Weekend Visitors For the Primary Program

Hey-O it's primary program time!  Oriah and fam asked about coming down for the weekend with it being Labor day, and the primary program was just icing on the cake.  The kids did a wonderful job, and all had a turn sharing a time that their prayers were answered.  Grayson was an exuberant singer, and it's always great in my book when I can distinctly hear my own kids!  There was no doubt when Grayson was confident in the words, or when he was a little shaky on what was coming next.

We let Jelly try a little cat tv this week.  I'd heard about it, and was wondering what it would be like, as Jelly has never cared about what's been on the tv before.  Well, it works.  She was immediately glued to the TV as soon as the first tweet happened.  She was also much more interested on what might come up on the TV the rest of the night.  I don't know that we'll do it again.  She was very drawn into it, but I don't know if that's a good thing when she's got no chance to interact.

Grayson had his first day of preschool on Tuesday.  Key highlight here being that when he grows up he wants to be "a farmer with Winry!"

I think I've mentioned that they're tearing down the convention center in downtown right by the train station, but one day they were literally ripping it apart with a giant claw.

Speaking of construction, Monica went by the temple to see how it was going.  It definitely looks temple shaped now!  That's super exciting.  It still looks a long way out, but it's awesome to see it coming along.

If memory serves correctly, Brooke had a dentist appointment, though it's hard to tell from this Bluey viewing party.  I think in the end the tooth that's hurting is actually because it's loose, and so they filed it down some to help for now and said it'll be gone soon enough.

Grayson got to go to jail, er, I mean the gym on Friday.  He always calls it jail.  Grayson had a lot of fun swinging and building and playing.

On Friday on the way home from school, the car Brooke was in got rear ended.  It sounds like the person wasn't paying attention and hit them pretty hard, but everyone in the Koepps care was okay.  Shaken up, sore backs and necks, but no serious harm.  Brooke was pretty shaken up from it. She has been reading Harry Potter and wanting to watch the movies, so we started watching the second movie Friday night, and I ran to the store and grabbed some Harry Potter-esque treats.  Dragon eggs, polyjuice potion, snakes, wizard hats and more.

On Saturday morning we got invited to Max's birthday party.  I took Grayson and Winry and we had a whole lot of fun. We even ended up being the last to leave.

Saturday afternoon we went to Chuck-E-Cheese.  The kids were really excited and enjoyed playing games in the arcade.  I went around with Grayson to help him out.  He really liked playing this game, and really wanted to get the ball into the milk jug in the back, and was pretty close a few times.

Before church, Winry alternated with another girl in the ward playing prelude music before sacrament meeting started.  She practiced a lot, and Monica even had to add some notes to make the songs a little more challenging for her.  She sure loves playing the piano, and did amazing.

Sunday evening, we had some popper fireworks still left around that it was finally time to use.  They weren't even from the 4th of July this year, so we'd had them for far too long.  The kids had fun pulling the strings and it wasn't too hard to pick up even though the road was wet from some rain.

We're having a great time with cousins over here.  It's brought a renewed vigor to the kids love of the playground, which is fantastic, and the weather has been a bit cooler with some rain to make it great weather for playing outside as well!  I'm sure there's good fun to be had ahead tomorrow as well!  Till next week.
 

Happy Birthday Monica!

Happy Birthday Monica!  It was great to get to celebrate Monica for all the wonderful things she does for us all!  Here we are having peach crisp at the end of the day.  9 neatly spaced candles, to represent her turning 9 this year!

School started on Monday for the girls.  Sewer still isn't connected, but otherwise things seem functional.  I guess gym has been on the road for the time being, and recess is just in a large woodchip area.  Fear not, they're still building out the rest of the needs for the kids, and the girls are already reporting updates!  Here they are giving each other a hug, and I had to share this generated image. They've been hugging ever since Winry was born!

Grayson's school hasn't started yet, so he and Monica have gotten to enjoy more time together.  He's been loving playing with Rainbow, his snake from the zoo in Australia, and they found a new game this week.  It does require a clean and empty room, and a bit of spinning.

Grayson has gotten a lot of hand me downs from Michael and Oriah's boys, and he loves those clothes, but he's been longing for some hand me downs from his siblings.  I mean, Winry get's all of Brooke's favorite shirts, why can't Grayson get some.  Well... I think you can tell why!  Also, he's got it on backwards.

We got to go see Grayson's preschool for a back to school night and say hi to his new teacher.  He's really excited and as we looked around ,we saw several of his friends from last year will be in his class again!  As we walked out of the classroom, they had some music playing and balloons out in the general purpose space and Grayson looked in and said "a balloon party? I'm definitely going to that!" And so we did.

We went to look around the school yard, and while we were out there, we found a little frog!  I told the kids not to lift it high so that if it jumped out of their hands it wouldn't get hurt falling to the ground.  Winry caught it a few times, and forgot not to stand up and lift the little guy high, but in the end he was still hopping.

Here's Grayson at the back to school sign, right by the popsicle stand!  I even got a popsicle, because the first one Grayson got was broken inside.

Saturday was Monica's birthday.  In the morning we had a primary program practice, and then Monica left from there to go to a gardening class.  I tried to get the kids to do some cleaning, etc. to surprise her when she got home, and we got some stuff done.  When she got back, she had exciting gardening things to tell us about and we opened up some presents.  She's been doing sourdough again recently, so there were some supplies to be helpful there, some other kitchen gadgets, and a canning set!

A brief intermission to give Jelly and drink, and she was drinking slooooooooow.

For dinner we went to Aleida's, which I would call a Mexican restaurant, but I think it's really something else but similar (It's Venezuelan).  The food was delightful, and the lighting bad for pictures.  This was the first time the kids had gone, but Monica and I have been several times on dates.  Yum.

I took Winry on a little walk to check the mail and we saw this cloud.  I can't remember what she said it looked like now, but it's kinda got a turtle head vibe, so probably something like that.

It's been a long process, but Jelly and the kids continue to get along better and better.  This is in part due to the kids being calmer around her.  She's laid on Brooke's lap multiple times, and Grayson can scratch her shoulder just right so that she's gotta get her leg up there and phantom scratch the air.

And that's everything for out week.  Hope you're doing well!
 

Happy Anniversary!

Monica surprised me with a trip to the Yurtopian for our anniversary this year!  It's a little glamping location just outside Austin where you get to stay in a ger!  I haven't slept in a ger since my mission, and even back then it was only a few times with my family at the very end when they came to pick me up.  It was a lot of fun, and, very importantly, it was air conditioned!  There's more to say about our weekend trip, but that's not till way at the end of this post!  Happy Anniversary Monica!

Earlier in the week Monica took the kids to Target to spend some of that lemonade stand money.  Brooke ordered a Lego set online as soon as the stand closed, but Winry and Grayson had been itching to go spend some money!  Winry got an elephant pet, and Grayson got a dragon hot wheel car launcher.

The start of school got delayed a little bit as the new Valor building hadn't gotten all of it's inspections signed off yet, but school is set to start next week.  We had a meet the teacher night and went to both schools to meet the girls new teachers.  We're excited for the new school year, though there are still hurdles to get over, such as the school isn't hooked up to sewage yet, so they have portable bathrooms rolled up behind the school.  It'll be an adventure year, but I'm sure it'll be great.

In training indeed.  These little carts for kids are extremely appropriate I found out, as Grayson managed to tip his cart and spill it not once but twice, rolling a melon across the store.  I don't think anything was damaged.  I'm assuming those little carts must be easier to tip, because when I push a cart it feels very sturdy.  It's a good thing we've started Grayson's training.

Winry and Monica made some bears in bed.  Filled with chocolate no less, yum!

Last Sunday I was going through a box I hadn't unpacked of some special items I've collected from various places throughout life.  I wanted to put them up on display on the top of my shelves in the office, and I found the chicken I mummified in 6th grade!  YES!!!  I thought I tossed it in the move, but I did not, and so I did the natural thing and designed and 3d printed a casket for it!  It could use a little paint, and then I'm so excited to show off the final product!

And the logical thing to follow my 25 year old mummy is Monica's and my anniversary trip!  We made a few stops along the way at a wheat mill bakery place, and an artisan olive oil place, and for lunch.  Here we are after eating lunch.  I don't remember what the place was called, but it was delicious and I would definitely go again!

When we got to the Yurtopian, we went to check out the creek, which was pretty dried up while we were there.  Not much to do, so it was a brief peek.  There were a lot of bugs, and it was hot, and we saw a snake.  Also, the stream looks much nicer in this picture than it was, that water was a stagnant pool at our time being there.

At our ger, there was a grill and a hot tub, hammocks, etc.  It was a nice little setup.  We cooked dinner and had a fun time hanging out together.  We came out to do a little stargazing in the middle of the night, and I like this picture of us coming out of the ger.

Here's the sky.  It's hard to see, but it was a great view of the night sky as it was much darker out there than closer to the city.

In the morning, it felt much nicer in the hot tub (we never turned on the heat) and we enjoyed playing some Mario Kart.  Good times.

And here we are before checking out.  We were getting ready to head to church, and got a picture of the supports in the ger.  I will say that this is very standard from my experience.  Ger supports and poles are usually painted with patterns like this.  It's very pretty.

At the ward we happened to go to Sunday morning, Monica looked at the stand and an elder from her district in the MTC was in the bishopric.  We chatted with him a little after, and then headed back home.  It was a super fun trip, and awesome to sleep in a ger.  I'd highly recommend it to anyone!

No Reno Demo

Well hello, you caught me, helping put up some wallpaper in the bathroom.  I know the title says no reno, but that's not actually talking about our house, that's talking about the project I helped with this weekend.  At home, Monica's been working on fancy-ing up our bathroom, and it's almost complete now that the wallpaper is up.

Winry was having a hard time one day this past week so I took her for a quick run to the store just to spend some time together one on one, and of course get a treat!  We looked at a few options, but in the end settled on Hostess.  I think this is Winry's first time having a Twinkie (my choice) and a Snowball (her choice).  We enjoyed them both.

The Packers kids are staying with us this week while they take a trip, so Monica's been trying to find fun things for the kids to go do.  They went to Pinballz one day while I was at work.  The Packer kids wanted to ride the go-karts, and while they were racing down the track, Grayson was at the horse track!

Everybody enjoyed some mini-bowling.  It's a lot of fun.

And of course they spent some time in the arcade playing games, such as carousel!

The kids had a water balloon fight, and when I got home from work I went out to help them clean up all the pieces and someone closed the garage door and shut me outside.  However, I was able to see that a cicada had... "hatched" from on our garage door.  Monica said it had been there for like a week, so it was old news to her.

I don't really have a spot for this, but Monica was putting Grayson to bed and he had some energy.  I mean, Grayson always has high energy, so maybe that's not so crazy, but I wanted to include Monica's video in here.

On Saturday I went to help a family in the ward who's house flooded back in July.  They are still working on finishing ripping out drywall, molding, etc. that was damaged so they can start to rebuild.  I stopped at Lowes to grab some masks for everyone that was going, and this little buddy came rolling up while I was there.  I'm curious how well it works and determines stock, but I thought it was pretty cool.

And finally, the no reno demo.  I spent my time there removing the bottom of the closet so we could cut out the drywall, removing the siding from all the doors, and ripping out the master bath.  I'm not exactly sure everything else that happened, but I know a bunch of stone got hauled out from the fireplace, and other drywall was ripped out.  I had a good time, but I was REALLY tired by the end and could barely hold my hammer still.  We were able to get everything done that was on the docket for the day, so hopefully they can start getting earnestly into rebuilding now.

And that rounds out the week.  It was pretty busy with extra kids, but I think everyone had a good time, and we're doing well.
 

You're a Wizard, Brooke-y!

Welcome muggles!  This week to celebrate Harry Potter's birthday, the library had a Harry Potter themed celebration, and it looks like it was pretty fun.  They went pretty all out and I wish I could have made it.  Here's Brooke all dressed up and ready to catch the train!

I don't know when this happened this week, but Grayson and Winry built a tower with magna-tiles and then asked for Monica to take a slow motion video of them smashing it.  I really like how excited they get after the tower smashes down.

Rewind rewind rewind!  On Monday, Jelly and I had a visitor at work.  A little lizard who climbed all the way across the window, just teasing Jelly the whole time.  I always know when we have a visitor because Jelly starts wagging her tail really fast and smacking into the desk.

Monica and the kids met up with several other families at the creek and had a blast.  I believe I heard that something Grayson brought floated under the walkway and got stuck.  Sara climbed in there to get it back out for him, what a heroine!  Also, while they were there, they found a leach!  Don't worry, it wasn't on anyone, just there, waiting...

Made it back to the Harry Potter party!  What party is complete these days without pinning something to something else?  None of them, exactly.  I'm going to bring that expectation with me to my company party this year, and oh boy, there better be pinning!

The kids all got to make potions, and Oliva was there too.  She was in dance with Brooke last year, and they're really great friends.  In fact, they're doing a duet together this upcoming dance season.

We had an unexpected visitor this week.  Right before bed someone saw a lizard on the wall!

It was high up on the wall, so I had to go get a ladder to save it.  He had other ideas however, and when I tried to trap him so I could take him outside, he went running and jumped straight on me.  It didn't take long till I had no clue where the lizard was, so I was pretty sure it had crawled up my shorts.

But Monica found it!  And I was wrong.  It was hiding between my legs.  So I gingerly walked outside and did something to get it to crawl to freedom!  Quite the adventure, and a very good laugh.

On Saturday, Grayson and Winry helped cook breakfast.  They like helping out in the kitchen when possible, and everything was great.

We picked a watermelon from our garden.  I don't remember what kind it is, but it's supposed to be that lighter orangey color.  It was really tasty, and we got a lot of seeds from it ready to plant in the years ahead.

Saturday morning, I had to go to the church and help set up some tables and chairs for a funeral, and Winry came with me to help.  The Weeks also came to help set up, and after we did a little bike riding in the parking lot with their kids.  Winry had a good time helping Lewis scoot around.

While I was out mowing the lawn, a bird came to our local bath, and by bath I mean Grayson's water table, likely filled with water beads and full of dirty water, but I guess birds don't mind.

Winry had a hard time on Sunday, so I took her out in the hall.  I sat on her lap again, which you can tell she loved, and had to get a picture for Niki because I know how much she loves this!

And that's all for this week.  Quite a few lizards in hindsight, but I guess it's that time of year when they're all coming out to play.  I told Monica if we ever leave Texas I might have to get a pet lizard to remember it by.