Week 38 and 39 - Visiting Connor and a busy week

Week 38 - Kids are back to school and I'm trying to figure out my new gallery wall with new picture ledges from IKEA. Sunday we tried watching our Sacrament meeting from home again. It went slightly better because we were letting the kids color pictures for Connor. His birthday is on the following Wednesday and we decided to finally go visit his grave site. Turns out everyone else was coming too. It was so nice to see everyone in person that even though is was cold we stood around talking for over an hour. Grandma brought hot chocolate and fancy cookies which were really yummy. We miss you Connor and love you but will see you again someday. The kids had a little too much fun playing chase and hide and seek which Quinn didn't appropriate but they were so cute with Audrey. Wish Connor could have been playing with them. I hope he was in some way. 

  

Mia is really enjoying reading and brought her book with her. She stopped playing for a bit and plopped down to read. 

Also this week James got glasses! He is so amazed that they help him see so much better. Love this kids. He just needs them so see far away. So mostly watching T.V. and at church. He could use them at school but I'm not sure I trust him yet.

Week 39 - We had a full week with Robotics Club, Dentist and Eye Doctor appointments, piano lessons, swimming lessons, Archery, band concerts and PTA stuff. I had to run Mia over the school on Thursday to drop off a pair of pajammas for the pajamma drive that arrived just in time. While there we ran into James and his friends Ben and Korbin with the robot they are building. They finished adding arms and were testing it. For competition it has to be able to pick blocks up and stack them. James is also loving Archery. So glad our school has a few after school program now for a really great price. Piano lessons are going about the same. James and Emma still complain and Mia is still happy. She is almost finished with her primer books. 

The kids finished up swimming lessons this week. James and Emma passed off their levels but Mia needs to repeat. Her teacher assured us this was normal. It's a hard level. I do remember the older kids needing to repeat it at least once if not twice. I'm just happy I no longer have to sit in that hot humid noisy room. I like that they are getting exercise and learning/perfecting new skills but man it's hot in there. The kids say it's freezing till they get in the water.

Quinn threw some excitement in our week when he called me about 8:30 Thursday night saying he was headed to the emergency room. He had been doing is weekly class and had a presentation to make that night when he was hit with some intense pain. He was able to make it through the class just barely. He tried to make it to LDS but had to stop at IHC. He told me not to come right away. So the kids and finished up dinner, chores, and writing letters to Seniors through the 4H program in the school district. At 10 I started making plans to go get him. I called Grandma Lavender to come sit with the kids so they could go to bed and Pam offered to drive me down so I could just drive his car home. A CT scan confirmed a 3 mm kidney stone. He was given morphine and sent home with some drugs to take. He spent a few days with pain some so bad the drugs didn't touch it. His brother Kyle came over Sunday night and gave him a beautiful priesthood blessing which helped and allowed him to sleep. Then he had a few days of on and off pain or discomfort and then nothing. We are still kind of waiting to see if anything else with happen. But we really hope it passed.

On Friday Emma had her first band concert. Sadly we were not able to attend but the teacher recorded it and we can watch it later. Wish I had gotten a picture of her but forgot. Afterward I picked her up and her two best friends for some much needed hangout time. They haven't met in person for so long that we felt she deserved after not being able to get together for her birthday.

Saturday we just hung out and put a puzzle together and watched several Christmas movies. Santa also drove by on a small fire truck with a police escort. We also put together our gingerbread houses while Quinn watched the football game. That night we snuggled up to watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas. I love our basement!

Sunday I made sure to get our traditional picture in front of the Christmas tree. It is one of the days I am allowed to touch Emma's hair. We did it a week early just in case someone gets sick this week. 2020 is just the worst and wanted to make sure I got one. We have been very lucky so far and everyone has been healthy. We had church with Grandma and decorated our gingerbread houses too.

This is from Quinn's facebook post:  Grateful to be a dad. It can be frustrating and blood-pressure-raising, but the good things far outweigh the bad things. I don't deserve perfect kids anyway since I'm far from a perfect parent.

Besides the hugs and giggles and snuggles, the thing I like most about being a parent is watching them try new things. I hope so much that they will be better than me at getting outside their comfort zones. This year James played volleyball and Emma is learning the clarinet. Yesterday Mia decided she wanted to help with home church. She planned an activity, which was writing a thank-you note. When she realized that "giving a lesson" meant not just planning an activity but also asking question(s), she wrote a question down, and also the answer, in case we didn't answer her question correctly.

If I had to make a claim on any accomplishment in my life, it would have to be these little souls.