i have a few minutes before the kids gets home and I figured that I had better catch you up on last week before Sunday rolls around and I need to write about this week! :)
Sounds like it was a wonderful blessing for baby George on Sunday. I am glad that Mom and Dad, Alisha and Steve and their kids could be there. We are looking forward to meeting George and seeing all of the cousins in just a couple of weeks.
Thanks to Mom and Dad and to Jason for sending such great emails. It was wonderful to catch up on what is happening in Japan. I remember the Spring that we were there and the snow was SO HIGH as we drove to Nozawa and then walked through the town. I think that another Japan trip is going to be coming up for us now that Jantzen and Aubrey can go. I don’t know if it will be this year, but perhaps next is more feasible for us. We will have to sit down with the Japan Holt’s and figure out a good time between our two school schedules. We wish you the best as you look at new investors in the coming months.
Per my title, it was a snowy day yesterday and all night long for St. Patrick’s Day. Everyone appreciated the warm crockpot full of corned beef and cabbage with potatoes and carrots when they all came in from the cold yesterday evening. Today the sun has been out and melted everything. It was very wet snow and will greatly bless our plants and trees and the farmer’s fields.
Anyway, back to last week. It was pretty full but full of good things. Actually, as I look back on my calendar, I am having a hard time remembering exactly what we did! Scary! Jason went to California and had very successful meetings there. Everyone was out of school on Monday except for Ashtyn but she never minds. She likes going to school! :) We had had a busy weekend so we stayed around and caught up on the house and music practicing and then the kids got to play with their friends. We had some GORGEOUS weather that week and we enjoyed riding bikes and playing at a couple of different parks, plus our own backyard and driveway.
Jantzen bounces his basketball practically nonstop these days. Next week we start soccer so I am interested to see if he trades his basketball for his soccer ball or if he keeps playing both. He had said that he liked soccer the best but he had some pretty amazing growth in basketball this year too. I always let him go out and shoot some hoops right after he gets home from school. Then he’s ready to sit down and do his music practicing and homework.
Alyssa made a lot of sugar scrub for me for all of my visiting teaching ladies and our cleaning ladies. She loves to make things like that and do little crafty, decorating things. She worked really hard to re-learn a harp piece that she will play with the Primary for Easter. She was really frustrated but as I encouraged her and then left her alone, she looked at the music and pretty much re-wrote her whole part. Now she has learned it and is proud of herself.
Aubrey helps me a lot with Jarrett these days. He is getting to be quite a handful!!! The other day I was working in my room and trying to get him dressed for bed. He ran off and then came back with something in his mouth……smelled yummy and very familiar. He wouldn’t pry open his mouth but in his chubby little fist there was half of a thin mint Girl Scout cookie. The little stinker had gone into the kitchen, opened the freezer and helped himself to a cookie on the bottom shelf. Then he ran away before I could put his PJ’s on and I followed him. Sure enough, he headed straight for the freezer, opened it up and was in the middle of helping himself to another cookie when I snuck up on him. He squealed and ran away, laughing. Oh, what a stinker! He also figured out how to open up the bin of bird food. He spent a couple of days having a hey day of playing in the birdseed(like a rice table) before I got smart and moved it from the pantry to the outside deck. He found it two days ago and I didn’t notice that he had left the lid off and it was all snowed on this morning. Oh, he is such a mess maker these days…….He also loves taking the dirty dishes out of the dishwasher, taking laundry out of the washer or dryer while it’s in process of being washed or dried and pretty much anything else that would wreak havoc in my housekeeping day. Good thing he’s cute! :)
The highlight of our week was going to Denver on Friday afternoon. We were meeting Jason (who had just flown in from CA) and the Denver Holt’s at this great park by the Denver Holts house. Traffic was a total disaster for us and I vowed to take the kids out of school early the next time we planned to meet them. At any rate, we DID make it and we DID get to play at the cool park until it got dark. Then, Ryan and Jenn were very kind to keep Aubrey and Jarrett for us while Jason and I took the older three downtown to a performance of “Lamb of God” by Rob Gardner. It was in a beautiful, old Methodist church right downtown. Beautiful, hand carved wood and stained glass windows. We sat in the balcony and had a magnificent view of the harp, cello and the conductor. It was a phenomenal evening! If any of you are not familiar with this recording, I would highly suggest that you check into it. I bought the album on iTunes as we were driving away that night, it was THAT good. It really moved me and I felt the Spirit very intensely. My testimony of the Savior was strengthened and I am so glad that we took our kids to see/hear it. They need experiences like that in our world today. We have been listening to the soundtrack daily. :) Aubrey had a wonderful time with Ben and I am assuming Jarrett did too…..although he didn’t fall asleep so well. Thanks to Ryan and Jenn again for keeping our littles so we could do that. We’ll get to see them for Easter weekend and we are really looking forward to that as well.
Ashtyn and I stayed the night in Denver and Jason took the other kids home since we had two cars there anyway. Ashtyn and I stayed down by the temple and got up early to both participate in baptisms on Saturday morning. It was a very meaningful time spent together. There were quite a few families there and so we did have to wait but we did not feel rushed at all. We enjoyed reading the New Era magazine together and talking about some of the articles. It was fulfilling to do the baptisms and confirmations with her instead of just watching. One of the gentlemen working in the baptistry that morning had been in my same district in the MTC - how cool! He had gone to Switzerland. It was really neat to see someone whom I had known as a strong, young elder and to see that he was now a strong, father of 5, serving in the temple. It was just really cool to think about that. Ashtyn and I stopped in Loveland on our way home because we had been unable to find her some dress shoes to go with her Easter dress. In about one hour we were blessed to find not only her shoes (on clearance for $15) but also shoes that Alyssa had been needing (on clearance also) and other items I had been trying to find for the other kids (yep, all on clearance!). I know that it was material stuff, but I still felt like it was a blessing from the Lord and that He was helping me to find what I needed in the time that I had.
After we got home, we got to work cleaning up the house and practicing music. Always with the practicing of music around here…… Jason had gone to take Alyssa to her friend’s house for the afternoon and run by the store for me. He called me on the way home and joked about playing a round of golf (since it was about 65 degrees) and I told him that he really ought to. He said he was going to come by home and pick up Jantzen and Aubrey to go golfing with him. I hung up the phone and just thought how lucky my kids were that they have a dad who wants to take them with him when he is going to do something that he likes to do. Too many guys I know would have rather asked their friends or gone by themselves. I am so grateful for Jason and what a great husband and father he is. They all had a total blast golfing together that afternoon and all came home very happy. Jason and I got out to dinner that night just the two of us. Ashtyn and Alyssa were more than willing to babysit after I had bought them their shoes. They are really good about that and I appreciate that they are learning how we help each other in a family. It’s not always easy but I like to notice when I see growth in them.
Anyway, kids are home now. I hope everyone had a very happy week!
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