What A Week!!

Last Monday Elizabeth started her theater class with UP For Kids, and she absolutely LOVED it! Her teacher loved her enthusiasm and all her expressions!! Her teacher Amber told me at one point she had to tell Elizabeth to actually tone it down a notch! And apparently Elizabeth can cry on cue....why am I not surprised?! Needless to say she is going to do so well with this acting thing! Amber sent her home with some lines to memorize, just to practice memorizing. It's "Snowflakes are perfect gifts from the sky, each one unique like you and I." Ya she had it memorized by Wednesday....they have til next week to keep working on it. ;) Tuesday I took the kids to the library as they begged to go the day before, then we went to Seagull Book and Tape, remember I told you Elizabeth got me a book for my birthday? Well I read it in one day and was totally sucked into the series(there are 4 books) so I just had to go get the second book with some of my birthday money! That evening was piano and tumbling. Wednesday when I went to pick Devin up from preschool, the teacher asked to talk to me....it wasn't for good reasons. Devin has been having lots of meltdowns there and they said they struggle a bit with some of his OCD tendencies. For example just that day he saw a little boy get a band-aid for his scraped and bleeding knee, so he went over and wanted a band-aid too. They told him he had to have an owie that was bleeding to get a band-aid and he didn't so he didn't need a band-aid so he had a meltdown, and when that was ignored he somehow cut his finger making it bleed, then he went to his teacher and said he needed a band-aid...and indeed he did! What is a teacher to do?!! She couldn't reward him for harming himself to get what he wanted(though with his pain tolerance he didn't feel any pain from it) but by law she has to treat the wound. Can we say conundrum?!! She wisely ended up taking him to the office where he received a bland non-colorful, no fun band-aid for his finger, then got talked to about not giving yourself owies.  We talked about how we and they respond to certain behaviors and made sure to be on the same page. We discussed his OCD and their concerns and she wanted to be sure we were good with how they handle things with him. All in all I feel like it was a productive meeting that will help Devin immensely, I just can't believe he's only been in school two weeks, and only three days since he missed a day to illness before we had to have this talk! Little stinker!! They did say he's a very smart boy and they love that he answers questions and interacts with them during circle time...so it wasn't all trouble stuff. ;)  Wednesday evening we took Elizabeth to JC Penny to have her birthday pictures taken and we took her Frozen stuff, and she wore her Frozen outfit. The pictures turned out SUPER adorable!! Friday my wonderful friend Miss Heather Marie came up about 3 and my kids went up with their Nana. Heather and I chatted for a bit, then went to Cracker Barrel for dinner which was of course delicious!! Then she surprised me by telling me my amazing husband had set the whole thing up as he wanted me to have a girl's night out, so after dinner Heather and I went to Message Envy and got messages(she works at a different Message Envy) one of her friends from school did my message and it was absolutely wonderful! After that we went and got yummy ice cream at Sub Zero, while we chatted some more. Then she drove me home and we sat in the driveway and talked for over an hour. It was such a great night!! And the BEST belated birthday gift EVER!! Saturday morning we did our grocery shopping, and Elizabeth used the birthday money from her great grandparents Walker's to buy an outfit and little dog(with matching fashion cape) for her American Doll, it even came with a little leash so she can pretend to walk the dog....it's really cute and Elizabeth has had a lot of fun with it! After lunch the kids played downstairs and we went up to help out my parents as we were having the September birthdays party for my family there later that afternoon....mostly we just watched the BYU football game. At 4pm we did have to turn in off for the party though. The party went very well, Elizabeth was thrilled to get a color yourself wall clock from my Aunt Susan, and a Barnes and Noble gift card from her cousin Daniel(and was glad it was changed from his original choice of a Cabella's gift card ;) ) And she really loved the fun Barbie from her Aunt Jen!! After the party my parents kindly treated us to dinner of Sill's Cafe to go! After we put the kids to bed we finished watching the football game, and called it a night! Sunday Tony's tummy wasn't feeling well so we didn't go to the Ogden Temple dedication, but we did get some organizing done around the place! That afternoon we drove down to the Nester's house to celebrate Landen and Elizabeth's birthdays. Johnny grilled up hamburgers and hot dogs, we brought the buns and stuff to put on them, and everyone else brought a side dish to share, it was a good dinner! Then we did presents, Landen kidly let Elizabeth go first! She got wonderful gifts, Lego sets from the Nester's and Matt and family. A cute stuffed bear from her great grandma Johnston, an American Girl Barnes and Noble gift card from her Aunt Alicia and family. A Barbie from Her Uncle Russ and family...mostly Melina ;) and her Johnston grandparents gave her a butterfly pillow pet and super cute Y shirt with shorts. Grandpa Johnston made her an Elsa cake, which she loved! And the rest of the night was spent visiting! What a great week!

Here are some pictures from the Holbrook party Saturday.

And here are the pictures from the Johnston party on Sunday!