Been a while

I was updating my websites that I run for my elementary band and realized that this one hasn't been updated in years! Yikes. How to catch up.... Let's see. Reminds me of a scene from Princess Bride. "Let me explain, no there is no time. Let me sum up." So basically, we've all adjusted to being a family of six now and we love it. I still teach piano and clarinet students, as well as elementary band at two schools. Kevin is playing in the band with me at his school. The twins are in first grade now and loving it.

The twins are six!

Zoo trip with cousins

We took a trip to the zoo with Mike and Jamie and Katelyn and Dylan. We also brought the twins' friend Farin along. It was a great day at the zoo! 

Enjoying the new splash pad.

 

Even Tiffany got in on the splash pad action. She wanted to crawl in there but didn't want her knees on the ground. She eventually figured it out.

Waiting for the bird show to start. I think all of the kids said it was their favorite part of the zoo.

To go along with all of the lego animals on display, they had these giant lego blocks for the kids to play with. They had a great time building a castle.

Tiffany loved it too.

When it was time for us to leave, some other children enjoyed the castle our kids built. 

I wish I would have had my camera handy when we were actually looking at animals. The polar bear was especially cool.

Cabinet project

1984. Almost 30 years ago. Also a book by George Orwell about a dystopian society after a global atomic war. But in this case it's the year that my house was built and the year that the cabinets were put in. I'm tired of them. They're the classic 80s cabinets. But I decided to paint them and drafted Steve to help me. We got it done in 1 weekend plus a couple days and I'm pretty happy with the results.

Step 1: Remove cabinet doors and scrub everything down with TSP.

Then scrub it all off with water and sand everything.

Step 2: Paint every surface with primer, then sand everything and dust

Step 3 and 4: Paint with more primer, sand and dust, Paint with more primer, sand and dust.

That's right, 3 coats of primer with sanding and dusting in between each one.

Step 5: Finally, time for paint! I chose a high gloss white.

Steve is a wizard with this little roller. It saved so much time and there are no brush strokes to deal with!

Step 6: Another coat of paint. Finally after 3 coats of primer, 2 coats of paint, and a lot of sanding and dusting in between, we're done. Love my new cabinets!

Fleeting moments

I sat today, holding my 9 month old little girl and rocking her to sleep. As she lay sleeping quietly against me I just studied her sweet little face. Tears came to my eyes as I thought about how quickly she is growing up, and how these moments of me holding a sleeping baby against me are numbered. I listened to her softly breathing and occasionally a contented sigh would escape her. It was heavenly. I love seeing the new things she accomplishes every day, like how she is crawling everywhere. And I love hearing her try out new sounds, and try new foods. I can't say I'll miss everything that goes by the wayside as she grows up. But I will miss the sweet baby moments.

You shouldn't compare, but I think this is okay

Each of my kids when they were 6 months old:

Compare, if you dare! But I could never say which one is the cutest.

Things I learned on my birthday

So I turned 33 today. And it was a nice day. I went in the morning to pick up my Bountiful Basket and volunteered to help them out. As I was helping to put 7 bananas in each produce basket, the lady that I was working with told me, "Count by twos." Ummm... okay. I guess I wasn't going fast enough and I needed a basic counting lesson. I am older now after all and I must be losing basic math skills. She had many other counting tips to share with me as well. Honestly, I just chuckled to myself and kept at it.
I also learned today that if I want my kids to play county rec sports, Steve and I better be ready to coach. I volunteered to coach Troy's soccer team when I signed him up, because I knew that they would probably be calling around looking for a coach anyway. They called looking for someone to coach Kevin's flag football team this spring also. After trying each of the parents on the team twice, I finally talked to Steve and convinced him that he could do it. I'll help with the calling and paperwork and such and Steve will be the one actually teaching them the game. He picked up all of the equipment today. He's pretty intimidated by it but I think he'll be fantastic.
Another thing I learned was at dinner. Steve offered to take us all out to dinner to a place of my choice. I decided on Sweet Tomatoes: The salad buffet restaurant. It was a good dinner and the boys really enjoyed the food there. Even Tiffany liked it. She tried the mushroom soup, the tapioca, the lemon meringue mousse, and several different muffins. What I learned at dinner is that when you're at a restaurant on the Saturday of general conference, you should probably time it so that you're out of there by 6. Just as we were finishing our ice cream Steve said, "Look around and I'll bet you can tell me what's happening." Every table was filled with women. Everywhere. With a line of women extending almost out the door. I took my family to a salad bar restaurant during the priesthood session of general conference. At least we were just about finished.
The last thing that I learned on my birthday is that no matter how old I get, Steve will always be older. He got me an ice cream cake for my birthday and as he was cutting it, he noticed that it was really melty. He eventually realized that when he picked it up earlier today he put it in the fridge instead of the freezer. Kevin consoled him by saying, "It's okay dad. Even I make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes, that's how we learn. It's our class rule at school." I think Steve felt a little dumb about it, but to me the cake was still delicious. Honestly it was a great birthday.