Concert!!

Alright, alright, regular week stuff first.  We had flag football, football, crazy dressers and another win (undefeated so far!!)

But on Monday we had the concert!!  So many weeks of planning and stressing came together!  We spent all day at the church parking lot filling balloons, picking up desks and chairs, setting up the stage, setting up audio equipment, dressing the stage, decorating food tables, setting up chairs and setting out the giant balloons.  Then it was time to sing!  I got ready and came out just in time.  Everything went well and everyone had a good time.  It was such a team effort and I am so glad it went well, and that it is done!

Prep prep prep

What a great week.  We had flag football.  We had the makeup football game up in south Salt Lake (which we won).  We had rain, rain and more rain.  And we had another regular football game on Saturday (which we also won).  And I have many wonderful friends who helped me out!  I was getting ready for a big (at least to me) concert I am putting on soon.  I have had so much help with planning the script and figuring all that out. I also have a wonderful friend Whitney who is an even planner for the city of Provo.  I asked her to help me prepare and she has been amazing!  I have been slowly collecting everything we have planned and then on Friday I asked for anyone who could help to come over and help make twizzler bundles and help with last minute odds and ends.  So many people came and it was wonderful! We have great friends and neighbors.  It's all coming together! The big day is tomorrow!

Rainy daze

We started off the week by hosting the Single Sisters up at our cabin.  This is a group of mostly elderly ladies who love a good excuse to have a nice get-together.  I sang a few songs and our friend Brother Butler spoke about his trip to Jerusalem a few years ago.  We also had a delicious white chili dinner with rolls and a gourmet salad.  Those ladies know how to eat.  Our boys were clearly worn out from being quiet and fell asleep on the way home.  Thunder got to test drive a very cool old truck from 1969.  It was all authentic but very well maintained.  Tornado was very confused about how to roll down the window.  Sunshine had a very fun made-up fairy tale presentation in his class.  He is such a ham and just a great kid.  On Saturday we made our way up to South Salt Lake city for a football game.  Just as the previous game ended a huge thunderstorm moved in.  Everyone huddled under a canopy for a while, but then the refs decided there was no hope of it clearing, so they postponed the game.  Of course the kids thought it was all very adventurous!

Fun times

For Labor Day we were able to take a couple of days and go up to the cabin.  Oh how I love that place.  We invited up another family and the kids had fun hiking, going in the hot tub and exploring outside.  Ahh I'm remembering it now.  For our Young Women's activity that week, we were combined with the Young Men.  We got to go on a giant slip and slide, complete with dish soap to make it really slippery.  A fun time was had by all.  This is the second year we've done it, it's practically a back-to-school tradition now.  Tornado is now playing flag football and loving it!  He is on a team with several boys from the neighborhood.  They are all athletic and have a great time together.  It's been fun to watch him.  He is still in gymnastics too.  He is on a Level 4 team which meets three times a week.  He is getting so strong.  He does handstand pushups and all sorts of tricks on the trampoline.  We were also lucky to have Nana and Papa visit us.  Papa went with Thunder to the BYU vs. Texas game.  This is the one that was delayed by a couple hours due to rain.  They huddled in the car for a while then went back in and enjoyed every minute of the game.  We always love it when they visit!

School again!

This was a big week!  But before school started, we celebrated our 13th anniversary.  Our babysitter fell through so we all took a big family trip to Texas Roadhouse for dinner!  Then it was the big day.  First day of school!  They all are in great classes this year and we are excited for a great year!  Oh, and Sunrise decided to give himself a nice haircut just a few days before school.  I had to buzz it with a #1 all over!

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Homemade Cheesecake mmmmmmmm

We started the week with piano lessons, swim lessons and a well-check-up for Sunrise. On Wednesday I took Tornado into an audiologist to have his hearing tested.  He is by far our loudest child and had ear tubes as a baby.  His results were mixed.  He passed a few tests but responded lower than average on another.  So we will bring him back in in 3-6 months and have him tested again.  On Wednesday the kids begged to stay after swim lessons and swim in the fun pool, so I paid and off they went.  Then my phone died.  What is a restless mom to do?  I sat there and wrote a song!  It's not quite finished but it's got a cool start.  Thursday was the last day of swim lessons and they all passed.  Cloudburst is moving on to level 6, Sunshine to level 5, Tornado to level 4 and Sunrise to level 1 (he was in preschool classes).  They were all pretty excited to move on.  

On Friday I was part of a morningside- a fireside that started out in Eagle Mountain at 8 AM.  I sang three of my songs and got to speak a little bit, along with another speaker.  The youth were great.  Later that day Cloudburst baked something I have never attempted- cheesecake!  She did it all herself, even separating an egg yolk.  I'm not sure where she gets her love of baking, but the rest of us don't mind one bit!  It was delicious!  On Saturday we kicked off the 3rd grade football season with the big Lehi Football Jamboree.  Each grade-level has two teams that scrimmage against each other.  We won our scrimmage and looked really good!  Thunder is the head coach again and is of course doing an excellent job.  That guy is pretty much good at everything he does :-)

FREEEEEEDOM!!

Freedom! Well, for one of us... more on that later.  We started the week with a hair-pulling activity: shoe shopping for 4 kids!  We survived intact.  And I remembered why I ordered a bunch of their uniform clothes online so it could be shipped directly here :-)  Even though we started swimming lessons, we found the time to go to Seven Peaks on Wednesday.  We went right in the morning and there were no lines at all.  Unfortunately when Tornado and Thunder were riding together on a tube down a ride, their tube flipped and they both smashed their heads hard into the side of the ride.  They came out in front of the tube, crying (well Tornado was).  The rest of the day Tornado hung out with me and Sunrise in the smaller section.  On Thursday we went to see one of Cloudburst's friends in the play "Aida."  I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the singing and acting.  The boys sat mostly still for the whole things, although it was interesting when Sunrise fell asleep at the end and I had to lug him like a sack of potatoes up to the top of the amphitheater and out to the car.  I forgot how much he weighs.  Friday was another fun day for Cloudburst.  One of her best friends, Heather, had moved up to Washington state last year.  Her dad promised a trip for her and her brother to visit friends and he kept his promise.  He drove with just the two of them all the way down.  Heather stayed all day at our house and they were both in heaven.  They played outside, played inside, baked brownies and just giggled.  It was fun to watch.

And on Sunday, Sunrise found some new freedom!  He learned to ride his bike with no training wheels!  He figured it out on the 3rd try and was riding all down the street.  We were so proud of him.