Friend Time

This week seemed to pass by me quickly.  I didn’t even take any pictures.  Last Wednesday evening I enjoyed going to a Relief Society activity where we talked about nutrition.  It was a good meeting.  Ruth was my babysitter and had the boys in bed when I came home.  She does a great job and I am so thankful for her help.

The kids continue to have fun with friends and school.  Saturday Andrew went to play with his friend Sean, from his school class.  They enjoyed playing outside in Sean’s back yard.  I laughed when I heard that they were playing with worms, chickens and mice traps.  Then Ruth went to a birthday party for her friend Ashley Saturday evening.  The girls painted their finger nails, did each others hair and did lots of talking.  I thought it was a good show of the differences between boys and girls. 

We enjoyed going to church Sunday.  Sunday afternoon we had a nice long video chat with Neal.  It is good to keep in contact with him. Monday evening I taught a FHE lesson to the kids on testimony and what it means.  We had a great discussion and then we ended by everyone saying a testimony of things they believed.  It was so sweet to hear each of the children.  

Monday afternoon I went to Julie's home for a lunch with the Nursery workers.  They did a lunch to visit with me before I move.  I just have one Sunday left going to nursery.  It has been a good experience for me to be with the young children.  Caleb had so much fun playing with Kenzie that day that we invited her over to play today.  It is cute to hear them playing with blocks and the things they are talking about.  I am glad that Caleb can have friend time today. 

Tuesday I watched Justin during the day while his parents went to the temple.  Caleb had fun playing with his friend.  It was a good day for play.  Andrew and Spencer were invited to go swimming at the city rec center with Logan and his grandma.  The boys had so much fun with it yesterday after school.  

Last week end we had an offer on our home in Texas.  I was so excited about it, just the fact that someone was interested in it.  But they weren’t willing to negotiate and their offer was just too low for us to accept.  So even though it has been on the market for a year, we will just keeping hoping that someone will come along who is willing to pay us a price that we can accept.  Our realtor has told us we have it for a good competitive price right now.  Something will happen, spring is a good time for house selling.  I hope it works.  I am thankful the house is paid for and we are just putting in some each month for some maintenance.  It will all work out.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy week.

Rain and Flowers

We have had a lot of rain and snow this week.  Things are wet and muddy.  The boys still want to play outside in the open space.  One day I let them go out for a bit.  I walked out to find them and have them come in.  Caleb had mud all over his hands.  Thankfully he put on his rubber boots, they were covered in mud too, but easy to wash.  As we were walking back to the house he asked to hold my hand.  It was covered in mud so I hesitated.  He said he needed to hold hands so he could use some of my energy.  I took his hand.  It was a sweet moment for me really to realize how much my kids rely on me for strength and that I can give that to them.  I am glad that they can have fun playing outside.  Today after school we stopped at a park and I let the boys play.  They didn’t want to play on the play ground, they walked around in a ditch area looking for “cool stuff” that the water had washed down.  

Thursday evening we went to the elementary school for a “night of learning” thing.  Spencer’s class had done some poetry.  He read his poems to us and shared a little video on the iPad he had done with a poem.  Then we went to Andrew’s class room.  The 4^th grade had done projects of picking out famous people from Colorado history.  Andrew picked out Kit Carson.  He did a poster with information about him.  He even dressed up like him, or at least tried. I thought he did a good job giving his memorized part about Kit Carson.  He had to stay by his poster all evening to share with other parents as they came.  It was nice to see the boys work.

(I took a picture of Andrew with his poster on my phone.  For some reason I can't get my phone and computer to connect to transfer the picture, so I can't share it now.  I hope I can figure out what is going on with it and get bluetooth to work so I can get my pictures off my phone!)

Friday the boys didn’t have school, but Ruth did.  We stayed home and played.  That evening Andrew and Spencer went to a birthday party for Parker at Boondocks.  I went with them and Ruth stayed home babysitting Caleb.  The party was a fun thing for the boys.  Spencer loved doing laser tag.  They enjoyed doing some arcade games too.  They also bowled. It was a first time for Spencer there.

Saturday we had more parties.  Ruth had a special breakfast for the new Beehives (girls who have just turned 12).  There are four girls who have birthdays in a month here.  The young women leaders did a breakfast for them and shared with them details about the personal progress program.  Ruth enjoyed going.  Right after the breakfast the four girls went off to a birthday party for Haley (one of the girls).  Ruth got to go ice skating for the birthday party and enjoyed that new experience.  While Ruth was gone to all that activity Spencer went to a class party at his Primary teachers home.  He had fun with that too.  With Spencer and Ruth gone, Andrew, Caleb and I decided to go get our lunch from Sonic.  I thought they could have a fun lunch time too.  It was a busy, but enjoyable, day.

I am getting use to my new glasses.  I have one pair that is progressive bifocals that work well for reading, computer work and other sit down things.  I also got a pair that is my distance vision for when I am up and moving around.  I am liking both pairs and am glad that I did both.  Now I just have the fun of changing what glasses I am using.  The kids asked me why I had two pairs and I laughed and said I was getting old.  It has been hard to have my vision change so much in the last couple of years.  My nearsightedness has gotten worse and I can’t see things up close for reading either.  It is hard but I am thankful I can get glasses and correct it.

Sunday was Mother’s Day.  Ruth got up and got breakfast out.  She set the table, made up some juice, got out the left over pancakes and made some scrambled eggs.  I appreciated all the help she gave.  She also gave me some pretty paper flowers she made.  The boys all gave me little cards they did too.  Spencer and Caleb did their cards in their Primary classes. I thought it was cute that after Spencer made his card his teachers let them deliver them, with a rose, to their mom in the building.  Spencer came into Nursery and gave me a big hug, with his card and rose.  I thought it was sweet.  The ward gave all the women a red rose.  So I have been enjoying my two roses this week.  For Relief Society time we had some youth come into the nursery and let the women go into their class.  They had some cheese cake for the women and it was nice to be with them for that time. 

I finished making Ruth's dress this week too!

The reasons I am a mom and get to celebrate Mother's Day.

Ruth's pretty paper flowers and my roses

Sunday morning we woke up to snow.  I was sad to see snow in May.  It was so cold.  But it melted fast.  I took a picture Sunday morning and another one Monday morning.  I hope we don’t get more snow.

The pictures don't look like they were taken just one day apart do they?

Yesterday was the last story time at the library for Caleb.  He enjoyed the bubble blowing at the end of it.  He has enjoyed going to the library this year.  I am glad that he enjoyed story time for all the years I took him.  Next year he will be in school, so I guess I am done going to story time too.  I have been a regular at taking my kids since Ruth was little and we would walk to the Provo library every week, that was 11 years ago!  

Last night Ruth enjoyed participating with the youth of the church with a special broadcast with Elder and Sister Bednar.  She said she liked what they talked about and was glad she went.  Andrew had fun with his cub scouts.  I feel like we are always going somewhere.

This morning I took Caleb on a nature walk the city sponsors.  They talked about birds.  We enjoyed doing some bird watching with them.  

With all the thunderstorms last week I think something happened to our phone.  We have internet phone and when I plug directly into our phone box that is connected to the internet the phone works fine.  When I try to plug phone cords into it and connect multiple phones and connect into the phone wiring for the house (like we have been doing the entire time we have lived here) I get really bad noise on the line.  When I contacted the phone company they said it must by my wiring because their phone box is working fine.  So it is a bit frustrating to me.  We don’t get many call so I will just work with having one phone working in my bedroom.  

Well, the boys are having fun playing with their friends, Ruth is reading.  It is quiet here.  I decided I wanted to do something nice for friends before we move.  I went over to a friends house today and gave her a loaf of bread.  I have more bread in the making right now.  I figure if I make some every couple of days I can give it away and share something fun with people.  I hope they can enjoy it.  We have made some nice friends here and I feel bad we can’t stay and get to know them better.

Boys and Trains

We have had another busy week.  So many activities with all the kids.  I am sure it will just continue to be busy until they all leave home and then I will have to find other things to fill my time with than caring for their needs.  

Last Wednesday evening Ruth had a band concert.  She was excited for it and felt she preformed well.  She has done well with the clarinet this year.  She told me that in class yesterday they had a contest to see who could hold a note the longest and she tied for first place in the woodwinds.  Ruth had some other activities as well.  Saturday evening she went to a birthday party for her friend, Rachel.  They did a painting class at the party and Ruth came home with a cute picture of a panda bear.  Sunday Ruth was able to go to her first Bishop Youth Fireside chat.  I thought it was fun that she was old enough to participate with that.  She was able to listen to a newly returned missionary share his experiences.  

Ruth is in the front on the left, she has a light pink shirt on and a pink bow in her hair.  The first picture is with a student teacher director, the lower picture is with the band teacher on the podium. 

Friday Caleb and I went to a special library story time at a grocery store.  It was a special thing we had to sign up for and Caleb enjoyed it.  They read some stories to the kids and talked about what grows in a garden.  Then we had a tour of the store.  They even gave out some samples.  I liked the smoked salmon and maple bacon they gave us.  After I had signed Caleb up for this activity I realized that the boys had assessments at school and only had to be at the school for two hours.  This conflicted with my story time plan.  So I asked my friend Katie, who lives by the school, if she could pick the boys up.  It worked great.  Spencer and Andrew played at the Turner’s house for an hour until I got there with Caleb, after our story time.  Then we stayed and visited and played for another hour.  It was a nice morning.  Today Caleb and I went to the Turner’s house for lunch and play time again.  Normally we meet at a park on Wednesdays but today everything is wet from all the rain we have had.

Saturday evening we had the sister missionaries come for dinner.  We enjoyed having them in our home.  It is nice we have sisters in the ward right now, so I can still feed them even with Neal not being here.

Monday evening I was surprised when Julie brought over pizza and salad for our family.  She said she thought I could use a break from cooking.  I really appreciate the kindness of our friends here.

Monday we had Logan and Parker come over for FHE again.  It went alright but was busy keeping all the boys in line.  I am glad we can share a little of something religious with our friends.  The boys have so much fun playing together.  Yesterday they played out in the rain and enjoyed that. Today they are playing outside and just moved indoors to play.  They seem to always be together after school now. 

Our big event for the week was Saturday morning.  I took the kids to the Denver Railroad Museum.  It was the museums free day and I didn’t know how busy it would be, but it wasn’t too bad.  We enjoyed walking around and seeing many real engines and train cars, some over 100 years old.  We also enjoyed a HO scale train set up inside a building and a G scale set up in a garden.  The kids were so excited when I decided to pay for a ride on the real train they had going around.  It was a steam engine from the 1880’s.  It was neat to ride behind.  Although I had soot and ashes that I was brushing out of my hair later in the day.  It was loud and smelly but it was cool to see running and ride behind.  I took some video of it going by on the run after ours.  

The kids are getting more excited and stressed about moving.  It will be a big change for all of us.  I hope this next month goes smoothly.

The indoor HO scale train

Some of the trains and cars we could climb on, others we couldn't.  The kids loved them all.

The G scale train in the garden, Caleb liked that there was a Thomas engine. 

These are some pictures from our ride on the train.  The lower picture is the turn about at the round house, to be used with real trains.  We could only see it from the train ride.

The real water tower that the steam engine uses every day.

We were riding in an open car, it didn't go very fast. 

Pictures I took of the train after our ride, on its next run.  It was a neat looking engine. 

This is a short video I took of some of the G scale trains and then of the real steam engine going by.