January Memories

January has been a happy and busy month. Here are some of the moments we captured.

Gwen has been obsessed with Pentatonix since Christmas time. Specifically their version of "Mary, Did You Know?" She was begging to listen to it one night, so I had to pull up the music video and let her get her fix. She could listen to the song all day if we let her. That, and Peeta's Song from 

Studio C.

 A nice car ride to school one morning. We love our mornings together before our day gets crazy. 

 Adam brought home a slew of awards from school this month. He had 2 Honor Roll awards, 2 Perfect Attendance awards, and 1 Citizen award. He was pretty pleased!

 This is Mommy's latest drug of choice.  A square a day helps me keep my sanity. 

 After a long wait, Gwennie and her bff, Presley got to have a play date. 

 Pa invited some of us to go to see a special Marionette show at BYU with him and Ma. Tessa was so excited. She made sure it got on the calendar. 

 We had such a fun time at the show. The things people can do with puppets is amazing and how they don't get all the stings tangled, I will never know. It as pretty fascinating. 

 It was a snowy, snowy day when we went to BYU, but it was so beautiful outside!

 Tessa asked Mommy for a crocheting lesson. 

 She has been working hard on her chain stitch. I sure wish her Great Grandma's were still around to see her do this. They would be so thrilled. 

 Mommy and Daddy snuck away for a quick afternoon date with 2 tag-a-longs. We went and saw the Normal Rockwell exhibit at the MOA. It was cool to see so many beautiful and iconic pieces of art.

 Mommy and Adam got to go to a Vocal Point fireside last Sunday. We loved it!

 Adam even got to meet Vocal Point. One of the guys told Adam he liked that he wore his "Vocal Blue". 

 Tessa still sleeps in her dinosaur nightcap.

Caleb LOVES the movie Inside Out. Specifically Bing Bong. This is how I find Caleb most days when I need him to not be in my arms, which is his other favorite thing. 

 Gwen was happy to help make treats for FHE last week. 

 Last week, we had a fun FHE lesson. We talked about Lehi and his family leaving Jerusalem and what that must have been like. We talked about the importance of obedience to Heavenly Father and the blessings that came because Lehi obeyed. 

Then we played a game and talked about what things Lehi and his family would have taken with them. I gave the kids a bucket and told them that we were part of Lehi's family and they could only take what could fit in their buckets. What they packed was pretty humorous. Gwen pretty much emptied her dresser drawers and got a book, Tessa packed her Calvin and Hobbs books, some stuffed animals and pajamas, and Adam had some clothes, a world atlas, a Snickers bar, scriptures, a water bottle, and of course....Teddy Elephant.

 When they came down from packing, Mommy and Daddy had built our tent. We had to see if we could fit our family and all our stuff in it. 

 It was a good lesson and I think we all appreciated Lehi and his family a little bit more afterwards. 

 Adam brought home this masterpiece he made in art. So impressive!

 He has such a rough life. Kicking back and watching TV.

 Adam is playing basketball and loving it. They have had games every Saturday for a few weeks now and he is playing so well. Last week they took their team pictures. Suddenly he looks so grown up. 

 I got this nice text last Sunday after church. It put a smile on my face. 

January was good to us. Now on to February....

Time For a Check-Up!

Having a birthday means that Gwen's favorite day was right around the corner. Her check-up with Dr. Paxton. Gwen loves going to the doctor! She thinks it is so fun and has been looking forward to this day for weeks. Her check-up went great and she is a healthy, healthy girl! But what she wasn't happy about was getting her shots. We decided to do them this year and just get it over with. Gwen was really nervous, but she held so still and was so brave. Once we got in the car, and Mommy told her how awesome she did, reality set in and she burst into tears. She cried "I had to get shots!" She was upset for a bit and then got home and refused to move off the couch. She wouldn't walk the rest of the afternoon and demanded that we carry her everywhere because her legs had been broken from the shots. She sat on the couch most of the afternoon looking totally annoyed at the world, which just made the rest of us laugh. Which she also didn't appreciate. Later in the afternoon, Daddy took her to Stokes where she got to pick out a treat for being so brave. It took about 2 days, but she eventually recovered from her horrific experience. 

 Caleb had his 18 month check-up the same morning as Gwen's. He is my monkey and was into everything and climbing on everything. He laughed so hard when the doctor examined his belly. I guess he is more ticklish than we realized. Dr. Paxton said Caleb was a breath of fresh air because most babies his age just freak out. 

 Caleb got his shots too, but they didn't phase him a bit. He came home and was his wild self for a while before totally crashing on the floor. It was an exhausting hour for Mommy at the doctor's office, but we are so grateful to have healthy kids and that we don't have to visit the doctor very often. 

Saying Goodbye...and Having Some Fun

On January 16th, we had Grandpa Lemley's funeral. We were able to have most of our Lemley family gather up here in Utah for it and we held the service at Ma and Pa's church. Since Pa is the only member of the Church in his family, we switched things up a bit to make it a more comfortable service for everyone. But it was so nice and I think Grandpa would have been so pleased. Ma and Pa both spoke, Mommy and Uncle Danny shared our memories of Grandpa, and several of us grandkids (and Adam) attempted to sing. When we all saw Adam sobbing during the song, the rest of us lost it. So really, not much singing happened. 

After the service we had a special ceremony to honor Grandpa's military service. Taps was played and the flag was unfolded, folded, and presented to Pa. It was really a moving experience. And then Uncle Matt played Amazing Grace on the bagpipes. 

 We had a nice afternoon visiting with friends and family and doing what we Lemley's do best-be goofy. (Poor Pa.)

Luckily we had all the grandkids together. Mommy had to hide in the back and hold Caleb up, but we got them all in!

 We were missing David, but it was so nice to have most of us together again. 

 The Lemley cousins.

 It has been years since we were all together. 

 See. We can't do anything seriously. 

 After the service, Tessa got to hang out with Ares and Uncle Danny for a while. I think Gwen was sure she was never going to see Tessa again when she climbed into Uncle Danny's car. Gwen has a love/hate relationship with her Uncle Danny. They got to go to Starbucks and get cake balls. Tessa thought that was the coolest!

 Sunday we were lucky enough to have another visit with Mamma and Bampa. They came down with Aunt Lisa and we went and walked around the new Provo Temple. We had a nice dinner together and then they left Zeke with us for a sleepover and took Tessa for a special sleepover with Mamma. 

Monday was no school! Adam had a blast having Zeke sleep over. We spent most of our day in Orem where we met up with the family and surprised Gillian with a birthday basketball game. After the game, we went back to Ma and Pa's house to watch Star Wars and eat Pa's popcorn. 

 Everyone had so much fun playing basketball. Even Ma played. Until she tripped over Caleb. Family times like these are the best and my favorite. I love that we still can get together to "play" and have fun. 

 Adam is so lucky to have so many uncles to look up to on both sides of his family. He and Uncle Ben are good buddies!

 Poor Caleb wanted to play ball so bad. Aunt Katy was so nice to put him on her shoulders and Uncle Danny would help Caleb "shoot" the ball. He loved it! But then he'd put his hands down on Aunt Katy's sweaty hair and get this strange look on his face like, "What am I touching?". It was pretty funny!