Temple Excursion

We've heard a lot about Sabbath Day expectations lately in church, in the Ensign, and from our prophet. A couple weeks ago we made some newer goals as a family to keep the Sabbath Day holy. I enjoy writing my entries each week for this family journal. It does take some time. One goal was to cut down my time so the kids get more attention. Last week on Sunday the kids and I spent a happy hour or two playing Legos in the side yard. I really do enjoy making such moments happen and a prevalent part of our family.  Monday for FHE we got to feed the Elders for dinner. Justin and I made chicken fried steaks, potatoes, gravy, and salad. It is pretty easy and delicious to make. The Elders gave us a nice lesson on prayer, perfectly leveled at the kids. After the Elders left Justin got dressed up in Sunday clothes to give us Father's blessings. We somehow forgot to do this when school first started. It seemed even more poignant a month after school started. Evelyn went first...she did not enjoy Justin's hands on her head. We all got a wonderful blessing by Justin and our Heavenly Father. I even got a nice blessing. Amelia and I had tears in our eyes before he finished mine. Amelia is pretty tenderhearted! She needed lots of snuggles afterwards. We are very grateful for each of our blessings.

I finally got around to canning a couple quarts of jalapenos from our garden. I seem to have an addiction to jalapenos and nachos this pregnancy. I am trying to stay away from nachos since I don't need any more extra weight to lose. Jalapenos....those are totally healthy. Ha ha. We all started coughing while I cut the jalapenos and cleaned off the utinsels. Once the dishwasher started we were all in coughing fits from the jalapeno-tinged air. Thankfully, the affliction did not last long. One of our favorite afternoon activities is either playing a game in the yard or the livingroom. Everett loves to play Feed the Woozle. He gets all kinds of crazy when we play that game.

Tuesday afternoon the kids really wanted to play at a park so we went to the flower gardens. A few teenagers were hanging out blasting music with terrible lyrics and hanging from the gazebo rafters. Amelia kept saying how uncomfortable she felt and that we needed to leave. She is very rule conscious of late. So we found the play yard at South Elementary was available. The kids had a blast playing for a while. We played so long that there was not enough time to make dinner, cereal it was.

Evelyn discovered the joys of coloring on her skin this week. She can now be found with self-inflicted drawings on her arms and legs. She will color on herself as she reprimands herself. It is pretty funny. I spent a day cleaning out the extra toys and toys the kids did not play with. As I cleaned Evelyn would decorate herself. My favorite outfit consisted of a tutu, one glove, a binocular case purse, princess shoes, a purse as a hat, and a scarf. She looked quite fancy! I ended up taking 4 separate trips to Salvation Army and the consignment store of toy items. Phew, that was nice. Now it all fits in one cabinet again. Evelyn insisted on wearing her newly discovered fancy princess shoes to Amelia's piano lesson. I love, love, love this stage.

Friday morning Evelyn and I volunteered to help with Math Centers in Phillip's classroom. I helped the kids play shape bingo. I am not surprised Evelyn found markers to decorate her arms. She was quite a good helper. Phillip was so excited to have his mom in class.

After school we quickly got the van packed up with a few items to last overnight. Once Justin got home we headed down to Denver for a temple trip. We got to Sterling when the low tire pressure light came on. Justin put more air in the tire only to hear air escaping the more pressure he put into the tire. A can of tire goo temporarily fixed the issue. Justin realized he forgot his c-pap machine at the same time. He dropped us off to find dinner while he made the trip back home. The kids and I got some food at Santiagos, much to the amusement of the patrons our 4 kids behaved quite well considering I was the only parent. I heard several folks muttering about a lady eating alone with 4 small kids. After dinner we walked down the street to check out a farmer's market, all the stalls were closed up by the time we walked by. It was chilly outside so we walked over to McDonald's and their play place. It was perfect for 4 crazy kids. The kids got to play for over an hour! Justin met us in the parking lot where we dressed the kids in PJs for the rest of the 2.5 hour ride. Evelyn of course fell asleep on the drive. She woke up as Justin pulled into the hotel. Everyone was asleep by 10:30...except Evelyn and I. Soon after Evelyn finally drifted off to sleep at 11:30 the smoke detector in our room started beeping every 10 seconds. Trust me...it was 10 seconds. So I slipped out of the room and had a guy quietly change the battery. Blessed silence. Until Evelyn started coughing her head off. Poor kid coughed and coughed until after 5 am. I am grateful Justin reserved a suite so at least Amelia and the boys all slept well. The Rognon family showed up at 7:15 am to watch all 8 of our collective kids. Justin and I went through the 8 am session. Of course I was pretty sleepy during the session. I resorted to poking my leg with the safety pin attached to my locker key. It mostly worked. We had a chance to get new garments while the Rognons and kids made the short trip to the temple. We took the kids to a nearby chapel while the Rognons had their turn. We were quite dismayed that the nursery toy closet was well-secured. The kids barely survived by playing school, eating snacks, and running in the gym. Then we grabbed some tacos for lunch and walked around the temple until their session was over. It is crazy trying to go through the temple with small kids. Imagine 8 kids with each age duplicated! Nuts.

Amelia was thrilled to take her doll to the American Doll store to get her ears pierced. Samantha got new turquoise earrings and three other sets to change into. Her eyes were huge as we explored the store. She is still smiling! She reports it is the store of her dreams. I must admit being just as excited! I always wanted the Samantha doll and all her accessories. The lady who gave Samantha back to Amelia was pretty cute. She gave her instructions on caring for newly pierced doll ears. If I had a million dollars I might just buy out the store....for Amelia?! I wanted a new dress to cover my belly but alas, all the dresses this season were way to long for my shorter stature. Guess I will be wearing skirts and sweaters. I am quite enthralled with the newly released nursing garments. All the ladies will be excited to know nursing flaps are out the windows. Welcome the new criss-cross design. I wanted 10 but the store only had 7, guess I will made due with 7 tops.

**Evelyn's new phrase of the week: "OOOooooooo, I sorrowy!" It is so adorable. Even Amelia does not mind if Evelyn pulls her hair when she says sorry in such a cute way.