As Emma's World Turns - Week of November 9, 2008

Sunday 16 Nov. 2008

This past week it was Emma’s world and we were just living in it. Starting last Sunday when we had a family birthday party. Haydn’s birthday is Nov. 5th, so we celebrated together for the last couple of years. Emma picked the menu, settling on London Broil, mashed potatoes and corn, and brownies for dessert. After dinner Haydn and Emma had a present opening frenzy and then their brownies and ice cream. It was great!

On Tuesday all of the Kids were on vacation from school due to Veterans Day. Emma had her friends party this day. She invited a couple of friends from school and then her sisters and Cousins attended. Emma chose a dolphin theme, so Rachel hung some Dolphin banners and blue table cloths around the back yard. Rachel came up with an obstacle course relay and some crafts. They finished it all off with ice cream and cake, of course.

Wednesday was Emma’s birthday day, so she got to take some treats to share with her class. Rachel wrapped up some leftover Halloween candy in bags – a good use for all of that candy!
Thursday Great Grandma Willes arrived – and brought a few presents with her. She flew in from Texas to be a part of the baptism events. On Friday she went with Rachel and Zach and Haydn to the Lego store as something fun to do for the afternoon. They all had a good time looking at all of the sets and picking out some Legos to take home.

Saturday was the big baptism day. Everyone got up and got dressed and then went down to the church at about 9:30. Ken and Rhonda’s family drove in from Kingman and were there waiting when we got there. Grammy and Grandpa Z and Bob drove down from Mesa and even Aunt Sarah flew in special from Las Vegas (where she recently started a new job). Preston Scheier conducted the meeting and the rest of his family came to support ours. Sister Archinuk (the primary president) and Sister Misseldine (wife of the Bishop) also came.

The whole event went very well. The Girls sang “I Like to Look for Rainbows”, and Emma and Leslie Hodgson played a duet. Grammy Z spoke on Baptism and Uncle Bobby spoke on the Holy Ghost. Troy performed the baptism and the confirmation with other priesthood members supporting.

After the baptism, Rachel’s family came over to the house for lunch and socializing. As usual the kids had fun playing together and the adults had fun talking – until nearly dinner time. The weather is very nice this time of year so we set up tables outside, and let the kids run in and out as they pleased. Legos are also a big draw whenever Kyler comes over. The boys make trucks and airplanes, and even the girls get involved making Lego houses complete with furniture for the Lego people.

Sunday the parties continued. The family is came back over for dinner and a special family home evening that Grandma GG prepared. She talked to the group about Ensign Israel Stocking and his adventures as a Mormon Pioneer.

Troy is practicing with a Stake choir to sing selections from Handel’s Messiah. He sang in a similar choir a couple years ago, so this time is a little easier to pick up the music. The music is challenging and fun to sing. The director has done Messiah choirs a number of times in his career, so he knows what it takes to get the choir to sound good.

After a week of parties Rachel was worn out and ready to relax for a couple days.
Zach Zach likes to carry around a little basket of cars. This week he took it to a new level by filling up a small rolling suitcase of cars and toys and wheeling that around the house with him. Whenever Rachel took him anywhere he had to get his suitcase of toys and he wheeled it out to the garage to go with him in the van. Zach’s words of the week are Orange and Robot – which come out more like “Hoshange Obot.”

That should do for this week. Tune in next time for more updates on Katie and Claire.

First week of Fall Break or "This is the worst week EVER!" Week of Sept 29-Oct 4

Sunday 5 Oct. 2008

Katie
Tuesday was a lot of fun for Katie. (Not so much for mom). Everyone (and Haydn and Haylee) went out to lunch at Carls’ Jr, and then to the splash park nearby. Later that afternoon Katie was invited by Laura to see Kung Fu Panda at the dollar movies.
Thursday was the worst day ever. It was soooo sooo boring around home. Finally in the late afternoon she got ahold of her friend Laura and was able to go to her house for a sleepover. Suddenly the worst day ever turned into the best night ever. (It’s all about the drama…)

Emma
Emma’s says that the highlights of her week included lots of coloring pictures and lots of computer online games. Her favorite online games this week are Playhouse Disney, Club Penguin and Disney Channel Fairies. (The ones with wings, not Clay Aiken). Dad made everyone go outside for a while on Saturday, but our kids tend to gain weight during school breaks. The food-input to activity-ouput ratio leans more to the food side.

Claire
Troy is trying to take each one of the girls out for a daddy-daughter date while they are on break. Claire got to go to Der Wienerschnitzel and a local indoor amusement center called Amazing Jake’s on Friday. She and Troy had a good time playing air hockey and riding the bumper cars. Claire was barely big enough to drive her own car. Claire told Rachel that dad got kind of hyper at Amazing Jake’s. She’s more accustomed to seeing her dad enforce chore time, than enjoying himself.

Zach
Haydn came over only on Tuesday this week, so by Saturday Zach was asking if Haydn could come “play blocks, play toys at Hack Hack’s House.” Haydn is coming over tonight for dinner. Zach will be happy to have his buddy back for a bit.

Troy
This week at work, Troy went down to Raytheon in Tucson. Raytheon uses Intel components in their computer boards that go in their missiles. Their designs have to be small, and more importantly, start up in less than ½ a second.
Troy needs to get his presentation ready and luggage packed this week before he goes to Mexico on Thursday.
In the midst of that Troy is trying to figure out all of the things that a good manager is supposed to do. Hiring and interviewing efforts are ongoing, but fortunately the another TME manager is doing a lot of the work.

Rachel
Rachel made it (barely) through her first week of fall break. She took the kids out to Carls’ Jr. and McDonalds a couple times this week and let them play on the playland for a while. She also hit the water park and Dollar Store with everyone. It is a good thing that this weekend was conference weekend, so there was less work to do on Sunday. She got a nice nap in on Sunday afternoon before family came over for dinner.
Rachel is babysitting Haydn and Haylee only one day a week. Tana’s sister is taking another day each week.
Rachel’s also looking forward to a visit from her friend, Jackie, and her family from Canada in two weeks. We’re planning to take a Friday off and travel with them up to the Grand Canyon.

We are baptizing Emma on Saturday, November 15 at 10am at the Chandler Stake Center on Ray and McQueen in Chandler. ALL are invited to attend this wonderful event.