A mix of things

I finally scheduled Genevieve’s friend party, only a month and a half after her birthday, lololol. I took her and six friends to Boondocks and we had just the best time. They did laser tag and go carts and ate pizza and had cookies and laughed and laughed and played and it was just really fun. 

I had to take a picture of my cute table Halloween centerpiece. I love it so much. I’ve never really had cutesie house stuff before but I have some now and it makes me happy. 

Bathroom is finished  and I love it too!

Aaron is thrilled that he’s going to start karate in November. We got him a gi and he’s just so excited about that. 

I think this may very well be the cutest birthday present I can imagine. Genevieve’s best friend made it for her. So, so, so cute. 

This is my newest finished table runner. Might not use it for awhile since it’s the holidays now, but I’ll have it in January. 

 

Conference weekend

 We had a lovely weekend. Started off Saturday with a soccer game for Spencer. They ended up tying as the score goes, but his team had no subs and ended up down a player the entire second half and still the other team only tied them about three quarters of the way through the game. They played so incredibly well. I love watching him play. And this team beat us the first time we played them, so this was awesome. They played another team Friday night. A very different feel of game, still great. They also tied that one, and same situation, that team beat us the first time they played.

Conference was lovely. I really enjoyed the talks this go around. I painted the kids' bathroom while I listened. I ran out of paint today to finish, but it's close. It's very bright and cheery. 

This was post first coat. It always looks terribly splotchy with the first coat. You've gotta have faith in the process!

The part over the shower is done here, but you can see the big wall on the right is still splotchy. It hasn't had the second coat added yet. 

I actually ran out of paint, but this corner is done over the door and on the short walls. 

I still need to do a second coat on the big walls, but I was able to get the edges done all the way around before I ran out of paint. I can use the roller for the rest, so I took off the few places I taped and made sure they looked good and this bathroom is usable until I can finish. 

My monstera plant grew a new leaf this week. That's always fun. Bill snipped that big leaf on the right almost a year ago now if I remember right, at my niece's wedding reception. We rooted it and then planted the single leaf in that huge pot and eventually the second leaf grew and now a third. I'm tickled to have a monstera that I got for free. 

And I got this succulents for this pot of Spencer's he had tried growing some flowers in. They didn't do too much, but this is a super cute centerpiece on my table. It's a concrete pot, so it looks pretty cool with the succulents in it. 

As far as the rest of the week went, Genevieve got these super cute light purple glasses. 

This whole week the kids were off and on sick. Chloe picked up a stomach bug last Saturday and it just lasted and lasted and lasted and passed around to all four kids. I started taking immunity supplements somewhere mid week hoping to avoid it. So far neither Bill and I have gotten sick, but all the kids got some version and it just kind of hung around. This was Aaron and Chloe on Thursday getting some vitamin d for a bit before they went back to binge watching Netflix and trying not to throw up and coughing their lungs out. 

Genevieve almost escaped, but it got her yesterday and she spent most of the day out of it. She was a lot better today, thankfully. She didn't get the stomach bug, just the cough and headache. Here's hoping this week will be healthier. 

Crazy busy weekend

 What an insanely busy weekend we had! Started it out with Chloe waking us up at 2am throwing up. No fun at all! She had it in her hair and all over part of her bed so we had to bathe her and take care of the bed. Wooh! That tweaked all the plans that day. Instead of all of us going to Bill’s f3 family day workout, he took Spencer and Genevieve alone and I stayed home with the two littles. I worked on some Saturday morning cleaning while he did the workout and left a bit early to make it to Spencer’s soccer game. Spencer totally scored! And neither of us got to see it. I think it’s his first goal ever. He usually plays midfield or defense, so less scoring opportunities. Wish I could have seen it. 

I piled the littles in the car and took them to pick up Genevieve and then took her to her game while Bill finished at Spencer’s. Then they joined us at her game, which her team won as well, before taking the other three home while I finished watching her play. 

We headed home for a tiny bit and then went down to Payson to move my mom, which ended up taking the rest of the day! Thankfully Chloe was finally able to keep stuff down by then so that was better as Spencer and Genevieve babysat the littles so they didn’t have to all come. 

 I made a carrot cake at literally 9pm and even had to make a quick Walmart run at 10pm for whipping cream. I think we got to bed a little after midnight. It was nuts. 

Sunday started out with a trip down to Payson to pick up my mom’s fridge and a few other things that didn’t fit in the truck the day before. Bill’s dad helped us with it, which was so incredibly awesome. We got back just in time to get ready for church.

 

Sunday was also the first meeting of our new ward. No one has callings yet, so everyone was pinch hitting the needs for the Sunday meeting. I got asked to play the organ on Friday and then the piano in primary on Sunday morning. And then while playing the piano in primary the nursery leader came in and asked if we’d be doing singing in nursery. So Bill ran home and got the stuff and then we did that too. 

Right after church we ate lunch then headed to grandma and grandpas in Herriman so I could quilt a table runner I made for my mom for her birthday. We left in time to go to the party that evening and made it home in time for kids bedtime. Wooh!

It was honestly the busiest weekend I’ve had in a long time. We basically did everything we needed to like ten minutes before it was due. It was just that sort of weekend. Or they slightly overlapped. We had to do a book report poster for Aaron and a reading chart picture thing for Chloe in there somewhere as well. I did not start out today well rested, that is for sure!

All that being said, it was an awesome weekend. Both kids won their soccer games. Chloe was only sick for half a day. We successfully moved my mom out of her house. We had a birthday party. We saw all our grandparents and aunts and uncles that live here. It was bonkers busy, but in a good way. I could go for a little less crazy next weekend but I’m not holding my breath, hahahaha!

First kid in braces

 It’s a little slim this week on photos. But we did have a big event for Aaron. He’s our first kid to start braces! I imagine all four will eventually have them, but he gets to blaze the trail. Kind of unusual as a third child to be the first to do something. It was just a tad rough while he was getting them on. The retractor they use to hold your mouth open really started to hurt him before they were done, but he got through it and now he’s the proud wearer of four braces on his top teeth to help a little with a cross bite and some other issues. He’ll have them for less than a year and then when he’s a teenager will likely do a second round. 

We had a busy, busy Saturday with soccer games and a temple trip for me and Bill. We did manage to do a fire and roast some marshmallows at grandma’s house last night. That was fun. 

And last big news is our ward split today at church. We’re now members of the 11th ward in our stake. That’s right, you read that correct, eleven wards in a stake. Typically they start looking to split a stake when you have ten wards. So I imagine it won’t be too long before we’ll see that as a big change at church as well. Bill and I previously had some very fun callings. I was the nursery song leader, and he came along to help. He was on the activities committee. As our new ward now has zero people in a calling save the bishopric, I imagine we’ll be getting calls for new callings in the coming week or weeks. I’m always up for a change, so this will be fun to see what new thing we get asked to do. 

Aaron got baptized 😍

 Yesterday was a special day at our house. Aaron turned eight back in July, but it was the day after that month's stake baptism, so he would have gotten baptized in August, but his grandma and grandpa couldn't come. So he decided to wait for another whole month and be baptized at the September baptism for the stake, which was yesterday. 

We had an absolutely lovely morning celebrating him and his decision to get baptized. Grandparents on both sides came plus aunts and uncles and cousins. We had a brunch at our house beforehand and then all went up to the church together. Bill baptized him and I gave the talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost. We sang his two favorite songs, I will Stand and Gethsemane. Those are tear jerkers! He asked each person specifically to do the prayers, play the piano, lead the music, give the talk. He even got to ask Spencer and Genevieve to be the witnesses.  It's pretty cool to be able to make all those decisions for your own special event. 

It was just a lovely morning and I'm so proud of him. 

Genevieve finished her constellations in her room this week. 

We also went to Bear Lake for Labor Day. That was super fun. We brought a couple of our kayaks and camped one night and then swam and kayaked and ate a bunch of tasty food. It was super fun. 

The bigs’ room etc.

 Over the years we have switched our kids around in who shares with whom in their bedrooms a bunch of different ways. It turns out that having the older two share and the younger two share has worked better generally than putting the boys and girls together. I don’t know how much longer they’ll be okay with sharing boys and girls in the same room, but for now it’s working. 

It makes it a little more complicated picking room paint themes with their differing opinions. We still haven’t picked a theme for the younger two, but the older two found one they liked and I painted their room yesterday. I really love how it turned out. Here’s the progress pictures and the finished product. I ended up staying up really late last night and I have no regrets. There will be stars on the mountain behind Genevieve’s bed as well once they come in the mail.

I’ve struggled a little bit the last year living in this house, which is lovely, and I love it, but it’s not the single family home with a yard and room to garden and grow things and have our trampoline and whatever else I dream about. But since we did actually buy it, now that I’m personalizing it and changing out light fixtures and painting, I love it so much more and the rush to have all the things right this very second is starting to fade. I really appreciate that! Painting my room is up next and the downstairs bathroom and the kids bathroom. And then somewhere in there we’ll start our basement finish. I’m excited about the prospects. 

I did a couple sewing projects yesterday morning too. It was a SUPER productive day. I was really tired so I didn’t go to my workouts and then instead I painted for a zillion hours. Haha! Not exactly a low energy activity. But I started the day doing the bindings on a couple table runners and modifying the neckline of a shirt that I like the cut but not the neckline. I love how it turned out. 

I made some gluten free bagels yesterday morning too. They’re pretty tasty! I’ve been fighting for a few years the reality that my body works way better if I eat gluten free. I kind of hate that! But I think I may finally need to buckle down and eat that way if I want to feel better in a number of different ways. Thankfully there’s a lot better products and recipes out there nowadays for gluten free options. 

I installed this tools pegboard in my garage Friday night. I love it too. I love having a place to put my tools instead of all jumbled into a toolbox. It’s a little thing, but I’ve never had a house I could do that in before this one. Feels like a long time coming and so it brings me so much joy now. ♥️♥️♥️