Preference-posal, Pole Vault, Pilar Cysts, Shredding, Hardware Ranch, Family Get Together, Glasses and Contacts, Lunch, Old Family Pictures

We have been keeping ourselves busy.  Last Thursday was a crazy day.  That evening Noah and I happened to find ourselves alone in the house so we watched some TV together.  It was fun just having him around for an hour.  Matthew was at his Special Needs Mutual, Josh and Daniel were at a City Youth Council meeting, Aaron had taken Sarah to a dance performance so it was just Noah and me left.  I took a picture to document such a rare occasion--haha!

I stayed home that evening from Sarah's dance performance because I had had 5 Pilar cysts removed from my head earlier that day and the 5 incisions/stitches sites were quite tender.   I am lucky enough (read that sarcastically) to be genetically disposed to getting Pilar cysts which are about marble sized lumps in my head.  Every about 4 years I get to have them cut out.  This time they had to remove 5 marble size cysts from five different locations on my scalp.  Aaron went along with me and got a front row view to my own 'Dr. Pimple Popper' experience.  Dr. Pimple Popper is a show that a dermatologist produces about her experiences with different types of skin ailments ranging from pimples to cysts to mole removal etc.  I don't enjoy watching the show, but Aaron and my kids do.  Anyway, I was surprised Aaron wanted to watch because he usually gets woozy about such things, but he didn't mind this time.  He sat behind the doctor's shoulder and watched him cut all the cysts out.  I am glad to have them gone, however, I will be even more excited when I get the stitches out. As I comb my hair, my comb keeps getting caught on the stitches pulling them and that hurts.  Oh well at least now I should be good for another 4 years--keeping my fingers crossed.

Josh was excited to be doorbell ditched last week.  He went to answer the door to find he had been asked to the Preference dance.  Wahoo!

 It says, "Preference with you would be a party! -Annalee"

Josh is pretty excited to go to Preference.  He went to ask for it off from his work, but too many other people had asked for that night off so he didn't get it.  Josh has been getting disenchanted about his job for the past few months so this was the last straw.  He had been at Urban Air for about a year so he was ready to try something new anyway.  Josh ended up turning in his two weeks notice. He has turned in a few applications for another job closer to home so I am keeping my fingers crossed he is able to not have any lagtime between jobs.  This way he won't have any issues with going to Preference.

Speaking of Josh he was patiently waiting for our Flex Spending Account to reset for January to get contacts.  Aaron made the appointment for an optometrist two weeks ago and made one for himself, too.  Poor Aaron can't see the black board or power point presentations at work if he sits in the back.  He did have Lasik surgery 16-17 years ago and just recently his eyes have started to change enough that he needs some correction.  Luckily, his eye test showed he is still safe enough to drive, but would do well with some glasses to correct his near sightedness.  He is not happy about wearing glasses again, but the benefits of seeing should outweigh wearing glasses--at least I would think so--haha!  Josh is waiting for his daily wear contacts to come in.  He can't wear extended wear contacts anymore.  His allergies make his eyes too inflamed since the contacts hold the allergens against the surface of his eye which build up over the month life of the contact.  By the end of the month his eyes are super red and irritated which is not good.  He has to switch to daily wear contacts since they won't trap allergens against his eye for long periods of time because they are changed out daily.  They are more expensive, but I guess Josh is worth it--at least he thinks so--haha!

Also speaking of Josh he has decided to try his hand at pole vaulting.  Let's just say I am glad our Flex Spending Account has reset--haha!  It does make me a bit nervous, but he is enjoying himself so far and has only rolled his ankle once.  It will be interesting to see him compete at the next meet.

Sarah got to go to her first Young Women activities this month.   It is crazy having her be there with me.  She doesn't seem like she should be old enough to be there, but she is and she is enjoying herself.  The first activity was a getting to know you speed friend-shipping game so all the girls could get to know each other better.  Our young women is getting really big.  We have roughly 45 young women aged girls with more moving in soon since they are building houses around us like crazy.  In just my 11-13 year old class (formerly known as the Beehive Class) there are 18 girls.  We had to change classrooms at church because our old room wouldn't fit everyone.  It is fun to have a big class, but it does come with some challenges, though.  It has been good so far so I hope it stays that way.  Anyway, last weeks activity was combined with the young men and we played dodge ball.  It was a bit crazy, but I think everyone had fun.

Yesterday was Martin Luther King Day so we decided to head up to Hardware Ranch to see the elk.  We have gone up there on previous years on this day so we didn't think to check out the hours.  Doh!!  We made the drive up to Logan and then through Blacksmith Fork Canyon to get to Hardware Ranch.   When we got there we were disappointed to see they were closed for the day.  DOH!!  We did admire the elk from afar, though, but didn't stay too long because it was pretty cold.

We decided to cut our losses and take everyone out to lunch in Logan instead.  Everyone wanted to go to Pizza Pie Cafe.  They made sure we got our monies worth--haha!

You can't go up to Logan and not stop by the Gossner's cheese factory.  Aaron picked up some cheese to cold smoke and we also picked up a few cases of flavored shelf stable milk.  It makes Daniel's daily milk dose much easier with the flavored milks.  We then came back home.

When we got home Josh decided he was ready to answer Annalee back for Preference.  He got a bunch of candy, a few whistle blow out paper toys, and some bows.  Here's what the paper noisemaker things looked like:

He wrote his answer on the paper part of the whistles and put everything in the gift back.  Since she asked him saying it would be a party he responded with party favors.  Here he is getting ready to drive it over to her house with Daniel:

Sunday evening we had a family get together to celebrate all the January birthdays.  While we were there Aunt Johanna said she had a bunch of things Matthew could shred.  Oh my goodness Matthew got so excited.  On our way home from Logan yesterday we stopped by and picked up her shred stack.  Matthew spent the rest of the evening shredding it all.  He was pretty proud to show off his 'bags of digested paper' as he refers to it.  What a crazy kid!

He loves shredding so much he made his own shred box and put it in the kitchen.  He reminds me every day it is there so I can add things in it for him to shred.  He LOVES when the mail comes because there is usually something in there he can shred.  What a crazy kid!!  Here's his shred box in the kitchen:

While we were at our family get together Sunday evening to celebrate the January birthdays at G&G T's house my dad brought out some old pictures for us to look through.  There was a picture of G&G T's engagement 50 years ago:

 Then there were some family pictures of us growing up:

 It is interesting to see how styles change through the years and the awkwardness of it all.   You can also see my dad's hair progressively turn gray.

I am in the green dress:

 I am in the purple dress:

I am in the pink dress:

 Gray dress:

 My kids thought it was funny to see my triangle head big hair phase.  I am in the dark blue sweater:

I am in the green sweater:

 I am the one on the right side of the picture:

 Then there were some of my baby pictures as well:

I thought I would add these pictures to our records since my kids haven't ever seen some of these pictures.

catch up part 2: Family Party, Christmas, Jewelry, New Year's Eve Party, Ice Skating, White Elephant, Openhouse, Dance Recital

Catch up part 2: Christmas came fast this year or it just seems like that. As per tradition December 23 Aaron and I ordered a pizza and had a wrap-a-thon where we wrapped all the presents while watching a funny movie.  We locked the door so the kids couldn't peak.  We do this every year and it is awesome.  I HATE wrapping and am terrible at it so I appreciate the help from Aaron.  It is a fun thing to look forward to every year.  Christmas Eve we had G&G T and my sister Johanna and her family over for linner--an early dinner/late lunch.  Aaron smoked some tri tip roast and everyone brought some sides.  It was yummy. We visited for a bit and the cousins played together then everyone went home to be with their families.  My brother Bryan and his family wasn't there because they were flying home from a vacation in Paris.  Anyway, that evening we looked at lights.  We even went up to the Ogden Christmas Village and walked around.  It was so pretty:

We love all the different mini houses decorated by local businesses.

We then came home and put on our matching Christmas pants.  I had previously found a good deal on pants that ended up being cheaper than actually sewing them myself so I bought them.  I should have had everyone try them on to make sure they fit okay, but hind sight is always 20/20.  Everyone's pants fit (or I should say didn't fit) a bit funky.  Aaron got the worst of it, though.  I got the size that should have fit Aaron, but they were so small I don't know if they would have even fit Daniel.  Aaron tried putting them on, but decided the world was not ready to see such a display of awesomely tight pants that left nothing up to the imagination--haha!  I guess you do get what you pay for....Anyway, here's our almost matchy jammy picture:

Santa did come:

Mark, set, go!!

Checking out the loot:

We were glad G&G T came to enjoy the morning with us!

After all the excitement was over, G&G T left to go and visit the other grandkids to see what they got.  When it was time for lunch Aaron and I didn't want to cook so we decided to try something new--we ordered some Chinese take out.  The kids picked everything they wanted and we ordered it. It was fun and tasty.  The kids even attempted eating with chopsticks.  Most of them gave up and used a fork, but Daniel and I ate ours with the chopsticks.  Here's our Chinese lunch:

Sarah got a jewelry making kit which she had fun using.  Here's some of the things she made:

The next day everyone wanted to use their FIIZ gift cards so we made the sacrifice--haha--and went to Fiiz.  They all got a drink and a cookie:

Matthew and Noah got McDonald's gift cards and wanted to get some linner so they did:

We did a few things over the long break.  One day we had a movie a ton where we ordered a pizza and watched movies.  We ran errands, experimented with some cooking, etc.  However, by the end of the break there was so much sassyness and fighting....ugh!  I saw this meme and had to laugh.  I showed it to Aaron and he laughed, too.

We did have the Einzinger's over to celebrate New Year's Eve.  We all lasted until after midnight without anyone falling asleep--even Aaron--haha! Poor guy had to work that morning so he was a bit tired.  Here are the kids celebrating the New Year banging my pots and pans together:

We had all kinds of yummy food and played some games after watching the U of U football game.

Poor Josh had to work so he rang in the New Year at work which he was too happy about, but what can you do?!  Poor us because we had to stay up until 2 am waiting for him to get home from work to make sure he got home okay.  We tried to sleep in on New Years, but my kids really don't know how to sleep in EVER.  It was a fun way to bring in the New Year except the getting up early part--haha!

The next day I took the kids ice skating.  A few weeks before I had gone ice skating with the young women in our ward, came home and told the kids about it.  They had informed me they had never been ice skating before.  I was surprised because I was sure I had taken them before.  Well I had to fix that travesty so I found an awesome Groupon and we all got to go ice skating for $10 total for all of us.  That was pretty amazing!  Aaron had no desire to go ice skating so we went on a day he had to work anyway.  I had previously gone rollerblading with Aaron and it wasn't a good experience for him so I was not surprised when he said he didn't want to go ice skating.  Here we are before we headed out to the ice:

Daniel picked it up pretty well:

Noah struggled a bit, but got better:

Sarah did great.  It helped that she was really good at rollerblading, though:

Poor Noah--I got a video of him right as he was falling down--poor guy!

Josh had an extra advantage--he was tall enough to hold on to the top of the shields as he went around the rink.  He persisted and was doing decent by the time we left the rink:

Matthew didn't enjoy it.  He went around holding on to the edge the whole time and tried to sit out much of the time we were there.

In the middle they got everyone off the rink so they could bring out the Zamboni and smooth out the ice.  We are just chilling until they finish.

I am glad the kids got to go ice skating.  I feel bad it took me this long to take them, though.  I could have sworn we had been before, but I guess I was wrong.  Everyone did great despite falling multiple times.  I kept telling the kids it built character every time they fell.

During the break Josh got a chance to go do some Baptisms for the Dead at the temple with a group of friends.

Over the break the city Youth Council had a few activities.  They were able to help with shopping with some disadvantaged youth.  They also were able to do another activity where they provided food for some families around the city that were in need.  They did that by assembling the food and then doorbell ditching so it remained anonymous.  Another activity they did was a white elephant party.  They did a gift exchange and then played some games and hung out.  Here's Daniel getting ready to play ping pong:

 Starting the white elephant gift exchange game:

 Chatting with everyone:

Josh and Daniel had a lot of fun.  I am glad they are able to participate in this program and I hope it inspires and love of service for them.  Keeping my fingers crossed!

Also over the break my nephew, Jason, got married (Aaron's sister Susan's son).  We were set up to go down to the ceremony in Payson, but Matthew had a really hard morning.  His behavior was not improving as the day went on so to play it safe Aaron and I decided to stay back with Matthew to try and keep the peace.  I was sad because I really love going to sealings/weddings.  Anyway, they had an open house a week later down in Circleville.  I stayed back with Matthew and Aaron took the rest of the kids down to attend the open house.  They got there Saturday afternoon.  The kids had fun hanging out with their cousins and attending the openhouse.  Aaron ended up leaving early the next morning to come back home so it was a pretty quick visit.  Aaron didn't take any pictures, but Grandma M did.  She took a picture of Daniel and Noah playing on the X-Box:

During the break Matthew had some of his cute girlfriends come over and pick him up.  They took him over to Fiiz and then to someone's house to hang out.  He was so excited.  He does miss being in high school so this was a fun visit for him.  Again I am so grateful for all the people who love Matthew and show him compassion!!  

Starting school back up on Monday, January 6 was a bit rough, but we made it.  It is nice to be back in a routine I must say.  

Sarah had her dance recital last night.  I love getting her ready and she likes the makeup so it is a win-win situation.  Here's my pretty girl before we left to get her to the program:

She was in 3 dances and did great:

She loved getting her flowers and seeing G&G T afterward.

I think I am caught up for now.  I felt bad it took me so long to get stuff written down.  It has been a crazy month!!