A Week in the Life

One of my favorite family traditions is Sunday night "Big Boy and Big Girl Time." (Now that the kids are getting older, we really need to rename this tradition, but it hasn't happened yet.) To encourage our kids to listen in church, we reward them. If they take notes on the speakers in Sacrament Meeting, then they get to stay up late and we'll do their choice of activity. It is crazy how, especially during the school year, life just goes by so fast and there are very few opportunities to just let the kids choose what we do as a family.

Lately, Brandon will choose some game that he has made up that involves us running around on our knees and throwing nerf balls at each other. And the girls are really into dancing right now. So they almost always choose to dance.

Well, this week Brandon was home sick from church on Sunday, so it was just the girls for Big Girl Time. Caroline had us WATCH her dance for her part of the time. And Whitney had each of us participate in a dance contest. It was so fun and I got some fun pictures that I wanted to post. But I didn't really think they deserved their own post, so I thought it would be fun to blog about what a normal week is like for our family.

I should have known better than to think like that.

It turned out it was not a NORMAL week in the life...but here's how it went.

SUNDAY
Big Girl Time dance party!

MONDAY
Despite the agility seen in the previous photo, Andrew has been enduring months of intense pain in his lower back. Other treatments have failed to relieve his pain, so after thinking and praying and consulting with his surgeon, today Andrew e-mailed his doctor to schedule surgery. While there are always risks involved in surgery, we feel like this is the right thing to do. We're hoping for the best. And preparing for a long road of recovery to get there.

Also, we had Family Home Evening, another favorite family tradition. Whitney taught us a lesson on modesty. Brandon was in charge of the treat.

He made us s'mores dip.
It had melted chocolate on the bottom and
these toasted marshmallows on the top.
We dipped graham crackers in it.
Delicious!





TUESDAY
Brandon's cough keeps getting worse. And his fever comes and goes, but is sometimes as high as 103. I finally gave in and took him to the doctor today. I'm so glad I did! The poor kid has pneumonia.

The tween years are awkward for so many reasons.  One of them being that internists won't see you in their practice until your 16 or 18, so you're stuck at your pediatrician's office where they have you do your breathing treatment with a panda-shaped breathing machine.  :) He was a good sport.

WEDNESDAY
Got a call from the girls' school today. That's rarely a good thing. It was the school nurse. That's when your stomach REALLY sinks. I was afraid Whitney had come down with pneumonia. No. Instead, she had been hanging from a bar on her knees at recess and fell. on her head. Poor girl! When they brought her in the building, she said the teacher's hair was pink. (It was not.) And when I got there she told me her hands were burning. I asked her if she caught herself with her hands when she fell. "No, they're just burning." It was weird and I was worried. The nurse said she didn't show any signs of concussion, but to keep our eyes on her. She was fine. Thank goodness.

THURSDAY
Nothing too exciting. I felt like I should put Caroline in a bubble so she wasn't injured or ill. She still had her health at the end of the day.

FRIDAY
All three kids went to school today--the first time this week. And it was an early release day. Managed to squeeze in a fun lunch date with Andrew before they came home. Took the kids shopping to spend their fun money for the month. Whit is saving up for an Equestria Girls doll. Brandon and Caroline each bought a candy bar.

Brandon and Whit ended up in a giant silverware duel 

when we made a side stop at Pier 1 Imports.

SATURDAY

General Conference! One of my favorite weekends of the year. We slept in, cleaned the house, and then sat around as a family being spiritually nourished together. It was wonderful! The kids were amazing. At this point in our lives, I give them a composition notebook. They can take one or two notes on the talks and then choose a candy out of the bucket for each note. That's it! And they actively participate. We love it!

In between sessions, Brandon had a soccer game. His health is improving, but he's still not 100%. One of the many prescriptions he is on for his pneumonia is a steroid. And I don't know if it was a coincidence that he had his best game of the season today! He was more aggressive and focused than we've seen him. Despite his great effort, his team tied 0-0...for the third game in a row.

He had some great stops as goalie.

 He was running like a kid that didn't even have pneumonia.

And he was going after the ball.

 

All of that in 90* weather. Wow.

This was Brandon's first year attending the priesthood session of conference with Andrew. Drew was a proud dad! 

The girls and I were looking forward to our semi-annual girls night in.  It didn't quite go as planned. Erika and her girls were the only friends that showed up.  We had a great time visiting and the girls played together so well.  I think next year, I'm just inviting her. Maybe that will be our new tradition.

And there's a week in the life of our family!

We have our ups and downs, 

but I wouldn't trade my role as a 

wife and mother for anything.