bedmates

most nights the kids sleep in their own rooms (newly as of this week so we'll see) luckily we don't have to be worried about getting lonely.

rainy days

It's a lovely rainy day. Lucy spent some time coloring. She also spent a lot of time sneaking outside to play in the rainy sandbox.

J running inside from the bus! See the little splash!

Jack has a fear of rain. He won't go outside and do his business. We tried to make a dry tent for him....it didn't work. BUT it did give me many moments of cracking up on the porch!

what ails us

We had such a long weekend. The boys had a great time at their camp out and the girls had a good time with their friends, but when that was over for some reason we were left with the grouchies. DH was in a mood, and so was H. J had a little its-not-fair-itis. And as usual I had a laundry basket full of mismatched socks to deal with.

Our soccer game was changed and we didn't know it so when we arrived we had to wait an hour to play. This was a long time for our little players and several had lost interest by the time we started. Brother scored a goal in the first 5 seconds of the game but then was injured later and sat out a lot crying so he ended up with only 2 for the game.

Saturday night the big girls and I were supposed to meet some of the other YW and mom's for dinner before the broadcast. Neither wanted to go. We stayed home and taped it on BYU. The beginning didn't record for some reason but the end did and it was wonderful.

Sunday morning H got sick. Out of the blue she started crying and was in terrible pain, writhing on the bed and unable to walk or even straighten out her body. We took her to the ER. Actually by the time we got there she was feeling a little better but we were already started so we saw the doctor. She has a UTI and is constipated. She has a lot of trouble in that area because of her hemangioma, poor thing. High Fiber is her friend, sadly she doesn't like it and really balks at our efforts to help her.

Fortunatly Amazing Race was on :)

father and son report

Brother and DH had a great time at the camp out.
They left in the early afternoon and got set up.

Brother reports that they went on a canoe, went fishing, ate marshmallows, played with his friends, and got to use a flashlight. He also said that the other E's dad told a very funny story about boy 1 and boy 2.





About 30ish men and boys were there. DH reports that they were the second ones there. That one of the boys brought glow sticks for everyone and they had a wonderful time racing around the trees in the dark with them. Their tent was comfortable and brother was obedient and fun to camp with.

They came home smelling like a camp fire, smiling and full of dirt. All signs of a fun time had.

spring recipe

Grandma B subscribes to Martha's magazine. She recently sent a subscription to me. It's been fun to read it. Usually her projects are too complicated for me to actually want to do, although I sometimes use her ideas as a spring board for easier crafts.

The latest issue had lots of fun Easter ideas and yummy foods.

For one of her young women's projects J has decided to learn about cooking. She is preparing 20 meals. She was going to do a lot during spring break but was sick the whole time so only made one.

So far she has made four meals ( I think ). Today she fixed lunch and made this from Martha's magazine. It's garlic shrimp over linguine with zucchini ribbons and baby peas. It was very tasty and pretty. J is very creative and likes things to look yummy as well as taste yummy.

Thanks Grandma!

Father and Son Outing

Brother has been waiting to go camping with his dad for over a month. Yesterday he was so excited he could hardly stand it and woke up this morning with a huge smile on his face.

They spent the morning getting ready, with my help.

Brother got a fishing pole and practiced casting off for an hour on the lawn. Very fun. Then he practiced into the pool.



Hopefully they'll have a great time and won't be forced home early because of rain.

J is having Siara and Sofia spend the night and H is having Lindsey. We're making cookies and bead bracelets and watching chick flicks. It'll be fun.

Easter Memories!!

playing with black and white instead of sleeping...

what every "normal" engineer does with a new toy.

this one is really cool. The color on her eyes is her actual color just reapplied over a black and white. Her eyes are an odd blueish gray color but with the sun reflecting in them showed a lot of brown that really surprised us.

DH plays with a new lens

Xian China

My parents got their acceptance today! They are going to Xian for a year to teach English at the University for International Studies!!

Dad is very excited! and I am very excited for them. Mom will be awesome, she's more of a homebody and likes to be by her grandkids and kids. However I hope she will really love it once there and find it the experience of a life time.
They leave in four months.

WoW!

When they get back they will turn in their papers for their mission so I guess they'll be globe trotters for awhile.

hair woes

Do you ever feel just randomly slightly discontent? I am not really bored, just a little ho-humish. I don't know exactly why. I have a good life and plenty to keep me busy. I know I have many blessings but the last few days have been very vanilla-ie.
Maybe it's because of my hair. My mom didn't let me cut my hair when I was young and I missed those all important formative hair years. So now although I wish I had cute hair like Meg Ryan, I really have Witch Hazel hair. It's very sad. In 13 months I'll be 40 and I thought I'd like to have long stylish hair and to be thin. Well my hair is long but the cloud of bobby pins flying and general frizzyness just isn't what I had in mind.

Maybe I need to try some new ice cream flavors? (I know, that will really help with the whole fit by forty plan).

Do hyperlinks count as footnotes? I don't want to copy something I am not supposed to.

Good news is tonight is a special night of Survivor and we had some rain today.

sometimes I just can't think of a title.

This sweet little thing....refuses to nap. It's been a very sad thing. She will scream in her bed for 1/2 an hour and never go to sleep. She will, however, fall asleep in the car picking up her sisters from school at 4pm, which every mom knows is the worlds worst napping time.

Children should nap until they are, uhmm, 6-7 years old at least.

I will keep trying, every few days she'll actually take a nice nap so it's not quite a thing of the past but I can see it's on the way out of our schedule.

Here she is leaving her crib, quite pleased with herself.

Last night H had gymnastics. It's been very fun. I sit with Heather, who is on the activities committee with me and whose son is H's age. Last night we planned our years activities. I've been a bit of a slacker, in my defense time flies by soooo quickly. We have a pot luck lunch coming up between conference sessions in a week and a half. Then we're going to have a talent show, potato bar, cake decorating contest night. I think it'll be real fun. I need to find a day in April or May when we have the building.

On my list of things to do today is to write a sympathy note to my cousin Laurance. Her son Matthew (10) died last week. Laurance and I are the same age, our fathers are brothers. I am the oldest in my family and she is the youngest. We have only seen each other a couple of times in our lives. The first time the summer before I went into 6th grade. We went to France so that dad could do genealogy work. That was the first time I met many of my family members. It was a lot of fun. I remember it well, which is a surprise since I typically have a poor memory. She spoke a little English and I spoke no French but we got along well and played happily. Later she came to America once to visit. I feel very sad for her, I can't imagine the loss.

Also on the list is make soup and coconut bread and prepare a FHE lesson.

H is home "sick" today. She didn't feel well yesterday and this morning when I woke her up so said she was sick so I let her sleep. Now she is fine and playing in the yard with G.

Random things on my mind:
We're having friends over to have an easter egg hunt on the Saturday before Easter. I just went to get some plastic eggs so make little invitations out of, so I guess I need to poll the family as to who they would like to invite this year.

Counting down to DDV, I can't wait. I haven't started the girls princess dresses yet...slacker; and worse I haven't lost weight yet which was totally on my adgenda of things to do this spring.

I am going to Utah in one month to visit Dani and Greg and MSV. I am very excited!

Brother is on the cusp of knowing how to read, he's really into memorizing books and "reading them" to us. It's soo cute!

My good friend Sheila called today and we had a fun visit.

late wake-up

Darn daylight savings! This morning was back to school for us, and it was hard. Last night I got my workout clothes into their spot and set the alarm clock so I'd be ready for morning. Sadly I forgot to change the time from a 7am work out to a 6 am one so I didn't wake up until 6:30. I have a pretty good internal clock but with DST and spring break last week I haven't really switched over. I felt badly because Tori is out of town and that left my friend M waiting in the dark for me.

S and J also didn't wake up at time. S left for seminary late and left me behind because my door was closed, which it normally isn't.

Yesterday brother was sick, he's still sick today. I missed church to stay home with him and I was glad because then I didn't have to teach my class, then I felt bad because I was happy. I don't love my callings right now but I know I need to change my attitude and plan an activity and teach with a smile.

We're supposed to get a lot of rain this week, hopefully we will.

St Patrick's Day

Today is the last play day of our spring break. :( And it's St. Patrick's Day. We're not Irish, but like to observe as many holidays as possible and this one is a favorite.

We started the day with a "traditional" round of golf. The Irish are big on golf right?

The putt putt family fun center has a Saturday special. For $6 a person you get unlimited putt putt golf, 20 game tokens, a hot dog and a soda.

It was a lot of fun. The kids had a blast. Even Lucy played. We didn't keep score but we did laugh a lot. We lost a lot of balls but no kids so that was good.

In the evening we invited some new friends over. We actually had some miscommunication about the whole thing but at the last minute got everything ironed out and they came.

Papa and Grandma also came.

First the kids played soccer. It was boys against the girls and even though both boys are younger than both girls they held their own.

Then they hunted for gold that the leprechauns had hidden in the yard.

We ate a traditional Irish dinner of : corned beef, fried potatoes, cabbage cooked with apples and onions, green jell-o and for dessert southern banana pudding that Rick made that was SO yummy, and pot of gold green jell-o cake that I made.

The kids ran amuck, the adults visited. J read. It was very fun.

I just read "Fairest" by Gayle Carson Levine, and gave it to J to read. She was hooked and read the whole thing today.

Spring Break~ Day 5

Spring Break is almost over. It's been so fun.
Last night the big girls went to the movies. They love to get in the car and drive off to do whatever they want. They went to the theater at the mall. Then when they got home they went to Blockbuster to switch out movies. We've had their membership for awhile and actually we really like it. This is our last month because it's expensive, so we're switching to netflix, I hope we like it as well.

This morning after working out we did some quick picking up and then headed out for errands. Friday is shopping day, also bank day. We went to pro-cuts and got H's hair cut, it looks very cute.
Brother had been wanting to go on a picnic so we did that too. The little kids had a wonderful time playing on the equipment and drinking soda (a treat since I never bring it home and often don't let them pick it if we eat out).
Tahoe has been doing real well. He's a good dog. Millie is feeling better and Jack continues to be a nice puppy. He likes to bite on things but we're working with him. Today H found some little teeth prints in her flip flops. Guess we need to do better about putting them away.
One of my favorite spring break moments didn't get caught on film. On Monday when S took the kids to the park J opted to stay home. Soon after they left I asked her if she'd like to sit on the porch with me. She did.
We sat and rocked and watched the dog and talked for probably an hour and a half. It was nice to hear what's on her mind, and nice for her not to have to compete for my time. We laughed a lot and it was very fun. She's a sweetie:)

Poor J has been sick all week, so that hasn't been fun. Everyone else is well.

spring break ~ day 4

Early morning bribe....

followed by family cleaning hour. The little kids are getting better at their chores. The big girls can do very well, when they want to. They don't always want to, however I feel lucky because they are great kids and really helpful and cheerful most of the time!

This afternoon Lucy has a speech evaluation.

Then we are going to the mall to play on the play area, get a new book for H who's read through the stack we got a couple weeks ago (the rainbow fairies is her new favorite), and let J participate in her favorite activity ..shopping!

soccer practice

Brother is playing soccer, it's his third season and he's made such strides in his game. DH is his coach, which is so fun. He's learned to be really really good at it. He looks up fun skill building games and teaches the kids how to play and teaches the rules. He gives lots of high fives and is gentle with the kids. It's really fun to watch them.
Our practice is in our front yard. H likes it because she plays with the big sibs. Lucy likes it because she runs around and plays with the babies. I like it because we are never late :) and since it's YW night S can take the car and we don't have any transportation issues.

Spring break~ day3

Today we went to the Dallas World Aquarium. It was really neat. It's like a rain forest. You start on the top floor, which is the canopy and see birds and monkey etc. Then you spiral down through the levels and see different animals along the way. The manatee was awesome, it's so huge!

I also loved the little monkeys, some were so small and lively and bright orange...it was so cute.

H liked the penguins best and E liked the manatee.


Papa and Grandma came with us, which was so fun. S and J stayed home, they wanted to sleep. (boring teens)

After the aquarium we ate at Burger King and the kids played for a little while.

Then we had to stop by Russel Feed and get penicillan for Millie.

Last night we had the worst nights sleep. We got home kind of late from the movies and Target and then putzed around for awhile.

Shortly after we got in bed the phone pager went off. I went out to see why and everyone was in bed and I didn't see any problems. An hour later it went off again. Still didn't see any problems.
A couple hours after that S came in my room to tell me that Millie had been sick on the floor. Great. We got up and cleaned that up, luckily it was on the throw rug so we rolled it up and put it outside to deal with in the morning. 40 minutes later we were done cleaning up, airing out, and disinfecting. Back to bed ...again.

Then I woke up several more times, I don't know why. All in all it wasn't a restful night and I am looking forward to an early bedtime tonight.

Millie has giardia, we are pretty sure. She's had it before. The first time we took her to the vet ($200), now we go to the feed store and buy penicillin and syringes ($12). It's a pain but she gets well. Hopefully no one human or canine will catch it from her.

The girls have a dinner at the park for YW tonight. E has soccer practice. Fun & busy is our theme!