Thanksgiving concert

Tonight we had a Stake Thanksgiving benefit concert. Those who attended were supposed to bring some food for the local food bank. We filled the stand pretty well with choir members. It actually went rather well. Reid and I sang and the kids stayed home, so it was actually a break. I always forget how much I enjoy singing until something like this. Our choir director is amazing. He is from Holland and studied music there. He gets us to sing better every time. I'm glad it's over now and not in a month!

Potty training is on hold until after Thanksgiving. We had some good success, but then she had NO interest and a number of accidents. She wants to sit on the potty occasionally, though. Someday . . .

I think we are all looking forward to this week. Reid has the week off of work and a lot of our responsibilities are not pressing this week. yeah! We need it!

The other day I asked Jessica what her name was and she said "Jessica Allie T Morgan." Not sure what the T stands for, but it was very cute. Eric is afraid of everything right now. Closet monsters, under the bed monsters, dark places, brushing his teeth in the bathroom alone, sleeping without the light on, etc... I know it's just a phase, but we hope he grows out of it. He's sleeping in our bed every night!

Fun in the sun!

Yes, we did have some sun this weekend and we enjoyed getting a bit of yardwork done and played at the park too. We are looking forward to the end of Stake Choir - we are doing a Thanksgiving concert and food drive next week. We will have our Sunday evenings back! Kim and Abby have 2 more weeks left of acting class. It's been going well I think. I'm not sure they LOVE it and I don't think they are dying to go back in the spring, but it's been a good experience. Kim wanted to audition for Willy Wonka Jr., but we decided that the Sunday shows would be a problem at this point, and the $375 fee if she made it was a bit steep for us. She REALLY wants to get into this, so I'm hoping the middle school will have a class or club she can join that will fill this need more easily and cheaply.

Abby is Abby. She announced in Primary today that she is good at rapping. Not the kind we do at Christmas either. I don't doubt that she is good at that! She was devastated to learn that I was released as the Activity Day leader and made Primary Chorister this week. She was apparently hoping that I would be her AD leader. She was convinced that I was the only one who would do fun things and that I had all the fun ideas. It's nice to be appreciated, I guess. Kim just said it would be embarrassing to have her mom as the Primary chorister.

Jessica is working hard at potty training. We've kind of taken the weekend off, but I can see her figuring it all out soon. I can't believe I'm almost done with diapers! Eric is turning out to be a typical brother - stealing purses, dolls, etc... just to annoy the girls. He's a fun kid who loves to talk. Not at all like his father :)

Birthday

Thanks for all the birthday wishes - cards in the mail, phone calls, facebook messages, etc... I had a great day. Reid and I went to a little Italian restaurant in Seattle and then went to a play called All the King's Men. It was good. Reid and I were both tired, so I'm sure the play was actually better than I might make it sound. I got a body pillow (I think the kids love it just as much as I do), a soft robe, some books, a Sudoku book, hmmmm... I detect a theme here . ... Anyway, I also got a few new serving dishes - now I just need a place to put them since the china cabinet is still in the bathroom.

I'm selling Jessica to the highest bidder - so if you want a stubborn, independant 2 year old, let me know. Okay, so she's the cutest and smartest 2 year old as well, and we do love her. We just have to keep convincing ourselves of this. If we let her tantrums go on, she will scream herself hoarse over the horrible actions of her parents (i.e. putting toothpaste on her toothbrush or closing the lid on her sippy cup). I guess the strongest spirits were saved until the last days!

Kim is singing the national anthem with 8 other kids from her class at the veterans day assembly tomorrow. She is not sure she wants me to go watch. Becoming a teenager who is embarrassed of her mother already!

Abby and Eric are remarkably normal this time. Working hard at school and enjoying life.

Losing Brain Cells

Well, the new floors are messing with my plans of writing in the blog every Sunday, but I'll get back on track soon! We spent a couple of nights this past week at a hotel while they installed and finished our hardwood floors. We came back home on Wednesday and I walked into quite the intense chemical smell of the finish on the floors. I opened all the windows and it was livable that night. I would guess that we all were losing some brain cells that night, though. :)

We had parent-teacher conferences for Kim and Abby and they went great! Both girls are doing a great job in school - top reading and math groups - and are not causing problems, either!

Jessica has started calling people "buddy" which comes out rather hilarious sometimes. She enjoyed Halloween as a cat. Eric was Darth Vader, Abby was a go-go girl, and Kim was a dark fairy (but switched to a queen for trick or treating). A fun time was had by all!