Daddy Daughter Dance

After doing my ant experiment, my next job was to get Kelsey ready for her Daddy Daughter Dance.  There have probably been options to attend in the past, but for some reason, this is the first one hubby has attended.  Either the bigger girls didn't want to go, didn't ask, or it wasn't possible at that particular time.  And hubby went from chaperoning an overnight field trip with a couple 5th and 6th grade boys to dressing up for his 2nd grader.  He is a pretty good man. 

 Kelsey started the evening by giving her dad a letter/card she made for him.

 It was an invitation to the dance!

 And I thought it was pretty adorable.

 Again, Amazon came to our rescue with a fancy dress or two.  We bought 3 for her to try on, and this one was her favorite.  She liked how it flared out when she spun.  She also let me curl her hair, and I think we may have even given her some blush and lip gloss.

Mid twirl (hence the funky positioning), but the smile is pretty cute.  And that missing tooth?!?!  Love it!

 Hubby dressed up for his date, and practiced his dance moves with Sienna.

 Then I wanted to get a few pictures, but, with an 8 year old, it is sometimes hard to get her to focus.  So, hubby "helped".

 Gosh the look adorable together!

 This is the only kind of date that I find acceptable for my husband :)  But they do make a cute couple!

 They made a big deal of them as they walked into the building, and asked everyone to stop and pose for a picture.  Hubby said he actually felt a little under-dressed.  Some of the dads really stepped it up apparently.

 What does one do at a Daddy Daughter Dance?  Well...  they ate all kinds of sweet treats, and danced.  A LOT.  Hubby said that Kelsey barely stopped moving and just kept bouncing around the whole time.

 When they came home, they had to blow of some steam.  Dancing a little bit more apparently.  I was pleased and impressed with the effect the dance had on hubby.  He had been struggling with some issues at work that were incredibly frustrating to him.  But, when he came back from being around all that simple and pure happiness, his frustration seemed to melt away, and he was more happy than I had seen him in several days.  It was magical!

 I don't remember what this face was for, but...  its funny :)

And that is the tale of our first Daddy Daughter Dance, and the wonderful way that it ended up!

Ant Experiment

For my Research Methods class, we had to decide what we wanted to study, and then design a study that would help with figuring out the question we wanted answered.  I decided to look into what kind of food ants preferred.  As part of the design, I had to control for different species of ants.  I took the easy way out of ordering ants online, instead of trying to catch ants from my backyard and then identifying them.  They came slightly earlier than I was expecting, so I had to perform the experiment slightly earlier than I had planned so they didn't die.

The ants I ordered were red harvester ants, and they came from Hurricane, UT, which is very close to where our friends the Fishers live! (Hi!)  These guys are big.  Like, slightly creepy big.  Like, when they walked across the poster board you could hear them!  It was not my most favorite experience.  In fact, I had originally planned on using 10 ants at a time, and throwing away each experiment board after the 10 ants.  But, the ants were so big and so fast, that I ended up doing 2 trials of 5 ants per board before throwing them away.  And I had to recruit lab assistants (AKA my children) to help me watch the ants and keep track of where they visited, and occasionally flick them back onto the experiment board with plastic spoons.

 This was my experiment board.  It is a circle 18 inches across, with various food substances approximately equal distance.  I included salt, as well as 2 artificial sweeteners to see if they would be interesting to the ants and a control substance of water.

 The ants came shipped in a container about the size of a pen.  More than 50 ants to a container.  I opened the shipping containers and poured the ants into a large plastic container with high sides to make sure that they couldn't get out.  I then fished 5 individual ants out into a smaller container to carry over to the board.  The board was marked with the center, where I upended the smaller container containing the ants.

 I then gave them 60 seconds to find and partake of as many food substances as they wanted, recording when they stopped long enough to take a bit, or when we observed them directly taking a bit.  I like this picture for a few reasons.  1) It is kinda artistic, with the lighting and the shadows and everything.  2) You can see the huge ant pinchers.  And 3) You can see my lab assistant's spoon, poised and ready to flick the ant back onto the experiment board.

 60 seconds was plenty of time for the ants to go all over the board and back again.  And, while the ants hadn't eaten during their shipping time, or the time they sat on my counter waiting until I could use them, not all of them immediately headed towards food.  In fact, several of them walked right over piles of food substances in their search for....  I honestly don't know.

 You can clearly see the pinchers on this guy!  I found that the easiest way to get the ants from the big holding container to the small transport container was to let them attach the spoon.  Once they pinched the spoon, I could pick them up. 

Once the experiment was over, I made sure to squish each on before I threw them away.  As much as Dyl would hate that I killed them, I certainly did not want the creepy, painful looking ants in my house or my back yard.  And, while I ordered what the website said was enough for 100 ants, they sent waaaaaay more than that.  I had 2 pen sized shipping containers that weren't even opened when I had 100 samples worth of data.  I didn't want to open them and kill them individually, and I didn't want to be responsible for introducing an invasive species to our local Alabama flora and fauna, so....  I let them die before I threw them away.  Spoiler alert: It took almost 2 more weeks, after shipping and after sitting on my counter for a day or two before they died!

And, for those of you curious, the ants did not have a statistically significant preference among the food substances I offered.  Though, it was almost there.

3rd Week of February, 2020 (MPA Concert)

Back to reality this week....  Sort of.

The kids didn't have school on Monday for President's day.  I did :p

On Tuesday, Kelsey had her well check up.  She weighed in at 62 lbs and was 4 ft 2 in tall!  I can't remember exactly at the moment, but she was on the taller end of other girls her age.

Wednesday it rained a bit, and I wore my boots to school, so that I could step in puddles and not have to worry about it :)  I also got this cool shot of the raindrops on my roof!

Wednesday morning Kaitlyn left to go to the Beta Convention.  It was the first time she was there all by herself.  The previous years I had gone with her as a chaperone, or Kari was there with her.  Hubby and Dylan were going up on Thursday, but she was still there and traveled all by herself.

We had regular church activities that night.

Thursday, hubby and Dylan left to go to the Beta Convention.  It was super great that hubby was able to take vacation to go support Dylan first of all, and that, as a male, he could go so that he could be helpful as a chaperone.  If I had gone, only Dylan and I could have been in the same hotel room together.  Dylan competed in one of the academic tests, and the rest of the time was fairly unsupervised and not the most interesting thing.  I suppose if he had been more involved, he might have been more busy.  But, as it was, hubby was not exactly impressed with the amount of things to do, or the amount of supervision provided.

At the home front, Kelsey had Drama Kids and lost a tooth during the day at school.

 While half of the family was at the Beta Convention, Kelsey and I were able to go listen to an informal concert of Kari's at the High School.  The students were getting ready to go to MPA.  They go to play for judges, and receive scores.  They don't play those songs at the next concert, so they put on an informal concert for the parents to hear the songs they had been working on.
Kari had a solo in the song above (Adventura).  It was actually part of a quartet, but she was the only baritone.  And, because it was an informal concert, after they received feedback from the "judges" (guest band directors who had come to offer feedback) they replayed part of the song, starting from the quartet.  So I got to hear Kari play it twice!

The final song had some fun parts in it too!

At some point in the week, I saw this on FB.  And, I thought to myself "Congratulations!!!  I finally made it to adulthood!"

Friday afternoon, Hubby and the kids came home from the Beta Convention.  And we had a fun evening to get ready for.  It was the Daddy Daughter Dance! (separate post)

Friday after school, I also worked on the 2nd research experiment I had designed for my Research Methods class.  We had to pick something related to our field, and study something for that.  I chose to study what kind of food ants preferred.  (separate post)

Saturday I had stake training and hubby worked out in his shop a majority of the day.

Sunday was Stake Conference.

Kari District Band 2020

Kari auditioned for All State/District Band the last Saturday in January.  We found out she made it the same day.  We had already made plans for Kelsey's baptism at that point, and plane tickets had already been bought.  Thankfully, we were able to rearrange schedules so that the Baptism and the Band thing still worked!

The way District band works is that they get the music they will be performing on Friday evening, when they arrive for practice.  They also practice all day Saturday, and then put on a performance Saturday night.  So, they have the music for less than 24 hours, and only practice for about 12 hours!  It is a good thing they are the most talented students in the bunch!  They did a really good job!  We don't seem to get there early enough to get fabulous seats.  But we certainly got there early enough for acceptable.  There she is!  Back row.

There may or may not have been some cuddling going on.  The kids had had a long-ish week, trying to enjoy the visitors but still get in bed at a decent hour.

 I asked hubby to smile for me, but he made a goofy face, because he is a goober.

This song is titled SkyBound by John Bubbett

Irish Jig for Young Feet, by Travis Weller.

Prelude on a German Hymnsong, by Matt Conaway.

Byzantine Dances, by Carol Birttin Chambers. (This one is fun! :)

They didn't play the song Hammer and Forge by Jack Wilds that Kari was disappointed in, because she really liked that one.

Take a bow!

Because of the baptism, Kari was lucky enough to have her Aunt and Grandparents there to listen to their songs!

Kari was also super happy to have her BFF Ashes there, who also made it to All State with her.

Congratulations Kiddo!!!  Well done on all your hard work!

Kelsey's Baptism

In our faith, children do not get baptized until they are old enough to be responsible for their own choices.  Not only do we not believe in "Original Sin" from Adam and Eve, but we strongly emphasize personal agency, so the choice to be baptized must be made by someone old enough to understand the decision they are making and old enough to accept the responsibility.  The youngest you can be baptized is at the age of 8.  And Kelsey made the choice to be baptized on her 8th Birthday!  

That day was a bit busy.  Originally, I was going to do an observation that morning, but I decided to stay home and finish stuff for the baptism, and put off the observation until the next day.  Also, because it was a week day, there was some scheduling to work around.  Hubby had to get off work kind of early (translation: on time) in order to get there on time.  Secondly, Kelsey had Drama Kids that day.  So, I asked Grandpa if he would be willing to wait for Kelsey and pick her up from school while the rest of us headed over to church to make sure everything was all set up.  It is so nice to have so many helpers!  Everyone else came with me in the big van to help with stuff.  We had some pictures of Kelsey to put up and the refreshments to bring in.  I let Kelsey pick a few of her favorites to share after the baptism was over.  She chose apples with caramel sauce, Doritos, and cupcakes.  She had some lemonade to drink.  It doesn't exactly sound like they go together, but....  Her choice :)

It is a pretty big deal, and Pickle has managed to be at every single one of our children's baptisms!!!  That is some kind of awesome aunt!  Grandpa has been able to be at all of our children's baptisms too.  Grandma was prevented one time for some health reasons.

 Kelsey chose her daddy to perform the baptism itself.

 And she asked each of her siblings to participate in the ceremony as well.  (INSERT JOBS HERE)

 I am so blessed to be sealed to my family forever!

 Including these great family members who travelled in for the special event!

 We also had several sweet friends and members of the ward come and celebrate and worship with us as well.

 Kelsey asked Joe to stand in the priesthood circle when she was given the gift of the Holy Ghost.  And he came, even though he had recently had hip surgery.

 Funny story: We were taking some pictures as people arrived.  Jade was taking the pictures for me.  When the Hills arrived, Abel saw that we were taking pictures, and just hopped right in!  He is not smiling because his parents were trying to get him out of the picture, and he was not happy about it!

 Thats ok!  Hes a cutie, and we were happy to have him take a few pictures with us.

 Then Jade was nice enough to give Abel the camera and let him take a few of his own.  He got this one.  And I love it!

 Fun story, this is the same dress that I and each of my sisters wore to our baptism.  AND Kari and Kaitlyn wore it as well!

After you get dunked, you go change so that you don't have to be in wet clothes while you get confirmed and visit afterwards.  I was in the bathroom with Kelsey, helping her change.  We were talking about how she felt and she said she felt like crying.  I asked why and she said said "Because she felt so happy".  I am so happy when my kids can feel the spirit in such a positive way in their lives!

2nd Week of February, 2020

This week, while mostly normal, was also special because we had visitors.  The kids still had to go to school and after school practices, and I still had to go to school.   But it was still super fun to have them there for all the times we were home!  

Pickle was so nice in playing with the kids whenever they had free time.

Tuesday there was a band meeting, where the band student would get credit for each person that attended.  So, even though it wasn't the most thrilling thing, I convinced Grandma and Grandpa to come.  However, they changed things around a bit, and it turns out Grandma and Grandpa came for nothing but a boring old band meeting.

Wednesday, I got some good news!  I made it on the Presidents List!

That night was regular church activities as well as a Beta Meeting for Kaitlyn.  Hubby and I had to divide and conquer: I went to church, and he went to the Beta Meeting.

While I was making dinner, the kids went outside to play catch with Grandpa.  I was a little surprised at how much they enjoyed it, and how good they were at it!

A few short videos of their fun times together.

Thursday was Kelsey's birthday!!!  Originally, our plan was for Kelsey to get baptized on Saturday.  But that was before we found out Kari made district band.  They practiced Friday night, all day Saturday, and then performed on Saturday night.  Thankfully, we were able to rearrange the schedule enough that Kelsey was still able to be baptized and Kari was still able to do District Band.  And because everyone was there for Kelsey, they were able to be there for Kari too!  So, Kelsey got baptized on her birthday (separate post). 

For her birthday (while I was at class) Grandma and Grandpa went to lunch with Kelsey at school.  Pickle was there too!! 

 Kelsey was so happy to have everyone focus on her!

 And so happy to have her family come and visit!

Friday was Valentine's Day.  There was some fun, delicious food going around, but we also decided to take the family out to another hockey game!  Kari didn't come because she was practicing for District Band.

 It was Kelsey turn to take home the class pet, and document what they did that weekend.  So Kelsey brought him to the hockey game!

And, because we were so busy the night before with the baptism, we finally opened presents that night (the day after her birthday).

Saturday morning, hubby slept in a little bit while he cuddled with Sienna.

I took the kids to District Band Practice.  It was Kari, Ashes, and another boy who lived nearby.  Kari and Ashes sat in the back seat, while the gentleman talked my ear off.

We spent the majority of the day talking about where we had lived since hubby and I got married.  Grandpa is a great gatherer of information, and he had a spreadsheet going on his computer.  Since we have lived around the same area a majority of our marriage, we decided to tour some of our previous places of residence.  We all piled into Karen, and drove to our previous house and apartments in the area.  The dogs came with us for the local ones, and Grandpa was nice enough to let Pixie sit on his lap for a while.  She just wants to be loved! :)

Then we came home and got ready for the band concert that evening.  However, since we were in the area for the band concert, we took the opportunity to drive around to our previous residences there too.  We remembered the general addresses, but we had forgotten some of the apartment numbers.  Driving around not only let us get the numbers, but also let the kids be reminded of places we lived, that they likely wouldn't remember.

We went out to dinner at a local Mexican place that was pretty good!

And then we went to Kari's band concert (separate post). 

Sunday was time for the family to leave.  We were bummed, but they had been there for at least a week, so, I guess we understood.

Grandma and Grandpa had to leave around 3am!!!  That one wasn't super fun to wake up for.

Pickle had the opportunity to go to sacrament with us, and then we had to leave to take her to the shuttle.  And, of course, we took every second we could to visit and cuddle.

 Including while we waited for the shuttle to load and leave.

The rest of the day was a bit of a bummer.  We are always sad when family leaves.  Plus, we had to get ready for school and stuff the next day.  No one likes it when the weekend comes to an end.