Wednesday, November 28, 2018

Jacinda is having a great time at school.  She is so bright with math.  I am so surprised at how quickly she grasps the concepts.  We spend nights with a white board doing equations.  She gets them right and finishes quickly.  I enjoy our time together.  She is very good with numbers.  Jacinda has joined a robotics group at her school.  I was able to go a competition last week.  I was amazed at what her team’s machine could do.  Stacking, lifting, pushing, and pulling objects.  It is so fun.  I like cheering in the stand for all the kids…..but I really like cheering for Jacinda’s team.  I guess that is part of being a mommy.

November 14^th, I got to go on a date with McCabe and Teagan.  We saw “Honk.”  It is a play based on the Ugly Duckling.  Our neighbor, Grant Nielsen was the cat in the play.  He was one of the main characters and did such a good job.  That boy was born to be on a stage.  I asked McCabe if he wanted to be in a play and his answer was a strong, “No.”  I can respect that.  After the play, we got a picture with Grant and then headed to Baskin and Robbins for a double scoop ice cream cone.  It was a fun night.  I liked going out with my boys.  It is good to spend special time with them.  

Tim took the girls out to the Grinch movie.  It looks like they had a good time.

Thanksgiving was great.  We had Mimi’s family, Tarra’s family, and grandma Margaret over for a wonderful meal.  We had the basic food: turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, green beans, rolls, fruit, pumpkin pie, and pecan pie.  I think the kid’s favorite part was putting the whipped cream on the pies.  They get really good at stacking that stuff.  In preparation for thanksgiving, the kids put up decorations.  Xadia, McCabe, and Jacinda taped their turkeys to the front door.  Teagan taped his turkey to the sliding door and a pair of corn ears to the garage door.  I am going to miss these decorations when the kids are gone.  I hope my grandkids make fun decorations so I can put them in my house.

Tim and I went out on a date to a Jazz game.  It is a good thing that I like the sport because the Jazz was slaughtered by the Pacers.  They lost by 33 points.  It got ridiculous in the 4^th quarter.  There was poor rebounding, lots of over turned balls, and lots of missed shots.  I did enjoy the plays made by the Pacers.  They had some amazing team work.  I also enjoyed being with Tim.  We laugh and talked and had a good time together watching from the 17^th row.  After the game, we went to Café Rio for a salad.  I went to bed with a full tummy.

Sunday, November 11, 2018

      Today was a good day.  We went to church and learned about leaning on the Lord to help us make it through our trials.  Sarah Sorenson told a remarkable story about her brother-in-law snow boarding at Lake Tahoe.  He landed a jump on his neck and severely damaged his back.  He became a quadriplegic.  He received a priesthood blessing at the site of the crash and after years of rehabilitation has been able to walk again. He is limited in his motion but it is such a miracle that he can walk un-assisted and drive, and go to work.  It is simply amazing how the Lord helps us and others.
     Teagan and I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies.  They are the best tasting cookies.  I took a photo of Teagan scooping the dough and placing it on the cookie sheet.  Tim is photo bombing the picture.

      Friday was a scone fry day.  The kids invited many friends and they played and ate cinnamon sugared and powdered sugared scones.  Xadia and Teagan and friends played in the basement.  They were pretending they were on a cruise.  I think they got that idea from Zoey Kister who is leaving soon to go on a cruise.  McCabe and friends were on the tramp and in the office playing fortnite.  Jacinda and Addy sat on the couch and watched "Fresh Off the Boat."  Tim and I stood near the stove frying scones.  We talked about how fun it is to have so many kids in our house and how quiet it will be when all the kids are gone.
     I had the opportunity to meet with all the teachers this past week.  I am so proud at how well the kids are doing.  Jacinda got a 3.77 gpa.  The other kids had all threes (the highest grade) on their report card.  We celebrated by getting each child a new book and/or some trinkets at the coin shop.  Xadia got a "Diary of a Wimpy Kid Book" where you can make up the story.  McCabe got "Diary of a Wimpy Kid, The Meltdown." Teagan got a "Cool Building" minecraft book. Jacinda got a lot of neat replications of old English money such as schillings and pences.