We Made it to Combined YM/YW

We had a candle light dinner on Sunday to celebrate Valentine's Day. The kids look forward all year to our Valentine's meal. Amelia made lemonade and helped set the table. I made shrimp scampi, green beans, and cheese biscuits. Yum! We loved our intimate, small family dinner. It was nice to have it at home where our "good" manners can abound.

Monday we enjoyed an entire day with Miss Ella. Her dad dropped her off at 8 and picked her up around 6! That is one fun day for us! The kids played all morning. I started work on a new crocheted green bonnet. Around 11 we drove to Justin's work for our semi-annual work visit. Evelyn toddled in like she owned the place. Everett was immediately drawn to Justin's 10-key machine. Each kid got to take home a calculator ticket. Exciting stuff! Then we had lunch at Subway. The girls and Everett had their own table. I keep forgetting how much our kids are growing. I looked over expecting to see two little 18 month old girls, nope, instead I saw two nearly 8 year olds. After lunch I face painted the girls as Elsa and Rapunzel. The kids played the rest of the afternoon as knights and princesses. Amelia gave a wonderful lesson on the First Vision. Justin was impressed with her ability to plan the lesson and her responses to his questions.

Tuesday I spent the morning with the Watchorn family, who welcomed a new baby girl. Their two year old was a bit of a challenge! They ended up coming back on Thursday for another try at family photos. Evelyn was quite interested in helping me with the "bebe." Her most used trick was sitting on her head.

Wednesday the Beehives were in charge of combined YM/YW. Kaitlyn and I decided to have an indexing activity. It took some coordination to scrounge up enough working laptops for the youth to work on. The biggest challenge was discovering that half the laptops did not have the indexing software downloaded, in spite of us asking the owners install it before the activity. I think each youth indexed one batch, a couple youths indexed over 3 batches. I made three recipes of Chex Mix variations, (2) muddy buddies, and traditional, Trissha brought a batch of caramel Chex. I think Satan wanted to make sure I was befuddled and late for this particular activity. Right when I was stepping into the van, Phillip barfed into the toilet. The moment he flushed it was quite apparent the toilet was backed up. Everett decided he needed to pee so flushed the nearly overflowing potty. It over flowed in a major way. Barf, poo, toilet paper shreds, and pee water flooded the bathroom floor. Justin panicked. So I swiped up most of the mess and left him to sanitize the area. Gross. Then Amelia dumped out the muddy buddies onto the garage floor on accident. Thankfully most of it landed on the saran wrap. I salvaged what I could then left. Talk about stress.

Evelyn is styling herself of late! She loves to wear two different shoes, pull her skirts under her arm pits, adorn her head with headbands, and don necklaces. We love it! Phillip's word of the week was moose. If I asked him what he wanted for lunch his standard reply was moose and pickle sandwiches. If he got upset I hear him utter "Moose!" like an explicative. Everett requested a lettuces, cucumbers, and branches salad for breakfast this week. He ate most of it!

Amelia checked out some young adult books at the library. I found her engrossed in the book, "The Thirteenth Princess" before bed on Friday. She read a 1/4 of the book before bed! I think I read the same book last year. We deep cleaned bathrooms and bedrooms yesterday while the snow came down most of the day. It is hard to believe Justin and I are leaving for 6 days tomorrow morning. I wrote a long essay detailing schedules, routines, maps, and phone numbers for Sister Peters and my Mom. The Primary kids sang "A Child's Prayer" in sacrament meeting today. As soon as Phillip was on the stand he wiggled to the front and started wiggling his expressive eyebrows! Everett rubbed RJs hair, which does feel really cool. Justin delivered a thoughtful talk on missionary work last moment. The visiting High Council cancelled because of snow. Justin was around so he stepped up! Justin finally agreed to start taking high blood pressure and cholesterol medication this week. We gotta keep him alive! Har har.