12/31/15 New Year's Eve

     Today I had to work hard to get some accounting work done before the year end. Peter likes to visit me in my office and climb on my treadmill desk. Today he thought he'd found a good place to sit in my waste paper basket. 

    David appears to have taken this selfie. He is a funny kid and sees it as one of his roles to make sure that we don't miss out on the humor in life. 

     This evening we celebrated the New Year at Grammie and Grandpa Mangum's place. Uncle Matt was steward of the fire. The kids enjoyed roasting hot dogs for dinner. The grownups played board games. I ended up with work that needed attention and then fell asleep. I'll have to get a report on who made it to midnight when the revelers start waking up. 

12/30/15 Gifts from the Cousins in WVC

     Late last night a package arrived from the cousins in WVC. There are some fun gifts they sent. Heather's good friend Michelle drove them down for us. Above you can see Peter enjoying his new puzzle book. TJ can now read books like this to him. 

     Joseph loves his Joespjh Smith books. It is not lost on him that they share a name. 

    Sarah got some hair things and some cool DVDs. 

    Rebecca is excited about her new books. She is a voracious reader and has been devouring books this Christmas break. We're all glad that she has more good books to read. 

   

     Here is David with his illustrated scripture stories. I think I see some FHE lessons in his future. 

   Heidi is our Practical Problem Solver. She is excited to try out some of the ideas in her new book. 

     Here I am with my new puzzle and ornament. This will make a fun family activity. 

12/29/15 Temple Night and a New Job

     Guess who found an orange marker. Heidi and I figure he'll either be an artist or a writer if his love of writing implements continues like this. 

     Well, it's official, I am now a math teacher. Let's add that to the list of things I didn't expect to do when I was a kid. I am excited though. It's going to be a new adventure. It really feels like a calling. 

     This evening I got to go to ward Temple night. It's nice knowing that my new boss makes time to be in the Temple. 

12/28/15 House Cleaning and a Job Interview

      Today Heidi lead the charge in the kid's room. It's been needing a little TLC for a while. It looks a lot better now. 

     While they worked on that I did some accounting work. I had a meeting with the Alcantars. After that I had a meeting with Earl and Jared Tayor at Heritage Academy. They have a part time math teacher opening. The interview went well. We'll find out more tomorrow. If all goes well the position starts on Tuesday. 

    For FHE this evening we talked about ways the kids can help more with the laundry. 

12/27/15 Tech Upgrades

     The above pictures are from a few days ago when Matt and Sharon took Rebecca and Sarah to the zoo with Lucy and Alex. I love how Rebecca's fun personality really comes through in the first photo. 

    Today at church we got to try out the new mic setup that we just acquired for Sunday School. It seemed to go very well. This afternoon David helped me install the last few RAM and SSDs at the Des Moines building. David is becoming quite the tech helper. 

     This evening we went over to the Roche home to celebrate Alex Mangum's  birthday. There was cake and ice cream. The kids all seemed to have a good time. 

12/26/15 The Day After Christmas

      'Twas the day after Christmas and all through the house lots of things needed cleaning perhaps even a blouse. Things look much better downstairs with a day to put things away. There was still time afterwards for play. 

     Here is David with of of his new toys. A glider from his siblings. Heavenly Father cooperated by providing some wind to keep the glider aloft. 

     Still, more than the play I am grateful for the hard workers in our home. Here are David and Rebecca cooking lunch on Mom's new griddle. Work with a smile is one of the best things around.  

12/25/15 Christmas Day

      This morning the kids woke up excited to see what Santa brought. Most of us got flashlights and socks, some candy and an orange in our stockings. Some of the kids got other toys. 

       The kids opened family gifts at home   We ate our traditional cinnamon rolls. After that we went to the Roche home to share gifts with the cousins. We also played some board games and ate a nice meal. 

     The kids enjoyed spending time together with the cousins and getting to try out their new toys. David reported that this was the best Christmas he could remember. 

12/24/15 Christmas Eve

     Today we celebrated Christmas Eve. We shared lunch with my parents and Becca B. (Photo credit for my first three photos goes to Gram and Papa's auswanderer blog. Check it out to see more) above you see Heidi making home made corn dogs following Gram's special recipe. 

     After lunch we reenacted some scenes from the Nativity while Papa read Luke 2. As you can see Heidi and I were cast as Mary and Joseph. 

     Rebecca did a stellar job as the angel announcing the birth of Jesus to the awestruck shepherds. She quoted multiple verses of scripture from memory. David decided he wanted to be on the camera crew this time and took some great pics.  

      After that we exchanged gifts with Gram, Papa and Becca B. How special it is to have them living close by. 

     This evening Peter got to be a Shepherd in a second performance of the Nativity at the Roche home. 

     In addition to the Nativity the kids enjoyed playing a music game called Lego Rock Band with the cousins (Lucy, Lauren, Bradley and Anthony). 

 

12/23/15 Parks and Cookies

     This morning Heidi had some fun with our pancake pen. Bonus points to anyone who can guess what she made a picture of.

     After installing RAM and hard drives at the Stake FHC we took the kids to the Riverview Park. It has a tall climbing thing (too tall if you ask some). Can you see Rebecca up there? Matt and I both climbed to the top. 

 

    TJ on a more kid friendly climbing gym. 

     We got to have Elder Rhodes and Elder Godfrey over for dinner. Here thy are with the cookies they decorated. We took cookies and carols to 2 more neighbors with their help. 

    Heather took the four older kids to Bass Pro Shop where they gave the kids food color markers to decorate cookies with. Here is David with his cookie. 

     Here is Sarah with her creation. 

     We rounded out the day letting the kids watch Home Alone. They hadn't seen it before. They laughed and laughed. Hopefully some of the message about family and not just the slapstick got through. 

    Joseph asked me to take his picture. Do you think he knows he is loved?

 

12/22/15 Lights and Action

 

     I got to take Heidi to see Star Wars today. We took Peter since he misses his mama when we're gone. He did better than I expected. He let me watch quite a bit of the movie. He also thought this bench was pretty cool. 

     Tonight we went to see the lights around the Mesa Temple. Heidi got in a couple of pictures for us. Above is David surrounded by lights. 

 

     Here is Rebecca and cousin Lucy. 

    In the darkness you can just see TJ with a couple of Wise Men behind him. 

12/21/15 The Park with Friends

     Heidi took the kids to the park today. I had a client meeting so I couldn't go. The picture above shows Sarah and her friends, 2 Connolly girls. Notice the matching paterns on their shirts. That was unplanned. 

     Here Peter and Joseph share a swing. 

    Bradley joined the fun. 

     At home Peter seemed suddenly a lot taller (with a little help from David). 

     This afternoon and evening the kids baked and decorated cookies to give to the neighbors. This evening we delivered some of them and sang jingle bells. We borrowed an idea from our friends the Hallsted's and had the kids use bells from our music box. It was super fun. We have some great neighbors. 

12/21/15 The Park with Friends

     Heidi took the kids to the park today. I had a client meeting so I couldn't go. The picture above shows Sarah and her friends, 2 Connolly girls. Notice the matching paterns on their shirts. That was unplanned. 

     Here Peter and Joseph share a swing. 

    Bradley joined the fun. 

     At home Peter seemed suddenly a lot taller (with a little help from David). 

     This afternoon and evening the kids baked and decorated cookies to give to the neighbors. This evening we delivered some of them and sang jingle bells. We borrowed an idea from our friends the Hallsted's and had the kids use bells from our music box. It was super fun. We have some great neighbors. 

12/20/15 Creative Play

     After church today I went outside to find that the kids had made a "river" in the yard. So grateful to be in AZ where you can be outside in short sleeves playing with water in December. 

     At church today I had been asked to share 2 of my favorite scriptures from the New Testament. It wasn't easy picking 2. There are so many good choices. I felt impressed to go with James 1:5 and John 3:16. James teaches us that we can all receive direct answers to our prayers from Heavenly Father personally. We don't have to live in doubt. We can know for ourselves that the Gospel is true. John teaches us what's at stake, Eternal Life. We are not mortal beings in the complete sense of the word. We will live forever. Whatever may be wrong in our relationships or with our habits is worth fixing. After I decided to commit to sharing those verses I felt the Spirit helping me know what to say. I knew that what I was saying is true and I didn't trip over my words. As a bonus Peter fell asleep in my arms and stayed asleep until after I helped teach Primary. Heavenly Father does help us, even with the seemingly simplest things. 

     Other fun things from today: we got the new RAM and Harddrives installed at the Adobe Family History Center, Pierre and I home taught Sister Teeting for the first time. She has done some very interesting things. She talked about meeting President Hinckley and taking 44 years to join the church. 

     This evening we visited the Keifers. They kindly loaned us some fun movies for the kids to watch. We are blessed to have loving friends. It has been a good day. 

12/18/15 Rocking Before Christmas

     Heidi took this picture of Peter on the rocking horse. He played on it for about 10 minutes. For him that's a really long time. It was long enough that Heidi was able to get some laundry hung on the line without having him on her hip. 

      My highlight of the day was going to the new Star Wars movie with Gram, Papa and Becca B. It is well done although I hope it's not a spoiler that it is sad in a couple of places. It also has many awesome and fun parts. I can't wait to see it with Heidi and for the next one to come out to see what happens next. 

     All I lost for Christmas is one front tooth. TJ lost his first tooth today. He is so excited and feeling so grown up. He  has such a fun positive outlook on life. He helps brighten people' day with his sweet smile. 

       Character Coin - David was given an award today for helping out a 4th grader. Apparently a boy from David's 6th grade class was picking on a younger kid when David went to the bathroom. David told the older kid to stop it. The 4th grader was so grateful that he nominated David for a Character Coin for respect. He was awarded it at an assembly for the whole school. We are proud of David for having courage to stand up to a bully. 

12/17/15 Christmas House

     Rebecca made this graham

cracker Christmas house today at school. It is fun to see her use her creativity. We have it hidden in our room so that Joseph won't eat it. At this point when we say things like "don't eat Rebecca's house or TJ's advent calendar" it's as though he considers it like a suggestion. If it makes sense to him, he does it, if not, he disregards it. It would not be fair to say that he does not listen to us. When I ask him "to be my  big helper" and take something to the trash can he usually does it right away with a smile. It forces Heidi and I to practice our teaching more. Saying "do this because that is how I like it" does not work with him. When he understands why something is important he can be as much on board as he older kids with some things. 

    This evening Heidi and I needed a quiet moment to talk, away from the older kids, so we slipped into the downstairs bathroom. Peter still loves to sit in the sink and feel the water on his feet and legs. He cried when it was time to dry him off and take him out. 

     This morning I took the three boys back to the three church buildings to get her RAM chips that turned out to be the wrong size. Time to send them back. The ram, not the boys. 

     TJ now appears to be better after his relapse. Heidi and David also appear to be mended. Everyone should be able to make it to the last day of school tomorrow. 

     Heather kindly loaned  us her van and a charger to jump our van. The battery has been acting up since it got colder. Notice I didn't say cold. We wouldn't want our Utah and Idaho friends to think we felt a little bit of frost on the car windows meant it was cold. 😉

      This afternoon I met with a client about possibly doing more work for them. We got the green light so it feels like it was a good meeting.  

12/16/15 Think Tank, Clone Drives

    Today Sarah came home with a poster she made at Think Tank. She explained that it is like a mini gifted and talented program for second graders. We are proud of Sarah Mei for studying so hard. 

     Today TJ was not feeling well so we kept him home from school. Before long he started feeling better so we held on to him for a while to make sure he was really ok. He and TJ and Joseph went with me to the three buildings in our stake to work on my technology calling. Joseph absolutley refused to wear pants so I had to take him as he was. They were both big helpers. Joseph relented and let me put pants on him when I told him he couldn't go to preschool without pants on. 

     This afternoon David helped me create clones of older hard drives onto the newer solid state drives. This will allow the older machines to perform better. David is getting to be pretty savvy around a computer. 

      Sadly, this evening TJ relapsed and Heidi and David both started feeling ill. That completes he circle. Now everyone in our family has had a turn. Hopefully now we can move on to feeling better.   

12/15/15 Ten days 'til Christmas

     That's what TJ told me today. The picture is from a couple of weeks ago at the Riverview Park. He's about do go on the zip line. 

     Sarah and Rebecca started feeling better today. I did too. I didn't throw up but I didn't eat dinner either. Today no one threw up. That is a blessing. 

     Heidi's mom stopped by for a visit. Her car needed a repair and she took advantage of the time and spent it with Heidi and the rest of us. 

     We got some good work done. I moved the ball forward for a client. We ordered business cards and several other small projects. There seems to always be more to do than time. 

       We played the compliment game tonight. David did his homework without help, Rebecca helped with Peter so Heidi and I could work, Sarah was first to practice her instrument. TJ had a good attitude, Joseph helped pick up trash and Peter had many moments where he was happy today. Heidi made surprisingly yummy, to her, hash browns from scratch. The rest of us were not surprised. 

12/14/15 Monday

     I took this photo at sunset a few days ago. I don't think I've shared it. It was even more beautiful in person. It is nice to stop once in a while to notice the beauty that surrounds us. 

      Today I met with a client in the morning. I've thought that if I could pick whatever I wanted to do with my time it might be to meet with small business owners and help them learn how to run their businesses better. It helps them and it helps them serve their customers better. It feels like a win. 

     Rebecca and Sarah are both sick and throwing up today. They are being so brave about it. Tonight some of our friends (Michael and Jessica Hallsted and the kids) came carolling. They brought treats and invited us to see the Mesa Temple lights. What a great FHE idea. For ours we watched some Christmas videos on the Church website.