February 14

Sunday, February 14th-



Icing cupcakes

Silas and I don't love Valentine's day. We are happy and go on dates regularly. Silas stresses about giving gifts and I like to pick out my own things so we decided not to even worry about it today, which was fine except for a few moments in the evening when I was stressed about something else and decided to feel badly for myself for not having received anything. That passed though and I am quite happy with my husband. :)

This morning we made and decorated cupcakes with the kids. They always love to help me bake and who doesn't love a little extra sugar boost in the morning.


Ryan getting a "massage"

The kids had a good morning playing together with only a few reminders that it was Sunday.

In the evening the kids and I headed over to feed Grandma Warby some dinner. When we got there she was sleeping in her chair, which is normal, but this time it was hard for her to get herself awake. It took a while to get her to go from her chair to the bathroom. Whenever I checked on her she was falling asleep in the bathroom. Poor Grandma. So after over an hour, I finally got her to the kitchen to feed her some dinner.



Me at Grandma's house, trying not to lose it.

By this time we had been there for almost two hours so I had Silas come get the kids (they were going crazy) and I stayed and put Grandma to bed. It took a little convincing but we got it done. Grandma really loves her routine so when stuff is not at the normal time she has a hard time. Also, once she was fully awake she was confused at why she was eating dinner so late. Poor lady.

Oh, and today I taught Ryan's primary class and had a really good time! Emma Slade subbed as the chorister and was hilarious and the kids were really involved in the lesson and seemed to really be listening to what I was trying to teach them. The lesson was 1 Nephi 18, where Nephi and his family are crossing the sea and he gets tied up by his brothers. We had a good discussion about being grateful and being a good example even when it isn't cool or popular. Good lesson for me too.

February 13

Saturday, February 13th-

 

Highlights of a crazy Saturday:

 

Busy morning at the gym. Lots of kids were there, including my own. After the craziness was over, I trained Bree. She's going to tending on Monday nights.

Cute Peter being my friend

After doing some chores at home, I headed back for my own work-out. Kind of felt guilty because Silas isn't feel well today, but the kids mostly took care of themselves and had their Saturday computer/tablet time.

 

Trying to buckle down and eat strict again for a few weeks, so I enjoyed some broccoli after my work-out. Steaming broccoli makes the house smell. haha

100 calories of broccoli verses 100 calories of M&Ms.
(Both my favorites, although I did NOT eat all
of the M&Ms at lunch.)

Tonight the Young Women (and leaders) hosted a Valentine's day dance and dinner for the ward and branch. Silas didn't come because he's really feeling yucky so I just helped and chatted and ate (but not too much). The girls had a crazy two hours of babysitting TONS of kids, but the night was a big success and everyone had a great time. Clint and Elisha taught some dancing and there was a nacho bar provided by the Spanish Branch. Yum!

Rules for the babysitting provided by the YW

February 12

Friday, February 12th-



Happy boy

Ryan won best Valentine's box for all of the 4th grade. He was super excited! Cleod said that the 5th grade chose not to have a competition, which I don't mind. Our kids are actually really good at dealing with not winning things, but it still makes for some tender feelings. On the other hand, sometimes when my kids win things I feel guilty because that means someone else didn't win. I don't love competitions when it comes to my kids.

Anyway, the kids enjoyed their day of Valentine fun and got to have some candy before Silas and I headed out for an early date.

Tonight we tried out a new restaurant called Honolulu Grill. It was super yummy. We decided it has a fast food feel ("to-go" Styrofoam containers even when you are staying there) with a nicer restaurant price and flavor. So we will probably grab lunch there or for a stay-home date but not to go and sit and relax.

So for more relaxation, we headed over to Brick House for cheesecake and hot cocoa. We love it there so much! The people are nice and the food is so yummy.

Whipped cream from Heaven

So good

Silas has been starting to feel like a cold is coming so we decided that he would be lazy at home the rest of the night while I took three of the kids with me to the SUU gymnastics meet. Tonight it was a meet between SUU, BYU and SAC State (from Sacramento). It was an amazing meet to watch and SUU won! They did so great. I love watching gymnastics!

Excited for the meet

Aftermath of some blue candy

Warm-ups on the vault

More Valentine candy fun

For scripture time tonight, Silas used our new Chrome Cast to "cast" the Gospel Library app from his phone to the TV. It was pretty cool. The kids have enjoyed casting their games from the tablet onto the TV on Saturdays. I also have used it to watch YouTube videos for home work-outs.

 



Reading scriptures from the TV

Faces

Preschool Valetine's Party

Friday, February 12th-

Today was my turn to teach Cora's little preschool group. I am not really great at doing fun things normally, but I tried hard to get a little party together for the kids. Here are some examples of our fun!

M & M counting: Six heart labeled one through six. The kids counted out the right amount of M & Ms to go on the hearts.


Cora with her M & M counting paper.



Molly got to learn today too!

Conversation Heart Graphing: I found a page online that had each of the normal conversation heart colors on a grid. It was really cute to see these little ones try to figure this out. They did really well.



Heart graphing

Bag decorating: We had so many papers and treats and were exchanging Valentine's so we decorated paper bags. The other kids in the group are boys so they didn't choose to decorate their bags as much as Cora did, which was totally fine.



Hearts everywhere!

Rice Krispy Hearts: Last night I made a pan of Rice Krispy Treats and today I let the kids use the heart cookie cutters we have to make heart-shaped treats. A couple of the kids were really sweet and wanted to make one for each member their family and with a whole sheet of Krispies we had plenty!




We did a couple of other Valentine's worksheets, practicing matching, counting and writing numbers.

At the end we exchanged Valentine's which the boys were especially excited to do.


Overwhelmed Mom and the Valentine's Box

Thursday, February 11th-



Kids getting instructions before the spelling bee

This afternoon was more stressful that anticipated. Ryan called from the school and both of his wires had come out on his braces. We had just enough time to get him to the orthodontist and then back to school for the school spelling bee, which Cleod was in. Two kids from each of the 4th and 5th grade classes participated in the spelling bee after winning in their individual classes earlier in the week. Cleod hadn't studied the list so we were just excited that he got as far as he did. The way that they got to the last 3 kids was a little confusing, so we don't know for sure, but he probably got 4th place. He did great and I was super proud of him.

Girls waiting for spelling bee to start

Happy girl and her daddy who came to watch

Our speller

The whole experience gave me some anxiety though and made the rest of the afternoon a little hard. It seems silly now. We got home and did homework and then Cleod reminded me that he needed a Valentine's box. I vaguely remembered him mentioning this yesterday. I am NOT a crafty person, mostly by choice and the crazy things that other people do for Valentine's boxes puts really high expectations on me.

Luckily, Cleod is becoming a really compassionate person and was patient with me as we tried to plan out and make the darn thing.



Vader and Yoda

Ryan had already made a box which he mostly did but I bought some things for it. It was a Darth Vader box and is super cool so we were excited to see a picture online of a simple Yoda Valentine's box.

Ryan's box says, "Come to the heart side" and Cleod's says, "Valentine's, I must have."


Thanks so cereal boxes and construction paper, we got it done fairly quickly and I could finally take a deep breath.

My cute husband went out for yummy onion rings from Brad's after the kids were sleeping for a treat. We have recently discovered the goodness of these onion rings so it was a yummy end to the day.

Oh, and something that started off my day so great and of which I should have remembered when I was stressed...today I realized that we are going to be able to see the temple from our side of town. I noticed one of the seminary teachers pointing to Leigh Hill as I was driving to the gym. I looked over and had to stop and take a photo. It is totally the temple site! I am so excited!!!








February 10

Wednesday, February 10th-

Another adventurous day with the Aitchisons today!

Cora and Molly made some creations with marshmallows and toothpicks this morning. They are such fun girls and great friends. Sometimes I worry about what I'm going to do with Molly when Cora's in Kindergarten. Luckily Kindergarten in Utah is still only half-day so we won't have to miss her too much.

We had Cleod's friend Skyler over after school. I walked to pick the kids up and Skyler fell down on the way home. He kept walking and didn't seem super upset. Cleod said his palm was bleeding so they walked ahead to get home and get a Band-Aid. I was just a minute or two behind and they had cleaned it off with an alcohol wipe and were trying to find a Band-Aid that would fit. I helped them and they went on their day. He said he didn't want to go outside but other than that, Skyler seemed to be fine.



Beautiful view of Enoch that we saw on the
way home from taking treats to Skyler.

About 30 or 40 minutes later, Skyler showed me his knee. It was torn up. I wish I would have taken a photo. Two quarter-sized chunks of flesh were gone but it wasn't bleeding badly. I put gauze on it and called his mom. Once she saw it, she decided to take him to his doctor (who is also his dad) to get it looked at. He ended up having stitches! I felt so badly so the kids and I ran some candy over to his house.



Cleod got treats too.



Then we headed to the church for a little program by the Bears and the Wolves. The performed some skits and songs that they have been practicing the last few weeks. Ryan is a natural actor and singer. I love to watch him perform!





Pink Jelly Bean skit

Ryan "whittling"

Our church building and the kids' elementary school
with the pretty hills as a backdrop

At 6pm, I dropped Cleod off at the church and came home to a husband with a bad headache. Poor guy has not been feeling top-notch for a while and sitting at a desk all day at work doesn't help. So he slept through dinner and me being at mutual. Ryan stepped up and made sure that he and the little kids got their pajamas on and their teeth brushed while I was at the church. Cleod helped out at mutual, which was pretty cute. We were getting Valentine's candy bags ready for our Girl's Camp Fundraiser on Saturday. After a majority of the work was done, Cleod and I headed home and got everyone to bed before I headed out to put Grandma Warby to bed. Phew.