Mom held a Christmas recital for her wonderful piano students and it was a big success. This was Damon's first performance and we were so proud.
The little gifts mom made her students (behind the candy canes are notebook covers)
We also had a Joy School Christmas party with all 6 families that participate.
The next day the kiddos also performed their nativity at a retirement home. Afterwards they gave out cards to all who attended. They simply made the resident's day with their cuteness!
Quadruple D Day: Daddy-Damon-Donut-Day
Daddy got to attend a BYU basketball game during some free time before work in Salt Lake City
Grandma and Papa Schlenker visited were able to participate in our Christmas paritDies
Papa needed a catnap during a basketball game
For an early Christmas gift, Grandma and Papa gave the boys this huge marble run! It is even fun for adults :)
Also during their visit, they urged mom and dad to take advantage of their services and leave town for a night. Mom and dad drove to Glenwood Springs, ate amazing food, stayed at the historic Hotel Colorado, and swam in their huge, famous hot springs. They had such a wonderful time talking, laughing and loving each other.
It is December and there are so many things we have been looking forward to. For now, here is our November.
Daylight savings is SO fun with kids. One morning soon after Damon was up bright and early so mommy dressed him up warm, threw him in the hiking backpack (yes he is still light enough for it) and went on quite the adventure.
In between 2 of daddy's work trips, he flew out to California to visit his family, particularly his mother. She is currently battling breast cancer for the second time. She found out in July and has since had many tests done which required lots of torturous waiting, had a successful lumpectomy and has endured 3/4 sessions of chemo therapy. In the new year she will also undergo radiation treatment. After all of this, we are hoping for a full recovery and are grateful the cancer was discovered so soon during her yearly mammogram. The chemo therapy has been rough as expected. Grandma Cari is one of the most positive, energetic and loving person we have ever known. We are so blessed to see her example of strength, patience and perseverance. Cooper got to also go along. He has such an amazing ability to lift spirits.
Auntie Ann and Uncle Dan came to play while they visited.
Breakfast at Grandma and Grandpa Cooper's.
Is mommy out there?
Mommy cried when they left and when they came home, but over the days they were gone, Mommy enjoyed some relief from the constant worry about Cooper's safety and the safety of her house :)
One afternoon, mom had some of her piano students perform at a retirement home. Houston also played and did very well. Since mom had got a babysitter for the other 2 boys, mom and Houston also went out for dinner. He had earned a free meal from Applebees for being such a good student at school so we redeemed that and had a great time. That night, Damon was not tired from having a nap earlier so mom and him got to stay up late and watch a movie.
A couple weeks later mom thought it would be fun to take Houston and Damon to a local high school performance of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown". They both loved it!! Mommy treasures these special times with her boys.
Mom found these from Houston and Damon under her pillow one night before bed. Usually mom is secretly aware of when the boys are being sneaky but this was a complete surprise and brought tears to her eyes. SWEET BOYS!
Thanksgiving week was blissful with no babysitting, less piano students and daddy around a bit more. He used some of his time to build a platform to store our quads in the garage over the winter.
Daddy even cooked our Thanksgiving dinner: ham, mashed potatoes, corn (that was like candy), cheese ball, croissants and his family's traditional party pie! He is so amazing.
Every time mom sees the title of the last blog post, she gets annoyed. We, in fact, have not been "frolicking" through fall. A more accurate description of this Fall would be frenzied, frantic and at times frustrating. As usual, Dad's schedule is crazy. Working with both football and basketball teams and teaching a class leaves little time for us to spend time with him. Plus it leaves him utterly exhausted. He was also recently called as the executive secretary for our ward's Bishop, so that takes him away yet another evening of the week as well as some hours on Sunday. Our bishop is extremely grateful for Mickey though, as he offers a great deal of needed support. We admire daddy for being such a hard worker and still being willing to serve. We have many people that live around here who struggle temporally and spiritually. Our selfless Bishop strives to help each one of them and Mickey plays a large supportive role in that. He is such a great man and we (and many others) are blessed by his work, efforts and faith.
Mom has a very full plate as well. On top of all homemaking and mothering responsibilities, she babysits, organizes Damon's preschool group, teaches 16 piano students (while a certain 21 month old destroys her house) and serves in our ward's Young Women's presidency (this includes being involved in 18 young girls' lives, teaching them one Sunday a month and helping to organize and attend weekly activities). Something that has also been a burden while trying to juggle all of these things is frequent and long lasting headaches. They are associated with fatigue (and most likely stress) and no combination of medications has proven effective in relieving them. Only a few times have they reached migraine level fortunately. They are minor enough for mom to still function but bad enough they can be draining and depressing. Mom is aware that many many people deal with headaches and they are quite hard to treat and diagnose but mom continues to try different things to try and help. Overall mom loves teaching piano, serving the Young Women and has a great babysitting situation. So even though days and weeks are long and hard, being grateful for all she has especially her 3 amazing, happy, healthy boys and her loving, strong husband gets her through.
10pm grocery shops are pretty normal for mom because that is the best time to go
