M&M sightings!

Saturday, August 25

M&M's first marching band outing of the year was at Rice-Eccles Stadium at the University of Utah.  Her high school football team has their opening game of the season there every year against Alta High School.  We decided not to go but we have a few friends from the ward that were there and spotted M&M and sent us some pictures from their phones.  This was her first time wearing her band uniform and since they don't bring it home it was our first time seeing her in it.  Two people came up to me at church the next day and told me that they had seen her and didn't know that she was in the marching band.  It kind of ended up being a bum deal for the band though because they were scheduled to perform their half-time show at the end of the game but the people at the stadium wouldn't let them do it because the game ended much later than expected.  So they got dressed up in their uniforms and were out late just so they could play a few songs in the stands (and I think they were able to do a portion of the pre-game show).

Swimming lessons

Since the kids were going off-track from school I decided to look into swimming lessons for them to take during that 3 week period.  I was able to signup Blondie, Kitty and Kay for lessons.  Unfortunately  the level that Luke needed was already full for all of the time slots that would work for us.  So we have been going on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings for the girls to take swimming lessons.  This is the first time that I have put Kay in lessons and she is really enjoying herself.  Kitty has the first time slot and then Blondie and Kay are during the second time slot.  I'm glad that the rec center decided to allow open swimming during the swimming lessons so that the girls can swim before and after their lessons and then I can also take MJ and Luke swimming during that time.  It is much better than trying to entertain the girls along the side of the pool and trying to keep them from playing in the water!  It actually worked out well that Luke wasn't signed up for lessons because he would have missed the first several classes because he was sick...  On Friday, October 5, M&M also had the day off of school so she came along with us as well.  I really enjoy watching the kids learn new skills and get more confident in their swimming!!

Gymnastics

In the spring when we were deciding who to sign up for soccer for this year, I promised Blondie that if she would rather do gymnastics than soccer, I would find a place for her to take it again in the fall.  Well, when fall was approaching I was still unsure where to take her.  One of my visiting teachers said that her older took gymnastics for a time from our city rec center where you just sign up by the month and they offer classes on the different apparatus as well.  I looked into it and the prices were pretty reasonable and it was offered on a day when I would be able to make it work with our schedule.  When I offered Blondie the chance to take the gymnastics class on the apparatus, she was super excited, especially after just having watched the Summer Olympics.  So I signed Blondie up for the month of September and she has loved it!  It is just an hour class one day a week but she is having fun with it.  I then signed her up for October and I might have her move up a level for the month of November, I will talk to the teacher about it the next time we go.  They rotate the groups between the floor, uneven bars, high bar, rings, vault and balance beam.  They have 4 rotations each week so they put out different apparatus each week.  Blondie's favorite event to work on is the vault.

Here are a few not-so-great pictures of her.  (They were taken on October 3.)  It is hard taking pictures and trying not to distract the class - plus the lighting is pretty poor in the room...

Trampoline!

Monday, October 1

Back in August we had someone in the neighborhood offer us their trampoline.  Their kids are grown-up now and they no longer needed it.  It took us a while to finally find a time to go over and pick it up from them.  On Monday after we ate dinner I suggested to DH that maybe we could go see if the family was home and maybe pick it up.  The kids (minus M&M) didn't know anything about it.  So DH, M&M, Luke and I left the younger ones at home for a few minutes and walked down a few houses to see if we could get it.  The husband was home and he came out with us and we moved the trampoline out of their backyard, down the middle of the street, carried it over our short garden fence and into our backyard.  The kids have been so excited and have been loving it!  It took a little while for MJ to figure out how to "jump" on it but it has been nice to have especially with the weather being nice during the day now and the kids being off-track.

... and again

This time the sickness started off with M&M.  One day (Sept 19) I picked her up from school to take her to the high school for marching band practice and she looked terrible - flushed and tired!  She said that she hadn't slept well the previous night and woke up with a huge headache and a sore throat.  Then at school she had had the chills off and on.  She still wanted to go to practice though so I took her over and dropped her off.  Her sickness lasted almost a week but she was able to manage her symptoms pretty well with over-the-counter medicine.

Then on Friday, Sept 28, Luke came home from school complaining of his head hurting him.  The next day he had some of the same symptoms that M&M had had - fever, chills, sore throat.  His fever lasted several days before it finally broke and now he just has a little bit of a cough.  The elementary kids have been off of school for their 3 week break starting October 1st, so Luke hasn't been able to do much so far because of his sickness!

Now Blondie isn't feeling too well and has had a headache and sore throat for the past two days...  Hopefully she will get over it quickly and no one else will get it...

New beds

Friday, September 21

Since MJ can now climb out of the crib we decided to put up another set of bunk beds and put Kay and MJ into twin beds.  This meant that we needed to go buy two new twin mattresses.  We ordered them through a sale that the marching band was doing as a fundraiser and it was going to take or week or two before they came in.  The girls were SOOO excited about moving up to twin beds (or I should say that Kay was excited, MJ wasn't sure what was going on).  We got the call that the mattresses were in and that we could pick them up.  That night we put up the second bunk bed set (from Grandpa W's house).  We needed to do some moving around and rearranging still so we had MJ sleep another night in her crib.  Here are pictures of MJ and Kay in their new twin beds.  They look tiny in such a big bed! My parents took the crib down for us the following week while they were watching the girls for me when I had some tests and appointments.  It has freed up some space in the little girls' room to not have the crib and toddler bed in there.  Right now we have Blondie and MJ in one room and Kay and Kitty in the second room.  I found some cute comforters the following week for the beds and I also bought a couple more sheet sets for the girls.  I also found a matching curtain set for one of the rooms which looks really cute.  I am still in the process of finalizing the rooms so once that is done I will take some more pictures.

Chocolate lover

One of the days that Kay was sick, I let her eat some chocolate pudding for lunch because it was one of  the few things that she would try eating during that time.  Well, after she ate a little, we went downstairs to sit on the couch and watch a movie for her.  A little while later MJ disappeared and when I went to find her she was sitting in Kay's booster seat finishing off the pudding.  She said to me, "Mmmm, I LOVE chocolate pudding!  It's tasty!"

About a week and a half later I was running to a few stores with MJ and Kay and we went into Kmart. Kmart had a few packages of chocolate on clearance and I decided to buy a few for later.  One of the packages was of the Hershey snack size chocolate bars.  When we finally left the store, it was past lunchtime and the girls were tired and hungry.  I decided to open the package of Hershey bars and give each of the girls one of them.  I opened the package for MJ and gave her half of it while I buckled her in her car seat.  Then I got in the car and started driving for home.  Partway home MJ started whining again so without looking at her I just handed her back the rest of the chocolate bar.  I was quite surprised when we got home and this face greeted me:

I think she had more chocolate on her face, hands and shirt then she must have gotten into her tummy!  And the chocolate bar was not even very big at all!  She was a little upset with me that I wanted to go into the house to get the camera and a washcloth before I let her out of her seat!

Aunt Grace

Saturday, September 1
DH's great-aunt that lived in the original farmhouse in Perry, UT passed away in the end of August.  I didn't know her very well but I always remember seeing her at family gatherings and she and her husband were always there to represent the family.  DH and I went to the funeral in Perry.  It was neat to hear a little more about her and to listen to Elder Nelson speak as well.

The W family farmhouse.  DH's uncle said that the house was added onto at one point but then DH's great-uncle had the addition torn down because he didn't need the extra space.  I'm sure that this house could be put on Utah's historic registry if the family was interested.  I hope that the home and the orchard land are kept in the W family.

Sickness hits again

Monday, September 10

Occassionally Kay will wake up in the middle of the night and she will come into my bedroom and want to climb in bed with me.  So last night I woke up to a tap on my arm and I pulled back the covers so that Kay could climb into the bed next to me.  After a little while though I woke up to her making some noise and then I realized that she was throwing up.  I was only partially awake and I said, "Did you just throw up in my bed?"  I quickly picked her up and took her to my bathroom and had her finish throwing up in the toilet.  In the meantime DH got out of bed and was trying to figure out what to do with the bed.  Luckily it only got on the bottom sheet and on Kay's pajamas a little so we just changed the bottom sheet and I cleaned Kay up.  When she came out of my bathroom she said, "I'm really sorry for throwing up in your bed.  It was an accident."  

I then took her downstairs and we slept on the couch for a little while and then she said she wanted to go back up to her bed.  Later that morning she threw up again and then she went downstairs and fell asleep on the couch.

Kay was sick off and on that whole week.  On Tuesday she didn't throw up at all and I thought that she was better but then she threw up again on Wednesday.  I was also sick for a couple of days that week so with the two of us that way I wasn't able to get a lot done that week...  I seem to recall that on Tuesday I had MJ join me in bed which was really weird - especially since she had to climb out of her crib and stumble into my room.  (At first I thought that it was Kay climbing into bed until I realized that when Kay wants to join me in bed she will stand at the side of my bed and tap me on the arm until I wake up and pull back the covers for her.)  MJ had a fever a little bit off and on during the week as well.  Luke felt sick Sunday night but was fine the next morning and the rest of the week.

Tired girl...

Friday, September 7

MJ has finally figured out how to climb out of her crib.  Some days at naptime and bedtime she does just fine and will stay there and fall right to sleep.  Other days though she thinks she should be able to climb out of bed and play.  On this day I had put her in her crib for her nap and then went down to the family room to turn on a movie for Kay to watch.  We were sitting on the couch watching the show when I saw MJ at the top of the stairs.  I told her to get back up to bed and then I didn't see her again.  When I went upstairs to check on her this is what I found: