Sunday, February 18, 2018

Hello Again....Hello

In the words of Neil Diamond, Hello again...Hello.  Just called (blogging) to say Hello....
It has been far too long since I've actually updated the blog.  Since Facebook and Instagram it's just been easier to do that.  Well, I decided that I'm going to get back into writing a blog post every Sunday.  I know I've said that before but I really mean it this time.  I love blogging because it's like keeping a journal of my family's activities and it's so fun to look back and read what we did.  I'm going to put a reminder on my phones calendar so I don't forget....just a minute.  Ok, it's set!  I'm going to do it! 

This week was a pretty short school week for the kids.  They only had school Monday-Wednesday.  So Thursday and Friday we got to sleep in and relax.  We cleaned the house then just hung out at home and did what we wanted to do.  That's usually how our vacation days from school go.  If Clint was off of work we would've planned to go camping or biking or something.  Speaking of biking, the young men of our ward (Clint is in the YM presidency) went on a bike ride in the Wetlands.  While Clint and Calvin were gone that morning the girls and I had a fun girls day, or rather morning.  We went shopping and out to lunch.  It was nice to have that time with my girls. 
Then we came home and just hung out and then later that evening we went grocery shopping. Fun huh? It was actually nice to go a little later because there was almost no one in the stores, but then again we were tired and we didn't eat dinner until we got home which was pretty late.

Today at church, we had a nice sacrament meeting with good talks and the Sunday school lesson was, of course, great.  We talked about the Abrahamic Covenant.  Relief Society was good as well.  Abby came home with a package of Skittles she got from her young women's class where they talked about missionary work.  I can't remember how the skittles applied but they did.  ;) Elsa also got a reese's peanut butter cup as well.  I remember and love young women's classes.  I miss teaching them. 

In Relief Society we talked about how we can know who needs us and how we can help.  The teacher passed out a piece of paper and asked up to think about someone in our lives who we can help.  I thought of Calvin, who had to go home from church early to get a breathing treatment.  He has been getting over being sick this week and I still expected him to do his job, the dishes.  He seems to be fine everyday so I sometimes forgot he was sick at the beginning of the week.  Anyway, as I was thinking about him, I thought that I would show him that I appreciated him this week by doing the dishes that he had put off last night when I got home from church.  Well, when I got home, guess what I found.  Calvin was standing in front of the kitchen sink finishing the last of the dishes.  What a kid!  I, of course, told him my plan to do them for him and thanked him for thinking to do them without me asking him to do them.  I'll have to find something else to do for him. 

Last night while we were shopping we were talking about Dallin, who is up in Reno, going to UNR.  We were asking Elsa if she had talked to him lately online.  She said no so we called him real quick to see if he'd answer.  He did and he's doing good. 

Well, I think that's all I can think of that we did this week.  I'm sure there's something I'm forgetting, I'm getting old.  Until next week!  Good Bye! Here are some pictures of our week...
 We found these pillows at the 99 cents store.  Elsa loved them because they weren't real dogs...just pillows. 
Look at this!  What died?  Haha, it's just Elsa's hair.  Yep!  She got a hair cut! 
Whoa!  That's a lot of hair!


 Abby's levitating!  
I found this fun app (Photo Frame) , so the girls and I had fun with it one evening.  
 I just love this picture of Abigail!  She's so pretty!
 Abby did a little bake sale for Valentine's day to earn money for girls camp.  She did pretty well and sold all of her treats.

Abby's In The Double Digits

I remember when I was younger, seeing for the first time, the object lesson of a string stretched out across our class room at church and a piece of yarn tied to it right in the middle.  The teacher was explaining all about eternity and life and how, our life here on earth, was represented by that piece of yarn.  I couldn't comprehend,then, how short this time we have on earth is, but ever since I became a mother almost 17 years ago I can comprehend it a little more.  Time with my babies has come and gone so quickly and just as I felt, when they were babies, that this time is "never gonna end".  You know, all the whining, crying, dirty diapers, up at 3 am holding a crying babe, having no energy, etc. Well, that time is gone and I'm facing new challenges and experiences with teens, and pre-teens.  My prayers and scripture study have increased, I'd like to say I'm a more patient person.  I find myself on my knees at night asking for forgiveness to, again, forgive me for yelling, and not being patient with my family.  Then, in the morning I find myself on my knees asking for strength and patience.  Whew! I love being a mother!  I love the trials that help me grow stronger!  I love the trials that help my testimony grow stronger!
I can't believe how fast this time is going!  To see my baby turning 10 is both exciting and surreal. She had a great two days!  We had her birthday party on the Saturday before her birthday, which was Sunday.  Then, on her actual birthday, we had a family celebration.  She invited a LOT of kids to her party and pretty much all of them came. (Everyone loves a party!)  She had a gymnastic themed party and she had fun showing her friends how to do some gymnastics tricks and a obstacle course.  They also played a fun gymnastics game which consisted of trying to get their teams flags to their bases without touching the ground with their feet.  Those kids were quite creative with the way they went about getting those flags to their destinations.  Here are a bunch of pictures of this fun day and pictures of our family gathering on Sunday.....