California, Camp Out, Playing Piano, Thanksgiving, Engineering Day, Cross Country, Zoo, SNOW, Ophthalmology, Morning With Mom

I have been having some issues with Blogger lately, so I am really far behind.  Here's a few of the events that have happened the past 3 weeks.

Matthew's piano teacher came out to talk to me after his lesson and told me he was getting close to being able to play a piano piece for church.  That meant I had to see what weeks our ward had open so he could play.  Unfortunately, the week of his friend Ashlyn's missionary farewell was already booked up.  He got the week after, but still wanted to play so Ashlyn could hear it. Ashlyn was leaving before his time to play in sacrament meeting so  Aaron took Matthew over to Ashlyn's house to play the piano piece for her.  She has been such a good friend to Matthew!!  We are excited she is going on a mission, but we and especially Matthew will miss her.  

As always she jumped right in to help Matthew with his papers while he was playing.  She has always been such a great friend to Matthew.  She is now in Brazil and I am sure she will be a fantastic missionary!!  Here's Matthew playing his piano piece for Ashlyn and her family:

Matthew played his piece in sacrament meeting yesterday and it was beautiful.  He played 'My Shepherd Will Supply My Need' from the September 2015 Ensign.  He was so excited.  We had to sit in the back (it was a missionary farewell and we had a ton of extra people so the only open seats were in the back) and when it was his turn to play he ran and jumped excitedly yelling all the way up the aisle to the piano.  However, when he sat down to play he was very appropriate in his playing.  It was very peaceful, slow and methodical with feeling.  He did a great job.  However, when it was over he ran yelling and jumping all the way back to our seat.  Sigh....what a crazy kid!  We were glad he was able to play, though.  He had invited a few people along his walking path by the junior high school as well as some friends and they were awesome enough to come support him.  We were so grateful for the extra support!  Matthew was so excited it was hard to calm him down before and afterward--haha!

A couple weeks ago was Thanksgiving.  We hosted everyone at our house again this year.  Aaron smoked the turkey(s) on his smoker and they were delicious.  G&G T, Bryan T and his family, Johanna W and her family as well as my nephew from BYU came over.  All in all we had 20 people over to share linner--we ate a late lunch early dinner.  It was delicious.  I, unfortunately, forgot to take any pictures, though--DOH!!  Anyway, after visiting with everyone for awhile we cleaned up and then went out for some Black Friday shopping.  We picked up a few more things Friday morning and came home to Matthew sleeping on the couch.  Thanksgiving and walking Sophie multiple times must have worn him out--haha!

Sophie was worn out, too:

Matthew is still enjoying his school.  His favorite days are the ones spent out in the community.  Today I got this picture from one of his para educators.  They are learning how to order lunch from a menu and stay within their allotted budget.

Josh had a 'Friendsgiving' potluck with a bunch of his friends a couple weeks ago.  It was a great evening, however, Josh ended up getting a wicked case of food poisoning from it.  The night after his 'Friendsgiving' he was up all night long in the bathroom not able to be far away from the toilet and trash can at the same time if you know what I mean.  Poor guy.  Luckily, it was food poisoning because the rest of us didn't get sick--thank goodness!! I did keep sanitizing everything just in case.

Josh also had his end of season Cross Country banquet.  They had a short program and taco/burrito bar.  It was a fun dinner.  Josh did get an Academic Achievement award, too since he kept his grades up during the season by maintaining a 3.745 GPA:

Here's the team picture:

A few Saturdays ago the U of U had an Engineering Day for high school students.  Josh signed up a week before and was able to attend some classes to learn about different engineering fields.  I went with him to check everything out.  At the beginning after checking in they had different informational booths you could visit to learn more about the different engineering fields of study.  Josh isn't too keen on the Electrical Engineering field, but he did visit the booth so I took the picture for Aaron since he is an electrical engineer.

Josh went the Nuclear Engineering class and got to visit the nuclear reactor on base.  He also went to the Computer Engineering class as well as Biomedical Engineering.  Here was his schedule:

Josh still doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up, but at least he knows he has options even if it doesn't include engineering.  While Josh attended the classes they had different classes for the parents to attend as well.  At the end of the day they gave out pizza and then sent us on our way.

Josh also got recognized in his English class by his teacher for 'Leadership and Enthusiasm for Learning':

He got a free Costa Vida coupon--wahoo and congrats Josh!!

He also brought home his National Honor Society shirt last week, too.  School is going great for Josh, however, he seems to be a procrastinator so by the end of the term is a bit crazy.  Anyway, so far so good, right?!

The day before Thanksgiving was a free day at the zoo.  I took the kids and we had fun seeing the animals a bit more active than they were in the summer.  Also the price was right--FREE!!  We got to see the lions pretty close up:

The iconic lion fountain:

The ape house:

Measuring up to the apes:

The sea lions:

The magpies eating the polar bear's food:

The tiger:

The Sand Cats:

Armadillos:

We got to see a python eating a bunny. We got there right after it was fed and it was interesting.  It was gross, but we couldn't look away, either:

The fox:

It snowed on a off while we were there.  By the time we left it was starting to snow pretty hard.  It was also pretty cold, too!

The kids came home and played in the backyard snow for a bit.  Here's Noah and Daniel:

Sarah and Noah got to have a sleepover with their cousin Bree at G&G T's house.  They made these cool candy dispensers and painted them, too.  Here's Sarah and Noah's candy dispensers:

Josh had his ophthalmology appointment last week.  Thankfully, his eyes are looking well enough he can maybe start contacts again.  However, he won't be able to wear extended wear lenses anymore.  If he can tolerate anything it would only be the daily wear lenses which are quite spendy.  DOH!!  However, we are waiting until January because our flex spending restarts and we will also have some extra coverage on eye stuff as well.  Josh wasn't too happy to wait the extra time, but he understands. He needs a new eye prescription anyway so we will get everything done early in January.  Josh is really looking forward to getting back into contacts.  He is not a big fan of eye glasses.  However, the doctor did warn Josh that he may not tolerate contacts still so just play things by ear.  I guess time will tell, luckily we won't have to worry about things for another month... Here's Josh getting his eyes looked at:

It was morning with Moms at the elementary school last week.  I was glad I was able to go with my cute munchkins that morning.  We grabbed a donut and played a round of Sorry.  It made me sad that this was my last one with Sarah.  Good thing I still have a few left with Noah!!

Josh was gone over the weekend.  He went with the Cross Country Team to the Footlocker race in California.  The team left Thursday night after a mandatory parent meeting.  Here's Josh excited to go to California.  This will be his 3rd year going to this race.

They had to try and sleep on the over night Thursday/Friday bus ride.  Josh tried to sleep in the aisle way, but still didn't sleep very well:

The next morning they stopped and had breakfast at Denny's:

While Josh was in California he tried to get his name on the Wall of Fame by eating the XXXL burger at Fatburger.  

Amazingly enough he couldn't finish it.

 That surprised me because he seems to be the bottomless pit at home.  He is going to try and finish it next year.  I guess it is always good to have goals, right?!  Haha!

It rained a lot of the time they were at the Footlocker race.

 They still enjoyed themselves, though.

Josh got back late Sunday afternoon.

The funny thing was that Matthew's Special Needs Young Men also went on an overnight camp out that weekend, too.  Matthew was so excited.  He packed everything and left at 5 pm Friday night.  He got home Saturday afternoon about 11 am.  He had lots of fun.  I am grateful to the awesome leaders that were willing to do such an activity.  That was awesome!!  Here's Matthew getting his stuff unloaded when they got home from the campout:

It was weird that we were down to only three kids Friday night.  Josh was in California and Matthew was on his campout.  To celebrate we let the kids pick out a Chinese entree and ordered.  We brought the entrees home and let the kids try and eat with chopsticks.  It was a fun evening.  The kids decided they like Chinese food.

Two weeks ago Sarah had a Temple Preview meeting.  It's where all the new soon to be young women and soon to be young men aged kids got to learn about the temple and attending YW/YM program.  I can't believe Sarah will be that old!!  It is crazy, but I am looking forward to working with her in YW!!

Daniel, Sarah and Noah all got a hold of my camera and started taking crazy pictures.  Here's a few of the bazillion pictures they took and 'edited':

Family Pictures, Diva Dog, Bob Ross Turkey, Energizer Award, Lunch, Play, Smoking Class, Rodeo, BYU Football Game, Sadie Hawkins Pictures

Two weeks have come and gone again.  Things have gotten back into a routine, but it still is a bit crazy.  The other morning as the kids were getting ready to leave for school Noah all of a sudden remembers that he has a turkey project that is due THAT DAY.  DOH!!  In 10 minutes we threw this 'Bob Ross' turkey together with help from Sarah, Noah and me.  They are supposed to come up with a turkey costume so the turkey won't get recognized and cooked for Thanksgiving dinner.  Personally I don't think it turned out half bad with only about 10 minutes worth of work--wahoo!!

 Josh had his end of season party for Black Island Farm's Haunted corn maze.  They let all of the seasonal employees come and play on the courtyard slides and activities.  They also handed out awards.  Josh got the 'Energizer Batter Award' since he was really into his character no matter what.

 He even got a gold skeleton trophy holding an energizer battery with a picture of the energizer bunny.  He had a fun season.

 Sophie is turning into a diva dog.  We have never had a problem with her eating whatever type of dog food I have bought.  However, she must have really liked this food I bought last time because I bought a different kind when that ran out and she refuses to eat the new kind of dog food.  She even went two days without eating since she didn't like the new food I bought her.  The new food I bought she has eaten that brand before, but refuses to eat it now.  I finally had to buy the old food to get her to eat again.  I thought I would outsmart her and try and mix the two foods together since I didn't want to waste the brand new Costco sized bag of food I bought.  However, she outsmarted me because she picks through the mixed food and eats the kind she likes and leaves the kind of food she doesn't scattered all around the floor.  Dang dog!!  What a diva!!  Good thing she is cute, otherwise I would be even more frustrated with her!

 Matthew had really been enjoying learning how to use the public transit system at his new school.  Occasionally they take Frontrunner down to the City Creek Mall for lunch.  Matthew took some of his own money last week so he could try out a new place for lunch.  He ended up eating a Philly cheese steak sandwich which he liked.  That surprised me because we have tried those before and he was not a fan.  I am glad he is trying and learning new things.  His para sent this picture to me so I could see he was enjoying his sandwich.

Since Matthew is now 18 there are a few things we have been working on to get him set up for adult life.  One of those things is setting up Social Security for him.  It has been a big pain in the but and that is putting is mildly.  There are multiple forms you have to fill out.  If you have any questions it is at least an hour waiting on hold to speak to someone.  Then when you speak to someone on the phone they tell you the wrong things and then it complicates things immensely.  Ugh!!  We made an appointment at the social security office three weeks ago.  We checked in and waited in the waiting room for about 45 minutes before we were helped.  We said we had an appointment, but since we had waited so long it got cancelled--DOH!!  The guy at the window tried to help us, but what we needed was beyond what he could do in that amount of time so we had to make another appointment which was last Friday.  Each time we have had to check Matthew out of school which is not ideal to come along with us.  He does not do very well with long waits around lots of people, but luckily, this last visit wasn't too bad.  We waited for about 20 minutes until we were called back.  We then had a 60 minute meeting to gather information and to fill out even more forms.  We now have to fax a form in to our representative, but after that we only have to wait another 3-5 MONTHS until we get an answer to Matthew's application.  This has been a frustrating process, but hopefully, the worst of it is behind us!!  Keeping my fingers crossed things will work out.  Once we tackle social security we will turn our full attention to gaining guardianship which is turning out to be quite another process, too.  I am truly earning all my gray hair!!

Last Sunday was our ward's primary program.  I always love those sacrament meeting days.  Sarah and Noah both got speaking parts which was awesome.  Our primary is so big that not everyone got a speaking part so it was nice to hear from both of them.  This was Sarah's last program since she will be aging out of primary.  I am happy and sad about that.  Sad that she is growing up, but happy that she will be coming in to young women with me.  At least Noah will be in primary for a few more years, though!  We were glad G&G T were able to come see them, too.

Grandpa Terry has been having a hard time lately.  He fell a few weeks ago and broke his shoulder.  Unfortunately it wasn't healing as well as it should have so he had to have partial shoulder joint replacement surgery this week.  He is doing well post op other than it being quite painful.  Hopefully, it will recover quickly and he will be back to himself soon--poor guy!

Last Monday Aaron had the day off from work since it was Veteran's Day.  We spent the morning registering Josh for his senior year classes--eek!!  I keep asking myself how he can be that old!!  Anyway, he is going to have a bit of a tough year his senior year class wise, but I think he will be okay.  After that Aaron and I ran a few errands and grabbed lunch together.  Then we got to see Sarah in her class play that afternoon.  The play was about Sleepy Hollow and the Headless Horseman.  The funny thing is, is this is the exact play Aaron was in when he was in elementary school way back when.  He even remembered his lines--he only had two, but he still remembered them--haha!  Sarah did great.  Here she is in one of her scenes:

 Bowing at the end of the play:

 Here's the class:

 They all did great.

Sarah visited the orthodontist this past week.  Her bottom retainer wasn't fitting anymore so she went in to get it checked out.  Come to find out she has outgrown it and won't need to wear it again.  She did lose another baby tooth this week.  She only has one more baby tooth left.  Once that falls out she can start the second phase of her orthodontia.  She isn't looking forward to another round of braces, but the end result is truly worth it!!

I worked my last two flu clinics this past week.  I have started up my CNA instructing, though so between doing regular staff immunization clinics and CNA instructing things are still busy for me.  I am not complaining since I do like getting the pay checks--haha!

Last Saturday Aaron had a chance to attend a smoking/BBQ class taught by Susie Bulloch (and her husband) who has been on a few of the Food Network TV shows.  She also has a website called 'Hey Grill, Hey' which Aaron follows for smoking recipes.  Anyway, as soon as a chance came up to attend a class taught by her up in Layton he jumped at it.  He and a friend attended a 3 hour class that taught about different Thanksgiving recipes.  Aaron really enjoyed it.  He even did a trial turkey run for our Sunday dinner yesterday and it was tasty.  Here is Aaron and his non-romantic lady crush--haha!

 The Thanksgiving food they got to sample at the class:

Aaron really enjoyed the class and hopes there will be more.

I saw this the other day and figured there was no paternity test needed here--haha:

 At one of my clinics this past week they were handing out free rodeo tickets.  I was able to pick some up for my family.  We went to the Friday night rodeo at the Golden Spike Arena in Ogden.  It was fun.  Josh couldn't go with us since he had to work, but the rest of us had a good time.

 We got some pretty good seats, too.  Not to shabby for free!!

 We got home from the rodeo about the same time Josh got off work.  While at work he got some Oreo eggs and brought some home for us to try.

 They were pretty good.  Matthew did like them even though his face doesn't show it in the picture--haha!

 This past week Daniel had a young men activity where they learned how to tie fishing lures.  Daniel got to tie one to keep, too.  He was pretty good at it since he has practiced with Grandpa T a few times before this.

 We attended that last home BYU football game Saturday.  We got there early and did some tailgating.  We then went inside and watched the players come out of the locker room and on to the field.  Matthew got pretty excited when they started coming out:

 Britton Hogan, a player who is the back up long snapper, came out and saw Matthew's excitement.  He gave Matthew his gloves as he passed by him.  Matthew was pretty excited.

 Kalani Sitake came by and was giving high fives.

 As he passed Matthew he gave him a big bear hug.

 That was pretty awesome!

 Here's the view from our seats:

 It was the perfect weather for a game!  Josh had to work and Daniel had a friend birthday party he went to instead so there were only 5 of us at the game.  Here we are:

 Here's the gloves Matthew got:

It was a great game and we were glad we went.

Josh got his Sadie Hawkins dance pictures back and they look pretty cool.  There's all kinds of pictures between group shots, and couple shots.  Josh really did have fun at the The Great Gatsby themed girls' choice dance.

Last Saturday we finally got around to getting our family pictures done.  It has been almost two years since we have gotten them done so it was time.  As much as I HATE getting family pictures done it is nice to see them.

The kids:

Me and the boys:

Me and Sarah:

Noah:

 Sarah:

 Daniel:

 Josh:

 Matthew:

 Family:

Aaron and me:

 Aaron and the boys:

 Aaron and Sarah:

Back in the spring Sarah went with a friend and her mom (who was our family photographer) out to do some dance pictures on the Salt Flats.  They turned out pretty amazing: