Adam's finally home!

Adam was sent to beautiful Columbus OH this week for a failover cluster training class.  He left Monday afternoon to return Friday evening.  The girls did really well but missed their Daddy VERY much!  I spent much of the week trying to sell some of our excess items on Craigslist.

So yesterday, I headed off to meet someone for a sale.  We got home about 5:45 and shortly thereafter Adam called wanting to know if I was watching the computer (http://www.flightstats.com/ lets you track a plane live and we really enjoyed keeping track of Daddy).  Since we had just returned home, I said No.  Well, the plane left Columbus and about halfway to Memphis, passengers and flight attendants noticed a burning rubber smell.  The plane was diverted to Louisville.

So that's where Adam was calling from.  After waiting to hear if the plane would be continuing on its way or not (not), Adam was booked on a flight from Louisville to Dallas to catch the last flight from Dallas into Springfield.  After that flight took off, I looked up the flights on Flightstats and immediately noticed a problem.

Have you ever flown into Dallas?  You need a good layover if your flights are in different terminals and Adam was arriving in one terminal with his flight to Springfield at another terminal.  The problem - his flight from Louisville would be arriving a few minutes AFTER the flight to Springfield was scheduled to take off.  I kept a close on both flights.  The Springfield flight said it was going to take off a few minutes late.  Maybe....  So I took a chance and sent the girls to bed since it was their bedtime.  If he did make the flight, maybe I could get them in their carseats without waking them up?  if he didn't make the flight, they'd be much happier girls on Saturday having gotten their sleep.

Adam's flight arrived, finally, in Dallas.  He called as they ran to try to catch the flight to Springfield.  He promised to call once he was on the plane or knew they missed it.  He didn't call.  He didn't answer his cell phone.  Maybe he made the flight at the last second and didn't get a chance to call?  Did you know that the American Airlines website does not have any phone number listed to check if a passenger made a flight?  I really didn't want to get the girls up at 10:30 pm to go to the airport and discover he didn't make the flight.

As I dialed the general reservations number for American, my cell phone rang - Adam was calling.  He didn't make the flight.  They were booking him on the first flight for Saturday morning and he was heading to a hotel.

This morning, we got up and got ready for the day, slowly.  Enjoying a slow morning.  Then off we headed to the airport to meet Adam's flight.  His flight arrived early and we ran a few minutes behind (I apparently didn't allow enough time to get there).  But we got inside before he made it out of the secured area.  As I saw him coming, I told the girls to help unroll the sign they'd made - instead, they took off running at Daddy to tackle him.  I love getting to hold a great big sign by myself in the airport!

We're all really happy to have Daddy home.  Just in time to head out for Stake Conference meetings.

And I'm sure Adam is "glad" to have experienced so many new airports on this trip - Memphis, Columbus, Louisville, Dallas and the new terminal at Springfield.

Tooth #7

Yesterday morning at breakfast, Kaylyn complained that her cereal was making her tooth loose.  "Uh oh" was her statement.  This is because she knows I can't handle a loose tooth.  That's her Daddy's job and Daddy's out of town for failover cluster training until Friday night.  I can handle the tooth once it's out but don't ask me to see it wiggle or to wiggle it for you.  Not going to happen.

Then Kaylyn mentioned that if you lose a tooth at school, you get a special tooth box necklace.  She thought they were pretty cool.  So I encouraged her that she might lose her tooth at school.

So off she went to school.  While the teacher was teaching the class something (so not during centers or quiet times), Kaylyn decided to play with her tooth and out it came!   Accordingly to Kaylyn, everyone in her class wanted to come over and see it (nice class disruption).  And one friend even wanted to hold her tooth!

Kaylyn came home with her tooth in a cute little tooth box with plastic string tied to it.  She was totally excited!  Off it went with us to piano lessons to show her teacher (I'm sure Miss Heather was absolutely thrilled - I really hope our family doesn't discourage her thoughts for having children).  I made it stay in the van for piano lessons and eating dinner at Wendy's.  When we got home, it lasted 30 seconds before "Morgan" (I didn't witness so Morgan allegedly did this) opened the box and dropped the tooth.  I had to sweep the entire kitchen floor and then dig through all the dirt to find the tooth (I tried sweeping just the area where they said it fell but couldn't find it).

The tooth box was put under Kaylyn's bed to await the tooth fairy.  Sadly, the tooth fairy was very tired last night and forgot to grab the tooth and leave $1.  But fortunately, when I was cleaning yesterday, I found $1 and set it on the little table in their room.  When Kaylyn woke up this morning, she came into my room and told me how the Tooth Fairy had been sneaky and left the money on the table.

After Kaylyn heads off to school, the Tooth Fairy will sneak in and grab the tooth.

Kaylyn's Shoes

I know I'm way behind - but here's a story from this morning.

Kaylyn and Morgan each have a "box" for all their shoes.  They've always struggled to remember to put their shoes away.  But I've really been pushing it the last few days before they go to bed to make sure their shoes are in the box.  Last night, after they were in bed, I noticed that Kaylyn had a pair of tennis shoes, sandals and flip flops in the box, plus her new church shoes we bought on Saturday.

This morning Kaylyn got dressed for school, except shoes, and ate breakfast.  I then sent her to her room to get her shoes on.  She came back out with her new church shoes.  I told her that she couldn't wear those to school, especially since she has PE on Tuesday.  She responded that there were no other shoes in her shoe box.

So we started searching through the whole house for her shoes - none!  Finally, the light came on for me.  I looked at Kaylyn and said "I think you know where your shoes are.  You have a choice.  You either find your shoes or you'll be going to school without shoes."  She grinned and pointed to her bookcase.  If you haven't seen her room, there is a bookcase in the corner at an angle, creating a space behind it.  Kaylyn had thrown all her shoes over the bookcase so they were hiding behind it.

I think she really likes her new shoes.

Joseph and the Twain Tempos

So Nana's birthday party was on Saturday.  Tuesday Dec 8th was her birthday but it was also the day my Dad went to the ER.  He died the next morning.  We spent much of that day and the next gathered as a family.  On Thursday, my niece, Regan, asked if she could stay the night with us.  She'd asked to stay with us after Nana's birthday party but we didn't think the family would be gathering again until Christmas and everyone thought Regan would eventually miss her family.  Since we knew we'd be all gathering again on Friday, we thought that would be fine.  So Robin and Mom headed to the farm.

On our calendar for Thursday evening was my nephew Joseph's Christmas concert.  We hadn't decided if we were going with all that was going on.  But after dinner, I decided that it was a good thing - more family time and hopefully a small distraction for everyone.  Adam elected to stay home.  So off I trotted to the performance with 3 girls on my own.

We would have been fine, except we were running behind, the APR (All Purpose Room) was full, and Morgan fell asleep on the way to Joseph's school.  We made it, I handed a sleeping Morgan off to her Aunt Jo, and found seats for Kaylyn, Regan and me.

Joseph did awesome.  Here he is with the whole choir...

And a closeup of Joseph (and the choir) thinking they look cool...

Morgan slept through most of the concert.  Notice the electronics in Sandy's hand?  Jo's dad videotaped EVERYTHING!  When he passed a few years ago, the torch passed to Sandy.

For one of their numbers, Joseph came and stood in the aisle beside his family.

And for one number, Joseph got to play a drum.

And as we left, I got a shot of two best friends who are also cousins playing in the dark school yard (Morgan had finally woke up) while I was trying to get them to the van to go home.

Nana's Birthday - She's only 92

After Kaylyn's Investiture ceremony, we gathered at my house to celebrate Nana's birthday.  Nana turned 92 a few days after our celebration.  Here's Kaylyn with Nana.

After I took a picture of Kaylyn and Nana, Ian and Morgan wanted in on the pictures too.  But Regan wouldn't participate.

After cake and ice cream, we decided to do some more pictures with Nana.  We were trying to be creative.  But Robin wasn't sure about this pose once she saw the picture.

So we went for a 4 generation shot of women.  Nana, Mom (aka Granny), Robin and Me and our girls.

We couldn't leave the boys out - so here's Nana with her adoring men.

And finally we convinced Regan to join the rest of the kids for some pictures.

We all sure do love our Nana!

Kaylyn's Christmas Recital

I already posted about Kaylyn's Christmas Recital but wanted to share these pictures from the piano teacher.

Here's Kaylyn with her teacher playing the accompaniment.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this shot!

And this one's pretty cool too.

I'm a Daisy, I'm a Daisy!

In December, Kaylyn's Daisy troop had an investiture ceremony.  This is a ceremony where the girls pledge to live by the Girl Scout Law.  Here is Kaylyn and Morgan before the ceremony.

Each girl had a petal with their name on it to place on a large Daisy as they quoted part of the law.

Here's Granny recording the ceremony with Morgan's assistance.

Kaylyn receiving her pins from her troop leader.

After getting her pins, Kaylyn sat down with the other girls and HAD to check them out.

The finished Daisy flower - yes this Daisy has a LOT of petals!

Kaylyn's Daisy troop as of December.  Several have dropped since but it's still a large troop.