Moore and Moore: August 2018

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

They're Off

Ellie's off to Jr High. She left to catch the bus at 7:35 this morning. She's excited. Mom however:

Lila is in 4th Grade and has the same teacher Ellie had in 4th grade so she's excited about that and her Chinese teacher is the same one she had for kindergarten she is so sweet and we're super excited about that too.

Here's to some great kids who love to learn and are excited about the opportunities ahead of them!

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Final Days of Summer

Here's what we did last week during our final full week of summer:

*Andrew had an emergency dental appointment where they almost had to do a root canal. He was a trooper and enjoyed watching TV on the ceiling.

*I went to the temple for an afternoon session by myself before my babysitters go back to school (I'm trying to catch-up with all the work after Ellie's done 34 female baptisms). I came home to find the kids playing Sorry-- so cute.

*Ellie had Thunder camp where she got her locker, class schedule and a tour of the school. Then I took her and a couple of friends back the next day so they could try their lockers one more time and find their classes and enjoy open library time.

*Final tutoring, violin lesson, ukulele class, play-dates, and regular dance classes

*Girls went to Barnes & Noble to turn in their reading trackers for books and Ellie had a $5 gift card to spend. I was really proud of them I told them they had 15 minutes and they were out in 20 so that's reasonable and they said they got a 10% of coupon with their free books so they used that to buy their items with. They were stoked. :)

*We also turned in library reading trackers and Andrew got a Ninja book he likes the girls to read to him.

*Cleaned out backpacks and started gathering school supplies as lists started coming in one-by-one (Ellie has 8 classes this year so I feel like just as I get on top of it someone else sends something). And the kids think back to school time means ski season is approaching so they pulled out all of the ski maps they have collected and were studying them.

*Thursday we called Nessa to see how she was doing and she was having a rough morning so we said come bowling and hang with us. So we went bowling, ate pizza, watched a movie in the theater room downstairs.

*We decided to make a last minute trip to Idaho. We took Nessa's girls with us so she could have a little break before the baby comes. It was quite the adventure to have 6 kids on a trip, but we survived. There were bubbles, rock painting with Mimi which Marcus really really enjoyed and fishing with Uncle Jakey.

I was hoping to visit with Uncle Kirk and Aunt Brenda to give them my love (Brenda was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer over the 4th while we were there--the girls and I went through a whole box of kleenexes as we cried when we found out). But alas she was not feeling well this weekend so we send our love and prayers their way!

*We had planned to stay until Sunday, but Saturday as I was making dinner I felt like we should leave that night so we began to gather things up and make beds etc. I called Venessa to tell her we were heading back early and then she explained she was at the hospital because she had been worried about the baby's lack of movement, but she was certain they were going to send her home after hydrating and monitoring, but after an hour on the rode she sent a text and said they were going to admit her due to fetal distress and the baby would come that night. So her girls spent the night with us and poor Siena woke-up in the middle of the night sick and throwing up (it reminded me of when we came home from the hospital with Andrew and Lila got a stomach bug that went through all of us) I was praying that nobody else would get it and so far so good--whew. I ran up to see her Sunday and she is a teeny little thing at just over 5lbs and so cute!

*Sunday for family home evening Ellie gave us a few stories she has found from our ancestors on Family Search. They were quite intriguing. And Steve gave everyone there back-to-school Father's blessing which were so wonderful and special for each individual. We discussed each one a bit after they were given and talked about things that they could do during the school year.

*Yesterday we met Steve at Pizza Pie cafe for lunch and we all had a good time. Everyone helped me get the house all cleaned before we left and I am going to miss having them all around. Andrew and Marcus even played outside for a couple of hours without fighting (the blessed cooler weather helps too).

*I cried during the breakfast prayer this morning so now I'm not allowed to pray the first day of school or the last day of summer. It's the last full day and I don't know quite how to fill it. . . want to soak up every last bit as we finish gathering school supplies and prepare for Lila's back to school night tonight.

There ya have it--summer is over as we send the girls to school tomorrow. Ellie is super excited to be starting Jr High and Lila is excited about her teachers so fingers crossed we'll all get in a new routine and have a great year together learning and growing.

Sunday, August 12, 2018

Moore Moores

Carole and Russ spent a week with us after the family get together. The kids were in heaven. I was subbing for Lila's class the next day and the lesson was on David and Goliath so Carole and the kids spent Saturday evening and Sunday morning helping me make a 9 foot Goliath to hang up and slings the kids could try and sling marshmallows at it. Carole decided to try crocheting a sling shot and Andrew asked her what she was doing and she said, "I'm just curious to see if I can make that." Then Andrew explained to us that Grandma was "curiositying which is a type of crocheting". 😂 Andrew then asked Grandma to teach him and she was very patient with a curious 4 year-old and her being left handed trying to teach a right handed little boy, but he picked up on it and every morning we could find him crocheting a row to be used as a ring, necklace or hair tie.

Monday Lila had a long day of dance (choreo session and regular class) so I decided to take and drop Ellie and Lexie off at the swimming pool to swim laps after getting Lila and Steve off. Russ helped me can tomatoes (we had a lot out there when we got back) and then we decided since Steve's Monday meeting and lunch plans were pushed to Tuesday that he'd pick up the girls up from dance and then everyone would go to lunch at Cafe Sabor since the kids eat free on Monday. It was a good outing (Marcus and I stayed home so he could nap and make it a more enjoyable experience for everyone).

Wednesday we took Carole and Russ to the Ogden temple to do the initiatory work for the same names their grandkids had done the baptism work for the week before. It was a neat experience.

On Thursday I had signed up to volunteer in the Mill here to pack meals to be distributed to those in need. I had volunteered because I knew the girls could babysit (I wasn't for sure how long Carole and Russ were staying at the time) I always feel bad when they ask for volunteers during the school year because it is a bit trickier. Anyway, when I got home Andrew was up in the craft room sewing his apron and talking and talking and Grandma and Grandpa were giggling and trying to keep him on task. It was quite the funny thing to hear.

The rest of the week was filled with movies in the Theater room (Carole enjoyed it so much we found her in there really late one night she'd figured out how to run it and was watching a movie), sewing (Grandma helped us complete Lila's summer must do, they made pillows and aprons), games, art and just hanging out on top of normal every day life. Oh and the kids getting spoiled by getting to pick a new toy each time they went to get sewing supplies. It was a good week!

Using their aprons to make dessert. Andrew didn't want to get his dirty even after we explained that exactly what it's made for.

Last night Grandpa was telling the kids stories from his childhood and they were asking questions and Ellie even got on family search to look at some stuff. It was really a neat experience. He told the girls his birth father's name was Mormon so that was his surname at birth, but then his Mom Helen divorced him and moved away and married Noble Moore who adopted him, but as soon as they got married they sent Russell and Noble's daughter Patty to Chicago to be raised by Patty's Grandmother. Russ will be 80 next year and it was good for the kids to hear stories of how different life was then.

Carole and Russ left Lexie behind to start school at BYU and are in the process of selling their home and their second home the Tahoe rental property and downsize. Life is going to change for them and we hope we get to see more of them. Andrew cried this morning when I said the morning prayer and asked for their safe travels because he just realized they had left. We miss them, but I'm excited for a week to get things ready for school to start in 10 days. . .AHHH! We did manage to get everyone's hair cut this week in preparation.

Saturday, August 4, 2018

Timbermoose

We spent a couple of days in Midway at the Timbermoose Lodge with Steve's siblings and families. We had made arrangements to meet Steve's brother Wednesday at the Bountiful temple before or check-in time. Ellie had found 40 family names for her, Sydney, Ethan, & Kyle to do. Ethan forgot his recommend so he stayed out with the little boys. They had a good experience together and Steve said one of the names made Kyle and Doug laughed each time they said it - Jakob Gass we send our apologies and hope you still love us. 😁

Timbermoose was large and nice to give a good amount of space to spread out - although it caused me some heart burn when we couldn't find Andrew for several minutes after first arriving. He had managed to find the bounce house and was having a great time.

We found our room unpacked and starting make rice to go with the evenings dinner and enjoyed visiting with Steve's siblings. We had always planned on having the boys sleep with us and had told the girls there was a possibility they would also sleep in the room with us (most of the cousins were assigned to bunk up by age groups). The first night with gather Lila, Andrew, and Marcus to prepare for bed. Marcus was going to sleep in a pack-n-play in the large closet and Andrew on the sofa sleeper. Lila was assigned to a room with a queen bed with 4 other girls so as we were watching a show to unwind Lila got all cozy on the sofa bed with Andrew and it was easy to convince her to sleep there. It also gave me a bit of piece of mind to have one of the girls with the boys in case they needed us she could come get us so we could go socialize at night. Ellie was hanging with the older girl cousins and was hoping to swim but around 9:30pm she came upstairs upset and tired so we made her a bed on the floor with the couch cushions from the sofa. Turns out there was a shortage of beds in her room too and she and Sydney were being kicked to the floor instead of sharing beds and all the girls wanted to stay up until midnight to swim which Ellie didn't really want to do. I was proud of her for recognizing an uncomfortable situation and getting out. The cousins stayed up roaming about until the wee hours of the morning and I was grateful my kids were getting good sleep making them better traveling companions. Ellie loved to sneak up to the crow's nest to read early in the morning. We went on a nature walk, swam, played games, ate and ate and Ellie and Steve went ATVing with a group and had a good time.

We had fun catching up with the adults and playing games. It was a little tricky for our kids to navigate all of the cousins at one time so we found ourselves doing a lot together as a family during the day and then hanging out with the adults in the evening. It was a good balanced that worked for our family and the kids can't stop talking about how awesome the cabin was.