What a great person he is. I don't just say that because everyone says that about their dad. He really really is amazing. He is kind and always thinks of others first. He is courageous in fighting all the health problems he has had my entire life. He is one of the most spiritual men I know- always being a great example to me. And lots of other things make him great.
Happy 70th birthday!
We had Grandma's famous spaghetti and then had pie because it is my dad's favorite thing. We have a nephew on a mission in the Netherlands so we got to read his email all together. This has been a fun thing for my boys to hear of Connors experiences and testimony. The boys also like to tell their grandparents all the stuff that has been going on with them- especially Jaxon likes to talk to grandpa. The little kids found a fun game in the basement involving running around or something.
These boys love their grandpa and are so lucky to spend time with him.
Tuesday I had 2 dentist appointments and 2 orthodontist appointments to get different people to. It is always fun to coordinate how to get people to and from school and doctors offices. That night Tanner and Jaxon had a young men's activity- they had karaoke night. They loved it.
Wednesday was cub scouts. Alex goes off to his Bear den and I have the Webelos. I spent all day planning and buying stuff for the boys to make. I also was creative. I went out to our pile-o-wood and picked out a piece of wood. Then I sanded it using the belt sander and cut it using the table saw. I am always thinking I am going to cut off my fingers when I do that. But so far- I've been lucky. The Webelos are so cute (but they are loud). These badges are fun because the boys get to be creative and if they don't get done- its not required so I don't have to stress. Alex came home having learned about policemen and he had his fingerprints taken. He had fun.
Thursday I went over and spent the day with my parents. We did little things around their house- organizing and talking and whatever. It is always fun to hang out with them. That night I had a meeting with all the young women coaches in our stake. I spent a few hours preparing for this and then had one coach there. So then I had to spend a few hours typing it on an email. Learned my lesson- people are not responsible, so I should not expect them to be. (I did have 2 coaches tell me they could not be there so I don't count them as irresponsible).
Friday morning started at 4:00 am. I was dreaming that we were all playing around in a river- similar to what we do in real life. just wading near the shore. Then Chase was gone and I jumped in to save him and I pulled him out and he started to choke and then was breathing. Well. That woke me up. I can normally fall back asleep but I could not get the dream out of my head. I tried resolving it by making good endings for the dream in my head. But I was awake. So after 2 hours of laying there trying to fall asleep I just got up and started getting ready for the day. Friday afternoon the kids had an hour of screen time and then I made them go and do different things. They are becoming screen heads. 4 hours on a Friday of screen time has become normal. That is not ok. It is hard because then I have to come up with things for them to do. I got mad at one point and yelled, "I should not have to tell you how to play- figure it out"! (My excuse- I was tired from my early morning- plus I shouldn't have to tell people how to play.) They spent a lot of time walking to friends houses and then back again because the friends were not home. But this is fine because then they were outside (on a pretty decent weather day) and getting exercise. They did take skateboards to the gully near our house to see if it was like snow sledding. They were there for a while so it must have been kind of fun. The older boys had things to do that evening and the younger boys watched a movie with Andre. I fell asleep early- 6:30. Then I woke up at 8:00 and then went back to sleep at 11:00- the usual time.
Saturday Andre and I went Christmas shopping and I can't tell you what we got because kids might read this blog. But it was successful and kind of fun. We then came home and made all the kids get off of screens. So then we had to find things for them to do again. Jaxon wanted to go to the high school play so he found a friend to go with him and took Tanner. They saw 7 Brides for 7 Brothers. That was fun. Alex and Chase did a bunch of science experiments and bike rides, and lots of walking to friends houses and friends not being home. Actually Chase finally found a friend that is usually not able to play and brought him to our house so that ended up being really fun. There is always laundry, shopping, errands and cleaning going on on Saturdays so don't you worry. We are never bored.
That morning Andre decided to put the Christmas lights up. He does not really want to but decided to do it a for a few more years- because our kids really like it. So he spent forever finding and organizing the lights and getting everything ready to go. The kids were excited to help. I was in the house finding the charging plugs that are supposed to be in our ipod charging station. They are not allowed to be removed from the charging station and "none of the kids took them out"- but they were gone. Is that surprising? I heard a bang on the garage door and wondered what the kids were doing but didn't think of it much, Andre was out there. About a minute later I remembered what they were doing and that loud bangs should be something to worry about. I went outside and saw Chase kind of teary and upset, the ladder broken and laying on the ground. We have a ladder that folds in half like an A but can also straighten out so it can be tall to get up to the roof. Andre had it set up tall. Chase was climbing up and Andre was following behind him because Andre is always very careful with the kids and ladders. Andre was about 3 steps up the ladder and Chase was basically at the top. The ladder collapsed in half. Andre said that he basically just tried to catch Chase so he is not sure what happened. Something hit Andre on the head (either Chase or the ladder) and he bit his lip, Chase kind of landed funny on his leg so it was a little sore, and Andre has a small cut on his finger. The ladder folded in half and then hit the garage door and broke. So. That could have been worse. I'm grateful that everything turned out fine. We are not having Christmas lights on the house this year.
Then Grandma and Grandpa Bartlome came to play with us. They have two new great grandbabies this week. My niece and my nephew's wife had babies Monday and Thursday. Here are pictures that I grabbed off of facebook.
Paisley and Colton
This makes 4 great grands this year for them.
These cute babies were born in the spring.
Otto and Kinley
Gordon and Carol had to come up and see the babies. Then they came over to see us!
We played ping pong. Tanner is getting pretty good.
We played some air hockey. Here is Grandma showing her skills. She said that she hadn't really ever played before.
Then we did a game of apples to apples- pictures. It's a fun game for a group.
Alex showed off his mad piano skills. Here is Alex playing and Jaxon singing "Scarborough Fair"
This kid works hard on playing the piano. He likes it still so he is improving. There is a strong correlation between liking to play the piano and improving.
Tanner showed us some of his Martial Arts moves. He is pretty good since he has been doing it for 2 weeks now.
Grandma made Chase an origami thing. Chase is crazy.
Sunday morning we stayed busy. The boys played dungeons and dragons together for hours. Andre always has his Sunday morning meetings, we had choir. Jaxon and his friend planned their lesson for Teacher's quorum. We took apart this old keyboard that stopped working. And when I say we- I mean they. I helped Chase find the right size screw driver and then I left. I came back and this was the scene.
Well... lets just say, it was not very smooth today. Tanner is in a play for his theater class at school. He is a prince so his church clothes are at school. This was the case last week also so his back-up clothes came out. But the pants were way too short. I did not notice this until he was passing the sacrament and his pants were floods.
We get home from Choir at 12:00ish- usually plenty of time to pull everything together to get to church. Andre and Jaxon had to go early to church so they were gone by 12:30. I remembered to get Tanner the next size up pants from the hand me down box. I had to do a quick fix on the waist of his pants. A piece of material was sticking up and annoying him. As I was trying to hurry and sew Tanner's pants, Alex asked me to tie his tie. I asked him to wait just a minute. Chase has had a dry patch on his head so I had just bought him some Selsun Blue. This meant that instead of him taking his own shower- I had to show him how to actually scrub his head with it. (have you ever seen kids wash their hair? At least my younger ones- they put shampoo on one section of their head and move the shampoo back and forth- maybe an inch or two then rinse it off. This is after years of me teaching them how to wash their hair correctly.) Then, back to sewing. Tanner was patiently waiting for his pants. Then Chase could not find any pants. I found them in Alex's closet. Then back to sewing- really this was a 3 minute sewing thing but I kept getting interrupted. Alex asked if I had time to tie his tie yet. I said no. Then Chase couldn't find a shirt. I asked Alex to give him one of his. They are really close to the same size on everything. Then Chase could not find socks. Then Chase needed a belt because his pants were too big. So I guess those were not Chase's pants after all. Where all of Chase's church clothes are is a mystery to me that I will try to solve before Sunday this week. Finally I got the sewing done for Tanner and solved Chase's issues and realized that we needed to leave right then. I hurried and brushed my teeth and Tanner came up and told me that his church shoes were at school. Alex is hanging out waiting for me to tie his tie. It is now 5 minutes before church starts. I have lots of boys so I usually have to next size church shoe somewhere in my house- he will just have to have too big shoes for today. We went looking for the size 9. But I could not immediately find them in the hand-me down organization that I have. They have to be somewhere but I did not have time to look. So I found a pair of black and dark grey checkerboard Vans that fit onto Tanner's feet. That will have to do for one day. I quickly tied Alex's tie and ran out the door to church. On the way in to the church in the natural light of the sun- I saw that Chase's suit coat did not match his pants. But who was going to notice or care? I left it. We got there at 12:59. Made it! Good thing Andre was there to save us a seat. As Tanner was passing the sacrament in his lame shoes and his pants that are the next size up- I realize that even though they say size 14, they were just as short as the 12's last week. Floods again.
On the way to church selfies...
After church the boys played dungeons and dragons and we had dinner. After dinner Jaxon turned on an annoying song while the kids were doing their after dinner jobs. (It is actually a song about songs annoying people). Even though we turned it off immediately, it was in all of the kid's heads- so they kept singing it. So Andre turned on a song from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. So after the jobs were over, some of the kids wanted to watch it. So I threw together a treat to bake and we watched the Joseph movie. I forgot an ingredient or two on the cake... but it still turned out. Typical me. Younger kids went to bed and Jaxon, Tanner, Andre and I played scrabble. Busy but fun weekend.
2 comments:
So I have to clarify something about the broken ladder story. Chase and I were on the ladder and fell because it broke while we were standing on it. We didn't just fall and then the ladder broke on the garage door as Janelle recounted the story.
Andre
It is amazing that you can keep up with everything in your life!! I love reading the blogs it is fun to read all the little daily things.
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