Sunday fun

I took my two older daughters to visit Grandpa and Grandma again after church today.
Don't worry, Mom, Grandpa made faces for my camera too when Elizabeth took his picture. =)

 Grandma was sleepy.  I knocked and found her needing my help in the bathroom.  She was all alone in her apartment eating and had the urge and needed help getting up again after she finished.  The little pocket I made fit on the couch pretty well, but my big pocket wasn't quite big enough for her notebook.  It's hard to see her hurting. =(

 Olivia had a picture with Grandpa Gordon.

 The girls sang a few primary songs for them at their request.  I have two great little girls (who are growing up so quickly!)

 Grandpa even smiled for this picture with me.

 The little pocket I made for Grandpa's walker worked well.  I love his little, pink bicycle horn.  It is LOUD!

 After naps and dinner, followed by reading and praying, the kids had a great little daddy wrestling session.  Abby stopped before I took the picture because she had to start saying, "Cheeseeeeee."

 Then she came over to the camera.  This girl is so much fun!  I love her little smile, even with her eyes shut partway.

Family is what it's all about.

I Gotta Feeling...

Today was great.
I had some places to go, but it wasn't stressful or hard at all, partly because I didn't have kids in tow....
At 2pm our stake had a gathering of little things that we do for humanitarian services all year. This year is a little different than years in the past because the items we made are all going to places locally.  There was delicious soup, salad, and rolls to eat and more projects to work on.  I helped tie a quilt and made some thank you cards that will go to missionaries to give to people and visited plenty.  Our stake showed the Relief Society broadcast at 5pm, but Andy's mom asked me if I wanted to go with her and two of her sisters and her mom and Andy's sisters (only one came tonight though) to watch it in Kennewick instead.  They were rebroadcasting it at 7pm with some dessert before at 6pm, so I had plenty of time between.

As I was working on crafts at my church, I was thinking about how I was picking Grandma Ellen up and how close she lives to where my grandparents moved this week to an assisted living care place due to their health and thought that I should go visit them.  Of course this was a great prompting that I should listen to.  I called my grandma from the parking lot and asked if I could come over.  She hurriedly told me she didn't have many minutes left on her Tracfone and asked me to call Charter for her because they were supposed to come over and hook up their cable.  I didn't quite understand why I needed to call, but I went home and got the phonebook and tried to call them, but since I didn't have my grandparent's actual room number or account number with Charter, they couldn't tell me anything.  I decided to take my phone book with me and head on over.  I called Andy's grandma and told her I'd be a little later than I planned (but we were going to be super early, so it worked out perfectly.)  I went right in to my grandparent's new place and asked someone which room was theirs and he knew as soon as I told him their name which room they were in, which is great considering they have only been there a few days!  I went up and let myself in after no one answered.  She probably did holler at me to come in since she broke vertebrates in her back with her Osteoporosis.  Grandma was laying on the couch and explained the cable situation to me.  She said they called to let her know they were coming to set up their cable and to push "1" if that was okay and she wasn't sure if she pushed the right number. I called Charter again with more information this time.  Just as I called Charter and was working through the calling center (pushing "0" the whole time to get straight to an operator), there was a knock at the door and I opened it and there stood the Charter guy ready to set it up.
Perfect. Problem # 1 taken care of.

Soon after he got there, an aunt called my cell phone.  She had called my house after I left and Andy told her where I was and she asked if we'd get her some more minutes on their phone and she'd pay us back. I have her phone now and we will do that tonight and return it tomorrow. Problem # 2 taken care of.

I started circling the channels Grandma wanted to watch on the paper the Charter guy gave me since she doesn't know the numbers (only NBC and BYU channels were the ones she wanted). Then we found out that their package didn't include BYU, so an aunt will have to call and take care of that next week and it can be fixed over the phone, so they will be able to watch General Conference next week.  Problem # 3 plan in action.

Grandma was coveting my pencil I was writing with.  Not because it was an awesome Halloween pencil (that we took home from the church library last week because Abby ate the eraser-we are replacing it tomorrow!), but because she has been laying down writing notes with a pen in her little notebook and it doesn't work well upside down. I gave her my pencil of course. She said she'd need a sharpener next.  I added that to my list (along with more pencils) to take back tomorrow.  Problem # 4 taken care of.

The Charter guy asked for a surge protector and I had no idea where one might be or if they'd have one, so he unplugged the DVD player to plug in the cable box. He left soon after and I went to put away the paperwork from him and Grandma said to put it in the cabinet under the TV and there was a perfectly good surge protector, so I fixed it up for them.  Problem # 5 solved.

Grandpa was downstairs eating during all of this. Grandma said that he slept most of the day and that when he sleeps it means he isn't hurting.  After Grandpa got back, he put some leftovers in the fridge and dropped a few grapes so I picked them up for him. I'm sure that was helpful to him since he has had some balance troubles lately.  He didn't recognize me for a minute, either because he didn't know I was coming or because I was all dressed up.  Small problem # 6 easily solved.

I danced with Grandma (the shuffle) to the bathroom so she could use it. It was a great dance. She said she could push the button on her necklace to get someone to help her, but since I was there I helped her out.  I didn't even have to do more than hold her arms to support her. Problem # 7 taken care of.

Grandma said that it was a miracle that I called and came over when I did and was glad I was there to speak the Charter guy's language.  I had that special prompting that I should go and see them and that they needed me.  I was probably only there for a half hour total.  So glad I listened to that prompting.  I'm sure someone else could have helped them, but I know my being there helped Grandma relax and be taken care of.

I'm going to make her a little fabric pocket to hang over the couch with some pockets in it for her phone, notebook, and pencils. They were just under her pillow which doesn't make them very accessible. I want her to be as comfortable as possible.  Problem (she doesn't even know she has) # 8 to be done soon!

I'm going back tomorrow after church with my big girls to bring some things back and help if needed again.

I'm so grateful I knew I needed to go and see her.

Then I headed over to pick up Grandma Ellen and go to the Kennewick East Stake RS dessert before the wonderful broadcast to the women of the church.  It was terrific.  I took notes and cried through every talk.  So uplifting and wonderful.  When I came home, two kids were in bed and two were on their way.

Time to go and make a little pocket for my grandma.

I am feeling good tonight!

Oh, and check out this fun bag I won at a friend's blog giveaway:

It's for trick or treating.  She has a great tutorial on her blog.  Vincent gets to keep it because he's the only boy and he has longer than the girls to go trick or treating. He loves it!

Update a few hours later:
I made this pocket to go over the top of Grandma's couch.  Pocket for notebooks, cell phone, and pens and pencils.

 It works on my couch.  I may need to make adjustments if she needs it bigger or something.  Not the most gorgeous fabric, but this is a prototype. =)

I told my mom I was going to make a pocket for Grandma and she said Grandpa needed one for his walker.  I whipped this one up for the walker.  

I think I like it more than Grandma's.  I used road sign fabric with adjustable elastic from old jeans I turned into jean quilts.  It should attach right onto Grandpa's walker.  I have no idea what he needs to carry, so I just put some stuff in the pockets for him.  There is another pocket behind the first ones.

Anyone else need a pocket?  They are handy!

Around home...

Andy's folks redid their basement and had a few lights that they didn't want anymore and offered them to us. Andy replaced our '70's chandelier that was in our living room on Wednesday night. It is WAY brighter and looks much nicer too.  Yea for a handy husband!

Olivia's homework doesn't take too long so she does hers on the counter in the kitchen most of the time.

Days are full doing homework after school, especially on that night-before-it's-due.  Writing sentences is like pulling teeth to Elizabeth.  We are working on it.

 

Abby likes to do puzzles.  And climb.  She can climb up and down the ladder on the bunkbeds now.  Not awesome.

 

Olivia was keeping Vincent quiet after their bath while Elizabeth was still at Jujitsu and Abby had gone to bed.  She's becoming a great little reader.  She can wear new earrings now.  The ones she has in are music notes because she has her music class at school tomorrow. 

Just getting into our regular routine and checking things off of the mega list I always seem to have.
Andy and I finished the Old Testament a few nights ago individually.  It felt so good!  We are breezing right along in our Quad in a Year challenge. We are already partway through Doctrine and Covenants together after finishing The Book of Mormon.
Time for me to go and do some crafting.  I think I'm caught up with all the other stuff on my list right now.  Weird.  Laundry done, dishes done, lunches packed, kids asleep, house vacuumed, yep, time for something fun now.

Foster Farms House Party

Today was the day that I was able to invite friends over to feed them some yummy food courtesy of House Party and Foster Farms.  I signed up on House Party's website to host a party and they picked me to host and sent me a box of fun things to use and give away along with vouchers for the chicken, which I purchased on Friday.  This was all totally free for the guests. I just had to buy ingredients other than the chicken.

The first of our visitors arrived right on time.  Olivia was our door greeter. 

 Along with being super excited, Elizabeth helped the guests to sign in. (Vincent and Abby were both sleeping at this point.)

I picked two recipes out of the six that were the finalists in the Foster Farms 2012 cooking contest.  The winner will be chosen partly from our vote and will win $10,000.  This is the third year of this contest.
 I was busy cooking some chicken wearing my really awesome Foster Farms chef jacket that they sent me.  (I was even more excited that it buttoned all the way down since they didn't ask for my size or anything!)

Abby woke up.  My girls (and Andy) were my photographers while I was still cooking.
Abby always needs her bunny and her cup of milk when she wakes up.

 I made Hoisin Chicken with fresh (never frozen) chicken breasts, jasmine rice and cilanto, mango, scallions, and toasted sesame seeds.  I left each topping separate in case some people didn't want all of it.

 This one is Spice Rubbed Chicken Thighs with Chipotle Bearnaise and Avocado Lime Quinoa Salad.  It had cucumber and olives too.

Here is my plate.  I can't eat avocado without my mouth acting funny (I think I'm allergic to it).  The food was delicious!  Most people liked the Hoisin Chicken Breast the best, but the spice blend on the thigh was nice too.

Here are most of my guests.  They sent tote bags to give away with coupons inside.  All of my guests received one on the way out the door.

It was a lot of fun and a lot of work, but I like hosting parties and making food so it was a good match.

This morning while I started cutting up the fruits and veggies and getting all set up, Elizabeth had a Jujitsu seminar.  Andy took her with Olivia and they took some pictures for me.  It's really hard to get nice pictures in a gym when people are moving quickly.  The setting must have been off from the last thing I did.
Here is Elizabeth pretending to choke a little girl.  The little girl then fights her off in slow motion and knocks her down.  It's mostly self defense training.

Olivia took this one that was focused.

Elizabeth lined up with some of the class.

After I finished cleaning up the kitchen, I took an hour and a half nap.  It was so nice.  I didn't even mention earlier that Friday night I went to bed at 11:30pm.  Unheard of for me.  It should happen more.

pinata

Whew.  I am glad it's Friday night.  This week has been crazy busy (even more than normal).  We had something going on nearly every night and the night I didn't have something, my walking pal was busy watching her daughter play volleyball, so I wasn't able to walk much (without kids).  Don't worry.  I wasn't very lazy either.

Friday morning was spent grocery shopping for my House Party for Foster Farms tomorrow and all the food we'll need next week.  They sent me some awesome vouchers for fresh Foster Farms chicken and I get to cook it up in some recipes they sent me and then we get to rate it and vote for the winner.  It's going to be fun. If you aren't busy this Saturday from 2pm-4pm (or anywhere in between) come on over for some grub.

At 11:30 Friday I went to a friend's House Party for Fisher Price.  Fisher Price sent her really cool huge toys to have toddlers and preschoolers play with and we had some good snacks going too.

Friday evening we headed out to my brother's place for his son's eighth birthday party.  My kids always like to play on this giant teeter-totter.

 Vincent quickly found the battery operated tractor that is for kids to drive.  Elizabeth had to help him out some of the time.  He loved it.  Too bad our backyard is sloped, small, and we are not in a position to buy such a cool toy.

 My nephew Colby with his baseball cake.

  They had a penguin pinata to hit.  Abby hasn't done this before, but she liked having a turn.

 Vincent is a pro....sort of. (Yes, that is a strange vest he's wearing.  I meant to give it away the last time I went through clothes, but I didn't make it to his room.  He wouldn't take it off before we left.)

 The kids all filling up their popcorn tubs with candy.

 Colby opened his presents and then his grandpa brought out this metal detector for Colby to have.  He was pretty excited.

My kids said on our way out that Colby was going to get SO rich!  We'll see.
We had game night when we got home.
I am so ready for bed.

Letter B Preschool

I wanted to teach the letter B because I taught it the last few times and it's a fun letter with so many things that start with B.  I changed up my lesson plan so it wouldn't be the same for Vincent as last year.

I had the letter B, number 2, and subject Body.

We built Potato Head bodies while everyone was dropped off.

Then we used blocks to build bridges (or robots which is what a few of the kids picked to do instead).
The kids walked backwards into the family room for the rest of preschool.
We colored B pictures and did some matching body parts (eyes, hands, etc.)
I put some blue tape on the floor and they 'balanced' walking across like a balance beam.  I gave them books to balance on their heads, but they couldn't quite do that.
We had some berry (huckle) banana bread that was brown for our snack. The kids loved it.

 We made a Bee out of the letter B, although the one girl in our group just cut hers into tiny pieces while I was helping the boys, so she took my example home instead.

 The kids moved like butterflies, buzzed like bees, and bounced like bears.
Before they bounded on out of here, we played some "London Bridges".
Abby wanted a picture of her holding a paper too.  She had quite the fountain hair today.

I spent the afternoon working on PTA membership and then made dinner before going to Shirley's to work on some fun little 'thanks for coming' gifts for our Autumn Event October 12th and 13th.
Then I went to Kohl's.  I've been missing going there for awhile. I found several (probably too much...) awesome things I had to get that were an excellent deal.  I really love Kohl's.

Cartwheels

Olivia was all excited after school about figuring out how to cartwheel today.  She had to go to ballet right after school, so we had to wait to have a little show.

Here she is starting out.

 Flipping over.

 She doesn't land very nice quite yet, so this is mostly just pictures of her running and upside-down.

 She is persistent and wants to do things the best she can.

 This is her asking me if I got pictures of her cartwheeling.

 And off for more cartwheels!

 The majority of my pictures look like this one.  At least she wears bike shorts under her skirts!

 Vincent climbed in our front yard tree.

Vincent kept eating leaves from our tree.  He thinks he's a koala.

 We took a loaf of banana huckleberry bread over to our neighbor who gave us some of the huckleberries she picked a few weeks ago (and froze) and the kids played with her new tiny dog and found a necklace for Abby to play with.

Some video of Vincent climbing and telling me that he's like a koala.  It sounds like chihuahua when he says it though. 

He really did go inside and eat his leaf with ranch and then went outside to get more leaves.  Good thing for him we don't spray our trees (and YES, we DO feed him!)

Ward Campout

Friday night was our ward campout at Teancum Timbers.  The kids all had baths (and Elizabeth showered) Thursday night before that.  Abby wanted braids in her hair like Olivia.  Here are Abby's first little braids. =)

 Olivia's getting some really LONG hair.  Check out how long that braid is!

 Andy thought we'd need to take our trailer to get all of our stuff to the campout.  I made a list of all that we needed to bring and then drew a little diagram of our car and where things would fit and shoved everything we needed into our rig.  It's quite a feat since one of the only drawbacks to our Hyundai Veracruz is the lack of space in the back.  Look at all of the stuff I fit in the car.  Naturally, I was in there too and so was a giant bag of blankets and coats that was just out of the picture.

Are you impressed?  I was so pleased with myself all weekend (actually, I still am.)
Note:  Andy and I LOVE our cots.  They are SO much nicer than the old air bed and we don't have to worry about them popping.
Vincent liked carrying his sleeping bag backpack Grandpa Paul and Grandma Mary gave him for Christmas a few years ago.

 Abby did what kids do best and got nice and dirty.

 Hanging out and watching the camp fire.  Abby hung out there with me for fifteen minutes or more before she noticed the marshmallows and had to have them.

 Elizabeth scrounged some marshmallows from someone since we didn't bring any.  They just had a few big ones and a half bag of mini ones.  The kids liked the mini ones just as much.

 Vincent showing me his marshmallows before they were roasted.  I actually had to do it because he was afraid of being burned and stayed FAR away from the fire.  Not the worst thing a little boy can do.

 I brought some packages of glow in the dark bracelets for the kids to wear at nighttime and had some nice young women help them with them.  That way when they went and played in the big area, we could spot them (and it helped the one who was it with hide and seek a little too.)

 Vincent decided at 8pm that he was tired and wanted to go to bed, although we knew he just wanted to use his sleeping bag.  He put on his pajamas (both pairs) and laid down there for about a half hour before getting fully dressed and coming up to the main fire (we set up really close to it.)

 What's better than a s'more while camping?

 Olivia and Elizabeth kept coming over and asking us if it was time for them to go to bed.  I kept telling them that if they asked again, they'd go and otherwise, they could wait until 9pm.  They were getting nice and tired running around with friends.

 They slept pretty good until almost 7am and then played some more.
There was a hammock set up Vincent played in.

 Vincent with a buddy.  Do you think Vincent has sisters who pose?  Hmmm.

 Teancum Timbers has improved their site and has a zipline to go on now.  The kids enjoyed that and so did Andy and I.
Here's Olivia.  She probably went the most.

 Elizabeth loved it too.

 Andy took a turn after someone bigger than him went.  You never want to be the one who breaks things.

 Someone brought some freshly picked plums to share.  Abby and Vincent ate some before breakfast was ready.

 After breakfast the kids wanted to play in the creek.  Andy took them and the camera, but it appears that the water was a bit too cold for Vincent.

 The girls had a great time.

 Olivia with some friends her size and Elizabeth in the background.

 Abby picking some wildflowers.

 Vincent took a long time to warm up to going on the zipline and decided he would if Andy held the rope so it didn't go too fast.

 He seemed to like it.

 But the best part was pulling the rope back (for him).

 Another Olivia turn before we left.

 My turn.  It was really fun!

 Elizabeth had to do it again after hiking through the creek with the teenagers.

 Abby does play with some sports things here and there even though we aren't all that sporty.

 We drove up through Palouse Falls.  We went April 2011.  Since then they've changed things and you now have to pay $10 to use that park and since we didn't have that in cash, we didn't stop, but we turned around in the parking lot and snapped a picture.  Three of our kids were sleeping anyway.

We continued on and went to Grandpa Gordon and Grandma Zora's house.  I called them to ask if they needed help with anything and to save some jobs for our kids.  It was a good visit and Grandpa claimed to be "ornery as ever", so they were doing well.  Olivia did some dusting on a bookshelf and lamp and Elizabeth vacuumed.  Vincent dusted a table (sort of).  I love my grandparents so much!
We then went home and got everything in the house and put away, kids bathed, Andy mowed the lawn, got laundry started, and whew, it sure was nice to have the house all put back together.  I may or may not have had a bit of an emotional freak out. ;)  We really do like camping with our friends and in such a beautiful place.