Crazy, Busy Days

This month has been non-stop crazy, busy days!  I have worked LOTS, gone on a speech-language assistant course for the school, had appointments for Emma, done temple sealings, had book club, gone to piano lessons and dance lessons, went to back-to-school night, got kids to birthday parties, Activity Days, and Cubs, chaired a RS committee meeting, helped mom and dad pack up their house and been a mom and a wife 24/7.  It's been exhausting!

Thursday, Shauna, Melissa, Mindy and I all helped mom deep clean the house so they're ready for the house to be handed over on Monday.  They leave on their huge cruise on Sunday.  They've got pretty much everything out now.  The grand piano gets moved to Melissa's (until they have a house to put it in again) on Saturday.

Today was great though.  After the kids went to basketball this morning, I got to watch Roger's kids while they went to the temple.  That means I got to get lots and lots of snuggles with Miss Mia for the very first time!  The boys just played with Emma and Ben the whole time so I got my niece to myself.  What a wonderful way to stop and refresh!

Mia

So Depressing

Another trip to Calgary... and unfortunately... another cast.  Boo!  He was SO determined that he wouldn't have another cast, but even though it's healing and looking good, the doctor wanted another four weeks to make sure it was doing good.

 Can you tell how impressed Lennard is?! 

Note:  I didn't photoshop this cast green!  ha! ha!  He asked for green... although it ended up a lot brighter than what he thought it would be!

They SOLD Their Home!

Wednesday morning I woke up to find this posted on Facebook... to say that we were all in shock would be an understatement!  And yes, there were tears shed.  We all knew that they were trying to sell their house, but to have it actually happen after so many years has been a huge surprise/shock/etc.

They have already started going through stuff and selling what they can.  They don't have a lot of time to do much as they have to be out of their house in two weeks!

I went out Friday afternoon and helped pack and move stuff up to the sea cans on their acreage. Then, today, Shauna, Melissa, Mindy, Roger and I all came and helped pack and clean as much as we could.  We got a good majority of it done.  Emma came out with me and helped too.  She was such a good helper and didn't ever stop!

It was weird packing stuff up, but it was fun sharing memories together as we worked.

New Glasses

We went to Costco tonight and picked up the kids new glasses!  They are pretty excited... especially Emma!  

Lost a Tooth!

Ben just pulled out his own tooth!  Ha! Ha!  It's been super wiggly, but he didn't want anyone to touch it.  He went in his bedroom to get his pajamas on and came out with his tooth!  

"Look, Mom!  I pulled it out!"

Tooth #2

Buddy

I haven't posted about Buddy for a while... so here's a couple pictures of our crazy cat!  He's been so much happier since we've just let him wander outside.  Thankfully he always comes back, although sometimes he has to be bribed with treats!  He definitely lets us know when he wants to go outside!

Talks in Church

We had the unique opportunity for each of us to speak in Sacrament meeting today!  Ben got welcomed as the newest baptized member of our ward and then gave his first talk!  So amazing!  The kids did such a good job.  We are so proud of both of them getting up in front of such a crowd and giving great talks.  Ben only had pictures for his just to clue him in to what to say and Emma had hers written out (although when she talked in Primary two weeks ago, she didn't have any notes and spoke for way longer!).  Lennard and I managed to get through our talks without too many tears.  Our topic was how the Book of Mormon brings people to Christ, which we used and then put a Nauvoo twist to it.  I based my talk mostly on the British Pageant and Lennard used the Nauvoo pageant.  I think they all went over really well.

*I'll insert the talks when I put this into a book!  For now, there are too many direct quotes from the pageant that I'm not going to post it here.

Baptism Day

We had a busy morning getting ready for Ben's baptism!  Since our Stake is doing Stake baptisms now, we managed to get 11:30.  We didn't realize that we had to set up all the chairs in the Priesthood Room, so we scrambled a little bit to get everything ready.  Lennard and Ben got dressed in their whites and we managed to get a few pictures.  We couldn't take any by the font, as another baptism was going on.

 It was a beautiful program.  Grandma Murray gave a talk on baptism using Kit Kat bars.

 I managed to get through my talk on the Holy Ghost, although not without tears.  I feel so blessed to have such a tender hearted little boy.  He truly knows and feels the Spirit.

Dan, Matt, Grandpa, Lennard, Roger, Dave, Mike, Duane French, Bishop Cody Toone and Ben

Ben and Grandma & Grandpa

Congratulations, Ben, on your decision to become a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  May you always remember the covenants you've made today.

I found out after everything was done, that someone had played with the settings on my camera, so all the pictures were blown out and not great.  I am super sad that I didn't get as many pictures as I'd hoped for, but I'm glad for the ones we got.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday, Benny!  Wow!  8-years old!  We've had a busy, fun day today.  I worked at the Elementary School.  Ben got to go to Cubs for the first time after school today and then we had my parents over for a birthday dinner!  He really didn't want to eat... especially when he saw presents, but he managed to wait.

 He got a new watch and a chocolate bar from Grandma & Grandpa Murray.

 Emma gave him a Lego set.

 Mom and Dad gave him Army guys and a laser tag set.

 Grandpa Nichols gave him a bike as an early birthday present so he's been enjoying it for a few months!

 He requested an ice cream cake... so we were happy to oblige!

We sure love you Ben! 

Cub Scouts

Ben was SO excited that he got to go to his first Cub Scout activity ON his birthday!  We were able to come up to see him get invested.  I was given a uniform shirt for him, but it's huge!  ha! ha!  He looks so tiny in it!

He is so excited to have Cubs and George and Karen Toone are amazing leaders!

First Day of School

It's hard to believe school is already starting up again!  The kids are thrilled!  

 Every year we take pictures in their shirts and it will be fun to see their growth by the time they graduate!

 How is it possible that Ben is already starting Grade 2!  He will be in Mr. D. Anderson's class.

 Emma is starting Grade 3 in Miss Sandi Atwood's class.

 Just look at those smiles!

What a busy first day of school!  I am working everyday for the next 2 1/2 weeks at the school, so I had to be up and ready to go this morning too!  Since Lennard is still off work, he was able to walk with us to school.

 I managed to get a fuzzy selfie with Ben!  I do exist!  ha! ha!

We went to the kids classrooms first and got them all settled.  I love seeing Ben's pose.  What a little man!

 Emma was thrilled to see art stuff out right away!  I'm really hoping they both have great years!

The school put on a pancake breakfast for all the parents and students this morning and I had to help out.  I ended up pouring syrup, so I was a sticky mess by the end of it!

After everything got cleaned up, I ended up just wandering and helping out wherever I could.  I was in Grade 1 for most of the day... just in different classrooms.