So, in the past week, we've accomplished quite a bit as well, and have a few more pictures to show for it than the last. On Monday evening we went over to the Smyke's house for Family Home Teaching...kind of a combination of FHE and Home Teaching. We visited for a while and the kids acted out the Nativity Pageant for us. Max and Blaise were the shepherds, Alisa was Mary riding on Jess the donkey. Joel was a Wiseman and Lucy was the Angel. They had a great time acting out the story and showing their parents that they 'totally knew what they were doing.' (direct quote from Lucy).
That has been Lucy's favourite story of all time for about a year now. We have a tiny nativity set that the kids are allowed to play with and last year before Christmas, she had me tell her the story, verbatim, about 6 times a day. The first time I told her the story, I referred to the scriptural account a lot. To make sure I got everything accurate, and so she could see that this was a true story from the scriptures, and not just something nice to hear. Well, each time after that, she would correct me if I forgot some of the phrasing I had used the original time. For example: "Mom, you forgot to say 'Caesar Augustus'" or "Mom, you forgot to say, 'A multitude of Heavenly Hosts'". Accuracy in reporting is obviously very important to her. After our nativity pageant, we headed to the kitchen for some icecream, homemade chocolate sauce, and smarties. The kids loved it. They also loved wrestling with Joel and Blaise and playing charades for a while. Lucy informed everyone...often...that she was 'SO good at this game!'We were at my parent's on Wednesday to get some errands done and Alison kindly let my kids have a shower with her daughter, as I was getting worried about the time we'd be getting home. Of course, I hadn't planned on them showering there, so I didn't have a change of clothes for them. Alison came to the rescue with some of her daughter's old pjs. Max was very proud of his pink-heart pjs and said, "Dad has a pink shirt and a pink tie, so boys look handsome in pink." I agree.
On the weekend we headed down to Lethbridge/Raymond/Cardston to join in our ward Temple Trip on the saturday and visit with family. We arrived in Lethbridge about 4:00 and visited with Auntie Kari at her house for a while. The kids love Kari and love her dog Mac, and enjoyed tossing his rope down the hallway for him to chase, and they'd go running down the hallway with him.
Sometimes they'd forget to let go of the rope and Mac would end up chasing them...causing the kids to squeal and laugh all the way down the hall. We headed over to Tyler's cousin Brad's place about 5:30 for some pizza and visiting with all of them. We watched Kung-Fu Panda, something we have seen about a thousand times and can quote easily. Brad and Angi have a 'love-sac' (a glorified beanbag chair) that the kids thought was awesome and enjoyed being launched onto it over and over by their dad, Brad, or Uncle Tracy. We headed over to Jayne and Tracy's for the night (in Raymond) and set up beds quickly so the kids could get to sleep. We had to be at the temple by 10 the next day, and Max had skipped his nap that day, so getting them to bed was high on my list, but not so much on theirs. We brought their inflatable Dora and Diego beds which are a good idea in theory, but not in reality. They're hard and make a lot of noise every time you move and have an inflatable pillow that is just to stiff and high for little bodies. That lasted about half an hour of tossing and turning until mom finally said, 'Forget it!' and I made them beds on the floor out of stacks of blankets and real pillows. Max fell asleep in about 10 seconds and was out for the night. Lucy took a few minutes longer, but slept well too.
The kids love being in Jayne and Tracy's house and sitting up on top of the big horse statue they have in their bonus room. (it's for indoor rodeo practices, but the kids don't care about that...it's cool!) Max got up there and said, "Giddy-up Old Paint!" the name of the horse on a Backyardigans episode and as a result the name of every horse he sees now.
Lucy wasn't to be outdone, so she got up and said, "Giddy-up, Princess!"
Jayne offered to drive the kids back to Lethbridge to stay with Kari and Barrett as she had some pies to make with her own daughter Cristy, and it saved us about an hour and a half of driving back and forth. They headed to Lethrbridge and we headed to Cardston to work in the Baptistry with the Youth, something I've never done before. It was fun to visit with the Youth of our ward and help them out. We had a few first timers, which is always a sweet experience. Then it was back to Lethbridge for some American Thanksgiving dinner at Kari's and a quick eat-and-run as we needed to get on the road and back home. Everyone was tired, but in good spirits, and we enjoyed our weekend with family. Thanks to everyone for accommodating us so we could make the trip!
We decided to head to my parent's after church on Sunday, but the trip was short-lived as my niece complained of an itchy head and we discovered lice. So Mike and Tammy invited us to their place in Airdrie and we made a quick trip out there for a visit and dinner. The kids had a blast playing with Ashley and Emma, who we don't see as often anymore. It was hard to drag the kids away by 8:00 so they could at least get a decent night's sleep. Thanks for dinner M&T and Mom and Dad...we'll see you in a week or so. Poor sweet niece...she took it pretty hard, but I hope she's feeling better today.
And here's a view of things to come...Tyler with 3 kids on his lap trying to watch Dora on the iPhone.
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