Surprise Party























Saturday night as I sang the kids to sleep, I hear a mournful voice crying about not getting daddy a gift. Amelia was in tears. I promised her the next day we would make Daddy something...like pocket warmers. The tears vanished. As soon as Justin went to take a nap Amelia was on my lap asking for help to make pocket warmers. She had no idea what a pocket warmer looked like, but the idea sounded utterly inviting to her. I helped her cut 3 flannel squares, sew the squares together, fill them with rice, and hand sew the open seams closed. She was so excited that pocket warmers also doubled as bean bags. Soon that idea warped into the kids organizing a surprise birthday party. Waiting until after dinner was agony. I heard their excited voices in the basement making a list of games and cards. There were 6 games: Guess who said what nice compliment about Justin, spank the kids, bean toss goal, treasure hunt, card opening, and charades. My favorite was the Darth Vader card Amelia made for Justin. She found it on google and immediately fell in love with the card, cause Justin loves Star Wars. I hope Justin enjoyed all the attention. I sure loved what the kids put together.

Monday for FHE we focused on cleaning and organizing the storage room. I needed to make a list of what items to replenish from our food storage. The kids "helped" count cans. Amelia helped me list on paper what I need to purchase. Since the storage room was finally put to rights I carried on and attacked my photo prop closet the next day. Oh my goodness. I've avoided the closet for years now. Even when I moved the stuff over to the closet I did not sort and prioritize the props. After two days I ended up with a huge pile of stuff to sell/donate. I am sad that crocheted items are not popular anymore. I have 72 crocheted hats on my hands! Add about 30 headbands, 20 diaper covers, and other props I no longer use for a lot of things to get rid of. I am pleased that the big items did sell rather quickly for $150 profit! Yay.

Phillip is doing so well in speech that Mrs Lori will only come once or twice a month! Wednesday she had the boys tell her stories from picture cards to assess how well Phillip talks in sentences. He is saying all his sounds most of the time and is now only making developmental mistakes common in 5 year olds! Yay!

Amelia woke up at midnight on Tuesday covered in barf. I stripped her bed and had Justin wrap her up in a spare quilt with a bowl. Poor kid! She ran a low fever half the next day. No other symptoms popped up and so far noone else has barfed. I covered the kids in OnGuard and Digestzen hoping to stave off the inevitable. Amelia was SOOOOO bored without Phillip around to play with. She helped for a couple seconds prepping carrots from our garden to freeze. I scraped off the dirt and outer skin then rinsed the carrots off in fresh water. It was a dirty and cold task that took me 3 hours. My hands are quite chapped now! Justin processed the carrots and vacuumed sealed portion bags of carrots. Yay! Now we have a year's worth of carrots for soup and meals. Wednesday evening was our YW night of Excellence. The girls each presented something that related their testimony of Christ. The girls presented poems, art work, song, and scriptures. It was very touching. Sister Siler made her famous creme puff cake. I enjoyed dorking out with my beehives afterwards.

Thursday we barely made it in time for Amelia's piano recital at the E-Free church. Kathleen invited us to join her recitals twice a year. Amelia chose to perform "Boat Dock" and "Away in a Manger." She chose the second song just a week ago. I was a little nervous for her! I accompanied her on both songs. I do love that about the Alfred piano systems. We did mess up Away in a Manger so started over after the 6th measure. The second time went splendidly! I love how she just picked up and went on with no nerves showing. That's my girl. Before the recital Amelia spent a good 30 minutes picking her outfit, jewelry, and fixing her hair. I think that was her favorite part!

The weather was quite temperate this week. We went to the park a couple times and I was able to shoo the kids outside to play several times. I love the weather breaks when they come. Friday Everett ran around in a green Power Ranger costume. By the time I picked up Amelia from school he was going commando underneath, lost a sock and shoe, and soon took off the costume. I laughed so hard as he stood in the kitchen with just a shirt and one shoe on. He always seems to be missing integral parts of his clothing.

Friday the girls went to a fun baby shower for Heather in our ward. She had a cute baby boy a couple weeks ago. I took a couple photos of him last week, so presented her with a couple large prints and the disk of digital files. After the shower Justin and I got to go see Mocking Jay. It was pretty good. Can't wait for the final film to come out next year. Saturday Justin worked on cleaning the garage after he got his new tool chest organized and locked. I went to Walmart for some food shopping. Phillip and I finally agreed on a Christmas shirt design. He chose a Rudolph with a huge honking nose. He helped me choose the fabrics and even sewed a couple stitches with my help. I got some new Christmas fabric in the mail to finish off outfits for the kids. He he he, I feel giddy!

Evelyn is growing like a weed. She grew out of some 12 month clothing, the 18 month pants are still long but her little tummy shows in 12 month shirts. I got her a pair of cute squeaky shoes. She was so excited to wear them, squeaking around the kitchen. Her newest skills are naked dancing and saying "shhhhh!"

The kids delivered an amazing Primary Program today. Phillip's line was "I know there is a living prophet on the Earth today because I listen to Dieter F Uchtdorf with my family." Amelia's part is photographed above. She kept adding things to her list! Amelia wanted to look ah-mazing. She chose to wear a photo prop dress I had in my closet. She looked like a little Victorian doll. As we left, she declared that her outfit and hair were totally gorgeous. I agree. Phillip tried hard to contain his excitement up on the stand. I would spot random outbreaks of waving whenever his teacher helped another kid. I am very proud of the great job on their lines. Everett decided he was too sad for Nursery so stayed with us for Gospel Doctrine.

Phillip: I wish I had squirrels in my Sunday pants. Squirrel, squirrel, fart, fart, squirrel.  

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