the Family Grows

Nov 26-Dec 2, 2012

When will we get our house back in order? It will probably be awhile. Rich and Ginny came to help us on Monday (Nov 26). We pulled things out of the attic, got the WiFi router working, and moved filing cabinets. Diane's visiting teachers (Ginger Cannon and Linda Frodsham) stopped by to visit with her and it isn't even the last day of the month (oh, that's home teachers). We went with Rich & Ginny for dinner at the Coppermill. Too many good dinners for our waistlines. The work continued on Tuesday.

Time for rearranging the house

Our family quadrupled on Tuesday evening. Andrea and Jason moved in with their family of eight. We arranged the basement so they have a place to live. While Andrea went around to arrange getting her kids in school, Diane pulled out supplies from her office for them to make clothes-pin dolls. We thought grocery shopping was expensive in Canada, but now we need to shop for 10 and don't yet have the basic supplies in the house.

On Friday, Diane worked on organizing her laundry room and office while Paul went to Ogden to arrange for part B of Medicare. He had sent in the papers long before, but they lost them, so he had to visit the Social Security office in person. Andrea and Jason have a tradition of "Pizza and Movie Night" every Friday. At least no one asks, "What's for dinner".

Saturday is "clean the house" day. Even though the jobs are divided up for everyone to help, poor Diane gets the brunt of making sure everything is cleaned correctly. It makes for a tiring day for her. We let the Francis family take care of our organ while we were on our mission. We got it back today.

Getting the house "organized"

Sunday was Kohler's 8th birthday. There is a whole new dynamics in the house for Sundays. Paul started with a 7:30 am young men's presidency meeting. It was fast Sunday with some of the older children fasting and the younger ones not. At choir practice after church Diane was asked to help with an organ part (you would think she should know to carry her organ shoes and glasses everywhere she goes). The afternoon included home teaching for Paul, a mini recital at Nancy Jensen's, then visiting Brooke's Kendrick to teach him how to play "O, Holy Night" on the piano.

Kohler missed out on the roasted chicken (they smelled bad and were discarded), but got frozen chicken breasts (after they were cooked, of course) and a pirate-ship cake. He didn't seem to mind.

Pirate ship birthday cake

Are these candles or cannons?

Kohler looks happy enough

Being the first sunday in December, we celebrated the German advent tradition of lighting candles leading up to Christmas. Only one candle for the first Sunday.

Brinlie and Lauren admire the advent wreath 

So, we have begun a new chapter in our lives. We will see where it takes us.