled and required towing or something!  Being that we were basically in the middle of nowhere, it was a huge relief that we'd been as blessed as we had.  I couldn't help but thank my Heavenly Father for that.  That drive home was not my favorite.  I was so shaken up from the deer that it was hard for me to relax.  I was scared of everything on the road.  The only good thing was I didn't really get too tired after that.  We made a late night stop at Costa Vida which was much needed and really made the last couple hours or so bearable.  We got home around midnight.  almost two hours later than my phone had originally told us.  All those stops!  Nate rolled in shortly after.  It was good to see him, good to be home!  And good to sleep in my own bed!  Poor Sadie was finally able to sleep.  Another tournament in the books!  Good times, fun memories.  10-19-19

Week of 10-6-19

GENERAL CONFERENCE SUNDAY
I forgot to mention that Nate took the weekend off!  We got to have him home with us for all sessions!  And we got to have our creamed eggs on toast tradition.  It was great!  We are now all excited for April's conference and whatever it has in store!  Pres. Nelson made it sound pretty thrilling!  So we'll see!  10-6-19

BRADLEY’S BIRTHDAY
Brad woke up to his cool sign- courtesy of Kelly! And then headed off to school. He had been waiting and anticipating this day for quite a while and not just because he was turning 15, but because  of basketball tryouts!!!! He was happy that for ninth graders it was after school. I failed and didn’t take him pizza on his actual birthday, but managed to take him a couple the next day to celebrate. So he went to his tryouts after school. When I picked him up he was feeling pretty good, not sure how first cuts were going to go though. We had to go grab a fiiz to ease the anxiety 😉. We went home planning to go back to the school to see the list at 6:00, but at about 5:45 Kelly ran into Canon Leaver and found out if Brad’s name was on the list. I think she was just so happy for Brad she couldn’t keep it in and said, “Brad you should go look at the list!” With a big smile on her face. So we were pretty sure he had made it but made the drive over to see the list. It was so fun to see Brad come back to the car with a big smile on his face. He had made first cuts!! On his birthday! Pretty awesome! And we were a little relieved that he was going to be able to be happy on his birthday. So that drama was over ツ it was time for his family party. We hurried and gobbled down our burritos as grandpa pulled up. He was our only party guest this time so we just got going with the usual party stuff. It was nice and relaxing. He got a lot of cool gifts! Grandpa gave home the bass fishing pole he wanted. We gave him some waders and boots, fishing glasses, and the cherry on top- an iPhone! He was so happy about that ツ. So were we. We had birthday brownies this time! It was very exciting! We had to get creative with the candles because I forgot to get them in my order. It was a nice evening though. I enjoyed it. I hope he did. I can’t believe he’s 15! 10-07-19

BRAD SECOND CUTS
SO Brad got up early Tuesday morning and went back for some more basketball tryouts. It was such a bummer to get his text a little later that he didn't think he was going to make it because the coach was going with a smaller lineup, and then the text telling me he didn't.  I hate watching my kids face disappointments in life, but then, I love seeing how well they handle it when they do.  He really did take it pretty hard in the moment, but he really toughed it out.  Makes me proud of him.  Next year.  10-08-19

LACROSSE GAME
Everyone was home as we were getting ready to go to Kelly’s game so we just threw everyone in the car and had them all come with. It was like the good ol’ days when everyone used to come to all the games. Kelly did awesome. It was so fun! We all got fiiz after thanks to Kelly's goals! ツ.  10-8-19

SUCH A NICE EVENING
We were having so much fun together, everyone was mostly happy, I just didn't want to leave.  I couldn't bring myself to go to the Relief Society activity.  I was already feeling some relief.  10-8-19

PARENT TEACHER CONFERENCES
Conferences went really well this time. As usual ツ. It was a very pleasant experience with all of the teachers. The only bad thing was that they had done the book fair the week before so we didn’t get to reward the kids with books like we usually do.  I really liked getting to know Erika's teacher, Mrs. Hewett, a little better.  I've heard so many good things about her and all the fun things she does with the class.  Erika has really loved her class.  It sounds like Erika is a joy to have in there and that her teacher appreciates her example to her classmates.  She was doing really well in several areas.  No surprise, but fun to hear about.  It was fun to meet with Mrs. Lindsey again.  She is such a sweet teacher.  It felt like Jack was a little nervous during his conference, but it sounds like he is doing really well in class and with all of his academics.  I'm so proud of him and the progress he is making all the time.  Noah's was last.  We were on time to see Mrs. Downs which was good.  She had nothing but good things to say about Noah.  And all our other kids for that matter.  She's very complimentary.  It's nice to have teachers that know our family.  It was a great time to hear about how goo dNOah is doing and the things he's accomplishing in there.  So proud of him!  10-9-19

BRAD AND LUKE CHOIR CONCERT
We all got to go to Luke and Brad's choir concert on Wednesday.  It ended up being pretty crowded in there, but we somehow managed to get decent seats.  The boys did a great job!  It's so fun to hear them and watch them magnifying their singing gifts.  I love finding their cute faces up there on the stage and watching them enjoy it so much.  They're such cute boys.  They both had some really fun songs.  Mrs. Tingey does a good job with them.  Charity was wishing it was a little more professionally done in the presentation area, but it was nice and relaxing evening.  Good job boys!  10-9-19

DINNER FOR TEACHERS
It was our day to take dinner to the teachers.  Nate made the meat and a bunch of moms brought sides and desserts.  It went really well!  I feel like this is not even a big deal anymore with how many times we have done it.  Hopefully the teachers like Nate's smoked pulled pork :).  10-10-19

RACE CATS RACE
Our first race cats race was Thursday.  This was one of the coldest days we've had!  So that was a bummer!  Trying to keep warm while cheering them on was a challenge.  Molly didn't really rise to it either.  Our runners did great though!  I was so impressed with Jack's time and ability!  He did so good!  Erika did amazing as well.  Got 4th place I think in girls!  And Noah!  He did great too!  I'm trying to remember what place he got.  It was a fun race.  We were happy to get in the car and come home to our warm house when it was over :).  10-10-19

GRIZZLIES GAME
We were very privileged to be able to take the entire family to the Grizzlies game to watch Bradley sing!  This is a fun new tradition.  I am hoping my kids will pick up an interest in Hockey on the sly :).  They sang great!  It was fun cheering on our Grizzlies too.  Everyone seemed to have a good time.  Molly took several trips to the bathroom and ate lots of popcorn :).  We sat by the Grays and listened to them scream and cheer the ENTIRE TIME!!  Such fans!  HA!  Good times.  10-11-19

LAST SOCCER GAMES
This Saturday was Jack and Noah's last games of the season (one of theirs had been rained out so this was a make up for those).  It was a good season for all three of our soccer players.  It was fun to watch their talents come out.  Jack got really good at getting in there and getting the ball.  He was really brave and even tried to score a few times!  Noah was always right where the coach wanted him to be.  His coach was shocked that this was his first time playing.  He had a lot of nice things to say about Noah in an email, telling me what a great listener he was and such a focused player.  Made my day to say the least, but none of it was news to me :).  He was a lot of fun to watch.  And Erika! She did great too!  She was one of our big scorers on the team and was the best goalie again.  Two things that we wish we could have in TWO players, not just one.  But she is great and fun to watch and I'm pretty sure she's having fun out there.  She has loved being on Kate's team I think.  It's been fun for all of us this season. We'll see more in the spring.  10-12-19

CHARITY'S ALL-STATE CONCERT
I was pretty gungho about Charity's concert, even taking everyone down to Temple Square for it, but then I found out that kids under six are not allowed.  That really rained on my parade and made going out of the question.  I can't leave Sadie that long yet.  So I did the next best thing and sent three of her cool sibs down to Salt Lake to be her cheering section.  It took quite a bit of coaxing because of the drive and how difficult Salt Lake can be to park and such, and poor Kelly ended up dropping her phone on the concrete, cracking the screen, so it wasn't all flowers and roses.  But I was so grateful that Kelly, Brad and Luke were willing and able to go and see her.  I heard it was amazing.  I'm still waiting to find out how I can watch the recording.  Charity is so cool to do these extra choirs and put in all the time and energy it takes to practice and work on these songs.  In fact, I don't know if I blogged about it, but poor Charity had to drive out to Copperton High School on her own for an audition, and while she was out, Nate decided to make some changes to her phone account- I think he was switching her to Cricket- so of course, that made it so she couldn't use her phone for directions home!!  She got SO LOST!  Nate and I were sitting in bed kind of worried when we realized how late it was getting.  We decided we better say a prayer for her since trying to contact her wasn't working.  Thankfully, she found her way to a gas station, near the airport believe it or not, and was able to call and ask for help.  I was happy to see her when Kelly, Sadie and I got there.  Kelly was so nice to drive the Forerunner home for her so that she could take a break from the anxiety.  She did pretty good.  Got a little taste of what it was like in the old days without cell phones and GPS :).  But I have been really proud of all her effort and time she puts into things.  She really is amazing.  10-12-19