Hola Familia!
I usually feel like our letters are pretty predictable. Shane works, I taxi the kids around to their various activities, and sometimes we go do something fun and different. This week has had a few unusual events, though, so it might be a little more interesting than the standard family epistle. I just need to decide where to start...I guess I will go in order.
On Monday things were fairly standard. I did take Calder to pick up a few things for his Valentines and to pick out an instrument. He's been wanting to learn to play some music, but I don't think he's quite ready for piano lessons yet. He was hoping for a drum, but the music store was all out of drums, unfortunately ;). He ended up choosing a set of resonating bells...pretty much a little xylophone. We've been writing out some of the little songs that you can play using just the C scale and he's been having fun with it. In the evening we had a little visitor at our house. Bria is the daughter of a couple in our ward who live nearby. They are expecting baby #2 in April, so they wanted to go tour the hospital well ahead of time. We loved having Bria to play at our house. Adria did a great job keeping her entertained and Calder even shared some of his toys with her.
On Tuesday I started working on my stop motion photography project. I've been wanting to stretch myself creatively a bit, and stop motion photography seemed like a fun project. It takes a lot of little adjustments, but the end result is really fun. If you aren't on Instagram you can view the final result here: https://www.instagram.com/graywrenphotography/ then click on the square with the little Valentine box in the corner. I learned a lot and am excited to do another project for March. It actually took me three tries to get the photos how I wanted them. I also had an uneventful dentist appointment (just how I like them!) Calder had OT and swimming. Shane and I had our Valentine's Date a day early. We went to a yummy Italian restaurant in Belmont, then went to see if we could pick up heart shaped sugar cookies for Calder's class party the next day. Nope, waited too long! So we finished the evening by making sugar cookies for his class party. We just had to make the cookies, not frost them, so it wasn't as time consuming as it could have been.
On Wednesday I helped with Calder's class party. They had Valentine's Day themed centers and also decorated cookies and made little english muffin pizzas for their snack. His class is just a really cute bunch of kids! They're like a little hive of bees buzzing around the centers...they don't get super loud and crazy! They exchanged Valentines, too. Calder loved opening all the Valentines at home. He kept commenting on how nice it was that his classmates gave him Valentines. Adria had an orthodontist appointment in the afternoon and Rella had dance. Adria and I went to YW in the evening.
Thursday was a busy day for Shane...he's been involved in a big deal at work which has involved a lot of extra meetings and the trip to NY a couple weeks ago. On Thursday the deal was finalized...and Shane is no longer an employee of Shutterstock. Webdam (the company Shane works for) was a division of Shutterstock, but was sold on Thursday afternoon to a company called Bynder (pronounced like binder), a competitor of Webdam. If you want to read more about the acquisition, click here:
What does this mean for us? Shane has been promoted to Chief Product Officer for Bynder. He will be traveling more...mostly to the Netherlands, but to other places as well. He actually already has a trip on the calendar to Rotterdam, Amsterdam, and Barcelona in March (right after our trip to Hawaii). Bynder's headquarters are in Amsterdam. He's excited for the new opportunity. He will be the head of product and UX for the entire company. I still can't tell you exactly what he does, but if he's happy, I'm happy.
On Friday we went on a family date out to dinner (Jack's Prime for burgers and shakes) and then watched the movie "Wonder". The girls and I have listened to (and Adria has read) the book, so we were excited to see the movie. We didn't make it while it was in the theaters, but Adria bought the Blu-Ray for me for Valentine's Day. Such a good movie! It made me cry. Movies don't usually measure up to the book in my eyes, but this one was just as good as the book! I highly recommend it!
On Saturday Rella went on an Activity Days field trip to a local shop that makes ice skate boots. It's the family business of one of the men in our ward. They make skating boots for skaters of all levels...several of the figure skaters competing in the olympics right now are using their boots. Rella's favorite part of the tour was choosing some boot leather to make a keychain. Adria and I had a mommy/daughter date. We went to lunch, then to see the new Jumanji movie, which I enjoyed much more than the original. We also got a treat and went shopping. Shane took the other kids to run an errand or two while we were gone. In the evening we worked on cleaning the house, writing a talk for Calder to give in Primary, and going to the grocery store.
Today we had church...lots of visitors, but also a lot of ward members gone for the long weekend. Calder did a good job on his talk. Shane and I helped in Primary during the 2nd hour so the teachers could attend a training. I taught the Beehives in YW (about why the choices they are making now matter in the future). After church Adria and I went to choir. Our home teacher came to visit us (Calder was impressed that he came on a motorcycle), then we tidied the house up some more for our dinner guests, aka the full time missionaries currently serving in our ward.
Shane was supposed to have tomorrow off, but they have visitors from the Netherlands in town for the acquisition, so he'll need to go into the office after all. The kids have this whole week off from school, so we're trying to plan some fun things to do close to home, but we're also trying to get some projects done around the house before our Hawaii trip, so it will be all hands on deck here...the kids might just wish they could go to school instead!
Have a great week! We love you!
Shane, Alicia, Adria, Rella, and Calder
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