The Big Four

We used to go out with our friends quite a bit, but as all our kids have gotten older it has become even more difficult to get together so I had to document our dinner with friends on Feb 1st.

Adam was at the head of the table and wasn't in the picture, so I took a quick one just of him. As you can see, he really appreciated my efforts.

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One of our topics of conversation was the changing of ward boundaries that will most likely take place in the near future. A few wards in our stake have gotten so big that it is only a matter of time before they realign boundaries and possibly create a new ward. Although we don't have a lot of information, we figure this is one of the reasons that Adam is still Bishop.  He reached his 5 year mark in November, but because there are so many things still up the air they haven't released him and haven't given him any information about when they will. When it comes to big changes like this people assume that the Bishop knows everything, but the opposite it true, Adam knows absolutely nothing.  We are all in a "wait and see" holding pattern so he just carries on like normal.

On Feb 2nd, (Grandma P's 70th Birthday) I went with Jenna to the Dancesport ballroom dance competition at Thanksgiving Point.  Her team didn't do a team event, but they did do syllabus events as individual couples.  In years past Jenna has never advanced through the rounds at this competition because they don't divide the couples into divisions based on their experience and ability, they just throw everyone together whether they have been dancing for 2 months or 10 years.  She competed in the Waltz and the Samba and made it to the Semi-finals in the Waltz (3 rounds) and to the Quarter-finals in the Samba (2 rounds). She was thrilled.  She and her partner were the only couple in the company to make it to a semi-final round so she was happy with it. 

Jenna and a few teammates paying Scum while waiting for their next event. I only have video of her dancing so no still shots to post here.

Jenna reading to AJ.  AJ is VERY attached to Jenna. She is pretty much his 2nd Mom around the house.

Grandma P was in Argentina for her 70th Birthday, but we went over to her house and put up some birthday decorations the night before they returned from their big trip to Antarctica.

AJ has been waiting for 364 days for February 6th to roll around.  The anticipation for his Birthday was almost more than he could bear.  He talked about it constantly for months before his big day.

It's my Birthday!

Adam took him to McDonald's for his birthday breakfast and he said  AJ walked in the doors and yelled out, "It's my Birthday!" for everyone to hear. That is so AJ, it's just how he rolls.

Presents!

He loved decorating cupcakes and opening presents and getting a lot of attention on his big day. He is now 4 years old and has grown so much in the year and a half that he has been home.  When he came home he was wearing size 18 month clothes and wasn't even on the growth charts for his age, now he is wearing 4T clothes and is right in the middle of the growth charts.  He is completely caught up to his peers when it comes to language even though he didn't hear a word of English until he was 2.5 years old. It's amazing, really, to see how far he has come in such a short amount of time. Now the wait for next year's Birthday begins . . . 

For Christmas Britton, Jenna and Korinne each got a ticket to Wicked.  Yesterday the day of the show finally arrived and we traveled for the matinee performance in SLC.  

Jenna sat down and being the Broadway fan that she is, opened the program and immediately recognized the name of the actress playing Glinda. "Oh my goodness! It's Kara Lindsey! She played Katherine Plummer in the Newsies with Jeremy Jordan. I'm totally fangirling!" And yes, she was incredible and really nailed the part.

There is nothing like seeing an actual Broadway play with a real Broadway cast.  They were AMAZING and during the intermission we were all a little giddy with how awesome the show was.

Being a part of the musical at the high school Britton has a newfound appreciation for how difficult it is to do what these cast members were doing.  He could identify ever bit of technique he had learned about and was blown away by the performance.  We kind of loved and he loved it so much. He almost didn't come because it was the same day as the Sweethearts dance that he had been asked to, but his date was a Broadway fan herself so she understood the dilemma and planned to do the day portion of the date the night before so he could go to Wicked the day of. We rushed home after the performance and he left for his date at 6:30 p.m. (Pictures are coming)

Adam stayed home with the boys and they had fun at Pizza Pie Cafe and watching a movie from Redbox.  They also each spent a little bit of time with Grandma and Grandpa P.

Winter Hibernation

No, we don't just stay home all day, but throughout the entire month of January I've only taken a handful of pictures to document our daily life.  Sundays are particularly "interesting" at our house because Jameson and AJ have all of their usual energy but they can't really go outside and play with  friends, and there isn't any screen time and Dad is gone all day.  This means they have HOURS they are trying to fill and the results aren't always pretty.  They like to fight, and tease each other and make HUGE messes. Every once in awhile they stumble upon constructive ways to use their energy and when that happens I like to document it.

They took off their Sunday shirts and painted trains on each other with face paint. They were so proud of their creations.

Last Sunday Jameson got up early and put together an elaborate train set using every toy he could find.  I tried to act excited when I first saw it, but in the back of my mind I was already calculating how long it was going to take to clean at the end of the day.

Yesterday we went down to SLC for a Genesis primary activity and "The Wizard of Oz" at Hale Center Theater.  I was thrilled that the timing of both events worked out perfectly and we were able to "kill two birds" with one trip to the city.

They had a few different art projects out for the kids and Jameson enjoyed making a clay pot, painting and making a frog out of pipe cleaners.

I don't have pictures of AJ because whenever we are at a place with a lot of people he usually starts running around and doesn't stop. There is something that clicks on for him when he is overwhelmed and he just can't stay in one place for more than 2 seconds.

After the activity Adam dropped Britton, Jenna, Korinne, Jameson and me off at Hale Center Theater for "The Wizard of Oz" and he took AJ to a dollar movie "Small Foot".

Jameson wasn't really sure what to expect but declared it "the best play ever" and asked if we could go back to the theater again someday. HTC has always done a good job but their new theater allows them to take productions to the next level and they are very entertaining. The kids got the tickets for Christmas so I'm glad they enjoyed the show.  When it was over Adam picked us up and we made it home in plenty of time for the adult session of Stake Conference. Stake Conference is the one Sunday that Adam gets a taste of how much fun it is to sit with the boys for 2 hours in a dark chapel (we watch the broadcast from the Stake Center). It is always a delightful experience. 😋

Goodbye 2018, Hello 2019!

On Christmas Eve Grandma and Grandpa P and Taylor and Jen and family gathered at our house to celebrate.

A few had already taken off their ugly Christmas sweaters, but you get the idea.

The food was delicious and the company was great.

Everything was great until water started to drip from one of our can lights in the kitchen.  We ran upstairs and found that a flap got stuck on the upstairs toilet and there was water everywhere. We pulled up the carpet, got 2 wet-dry vacs going, and called some neighbors to get a bunch of fans to help dry the upstairs hallway out.  Not exactly how we wanted to spend our Christmas Eve, but it definitely could have been a lot worse if we hadn't discovered it so quickly.  Once we had the fans going and finished doing all that we could do we came back downstairs and picked up where we left off. Here we are getting ready to act out the nativity.

For some reason I didn't get a lot of pictures, probably because the kids were in constant motion and I knew they would turn out blurry. It was pretty chaotic, but the story was in there somewhere.  After Grandma and Grandpa and Taylor and Jen and kids went home we opened our Christmas Eve presents. Surprise! They were pajamas.😀

Jameson was the first one up in the morning at 6:00 a.m. and he made sure everyone got up to open presents.

This is AJ's second Christmas so he knew exactly what was going on and really loved opening each present. He loved his Paw Patrol toys.

Britton loved his soccer goal rebounder.

Jameson was excited for his Nintendo DS

Jenna loved getting tickets to Hale Center Theater's "Wizard of Oz" and "Wicked" at the Eccles.

Korinne got 4 days of ski passes to Cherry Peak and is excited to be able to ski more than once this winter.

The day after Christmas Adam took Jenna, Korinne and Jameson to St. George for a few days, and I stayed home with Britton, who had to work, and  AJ.  

Gramma, Korinne, Jenna, Jameson, Grampa

Don't take my picture!

Swimming at Aunt Bethany's pool

One of Jenna's friends wanted to practice her photography skills so we took AJ outside for a little photo shoot on a snowy day a few days after Christmas.

He has grown so much and is only a month away from celebrating his 4th Birthday!

Before we knew it 2019 was upon us and Jameson's birthday was here! Since his birthday falls on a Sunday this year we had a friend party for him on Saturday. He decided he wanted a Mario Kart party so Adam made all of his dreams come true.

Adam ordered some cake topper toys from Amazon and even made some specially labeled snacks to go with the theme. Adam's Mom and sisters are big party planners so even though he isn't quite as grandiose as they can be, he is still a few steps above me when it comes to planning parties.  I was more than happy to be the helper bee and let him take the reigns.

The boys played pin the mustache on Mario.

And Mario Kart Bingo.

Jameson wanted cake and root beer floats for his party.

Presents!

He had 12 friends at his party and continued to play with a few of them for hours after it was over.  

AJ doesn't have a great history of handling other people's birthdays very well so I was expecting him to be in meltdown mode for most of the day, but he surprised me and handled it a lot better than he ever has before.  He enjoyed being part of the party and has loved playing with Jameson's new toys.  

Today is Jameson's actual birthday, but since we did all of our partying yesterday it has been pretty quiet.  Both he and AJ started in their new primary classes today and AJ is now a SUNBEAM!  Yeah, 2 hour church could not have started at a better time for him. 😁