Emilee – Page 2 – Terry Family Shenanigans

November…it was…then it wasn’t.

The title for this post is referring to our house. Once things got underway with building it, November 1st was the finish date we were hoping for. Well, it was six months before that but our ‘realistic’ finish date was November 1st. Or I would have settled for any day in November. Our year lease on our rental ended and it would have been a smooth transition to get into our house before the holidays and get settled. However, do due weather, deliveries, availability and everyone not making building my house their top priority 😜 November 1st came and went…along with every other day in November and we did not move into our new house. There was a lot more leg work for me to arrange staying in our rental month to month and getting renter insurance renewed and other never ending menial tasks but we didn’t really have a better option so I did it. Grumpily.

Emilee finished off the family birthdays for the 2023 year in November. She turned 11 years old. This will be her last year in elementary school, she starts Young Women in church in January, and she is still growing like a weed.

She wanted to have a family dinner at a place that throws rolls at you. It is called Lambert’s and it is 4 hours away at Table Rock Lake. We convinced her to go with Texas Road House because they have delicious rolls, and we tossed them to her when she wanted one. ALL the Olathe family was able to make it (except Grandma Terry but we ate cake with her later). Texas Road House doesn’t take reservations and we had a party of 11. They thought splitting our group in half and putting us at opposite sides of the restaurant was the best idea. Even when we pointed out the giant open table next to the one they sat us at that we would have all fit at. So we had an adult and kids table which I think everyone was pretty happy with. Sunday we had cake and ice cream at grandma and grandpa’s house. She wanted dolls and legos for her birthday. It was a successful birthday weekend!

The house wasn’t done in November but it was close enough that the girls could start seeing how they wanted to do their rooms. Emilee wanted to have a wall with triangles all over it with her favorite colors so we did that. I had to reach the tall areas but she did as much of it herself as she could. It turned out very cute! Allison was going to do a blue accent wall in her room but after trying a few samples she decided to go all white.

Emilee was one of the student of the months for November. The school changed it to something a little different this year. They call it “Showing Strength of Character” and they have a few different qualities they are focusing on for the year. It is basically student of the month though. We were very proud of her for being a good student and a good person. She also performed in her last Veteran’s Day Performance for her school as well. Emilee loves to sing and sings a lot at home or church but she does not like school performances-especially if they involve singing. We always give her a hard time because she looks like she wants to disappear when she is up there singing.

https://youtu.be/-fVVLxGqtdU (Veteran’s Day Performance)

Ryan was promoted this year to VP of Sales in his company. He has worked very hard and we are very proud of him. He is awesome. Shortly after his promotion, he moved to a new office. He asked me to come help him organize it so we went and did that one Saturday afternoon. Here are the before and after pictures. He still needs a plant and another picture or two but it looks good!

This year was a Terry Thanksgiving. We ate at Grandma and Grandpa Terry’s house and Becky and Jake and their family came from Idaho. My parents were going to be in Oklahoma with my brother for Christmas because he was having a new baby so they decided to join us for Thanksgiving. We were hoping to be in the new house by then but it didn’t happen so they squished in with us at our rental for the week. We played games and watched movies together. Grandma and Allison made lots of yummy treats. It was pretty cold so we didn’t do to much outside. We were able to fins a few of our holiday puzzles and put them together. We love doing puzzles in November and December. Right before we ate Thanksgiving dinner the cousins that were there decided to put on a Thanksgiving performance for us. Allison and Leah helped organize them and they all did a great job sharing their parts. Here is a link for the video.

https://youtu.be/p6NRBpi_0-E (Terry and Bourne Cousins Thanksgiving Program 2021)

Last Days of Summer

After celebrating Grandma and Grandpa’s 50th Anniversary we had a few days of Summer left before school started. We did school shopping and back to school nights. Aaron’s birthday this year was a pretty rainy day. We decided to go see him anyways. Our original plan was to go to the temple and do baptisms that day but Matthew had some doctor appointments and was still pretty limited to being up and about a lot so we bumped that and did it with Grandpa and a friend of Allison’s later. Ryan’s brother David and his wife Jen came up to KC one night and took us to dinner.

Our house was moving along but not ready to move into yet so we stayed at our rental and started another year of school. Matthew had surgery at the end of August on his elbow. They had to reattach some tendons and bone and he was pretty out of it for a few days. Now he is working on getting back into shape for baseball in the Spring.

My sister Sherri got a big promotion at work so DeAnna and I decided to send her a congratulation gift. We settled on a Potato Parcel. It is literally a potato that we had a picture and message printed on. Can’t get more unique than that. We think she liked it.

Then school started!!! Matthew is a Junior. Allison is in 8th grade. Emilee is in 5th grade. This is the last year with one in each school. Next year will be down to only two schools for a while. It was a bit of a rough start, the girls bus driver was new and it took a bit for her to get the girls picked up and to the right school then dropped off at the right spot after school. Matthew missed some school with surgery and Dr appointments. A few weeks in we started to get into our school grove.

June 2023

Three kids and building a house can keep a person pretty busy in the Summer. As I mentioned in the last post, the girls started their Summer off with a Girl Scout Camp. Matthew started his off with High Adventure in Colorado with the other boys in our church ward his age. They went to the sand dunes and hiked those, and the mountains. They were camped right in the middle of the two. They went white water rafting one day as well. This is his third year of going. He has had a great time each year.

One of Allison’s favorite things to do is shop. She has been doing a little more babysitting lately. She is a really fun babysitter. Way better than I ever was. She always comes up with fun games and scavenger hunts and the kids she watch always have a great time. She watched Emilee and her friend Ethan a lot this Summer. This is a giant gumball machine she found on one of her shopping adventures spending her hard earned money.

Ryan and I had a few adventures in June too. We went to Las Vegas with our friends Dani and RJ. We had a pool day, exploring day and ate at some fun restaurants while we visited and enjoyed our quick weekend getaway together.

Emilee’s one wish for her Summer was to go to a horse camp. She did that at the end of June. She has been doing her regular riding lesson each week still but she wanted to have a full week of riding everyday. The last day they did a horse show for the parents to show what they learned. She had a great time. She still loves horses and hopes to get her own someday.

Another activity Emilee loves and looks forward to each and every Summer is sleeping in. She loves to sleep and would sleep until noon everyday if we let her. Dad had to wake her up one morning “early” which means before 9AM and he thought it was hilarious getting her to wake up. She wanted nothing to do with it.

Matthew kept busy with work and baseball and weight lifting after he got back from High Adventure. He went to FSY towards the end of June. It was in Warrensburg MO at the college there. He was able to room with his cousin Ethan and several of his other good friends were there. He said it was a fun time and one of his favorite parts was the testimony meeting the last night they were there. That makes me happy that he went and had a good experience.

Matthew and Carter making cooking to entertain themselves one afternoon.

Allison went to another girls camp at the end of June with two of her friends from school that are also in her troop. It was in Tulsa Oklahoma. I picked them up and they told me all about it on the way home. They had a mean counselor, it was ridiculously hot and the food was awful but they still had a great time together. Allison wore a swim suit that had the American flag on it and got the nick name Ms America for it. She came home with an American flag cowgirl had covered in sequence do go along with her nick name. She loved it.

Here are some random other pictures I have from this month that I’ll add to the end of this post.

Birthday party for Ethan Huntsman at Main Event

May 2023

If you have kids in school May is a crazy month. All the end of the year activities, awards, tests, field days, performances, and wrapping up Spring sports gets crammed into three weeks or less.

Mother’s Day was on a bit of a hectic weekend, we had baseball and softball games. This is the last year I will have one of my own kids singing to me in the Primary at church too. That is a little sad. I told Emilee to sing really loud and make my last Mother’s Day song a good one. She did. She likes to sing. Later that month when school ended and we were cleaning out back packs I found this that Emilee had made for me and forgot to give me. I am a great taxi driver. I get A LOT of practice.

Emilee tired her hand at softball again this Spring. With her glasses she did really well! Imagine that. It was a fun team of girls. They grew a lot through the season and ended up winning their tournament at the end and claiming their spot as The Blue Valley Rec 4th Grade Girls Softball Champions. After the season was over the girls challenged the parents to a game and beat us. Emilee got the, Most Improved Player award. She had a really important hit in the last season game that let them score and get into the playoffs. I think she has found a sport that she really likes and wants to continue with.

Matthew wrapped up school baseball and jumped right into Club Baseball. He has had a good season so far and is really enjoying himself. He has been hitting and fielding well. He earned his way back to leadoff hitter and is the starting short stop. He was thinking of doing football in the Fall but decided to keep focused on just baseball for now. He has grown a lot but isn’t quite big enough that he wants to go up against other people and get tackled by people who have 40+ pounds on him.

Allison made honor roll and I was able to go see her get her award. She is looking forward to 8th grade and being the leaders in the school. She is excited that she went to the same elementary school and then middle school from start to finish without switching schools. Her and her friends decided to add a Hawaiian theme to their last day of school and they all dressed up.

Her gymnastic team made it to regionals and they traveled down to Wichita to compete. Allison did really well and had a fun time. Her coach was leaving McCracken’s where Allison has been for the last 7 years. Allison decided she wanted to follow her so after Regionals we changed to Element Gymnastics. I think it will be a good fit for her. She will get a lot more one on one training.

School always gets out the Thursday before Memorial Day Weekend. For our first Summer activity we went to Arkansas and spent the weekend at Dave and Jen’s house. Matthew wasn’t able to come because he had work and baseball but the four of us had a good time. The kids love swimming with their cousins in their pool whenever they feel like it. We did an outdoor movie, games, roasted smores, did a little shopping and had a fun time visiting with everyone.

After we got back from Arkansas the girls got ready for their Girl Scout Day camp that they have gone to for the last several years. Allison is one of the youth leaders now. She likes having a little more freedom to pick what she does and spends a lot of her time with the little kids area of all the younger kids of the volunteers running the camp. She likes to do the sleepover the first night with the older girls too. She usually found Emilee once or twice throughout the day to say hello too. Dad went on Saturday and was a leader for Emilee’s group. She loved having him there. Allison didn’t go the last day of camp because she had something else going on. They handed out awards on the last day and Allison ended up winning “Best Swap” that year (it is a trinket each girl makes to trade with other girls and they pin them on their hats) Emilee went up and accepted the award for her since she was gone.

I thought I already mentioned this but its pretty big so I will again. After 3+ years, and countless false promises of “one more month” Allison finally got her braces off! She was and still is pretty excited. Now we have the constant battle of getting her to wear her retainers. 🤣🤣

Moving Right Along to April

We thought this year might creep by slowly while we wait for our house to be built. Sometimes it does seem like it is taking forever but overall it does seem to be flying by. Once Spring Break was over and it is the 8 week stretch until school is out for the Summer it really seems to fly.

It was a cold Spring but there were a few nights in April we were able to light up the fire pit and make some smore’s in the back yard. Mmmmm we all love a good smore.

Emilee was selected as the Student of the Month which they now call Leader of the Month. Luckily they awarded it on a Friday so I was able to watch her get it. They do a little intro about the person before they say who it is. They said a lot of nice things about her- she helps others, gets her work done, is kind, loves to read, is a good listener. As soon as they said this person loves horses and knows all kinds of facts about horses everyone knew the teacher was talking about Emilee.

I was a good girl and did my workout before her award ceremony even though that meant I had to show up stinky and gross. Good thing you can’t smell pictures.

Our church had a Prom Night. Matthew’s high school only lets upper classmen go to the prom. Or you can be invited to the prom by an upper classmen. Matthew didn’t go to the school prom. When the church said they were having a stake prom I asked him no less than 12 times if he and his friends were going to get a group together and go to the dance several months, and weeks in advance. You don’t have to dress formal but a lot of people do. He told me each of those 12 times that he was not planning on doing that. The day of the prom he texted me from school to tell me that he and a group of kids were going to go to prom and he was taking Campbell.🤦‍♀️ At least he had given her a few more days notice than he did me so she was able to find a dress and Matthew just wore his church clothes, no tux. They both had baseball/softball practice until 6:30 so they missed dinner and ended up just going to the dance. After the dance they had an after party were they are supposed to dress up as something together. They changed back into their baseball/softball uniforms and went together like that. I got no group pictures. They had a fun night. That is is the difference between a boy and girl. Boys are zero planning time, you have to drag details out of them and beg other moms for pictures. Girls want 12 outfit options, tell you all the tea and have pictures of every second of the night. Is it not adorable that they both were the number 14?!

Allison was busy doing track everyday after school in March and April. She decided to do the pole vault, discus and shot put. She did a lot of running and got in good shape. The coaches didn’t do much coaching for her events so it was more of a figure it out on your own thing. We were proud of her for trying something new and putting all the effort she put into her practices and meets. I tried to go running with her a few times. I am a tread mill runner IF I run- I like the AC on a fan in my face and stopping exactly where I started as soon as I am done. She kicked my but when we would run together. She loved the social part of it and overall had a good time. She ended the season not sure if she wanted to do it again. If she does she wants to drop shot put and discus and do the high jump instead. If she decides to do it again we will have to see about finding her a private coach to teach her the pole vault and high jump.

Emilee is trying her hand at softball again this Spring. So far it is going 100% better just for the fact that she has glasses now and can see the ball. She joined her bestie Reese’s team and it is a good fit for her. She has improved a lot in catching, throwing and hitting. We all try and help her practice batting and playing catch at home. Hopefully she sticks with it for a few more years.

Matthew made the JV baseball team. They had a really good season. A little more than half way through the season he was moved to practicing with the varsity team and going to all their games. He still played JV games but then he would go to all the varsity games and warm up with them and pinch run for them a few times. The Varsity team went to State he got to go with them and had a great experience. They lost their first game and were out but still had fun. He is hoping to get to go again his Junior and/or Senior year when he is a full time varsity player. He has grown a bit and has a little more strength behind his swing and throw so he is really enjoying himself when he plays now. It is fun to watch him.

These are the three JV players that moved up to varsity.

This was the Regional Game they won to go to State

Here Comes February

Like January, February seemed to stick to the tradition schedule. There is more days off of school between teacher conferences, snow days, holidays, and this year we added another day off for the Super Bowl Parade since the Chiefs won.

Emilee made her Valentines box to take to school for her Valentines Party. After this year she had one year left before there will be no more kids making Valentine’s Boxes in our house.😢 She did a great job and did everything on her own including coming up with the idea, gathering supplies and creating it. When she was all done she had an adorable Valentine’s Day Fox Box.

Matthew and Campbell went to the school dance. Matthew called it Winter Homecoming but I think that is not the right name. It is probably Sweethearts or something like that since it is in February. That is what all the other schools called it. I was in Idaho when he went to the dance but Campbell’s mom Lisa sent me some pictures. Between Matthew and Ryan they were able to pull an outfit together. They had a fun time. They went with a group of Campbell’s friends, and ate dinner at Sake Lounge before the dance. Campbell is a Sweetheart because she does not like sushi but she agreed to go there for dinner because Matthew loves it. Those are the same pants he wore to the dance in October and he has already outgrown them. He loves that he is obviously taller than her now and she can wear heals if she wants.

The day after the dance was the Super Bowl. The Kansas City Chiefs were in it so everyone was pretty excited. Ross and Lauren and Roger and Rhonda came over to our house. There was lots of yummy food and it was a really close game. It came down to a field goal the last few seconds of the game that won it for us. I was driving home from the airport at the time. I had seen some of the game on the airplane. Lots of people would cheer whenever we scored. There was tons of decorations and a balloon tunnel at the airport set up for when the players came home. I was trying to hurry home in time to catch the last few minutes but as I was getting off the freeway at my exit a bunch of red, gold, and white fireworks started going off. I knew we had won. As I pulled into my driveway about five minutes later there were still fireworks going off everywhere and people running all over cheering that the Chiefs had won. Kansas City has some good fans.

Emilee Hits Double Digits

The youngest child in our family had her golden birthday, which is also her first double digit birthday this year. Ten years old! So crazy to think she has been with us for 10 years. I remember her first night with us. She joined us a little before 5 in the morning and didn’t make a peep. I was very worried but the doctors assured me she was fine and healthy. Then she snuggled into a ball and slept on my stomach where she spent the first nine months of her life, just now on the outside instead of inside.

She wanted to have a party with some friends for her 10th birthday. With the move from our home to our rental I was a little off the ball and didn’t get something booked in time for her birthday. We managed to figure something out though. She invited her besties Reese, Cambrie, Millie, and Jovee to have pizza followed by laser tag and a ropes course up in the air at Main Event. Matthew and his girlfriend Campbell came with me to help supervise and make sure everyone was having fun. After that we all piled into the car and came back to our house. We had ice cream cake, opened presents and played games until it was time for pick up. It was a successful 10th birthday.

She wanted to wear dangly earrings for her birthday.

Shortly after her birthday Emilee had her first piano recital. She has been playing for about a year now. She goes through periods of willingness and enthusiasm to play. I am encouraging her to stick with it long enough to get to the point she really gets it and can play things on her own. I think she will really like it. She had been planning on playing a song from Wicked for her recital. I guess her teacher had told her to switch songs the last week to one she was more comfortable with. I didn’t know though so I had her practice the Wicked song and she never practiced the original. So she played it for the first time in over a week at her recital. 🤦‍♀️ She still did fine and it was a good experience for her. She is learning she can do hard things. She is now playing Christmas music which has re-excited her to play more. I think if I can get her through one more year she will be hooked and realize it is fun.

November was also Emilee’s 4th grade musical performance. She has never been a fan of these yearly performances. Matthew was fine with whatever was assigned to him. Allison always wanted the biggest part and went all out on her costume. Emilee tries to tell me she is sick the day of everyone. She always turns down a speaking part and will not dress up. Since she is tall she is usually on the back row. This year she was next to a very enthusiastic boy that was all in for all the song actions. Emilee tried to melt into the person on the other side of her and looked like she was wishing to be anywhere but where she was at. Since she didn’t want a speaking part her teacher had her play the xylophone for one of the songs. She did her best to look miserable the whole time. When she saw me recording her she couldn’t help a little smile sneak out. Such a funny girl.

Last But Not Least

Emilee has been keeping busy with her activities too. She is still doing piano. She wants to be done with it but I told her she had to get through the lesson book she is on first. She has a recital coming up and she is going to play a song from Wicked that she has been learning.

She is still taking riding lessons and loves it. One of the horses she rides is called Marilyn. She is a shorter horse so when she canters she gets moving pretty good.

She played volleyball this Fall and it was hit or miss if she liked it. Once she was there I think she liked it, getting her there was usually a chore. Especially when it was early on a Saturday.

She loves going to Primary Activity Days. They had a daddy-daughter activity a while ago. They both had a lot of fun building this tower together. It was a contest to see who could build the biggest sturdiest tower in a certain amount of time. They were the winners. Dad’s engineering heart was so proud.

First Day of School 2022

As is always does, Summer eventually came to an end. Emilee and Allison started school on a Wednesday. Matthew started the next day.

Emilee is in 4th Grade

Allison is in 7th Grade.

Matthew is in 10th Grade.

To Grandma’s House We Go

This Summer all of the kids asked if they could go visit Grandma and Grandpa Jones in Florida for part of their Summer break. Allison has been going for a few years, then Emilee started going, then Matthew said he wanted in on the fun.

Emilee was the first to go this year. They like to go one at a time so they have Grandma to themselves. We left the house to catch her flight at 5 in the morning. Right before she got on the plane she was feeling a little nervous but she did great. She had her backpack with her favorite stuffed animals in it and an iPad to keep her busy for the two hour flight. Grandma was waiting for her as soon as she got off the plane. They got home and Grandma was surprised to find that half of her suitcase was full of stuffed animals too! After I packed her clothes I told her she could fill the rest of the space with whatever she wanted. She went with a pair of goggles and about 10 stuffed animals packed with loving care so they weren’t squishing each other.

Aubry spent the night at Grandma’s with Emilee the first night.

First night and Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Florida.

Emilee was there almost two weeks and she had a great time. Grandma took her to the zoo, the aquarium, the beach, and there was lots of swimming at Grandma’s pool or Aunt Sherri’s house. There was movie nights with popcorn and a fun July 4th celebration with lots of fireworks of course.

Emilee said grandma had lots of good food like chicken nuggets, and spaghetti and chocolate chip pancakes almost every morning. She said she had a great time. I love that she gets to make special memories with them.

Uncle Kenny and Aubry were going on a road trip to Idaho so instead of flying home Emilee hitched a ride with them. It took a little longer than flying but after two days of driving they made it to our house. Emilee said the first thing she wanted to do when she woke up the next morning was call Grandma and tell her she made it safely.