Ordination, Visitors, Birthday, Temple

Last Wednesday was Josh's birthday.  Aaron, Noah and I checked Josh out of school to go out to lunch.  Josh chose Arby's which was a good choice.  I think Josh is now a lover of Gyros.

 After lunch we checked Josh back in to school because he wanted to hand out his birthday cookies to his class after school.  When the kids got home they were in for a surprise by seeing Aunt Jill, Lila, Sydney, and G&G M at our house.  They had all come up for a visit and to see Josh get ordained a Deacon on Sunday.  For dinner we all went out to Pizza Pie Café:

 Aaron made sure Josh got his mini Cookie Monster which is a chocolate chip cookie topped with whipped cream, ice cream, caramel and hot fudge sauce.  Josh was in heaven:

and then came back for Josh's ice cream birthday cake:

 Then Josh got to open his presents.  I can't believe he is 12 years old!  It seems like it wasn't that long ago I was bringing my 9 pound 8 ounce chunky baby home from the hospital!

Also G&G M have a cousin Carolyn who sent an awesome picture along to give to Matthew.  He was pretty excited when he saw what it was:

 All day Wednesday it rained and everything was wet.  However, the next morning everything was dry, but our yard and sidewalk were soaked.  As it turns out Century Link came in and tried to install an Internet fiber through our yard as well as three of our neighbors' yards and had some problems.  They nicked our water line in our yard and didn't realize it until the next day when our yard was completely soggy.  They had to come back out and dig down to fix the water line.  They dug this hole that was deep enough for a good size man to stand in up to his neck in our front yard:

 The worker is just sitting on the edge before he jumped down in the hole which was as deep as his neck:

While doing this they also turned off our water without any warning.  I felt bad for our guests because they had to go a few hours with no running water.  After working on it for awhile they finally got it fixed and our yard isn't too messed up--thank goodness.  

We all saw that Matthew appears to be taller than Aunt Jill.  He and Josh are growing so fast!

 Friday Aaron to G&G M down to spend the day at the Salt Lake Temple by doing a session and then checking out Temple Square. 

Jill couldn't go because Lila and Sydney were running fevers and had coughs.  G&G M appeared to have a good day with Aaron.  Jill and I hung out at home in our jammies and played games.  We had a nice day, too.  At dinner time that evening the kids talked about their day at school.  Josh told us he learned some new steps in the Waltz dance.  I became his partner so he could show everyone the new Waltz steps:

Saturday morning Lila and Sydney were feeling better and their fevers were gone so we decided to take everyone down to see all the pretty flowers around Temple Square.  They are so pretty.  We got a family picture in front of the temple:

 Here's the cousins sitting by one of so many flower beds full of huge Tulips.  They were so beautiful and the flowers were, too--haha!

 Did I mention that the tulips were HUGE?

 We thought it fitting to get a picture of Josh in front of the sculpture of the priesthood getting restored since he was going to get ordained a Deacon the next day:

They have a missionary exhibit set up in the visitors center that we checked out.  Aaron's cousin had a part in the movie clips they played.  The kids liked watching the movie:

Here's Aaron's cousin Sister Voyles:

 We also stopped and saw the Christ statue:

 We did stop by this bench to take a family picture.  Aaron and I had a wedding picture taken here right after we were married before we had five kids.  We thought it would be fun to compare the two pictures which I will do when I pull out our wedding pictures next....

 Here's a funny picture Jill took.  The kids think it's gross when Aaron and I kiss--haha!

 We also got a wedding picture of Aaron and me in this very cut out right after we were married almost 15 years ago.

 Here's everyone around all the pretty flowers on the Salt Lake Plaza:

 The next day Josh got ordained a Deacon after church.  He is so excited we are, too!

 Here Josh is with G&G M:

 We were trying to get a good family picture, but Daniel wasn't cooperating.  I was caught in the act of giving him a wet willy to try and get him to laugh--DOH!!

 Hey desperate times call for desperate measures, right?!  We finally did get a good family picture minus the wet willy:

 Here's the two Deacons in our family.  They will both be passing the sacrament next week.  Josh is excited.

 Josh and Grandpa Mancil:

 Grandpa T came to the ordination, but couldn't come to dinner afterward because Grandma T was passing a kidney stone at home and he wanted to be with her which I don't blame him at all.  We did miss them, though.

 Aaron and I got lots of girl lubs while Sydney and Lila were here:

I miss having a sleeping baby in my arms:

We were sad to see our guests leave Monday morning. 

By Monday afternoon things were back to our crazy regular schedule.  Tuesday afternoon we got a horrible windstorm that turned into a snowstorm later that night.  With Matthew's after school program his staff member comes and picks him up as soon as his bus drops him off from our house.  That day his staff member had drove a Jeep Wrangler with the shell off to pick Matthew up.  Matthew was not happy about that.  However, a different staff member brought Matthew home after the program.  I asked where the original staff member was only to be told that Matthew had a problem with him.  I asked Matthew what the problem was and he said that Aaron (his staff member) was not safe because he didn't have a top on his car and he smoked.  I guess he smoked a cigarette where Matthew could see him and Matthew gave him a lecture about how smoking isn't healthy and decided that he wasn't safe with him anymore because he drove without a top to his car when it was windy outside.  Matthew then made another staff member bring him home.  Sigh--at least Matthew is a kid who knows what he wants....I wonder if we will see Aaron sometime next week or if they will assign him a new staff member.  I am glad we are with a company that is willing to work with Matthew's quirks....

This week has been unplug and play week at the elementary school.  To encourage less electronics the kids were given a BINGO card with different non electronic activities to do.  If they are able to get a BINGO then they can bring their card back and turn it in for a big drawing on Friday.  One of the activities is to read with a family member or friend for 20 minutes.  Daniel read to Sarah and Noah and they loved it as did I since this counted as part of Sarah's homework--WAhoo!!

 Since Josh is now part of the Deacons Quorum now he was able to go do baptisms for the dead yesterday.  He was so excited.  Since Matthew was going too, Aaron went along with them just to help out with Matthew while at the temple.  It was a nice experience for them. 

The past few days we have had some pretty crazy weather.  After a huge windstorm we then got a snowstorm.  Noah has been wanting to play in the snow for the past two days.  In finally caved in this afternoon and we made a snowman together.

 Noah even made his own buttons and nose out snowballs.

 Who knew you could build a big snowman in the middle of April?!

Third term of school just ended which means grade time.  Matthew surprised us this term by being on the High Honor Roll.  Wahoo Matthew!

 While Aaron, Josh and Matthew were doing baptism for the dead with our ward, that left me, Noah, Sarah and Daniel at home.  Since it was unplug and play week we played the board game Candyland.  During one of Noah's turns he got a double color card and moved ahead of all of us on the board.  As he was making his move he said, "See ya later, Sucka!"  I just cracked up.  I don't know where he even heard that phrase--crazy kid: