Temple, Art, Music, and Mama Baer's

This was a busy week of watching kids and doing outings with the kids like swimming. We also had my visiting teachee, La Wana over for family home evening. She seemed to really enjoy coming for dinner and a lesson afterward. We talked about the anti-Nephi-Lehies burying their weapons of war so we each chose something to bury. I chose "yelling" and then we ripped it up like we were burying it and fully repenting with the intent to never do it again. At the end of the week I realized I had not yelled at the kids at all, and it was a week Jeff was gone. I was so happy with this little victory and I felt much better at the end of each day knowing I hadn't lost it with my kids.

When Lily is at gymnastics we go to a playground at a school in Fort Collins on nice days. I was very happy to have remembered to bring a soccer ball, and then we found one there as well, and the boys just kept running and chasing that ball forever. Ryan likes to make a big kick and then go after it, Max likes to do smaller kicks and dribble it. For 20-30 minutes they went non-stop, it was so fun to see. Also, Max wanted to go down the fireman's pole. I told him he's too young, but he insisted and to my surprise he did it. He kind of hangs at the top until I encourage him to slide down, but he can do it all on his own.

The kids love climbing the dragon at this park, it is a new favorite place to play. I love this perfect fall weather. 

They also love running around the path and climbing up these rocks. 

Max is such a good little helper and loves putting silverware away. 

The kids love Go Fish. They get upset because Max doesn't' play by the rules, so we have to remind them that he's too young, and it's funny to let him play by Max's rules. So once they caught the amusement of it, it's okay now. 

Taryn came over to play with Lily, but she was at music class. She saw Ryan standing there and said, "well can Ryan come play?" Ryan was so thrilled to be singled out and I looked over the fence a little later to see them playing on the trampoline together. I thought Lily would be upset when she found out, but she just thought it was funny. 

Lily loves drawing!

Ryan has been into drawing lately too. I didn't think he'd be able to follow the instructions in the book, but he surprised me and has done a great job!

Ryan drew the pictures and Lily named them. 

Lily is amazing! She was looking through this Coldplay book and noticed that she knew some of the chords from music class (red and yellow). Then Jeff taught her one more chord to play the song and now she can do the whole song! Once she got the right hand down, she wanted to play some notes in the left hand. She practices over and over and can sing all the words while she plays. It is so fun to see her excited about this and to grasp on to things she already knows and realize she can play fun songs with the basic knowledge she has. It is awesome. 

Lily found some silver stickers for the new chord Jeff taught her for the song. 

Some more drawings by Ryan. 

And some more by Lily. 

I took Lily and Ryan to this musical at the high school. Next time I will look more into what is involved in the musical if I don't know anything about it. It was totally inappropriate for kids, luckily they didn't get what all was being said and sung. But at intermission I said it was over for us and they thought it was done so we went home. Jeff was surprised to see us home so early, but the kids said they enjoyed it and had a good time. I was just disappointed that with all the musicals, the high school didn't choose a clean one. But lesson learned. 

Lily shaking hands with veterans at her veteran's day assembly. I always get a big emotional when I see all the veterans or hear their songs for each group being played. 

The kids went to Mama Baer's for the weekend and Jeff and I enjoyed having a little break. I finally went to the temple, hooray! It took me a little bit of time to find a temple dress to fit my pregnant belly, but everything worked out. I had a white maternity skirt with a hole, but a nice woman in the ward fixed it in 10 minutes for me. And I remembered it having a stain, but when I looked I couldn't find it anywhere. Then I found a white shirt and cardigan and I was good to go. I couldn't believe it that I woke up at 6:10, showered, left the house at 6:35, and still made it for a 7 a.m. session. It was marvelous! It was so neat to be in this temple that I felt I got to know well by attending so many open house tours. But it is definitely different to be in the temple after it has been dedicated and to be doing temple work, rather than just looking at the physical beauty of the temple. I feel so blessed to have this close to home, and to be able to go much more often. 

Here are some photos from the kids stay at Mama Baer's. 

During Max's nap time, Sandy and Diana took Lily and Ryan to see Trolls. They had fun taking other photos with Moana and Maui. 

Having fun at the park. Ryan said he was getting eaten by a shark. 

The kids had a great time going to Walmart and picking out what toys they would love for Christmas. 

After seeing Trolls Lily LOVES Poppy. 

End to the perfect day with a trip to McDonald's. 

Max was so kind to share his burger with his sister. 

Lily has been practicing doing hand stands for gymnastics, so Max has caught on and been practicing a lot too.  He can actually hold himself up for a few seconds without the wall for help. 

Lily likes dressing up in my clothes and pretending she's a teacher. 

Picking Lily up from school and everyone wanted their special stuffed animal they got from Mama Baer. Max got BB-8, Ryan got Chase (he also brought his storm trooper), and they buckled up Poppy so she'd be safe until we got Lily. 

Max wanted me to try brushing his teeth while wearing a Chewbacca mask. 

Lily making pumpkin pancakes all by herself, and cracking all 12 eggs by herself too. 

Ryan busy drawing. 

Jeff went to the grocery store and there were a lot of cereals on sale. He saw Fruity Pebbles and just felt like the kids had to experience this cereal. Ryan has had it and declared it the best cereal ever. 

So excited for some snow! They both can dress themselves without much help from me, so that's pretty monumental. 

And Max couldn't wait to get dressed to go out and join them after he woke up from his nap. 

In the past Max liked to throw rocks down the windowsill, but today he's into throwing snow down there. This kept them busy for awhile. 

Trying to sled down the hill. Ryan is pushing Max to get him going, but it was a lot of work. 

Max has become excited about wearing pajamas with a cape. The problem is he keeps waking up in the night and is upset because his cape fell off. So he cries and when I come in, it's just to put his cape on. So we will start a "no cape" in bed policy. But one day he did get in the crib himself to go down for a nap, so maybe that made up for it.

Max is so happy when we found some Batman pajamas with a cape, just like his brother.

Ryan drew that picture for Max and Max was pretty happy about it. 

Lily finished her first chapters book! Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She and Jeff had so much fun reading it together. I can't believe this kindergartner! 

I couldn't find Max when I opened his door. I finally found that he had put himself to bed in his crib, surrounded by lots of friends. 

A cute note Lily wrote at school. 

One night Max wanted some cereal, so he brought out everything we had so that he could see all his choices before him. 

Helping Jeff clean his car. 

Off to the car wash. Max loves going and often asks to go to Johnny's car wash. But when when didn't know where that was, we told him it's Bob's car wash, so that's where he asks to go now. 

Ryan loving his lego factory. 

Jeff and I had a date night and where did we go? Toys R Us. We did get a lot of Christmas shopping and Jeff loves shopping for the kids. He had a hard time deciding what to get them because he wanted to get them a lot. 

Mexican for dinner. 

Lily loves sleeping with her new Poppy.