I have always wanted to try pottery making with a wheel. I have thought about taking a class on the community college once the kids are in school. I decided to look into any businesses that offer it around here and found one! The lady that does it offers a weekly month long class, or she has a ‘try it’ night, once or twice a month. So I asked some friends to go with me and last night Lauren and Alysa Wada went to a class and had our first try at making pottery. I loved it! I was okay at it, I think I could be pretty good at it with practice. The instructor taught us to make a vase, a bowl, and a plate. My vase was looking pretty good and then the top flew off because it got to thin and twisted. I would have preferred starting over but instead the instructor salvaged what was left…I think it ended up looking more like an ash tray than a vase. My bowl ended up looking very similar to my ash tray vase but a better version. My plate was pretty good but when next to the others looked like a squashed ash tray. So I was a little frustrated with my end products but I loved doing it and would want to do it again. Her weekly classes are not at a very convenient time for me right now, but hopefully someday I will be able to take one of her month long classes. We weren’t able to trim them last night either because of time constraints, so the instructor will do the trimming, put it in the kiln, and then stain it for us with the color we picked. Then we go pick them back up in a few weeks. She said once they are trimmed they will look a lot less like an ash tray. It was a fun night. I have always wanted to try it, and now I want to try it again!
When Matthew was 5 he asked us to take his training wheels off and we helped him get started once and he was good to go. I was shocked at how fast he got it. Allison was almost 5 and we were in Utah visiting Aunt DeAnna and her family. We would ride bikes out front several times a day. They had one of those balancing bikes with no peddles. Alli had been trying it for a few days and then tried a regular bike and took off. We like to go on family bike rides, and last summer I sold our bike trailor to someone because it was getting to hard to drag Emilee behind us. The next bike ride we went on Emilee rode her bike along with us with her training wheels. As we all know it takes a lot more work to ride a bike with training wheels than without them. At the beginning of the ride she was singing and loving it, about halfway through she was wailing and crying at how stupid bike rides where and saying she never ever wanted to go on another bike ride. We made it home and told her it was time to start working on no training wheels. She practiced through the Fall until it got to cold to ride a bike. She could do it but then started thinking to much and over correcting and eventually crashed. We tried again a few weeks ago and she was doing much better but couldn’t get started on her own and still got nervous with turning sometimes. Last weekend Alli spent a little time working with her and it finally clicked. She can start, stop, turn around and do anything else she needs. Of course she loves it. I remember how exciting it felt when I was learning to ride my bike and it finally clicked and all of the sudden I could just do it. It is fun remembering and seeing these little milestones as they grow up. Between Emilee learning to ride her bike and loosing her first tooth, I am a little overwhelmed lately with how fast time flies and before you know it your babies aren’t babies and your toddlers aren’t toddlers and your son is almost a young man. So crazy.
Another example of time going to fast is Emilee had her Kindergarten Round Up, last week. The school has all the incoming Kindergartners come to the school and see the class rooms and meet the teachers and see the library and lunch room. They have several activities for them to do too while the parents fill out all of the paper work. I was actually at a dental conference so Ryan took her. She is pretty shy in new situations but went to the activities and did what everyone else was doing when it was time. Matthew and Alli were in half day Kindergarten. They have changed things around since then and there isn’t really a half day option anymore, so Emilee will be going full day. She will be almost 6 when she starts in the Fall and has done a few years of preschool so I think she will be just fine but I feel like I am getting shorted out of my time of having her at home with me.
This year our church starts at 8 a.m. I will not lie, this is not out favorite time of the week. We try to have everyone shower and lay clothes out and get as much ready the night before but it doesn’t always happen. We have occasionally made it and gotten sat down right before the person conducting starts the meeting, but more often than not we are a few minutes late. Once we actually get to church though, I am liking the 8 a.m. time. The kids are fresh and more alert and usually have eaten enough breakfast that they are fine until we get home to go without a snack. Then we get home and have the rest of the day to enjoy our sabbath day of rest. As the kids are getting older and our schedules are getting more hectic I am really starting to appreciate even more having Sunday as our day to step back, relax from the daily grind and enjoy our church and family time.
We have gotten into the routine of coming home and making a breakfast meal for lunch. Then anyone that wants to can take a little nap, usually its just Ryan and I but occasionally one of the others will decide to nap. The non-nappers read or play quietly together. Unless we do a family movie or AFV episode together, we have decided to not have any electronics on Sunday. This is probably a little bit of a ‘haha!’ moment for my parents. When I was in about 3rd grade I remember them telling us there would be no more TV on Sundays. I remember saying and thinking many times that it was a dumb idea and I would never do that when I was older. Of course my kids whine and try and think of every possible reason or excuse to make just watching TV like normal a good family building experience. That is some of their best bonding and playing together time of the week though. I love hearing them decide what game to play together and spending some quality time with each other.
After naps we all play games together, read books together, make a dessert together, things like that. Sometimes we make a treat and then invite another family or two to come over that evening and help us eat it. One of our favorite treats is to help Ryan make his Grandma Groom’s cinnamon rolls. Ryan is the one who likes to cook of the two of us so he usually cooks a nice dinner for us on Sundays too. After dinner and dishes if we don’t have someone come over we watch America’s Funniest Videos together while we eat popcorn (preferably air popped). If our Monday night is busy the next day sometimes we have FHE on Sunday night too. We try and get a little one on one time with the kids on Sunday also.
Its just a nice day. I am grateful for Heavenly Father’s wisdom in giving us the Sabbath day to rest from the daily grind and chaos of the other six days of the week and recharge. I love having the whole day to focus on the Savior and family.
The last few weeks have been flying by! I’ll start with Easter and work backwards. This past weekend was Easter and also General Conference for church. It was also April Fool’s day much to Alli’s delight, and we got to have Grandma and Grandpa Jones come visit us for the weekend.
Friday night started with the girls and I going to Disney on Ice with Aliya, Cambrie and Lori McDonald. They had a special offer through the girl scouts and Lori’s daughters are in girl scouts too so we all went together. It was really good! Disney always does a good job. Everyone had a fun time and got to sing along to fun songs. Emilee was over the moon excited that Moana was part of it. Allison sang her little heart out for the Frozen songs. After the show they had a special behind the scenes for the girl scouts. We went down and sat right by the ice rink and they showed us different things that make the show work and told us fun stuff about the show, and we watched some skating of course. We were so close we got sprayed with the ice when they went by. We were all hungry afterwards so we went to Freddy’s for some hamburgers and ice cream. It was a really fun girls night.
Saturday we watched conference and played games with Grandma and Grandpa. I have been teaching Allison a few card games, so she wanted everyone to play Wacky Six together. All of us can play except Emilee but she just sat at the table with us and colored and got to tell us when to start the round. My parents and I also went to Spring Hill and looked around at some houses there. Hopefully they will be moving by one of their kids soon so I wanted to tempt them with some possibilities here if they end up in Kansas.
Sunday was a relaxed morning, the kids went through their baskets and found all the eggs. Aaron’s Easter basket has a little Easter lesson in it that we do every year. We usually do it for FHE the week before but we hadn’t done it yet so we did that too. We watched the rest of Conference Sunday. It was a really nice Conference, they changed several programs and ways that things are organized. They talked a lot about ministering to those around us and taking care of others. We set out snacks like we usually do with a word that is said often in conference by each snack. When the kids hear the word they can pick a snack out of the bowl. It helps them pay attention a little better and they look forward to having fun snacks. We like to have ham and cheesy potatoes for Easter so we did that for dinner. My parents didn’t have to leave until Monday so we finished up the evening with more games. It is always fun to have grandparents come to visit.
Allison has been counting the days down to April Fool’s day for almost a month. She was giddy about it. She doesn’t quite get what you are supposed to do though, so she used it as a day to be ridiculously silly more than pranks-which is fine with me. At one point she was wearing her clothes inside out, my bra on top of that, her hair in a pony under her chin so it looked hairy, and every body part she could reach labeled with a sticky note. I helped her do a few things like hide a few extra eggs with peas and carrots in them, and putting food coloring in the bottom of everyone’s cup so the milk changed colors. She has some pre-April Fool’s jokes throughout the month while she anticipated the actual day. All of us had our turn of going to get dressed one morning and finding instead of our own underwear, someone elses.
Emilee had a momentous occasion this past week. She lost her first tooth. It has been wiggly forever. She is going to be one of those kids that hangs onto her teeth until they fall out completely on their own. She could have wiggled it out days before it finally fell out. It was exciting for her though. Before we know it our youngest isn’t going to be so young anymore.
First lost tooth
First lost tooth
The weekend before Easter Grandma and Grandpa Terry came down for the weekend. They stayed at Ross and Lauren’s so we spent most of the weekend over at their house. Roger is getting ready to retire this summer so we talked with them about moving down here by us sooner rather than later. It was a pretty busy weekend with baseball, soccer, cleaning the church, a baptism, and other things so we didn’t get to see them as much as we would like but we are always glad when they come for a visit.
Earlier this month I was working on a Monday and left for work about 7am. When I work Ryan drops the kids off at school and then heads to work around 7:45. Earlier that weekend I had driven Ryan’s car for some reason. His car has a key you don’t have to put in the ignition. It just has to be on your person somewhere, and we only have one of them. I usually try to just not drive his car because I always forget to take the key out of my purse afterwards and there have been far to many times where I leave with his key and have to bring it back to him. It is very frustrating for all involved. So as you can probably guess, I forgot again and was 35 minutes away working in a dental office when Ryan called to see if I had his key. Grrrr. It gets better though. I found someone to pick Emilee up and take her to preschool and Ryan said he would walk the other two to school, and actually he had been planning on working from home so he was set. Now it gets worse. When it was time to walk to school it is not just sprinkling or drizzling rain. It is a solid steady down pour of rain. Allison was not swayed at and she grabbed her stuff and was out the door. Matthew was not so cooperative. Stubborn little stinker. If he gets hit with a 50 mph baseball he shakes it off like nothing happened, but if you tell him he has to get wet or cold against his will and he will have none of it. He refused to walk in the rain. Refused. Ryan asked, told, demanded, threatened loss of electronics (this usually works 99% of the time for Matthew), actually took away electronics, bribed , begged, and demanded again, Matthew would not go. So he started doing the list of chores that would take him all day long to do instead of going to school. About this time Emilee’s ride came to pick her up and Matthew asked her to drop him off at school on the way. Like I said- Stinker.
Baseball season has started…but no one told the weather. Our first few scrimmages, outdoor practices and game or two have been canceled because of cold, rain, and snow. We have a game tonight that was rescheduled from a week ago. Matthew has been checking the weather every five minutes hoping it will cooperate. So far so good. He will be excited to have the first game under his belt and really get into baseball season.
