No pictures

I have been in the habit of writing what we did over the weekend the last few weeks. That is because we did lots of stuff over those weekends. Mostly I just throw a bunch of pictures on the blog and call it good. We didn't do much this last weekend and I have to say that that is great! Sometimes it is great to slow down and get some stuff done. So- I am still going to write a blog about stuff we did. But there won't be any pictures because I didn't take any (well- I did but I'm not showing you yet)

Last week Tanner started his martial arts that he has been wanting to take. It is called Hapkido and he really likes it so far.  It is really a convenient time for our family. 8:00 on Mondays and Wednesdays. That does not interfere with anything else we have going on. It does make us start FHE earlier but I just have to be more organized and we can make it work.

Jaxon was home all week after school because- no more marching band. it has become clear that he needs more stuff to do. Perferably a job. One that teaches him how to work.

I helped with a Relief Society dinner and that was really fun. It turned out beautiful and festive and just a nice evening. But it is an all day event.

I continue to have Webelos. I realized that it has been 7 years since I started doing Webelos. I still like it most days. I love the boys. I want to do it until Chase is 11 and then never do anything scouty again.

I also got to have a lunch with my college friends Lisa and Regina. Eurry and Mallory joined us this time. Eurry married another one of our college friends, Richard- and Mallory is their daughter. It was fun to catch up and I love getting together with these girls.

Friday all the kids had plans to go and do something. So Andre and I looked at each other and wondered what we could do. Hmmm. But then plans changed and one of the kids ended up being home and then we had to pick up another one of the kids earlier then we thought so it was good that we didn't go anywhere or do anything.

Alex and Chase are watching Harry Potter movies with Grandpa Young. They love it. They just watched number 5 on Friday so now we have to decide if Chase is old enough to get into the hard scary parts of numbers 6 and 7. Ummmm, probably.

Jaxon went to the Bingham football game Friday night and played in the band. Yes, band is over except for the State Football games and Bingham always wins the championship game so, he will be busy for a few Friday nights.

Tanner had a friend over Friday and they played video games, board games and then watched a show. You may wonder what show. Or you may not. But I am going to tell you anyway. My Little Pony. Yes. a couple of 12 year olds are obsessed with My Little Pony shows. They think it is hillarious. I guess it is a thing. My sister said that men who watch My Little Pony are called "Bronies". Ok. Whatever.

Saturday we really had no plans. None whatsoever. It was weird. And really rather enjoyable.
This meant that kids had to clean their rooms. One of my kids has a deep hatred of cleaning his room. His definition of cleaning his room is that there is a path from the door to his bed. So I got to help. I ignored the constant stream of "why does it matter" and "can I be done now?" His room was clean! (well it was on Saturday) It makes me laugh because he said, "my room is always messy because I can never find anything so I have to throw everything around so I can find things". He didn't like my answer of, "lets give everything a place to be so that you can find things and not have to throw things around." Apparently that idea would not work in his world.

So I helped 2 boys clean their rooms and then I went through everyone's clothes and got out their warmer clothes and put away their summer clothes. This takes FOREVER. I hate it so much. I also picked out clothes that everyone could wear for our family pictures. We have so many clothes in this house. I did not want to buy one single new piece of clothing. So it took me hours to go through everything and figure out what we could all wear that kind of coordinates, that fits, and that people would be happy wearing. this was exhausting. The kids played with friends and played on their computer games. Andre did his calling. He is still the executive secretary. Every Saturday morning he spends hours organizing and calling people. I think he has been doing this for almost as long as I have been in cub scouts. I also went through the winter snow clothes to see what boots we have that people might be able to fit into. If we have snow pants for everyone and how many gloves that I can find that have a match. I also gave 3 people in my family hair cuts. No one wanted a cut. They just needed one.

Saturday night we went to the movies! Just Andre and I. It was great to get away. We saw "The Martian. It was a great movie. But... my definition of PG13 is WAY different then other people's definition. I may have to start reading about a movie before I go see. it. But besides one scene and a bunch of bad language. It was a great movie. I was thinking about it all night. We came home and Jaxon and Tanner had been watching My Little Pony. Seriously?

Sunday is a great day. I love love that it was the primary program. Alex had his memorized a few weeks ago. Chase would NOT practice his part ahead of time. He said. "I will just read it. It is right there for me to read." But I made him practice it anyway because I am mean like that. This is my favorite sacrament day. The kids are so cute. You have to laugh. Chase always has to make it memorable. A few years ago he was crying up on the stage because someone was touching him. Hello? tell them to stop. Tell the teacher. do something. But don't cry about it. This year. Chase just rocked back and forth during every song. Like full body motion. back and forth back and forth. And if you really watched him you would see that he really wasn't singing. He thinks he was singing. If you tell him that he is not singing he tells you that he is. But his mouth is not moving. Then we have Alex who was singing his heart out. He loved wearing his new suit. He felt like he was lookin' good. They both did their parts perfectly. And the parts were not there to be read so it is a good thing Chase practiced. (It is always good when moms are right and the kids see that- score one for mom!)

Then we came home and changed our clothes as fast as we could and met up with my amazing sister Joanna. We went to the ravine thing near our house and had some family pictures. We got some great family pictures. And it only took an hour. even though it seemed like an eternity to some of the kids. See we did take some pictures but I am not showing you yet. These are our Christmas card pictures and I still have to figure out what I am going to do about that. I don't want to do a creative card this year and people want me to be creative so I feel pressure. At the same time I like to be creative and this is one of the only creative things I get to do so I like it. So I should do it right? Anyway- that was a ramble.

Then I had to hurry and make dinner because everyone was starving. Then it was finally the book burning party. While cleaning Jaxon's room, he found a bunch of school stuff that could not just be thrown away. They had to be burned. So Jaxon started up our fire pit and the kids went crazy finding lots of other homework type stuff that they wanted burned.

Then it was bedtime and I was tired. I am always tired.

And that was our weekend without pictures.