Week in Review...

We had an eventful week! I did lots of resting for my painful carpal tunnel. Resting definitely helps. Haley had an orchestra concert on Thursday night and she had a duet part:) She did great! I was able to go to the temple and do the Initiatory work for the ancestor that Haley was baptized for, it's very special to go to the temple to do work for your own family. On Friday night Ashlyn went to a school carnival with her good friend Emilie Weidman and they had lots of fun going to different booths learning about different countries in the world. She came home with a passport filled up with things she had learned from each country and stamps. They also had pizza and cotton candy. Haley babysat that night and Jacob had a 'late night' with his friend, so Rick and I got dinner and a movie to watch at home with Abby:). We rented the Intern which was surprisingly pretty good, they threw in an issue that didn't need to be thrown in, but that's how Hollywood is these days. They like to ruin good movies, but overall it was good. On Saturday I watched one of my daycare babies for 9 hours while his parents prepared and then went to the temple to have the dad's endowments taken out. They will be sealed next week. It was a long week of babysitting, 41 hours! Rick says no more babysitting on the weekends, so somehow I need to learn to say no.

Today we had Stake Conference and one of the presidency members, President Jensen spoke about how special it was for him to take his own family names to the temple. He spoke about certain instances in his life where certain inspirations have come to him shortly before or shortly after performing family ordinances that he would never have thought of on his own. He also spoke about physically being protected by going to the temple and the protection that is offered to us by keeping our temple covenants. His talk really spoke to me because of Haley getting involved in finding names to take to the temple. He challenged each member to find 1 name to take to the temple. Haley and I have been on Family Search today and so far have found 20 names to take to the temple. Rick and I have a lot of sealing's to perform. We are excited to find more names to take and go to the temple.

I've been searching for playground equipment for the backyard and boy that stuff isn't cheap! I finally found this fun cube on a craigslist type app called Offer Up. I remember that we used to have a little miniature cube to play with with our dolls growing up. Abby loves it and I'm sure the daycare kids will love it too.

Our AC unit is 15 years old, the average life of an AC unit in Phoenix is 8-10 years, and if you have a really good one it is 12-15 years. We are so lucky that our AC unit has lived this long but we don't want to chance it dying in the middle of a 115 degree day this summer and adding the cost of a hotel and possible food spoilage to the bill. During the summer it can take up to a week or more to get a new AC unit in or even a repair. I've had several companies come out and give us quotes on a new AC unit. Wow, sticker shock! Basically it's the price of a used car! Not cheap at all, so I knew that I wanted to get the best possible deal that we could. Needless to say, we are getting a pretty dang good deal for a premium unit and I even got some extras thrown in all for less than the cost of every other quote that I got! Almost every single cent of our tax refund is going to this new unit, so it better last us another 15 years!!:) Here's to feeling nice and cool in the summer and lower electric bills!

Week in Review...

These pictures pretty much sum up our week! WE moved lots and lots of dirt this week! Our HOA is trying to fill up some cracks in our retention basins and so they said they could use our dirt as a base and then later put rocks on top. Our HOA president came over and showed me where he wants the dirt and said that he would find some teenagers to hire and do the job, I said that I could move it. All week we have been taking loads and loads of dirt over to the retention basins, all hands on deck! Even Abby wanted to help, she would help push or fill up a bucket with a few handful scoops of dirt and bring her little bucket with her. So cute! We successfully moved all of the dirt! Then I started digging more, to even out our ground and now we have another pile of dirt! haha! Luckily we have a place to move the dirt now. I also babysat 40 hours this week! A new record! Usually I work around 25 hours a week, so it was a busy one!

Rick and the kids planted a garden this week! They planted cantaloupe, watermelon, strawberries, carrots and corn. Our orange tree has blossomed and it smells so heavenly in the backyard! I wish I could bottle up the smell!

This picture shows our side yard all cleaned up! This side with our blue recycle bin was all full of dirt! You couldn't even see the curbing.

 This is our new small mound of dirt...

 Our garden!! So exciting!

 Abby wanted to help and lovingly spread seeds wherever she could:) Even where we didn't plan on planting! haha! So we marked them!

As a sad result of all of this work, I've developed carpal tunnel:(. So sad! I'm taking a self-prescribed break from digging, even though it's killing me that the work is only half done outside. It will have to wait. I'm hoping that I will be back at it soon!:)

Week in Review...

This week for Activity Day we had a Bring your ancestor to Activity Days Activity. It was so fun! Ashlyn brought her blanket and scarf that Grandma Hahn made and the ornaments that Nana made as well as her pedigree chart. It was fun to hear all of the different stories that the girls prepared...

We also played a game showing that we all have things in common...

We had some guys put up a paver retaining wall. I think it turned out fantastic! It gives us a lot more space in the back yard!

We still have a lot of dirt. Abby is obsessed with climbing the dirt hill to see the next door neighbors doggie. She yells at it to come here and when it doesn't come or it leaves, she asks, where doggie go?

Haley went with a small Young Women's group to do baptisms. She actually found a family name that needed to be baptized and brought it with her, so she was able to baptize a family member! That was pretty cool!

On Saturday one of my daycare kids invited us to her 2nd birthday party at Peter Piper Pizza. The kids were given lots of tokens to use and played lots of arcade games, they had a blast! Her parents even hired a Minnie Mouse character to come! Abby was so excited to see her, but when she got up close to her she said she was scary! All she could talk about on the way home was Minnie Mouse!

Week in Review...

This week was so nice outside that we were able to get out and go to the park! The kids loved getting outside and seeing the ducks and playing on the playground.

I found this little dresser at Savers for 6.99 and painted it! Turned out cute!

We had Jacobs Blue and Gold Banquet and Rick got an award for being the Cub Master for a long time. They gave him a really tall stick with some beads on the top.

Rick and I went on a Valentines Date, we went bowling and got KFC. Rick did really well, he got three strikes in a row and every frame had either a strike or a spare except for 3 frames! He got a score of 181! He was on fire!

The balls even had my name on them!

Ashlyn was invited over to our neighbor Emilie's house for a Valentines Cookie making party. They made lots of cute cookies and had fun throwing flour in the air in her backyard.

Haley caught this picture of me holding and kissing Abby...

Cute!

On Saturday Rick took the girls on a Daddy/Daughter Stake hike! Abby was so excited to go! She had lots of fun!

Ashlyn had a "float" parade, where they had to make a float about a certain county in the state. She put a big mountain on top with cactus trees and lots of facts and pictures. Rick was able to go and watch her in her float parade.

Ashlyn's teacher is a super cute Korean girl. She lives with her parents and is very close to them. She has been the sweetest teacher and everyone just loves her. She came to Ashlyn's orchestra concert and gave all of her students roses, she's very thoughtful. She told the kids that most 4th grade classes don't have a Valentines Party but that she wanted to have one! Her father passed away on Tuesday and Ashlyn has been so sad for her because she knew how close she was with her parents. Her substitute teacher was so sweet and had all of the kids make cards for her and they made paper lanterns to hang from the ceiling for when she gets back. I thought that was the sweetest thing they could do for her!

One thing that I forgot to document is that Haley tried out for JHFO, which is the Junior High Honors Orchestra in Mesa. A few hours after trying out she got an email that she had made it in! She's so excited!! She wasn't even going to try out because last year she didn't make it in and she thought for sure that she wouldn't make it. She will be having practices at her future high school with her future high school orchestra teacher! She will play at the Mesa Arts Center in April. We are excited for her and proud of her accomplishments!
Here's a cute pic that Jacob took of Abby...

 Grandma and Grandpa spoiled us by sending a huge Hershey kiss!! So sweet!! The kids were so excited!!

 Ashlyn gave her heart pillow to Abby for Valentines Day because she knew how much she loved it!

 And I got roses and chocolates from my sweetheart! Happy Valentine's Day!