WICKED!

This was a great week for a couple of reasons!  For one, Hayden came home for the weekend.  Kind of strange, since he had been gone for less than two weeks, but it was so great to have him home for the weekend!  And the other...we saw Wicked!!  More about that later.

Okay...this week's happenings:

• I miscalculated how many seats I had in my car.  Turner and Regan had to share a seat.  They were bickering and unhappy until I handed them my phone and told them to take selfies.  

•  Cooper is still terrible at spelling.  This was the easy list.  This week's list had words that were much, much harder. 

•  We figured out that he learned them a lot better when he used manipulatives.  I'm hoping he'll get five right out of the twenty this week.  Seriously.  They're that hard.

•  Cooper is now eight years old, so he gets to go to Cub Scouts!  He had his first den meeting this week and loved it!  He also loves the fact that he is the 5th Oliver to wear that shirt and hat.  If I was him I would hate it and beg for new stuff.  But he just loves following in their footsteps!  And you gotta love that snaggle tooth smile!

Remember all those apples from last week?  Well, they look a little different this week!  They're almost too pretty to eat!

• And while I was at it, I cut up the cukes that Dix brought home from Utah and made some refrigerator pickles.  Yummy.

• The most exciting this about our week was...we got to go see Wicked!  My parents bought tickets for us for our Christmas presents last Christmas.  We couldn't believe the time had finally come!  It didn't start until 7:30 and it was on a Thursday night (long story...I accidentally bought the tickets for the wrong night, which meant that Hayden couldn't go with us, bummer).  We had a wind storm just as we were getting ready to leave, so I was a little nervous about the drive because last week's windstorm was too bad to drive in.  But we were able to leave on time.  We had a little trouble parking and BARELY made it to our seats in time!  In fact, we didn't have time to get a picture of everyone before it started.  And at the end, we went home in two cars and the first car left while we were still using the restrooms so this is the only picture we took. The kids all loved the show.  Regan was just quivering the whole time she was so excited about it.  I was so glad that we were able to take them all.  

• The next morning, after I dropped the kids off at school (we got home at 11:30 pm and Landon, Porter and Regan all had to get up at 5:30, Turner and Cooper at 6:15), I went to the gas station to fill up the van.  I got there and my wallet wasn't in my purse.  I searched under the seats to make sure it hadn't just fallen out, but didn't find it.  I said a quick prayer and felt calm and felt that I would find it.  I texted Porter at work, who had taken the car that we had driven to the musical the night before, but he wasn't able to go out and check for it until after work.  I waited all day for his text, and finally got a text that said that it wasn't there.  I called the theater and had them go look for it too, but it wasn't there.  I was really getting stressed.  I had just gotten paid for the week and had over $300 in cash, not to mention my driver's license, my debit card, my temple recommend...I was really stressed!  Porter finally came home in the afternoon, and I went out to look for it myself.  Turner opened the back door and looked in...

ARE YOU KIDDING ME??????  It wasn't even under the seats!  It was in plain view (right next to...a machete.  Of course.  Everyone has a machete in their car).  I was so relieved, but honestly, kind of wanted to punch Porter in the face.  (But I didn't.)  It took me all evening to finally relax again after that stress!

• Friday evening I drove out to Mesa and bought Cooper his new scriptures and had them embossed with his name.  I also bought him a Swiss Army Knife.  He's been begging for a pocket knife for a while, and I thought that now that he's a Cub Scout would be a good time.  After my shopping, I picked Hayden up from the airport and we went home.  

• Saturday, the big boys did some clothes shopping while I took the little kids swimming at the hotel with grandma and grandpa.  We went home for lunch and then got ready for the baptism.  

I actually don't have ANY pictures of the baptism!  My friend Terri came and took lots of pictures for us, so I didn't bother taking any!  I will post soon with details about the baptism.  It was wonderful.

Cooper loves his new rollerblades.  I couldn't resist following him outside this morning before church when I saw him heading out on rollerblades in his suit.  He is such a cutie.  And a great rollerblader!

Maybe when he's a missionary he'll be on blades instead of a bike.

• After church today the boys got a good game of Risk going.  After several hours, Hayden came in with a smug look and said, "I won."  I love that these three all love playing Risk.  Because then I don't have to!

And that was our week!  Stay posted for a Baptism blog very soon!