We have been busy this last month. Here’s a few highlights. Grandma T made everyone their annual Valentine’s goody bags. The kids love getting these every year:
Noah got to have his cavity filled. He was pretty nervous since he hasn’t had a cavity filled that he could remember so this was a ’new’ experience for him. Hopefully it helps him to take a bit better care of his teeth even though getting it filled wasn’t bad.
When we got home from Italy Aaron had an appointment for an interview to become a Syracuse temple worker. Here’s the picture they took of him for his file. Amazingly enough he was interviewed by the new temple president--President Steel. We have been able know President Steel for a bit. He is Daniel’s girlfriend, Katie’s, grandpa. He and his wife came to Daniel’s mission farewell. He also oversaw my dad’s funeral as he was an employee of the funeral home. He is a really nice guy. He and his wife took a few extra minutes to visit with us which was nice.
Here was the first round:
P-Days are fun to talk to him, too:
The kids had off from school on President’s Day. For fun we did a food challenge where we got an order of Orange Chicken from two different Chinese restaurants. We also got two orders of Sweet and Sour Chicken from two different restaurants and compared them. It was a blind taste test so no one knew which restaurants they came from hence the numbers on the plate. Here’s the comparison plate we all got:
Dragon Hill restaurant won the best Orange Chicken. Hello China won the best Sweet and Sour Chicken.
It is black, but good!
We stopped by the Pepperidge Farms outlet and picked up a few snacks. Then driving back to Logan we drove by the Smithfield temple that is under construction. It is a beautiful temple:
We then stopped by Gossner’s. We picked up some flavored shelf stable milk. Then we came home so Josh could go to work. It was a fun day.
Amazingly enough our favorite ended up being just regular old A&W.
Noah wanted to try wrestling and do track this year. In order to do that he had to get a physical done. He is doing great and was glad to hear he didn’t need any immunizations at this appointment. Afterward me, Josh and Noah grabbed some lunch before I checked Noah back into school for the day.
Daniel’s Mission Leaders have an Instagram page that they will update with missionary pictures. We found this one a few weeks ago. I love seeing random pictures of Elder Mancil:
Noah had a mock interview at school. He was pretty proud that he got an all 5 rating on his interview and showed me his paper. Wahoo! He wants a regular job so much, but not many people hire 14-15 year olds unfortunately.
As a Weber State Institute activity a bunch of people got together and hiked up Water Fall Canyon last month.
Josh made it to the top, but ended up needing to borrow some spikes from someone since it was so icy and slippery. He said it was fun. They also had another ice skating activity. Josh is always up for most anything. Even though he really doesn’t enjoy ice skating very much he still went and had fun.
Josh, Sarah and Noah will go out for dinner or lunch sometimes if Aaron and I aren’t around. I am glad they like to go together.
Josh is taking a Hematology class and they did a blood typing kit. He needed some help with getting enough blood out of his finger prick so I got to help him. They kids saw what we were doing and wanted to see what their blood type was. We all got a blood type kit to see what type we were. I was the designated finger sticker. Noah was a bit nervous, but it wasn’t too bad.
All of us have B+ blood type except for Aaron. He is O+. We haven’t tested Daniel or Matthew yet, but I am expecting the same results. It was pretty cool!
I guess we are a bit more rare than the average person--except Aaron--haha!
Noah had a band concert a few weeks ago. It was pretty great!
Noah surprised us all when he said he wanted to try out wrestling. None of the other kids have done that so it is all new to us. He had his first meet a few weeks ago. He was a bit nervous, but he did great.
Here’s a random shot of Noah and his friends:
She is still working at Little Caesar’s. It has been quite convenient. We get the family discount and Noah’s friends and us get fed for cheap on Friday night. It is a win win, right?!
She just rolls her eyes when she sees us walk in--haha!
Then I got the explanation. I love to get these pictures!
Sarah’s Sunday school teacher wanted to do a pie night Sunday evening for all of the kids in her class. I had some apple pie filling so Sarah decided she wanted to try and make apple pie. I meant to pick up some ready made pie shells beforehand, but forgot. We ended up making the pie dough from scratch. I have never done that before so it was a new experience. However, my dad made pie crust from scratch quite often so I knew the basics just from watching him when I was growing up. It didn’t turn out half bad. Here’s what her pie looked like after a few pieces had been eaten:
The Sunday school teacher has a special needs son who loves everyone. Sarah got a picture with him because he is such a fun person:
Here’s Sophie living her best life without a care in the world:
Josh had his Spring Break last week. Unfortunately, his friends had Spring Break on a different week so he wasn’t able to go anywhere fun this year. We did decide to go up to Logan and spend a day just for fun. We first stopped at the Logan temple where we did an Endowment session together.
Daniel’s last companion loved to crochet. He taught Daniel how to crochet so that is what he worked on during one of our P-Day calls. They even offered a crochet class for people with a spiritual thought at the end. I think that is pretty cool!
Here’s the key to determine what your results were:
He ended up winning his match:
Last week Sarah and a friend had the day off and decided to go to the mall to try on formal dresses. Here’s one picture of one she tried on:
A few weeks ago I got this random text with a picture of Daniel on a Sunday morning.
We got a chance to feed the missionaries a few weeks ago, too. I made sure I sent their moms pictures of them as well. We have to keep the cycle going, right?!
We then drove up to Casper’s in Redmond where we got some ice cream. I LOVE licorice ice cream and this is one of the few places that carry that flavor.
Speaking of Josh he got to participate in a ‘Dating Game’ event put on by the Weber State Institute. They had a girl who was blindfolded (just like the game show way back when) and asked three participants questions. Josh was contestant #3. I guess she liked Josh’s answers so she picked him to go on a date with. The Institute provided a $20 Jimmy John’s gift card. They made plans a week later. Josh picked her up and they went to dinner. Josh said it was fun, but probably not a love connection, though. He had fun being a contestant, though.
Two weeks ago there was a HUGE snowstorm. Our luck was not great that day. Sarah got into a minor accident on her way turning into the high school parking lot. She slid into the SUV’s trailer hitch in front of her. Thankfully, she was okay and the car in front of her had absolutely no damage. Sarah’s car got a huge dent in the hood, but it is still drivable. Phew! I will take an accident like that any day. She learned what to do in an accident, how to drive a bit better in the snow, and the cars a both still drivable. Later that day Josh was driving home from Weber State when pulling onto the road in front of our house his car died. Luckily, he was able to coast and make it far enough park it in front of the curb at our house. Aaron went out and they both figured that the serpentine belt had snapped and one of the pulleys that the serpentine belt uses had seized up. Thankfully, it wasn’t too bad of a fix. We really lucked out that day and that there weren’t bigger issues with both cars.
Matthew got a new job coach since the other one is doing a different job. He sent me some pictures of Matthew at work. Matthew absolutely LOVES working. I think he would still go to work even if they didn’t pay him. I am so thankful for these ladies and their willingness to work with Matthew.
Matthew had his Special Olympics basketball games this past Saturday. Unfortunately, they were held down in Nephi so Aaron and I couldn’t make it. Thankfully, Allison, Matthew’s house manage who took them was able to send me these pictures of him playing.
He unfortunately lost both of his games, but still had fun playing. Here is Matthew’s friend Daniel who is his Bocce Ball teammate:
Here’s Matthew with Allison:
They did get a ribbon for participating:
One night they had a dance:
Here’s their regular lunch spot just for their group:
They played some Minute to Win It games. Sarah made it to the last round of the balloon popping game. I think having four brothers makes her a bit more competitive and aggressive--haha!
Noah did the Rock Paper Scissors challenge, but ended up losing at the end, unfortunately.
At the dance Noah wanted to learn how to Waltz so Sarah took a minute to teach him. Their leader got a quick pictures and short video to show me. It was cool:
Daniel called us on his P-day during the day to let us know that he got asked to be a trainer. He was a bit freaked out, but excited. We were excited for him. Since it was during the day Sarah and Noah were in school and couldn’t join in the call. It was cool all of us could join even if we were all in different locations. Josh on campus, Aaron at work, me at home getting ready to go to work, Daniel in Omaha.
Noah had a wrestling meet yesterday. He was able to compete and was in the very last round. Here he is waiting to go:
Matthew got to play musical piano piece in Sacrament Meeting this past Sunday. He did a great job.
Sarah and Noah love participating in Youth council. They had the opportunity to go up to a Leadership Conference held at Utah State this past weekend. It was weird to only have Josh at home for two nights. They had a fun time, though. Their leaders shared some pictures of their adventures during the conference:
They were with a bunch of other youth councils from other cities so it was a big, fun group.
Sarah and Noah didn’t get much sleep while at the Leadership conference so they were ‘Chuckles’ aka extremely ornery when they got home Saturday afternoon. Luckily after a quick nap Noah was ready to function. Josh and Noah decided to go and hike up Adam’s Canyon. It was pretty ice and snowy, but they had fun.
We started to worry about them when they weren’t back and it was getting dark. Luckily Josh texted us when they got into cell service to let us know they were okay. They were able to grab some cool sunset pictures, though:
While Aaron and I were in Italy Noah had to register for high school. Thankfully, Josh was willing to take him and help him register. I can’t believe he will be in high school next year!! He will be getting his Learner’s Permit for driving in a few weeks weeks. Oh my goodness--that is crazy!!
We got to talk to him more about it later that evening. Aaron ran into Katie, Daniel’s girlfriend, at the temple and invited her to come to our weekly P-Day call with him. She was excited to come over. It was nice to see her. It has been a little bit. She is getting ready to submit her mission papers soon. She is excited. Daniel had fun visiting with all of us, including Katie, for an hour. He was nervous to meet his Greenie the next day.
Here is Daniel meeting his Greenie for the first time:
Daniel did upload this picture of them working together the next day so I hope things are going well for them!
Shaking hands before they start:
It was a good match, but ultimately Noah ended up losing the match, but put up a good fight.
It was fun to watch. I don’t know much about wrestling so I need to learn some things so I can understand what I am watching and how they get points. It is interesting, though. Speaking of Noah he got to go and take a tour of Weber State University. He is really interested in going into Epidemiology and they have a program there he is interested in. It was a good field trip so he now has a better understanding of what he needs to do to get to that point.
A few weeks ago a group of ladies got together to take a tour of the The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saint’s Humanitarian Center down in Salt Lake. I never knew it was there and that they gave tours. It was really interesting to see what they do for people around the world. We then stopped and grabbed some lunch on the way back home. It was a fun trip.
