Good Monday

Today was actually a good Monday. Not that they never are, but it's always full of recovering from the weekend and getting the week started, which can sometimes be tiring and gloomy! But today didn't seem like it. It was productive and went fairly fast. We woke up and hurried to get everyone up and ready for school. Today was the big day for my dad to visit Eliza's class and all the kindergartners. It's red-ribbon week, so my dad came to talk to the kids about strangers and "it's okay to say no." He talked about his uniform and let all the kids hit his chest to feel his vest. He "handcuffed" the kids and they slip out easily. They all think that is so funny. Then he took them outside to look at his truck. Each child got a little foam police car. When I picked Eliza up, all the kids had their cars! So Eliza and Libby rode to school with my dad. And Eliza got to eat hot lunch with my dad. She loved it although her teacher said she was a little "shy" about it. I don't know that she liked of all the attention. So like me!

This morning I had one visiting teaching appointment which went well. We came home for a little bit, then did the preschool pick up. That was followed by lunch, then lots of playing out front. After Hattie woke up from her nap, we took a trip to Target to get some milk (and other items), then we picked up Eliza. Katie came over after school and played, too. Ellie took and nap and so did Hattie. We went out front for a while, then they went out back while I made dinner. We had pizza rice. My parents came over for dinner, so that was fun. After dinner and some playing/visiting, my parents left and we had family home evening. I did a lesson about families and our home. We talked about what we could do to make our home a place to feel peace and like a temple. I wanted to end playing the song "My Holy House," but things were a little crazy and their attention span was over, so that didn't happen. While Brian got Ellie and Hattie to bed, Eliza and Libby helped me make hot fudge sauce for our ice cream dessert. Libby helped make it, but she didn't want to eat it. She just had ice cream. Then it was bed!

Now let's back up for a recap of the past couple of days.
Sunday: Went to church; Rachel gave a great lesson. She always does a great job and really puts a lot of time into her lessons. It was a sensitive topic but she handled it wonderfully and I think all the girls felt her love and felt the spirit for sure. After church we came home and fed the girls lunch and Brian and I got ready to leave to Sedona. One of my laurels came over and watched our girls until about 4:30 when my cousin came over and babysat until we got home. We got to Sedona for Aleeda's wedding (she is Brian's secretary at work). The wedding was at L'Auberge, where Brian and I love to stay! It was a pretty setting and nice ceremony. It was really cold though! Brrr! From there we went to Sedona Golf Resort for the dinner/reception. We sat with Arlene and her husband--Brian's on-call secretary--the Radleys--Aleeda's friend and realtor and Brian's clients, and Bishop Mariner--who performed the ceremony--and his wife. It was great company! Dinner was delicious--steak, chicken, veggies, potatoes, croissants, etc. The cake was very yummy and moist! We both really enjoyed it. We left Sedona at about 8 and got home by 9:15, so that wasn't too bad.






Saturday:
We left early to make it to Casa Grande to my nephew Matthew's baptism. It was nice. After we went to my brother and family's house for lunch.


From there we came home and I had a family photo shoot that evening. I was so nervous about this one since they have 6 kids. I think it went well though.




While I was gone, Brian took our girls to the resort for hot dog dinner, then I met up with them. Brian went home with the youngest two, and Eliza, Libby and I looked for a dress at Kohl's.

I think Eliza has pink eye, so that means no school tomorrow if she does. We'll know for sure in the morning! I had some drops left over from previous bouts with that, so we did gave her a dose tonight.

Now I am off to edit photos from the past couple of sessions. These are from Friday night. They are such a cute family. Baby number 3 is on the way (although you can't tell yet!)! So excited!