Sledding Buddies

Matthew had surgery yesterday, this time to remove the plates that were put in at the time of the hip surgeries. We've been praying hard for this brave little boy who has faced so much in his young life. Nicole drew this picture of the two of them sledding together. I sure wish we lived closer.

Overscheduling

I think parents are always worrying and wondering if they are overscheduling their kids. Mary tried out for the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory play today after school. She did such a great job reading for Violet that I wouldn't be surprised if she ended up with a speaking part. I've been working on getting the violin situation squared away, deciding we needed to purchase a better violin so she won't struggle so much learning to play it. Her weekly violin lessons along with piano lessons will keep her plenty busy. She will be starting basketball soon and with her normal school work I am hoping I haven't let her pile on too much.

We signed up for battle of the books earlier this year, and I am going to be a coach for four third graders. We're a little behind on her reading so we've come up with a reading plan to get caught up. We're spending a lot of our afternoons reading. I don't mind that very much, but it means I'm not super balanced in the attention I'm giving the other kids and housework.

I watched the Linthorst's baby today and he was just so easy and fun. Of course, these sweet babies make you wonder if you should have more, babies are so simple and naturally slow down life a bit. But then you have a crazy busy afternoon and realize, that handing me a baby while I am already drowning may not be the best idea.

 I'm hoping the dust will settle and I'll get it all figured out.

Resolution #1

Today I packed away nearly all of the Christmas stuff. It was a big project and it feels good to be almost done. After trying to attend to all of the items on my back-to-reality-to-do list I realized that I didn't take any pictures worth while from the day. I did have a decent one of Nicole eating her Family Home Evening Treat. That's when it dawned on me. One of my resolutions is to take better photos, and I think that will require that I stop using my phone for all my photos and start using our camera. It's a good goal. I think I'll try and use my camera at least once a week (that seems a little more realistic). The rest may be the blurry orangeish photos I've grown accustomed to.

So, let's call this photo a before shot...

Feelin' Fine with Nine

It's our new time for church this year...the lovely 9am. We prepared the night before with showers and  church clothes. Mary got bumped up to senior primary, which she loved, and I got to sub for Cameron's class, since his new teacher just got called today. Estelle made a hilarious debut in primary. It was too adorable to recount.

I loved coming home at noon. There was so much of the day left. Even though we had some time before dinner it was pretty easy to fast, perhaps because we had a great purpose...Matthew and his surgery this week.

My mom made a delicious dinner for the entire family. We got to celebrate Eliza's birthday, which was on Friday and the cousins had so much fun being reunited after two weeks of separation.

I think this will be a pretty awesome year. I can just feel it.

It's Good to be Back

We arrived early enough to unload and freshen up before Noah's basketball game. I realized as I watched him play that he really wasn't well enough to be there. He didn't have a fever, but he was kind of observing the game, instead of participating in it. Then we did a little unpacking before I headed to the grocery store to stock up our empty pantry. After I made dinner we pulled out the new apple peeler we got from Grammie and Grandpa and enjoyed some sliced, peeled apples. Boy, do I love this contraption!

Murphy's Homecoming

We spent the morning packing and nursing Noah and Nicole's fevers with a nice medicine regiment, since they woke up sick too. We left just after lunch to stop by the airport and say hello to Murphy who returned home today from his mission. I just love that boy so much! It's pretty obvious the kids weren't feeling well, so we tried to be quick and spread the germs as little as possible. We said our good-byes to all the Nadaulds. It was definitely sad leaving them.

Then we started out on our journey home arriving in Susanville at about 10pm, Oregon time. We were going to stay at a hotel in Reno, but while trying to find a good spot just passed the city we ended up without any real options for lodging. So we continued driving a little over an hour to Susanville, rented a not-so-nice hotel, and left around 5am because it was hard to sleep there. There's something to say for spending a little bit more and getting something just a little bit nicer.

The kids were real troopers, despite all the aches and coughs.

Home never looked so good.

That's a sentiment I'm sure Murphy felt today too.

New Year's Sickies

Aaron's been battling some chills, aches, and a fever for a few days now. Today Mary and Cameron succumbed to the illness and we had to cancel our New Year's Day plans to visit the Natural Museum of Curiosity and the Arhets family. Bummer. And I'm sure it will make it's way around to the rest of us. Until then, plenty of rest is in order.