Another Week

January has been a hard month.  We've all had some sort of illness or another... and some of us more than once!  I have felt like death warmed over and hence, nothing has got done around the house.  It's been rough! 

Lennard had his last appointment with the specialist in Calgary for his wrist on Monday.  I was planning on going with him, but I just wasn't feeling well enough to go.  My dad ended up going with him instead and I stayed in bed.  Good news though - he's healed enough that he's done with all the specialist appointments and physio!  Hooray!  It's been a long haul!

Lennard was going to go to our Ward Temple Night on Tuesday night, but, once again, I wrecked our plans.  He ended up taking Emma out for her dance class and missing temple night so that I could stay in bed.  Grrr...

By Wednesday, I was starting to feel a bit better.  We had my parents over for dinner.  Thursday, I was SO ready to get out of the house, that we went to Lethbridge to get groceries.  I got a new food processor too (since I wrecked mine...oops!).  It felt so good to be out!

Friday morning, I helped make smoothies at the school for everyone.  It went really well this time and we were done making about 600 smoothies by 9:30.  The kids got home from school at noon and begged to go down to Lego League and Crafty Critters.  We got there a bit early and had to wait for them to open, but they ended up staying until 3:30 when Lennard picked them up on the way home from work.  We got to babysit Bryan and Spencer that evening while Mindy & Dan took the rest of their boys to do baptisms.  Rachel & Cub were in town and invited us to go out to dinner with them at Ming's, so we loaded everyone up and went!  Bryan wouldn't eat anything and Spencer had about 4 chicken balls and a couple shrimp.  Ha! Ha!  Big eaters!  They didn't charge us for them, so it all worked out.  It was Brooke's birthday too, so it was fun to get to see her and wish her a Happy Birthday.  I was teasing her that she's my birthday buddy (since we're the only ones in the family born in January), but she didn't think that was right.  Ha! Ha!  It was a fun evening.

Saturday, the kids had Champs.  They had to leave ten minutes early so that Ben could go to his friend's (Huntly) baptism.  Then, as soon as they were back from that, we headed down to the theatre to see "Mary Poppins Returns" with the kids.  They loved it and it was so fun to watch their expressions.  Such a fun movie.

We all made it to church today!  Well... we all got there, but then just before Sacrament meeting started, Lennard got called out for a power outage.  So, he left and the rest of us stayed.  He got home just 15 minutes before we did.  We had my parents over this evening for meatloaf (Ben's choice).  We sat and visited for a while and had a pretty relaxed evening.  We didn't end up getting our 'Home-Sunday School' done this afternoon, so we'll do it tomorrow night. 

Hopefully this next week finds us all healthy! 

Haven't taken many pictures this week... I had to laugh at this one though.  The second Lennard has food, Buddy comes running.  He sure wanted some of Lennard's lunch of fried chicken!

Week in Review

It's been a bit of a crazy week.  On top of all the regular activities, Lennard had his LAST physio appointment on Wednesday!  Hooray!  He goes to the specialist in Calgary tomorrow and hopefully that will be 'it' for his wrist.

Ben got sick with the flu on Thursday.  Thankfully we were able to get in to see the doctor as soon as the clinic opened.  He was home from school Thurs/Fri.  The medicine seemed to help and, other than a bit of a cough, he was feeling great by Friday afternoon.  

Champs (basketball) started again yesterday.  Both kids begged to go again, so we signed them up for another 8 weeks.

Emma had some 'hair' issues after getting home from school on Friday, so we spent ALL day Saturday cleaning, washing clothes and bedding and treating her hair.  I think we caught it super early and hopefully we won't have any other issues!

I ended up getting sick again with a weird cough.  I feel okay, not great, but not horrible.  Because of me not feeling well and us wanting to make sure Emma wouldn't 'share' anything at church, she and I stayed home from church.  She ended up watching a few church movies and then when Ben and Lennard got home, they watched a few episodes of Studio C.

We had our 'home Sunday School' this evening and talked about John.  We also had a fun lesson where the kids got to search for pieces of paper with a flashlight and when they found them it told us how Jesus brings light into the world.  It went really well... and I think they learned something...

I came in to Ben's bedroom the other night and found him and Lennard making shadow puppets.  It melted my heart to see Ben's joy!  It's truly the simple things in life!

O Canada

Emma was excited that she (with a group of Grade 3 girls) got to sing 'O Canada' for the assembly today. She really wanted us to be there, so even Lennard popped in for a couple minutes to hear her sing.  They did a good job.  I was all the way in the back, so my camera would only zoom in this much.  It's not the greatest picture, but it's better than nothing.

Date Night

We've had a busy week getting the kids back in school, starting piano lessons again, going out for my birthday, Emma had dance on Tuesday and on Wednesday she had Activity Days and I put on a Relief Society activity. Lennard had a Flying Club Meeting Thursday night and then a couple appointments in Lethbridge today.  Emma also had a birthday party today and Ben has one to go to tomorrow!  Whew!  Then, we got invited to go out with friends tonight! With the amount of trips we've been making in to Lethbridge, we considered saying no and just staying home, but it doesn't happen very often that we get to go out with friends, so we said yes to going out with them. 

We went to Moxie's for dinner first.  The meal was good (once we got it), but a little pricier than I would normally like.  After that we headed across the street to go axe throwing!  I've never tried to throw an axe (and it was very evident...).  I finally managed to get it to stick and didn't do too bad after that.  Lennard was great at it, although by the time we were done, his wrist was hurting a bit.

Another bulls-eye for Lennard!

Nichols', Redford's, Henline's and Anderson's

It was a fun evening out and a good chance to get to know some other couples a bit better.

Happy Birthday

Another year and another birthday.  According to Emma, I'm OLD!  Ha! Ha!  I guess to her I am... and some days I feel older than I would like to be, but it is what it is.  

I had a great day.  The kids were off to school, I got some stuff done around the house and then I went to Shannon's and got to snuggle her new little boy, Luke for a couple hours!  She was feeding him when I got there, so we were able to just sit and visit. It feels like forever since we've done that. Once he was done eating I got to get some good snuggles in.  He is SO adorable!  Shannon's mom and dad are here from Utah, and her mom was so cute.  She even brought us lunch (since we'd gabbed that long!).  I had to call Lennard and say sorry for missing lunch with him!  oops!

Once I got home (just before 1:00), I was able to get dinner made for my parents and the kids since Lennard and I were going in to Lethbridge for the evening.  I got Emma's hair done for dance and got her into her dance clothes and then we headed out.  My parents took her to dance and Ben got to hang out with them.  (THANKS, Mom & Dad!)

We ran a couple errands and then went to the food court for dinner.  We then went to see the movie "Mary Poppins Returns".  I loved it!  There were a few scenes that I didn't think worked, but the overall movie was great.  I loved the music especially.  I loved seeing Dick Van Dyke in it and Angela Lansbury.  So great!

When we got home, the kids were in bed, but they'd left me birthday notes and treats.  So cute! 

Ben's was taped to my bedroom door as I came in and Emma's was on my bed. 

I feel so blessed.  I had so many birthday wishes on Facebook and phone calls and texts from family and friends.  Here's to another year!

Love This

With my parents being 'homeless' right now, we are blessed to have them at our house quite a bit.  We sure love getting to share meals with them, but the best part of the whole situation is seeing my kids getting to play with their grandma and grandpa.  

I had to take a picture of Ben and Grandpa playing 'Go Fish' after dinner today.  I love that Ben had to lay all his cards out on the floor so he could see his matches... and that he had to keep telling Grandpa how to play the game properly.  Ha! Ha!

Two Hour Church

Today was the first Sunday of two-hour church.  What a strange feeling!  Fast and Testimony meeting was a great way to start a new year.  There were a lot of people missing though, so the chapel felt a bit empty.  We didn't get to see many people either because once Sacrament ended, we had to help the kids find their new classrooms and then get to Sunday School.  The rooms were packed.  I took Holly's baby for her so she could do Primary stuff.  Heidi did good for the first half of the lesson and then got tired and fussy, so I took her out.  The class time that I did get was good.  It was weird not to start the class with a prayer though.  It will just take some time to adjust.  Then all of a sudden, church was done!  I felt like I needed to hang out in the hallways to see a few people and say hi since there wasn't another chance!

We had a super relaxed afternoon and just grazed for lunch.  The kids attempted to clean their rooms for a bit, although we heard lots of "Sunday is a day of rest!" "We shouldn't be doing any work!" (from Ben).  He mostly layed on his bed and complained, so I wasn't too worried about him 'working' on Sunday!  We played a few games and I read a bit.  I got dinner going in the Instant Pot and then my parents came over for dinner again.  We had a pork roast. 

Once my parents left, I sat down with the kids and went through Matthew 1 and Luke 1 for our Come, Follow Me scripture assignment this week.  Lennard was on the phone with his sister and Dad for most of it, but we wanted to go through it before bedtime.  They did so good!  I was impressed with their understanding and it made me stretch a bit to find ways to explain things so that they'd understand it.  Things like being 'espoused' and Joseph wanting to put Mary away 'privily' so that she wouldn't be stoned.  The kids were shocked that people would do that!  The kids filled out a sheet with all the different answers and we put it up in the dining room so that we can review it during the week.  It felt like a really good start to the year.  I hope we can keep it up!

After the kids were finally in bed, instead of holing up in our bedroom (which we got in the habit of doing when Emma was struggling with her anxiety), Lennard and I were able to hang out in the living room and chat.  I read for a while.  Then we went to bed together... not one of us staying up later than the other (that happens far too often).  It was the perfect day!

Shopping Spree and The Lost is Found!

Yesterday, when we finally went and checked the mail, we found birthday/Christmas cards for the kids from B&T.  The were SO excited when they opened them and found gift cards to Toys 'R Us!  They wanted to head in to Lethbridge immediately!  Thankfully, Lennard had a physio appointment already scheduled for today, so we were able to give them a specific time that they'd be able to go and that helped.

We had to wait while Lennard was in physio, but then we headed straight over to the store.  They ran in and their senses were immediately overloaded.  So many choices!  Lennard took Ben off to find what he wanted to get and Emma popped from one aisle to another wanting everything she picked up!  Ha! Ha!  She did really well looking at things and deciding if it was something she REALLY wanted though.  I was impressed at how she kept track of where she was at for her totals, etc.  She definitely got lots of FUN things that she's been wanting for a long time.  

Ben got a PS4 game and some new Hot Wheels cars with his Christmas gift cards from B&T

Emma got spoiled with gift cards for her Birthday and Christmas!

Emma got a Barbie bike (that she's been wanting for a year!), a 'mini-Buddy' stuffy, a squishy, a Pomsie and a Fingerling, a couple mystery Num-Noms and then a kit to make Crushkins Pets with orbeez.  Thank you, B&T, for once again spoiling our kids!  We sure love you!

While we were in the store, my parents FaceTimed us and showed us that Buddy had come home!  We were all SO excited!  He'd gone out when Lennard left for work yesterday morning and he never came home.  We were so worried that something had happened to him.  He always comes back, especially for food, but there was no sign of him.  We'd posted things on Facebook and Lennard had gone out driving around looking for him multiple times.  Crazy cat!  We are glad to have him home!