Games and Games

Sunday morning Ross had EQ meeting at 8am. I worked on scripture-reading and indexing and journals and getting ready. I came down to get the kids ready and they had the animals all set out to watch Abby do volleyball. I told them it sure makes it tricky to go up and down without disturbing any of them. :)

I bore my testimony during the meeting. I had the feeling to do it earlier in the week and then again this morning. I tried to dismiss it, but I finally succumbed. It wasn't long. I spoke about how much Heavenly Father loves us, how we can partake of the sacrament every week, the importance of our covenants at baptism and how little we have to do and how MUCH he blesses us, how he sent His son for us, how the church has been restored and we have all the priesthood power and temples ... to return to him. I bore testimony of the truth of the church, how Joseph Smith was a prophet, how the Book of Mormon is true...how I was reading it that morning and Lehi was teaching his children right before he died and spoke of our day in the restoration, and how cool we get to be part of it. I said that like the hymn we had sang this morning "Savior, I would follow thee" that through the covenants we make we really can "find strength beyond our own" when we follow the Savior.

I was very excited today because I had not additional meetings other than 3 hours of church. No choir, no ward council, no youth meetings and no evening planning meetings. Ahhhhh! And we had plenty of leftovers for dinner so I was set. We played games after church and all afternoon and evening. We played Dutch Blitz, Allen's cards, chess, 13 Dead End Drive... we had dinner and Allen was in charge of FHE were he taught about temple ordinances and then his activity was more family game time! The kids enjoyed ice cream for a treat before bed. It was a terrific day! Ross told the kids "your mom has been looking forward to this day for 13 years", meaning I've been waiting when the kids were old enough that we could sit and play games for hours. That I wouldn't have to dumb-down anything or hold back, but they could hold their own. And they did. It was awesome!! So glad the day finally came.

We had this setup to play after dinner and FHE. We played with 6 people (Jill was on my team) and Jane and Abby were the last two alive (Jane still with 2 people!). The game ended because the detective came to the door and Jane's character's painting was up on the wall.

While the kids had ice cream Ross and I wrote out the October events and I took a photo of September before throwing it away.

And Abby took a photo of her "hand" puppet she made at church! haha.

Ahhh! What a GOOD Sunday of Games!!

S: Special Service, Soccer, Science, Smashburger, Sealings

On Saturday we went to a baptism, three soccer games, Allen worked on/finished his planetary poster and it was date night--Smashburger, sealings on Saturday. :)

I took the twins to a baptism--boy twins and one other boy primary friend. (Xander, Liam and Maxwell). They drew on their Boogie Boards during all the wait time.

E: "Mom, it's you!" 😮 ... Laser eyes? Awesome! And here I thought my eyes were ready for me to open a new pair of contact lenses. 😉👀

The twins and I attended a baptism this morning for three friends, two were twins! ❤️❤️❤️👀

Game #2. I made it in time to see her play goalie. ⚽

Game #3. She's scored two goals already. ⚽📣👍

Ross was ref 2nd half of the game. His tourist hat cracks me up!

Girls were excited when Donut walked across our fence. That cat sure hisses!

While Allen worked on his planet poster we had the tv off. The girls were reading books. Abby was fascinated with all the Berenstain Bear books and we were looking at all the funny pictures and critiquing the stories. It was hilarious! I have quite the collection.

Date night!
Smash Burger & soon sealings w/ my Sweetheart Saturday at sunset after science and soccer. 🍔

Secret Message, Apples in K, and the Giant Mop

Friday morning we had b'day cards for Aunt Amy. Then I helped in Jill's kindergarten class, we got books at Granite Bay library after school, we had Stove Top chicken dish for dinner (Allen was so hungry and really excited about that!), Abby went to a volleyball clinic at Eich, our family cleaned the church building (chapel and toilets and bathroom sweeping and mopping) and watched 30 more minutes of Mary Poppins after scriptures/ dessert.

Morning markers & creative creations ☺️

I love Allen's creatively folded card. You have to fold it to read the birthday message!

I volunteered today in J's Kinder class. They have been studying apples this week and I helped at the "Taste Table". The kids tried 4 things (applesauce, apple slices, apple juice and apple pie) and then voted for their favorite taste by writing their name on a Post-It and putting it in "line" by the picture. It brought back fun memories of an apple project I did when I student-taught at the BYU preschool 15 years ago. Teaching is fun! In today's four rotations I learned all 23 names and enjoyed the various personalities. This group in the photo just tried the green apple. I warned them it was a little tart, but most of them liked the taste. At the end we tallied up the graph and apple juice was the big winner! 🍎😋 @ Stoneridge Elementary

A girl and a giant mop. 😁 Cleaning the church building tonight as a family. We vacuumed the chapel, set up some chairs, and the girls rocked bathrooms! 💦👍

4th Meet @ Home

Thursday morning after we dropped the kids Jill and I went to get some groceries at Walmart. We ran into Amanda and Hannah Smith. She was telling me about the enchiladas she had made the day before for three families and it gave me an idea to make two family dinners from the leftover whole chicken in the fridge.

My shopping helper, but just on days she has late-start Kinder. 🛒☺️

After talking to a friend at the store this morning I was inspired to make multiple dinners. Hmm... what should have tonight? Honey lime chicken enchiladas or Stove Top chicken dish? 😋

4th meet. This one's at Eich. 🎽👟🏃📣

I made guacamole and we had enchiladas for dinner. Allen just ate Go-gurt and pudding. Ross had b'ball with the men. Kids were all in bed about 9 and I watched part of the scotus hearing. A person's got a good case when they keep a record. Journal keeping is super important. If we don't write things down it's hard to prove things happened. Hence, the reason for this blog.