OMSI

What do you do when there's a day off of school?  Go to OMSI!  Kaila missed out on going earlier since she was in school but I knew we would be going later that week and that helped make her happy.  She was THRILLED to be there.  After the kids land they were begging to go down to the big kid area.  I asked if Kaila wanted to see how big the baby was right now since they have that baby dispaly there and she did.  It's wonderful now to see her reading.  She went through each baby and read all about it.  She was shocked at how big the baby was.  Kevin was too when he asked later after the kids were in bed what week I was almost 24 weeks.  He said, "That's a big baby in you."  I agreed after I saw it too.  No wonder things are beginning to hurt.  I really hate the ribs hurting and to have 3.5 months more of that pain isn't fun to think about.

They had a fun human development exhibit there but the kids weren't too thrilled.  Kevin and I tried to get them into it which worked for a few of the stations but they kept begging to go downstairs so we did.  Kaila's been asking forever to go back to the science lab!  She LOVED it the last time we were there.  Addie didn't want anything to do with it this time and Glenn go tired of waiting since there were so many people there.  Kevin and Kaila stayed and had fun together while Glenn, Addie, and I went to the earthquake house and to build with the legos and enjoy the lift/crane station they have there.  It was great for me to have a little break and sit in a chair and eat a little snack I had left.

We left shortly after that since everyone was hungry and headed over to Greg and Sher's house for a taco dinner. Greg called me earlier needing me to help him with a legal matter with serving papers to an autistic boy that had turned 18 but was still in high school.  The parents weren't allowed to know what was going on with him any more but he's not capable of making decisions on his own since his autism was so sever.  The papers where letting him know his rights and so then Greg could finish the claim and the parents could maintain legal guardianship of him and have their rights to know what's going on and help make decisions for him again.  It was really nice to be able to see them and hang out especially just our family so we could all talk more without having everyone else there.

 Kaila Carrying Addie the entire way out to the car and through the parking lot! 

What a trooper and lucky Sister.

Birthdays and Blessings

Glenn's birthday was a little different today than most birthdays since it fell on Sunday and it was the chosen day for cousin Ellie's baby blessing since Russ and Jennica's family were here from Boise for the long weekend.  It took awhile to get him convinced to stay for the entire meeting and not rush back for our ward.  He really didn't want to miss being sung to in church for his birthday.  I talked with Sher and she arranged to make sure they had something little for him in their primary and that convinced him that he could get sung to twice.

To help make it still a special day I decorated the house for him like I usually do for all the kids.  He was so excited to wake up to streamers hanging down from his bedroom door.  As he came into our room that morning is said he had forgotten it was his birthday till he saw the streamers and was then so excited.  How I love that boy of mine!  I gave him some birthday cuddles and then we headed downstairs so he could see his decorations.  He was so anxious to go and see them but I'm weird and love to video their reactions so I made him wait till I was down and ready for him.  He's sweet and waited for me.

Rebecca came over to enjoy crepes with us enjoy his birthday breakfast.  I made everyone one batch with regular milk and another for me with almond milk.  They turned out okay (not as easy to cook as the milk ones but tasted just as good!). Glenn was thrilled with having crepes which always makes me happy when the birthday kid is happy!  After breakfast everyone showered and dressed.  Thankfully Rebecca was there to help up get everyone ready.

We made it to church just in time which was nice. It was fun to see the Rial's there (on the anniversary weekend get-away) and the Wills' came too.  Ellie looked beautiful in her dress and was perfect during her blessing.  Greg gave her a sweet blessing:

Give you a name and Blessing

Ellianne Serenity Salyards

Bless you to grow strong in the gospel.

Follow the example of your family, leaders of the church, and those around you

Recognize the good from the evil in the world

when the time comes you will find a husband that will take you to the temple

you will develop spiritually as you should.

Church in a different ward really let Kevin and I know that we really can't move from our ward.  It's really interesting how much some people teach what they think and not the doctrine they should. I focused on reading my own scriptures at the time and that helped to not get too frustrated.  We got to hold the baby during Relief Society which was fun.  We all took turns enjoying sleeping Ellie.  

After church we headed home for a little rest (I sadly didn't get much of a nap with disruptions but at least I got to rest a little) we headed over to Nana and Pa's house for a waffle dinner to celebrate Glenn's big day with everyone.  We got help from everyone to make waffles and they turned out great!  Lilly helped make whip cream and Sher even made some waffles that were dairy free.  They were so good!  I was so worried about this day when Glenn told me what he wanted.  I was thinking my tummy was going to die.  I told Kevin we needed to make eggs, bacon, and sausage to help with our stomachs from dying with all that dairy.  With the almond milk crepes and dairy free waffles from Sher I felt great!  I loved it and was super happy.  We forgot to bring eggs but Kevin did make the bacon and sausage which everyone loved.

PRESENT TIME

Yeah, Twister.  They played it with the cousins afterward

Clothes...nice but not his favorite

Loving his new Star Wars fishing pole from Addie

For is "cake" I brought watermelon to put a candle in for him.  It worked out wonderfully and that way we weren't on a complete sugar high with more cake.  Glenn loved that gave him an entire circle round of watermelon.  :-)

I Like to Look for Rainbows

James Elliott Salyards II got baptized today!!!  I'm so happy for him.  It was an extra special treat to see that Mitchell was able to baptize him.  What a wonderful experience.  The midwife that Sher had to help her with Ellie gave the talk on the Holy Ghost.  It was perfect for James dealing with wood and building a fire and then she went into depth about the Holy Ghost and relating it to Fire.  It was wonderful and perfect for James the Wilderness Survivalist.

James had asked me to play the piano for the closing song.  I tried playing it through.  It was horrible!  Really bad.  I then came up with a brilliant idea while talking with Mom to play my flute instead.  So much easier!  Yeah.  After running through it a few times I knew it needed more depth to be carried as the accompaniment for everyone to sing too.  I called my Dad and asked if he would play his violin with me too.  He accepted and I was so grateful.  We got together Friday night and practiced.  It was beautiful.  We wanted to go through it again Saturday BUT the weather was so bad driving into the temple (people going 30 on the freeway with inches of water on the roadway and water pouring down my windshield like someone had a hose on it) that I made a later session and didn't get back in time.

Thankfully everyone said that it sounded great.  I had a hard time at the end of the second verse especially with the high notes because I was running out our breath to help sustain it.  Thankfully with everyone singing you couldn't really tell which was a blessing!  It was so fun to play with my Dad and am so grateful the James gave us that opportunity.

After the baptism we had a potluck dinner at Greg and Sher's house.  The Rial's joined us along with the family (Nana & Pa, Dan & kids, Greg & Sher with kids, and our family).  Dad and I enjoyed playing duets together.  I played the songs I knew on the piano and Dad played the violin.  It was wonderful.  I really liked playing "As Sister in Zion" with him.  It was beautiful!!!  Boy I love music and the calming effect it can have on me.  I've been playing a lot the past couple days and love it.  God was so good to us to give us music to help see us through the good times and the sad.

Kevin took this photo while we practiced Friday night (1-10-14)

Christmas Sunday

It was so nice having Rebecca here to help with the little ones in the morning for church.  I miss the added help from Kevin.  The gathered up all my things for the Primary Singing Time that I stayed up late working on.  I found a blog post that picked out different items that represent Christmas and told of their true meaning and what they represented.  It had a scripture and suggested song to sing.  I had to cut a lot of the explanation down so it wouldn't be too boring and switch up a bunch of the songs but it was great!

The big drama of the day was not being able to find Kaila's church shoes.  She had worn her silver shoes the day before but we had left for shopping and didn't get home until after they were in bed and she hadn't laid them out with her clothes.  I had no idea where to help her look for them.  I text Kevin if he knew but didn't get a response back.  We looked for 30 minutes everywhere.  I couldn't find her black shoes either.  We ended up missing sacrament and were 30 minutes late for church.  It was frustrating.  She ended up wearing her pink with black black heart TOM look-a-like shoes.  Grandma even mentioned to her how cute they were.  I was not happy she was wearing tennis shoes to church.  UGH!

Thankfully Rebecca came to Primary to sit with the kids and was a HUGE help to me with my activity!  I don't know what I would have done without her help.  I love that he knows what to do without me having to tell her.  She helped with passing the Myrrh and Frankincense bags around for the kids to smell and collected them for me and also helped pass out all the bells.  It was great.  She even stayed to help me with third hour after the kids went to their classes.  Senior primary only picked out the bells though so it wasn't as much busy work.  The kids all came up to smell the bags after church was over.

After church we all got to lay down for a nap.  Rebecca stayed up with the kids (bless her heart) and read Kaila a bunch of Ensign articles and played with them so we all could sleep.  We ended up sleeping until 5pm!  I couldn't believe it.  I was wanting to be at Greg's at 4:30 the latest 5.  UGH!  I hurried up and told the kids to hurry and get their shoes/ coats on and get in the car.  Rebecca woke Jonathon and we were off within minutes thankfully.  Sher thought we had church until 5 so she didn't think anything about us getting there so late.  I still felt terrible.

Mom (Nana) made pork roast, Greg made rice/quinoa, we brought corn and green beans, and Rebecca made a fruit salad for dinner.  It was a delicious.  Rebecca finally got to meet and hold Ellie.  Addie loved on Ellie some more and Kaila reluctantly let her go for others to hold her.  It was lots of fun to visit and see everyone. Sher's blood pressure went back up while we were there and she had to go back into her room to lay down.  I went to give her a back massage before we left since her back was killing her from having to be certain positions to feed the baby and keep her blood pressure lowered.  I feel so bad for her that she's been having such a rough time after this pregnancy.

Baby Ellie

Greg and Sher finally agreed on a name: Ellianne (Ellie) Serenity Salyards  

I love it.  Little baby Ellie.  So sweet.  I'm so happy they finally got that figured out.  I know that I got tired of everyone asking us what our kids names were after they were born.  I told Greg I would only ask him once.  Then I asked Sher the next day or two days later.  Then I called Nana and Pa to find out if they knew.  Mom (Nana) actually was the one to tell me since Lilly told her.  Glad the news made it around to me.  I posted it on facebook and tagged Greg and Sher in the message so everyone else would know without bugging them about it.

Baby Holding Time

We finally got to go and see the baby.  The kids were thrilled since they were put off three days in a row.  I was so excited to finally see my sweet new niece! She doesn't have first name.  It's ...anne Serenity Salyards
She was still hungry in the crying pic.  {3.5 days old}