Soccer, Biopsy, Snuggles, Filters, Birthdays, Spring Break, Sticky Hands, Snow

The weeks seem to be flying by!  Noah has started soccer again.  He still LOVES to be goalie and does a decent job defending the goal.  He has a good coach this season so it will be fun.

Noah had his ‘Break the Rules Day’ fundraiser at his school.  He chose to have crazy hair, wear pajamas, chew gum, and drink a soda at school.  He got everything ready himself.  He was most impressed with his funky hair--haha!  Here’s how he looked before he went to school:

Aaron swears that he isn’t a dog lover, but he doesn’t seem to mind Sophie snuggles if he is ‘resting his eyes’--haha!

The kids don’t snuggle much anymore, so you have to enjoy it the few times they are still willing to snuggle.  Here’s Sarah snuggling with Aaron while we were watching a movie:

Two Saturdays ago we went to Lagoon again.  I love the springtime because it is not blazing hot.  Aaron and I like the Sky tram.

Sarah and Noah are riding the Sky Ride right in front of us, too.  Daniel had to work that day so it was only the four of us.

Two Sundays ago was General Conference.  It is always nice to listen to Conference--especially wearing comfy clothes in your own home.  Anyway, Aaron continued with tradition and made his HUGE breakfast Sunday morning.  We definitely could tell Josh wasn’t with us because we had A LOT of leftovers that we wouldn’t have had if Josh were here.  Anyway, the pancakes, toast, sausage, omelet, hash browns, bacon and chocolate milk was yummy.

Josh’s last P-day call Aaron started experimenting with the filters during the call.  Josh quickly joined in playing with the filters, too.  It was funny.  Noah and Sarah loved messing with the filters, as well.  I am glad my family is so mature....haha!

When the call ended it was just Aaron and me left on the call and he did a makeup filter to be funny.  We are so mature....hahaha!  Anyway, I had to take a screen shot because it was so lovely--haha!:

Last week was Noah’s birthday as well as Spring Break.  The kids had the whole week off from school. Aaron ended up taking the whole week off from work, too.  We stayed in town.  To celebrate Noah’s birthday we went out to Pizza Pie Cafe for lunch.  Noah enjoyed his birthday ‘Cookie Monster’ treat which is a warm cookie covered with ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate sauce and caramel sauce:

We were glad G&G T were able to join us for lunch:

That morning Aaron picked up a dozen donuts for Noah’s birthday.  Noah is not much of a sharer so he made a note and put it on the donuts.  It says, “Don’t touch without my permission.  There is 12 of donuts.  Don’t touch!”  Then he would cross the number out and put the new number down so he could keep track.  Gotta love it--haha!

Noah asked for a working bike for his birthday so Aaron made it happen:

Noah also got some games for his birthday, too.

Josh’s birthday was last Friday.  We didn’t get to talk since it wasn’t his P-day, but we had sent him a package for his birthday.  We also sent a few bucks to him so he and his companion could have a nice meal on his birthday.  On Monday, his P-Day he did send me a picture of him opening his birthday package:

He and his companion went out for dinner at Giordano’s which has THE BEST deep dish pizza.

Josh still hasn’t lost his huge appetite.  He ended up eating 4 HUGE slices and his companion had 3.  Glad they were able to celebrate!

Sophie’s favorite thing to do is either ‘Go wake up kids!’in the morning or ‘Go tuck in kids!’in the evening.  As soon as you say either of those phrases she excitedly jumps up, grabs a toy and heads over to the kids’ bedrooms.  Here’s how she wakes them up:

Aaron took the entire week of Spring Break off from work.  We didn’t go on vacation, but we did do some staycation things.  Tuesday we did Pizza Pie for Noah’s birthday.  Wednesday I wanted to take the kids to do Baptisms for the Dead, but the only temple I found that had openings was the Pocatello temple up in Idaho.   I made the appointment for 9 am and we woke up very early that morning to make the 2+ hour drive up there.  

That was fun!  Afterward we stopped by Lava Hot Springs for a few hours.  It was fun soaking in the hot pools for awhile.

Daniel forgot to pack flip flops so he got to wear his church shoes instead--haha!  I told him he should do that all the time because it looks so cool--haha!  He just rolled his eyes at me.

Thursday morning Aaron and I were able to squeeze in an Endowment session at the Logan temple.  Neither one of us have been there before so we decided to try it out.  It really is a beautiful temple.  I am glad we got to do that Thursday morning.  Later that afternoon Noah had his friend birthday party.  We took Noah and a few of his friends to Rush Funplex.  They got 90 minute passes to do any and all activities within those 90 minutes.  They did laser tag, mini golf, bowling, go carts, etc.  

While Aaron and I waited out the 90 minutes we did some bowling and mini golf, too.  It was pretty fun.

Bowling was fun because I was the big winner in all three games.  I never win so I have to celebrate! Wahoo!

The black light mini golf was fun, too.  However, my hair mousse glowed in the black light which was weird.

After the passes ran out we left and picked up some pizza and came back to eat dinner with some cupcakes after singing ‘Happy Birthday’ to Noah:

Noah got some Nerf guns for his birthday.  We have had a sticky hand stuck to our ceiling for over a year now.  I kept thinking it would dry up and fall off, but after a year I don’t think it was going to happen.  I told Noah’s friends that I would pay them a dollar if they could shoot the sticky hand down with the Nerf guns.  They tried for 30 minutes straight with no luck.  Here you can see them up the stairs shooting at the sticky hand which is at the end of the white arrow.

Unfortunately, they were unsuccessful at getting the sticky hand down.

While we were at Rush Funplex Sarah and Daniel went to see a movie at the theater together.  I thought that was nice they wanted to go together.  They had a good time.

Daniel seems to like spicy things.  I really don’t know how that kid could be mine since he likes spicy things and I absolutely don’t, but that’s beside the point.  Anyway, he loves picking up these Flaming Hot Nacho Doritos and ends up eating the whole entire back.  Mysteriously about 30 minutes after he finishes the bag he complains of his stomach hurting--hmmmm.  I can’t possibly think of any reason why his stomach would hurt after eating a whole entire bag of Flaming Hot Doritos--haha!  He didn’t appreciate when I pointed out that correlation.  It hasn’t stopped him from eating them yet so I guess they are delicious enough that the stomach ache is worth it.

Inside the empty bag:

In getting our new ward set up they reorganized the youth class presidencies.  Daniel is in the Priest Quorum presidency and Sarah is in the 14-15 year old class presidency in young women.  

Sarah also got her very first babysitting job last week.  She babysat for a family in our neighborhood who had a 3 and a 5 year old child.  She really enjoyed it and is hoping to babysit more soon.  I was a bit nervous for her to babysit because way back when I was a young teenager I wasn’t the best babysitter.  Luckily, Sarah seemed to be a better babysitter than I was.  However, I became a better babysitter when I became a parent, thank goodness--haha!  

Speaking of Sarah her last round of bloodwork at the end of March showed that her liver enzymes were quite elevated.  They had tripled in number since her last blood draw in January.  The Liver doctor was concerned and recommended Sarah get another liver biopsy to see what was going on a cellular level.  Boo!  That wasn’t the best news.  We scheduled the biopsy for Friday during Spring Break so she wouldn’t have to miss any school.  It ended up being an all day event.  We got to Primary Children’s Hospital at 7:30 am to check in.  They then did a Covid test and bloodwork.  Then her procedure was scheduled for 10 am.  However, the nurse had a hard time getting her IV placed and drawing the initial round of bloodwork.  Phlebotomy had to come back and draw it again.  Then the anesthesiologist didn’t like the look and placement of her original IV so he replaced it as soon as Sarah was asleep.  But judging by all the bruising on the back of her hands he struggled getting her IV in during the biopsy, too.  Before they took her back she bided her time by reading wrapped in a warm blanket.  

Time for her to go back.  She had had a biopsy three years ago and they let me come back and stay with Sarah while they did the ultrasound to find the best place for the biopsy.  However, this time they didn’t let me come with her so I just had to say goodbye at this point and wait out in the waiting room.  I was sad to leave her, but Sarah seemed to be okay.

90 minutes later they came and got me so I could see Sarah in the PACU.  She was quite loopy and cold, but seemed to be doing okay.

Then they sent her over to recovery for four more hours before they would let her go home.  They wouldn’t let her sit up for a few hours.  That was to make sure it wasn’t going to bleed since the liver is so vascular and they had just put a needle in to it a few times.  Good thing she brought a good book--haha!

Luckily, there was no bleeding and she was able to go home after four hours in recovery which was around 3 pm-ish.  Here was her bandage:

She is supposed to take things easy this week.  She was okay with that.  It was a pretty good excuse for her to get out of running in PE yesterday which she wasn’t too sad about--haha!  Hopefully, we will get the results in a few days.

When we got home from the hospital Daniel had heard that we had offered Noah’s friends a dollar to get the sticky hand off the ceiling.  He made sure that deal was still on the table and got to work.  He actually was able to get the sticky hand off the ceiling after a few scrapes with the extended window squeegee and standing on the couch. 

 I think sticky hands will be outlawed at our house going forward.

Matthew has started training for the Special Olympics in Track and Field.  He supposedly will be running the 4x100 and is pretty excited about it.  His first race will be at the end of this month.

Matthew was pretty excited about April Fool’s Day this year.  Matthew decided to prank us.  He called each one of our phones and said, “Hello!  This is sergeant Mancil and you are in trouble!”  Then he would have to stop and giggle before he could continue on to say, “April Fools!!”  However, between his number coming up with his name and his very recognizable voice he didn’t really prank us.  However, he thought it was quite hilarious.  Grandma and Grandpa T even got ‘pranked’.  What a crazy kid!

Matthew has lost quite a bit of weight.  His suit pants don’t fit him anymore and he has lost his belt for the 3rd time.  Desperate times call for desperate measures, right?!  His pants kept falling down so I grabbed a hair tie and knotted up the waist of his suit pants.  Luckily, he wears a suit jacket so this lovely contraption is not noticeable--haha!

Matthew got a calling at church on this past Sunday.  He will be serving as a primary teacher.  He was so excited!!  Me and Aaron both tried to contain his excitement while he was being sustained in church, but it was a lost cause--haha!  Luckily, most everyone already knows Matthew and his propensity to get excited about many things so everyone was find with his exuberance.  Matthew has actually been subbing in primary for the last two months.  Matthew has been team teaching with another adult teacher.  Aaron also has been going in with Matthew to keep him focused as well.  Matthew has loved primary.  The primary presidency has worked really well with him, too.  It has been a really good experience.  Matthew even got to teach two lessons last month with a little bit of help and did great.

We celebrated Noah’s birthday with Matthew this past Sunday.  Noah requested Firecracker Chicken for his meal and an ice cream cake.  Matthew even saved up some of his fun money and bought Noah some Skittles as a birthday present which was really sweet.

I love being able to chat with Josh on his P-days which are usually on Mondays.  It nice to hear about the different experiences he is having on his mission.  He seems to be doing well and enjoying missionary life.  I am glad for technology that lets us all connect even if we aren’t all in the same location.  Josh will usually call Daniel during Daniel’s lunch and talk to him for a few minutes.  Then he calls the rest of us Monday afternoon since Daniel is at track practice and misses the regular call.

We have just had snow the last few days.  This seems to happen every year in Utah, but it still catches me off guard.   We are teased with warm days then it switches to snow in a matter of 12 hours.

These couple days of snow has canceled Noah’s soccer practice and Daniel's track meet.  Boo!  Oh well we do need the moisture so I can’t complain too much.

I found these funny memes about our crazy weather:

I love to see memories pop up.  This one especially:

Josh was trying so hard to be taller than Matthew.  Little did we know later in that year Josh would pass Matthew in height never to look back on being shorter than Matthew ever again.

Sophie is a very low energy dog, but at least she is cute.