April 2011

Lydia: Broke her arm in 2 places and had to have surgery to repair it! This has been covered in several other posts - as it was quite the traumatic event for all of us. She also celebrated her 10th birthday and got her ears pierced. She was so brave - she didn't even blink! I guess after breaking your arm, getting your ears pierced is no big deal :). She got a new hoodie for her birthday, to replace the one they had to cut off her when her arm broke. Lydia had to recruit some helpers to perform a science experiment that she had planned since she is restricted from riding a bike or a scooter for the time being. She missed an MVOC (outdoor club) hike through the lava fields, but she did get to go to a GPS workshop.

Shawn: Went to Sandpoint, ID to present an ethics training.

I got to go with him and we had a very enjoyable weekend. It was a little rainy, but we enjoyed a nice dinner with some of his colleagues, I enjoyed some shopping at the Coldwater Creek flagship store (50% off clearance!) and a nice long bubble bath while he was at his presentation, and we enjoyed walking around the town a little. Lydia broke her arm while we were traveling home.

We also got to go to the Idaho Falls Symphony again at the end of the month- this time the soloist was a violinist.

Lauri: I got to go see a counselor in the bishopric again and was called to be the 2nd Counselor in the Young Women - I still get to be with my Beehives!

Easter: Lydia and Evelyn got to hunt Easter eggs at our neighborhood Easter Egg hunt Saturday morning. Imagine hundreds of eggs just lying in the grass at the park - not much of a hunt really. Felicity was a little bummed that she was too old and I wouldn't let her keep all the candy she "helped" Lydia and Evelyn get.
Later we dyed Easter eggs, trying our hand at a little batik technique. Sunday the girls found their baskets of course (notice Mom working on some last minute YW handouts) and after church we went to the park to fly our awesome new kite (Thanks Mom!)Here is my laptop just before it crashed. That was such a sad day.... I took a picture of the screen and sent it to Shawn to see if he knew what was going on.Here are some fun pics take with the RetroCamera app on my new phone - which I love!
I think this must be how the girls see me a lot...

Doesn't every family have the "place" where the shoes all end up...?

March 2011

Shawn: Went to Washington D.C. for the AAMFT conference. Also celebrated his 36th birthday.

Lauri: Did some subbing, worked on several projects/events for PTO - the school yearbook, kindergarten registration, book fair, meals and snacks for parent/teacher conferences. Started going to mutual with Felicity!

All the Young Women from our ward got to take a day trip to Salt Lake City, to attend the General Young Women's Meeting. We left Saturday morning, spent some time at the mall (brought sack lunches), went to temple square, had dinner and changed at Golden Corral and then went to the broadcast. My car ended up parking a few blocks away, at the top of a parking garage. We made it just in time for the meeting to start (sitting way over on the right side of the Conference Center). It was a wonderful meeting and I'm so glad we got to go! It took us about 45 minutes just to get out of the parking garage once we got back to our car, because everyone else was leaving the conference too. We got home around midnight, I think. It was a fun way to get to know some of the girls a little better :)

All the girls who went

Felicity with some YW value flags

5 of my 6 Beehives, after the conference

Felicity: Missed an orchestra concert (playing the cello this year) because she had influenza B, which lasted several days!

Lydia: Read one of her original stories in the school talent show. She also enjoyed her Activity Day activities.Evelyn: Played "My Ducks Love to Quack" in the school talent show. Her grade also had a Spelling Bee, and then they had another one in her class.

February 2011

Evelyn: Played the part of Pippi Longstocking in a reader's theater performance of several little plays that her school class did. She is the 2nd girls from the right in the pictures below. The 2nd graders all had a Science Fair also. Evelyn experimented with gravity by dropping several different objects from the top of our stairs and seeing which fell the fastest. No pictures though... :( Felicity: Got to go to the temple and do baptisms for her 2nd mutual activity, and went to New Beginnings for her 3rd mutual activity. Shawn and I were sick that day, so we did not get to go with her :(

Lauri: Released from the Primary presidency and called to be a Beehive advisor. Got to go on a fun date with Shawn - the Idaho Falls Symphony and Rockapella! It was a fun night! I also got to go to an educators/PTO preview of the Bodies exhibit that is at the museum this year. Wow! Our bodies are amazing! Celebrated my 37th birthday. I got a new Android phone that I love more than I have ever loved any cell phone before! I love downloading apps - the calendar, weather, camera, Goodreads, Netflix, facebook, email, internet, etc. all at my fingertips!

Shawn: Introduced the girls to the Lord of the Rings movies. They spent a couple days watching them - especially when Felicity got the flu.

For President's Day, we decided to go to Utah to visit my Grandmas. It was nice to get away for a weekend, especially since I was kind of between callings, so didn't have to prepare anything for Sunday! Here is a picture of Lissy reading scriptures with Great-grandma Olsen.

January 2011

So the girls pointed out yesterday that I really need to update my blog. Fortunately, I just downloaded a bunch of pictures from my phone and camera, so I should be ready to go. However, my hard drive crashed a few months ago, so many pictures of events are lost forever (sniff, sniff). I was fortunate to have some pictures on the blog already, but those and pictures on my phone are about the only ones to survive since the last time I backed up (which was 9 months prior to the crash). So, just a friendly reminder, BACK UP YOUR PICTURES! And just because I'm weird this way, we're going to start with January (because it just seems to wrong to start with June of July....). So here goes...

Shawn: Earned his blue belt in karate. A couple of the girls and I went and watched him test and were very impressed with his mad skills!

Lauri: Continued with her Primary and PTO responsibilities. Also got in some New Year's organization by cleaning up our office (4 hours) and helping Shawn assemble some shelves in the storeroom. Over the course of a couple of Saturdays and a trip to D.I., we got the storeroom looking quite a bit more organized.

Felicity: Celebrated the long-awaited milestone - her 12th birthday! She had a group of friends over and they played Just Dance 2, made personal pizzas, played a sentence/picture game, and ate eclairs and dipped strawberries. Her invitations were a Paris theme and her friends know her well - she received lots of French decor, "pie" references, and the color lime green made an appearance quite often. Her first mutual activity was the Stake Standards Night, the day after her birthday. Before graduating from primary, Felicity passed off all her Articles of Faith for the 3rd or 4th year in a row.
Lydia: Passed off all her Articles of Faith for the 2nd year. Here is a picture she drew for a FHE lesson she taught on Ammon.

The girls' school librarian had a contest where the top 4 readers in each grade (during the month of January) got to have "Pizza with the Principal." I was a proud Momma when all three of my girls got to participate in that activity.