Missionary Haircut

After our exciting afternoon taking Molly to the MTC we went back to Aunt Katie's where Grandma Weir gave Donald his first missionary haircut! He had the most beautiful curls but we decided we'd better take advantage of Grandma's fine haircutting skills while she was here. He was so good for the whole process and Grandma was able to make him look so grown-up. I still can't believe the straight line my mom cut on my wiggly baby. How do you do it Mom?

Missionary Molly

Here is my baby sister "Molly so smally" going on a mission to Santiago, Chile! We were so lucky to get to go with her to the MTC. It was so neat to see her join the mission force. Charlie and Donald came with me and they were good boys for the most part. After the ordeal of leaving through opposite doors Charlie sobbed all the way out of the MTC. On the way home he said, "Mom, I'm going to be sad until I'm 6 because that's when Aunt Molly gets home."

More Weekend Fun

Our basement is almost done! Wednesday the carpet will be installed and Thursday is the city's final inspection. We are all excited to have the kids move to the basement. It's been fun seeing the painting get done and the fixtures put in. It has gone up so fast.


This Saturday was extra special. We went to Provo to see 2 of our nephews baptized. Baptisms in our family are always so exciting with so many of the Weir grandkids there. There were 17 this time, Rebecca being the oldest. We had a couple of kids clapping after the first baptism but other than that it was really reverent. It was especially exciting to have Grandma Weir there all the way from Qatar. She gave such a wonderful talk on the Holy Ghost and it occured to me that Rebecca had her give the talk on the Holy Ghost at her baptism. I think your grandkids must think you do a pretty good job, Mom.
After the baptism we all went back to my sister's house and had a big lunch and visited. Our visit was cut a little short because Rebecca has been dying to go to a mall, any mall. We don't have one in Tooele and I am not one to drive far just to shop, but if I have another reason to drive into the big city then I don't mind a trip to the mall. Dan was a super good sport even though mall shopping is not his favorite thing. He took the kids to the play area and told me and Rebecca to be back in 30 minutes. Um, 30 minutes is not a lot of time for mall shopping, so Rebecca and I had to run to find a good store for girls clothes and then she had to try clothes on so fast. She had a blast and found a nice pair of modest summer shorts and a cute shirt.
After our quick trip to the mall we headed up to BYU campus for a basketball game! It was an adventure for me because even though BYU is my alma mater I never went to a basketball game while I was a student. Our seats were 3 rows from the ceiling so when we climbed up to them the kids all suffered from vertigo, except Charlie. Charlie was nuts and kept scaring Adrian by walking on the bleacher in front of us like it was a balance beam. While we waited for the game to start Charlie kept screaming "GO BYU!" It was funny but probably not so funny to all the people who were sitting around us. I finally had to ask him to quiet down until the real game started because he was so loud. Really he was just warming up. He watched the whole game and really enjoyed it. During his 2 potty breaks he was a nervous wreck because he didn't want to miss the game.
Donald was also a good sport. I thought I'd end up in the hallway with a crying baby but he cheered everytime the crowd did. He almost fell asleep at one point and then BYU made a 3 point shot and everyone went nuts so he was awake again clapping. It ended up to be a late night for all of us but it was worth it.
Sunday we got to go to Molly's BYU student ward. She was giving her farewell talk. She is entering the MTC this Wednesday, preparing to go to Santiago, Chile! We really stirred things up in Molly's ward. We had 2 rows in the back packed with kids and 3 babies at various stages of sleeping, talking, or crying. It was so much fun. I can't believe my little baby sister Molly is going on a mission. I remember changing her bum and feeding her a bottle and fighting over her with all my other sisters because I always wanted to play with her!
After our fun weekend it's back to the daily grind, to include getting used to the time change. We're all a little more tired than normal. The good news is Donald sleeps in a little later so I have more time without him while getting the kids ready.
Speaking of Donald, now that he can walk his next goal is to dribble a basketball. It's quite a feat just to pick a basketball up but he's figured out how to do it. Here is his monumental effort trying to get off his feet with his daddy's basketball.


Here he is so happy to be able to do it! He loves basketballs!

Fish Funeral

I am blogging out of chronological order but I couldn't help it because Donald walking was so exciting. However, we did have other news from last week.

On Wednesday of last week Shari did "show and teach" for her class. She taught everyone "How to Feed a Baby." Donald was her prop and they did a wonderful job. She buckled him into his stroller and put his bibby on him then she showed everyone how to open the baby food and mix it with oatmeal. While she fed him she answered any questions about taking care of her baby. It was super. I was so proud.

I also registered Charlie for kindergarten. He is such a character. His assessment was so funny. I was sitting outside the room just listening and laughing. He started out getting all the answers right so he yelled out to me, "Hey, I'm really smart!" Then I heard him start giggling because he kept getting the answers wrong. The teacher said, "Are you teasing me?" and he started laughing. He said, "Yeah, I'm just teasing!" What a way to go. Try to trick the teacher and get all the wrong answers on purpose just for a laugh. Hopefully his test taking skills will improve. Then the teacher was having him pick out pictures that matched the sounds and one of the pictures was "jail" for J. Well, Charlie was fascinated by this and had to ask a dozen questions, "Why is that guy in jail? What did he do? Why is he so mad?..." It was hard to move onto the next letter. The greatest was when the teacher was complimenting him on what a good job he was doing. She said, "Your mom must teach you a lot." Charlie responded, "My mom doesn't teach me anything." The teacher was a little taken a back, she said, "Didn't she teach you all these things you know?" and he said, "No, I just know them."

On Thursday I was cleaning the fish tank and our fish, Sparkles, was floating around in a small bowl. When I went over to check on him he was no longer in the bowl! I was freaking out because I couldn't see him anywhere. Apparently his color really blends in well with our wood floors but I managed to find him laying on the floor right by where I was standing. I almost stepped on him. I grabbed him and put him back in the water and he immediately started swimming and seemed fine. I debated telling the girls about it but I decided to warn them because I wasn't sure if he would make it. He lasted another day but Friday evening we finally called it and decided to bury him. It was a sad occasion. The girls had a small service for him out underneath one of our bushes. I came out to check on them and Charlie was balling. It was the saddest thing. I told Charlie to sing a song for the fish and maybe it would make him feel better. Here is a happier rendition of the song he sang:

During the funeral he was crying through daddy fish, but when he got to whale fish we all started laughing and it made him feel so much better.
The girls have handled it well. They went out with their dad and bought a new betta fish, along with an aquatic snail and a frog. They seem to be doing well together. In remembrance of Sparkles they named their new fish...Sparkles.

Family Night Activity

We had so much fun last night for our family night activity. We wanted to share it with you all.

It's so amazing how one day they just figure it out and yesterday was that day for Donald. He wanted to walk to whomever was wearing the Yankees hat. It was so much fun. Of course, he had to walk to his daddy because he was holding the camera. Now we have to childproof our house on a whole new level.

3 weeks later...

It's been 3 weeks since we've blogged and a lot has been going on. We began finishing our basement and it's getting close to being done. Here is a picture of the basement after the first day of framing.





This is the basement after the second day of framing.

Since then we've had electricians, plumbers, vent work, insulation, and yesterday they hung the sheetrock. It's so exciting and can be quite noisy.

While the sheet rock was put up we decided to have a fun day out and boy was it fun. After our Saturday chores we went to our Hunter cousins' basketball game and then to Walmart to buy a couple new things for our remodeling projects. Then we came home for a noisy lunch (constant hammering and drilling). Donald managed to take a nap while we played Rock Band. Since he's so nuts about the drums we can rarely play unless he's napping. Of course when he woke up he had to have a short turn.

Enjoy the show!

After rocking out we went to the park. It's been a long cold winter so having a day of sunshine with most of the snow melted was wonderful. The kids had a game of baseball with their Dad and none of them have lost their ability to hit. In fact they all did pretty well. It put us all in the mood for summer and helped Adrian look forward to his first season playing T-Ball. We signed him up last weekend.

Weekend Activities

This Friday we took a day off of school to go to the Draper Temple open house. It was so beautiful and of course really well organized. We parked at a nearby church parking lot and took a shuttle bus to the temple. The kids thought the bus ride was a blast. The boy's favorite room was the baptismal font. The girls agreed and also liked the sealing room. When Dan and I were sealed we showed the kids some pictures of sealing rooms so they would be able to imagine what it was like. I wanted them all there so much the day we were married so this was a special opportunity for us to all sit in a sealing room together and think about how thankful we are for our forever family.
After our walk through the temple they had a really nice reception with cookies and everything. The kids loved that as well, a day at the temple followed by cookies what more do you need?


Saturday was back to work day. The kids all did their jobs super fast because we told them they could each pick a parent approved song to download for us to play on Rock Band. Shari chose Hillbilly Deluxe by Brooks and Dunn, Adrian chose Message in a Bottle by the Police, Rebecca chose Juke Box Hero (don't know who sings it but it's fun to play), and Charlie chose Tom Sawyer by Rush. We got most of our Rock Band playing done while Donald took a nap. He has a fit if he sees anyone playing the drums without him. He loves the drums. He was so mad when he woke up and could hear us playing without him so we brought him down and he played a few songs with us. He likes Boston because he was laughing all through More Than a Feeling, then we started playing Hillbilly Deluxe and he started whining and crying. Apparently he's not to fond of country music.
After all the Rock Band excitement the kids decided to play their own game which somehow ended up in Donald getting dressed up in the girls clothes. He really is quite pretty and he has grown the cutest curls in the past couple of weeks. I just want to play with them all the time and Dan thinks maybe it's time to cut them off. I can't bring myself to cut off my baby's curls though. Maybe when he's 5.

I'm certain the next blog I write will have something to do with the completion of our basement because construction is set to start this Tuesday. I'm really excited because the company I liked the most came back with the best bid so I hope they are as good as they seem. On Wednesday of this past week I went to their design house and picked out carpet, paint, vinyl and the bathroom counter top for the basement. I had all 5 kids with me and we ended up with 3 fights 2 time outs and 1 big temper tantrum before I was able to settle on my basement design. I hope it all turns out alright. I don't really remember what I picked because it was such a blur and ended with Charlie falling on the floor crying because he was so bored and tired. I have to say I felt about the same as him but I kept it together until we got home.
Hopefully by the end of March we will have a whole new floor added to the house so if anyone wants to come visit we'll have lots of room!