09/04/16 Labor Day Weekend

09/04/16

Stage one of home made pizza...buns are rising!

 Monday night was Sharpie night!!  We had dinner over at the Sharp's house.  We brought homemade pizza and they made brownies and had watermelon and lemonade.  Afterward we went to their community swimming pool and played for about an hour.  It is amazing how quickly our kids are all growing up!  When I first met Landon and Emily our kids were pretty young and she had a baby or two and was pregnant.  Now her kids are 4-9 years old and my boys are all gone and the girls are teenagers.  (12 & 14)  The kids don't see a lot of each other and don't have much in common due to age gap but they seem to enjoy playing together and having fun anyway.  It was a really nice evening!

Katie had a team dinner this week on Wednesday and they went to one of her teammates homes and had a meal together.  Afterward she went to YW and then had to come home and hurry and do homework.  There is not a lot of time for messing around when you are in so many activities.  Her life right now is pretty rigid -- get up, go to band. go to school, go to practice, do homework, go to bed. Restart.  So far she is handling things well but it is a pretty tough schedule. 

Happy silly girls playing together!

We played pickle ball with the McAllisters but unfortunately Russ pulled a muscle and we had to quit a little early. He pulled it last week and took Monday off but may have come back too early as he was still struggling.  They are going to take off the rest of this week and hopefully next Monday be back to feeling ok. 

Thursday Andy recorded his show late and then got done about the same time as the rest of us.  Katie had a home game so we all headed over to watch her team play Kanab.  Katie didn't get in a ton of time but she played really well while she was in.  She had several great serves and returns.  I was a proud mama!  The Taylors came and watched the game (she'd invited them -- she was pretty happy to see them there!!!)  so we sat and visited with them while the game was going on.  They lost but are hopeful to do well next week. 

We went to Wendy's restaurant for dinner after the game and then the girls had to do homework and head to bed. It was after 7 p.m. before we even started dinner. 

Friday we went to Costa Vida with Gma and Gpa and had a nice visit.  It is fun to catch up with them after a long week and they give us good input and advice about things when needed too.  

(We talked about family council in church this week and how are we keeping communication open with our "married kids" or children that have left the nest.  While we are mostly just skyping and texting and talking to our kids that have left I realized that we were the kids that had left our parents nest and that Gma and Gpa are setting a great example by doing lunch each week and Sunday dinner each week to continue our relationship with them).  

Yard is still recovering from week without water

Andy had a game at snow canyon hs, Holly spent the afternoon and evening at the Riley's and then Miranda Warby's birthday.  Katie is just beat on Friday's and for the 2nd week came home and spent the evening alone making cookies -- her "relaxation" of choice!  Katie and I mowed the lawn and then I went to Long's house and helped for several hours as they got ready for their open house trying to sell their house.  She had lots of little jobs to do -- weeding, putting down contact paper, installing shelving, putting in closet doors, hanging curtain rods and curtains, planting flowers, sweeping...there was still tons to do but I think that's about all I helped with!  Hopefully they will sell their home soon so life can settle a little for them!

Saturday Linda and I walked our 4.5 mile walk an hour late because I slept in!  It was 7:30 before we left and after 9 when we returned and it was HOT and humid!  It's September...later should work...but it doesn't yet!  After I came home and spent a couple of hours in the yard trimming bushes, weeding, picking up debris -- just trying to make the yard look nice. It was really warm and I was soaking wet from sweat.  The kids didn't want to go to the pool with me so I went up alone for an hour and just enjoyed the cool water and sunshine!!!  Andy had worked until 5:30 am so when I got back he was just getting up for the day.  We hung out and watched football and played card games and just had a nice mellow afternoon. 

Miranda and the twins came over to play Saturday with Holly.  Miranda is like gumby - she is so flexible.  The kids were doing crazy stretches and having fun and we got a couple of pictures of our happy girls. 

Dallas and McK came over about 8 p.m. for pizza and BYU.  They did a frosty (ice cream from Wendy's) run at halftime -- the girls liked that!  BYU won and they all went to bed happy!

Sad yard recovering from week without water

Sister Long taught our lesson today on Family councils and how we can communicate better as families.  It was a great lesson and it really helped to stop and think about what we are doing to nourish our relationship with our parents and our children.  I think we are doing a lot of things right -- creating traditions like Monday night pizza and Thursday BBQ night, Sunday night with the gparents etc.  I think the kids will want to remain close as we try to make it fun to come around.  We are trying to be supportive of what our kids are doing and not critical.  It is fun to watch them learn and grow and choose their paths and activities and friends and things.  Hopefully our guidance will help them to stay on the right path - to follow their savior and create good lives.  I hope that we will always be "home" and the kids will always want to come and visit and help out and contribute and learn and grow and play with us even as they branch out on their own.  I hope we'll be a safe place to come back to and they'll want to come back often. 

I am so lucky to have such an amazing loving family and I thank Heavenly Father every day for them.

Sunday Gma and Gpa went to Wendy's house because it was Maddy's birthday and Randy and Kay were up north visiting kids.  Dallas and McK came over after church for brunch -- egg, sausage and hashbrown casserole and monkey bread.  It was fun and yummy.  In the evening Eldon and Diane came over for the fantasy football draft.  Diane and Andy drafted online with the rest of the team (up north) and we had sloppy joes and fixings for dinner while they "worked." It was fun to see E&D, it's been awhile!