Burning Olympus

Zac and I went and saw Devin play last night.  It was a great show!  He has been playing regularly for this restaurant, and I've been wanting to see him.  They had these flyers up at every register advertising Devin and larger ones posted on the doors and windows.  We met up with Dad and Diane and enjoyed some authentic Italian food and some great music.

Zac told me that I needed to stop 'cheering outloud' for Devin in between songs.  Zac was getting embarrassed.  I was instructed I was only suppose to clap.  I then had to tell Dad to stop whistling while Devin is playing. I'm glad I was able to see him play.  He is super talented!  Afterwards Zac and I realized we didn't add to his 'tip' jar.  Sorry Devin!  I will tip you on Sunday. :)  Thanks for inviting us!

He's a member!

Eric was baptized yesterday!  We are so proud of him for making the decision to be baptized.  It went really well.  Eric got to be the first one baptized (his friend Logan was also baptized yesterday).  After he was baptized we went into the Primary room for the program.  Aubrey really wanted to sing at Eric's baptism, so she chose to sing "I am a Child of God."  As we were walking into the Primary room Aubrey turns to me and said, "Oh no Mom!  I forgot the words."  She has been struggling with the phrase "Teach me all that I can do" she sings it as "Teach me all that I can know."  We have been working all week on having her say the right word.  When she would get it wrong she would stop singing and say, "Dang it!"  Or if she got it right she would stop singing and say "Yes!"  Secretly I was hoping for a little Aubrey outburst during her solo.  Anyways, when I told her she would be fine, she said, "No Mom!  I forgot ALL the words!"  She was really nervous.  She was in line to sing after the talk.  During the entire talk she was singing the song quietly to herself over and over again. 

Finally it was Aubrey's turn to sing.  She got right up to the microphone, and before I could sit down at the piano she started singing.  We had to stop her and wait for me to play the piano.  She did a wonderful job!  She got all the lyrics right, and no outbursts.  I loved hearing her sweet voice sing into the microphone.  I am so proud of her for not getting stage fright.  I had a back-up planned if she ended up refusing to sing, and luckily I didn't have to use it. 

I took Eric to get his baptism pictures done in his suit.  We got them back yesterday. He looks like a little missionary in this picture.  We compared it to Devin's mission picture.  Same background and everything.

Eric got to be confirmed first too.  Zac gave Eric a beautiful blessing.  I am so blessed that he is a worthy priesthood holder.  After the confirmation took place Eric told me that he feels different.  That he feels really warm and really, really happy.  We had such a great turn out at the baptism.  All of my intermediate family and step family were there.  Zac's sister Barb came, and my Aunt Sharon, Uncle Steve and cousin Stephanie also showed up.  Eric had invited some friends too and their families came as well.  Thank you to everyone for your support in this special day for Eric.  I only have one regret, and that is I didn't take a picture of just Eric in his baptism suit.  I had every intention to do it, but it was hectic in the morning and I forgot.

The entire baptism/confirmation only took 40 minutes.  We had a good hour before the restaurant opened.  Everyone went home and changed clothes then headed over to Emmett's and Ethel's burger restaurant to eat.  We got there right when they were unlocking their doors.

Lily was great and slept almost the entire time.  We all ate burgers (except for Madison who ordered chili) and got ice cream.

We conveniently had all the kids sit at a separate table.  It worked great.

Jennifer loves her ice cream.

The kids started to get a little rowdy and we noticed they were putting ice cream and sauce on their faces.

Yep, right after this picture the ice cream ended up in her nostril.

Yesterday we went to Lagoon.  Dad took Eric and Aubrey to Lagoon in the morning and Zac brought Jennifer to me at work after my meetings.  (He stayed home with Lily.) It was a lot of fun, but it wears the kids out.  As soon as we got back from the restaurant after the baptism, Jennifer went and grabbed all her sleeping stuff and fell asleep within 10 minutes of watching Sponge bob.

That night we had a ward BBQ.  Zac was in charge of teaching couponing while we were there.  It was suppose to go from 5-7, and Zac didn't get home until 9 pm with Eric.  My kids bedtime is 7:30 pm.  So when they came home I told Eric to get his pajamas on and go to bed.  He got dressed and came back to me and asked me if he could read his scriptures in his room since we didn't have family scripture study tonight.  I told him that it was late and he could read them tomorrow.  He replies, "I made a promise today Mom to keep all of Heavenly Father's commandments.  I am not breaking that promise."  He can be such a good example.

Lily is growing up so fast.  She crawls really fast now, climbs UP the stairs (not down) and pulls herself up to standing.   She hasn't figured out how to SIT down after she stands up, so she will scream.  But she is cruising around everywhere as long as there is an edge she can hold while she is standing.  We got back her 9 month pictures yesterday.

Eric had basketball camp this week at the high school.  I told Zac to make sure Eric didn't wear a shirt under his jersey because he would be really hot.  So Zac told Eric, and Eric goes, "But then everyone will see my under arms."  I thought he was being so cute.  He really wanted to be modest.  Nope.  Apparently he had put some of Aubrey's rub-on butterfly tattoos under his arms so that I wouldn't find out.  Now, everyone at basketball camp would see them.

Dirty Dash

I stole these pictures from Jordyn's blog.  We did the "Dirty Dash" on Saturday in Midway.  It was by far the funnest 5k I have ever done!

This is all of us before the race.

This is the starting line.

We are at the finish line.  This picture doesn't do the height of this mud hill justice.  My ear was CAKED with mud.  It was so much fun.  I definitely want to race it again next year.

Zac found Jennifer on top of our dining table this past week.  She always hides when she plays Eric's DS.  I love how her feet are up against the wall.

This week was Eagle Mountain's Pony Express Days.  There was a carnival at the park by our house.  The kids wanted to get their faces painted.  They had free balloons, toothbrushes, t-shirts, etc at the carnival.  I let the kids go on 2 rides each.  They thought Lagoon has better rides.

Our neighbor took Aubrey to the demolition derby on Wednesday night.  When she came home she was very concerned that some of the drivers got hurt.  I guess one of them crashed into a cement wall.

This was picture 1 of 5 of Jennifer.  I could not get her to keep her head turned while I took a picture.  This was the best one that turned out.  The kids are now out of school.  Hurray for no more homework!  Eric starts a basketball camp at the high school tomorrow.  He is really looking forward to it.

Anna and Madison spent the night last night.  Justin and his family were here watching a movie and the fireworks started from the concert.  Aubrey and Anna spent most of the time out on the deck watching and cheering.  I finally brought them in and had them watch from my bedroom window.  

Memorial Weekend

This was a busy weekend!  Friday night after work I met up with Diane and her girls and Bobby for a girls night out.  We went over to Zupa's for dinner and played cards for 4 or 5 hours.  Amy brought this really great card game called 'Table Topics' or something like that.  She would pull out a card and ask everybody the question on the card.  It was a great way to get to know each other! (They were questions like 'do you take baths or showers', etc.)

Saturday morning I went to lunch with Dad and Aubrey.  After lunch we stopped at Mom's grave and put some roses on it.  I told Dad we were all meeting on Monday morning, but he didn't want her grave to go empty all weekend.  Aubrey tried REALLY hard to keep one of the roses.  When we left she hopped on top of Mom's headstone and gave it a big hug.  So cute.  When I came home, Zac went to go work on my co-worker's parents house for the rest of the day/evening.

Sunday night we headed to Amy's house to celebrate Diane's birthday.  She put together a family feud game about Diane.  We split up boys vs. girls.  I am surprised at how we are ALL competitive.  Diane said Zac is competitive with a 'swagger.'  It was a really fun game.  Everyone got really into it.  Afterwards we ate her favorite dessert, ice cream sandwiches.

Monday morning we went to Mom's grave to decorate it.  Dad made sure all the kids got to put flowers in the vases for Mom.  It's amazing how after 6 years of her being gone, it's still so hard.  I always thought it would get easier with time.  It doesn't.  If anything, I think it gets worse knowing all the things she's missing out on, and seeing, and being a part of.  I'm really lucky that Diane likes to talk about Mom whenever we want, and she joins in the conversation.  All of Diane's girls encourage talking about her too.

After the cemetery I took Lily in for her 9 month pictures.  She did really well and I get them back 1 1/2 weeks from now.  I brought Aubrey along to ensure I would get a smile.  Whenever Lily looks at Aubrey she smiles.  I have to WORK for her to smile at me.  That night we went back over to Dad's for a BBQ.  After we ate the rain finally stopped and we headed over to the elementary school to play some baseball and volleyball.  Zac was actually playing BOTH sports and was doing well!  Who is this guy?  He has NEVER played sports with me.  I have tried and tried to get him to play and he won't.  Then this weekend he buys a baseball mitt and starts playing.  He hit the ball so hard he broke the casing on it!  I like this new side of him!  I was shocked to see Dad diving for the ball too.  I knew he played baseball while we were growing up, but I haven't seen him play in a long time.  He hit the ground going after the volleyball more than anyone else!  It was really fun.

Lily has started doing her stinky/squinty face.  All of our kids have done it.  She will randomly look at us and stink/squint her face.  Then she laughs.  She is growing up too fast.  She has also started to climb up the stairs today.  Darn!  She loves to crawl into our cat's bed.  It annoys him so much.  She will crawl and chase after him, but she's not very fast.  As soon as she reaches his bed she climbs right in.  Our cat sits next to her waiting for her to get out.

 

Random pictures.  Aubrey wanted me to post a picture of her eating with her chopsticks for Uncle Matt.

Mmm raman noodles.

Happy Birthday Eric!

Wow - lots of pictures this post.  Today is Eric's 8th birthday!  I can't believe he's already 8!  We had a party for him on Saturday (the only day it didn't rain last week) and it went well.  Before his party the kids had baseball games:

Aubrey's game started 20 minutes before Eric's game.  By the time Eric's game was finished, we had a 1/2 hour to run home and set up for his party.  The guests started to arrive 10 minutes early, and for a good while there, it was mainly girls.  Yep.  His teacher's right, Eric loves the girls.  When we were writing out the invites I asked Eric how many people were in his class.  He started to guess the number.  I then told him to draw out on a piece of paper where everyone sits, then I will count the desks.  It worked.  There were 31 desks.  I saw one desk all by itself in the front of the room by the wall.  I asked Eric if that is where the teacher sits.  "No.  That's MY seat.  Mrs. Bean sits right next to me."  Wonderful.

Eric wanted a "backyards olympic" birthday party.  We started out by playing belly burst with balloons.

Next is the backwards crab walk.

We did a relay race of carrying cotton on a spoon.  If you dropped the cotton, you had to go back to the starting line.

Hula hoop relay.

Pass the sand.

Clothes pin drop into a cup.

Paper plane making contest.  Tucker won for his original design.

Paper plane throwing contest.  Eric won that.  He was so excited.  He told me that out of all the games, that was the one he needed to win.

He really wanted a tank cake for his birthday.  He has been asking for this cake the past 3 years.  I finally was able to order it early enough for the store to have the tank he wanted.

Jennifer enjoying some cake.

Eric and Aubrey all dressed up.

This picture does not do it justice.  Aubrey decided she wanted Jennifer's hair to look like her cousin Madison.  If you see the longest piece of hair, ALL of her hair was that length.  Aubrey also cut in several layers into her hair.  Luckily, since Jennifer's hair is curly you can't tell how bad it was cut.

Our usual Sunday picture.  It started to rain while we were outside.

Finally, Eric's birthday.  He got a lot of very exciting presents this year- a suit, scriptures, and cub scout uniform and book.  Although it's not the "funnest" present for kids, it was still pretty pricey!

We did splurge and get Eric 2 toys.  He got a star wars lego set and a light saber.

Zac's brother lives in Misawa, Japan.  He sent us all a package today.  Perfect timing for Eric's birthday!  The kids were so excited to open up their own package.

Eric squealed, yes squealed, when he saw the uniform.

Aubrey LOVES her Hello Kitty pillow and pencil set.  I don't understand the fascination with Hello Kitty but Aubrey loves it.  She is always asking for Hello Kitty stuff.  Matt did well!

Jennifer loves her bear too.

Eric couldn't wait to put on the uniform. 

To show you how big this bear is, Lily conveniently curled up her legs for this pictures.

Okay, she caught us taking her picture.

Zac is going to kill me for posting this picture.  But I say, if you don't want me to post the picture, then don't POSE for it! :)

Matt got me some beautiful Japanese bowls and chopsticks.

He got the kids a lot of Japanese candy.  Everyone was immediately digging in trying the different flavors.

This is a Lilo and Stitch bar thing.  Aubrey loves Lilo and Stitch.  Zac wanted to document her experience with tasting it.

For the record, it smells like dehydrated fish.

It stunk up our garbage can.  So gross.  Thanks Matt for all the wonderful presents from Japan!