Parentheticals

Well, we missed a week again, but here we are now, so that isn't too bad all things considered. The biggest thing that happened this week has been Christmas. We have been preparing for and celebrating Christmas. On Christmas day the kids woke up around 7 and we opened stockings and then presents. We spent the most of the day playing with them. Elsa made some figurines out of the modelling clay that we got, which were very good. Alison tried to get pictures of everyone with their christmas gifts, but most of the kids were having too much fun to play along. The girls are finally done acting in the Frightmare Before Christmas. They had a lot of fun, and invited their friends to see it one night with the two free tickets that they each got. Mike and Rea have succeeded in their monthly temple baptisms goal. It was difficult at times, however, they always were able to make time to do it, so they will be having a goal day party for it soon. One night we went over to the Brown's house ...

Apparently we forgot that we have a blog, so we have a serious backup of unwritten weeks. In November Mike Alison and Rea all attempted NANO and meet with various degrees of success. Rea finished her goal word count and story, Mike finished his word count but not his story, and Alison got sick and didn't finish. Rea completed a story, and therefore also a goal, so we had a goal day party in November for her. Reya asked Mike to make chicken pot pie for her, and since he's eating gluten free the chicken pot pie crust ended up purple. We think it was because he added psyllium husk powder to serve as a binding agent. We celebrated Gideon's birthday. He got a very cool art set and a lot of frog things. We had a late Halloween RPG with the Wilsons. We played a small RPG called honey heist, which was rather entertaining. The story is that a bunch of crack operative bears Rob honey from a big honey convention. By the time that the game ended Mike's bear went completely feral be...

 We missed three weeks this time, so I am going to try and remember the things that happened throughout pretty much all of October. One thing that we have been doing is struggling to keep up in our family "A Night in the Lonesome October" reading. We do it pretty much every year, but a chapter a night is sometimes a hard pace to keep up with.  Alison has been sick for quite a while, but she is finally feeling better. She has gotten horrible colds every winter ever since high school, but when we started masking during Covid, she stopped getting them! She's been very happy about that, but apparently it stopped working, because she got the exact same symptoms she always does. She was in bed for almost a week, and felt pretty bad for another week, but she's mostly better now. She is blaming the fact that the kids no longer wear their masks. They were quite upset with how sick she was, so maybe they will be more willing to mask again. The kids had fall break while Alison w...

Grandma Julie's weekend last weekend Grandma Julie came over to Utah and invited us to see a horse parade in Sandy. They had events and food trucks and the Rogers came as well. It was very fun.  At the same time Grandma Julie invited all of the kids over for a two-day sleepover. They had a fun time playing with Grandpa Craig and with the cousins, and Mike and Alison went out on a date so everyone enjoyed it. With Rea and Sara participating in a play we have been driving around a lot to get them to where they need to go. That combined with public school means that we have not been able to buy groceries for most of 2 weeks. Fortunately the Waters have been giving us large amounts of potatoes so we're okay. It's like Mike's prophecy from high school was fulfilled. We watched general conference for the last 2 days. On Saturday we did it at our own house and on Sunday we went to the Brown's house. The kids are getting much better at paying attention, so we were able to a...

Alison and Mike celebrated their 16th anniversary this week. We were so busy that we didn't really plan anything, but Mike ended up making a not very amazing chocolate mousse, which he called a malfeasance  (Because it wasn't a tort). Rea and Sara both continued to attend their play rehearsals this week. They are practicing Tuesday and Thursday nights from 6:30 to 9:30, and Saturday mornings from 9:30 to 12:30, so it's a lot! They are having fun, though. This week, Alison took them on the bus on Tuesday, so that they could learn how to do it. We're not sure how often they'll take the bus - they have to leave at 5:15 to get there early enough to not be nervous about being late, and Rea doesn't get home until 4:30 on Thursdays, so probably only on Tuesdays. But that's one less hour Alison has to spend driving them! Elsa got an award for friendship at school this week! That's not too surprising; she tells us that everyone in her class is her friend and alwa...

This week, Alison started going to a class at the kids' school. Parents and other adults are invited to come and do the free Science of Well-Being class that's been put online by a Yale professor. This is a topic Allison is interested in, and she's been working on getting out of her comfort zone and interacting with people, so it seemed like a good idea. The first class was fun. Rea and Sara have been going to rehearsals for their play multiple times this week. It is a pretty long drive for Alison to drop off and take them back, so she is planning on teaching them how to take the bus there. They have been enjoying the rehearsals and are excited to perform in the play. We invited to Buck and his wife over to eat dinner with us this week because they helped us so much in the process of getting back into our house. It was nice to have them over and to talk with them. Various members of our family have been getting sick on various days this last week. Seems like it's a mild...

Timmy has been making good progress on the Lion Knight's Castle - he has been working on it with some help from Mike; however, he has been doing most of it himself. He is also making up a story of how each new bag that he opens was a new stage in the development of what started out as a small farmer's house. We also got a robot vacuum that is either named "Stabby" or "Sharkie" (depending on who you ask and when. Alison decided that it would be a good motivator for the kids and would help them to clean up their floors without an adult having to check them out to make sure that they are done. The idea is that they clean their floors and then, when they are done, they get the robot to sweep them, and if they do a good job, it won't bump into things all the time. So far, they like it fairly well. Alison, Rea, and Tim are now attending Connect-Ed again. Alison is teaching new classes (she hasn't taught before, so this is a first time for her). They are ha...

The kids have all gone back to school, and things are going fairly well. Over the weekend, Gideon lost his shoes, so we are currently on the hunt for them. We know that they are somewhere around here; however, we just don't know where they are. We also went to a Connect-Ed open house last week, which was basically a get-together for all of the teachers and their families in the homeschool co-op that Alison is teaching for this year. On Friday, we went to 'The Importance of Being Earnest', which the OBT put on. We enjoy all of their plays, and are excited that they showed one of our favorites again. In November, they are putting on 'The Frightmare Before Christmas', which Sara (and perhaps Rea) is auditioning for, so here's hoping that they get parts. Sara has also gotten her aerial silks set up in the front yard; however, they are not high enough, since Mike can't find his taller ladder. He thinks it is possible that someone took it when they were taking hom...

(This post was written by Alison. That hasn't happened in over a year, I think, so it felt worth noting.)  This week we've been moving in. The kitchen is all done and the rest of the house is arranged enough that we got through a lot of boxes this week. Then the washer overflowed. So we got to spend Saturday pulling up all the flooring in the master bedroom, laundry room, closet, bathroom, and hallway, and emptying and drying the contents of all the boxes in the garage that got soaked. That was not fun. Actually, it felt like getting kicked when we were down. Bad form, universe. Anyway. Up until then, the week went pretty well. Mike went back to work and the kids and Alison went back to their schedule of going to the park and the pool everyday. Mike's been working very hard every evening to finish the moving-in process, and Alison and the kids were helpful off and on, when they were available (Alison) and in the mood (kids). We have one more week before school starts, but t...

It has been 3 weeks since we posted, so we have a lot to talk about:  3 weeks ago we went down to St George with Alison's family. We had a lot of fun. Elsa played with Victoria with the dollhouse. Chauncey brought over X-Wing ships and the boys played X-Wing regularly. We also went swimming regularly and went down to the river.  On the day that we were leaving Timmy hurt his foot, and because of that Mike kept him out of the water for the first two days. Timmy was very disappointed about this, however, his foot healed properly so that was good.  It was nice to be with the Poulson family and have a lot of fun. Last week Rea went on trek. She made her own pioneer dress and looked very authentic. She did very well. Her cousin Logan was there with her as well. They walked 14 miles a day, and were very tired afterward. While they were at trek, we worked very hard to finish up the house. While Mike worked on the plumbing Grandpa Mike worked on the flooring with Aunt Amy and Sco...

Last week we wrote up a blog post but never posted it, so this one is going to be another twofer. Early last week, we celebrated the 4th of July. Earlier in the day we went over to the Plastow's house and had a barbecue while it was raining. The rain was really nice given how hot it has been recently, and the barbecue was very good with lots of tasty food. We invited the Plastows, the Browns, the Plastow grandparents, and the Rogerses over to our house and all lit off fireworks. It was successful, and no one got hurt, and nothing got lit on fire, so that was pretty good.  Last week, Mike took most of the week off from work and worked on the house the entire time. On Tuesday and Wednesday, we painted. We started installing the cabinets on Thursday; however, they took forever to do, and we finally finished them Saturday evening. While Mike was working on the cabinets, Rea and the kids worked on installing lots of floors. The bathrooms and playroom are already done, so we have been ma...

On Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday Timmy, Sara, and Rea (respectively) went to Owl Camp. For those that don't remember, Owl Camp is an event that the library puts on. It is Harry Potter themed, and they dress up and do Harry Potter things: games, crafts, etc. The kids really love going to it, and it was fun this year just like previous years. We also celebrated Taylorsville days this week, which has carousel and Ferris wheel rides as well as other rides. The kids loved going on lots of rides, and had fun there. Most people's favorite ride was the carousel, and Rea and Sara did the Ferris wheel. The dragon was unexpectedly intense, and the obstacle courses were a surprise hit. Elsa also did a pony ride. While the kids were involved in lots of festivities Mike was installing structural plywood, doors, and tubs at the house in an attempt to get them all in before the drywallers arrived. It was a ton of work, and Mike was pretty exhausted by Friday (when the drywallers began), howeve...