23 Years Together and This is our Life!

Last week began with the girls starting piano lessons again after taking a month-long break.  Unfortunately,  I forgot to have them practice during the previous week so I was sitting with both girls trying to teach them their songs right before piano lessons. . . big mistake!  It was awful, stressful and I'm sure the teacher was not thrilled with their performance at lessons.  By the time Rachel and I got to the baby shower for my sweet nieces, Camille and Melissa, I was frazzled.  At the shower, we were enjoying dinner and watching the pregnant ladies open their presents when someone told me Rachel was hit by a lacrosse ball in the face and her nose was bleeding.  Her nose looked a little swollen so I had my sisters-in-law, Lynda and Laurel, look at it as they are both nurses.  Neither of them felt like the nose was broken but we left then so she could ice it.  Lexie (my niece who hit the ball) felt bad but happily, Rachel's face looks completely normal now.

On Tuesday, we had a typical school day, then Spencer had football practice and Rachel went to young women after swim practice.

Wednesday after school was football and swimming.  On Thursday, I went to visit my Grandpa in the hospital because he had a stroke.  he's doing pretty well and is now in the rehab part of the hospital.  I also met my friend, Tammy, for lunch in Provo.  That afternoon, we had swim practice for Rachel and gymnastics for Caitlin and Courtney.  I love watching the girls at gymnastics because they have so much fun in the class.

Spencer had football practice on Friday and afterward, had a really exciting pep rally with a flour bomb war.  He came home happy and covered in flour.  That evening was supposed to be a daddy-daughter camp out.  However, we had lots severe thunderstorms and downpours so they decided to have a movie night at the church.  Paul, Caitlin and Courtney had a great time watching Brave and eating popcorn.  

Spencer, the babes and I ended up driving Rachel and her friend, Anela all the way to the away high school football game in Orem and just driving around until it was over to take them home.  Thankfully, our team won so the girls were glad they went.  Rachel also went to a friend's house afterward to "hang out."  Driving all that time wasn't ideal because the boys slept in the car so when we got home, they were wide awake until 1:30 and 2:00 a.m.  Argh!#^*%

Caitlin and Courtney got these little Teddy Bear chairs from Grandma Black and the boys keep sitting in them.  We think it's pretty cute!

Saturday, Spencer had a football game all afternoon.  When they finally got home, Paul and I went on a date for our 23rd anniversary.  We did sealings in the temple, attended the adult session of stake conference (it was excellent), and then out to dinner.  

It seems like this was yesterday but it was 23 years ago!

September has arrived!

Last week began the second week of school.  The kids got a little busier but so far so good.  Rachel started swim conditioning. The only problem is that her swim coach is now coaching Alta and Corner Canyon so all the practices are either at Alta or Dimple Dell (which is right next to Alta) so we are picking her up at school and driving her.  Ugh! Spencer continues with football which keeps him extremely busy with practices 3-5 times a week.  Caitlin and Courtney are taking gymnastics as well.  Add to that piano lessons, activity days, cub scouts and young women and you can see we're always on the go. 

I took this gorgeous shot while the boys were running around the trampoline and having a great time.  They have been busy getting into all kinds of trouble. The most amusing thing they did was climb on the kitchen counter and chuck apples around the kitchen like they were baseballs.  They are so adorable right now despite their busyness.

Little monkeys climbing on top of the patio table and proud of it!

Yes, he's inside the piano.  At the same time, Jake was climbing on the outside of the stairs.  Danger lurks in the most unexpected places.

Thursday, one of my best friends, Tammy Vallem came and spent the day with me.  She has now moved to Provo.  It was so wonderful to catch up.  I am so glad to have her near me again.  

Friday night, Paul and I drove up to Snowbird Ski Resort for dinner.  It was a great date even though we had a dust storm and rain so we couldn't see much of the beautiful views.

This weekend, my family organized a garage sale for Grandma Black.  She has moved into an assisted living facility and we needed to clear out her house so I spent Friday afternoon and much of Saturday helping with that.  Even though we sold TONS of stuff, there's still more but we're donating it to DI.  During the garage sale, three of my dear friends from Pennsylvania appeared unexpectedly! BJ (the mom) has moved to Utah and only lives a couple blocks away from Grandma's house.

Arianne, her baby, BJ, me and Aubree Weeks

Spencer had a football game but they got creamed so Paul took him and two of his football buddies to Classic for laser tagging.  They had a great time and they soon forgot their frustrations about the game.

On Saturday evening, Paul's brother, Greg, his wife, Laurel and their son, Aadien, came over to watch BYU stomp #15 Texas 40-21.  It was an awesome game!

Rachel went to her friend, Brayden's sweet sixteen party.  I can't believe Rachel is almost sixteen.  When she got asked to homecoming (she isn't going because she's not 16), it made me realize she really will be dating soon.  It kind of freaked me out a bit.  Oh well, children have to grow up even though we'd love to keep them small.  

Sunday, we went to my cousin, Karen Gottfredson Cox's son, Calvin's mission farewell and open house.  It was great to visit with their family.

1, 2, 3. . . whee!  Just missing Caitlin who was already in the car when I snapped this pic.  

Sunday night, we ate a delicious dinner at my parents' home. All in all, it was a busy but fun-filled week.

Lovin' Labor Day

On Labor Day, I decided to take the four oldest kids on a fun hike so after a little research, I discovered a really easy hike to Donut Falls.  It was absolutely gorgeous in the canyon.  One frustration was that the trailhead parking lot was full when we got there so we had to drive all the way back to the road and walk from there but it just added another 15 minutes to a quick hike and it was a pretty walk to the trailhead which we would have missed otherwise.  The only treacherous part of the hike was following the kids as they climbed up and down the rocks in the waterfall.  Descending the falls on wet, slippery, steep rocks was a little dicey.  Let's just say I got a little wet.  We all enjoyed it.  Even Spencer said it was a lot if fun!

When we returned home, Rachel went to a pool party at one of her friend's homes, Caitlin and Courtney went to Build-a-Bear with activity days & Spencer and Paul went to football practice.  Jake and Josh and I spent much of the afternoon driving kids around.  All in all, it was a great Labor Day!

Football Fun

Spencer began football this season.  He has really enjoyed the sport thus far despite having never played before.  Spencer plays center on defense and left guard on offense.  His head coach is in our ward.  One of his coaches is Luke Staley, who was a famous BYU runningback.  Staley also played for the Detroit Lions until an injury ended his pro career.  His son is on Spencer's team.  Spencer has made a bunch of friends through football and is learning a lot this season.  Yesterday was his first pre-season game and we all went to support him.  It was a lot of fun.  The teams tied.  We're proud of Spence and appreciate all his hard work practicing Monday through Friday for two plus hours.

The first week of school

We started school this week.  Caitlin and Courtney are in 3rd grade, Spencer's in 5th grade and Rachel is in 10th grade at the brand new high school.  Just like last year, early morning seminary's a killer.  The nice thing is that Rachel's new school is a lot closer.  I'll be glad when Rachel can drive herself to school.  

Spencer's very busy with football and absolutely loves it so far.  They have their first pre-season game on Saturday.  He has two boys from the neighborhood on the team so hopefully, they are becoming friends since they have practice everyday this week.  Both of them were over at our house last night.  

Joshua has been sick for a couple weeks but Monday night, his fever with Tylenol spiked to 104.4 degrees so I ran him to the ER.  After getting his fever down, they did a chest x-ray and saw the beginnings of pneumonia.  He's been on antibiotics since then and is definitely improving but his fever came back today so we'll see what the future holds.  I haven't been getting any sleep so I'm really exhausted.

The boys broke the baby gate completely a few days ago and since then my life has been more stressful because they are roaming the house, causing trouble wherever they are.  Last night, they climbed onto the kitchen counter and got into Rachel's makeup.  Fun stuff!  I thought they were awfully cute even with mascara on their faces.

Catch up time!

Can you believe it?  I'm actually blogging.  It has been a busy spring, summer, fall and now winter.  To quickly recap, we spent the spring and summer with our house for sale.  All I did was nurse, change diapers, clean and take kids to their activities.  Well, mostly cleaning and nursing.  Oh, and I was the Relief Society President so that kept me busy. 

After what seemed an eternity, right after the kids started school, we sold our home.  We only had a month to find a new home and move out.  It was crazy!  We hired a babysitter for our older kids and took the twins to Utah on a whirlwind househunting trip.  The househunting was so frustrating because homes are so much more expensive in Utah than they are in Pennsylvania.  Thankfully, on the last day of our trip, we finally found the home we were looking for.  It is in Draper down the hill from the temple.  We love the house but don't love the yard or the street.  It is on a steep hill and so it's too dangerous for the kids to ride their bikes and they can't exactly play basketball without losing the ball down the hill.  The yard is extremely small compared to our other home but it has some character with a little wooded area of scrub oak and nice landscaping with granite boulders.  The inside of our home is very similar to our old house.  It's almost the same layout we had before. I miss the hardwood floors but I'm getting used to it.  We may change the floors at at some point but for now, it's doable.  We have the most beautiful view of the valley and mountains.  I never get tired of it and especially love looking out from the balcony of our bedroom at any time of day. 

Our church here is in the Draper Temple parking lot.  Isn't that amazing?  The ward is a lot different from what I'm used to.  I feel like the frumpiest of the frumpy here because it seems like we have a ward of beauty queens.  Aside from a few short conversations, I haven't been able to get to know anyone yet but I know it will take time to make friends especially because I spend half of church out with one baby or the other. In addition, we don't have callings which has been a bit frustrating but it has also been a nice break after being so busy in Easton with church responsibilities.

The kids began school here on October 1.  After the first day, they were all happy and had made friends.  Spencer's teacher isn't quite as fun as Mr. Kolb from Palmer but he's beginning to forget about that.  Rachel has made a ton of friends and is really glad to be here now.  She's involved in orchestra, an audition choir and the Alta High School swim team.  She loves going to seminary during school although she'll be doing early morning next semester in order to fit in all her classes.  Spencer is beginning to form friendships outside of school at scouts and in the ward.  He also began basketball last week and ski club so now he's busy which is good.  Caitlin and Courtney both have best friends at school and are adjusting fairly well.  Caitlin has a lot of anxiety about us not picking them up after school.  It's so different from Palmer where all kids were bussed, even the kids that lived in the house next door.  If we picked up, we had to go in the school and sign them out after showing identification.  At Oak Hollow, the kids all leave school and it's chaos.  Everyday, Caitlin reminds me to pick her up, multiple times as if I'm going to forget.  On Fridays, they have early release days and she's particularly nervous about us forgetting to pick her up early so I have been setting my phone alarm in her presence in order to relieve some of her anxiety.  I need to get Caitlin and Courtney signed up for piano lessons and something else but I haven't gotten around to it.  We have been through one marking period and all of them had outstanding grades so their academics have not suffered.

 Since we moved here, Jake and Josh have progressed from scooting to crawling to pulling up and cruising around the furniture,  They're now standing for short periods and Jake is trying to take steps.  It's fun to watch them.  They also clap and wave with big smiles on their faces and say hi, mama and dada.  They get into everything now.  We are constantly finding more and more things that we need to childproof. 

One of the nicest things about being back in Utah is being near our family.  My parents love having us close by and we love going to their house for holidays and Sunday dinners.  On Saturday, my mom came here and we went shopping and out to lunch. It was so much fun being able to do that on a whim.  We need to do more with the Madsens but we'll be having the family Christmas party next week.  I'm looking forward to it!

Basketball

Rachel and Spencer are both playing basketball this year.  It's Spencer's first year playing.  He's learning a lot and having fun practicing and playing.  Rachel was put on a team with kids that are two years older and it's been a frustrating season because she doesn't get to play much even though she contributes as much as some of the kids who are playing most of the game.  All the girls her age sit on the bench most of the games.  Because of the pregnancy, I haven't been going to very many games this season and I forgot the camera the one time I went to Spencer's game.  Here's some pics of one of the few games I attended where Rachel was playing.