Valentine’s Day, Skiing, Registration, Welding, Date Night, Wisdom Teeth

Here’s our latest happenings of the last two weeks. Sarah registered for high school a few days ago!  How did that happen?!  They had a new student orientation where she could go and check out the school then pick out her classes and register. I still can’t believe it!!

Noah’s youth class has a new leader that is a welding teacher at the technical school.  He offered to teach them how to weld for a youth activity. Noah thought it was pretty cool.  

Here’s what Noah got to weld--his initials:

That was a brave leader to try and teach these guys welding, but it was pretty awesome!!

They got to learn the basics that first night.  They are went back for a second activity to do a more intricate weld, too.  Here’s what Noah made that second night:

Daniel and some friends signed up for a city basketball team.  He keeps it on the down low.  He did tell me about one of his games a few Saturdays ago.  Aaron and I stopped by for a few minutes to watch him play.  We stayed quiet and low key so Daniel wouldn’t be too embarrassed we were there--haha!  Daniel is black number 8.

Daniel likes to take the occasional selfie to send to friends.  I caught him in the act.  He wasn’t too happy about that--haha!

This past Saturday Aaron and I took G&G T out for dinner and a show.  We grabbed some lunch at Red Robin and then headed down to The Desert Star Theater to see the show Indiana Bones.  It was pretty funny.

Aaron even got pulled up on the stage.  He was super uncomfortable being up there, but it was funny.

Josh had a Zone Conference two weeks ago. I love that the Mission President and Companion take pictures and share with the parents.  I loved seeing this one of Josh.  He is usually in the back row, but this time he is standing on the front row, but is as tall as the people on the back row standing on chairs.  Crazy!

Josh also had a Spanish Conference via Zoom.  Here’s Josh and his companion on a screen shot the President sent:

We got to chat with Josh yesterday.  His P-Day was yesterday instead of Monday because he got the chance to attend the Chicago temple.  Since he changed his P-day I only got to chat with him for a few minutes because he called while I was on my way to work.  It was nice to have Aaron, Daniel, me and Josh on the same call.  He seems to be doing well.  

Sarah and Daniel got to do a service project with the city youth council.  They ‘Heart Attacked’ people (widows, widowers, anyone else who could use a pick me up) in our city.  Here they are preparing the hearts before they went around to put them on people’s doors:

Sarah and Daniel are in this picture in the very middle:

I did some annual TB testing clinics for work last week.  The Jail in Ogden was so glad we came to them they gave me and my coworkers these cool coins:

It was awesome!

Valentine’s Day was this past week.  We didn’t do anything very exciting.  We had some heart pizza (even though it doesn’t look very much like a heart--haha!) for dinner and I got everyone a yummy red velvet cookie for a treat.

Noah has been experimenting with baking.  He made a cheesecake a few weeks ago.  It didn’t last very long--haha!  He then made a key lime pie for the Super Bowl.  That didn’t last very long, either.  I keep trying to get him to try making a main course, but he only seems to like making desserts.

The high school had their second annual ski night.  Daniel has never been skiing before and wanted to try it out.  A bunch of friends got together and went up for some discounted night skiing.  

They had a great time.

Matthew and I had dentist appointments last week.  I didn’t really think that scenario through when I made the appointment.  When we got there they took us both back.  However, my cleaning took longer since I have braces.  Matthew’s cleaning ended before mine and they couldn’t get him to sit quietly in the waiting room and wait for me.  He kept coming over and trying to talk to everyone.  I couldn’t do a whole lot since I was stuck in the chair with stuff in my mouth so I couldn’t even tell him to sit quietly.  That meant they rushed through my polishing and fluoride treatment just to get us out--haha!  Oh well, what can you do?!  At least neither one of us have cavities.  Yay!  I will know next time to not have me and him go at the same time.

We did have a family Super Bowl party last Sunday.  Aaron made quite the spread.  He made fresh chicken wings, bacon wrapped stuffed peppers, guacamole, and a veggie tray.  I think I am the only one that actually ate part of the veggie tray, though--haha!  Daniel even brought his girlfriend over to join us.  It was fun.  We even played some games afterward.

Speaking of Daniel he got his Wisdom Teeth out this morning. He was so nervous beforehand, but he did great.  He was pretty loopy and over the top happy afterward.  We have lots of blackmail videos for later.  An interesting note is we ran into my sister as we were getting ready to take Daniel home.  My niece was getting her Wisdom Teeth out at the same office right after Daniel.  That was crazy!  

Here’s a terrified Daniel as we got to the office.  You can’t tell, though.

Getting everything hooked up:

He was pretty loopy for a while afterward.  It made for a very entertaining ride home--haha!

Sophie loved having him home.  She is always up for snuggles and belly scratches:

At least I will save on groceries this week.  I found this meme that makes my point-haha!!

Vocational Rehab, Tubing, Preference, Cavity, Coin Show, Dinner

I am far behind on upating, but here’s a catch up of the last three weeks.  The kids and Aaron got Martin Luther King Day off from school and work so we decided to go tubing up at Cherry Peak Resort in Richmond, Utah which is up in Cache County by the Idaho border.  It was cold, but we had fun!  We would grab a tube and ride the Magic Carpet (which is basically a conveyer belt for people) up to the top of the tubing hill.

The Magic Carpet:

Sarah and Noah on the Magic Carpet:

Daniel and Aaron:

In trying to find all of our winter gear for some reason we could only find a bunch of left handed gloves.  Seriously it was like 20 left handed gloves--I have no idea what happened to all the right handed ones which is weird.  That meant Aaron and I had to wear two left gloves instead of a right and left glove which looked really weird, but we didn’t care because it kept our hands warm.

Here’s all of us taking our turns down the hill--Sarah, Aaron, Noah, me, and Daniel.  The picture on the left is at the top the picture on the right is us actually going down the hill:

When we finished I wanted to take a picture of the fresh snow that had fallen the day before.  It looked really pretty:

On the way home we stopped by the Pepperidge Farm factory which was only 5 minutes away from Cherry Peak to shop in their seconds store.  We picked up some goldfish crackers and cookies for the way home.

Last week the Deacon’s Quorum in our ward got a last minute temple appointment to do baptisms for our ancestors (baptisms for the dead) on an afternoon.  Aaron was able to go with Noah at this appointment.  It was an awesome experience.

Speaking of church Matthew got to play the piano in Sacrament meeting for a musical number a few Sundays ago. He had been practicing a piano rendition of ‘I Stand All Amazed’ for a few months and was finally ready to play it.  He was SO excited.  I had told him beforehand that he needed to walk REVERENTLY up to the piano, play his song, and walk back to our bench REVERENTLY.  As with typical Matthew fashion he didn’t listen to me and did what he wanted to anyway. In his defense he really was so excited to play.  He had invited different people to come hear him play and a few of them were there which made him even more excited.   He RAN/SKIPPED up to the piano from our bench in the back yelling random lyrics to songs.  However, when he got up to the piano and started playing he was immediately reverent and played beautifully and calmly.  When he was done with the song he RAN and SKIPPED back to our bench yelling road exit numbers. Sigh. At least people in our ward are familiar with Matthew and hopefully, don’t get too bothered by it.  He did bring the Spirit when he was playing just not before or after so I will count that as an almost win--haha!

Noah got asked to serve as the first counselor in the Deacon’s class presidency which he was excited about.  He got set apart during church a few weeks ago and has been to a few meetings since to help plan activities.

Aaron and I got asked to speak in church last minute this past Sunday.  I HATE speaking in church, but it seemed to go okay.  Sacrament meeting ended a few minutes early, but what can you do?!  Hopefully, I can get a pass on speaking for a few years now--haha!

Daniel got to go to the Preference dance this last weekend.  The girl he went to the dance with were somewhat dating at the time she asked him 7 weeks before.  However, by the time the dance came around they were not dating anymore so it was a tad awkward, but they still went together.  Daniel was getting ready for the day date portion when I asked if I could take his picture.  He posed like a dork so I took the picture anyway.

Then he let me take a better picture:

Their group did a scavenger hunt around the mall and hung out for a few hours.  Then came home to get ready for that evening.

Earlier that Saturday morning before the Daniel had to leave for his day date, Daniel and Noah got to help Aaron with a project.  Aaron was tasked to build some metal shelving for ward’s storage closet.  He woke Daniel and Noah early that morning and they went to Lowe’s to pick up the shelving.  Daniel pushed Noah around the store on the flat bed until they put the shelves on it.

The spent the next few hours putting it together.  Daniel had to leave for his day date before Aaron finished so I got to take Daniel's place to help finish it.  It was cold, but we got it done.  Wahoo!

Later that day was the evening portion of the date.  His date, Lucy, came by to pick him up.  I loved this!  With girl’s choice dances I actually get to see their date since she had to pick them up while for boys choice dances I don’t get that chance.  Here they are exchanging the corsage and boutonnière.  

They had dinner and then took pictures.  They then went to the dance and went to someone’s house to play games afterward.

Daniel’s date’s dad is the one who took the pictures.  For some reason the pictures turned out a bit blurry.  This group picture turned out clear, though:

Here’s some of the blurry pictures:

I was glad Daniel was able to go to the dance.

Sophie sleeps in her kennel located in the bathroom every night.  However, on the rare occasion we forget to put her in her kennel when we go to bed she makes the most of things.  Aaron was leaving for work early the other morning when he saw her snuggled on the blankets on the couch in the family room where she had slept the night before.  DOH!!  She looked at him a bit guiltily, but didn’t move.  She knows she is not supposed to sleep overnight on the couch.  I guess sleeping over night on the couch isn’t much different from how she spends her days snuggled in the blankets as you can see in this picture:

What a crazy, but opportunistic dog!

Aaron made ’Shotgun Shells’ for our Sunday dinner.  It is a manicotti noodle stuffed with seasoned ground beef mixed with cream cheese, wrapped in bacon covered with BBQ sauce then smoked.  The kids really liked them.

I got to make another 5 hour round trip out to Gunnison for work a few weeks ago.  It was a bit nerve-racking because the weather showed snow.  Luckily, it didn’t start snowing really bad until our way home.  Phew!  I don’t have to go back out there for a few more weeks so I am hoping the weather will be a lot better by then, but this is Utah and you never know.

We had the Einzinger’s over for an evening.  It was fun visiting, eating and playing games.  We got to try out the game platform Jackbox.  It was fun, but it would have been better had we discovered the family friendly setting beforehand--doh!  Luckily, 95% of the questions were appropriate those other 5% though....The next night Aaron and I got to go out to dinner.  The bishop invited the whole bishopric, the clerk, the executive secretary and their wives for dinner.  It was a fun dinner where we were able to visit outside of church.

Noah got to go to a coin show with G&G T.  They tried one Saturday morning, but unfortunately, realized after driving the hour to the show they had the wrong Saturday. They were off by one week.  DOH!!  Luckily, they were able to try again the following Saturday and was successful.  Noah is trying to fill up his nickel, dime, and penny coin books.  He is enjoying this hobby with Grandpa Terry.

Sarah, Noah and Daniel visited the dentist for a checkup last week.  Daniel was the only one with a cavity. DOH!!  He will have to get it fixed in 6 weeks and neither one of us are looking forward to that!!  Sarah and Noah got a clean bill of health for their teeth at least.  One funny thing happened while we were at the dentist.  Every time we visit I have to update their health form and sign it.  When we showed up they gave me Sarah and Noah’s health form to sign.  I updated them and signed them and then asked if I needed to sign Daniel’s health form.  Well they had thought Daniel was 18 and therefore and adult so they had given him his own health form to sign.  I told them that he was actually only 17 and then jokingly said he wasn’t even close to being an adult maturity wise--haha!  They took the form from Daniel and then gave it to me where I signed next to Daniel’s signature to make it legal--haha!  Daniel teased me the rest of the day saying that he was now an adult.  I begged to disagree--haha!

Sarah, Noah and I had an orthodontist appointment this past week.  Noah got to start his second phase of braces without even getting them off from the first phase--the poor guy.  The plan was to start phase one and get them off while they waited for him to lose the rest of his baby teeth before starting phase 2.  Well he lost his baby teeth more quickly than they thought so there was no break at all between phase 1 and phase 2.  He will have his braces on for 3 almost 4 years in total when he finishes.  At this visit they put all the rest of the brackets on his teeth and his mouth was pretty sore.  Poor guy!! Luckily, Sarah only has a few months left in braces before she will be done.  I still have a year and will be excited to get them off eventually.  

We did get notified a few days ago that Josh’s release date for his mission got bumped back a few days.  Shoot!  It looks like he will tentatively come home July 7.  We are trying to work with him to get his schooling set up and it is hard when you can only get replies to emails or talk to him once a week.  Hopefully, we will be able to get things set up from him to start school in the fall.  Here’s a screen shot of the email letting us know his release date has been extended:

Sarah got to babysit a few weeks ago.  She really loved it and said the kids were great.  

Monday we got to have our long awaited Vocational Rehab appointment with Mark, the Voc Rehab counselor, Aaron, Matthew and me.  We picked up Matthew early from school and headed over for our appointment.  We have been in touch about every 6 months with our Voc Rehab counselor since Matthew has been 14 years old, but only now are we ready for him to receive those services 7 years later.  Voc Rehab helps get special needs individuals set up with employment.  In order to do this we have to go through a different company to do the job interest study with Matthew.  Mark, the Voc, Rehab counselor, gave us a sheet of paper with about 30 different companies that provide this service in this area.  We are supposed to call them and interview them to see which company we want to proceed with to help Matthew get a job.  I feel a bit like a moron--so unprepared and feel like I don’t know what I am doing if I were to call them to ‘interview’ them.  Making phone calls like this is not my favorite thing to do.  Don’t get me wrong I will call people if I need to, but would prefer not to call if I had a choice.  I found this meme that basically sums THAT up--haha!

Anyway, Aaron knows this about me and has been kind enough to make those calls.  We have two weeks to find a provider so this isn’t anything that can be put off.  I think we have it narrowed down to a few people/companies so hopefully, once we chose one they can proceed and start the process to find Matthew a job.  The process is first they do a job interest study--where they go and interview Matthew, his family, his staff at this group home, his teachers and aides to see what his interests are and to see what areas Matthew strengths are in. This usually takes a month. Next they get in touch with employers to see if any of them could use Matthew’s skill sets.  Then they set up a job for Matthew with a job coach.  The job coach accompanies Matthew to his job to help him stay on task and to learn the ropes.  As Matthew gets more comfortable at the job they slowly fade out the job coach where Matthew can be independent at work.  It is a long process so we are hoping Matthew will have a job set up by the end of May.  Anyway, I am just so grateful Aaron is taking over the calling of the companies--haha!  We also have to meet with a benefits coordinator to see how to work and maintain benefits like SSI and Medicaid.  This whole process sounds a bit overwhelming mostly because I really don’t know what things to ask or worry about if that makes sense.  I don’t want to make a mistake. I am sure things will work out, though.

Matthew has also started up practices for basketball.  He will be participating in the Special Olympics again for basketball and is pretty excited.  I am grateful he gets to participate in it!