Pitch Perfect, Doctor, Tomatoes UGH, Helpers

The other day out of the blue I got a call from our Credit Union.  Odd.  I answered it and the guy at the Credit Union asked me if I authorized a $900 cash advance on our credit card to someone in Iowa.  I emphatically said, " Ummm, NO!!"  The guy said they didn't approve the charge and contacted me to see if I knew anything about it which I said nope.  Thankfully, they could immediately cancel my credit card and issue me a new one.  I just had to wait 7-10 business days to get it.  That's crazy!  I have no idea how our credit card got breached.  I am glad they found out so soon and could get it taken care of before the $900 cash advance was approved!  I don't even know anyone from Iowa!!  That's crazy!!

Noah found my stethoscope the other day and decided to check me and Aaron out.  I liked that added affect of the Mr. Potato Head glasses, too.  Later on he also was using his toy drill along with the stethoscope to listen to our hearts.  Hmmm he'd make an interesting doctor with such instruments...

Yesterday was an interesting day at church.  We have sacrament meeting first.  Noah was being a little stinker for part of it, but it wasn't bad enough to take him out at the beginning.  However, when the sacrament came around Noah got upset about something and wouldn't stop screaming.  Aaron jumped up and took him out.  We just happened to be in Matthew's sacrament section and Matthew saw Aaron take Noah out.  Before I knew what happened Matthew walked over to the bishop and started chit chatting with him during the sacrament.  Matthew then walked down the aisle and out into the foyer.  During this time the other sacrament passers had lined up and were waiting for Matthew to return from the foyer to finish the sacrament.  We waited and waited and Matthew never came back.  It felt like an eternity, but I am sure it was only about a minute or so.  However, before it got even longer I needed to go and find him.  I had to quickly tell Sarah, Josh and Daniel to sit quietly  on the bench by themselves and to NOT FIGHT so I could go try and round up Matthew to bring him back inside.  I got up and walked quickly out into the foyer to find Matthew talking with Aaron and Noah out in the foyer.  I had to tell Matthew they were all waiting on him to get back with the sacrament tray so they could finish up with the sacrament.  Matthew just told me he wanted to make sure Aaron and Noah got a chance to take the sacrament even though the foyer wasn't in his assigned area.  He takes his job as a sacrament passer very seriously I guess.  However, I don't know how to teach him to not talk to the bishop during the sacrament and to stick to his assigned area no matter what happens.  Oh well no harm no foul, right?!  Having him pass the sacrament gives me stress, but what can you do?! I am glad that our ward just rolls with the punches that Matthew gives them.  Honestly I probably get more stressed out over it than I should, but I am doing my best..... Matthew was also called to be the second counselor in the Deacons Quorum.  We all stayed after church yesterday to see him get set apart.  Matthew's excited to be able to participate in the presidency.

Speaking of Matthew his piano teacher told me about something I had no idea he could do.  He has what is called a pitch perfect talent.  You can blindfold Matthew or have him look away from the keyboard and push any key and he can tell you what note it is without looking.  It can be any key on the whole keyboard black or white and he can tell you which note it is.  I think it is pretty fascinating.  Not many people have that skill and it was neat to see Matthew be able to do that.  I recorded him for a bit when he got home from school today.  It is really neat to watch--at least it is for me.  That kid is chuck full of surprises!!

Surprisingly our garden has been quite successful this year.  Since G&G T were going to move and not be able to give us their extra tomatoes this year, we had to step up our game and make our garden count.  Wow, we haven't had much success in the previous years, but this year we did great!  We have had tomatoes coming out our ears!!  The other evening Aaron had to go to a meeting, but had a few minutes beforehand to check out the garden.  Of course, as soon as Noah saw Dad walk over to the garden he knew he had to go and help.  Noah couldn't find his shoes so he slipped on Daniel's and tripped all the way out to the garden so he could help Aaron pick the tomatoes.

Wow, they came back with all this:

I was glad, but that also meant I had a lot of work ahead of me in taking care of all those tomatoes.  I was able to put them off for about 6 days and try and pretend they all weren't just sitting on my counter, but after the 6 days they were starting to get too ripe.  DOH!!  So much for them disappearing.....

In the six days of trying to pretend the tomatoes didn't exist we did celebrate Grandma T's birthday.  Her cake really says 66 instead of the 99 I first thought when I saw it ;). 

 

Sunday evening we all had a yummy dinner at my brother's house (Bryan and Michonne).  The cousins all had fun playing together while the adults got to visit for a bit.  Grandma T got a nice birthday present because it coincided with the Ogden Temple rededication which meant we got to go to the rededication instead of the regular three hour block church time.  It was nice because everyone 8 and older got a chance to attend.  We only had to leave Sarah and Noah behind this time.  It was a great thing to be a part of.

When I was getting ready to can the tomatoes I had to run to the grocery store to pick up a few more onions since I was running low.  That's when I spotted these fun treats that happen to be one of Aaron's favorites: 

 They used to just be around during Easter, but Aaron's glad they started showing up around Halloween time, too.  However, by the time they made it to Aaron one was mysteriously missing...but it sure was yummy ;).

After getting home from the grocery store I got a dreaded call from school.  I HATE calls from the school!!  However, this one was warranted, though.  Matthew had had an outdoor field trip that morning and by lunchtime his eyes were an itchy, watery almost swollen shut mess.  Dang pollen!!  I have no idea what he's allergic to exactly, but there's something that sure does bother him and Sarah about this time in the fall as well as a few weeks in the spring as you can see:

Boo!! The teacher hinted that she wanted me to check him out and take him home, but Matthew insisted on staying at school.  I brought over some Allegra and Zyrtec and gave them to Matthew.  I guess those did the trick because I didn't get another call from the school that day.  Phew!!

Speaking of school I am keeping myself busy.  Since Noah has preschool twice a week I decided to volunteer in the other kids' classes during that time since I wouldn't have any other kids to worry about.  It is fun to work with Sarah, Josh and Daniel this year.  I am grateful I have the opportunity.

I got home in time to start on the tomatoes.  I had lots of help from Bubba.  He LOVES anything tomato.  After skinning the tomatoes I would grind them up in the blender.  Noah LOVED eating/drinking the ground up tomatoes.  I had to keep his mug filled with tomatoes or else he'd come over and try to poor himself some more.  What a crazy kid!!  He got pretty good at helping me run the blender, though.

This is only a partial shot of all the tomato stuff we go that day:

 I ran out of tomato paste so I did tomato juice with the rest.  This round we got 28 quarts of spaghetti sauce and 15 quarts of juice.  Aaron took pity on me and processed all the bottles for me when he got home from work.  Noah made sure he was out there helping Aaron the whole time:

 Like I said earlier our garden has rocked this year.  The running total so far has been 63 quarts of spaghetti sauce 15 quarts of tomato juice, 30 quarts of salsa and 15 pints of salsa.  Now you can see why I keep telling Aaron to stop checking on the garden--I'm tired of dealing with the tomatoes and having permanently orange stained fingernails!!  Also tomatoes are messy.  Just when I think I have cleaned up the whole mess I see some random tomato squirts somewhere else.  Just like this morning when I saw part of a tomato skin sticking to my ceiling and another on the wall above the cabinets of all places!

Daniel's birthday is coming up this week so we decided to celebrate a little early and go out to the Pizza Pie Cafe for lunch on Saturday.  Daniel was so excited to be able to eat the birthday mini monster for the first time.  The mini monster is a freshly baked chocolate chip cookie topped with vanilla ice cream and whipped cream drizzled with caramel and chocolate syrup.  Daniel was in heaven!

 We invited G&G T to come with us, but Grandma T was sick and couldn't come.  We were glad that Grandpa T could come, though.  We let Daniel open two presents, but he has to wait until his actual birthday for anymore.  Here's Daniel giving Grandpa T loves:

 Here's Daniel showing off his new clothes:

He needed some new ones because the handme downs from Josh and Matthew are usually all worn out by the time they reach Daniel.

Daniel really likes the Superhero comics so he also got the new Captain America movie The Winter Soldier which we watched for movie night Saturday night.  I think Daniel had a fun day.

I am happy to say that this is the last week of soccer!!  Having 4 kids in soccer all at the same time wasn't the best idea.  Aaron and I are having a bit of soccer burnout.  Noah must be having soccer burnout, too because we have to bribe him to go to it anymore.  We would just stop him altogether, but Aaron is the coach for Noah's team so that really wasn't an option.  Since Noah's and Sarah's games are at the same park and are back to back Aaron is in charge of those two while I have Josh at a different park with Daniel and Matthew.  The other day Aaron only brought one water bottle for Sarah and Noah to share.  Boy that was a mistake!  Noah had claimed that bottle as his and his only.  So when Sarah went to take a swig Noah came completely unglued.  He ran over out of his game and tackled Sarah.  They rolled around and fought over the bottle.  Poor Aaron was stuck trying to coach his team and trying to break up Sarah and Noah's fighting.  I guess it was ugly.  I was at Josh's game so I wasn't there to help.  Aaron learned the hard way that he needed to bring two water bottles regardless if they all got finished off or not.  Noah is not known for his sharing ability when it comes to water bottles :).  Here's both of them teasing each other during soccer.  Have we mentioned we are glad this is the last week?!

 Sarah must have gotten a hold of my phone because I found a ton of photos on it just like these:

What a crazy girl.  My thumb is cramping up from all the deleting of these pictures I have to do.

Matthewisms, BYU Game, Field Trip, Canning, Racing, Soccer

Lots of pictures of our comings and goings.  First off lately our life has been full of soccer.  With having 4 kids in soccer all at the same time Aaron and I have to divide and conquer quite a few nights of the week--Monday through Thursday to be exact.  Aaron signed up to be Noah's team coach for this season.  However, Noah just isn't all that interested in soccer.  He can be a little stinker on the field.  Aaron does try to help him whenever he is interested for a few seconds.  Noah did get to throw a ball in with Aaron's help when it went out of bounds during the game:

 This is what Noah is usually doing, though (he's the one laying down on the field during the game):

 He even was laying down on the job when he was goalie and let the other team score two goals.  Oh well what can you do?!  He was goalie another time and got his foot stuck in the net on the outside of the goal and let a few more goals go by him during another game, too.  Good thing he has a patient coach.

Sarah likes to play soccer:

 Josh likes to play, too.  He is easy to spot because he is a head taller than everyone else on the field.  He's going to be a tall kiddo!  He's the one in the bright yellow jersey:

It's weird only having one kid home during the day.  It's so quiet.  Since I only have one at home I decided to take advantage of it.  We went to library story time last week.  We haven't been able to go for a few years because I've either had too many kids to manage or I had to pick up a kindergartner at the same time as story time.  Noah can be a little stinker for me during Sunbeams so I was curious to see how he'd be during story time.  He did great.  By the end I was wondering if I had the real Noah with me or an impostor.

 When everyone got home from school we got started on homework.  After a few minutes I realized it was awfully quiet in the house so I went to see why.  I was surprised to see Noah and Matthew asleep on the couch.

I let them sleep for a bit while everyone finished their homework and then some.  Matthew only cat napped, however, Noah slept for three hours.  I was worried I was going to have problems with him either going to bed or waking up really early in the morning after having such a long nap.  I woke him up for dinner at 6:30 then put him to bed a little after 7.  He slept all the way until 7 am the next morning.  Wow!  He must have been a tired boy!

Last weekend I had a chance to run in the Dirty Dash 10k race at Soldier Hollow with my friend, Erin.  It was so much fun!  It is basically a 6.2 mile long obstacle course with lots of mud!  It was great!  Here's our before picture before we got our 'mud masks' or our faces covered with mud from the obstacles.

 Here's the after race pics:

 We had mud everywhere!!  It was really a very big workout, too.  I could hardly move the next few days afterward because all my muscles were so sore.  Teaching the Sunbeam class the next day at church was interesting.....Anyway after the race they had cold showers you could hose off part of the mud with, but the water was so cold you didn't want to spend very much time hosing off.  Here's the post ice cold pseudo shower pics:

 We went and grabbed lunch after at Dairy Keen in Heber despite being a bit muddy still.  It was a yummy and very fun day despite my sore muscles.  I can't wait to do it again next year!  I do have to mention that when I came home and actually showered in my own shower I was surprised at how much mud, grass and rocks I washed down the drain.  Who knew where all that was hiding?!

Saturday evening I asked Aaron to go out and pick a few tomatoes for dinner.  This is what he came back with from our garden:

 Wowza!!  I only wanted a few tomatoes not two bushels and other various things!!  I really didn't want to process tomatoes that soon, but I didn't have a choice after he picked all that!  I was so not wanting to do that because my body was so sore from the race, too.  Anyway, luckily my Mom volunteered to come over and we made salsa all day Monday.  I was so thankful for the help!  We got a ton of bottles (30 quarts and 32 pints) as you can see:

 I think it is safe to say I will be set for salsa for quite some time!!

Noah is taking his 'showing off his muscles' thing very seriously.   I love his strong muscle face:

 I didn't sleep very well last night (woke up at 3 am and couldn't go back to sleep) so Aaron let me lay down for a power nap this afternoon.  However, this is what I woke up to:

 I am not sure how washable these markers are, but I will find out soon enough.  Hmmmm....maybe Aaron needs to pay attention to this kids activities a little more closely--haha!

The cows behind our house have gotten used to the sound of the mower and come to the fence every time it starts up.  Josh dumps all the grass over the fence and the cows eat it up.  They love it.  It is funny to see them come running:

 Noah had his first preschool field trip this past Thursday to the West Point Fire Station.  I, however, didn't know about this particular field trip instead of class until I went to drop Noah off at school and saw there wasn't anyone there.  That's when I noticed the sign saying there was no class due to the field trip at 10:30 am.  I really should have looked more closely at their preschool calendar!  Doh!!  Anyway, that wasn't good because I was set to volunteer in Daniel's classroom for the first time at 10:40am.  Double DOH!!  Luckily, I was able to get a hold of Aaron at work, which is a miracle in and of itself, and he was able to come home for lunch at that time and take Noah on his field trip so I could go volunteer.  Phew! Crisis averted!  I love that Aaron loves to be a hands on dad, has a flexible schedule and works 15 minutes away from home for such emergencies!!  Here's Noah's preschool class:

 Here's Mr. Cheeser:

 Aaron said that Noah was so well behaved during the whole field trip.  Aaron said he didn't say a word and walked around with his arms folded the whole time.  What?!

 All I could think was Miss Sarah and Teacher Grandma (his preschool teachers) need to come and teach his Sunbeam class for me because Noah is not like that at church!

All the kids got to climb in the fire truck:

 Again who is this kid that's folding his arms?  I don't recognize him--haha!  Let's just say this is so not the Noah who is in my Sunbeam class at church!

 During the summer we came into some free hair cut coupons.  We saved them to get all the boys their back to school hair cuts.  Since I only cut their hair this was a whole new experience for them.  Here's Noah:

 Josh and Matthew:

 They looked pretty sharp afterward.  It was funny to watch them get the professional treatment that they don't get from me at home.

Our garden has been pretty good this year.  It got overrun with a few cantaloupe plants so we were surprised to trip over this huge watermelon that we hadn't even seen when we were walking through the garden:

 Unfortunately, we aren't very good at telling when watermelons are ripe so when we cut into this one it wasn't very pink and had a few brown spots in it.  Later on we found another watermelon about this big, too, but it had the same problem.  Oh well I guess we can always try again with watermelon next year hopefully with a little better result.

Last Thursday Aaron found some cheap BYU football tickets.  He decided to take Sarah, Josh and Daniel with him.  It was a fun night for everyone.  They all got to meet Cosmo:

 The game started at 7:00 pm and went until 10:30pm.  Sarah faded for a bit during the 3rd quarter because she was so tired:

 Aaron didn't mind the Sarahbug snuggles.  Here's the smiley guys during halftime:

 They got down to Provo early and got to participate in the pregame party.  There was a pizza dough throwing station that Josh and Daniel tried their hands at.

 They didn't do too well, but it was fun to try:

 On the way down to the game they stopped off to get a quick burger.  Daniel was able to try his very first cheeseburger ever.  He loved it:

So, in preparation for the Ogden Temple Rededication, Aaron took the boys in to get interviewed by the Bishop so they could attend.  Here's how Matthew's interview went according to Aaron:
Bishop Chapman: Matthew are you honest?
Matthew (looking warily at me): Most of the time.
Bishop Chapman: Matthew, are you mean to your brothers and sister?
Matthew: Only when they deserve it.
Bishop Chapman: Matthew, do you pay your Tithing?
Matthew: I'm not a real big fan of tithing.
Bishop Chapman: Why not?
Matthew: I like to spend my money.

Somehow the Bishop kept a straight face throughout this whole conversation.  Aaron was struggling to contain his laughter.  The Bishop was nice and took a few minutes to teach Matthew about the importance and blessings of tithing.

Speaking of Matthew being outspoken (pun intended), the other day Aaron took Matthew to a Stake Priesthood Meeting.  The meeting was packed and everyone was bunched together on the pews.  The first speaker got up and began his talk.  It was boring.  Matthew spoke up not in a whisper and said, "Dad, I don't like this meeting!"  Finally (after the meeting went overtime about 30 minutes), the Stake President got up to speak.  Matthew again 'whispered' but not really, "Dad, this better be the last speaker!"

Then, the other day in Young Mens, the Bishop was teaching the lesson.  Matthew (ever aware of the Church schedule), informed the Bishop at 4:00 (the time church ends) in front of everyone, "Bishop you need to wrap it up.  You are out of time."  The Bishop responded, "It's not time yet." Matthew replied back in front of everyone again, "Oh, but it is, Bishop.  It is."  The Bishop patiently told him that the meeting is over when the Bishop says it's over.  Matthew seemed satisfied with that answer.  Oh man that kid keeps things interesting!  Just like a few weeks ago when he was passing the sacrament.  They give him the same section every week so he knows what and where he needs to be.  However, he ended passing his section a bit earlier than everyone else and didn't quite know what to do.  So he when over and started talking with the bishop during the sacrament.  Oh man Aaron and I didn't know whether we should get up and get him or let him be.  Luckily the bishop redirected him back to his spot in line to wait for the other deacons to finish passing the bread to their own respective sections.  Gotta love Matthew.  He certainly keeps us on our toes for sure!!

I promise that we try to teach our kids to be respectful.  It just doesn't sink in sometimes.

In speaking of Matthew he had a special needs dance he was able to go to this week.  They got all the special needs kids from the area schools and bussed them all over to one location to have a dance.  Matthew didn't say too much about it, but I sure wish I could have been a fly on the wall there.  Matthew said he danced with a few people, but mostly the teachers.

Ultimate Graduation, Party, Baptism, Bottling, Sick

Daniel had a very exciting graduation happen this past week.  He finally graduated from the Milk Oral Immunotherapy Program.  On his last visit to the allergists office for the OIT treatment Daniel was all smiles.  I am sure his cheeks were tired from smiling, but he just couldn't stop neither could Aaron or me.  He went through all the motions--weight, height, blood pressure, lung function test to dosing without losing his smile at all.

 His last chocolate milk dose at the allergists office before he is officially not allergic to milk any more!!  Wahoo!!

 He chug a lugged the whole cup of milk down without a problem:

 That is one diploma we really need to frame!!  It has been a long 6 months before we could get to this point and an even longer 8 years for Daniel (and our family) with his dairy allergy.  Wow within the last year Daniel has outgrown his allergy to eat eggs and peanuts.  Now with the help of the OIT program he is now not allergic to milk/dairy anymore either.  It has opened up a ton of new foods to Daniel which I am thankful for.  He was a hard one to cook for with all those allergies!!  Here's Dr. Jones sitting by Daniel.  We are grateful for this treatment because it has opened up a whole new world of flavors and foods to Daniel!

 After he drank the milk Daniel was able to taste some Hershey Kisses for the first time which he was excited about.

Right after leaving the doctor's office Daniel made us stop by Macey's grocery store to get ice cream cones.  Daniel LOVED it.  He chose a swirl cone and loved both vanilla and chocolate ice cream.  We promised Daniel as soon as he was over his milk allergy we would take the family out to Pizza Pie Cafe to celebrate with a pizza party.  Daniel made sure we were good on our word so we took the family out Friday afternoon.  Daniel was excited to try everything.  He could eat anything in that whole place except the pesto pizza because that was made of tree nuts.  However, everything else was fair game.  It was funny to watch him try things and decide whether he liked it or not.

 Sunday evening we even had ice cream with the whole family.  Mint chocolate chip was the flavor and everyone loved it.  However, since we have gone without ice cream since Daniel couldn't eat it, Noah hasn't had very much of it in his life.  When he got his bowl and started eating he turned to me and said it was too cold.  He then asked me if I could warm it up in the microwave.  What a silly boy.  We need to get him used to eating ice cream.

We had a pretty low key weekend.  Friday night we went out to the Pizza Pie Cafe.  Saturday morning we attended our friends (the Einzingers) baptism of their little girl Sara.  The kids even sat with their friends and were quiet.  I think it's because I threatened them that if they talked or were noisy at all they wouldn't be able to sit with their friends.  They actually listened to me this time and stayed quiet.  It was great.  It was a really nice program and nice to see the baptism and confirmation.  Afterward we went over to the Einzinger's house for pizza afterward.  It was awesome because Daniel could eat it without a problem.  

That afternoon I got around to canning/bottling all of the tomatoes from our garden.  We got 28 quarts of spaghetti sauce only one didn't seal properly.  The only bad thing is now my house smells permanently of spaghetti sauce and all my fingernails are stained orange.  Oh well at least that first batch is done.  However, another batch of tomatoes are now ripe again.  I think the next round will probably be salsa.  My poor orange fingernails....

We have all been staying busy with all our various activities--Matthew with his after school program, Josh, Daniel, Sarah and Noah with soccer every day, but Friday, Scouts for Josh and Daniel, Young Mens with Matthew, piano, and trying to squeeze in homework somewhere in between all that.  I have even started volunteering in the kids classrooms which is nice to do.  I can finally volunteer now that Noah's in preschool which leaves me a few free minutes a couple times a week.  It's crazy.  I won't be sad to see soccer end in a few weeks--I hope that doesn't make me sound to bad of a mom....Then it will be on to basketball...

Last week Sarah started with a low grade fever the beginning of the week with just general malaise. This started Sunday evening and lasted for a few days.  Her fever never got above 100 degrees so I didn't worry about it too much. She also never complained of anything so I had no idea she felt that crummy until I saw her just laying around with no energy day after day.  After a few days of this she happened to mention to my mom that it burned when she went to the bathroom.  WHAT?!  She said nothing like that to me.  After seeing her lethargic with a low grade fever and hearing it burned when she went potty I set up an appointment for her to see the doctor Wednesday night.  Sure enough she had a fever, a urinary tract infection and a yeast infection on top of it all, too.  Poor thing!  Anyway, we get to do another round of antibiotics and yeast cream (which is not fun to apply by the way).  Because she has had three of these urinary tract infections within the last three months they find that concerning.  The doctor has referred us to see a urologist to rule out any other problems with her kidneys, bladder, ureters, etc.  When I called to make the appointment they wanted to do some imaging before she sees the urologist.  That's sure not going to be fun.  They want to do a VCUG (voiding cystourethrogram) test as well as an ultrasound to rule out any anatomical or urine reflux problems. Here you can read about the VCUG test and you can see how not fun this is going to be for a 6 year old little girl :(.  So the beginning of October we get to make another fun trip down to Primary Children's Hospital :(.   I'm so sick of driving down there!!  However, I do have to say I am grateful we live so close because that place has come in handy with my kids who have strange problems....Anyway, it will be an interesting few weeks to see what happens....