Baseball and Temple Activity

Last week we had quite a bit of wind and even though Curtis weighed down the posts with heavy bricks, our canopy that we had out over the weekend ended up blown over to the fence and flag pole by the middle of the week. It bent up some of the legs and busted some. Needless to say, we'll need to get a new one. Never underestimate the wind we have here.

On Friday the wind calmed down and it was a great evening to go to our first minor league baseball game in Pasco to cheer on the Tri-City Dust Devils. It was a school night, so we got a small discount on our tickets and a portion goes to the school. The boys didn't want to go or had other plans, so it was just us and the girls. We had a lot of fun and our team won 4-3! Go Dust Devils!

Dust Devil mascot.

Having some Dippin Dots ice cream.

We could see the temple. This is a zoomed in shot.

Zoomed out shot of the temple. It's amazing how it just stands out.

On Saturday there was a stake activity for activity day boys and girls at the temple and stake center right next to it. I went with my girls to help out. They had a few stations they rotated through. One station was building temples out of sugar cubes. Another station, they went inside to the church building and talked about pioneers and how they had to keep changing how much stuff they could bring with them when traveling to the Salt Lake Valley. The third station was talking about the temple and then taking a walk around the temple. The kids had scavenger lists to find certain objects while walking around the temple, like the sun, moon, stars, white clothing (there happened to be a wedding at the same time). It was the first time any of us had walked around the entire temple and seeing the grounds. After the stations were done, we all met under some canopies and listened to the stake president. It was difficult to hear him though. Then they handed out a treat and temple magnet to each of the kids. I wanted to get pictures of my girls at the temple, so we went back over after the activity was finished and got lots of pictures.  The girls loved being at the temple and especially the water fountain.

Charlotte made a temple and a church to go next to it.

The front of the temple.

By the front doors.

At the water fountain on the right side (North side) of the temple.

A photographer took our picture for us. She was taking photos of a bride and groom.

Standing in front of a pretty window.

This is the back of the temple.

Again, another person offered to take our picture.

Back to the fountain.

Being at the temple was a great way to start the day. Curtis and I made plans to go to dinner with another couple in our ward, Jennifer and Drew Horne. Then we had them bring their girls over to swim while the adults played Skyjo. They have a 13, 10 and 5 year old. Charlotte and their 10 year old, Ivy, swam the longest even though it was kind of cold and windy. They are both fish! It was fun and they are another couple that we like and can talk with easily. They too have an old house built in the 70's and we can relate with them on some of the projects we have done, because they have done some of the same things. It's also fun to talk with them because they're from Texas and they talk like it (ya'll). 

We got some inflatables out for the pool and Milo laid right down on one.

Mother's Day Weekend

We started Mother's Day weekend off by going to the temple on a double date Friday evening with Paul and Kim Prescott, a couple from our ward. It was really good that we invited them because they hadn't been to the temple in about 1 1/2 years and they've only been to the temple a few times ever. They are a really nice couple. She was just called to be the new primary president in our ward. Paul is in the priest quorum with Curtis as leaders. We ate at Red Robin before we went to the 7:00 session.

The very next morning the boys, Curtis and I all went to the temple to do baptisms. It was busy that morning, so we were only able to get 10 male and 5 female names done this time, but it felt good to be there. Unfortunately, Garrett got too anxious about other people watching and didn't want to baptize Curtis to be able to get 5 more done, but at least Garrett got baptized. He'll get there. We just need to boost his confidence. I finally got a picture of us afterwards this time. I saw someone near the temple and decided to ask her to take our picture. It was hard because the sun was in our faces, but hey we got pictures! Afterwards, we got donuts to share with the girls.

This is on the South side of the temple. Next time maybe we'll try for the North side so the sun won't be in our faces.

Saturday was the day I had the boys take a load to the dump. While they did that, the girls and I cleaned up the front yard and road from the mess of pine cones. I think we had 3 buckets full of pine cones total. The wind sure blew out a lot.

Then all of the kids invited friends over to come swim. ShaRae came with her two girls. After I quickly finished spraying weeds in the front yard, I changed into my swimsuit to join them. The temperature that day was into the low 90's but the pool was still a bit chilly. It was around 68 degrees. It wasn't too bad after you got used to it. I know it will warm up later on though like it did last year. I remember when it was actually almost too warm to swim in because it just didn't feel refreshing in the heat.

After all the friends left and I got showered and dressed, the girls and I went to the store. I needed to get stuff for activity days and the girls wanted to buy birthday presents for a couple of their friends. Curtis drove over to Richland. He needed to do some shopping but he also picked up Jack, who had gone to watch a play/musical at the church. His friends were helping with it and their sister was in it. He now says he wants to be a part of the show somehow. I love that he's getting interested in things!

Sunday morning after I showered and got dressed, I came out to a bunch of surprises on the table and Curtis was cooking eggs and toast. I had told him I wasn't very hungry because I ate too much the last couple days, otherwise there would have been more. The girls made me lots of different things for Mother's Day and Curtis bought me some flowers, a card, and a hat for yard work. I had borrowed his the day before, so I guess he figured I needed my own, ha ha. 

We went to church and the primary sang a special song plus a youth speaker and and adult speaker. Afterwards, they had the women stand up until they had received their gift for Mother's Day, which was a chocolate candy bar and a packet of flower seeds. Then in Relief Society they gave us another piece of chocolate. I was exhausted that day from all we did the previous day and had a hard time focusing on the lesson but it was good. We also had some changes to our ward primary presidency and because of that some changes to the Relief Society presidency. It's always exciting when changes happen. Sister McShane was moved from the Relief Society presidency to the Primary presidency.

Immediately after church I laid down to take a nap. For dinner that day I decided I wanted hamburgers but I also said that the boys should help cook dinner. I was too tired and it's Mother's Day, so I didn't want to cook. Before that though, I had said that I have been wanting coffee cake for over a month now and it hasn't happened, so Curtis and Charlotte made some together. That was our dessert after dinner. After dinner I played some games with the kids and Curtis, except Garrett. We played Trouble, Guess Who, SkipBo and Uno. Nikki also sent me a really nice text that morning. It was a pretty good Mother's Day.

Poems and cards made at school and at home plus the stuff Curtis bought.

The flowers we made at activity days and another paper flower that I think Alice had made. I can't remember.

Charlotte made this in her class at church. Well, the poem was already printed on the paper. I loved the poem!

The primary made these printouts of the kids as bookmarks for a gift. I love this so much! The seeds were a gift to the women in the ward from the youth and bishopric, along with chocolate (which I had already eaten).

I loaded up all of my Mother's Day gifts, except the chocolate I already ate and had Charlotte take a picture.

Before the kids went to bed I wanted a picture with them. Milo and Sage joined the picture also. We didn't know where Coco was.

I had talked to Colby and Cindy on Friday to see if they could help me get a gift to my mom for Mother's Day. She hadn't seen the movie "Wonka" yet and because I really liked that movie and thought she would also, I had Colby buy her the dvd and some chocolates to go with it. It seemed fitting to have some chocolates to go with a movie about chocolate. She likes them! He sent me a picture. 

My mom!

This and That

Charlotte recently learned from her friend Jane at church how to make an origami boat/sailor hat. She was so excited about it that she and Alice made several. Then they worked together to make a really BIG one by taping regular paper together 5 x 5 and then carefully folding. They were pretty proud of themselves. I've never seen one that big!

I got busy last week on doing yard work again. It's hard to get to everything that needs attention around here, with so much going on. This time I worked on the back corner of our yard. The vines that I pulled out of the trees a couple months ago were just piled up in the corner and I decided it was time to get rid of them. I dragged them over behind the gate where the truck is parked. Then since the ground was moist and good for pulling weeds, I went to town pulling weeds out in that corner. Part of my motivation for doing this was because we want to put a shed back there. The weeds came out pretty easily. There were just a lot of them in that corner. My arms were very sore and tired that night. 

This area was mostly covered in weeds. I didn't get a before shot but you can see that bucket is full. I think that was the 2nd bucket full. The first got dumped into the big trash can already.

There were a few along the fence behind where Milo is. This is after I pulled them out.

I didn't get every single weed but just about. It's definitely rewarding to see how much better it looks afterwards.

I also decided it was time to trim this tree near the pool. Last year I had to keep ducking around it when cleaning the pool. That won't be a problem now.

This was a bush I trimmed way down earlier this spring. I was worried about how it would do but it is filling in nicely and I love how it looks now.

I'm never going to be able to keep up with all the yard work that has to be done but we're making progress a little at a time. And it feels good when we do. Last Saturday I had the boys load up all those branches and vines and bags of leaves, grass, etc. and haul them off to the dump. We had a truckload full.

I am pretty excited to see my orchid that I got for Valentines with some new buds on it! It looks like one of them will bloom any day now. I had no idea that it could keep growing. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it after all the original petals fell off but now I can't wait to see the new blossoms. 

We recently tried quiche since we hadn't had it in a long time. It got eaten pretty quickly so I thought everyone liked them. Since I had leftover ham, I went to the store and bought two more pie shells to make more. Well, I learned that most of the kids didn't actually like the quiche, so I held off from baking another one. But since we did have the pie crust already and we also had a can of pumpkin in the pantry, I decided to have Charlotte do some baking after school one day because she loves pumpkin pie. I forgot to get an after picture, but she enjoyed making it. She even asked if she could have the first slice since she was the one that made it (with mom's help). Of course I let her have the first slice! Pumpkin pie is good any time of the year!

Mixing up the pie filling.

On Tuesday this week I went to a Relief Society activity that was from 10:30-12:00 called Time Out Tuesday. It was Cinco de Mayo themed, and they had a salsa and guacamole competition. We also played Family Feud with Cinco de Mayo questions. I decided to enter the guacamole contest because I already found a good recipe I liked a while ago. I was a judge in the contest but did not even take my own because we were not allowed to vote for our own. There were 4 very different salsas and then 5 guacamole entries. I tied for 1st place with Bonnie Smith on the guacamole. She let me have the prize because she had already won a prize earlier for something else. The prize was two bowls used for salsa and guacamole. How appropriate!

They had mini sombreros at the party, so I brought some home for the girls. They put one on Milo too. He did not like it!

My prize!

Two nights ago, Charlotte decided she wanted to try a new hairstyle and I let her practice on me. It was putting a regular ponytail in and then splitting it several times. Alice liked it so she wanted me to do it on her the next morning. I made the suggestion to just split it into two and then braid it. She liked that idea. 

Charlotte braided the one on the left while I did the one on the right since we were short on time. It looked pretty cute. She added her big pink bow before going to school.

I braid a small section in the front and pull it around to the front to help keep these hairs from falling out of the ponytail.

We also had another activity day this last Monday and I was still in charge since Sister Gale is still out of town. She'll be back either Sunday or Monday. She's been gone a long time. It will be good to have her back and working together! Our theme this week was "Planting Seeds of Faith". It was an idea I found online when looking for ideas. Thank goodness for other people's ideas that help me out! We talked about Alma in the Book of Mormon talking to the poor people about faith and comparing it to a seed. Then they planted their own flower seeds. I had 5 different flowers to choose from and let them each pick two. We labeled their cups with their name and type of flower and then filled it will soil and then they planted the seeds. I sure hope they have success in growing them! I also gave them pudding cups to be their "mud" and Oreos to be the "dirt" and some gummy worms to go in their cups. They really liked that. At the very end we played "Do You Love Your Neighbor?" and they love that game! We hadn't played it since I taught it to them back in February.

I didn't mention anything about Mother's Day in this post because I figured I'll make a separate post for that.  It's been a fun and busy last couple of weeks. Jack also started his driver's education class yesterday and he got his driving permit last Wednesday. I'm not sure I'm ready for this again! We still need to get Garrett his license. Exciting and scary at the same time. 😂

Trip to Nampa

Garrett and I took a quick trip to Nampa last weekend for another orthodontist appointment. We left Thursday right after school. Everyone else stayed at home because of school and tennis. Garrett and I arrived at Grandma Norton's around 8:15pm. He drove the first half and I drove the second. I let Laverne and Dad know that we were at Grandma's, but they had a big day and were too tired to come over that evening. We did have plans for the next day though. Since it happened to be my friend Whitney's birthday, I invited her over to play games with me and Grandma. Garrett wanted to do his video games. We played a few rounds of Golf and then a couple rounds of SkipBo and ate some ice cream as well. It was a fun time! 

The next morning, we got to sleep in a little since Garrett's appointment wasn't until 10:30am. Grandma cooked up some eggs, bacon and toast for us. Garrett woke up starting to not feel very good. He had a headache and a little cough. On the way to his appointment, I dropped off the Bunco bucket to my friend Heather Ballantyne because she's going to start up a new group and I had mentioned to her that somehow, I ended up with the bucket when we were doing it years ago. Garrett's appointment went well. He didn't have any broken brackets this time. However, I guess his lower teeth aren't spreading out like they need to and so they put a new type of wire in the bottom to help with that. It will also help with his bite. He says it may take about 4 more months to finish up. At first, he said the next appointment will be in 5 weeks but then he said lets do 4 weeks if we can. That would put us at May 31st. At first I scheduled it for another day two weeks later because that's what they had available and because the 31st is a ward campout. I had wanted to go to that, but I decided that since Garrett doesn't even want to go camping and I really want to get him done sooner rather than later, that he and I are going to make it work on the 31st. Curtis will take the other kids camping. 

Anyway, after his appointment, we went to Wal-mart to get him some cold and flu pills. He wasn't feeling terrible yet, but I wanted to get a jump start on it and hopefully keep it from getting worse. We stopped by my friend Ashlie's afterwards to give Sydney some clothes that Alice outgrew. They were happy to get them, and it gave Garrett a chance to see Lilly too. They are just a few weeks apart in age. Garrett had a crush on her when we lived there but I don't know if he still does. 

Dad and Laverne came over to mow and dethatch Grandma's yard that morning before we went to the appointment. They used a machine that pulls up all the dead grass as you push it around. They got a lot! I might have to start doing that with our lawn.

Laverne had to hold the cord for the machine. It looked like she was walking a horse on a lead. 😆

After we returned from the appointment and visiting with Ashlie, Garrett went back to playing his videogames and Grandma and I got started on a puzzle. I had invited Whitney to come over again to go out to eat with us and watch a movie (since it was her birthday weekend). She wanted to do a puzzle. Whitney had some errands to run, and Dad and Laverne had to get cleaned up. When everyone finally arrived, including Great Aunt Joyce, everyone piled into my van except for Whitney, who followed in her car since she had her dogs, and we drove to Freddy's to get a burger and fries for lunch. It was a good meal. I had wanted to get custard while there but Grandma and Dad both had ice cream, they needed help eating, so I didn't get any this time. Maybe next time. Thank goodness Laverne took these pictures because I did not get many pictures on this trip.

One with Dad.

And one with Laverne.

We went back to Grandma's afterwards and watched the new movie "Wonka", which we had brought with us. Nobody else had seen it yet but I think they all enjoyed it. It's such a cute movie. I love it! Whitney was the only one working on the puzzle while we watched the movie but after it was over, Grandma, Dad and I all came over to work on it also. We finished in time for me to head over to my sister Tamara's house a little after 7pm. Dad, Laverne and Joyce left before we finished the puzzle because Dad and Laverne had to get to bed early for their early temple shift the next morning.

Our finished 500 piece puzzle. It's fun to do puzzles with other people.

I did get a picture with Whitney before leaving. That's one of her dogs.

We both decided to take our glasses off for this picture.

Garrett stayed at Grandma's while I went to Tamara's on my own. I had some clothes to give the boys and I watched a movie with them. We ended up watching a movie called "Deepwater Horizon" which is based on the true story of an oil drilling station that caught on fire in the Gulf Of Mexico. The real events happened in 2010. The movie was good for telling what happened but it had way too much bad language in it. I probably won't ever watch it again because of that. Eleven people had lost their lives during that incident. It made for a sad ending and didn't leave you feeling very good, so we read scriptures and listened to a couple of Christian songs afterwards. That made us feel better. Tamara also sent me home with some clothes for Alice that she got from her neighbor. 

When I got back, Garrett wasn't feeling good. It had been way too long since his last dose of pills, so I gave him some when I got back. Then we both went to bed. We slept in the next morning and just took our time getting ready and packed. I wasn't in a big hurry to get back home. We finally got on the road around 11:15am. Since Garrett wasn't feeling well, I ended up driving all the way home. He watched the first Narnia movie and I listened to it so that helped me to stay awake. Then I listened to Tangled while he both watched Tangled and played his videogame at the same time. He sat in the back so he could use the TV screens. We made it home around 2:30 I think (Pacific time).  I'm glad we were able to get him into his appointment before he started feeling worse and that we didn't have to cancel. He spent the rest of the weekend resting at home.