Monday, February 8

We had some good laughs as we referred to our foods under their code names, “Can I get some more ‘snugglin’ please?” Awesome. The kids loved it.

To top off the day, we played a few games together (a matching game that Mark loves, and then spoons with everyone). Scriptures, family prayer, lights out for the kids!

Happy Valentine week!

Tuesday, February 9

Wednesday, February 10

Thursday, February 11

Friday, February 12

Saturday, February 13

Sunday, February 14

Monday morning, Natalie performed Vocalise in her philharmonic orchestra class for a judge as an initial tryout for state something. I ran over there to bring her clean copy of music for the judge which she had forgotten, and also because I wanted to watch her. I got to listen to 2 violinists before her and one cellist after her. I was very happy with her playing! She is so grown up! She has a few fellow students who are also amazing musicians. It’s fun to hear/see that!

Tyler and Mark were so happy to pack lunches and go to Adam’s cello lesson “with the tracks and trains.” Those trains are golden to me!

Jon and Andrew went deep into the mountains and dug an epic snow cave during the day! They came home in time for dinner with plans to return that night to sleep in it.

Tyler and I practiced right after school in an effort to maximize his good attitude. (Monday had been rough.) It worked! Practice was awesome. Not long after that, Jon called me to meet him and Andrew at Tucanos for lunch. What a treat! They were both so tired that I actually did a lot of the talking, ha ha!

Mark was my shopping buddy on our long excursion to the “big Walmart” in Orem. I rarely go there now, so made sure I used that trip effectively.

Andrew was in the school spelling bee for his first time (front row 4th from the left). He had a tough blow when he correctly spelled the work “bark” but had a slight hesitation in which the judge thought he said an extra B, but everyone else there heard him correctly spell the word, and if anything, it sounded more like he said B-rr-A-R-K. He was crushed. I didn’t expect him to be a finalist, but I know he could’ve spelled many rounds of words. He’s a book worm and super smart, so it was sad for him, but typical for our luck in spelling bees!

After this picture, Jon put a huge extension cord over Andrew’s head and across his chest to carry to school along with his box. Wow. Adam and Tyler both used boxes we made in years past.

After I picked up Tyler from school, Jon was nice enough to work at home a little longer so I could run an errand without taking the boys.

I couldn’t believe it was Friday and we were already back at piano lessons! The boys were both awesome. At home, the girls were willing, though a bit reluctant, to try out Andrew’s concerto accompaniment, and also played through with Tyler again. Adam started running a fever and wasn’t feeling well, so he was off the hook. He missed Dean’s Harry Potter club and playing with Riker, though.

Adam had a scout snowshoeing activity that I felt was too important to miss, so he skipped out on chamber group today. The other girl didn’t show, so Amy got a one-on-one with Emily Ricks, which was awesome! I really like Emily.

Jon took Andrew to soccer while we were gone, despite returning home at 3 in the morning.

I had ward council in the morning, so Jon got all the boys ready for church. I came home just 10 minutes before we normally leave to help out as much as I could. It was ward conference. Tyler gave a talk in primary.

Mark was being a little grumpy in Primary, but was thrilled when he was chosen to get dressed up like a family in the scriptures. The primary children had to guess which family it was from Laurel’s clues. It was a super cute sharing time!

After our dinner of lasagne and Hulk shakes (spinach smoothies), we had Family Home Evening. Tyler conducted. I had the family history moment and shared stories about John Williams Berry - another 4th great-grandfather of the kids who heard the missionaries in Tennessee, read the Book of Mormon, believed it, and brought the missionaries to teach his family. They joined the saints in Nauvoo and crossed the plains to Utah. He has a picture of an Indian next to him because he was in the Black Hawk War. He was shot by an Indian in his left wrist and carried that bullet for the rest of his life. His 2 brothers, sister-in-law, and their baby were massacred by Indians in 1866. His remaining brother was killed by a mob while preaching the gospel in Nashville, Tennessee in 1884. President Joseph F. Smith said that the Berry family had shed more blood for the gospel’s sake than any other family in the church - all four boys being shot while in the service of the Lord, John being the only to survive.

Jon taught the lesson on being hard workers/contributors/not lazy people. Amy had helped Andrew to make a treat (peanut butter chews), and then Adam chose the activity: a Nerf war in the basement.

Jon cracks me up!

After the treat, Jon and Andrew turned on Just Dance, and got everyone’s attention. Talk about hilarious!

The girls and I joined in, trying out various combinations of people needed for the dance songs. It was really fun and got our hearts pumping as well!

Jon and Andrew packed up their things at midnight and headed out to their snow cave. I think they are crazy, but they love being adventurous. Their snow cave was so impressive!  I was grateful that they sent me texts and their GPS location so I knew they were alive! They learned a lot of things from this trial run, and had a blast doing it.

I took Andrew to indoor soccer practice. I enjoyed chatting a little with Amy Randall at the end.

That night, I made sure to go to Relief Society since my friend Kim was doing a class on organizing. She did a great job, and I had fun socializing a bit afterward. Amy had a Skype lesson while I was gone, and the girls put the boys to bed since Jon and Andrew had to leave.

This boy kills me with how cute he is!

I had good practices with both Tyler and Adam (very thorough), but Andrew had to practice on his own with me listening from the kitchen. Chess club plus mutual and scouts = a crunched evening. Before dinner, though, I had Natalie, Amy and Adam play through Tyler’s concerto with him a few times. He needs lots of practice to help him learn how to work with a group. I love it!

Jon dropped off the girls at the church, and I came a little later for New Beginnings. Every young woman participated in introducing the YW program to the upcoming beehives. Laura Middleton’s tree of life in the background just floored me! She made it from paper mâché, rebar and balloons. Seriously?! It looked so cool! The white fruit was all the desserts for the evening.

She also had an iron rod suspended in the air (hanging from the basketball backboard)

Meanwhile, Jon and the young men did service at Charity Vision. (Do you like the zombie on the left of this picture? Ha ha... panoramic pic.)

They sorted glasses for shipments to different countries.

Besides running errands, I continued to work on my big movie project. About 8-10 years ago, we had the most ideal movie system at home using Apple’s Front Row. All of our movies (home, church, and Hollywood movies) were ripped and accessible through the use of one tiny remote. Our little kids were all able to navigate it just perfectly. Then Apple did away with Front Row, so for the last 5 years or so we have gone back to the stone age of using discs, which I have hated!

At Christmas time, Jon set us up with Plex, which works similarly (though not as beautifully and quickly) as Front Row. My project has been ripping all of our new discs onto my computer (after I figured out which discs had not been). Boy, has that taken a while! I’m also catching up on putting our home movies there as well. (For the home movies, I combine clips from an event, label them by date with a short description following, like 2016_02_11Tylersoccer. I am very close to being done, and it feels fantastic!

Thursday night, The Coolest Dad Ever whipped up this awesome LED Valentine box for Andrew!

Andrew had to bring an extension cord to school the next day, but his teacher (who is very cool) let him keep it plugged in, and it was super fun and unique!

Friday called for Friday night pizza. I made pan pizzas again, trying a few alterations to my recipe.

I dropped off Amy at Addy Wilkey’s for a friend party, and she had a fabulous time! on had to work all night again, so I worked on my projects.

We headed up to Bountiful for Jon’s cousin Allison’s wedding dinner.

She got married that morning in the Salt Lake temple.

During/after the meal, everyone in the room was instructed to introduce the person on your left and then share a memory of one of the newlyweds. It was really nice, but long, so I was so grateful for the gym just out the door where all the kids were able to escape and play the whole time! It was perfect! We sat with Lexye’s and Barney’s family, and really enjoyed being together.

Allison had a beautiful picture book there for everyone to sign and leave a message in. Millie wrote two large messages, which became the talk of the night. She is hilarious!

Gommy had surgery to remove the diverticula in her throat. She was in the care center just across the street from the stake center where we were. We wanted to visit her before the dinner, but due to bad traffic, we had to wait until after. Most of our kids made her valentines, so gave them to her. In true Gommy form, she cheerfully read aloud each card, complimented the child who gave it to her, and was so grateful to them. I am so amazed at her ability to be so upbeat despite her physical discomfort. Gommy is an angel!

The kids humored me for a quick family Valentine picture in the library after church.

Before church, I gave the kids my valentines, which included (for the boys) new slippers!

I made one of our traditional Valentine dinners of meatloaf and potatoes (with carrots, grapes, and special bottled drinks), but this time, Jon helped me serve it “Crazy Cafe” style.

The kids chose their menu items, which were disguised, so they didn’t know what they were ordering. (Source: The Dating Divas) The kids loved it! Natalie got hers all served in the right order, but Andrew thought it was hilarious to get only utensils and a napkin first, which Adam got his utensils last. Mark was not enjoying getting dessert first (go figure), but as soon as he got his bottled cherry-cream soda, he was a happy camper.