March 2019

March was a fairly routine month.  We have had some new experiences and are more settled into our  life here.

Eve continued swim team and with it came 2 hour practices after school each day.  Although is was tough, she quickly felt stronger and faster.  She also had a great time with the other kids and the coaches.

Eve has worked her tail off this semester!  She has had some catch up learning with many of the classes being different than the ones she left in Ohio.  She has a fairly heavy homework load and also attends "early" early morning seminary since she has a zero period class at school.  That means that she attends from 5:50-6:40 AM and then goes to school from 7AM - 3PM followed by swim practice.  She then studies most of the evening.  It is good that she gets out for church youth activities and has some family time as well!  She continues to have lots of friends at school that welcome her both from church and classes.  

Sterling has continued with school, band, gymnastics, and church activities.  He has missed being involved with sports, There isn't a recreational soccer league in the spring here for his age and he missed joining the school athletics. He has tried to find other things to occupy his time, but still feels a void since leaving Ohio.

Here he is with a new Lego set he bought.

This month, the oldest 3 kids were involved in the Turlock School District Music Festival.  They all had an opportunity to perform.  Eve and Sterling performed with their bands, and Sheri with her choir. 

Sheri has been doing great in and out of school.  

She was able to participate in the school talent show by doing a lip sync/dance ("Sit Still Look Pretty") with some friends.  It was cute and fun!  I feel grateful that she has found some good friends!

She earned an award at school for being hardworking and helpful.  She was also able to show me all her fun projects at the school open house.  She has had a great teacher who has made her transition easier.  Mrs. Calvillo is kind and often lets her stay after school to help with her friends.

Sheri and Christian have also jumped back into soccer.

Christian is getting better at soccer, but we still have to remind him to celebrate less and go after the ball more!.  :)

Christian also earned an award at school for confidence and academics.  He has had a great teacher as well.  Mrs. Anderson is patient and supportive.  Christian also enjoyed showing me his work at the school open house.

I love to see the kids enjoying their elementary school!

Here are a few other  highlights of our month that have kept us busy and happy:

Eve participated in the YW camp fundraiser  We did a cake walk with lots of cupcakes.

The kids got their faces painted.

 

 Here is Matt with some cotton candy. :)  The fundraiser was on his birthday.  

For Matt's birthday he got a monthly subscription for root beer.  He continues to collect them like Scott, my brother in law.  We didn't have extra cake because of all the left over cupcakes, but we sure love him!

Matt bought a car to use on his 40 minute commute.

Eve and I went on a Young Women's overnight camp out.

We did our annual St. Patrick's Day leprechaun treasure hunt.  Eve helped me this time.

Mean while Matt made dinner.  He has been spoiling me ever since. He makes dinner on most Sundays. This give me time to to blog. :)

We took our first trip to San Francisco for a Sunday drive/picnic.  It was fun to see the ocean, the Golden Gate Bridge, and a light house.

We've had more surprise blooms in our yard and enjoyed a family picnic on the lawn. 

And finally, here are some fun random moments.

Sunset at the bike park.  I love the palm trees at dusk!

Hot Cocoa

We started our garden area

Here is a picture of the kids with the youth at a Fresno Temple trip.

 

Although we have definitely had some challenges this month, I feel that God has helped us through them and blessed us with abundant blessings.  I am so grateful for the perspective of the gospel, God's strength to help us with the hard things, and our family to make the journey more joyful!

February 2019

February continued to be a lot of settling in.  Though we were still adjusting from the move we had some very fun activities in February.

The month started out with little things like getting into our ministering assignments, having the missionaries over to visit, Eve joining swim team, a band concert for Sterling and Eve, a snow camp out for Sterling, stake youth activities, a game night with ward friends (Greshams) and a fun "cupcake war" Relief Society night.  

This month I also started care giving for a sister in our ward 2-3 mornings per week.  Roberta is 89 and in pretty good health.  She lives in a retirement  community with basic help such as housekeeping, a salon, a community center, a gym, and a cafe for meals.  I am mostly there to help her with laundry, exercise, errands, and company.  We enjoy our time together very much!

Christian's reading has really been taking off.   Here is a little video.

Sheri learned all about the American Revolution and had a day where all the students got to participate in a historical retelling of the events.  She played Phyllis Wheatley. She did a great job memorizing her part.  All of the kids and parents learned a lot during this fun day.

On Valentine's Day we had the most beautiful rainbows ever!

We had heart shaped pizza and left for a president's day weekend trip since the kids had both Friday and Monday off of school.  We traveled to Lake Tahoe where it was getting lots of snow.  We are lucky that we went up Thursday night because the snow really started dumping after we got up there and there was a lot of traffic and congestion later on that weekend.  We definitely needed chains to get where we needed to go.  Once we got to the lodge (thanks to Matt's parents' time share points) we didn't do much driving around except when we came home on Saturday night.  The traffic going the opposite direction was a nightmare.  We were slow going, but made it safely thanks to avalanche control and Matt's stellar driving skills.  Here is our day of skiing and our day of playing in the snow.  It felt good to make some new memories and show the kids that there are many wonderful things to enjoy here in the California area.

The benefits of so much snow are that you have great powder, few people, and no wait time.  The drawback is poor visibility, and cold, not to mention the wind.  This was Christian's first time skiing and he was not a fan.  It was tricky and he probably would have benefited from a bunny hill or mini ski school.  The rest of the kids did great and Matt was great to encourage them to keep trying.  

The lodge where we stayed also had a pool, hot tub, walleyball courts, and racquetball courts.  We really enjoyed these together.  Matt and the kids enjoyed jumping in the snow and then back in the hot tub.

Here we are sledding and eating snow.

Here is Eve as an Eskimo. :)
This trip also gave the kids a break from all the stress around school.  We loved our time together!

The following weekend I was able to fly out to see my family for a few days.  I loved seeing Joseph in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels. He was hilarious!  I also got to see Mary's dance studio (incredible), and Annie's choir, Kantori perform.  The choir was heavenly and the organist was incredibly talented!  The weekend inspired me to seek for excellence.  So much talent in one weekend plus wonderful time with my family and personal reflection time is a great way to inspire and rejuvenate me!  I love my family!

As always, when you return to your family you love them more than before because you have missed them.  I love watching my kids play and have fun.  Here they are at our neighborhood park.  The warmer temperatures are very welcoming as well! :)

The final noteworthy event this month was the start of our kitchen renovation.  We wanted to update our kitchen by painting the cabinets, installing new counter tops, installing new floors, hardware, sink and a new dishwasher.  Here are our before and during pictures.

February and March were full of lots of decor decision making.  We were happy that this renovation took way less time than our Ohio experience.  Our end pictures will have to wait for another post.

In summation, we feel abundantly blessed.  Life has plenty of challenges, but we have many blessings and feel grateful for the help we receive from God daily!