One more week!

I know, I know, it's been over a month. But, for all those of you who have been waiting with bated breath, rest assured -- my birthday was great! I slept in, went out for a bagel breakfast with Scott and the kids, made a trip to Target because the kids wanted to pick out presents for me, and finally got a babysitter for the evening so that Scott and I could go and eat at The Cheesecake Factory! Not to mention I got such fabulous gifts as a bread knife from Scott, "13 Going on 30" from Grace, a cookie jar from Ethan, and "Step Up 2" from Sophie. And then a few days later, the icing on the cake in the form of a surprise package from one of my BFFs containing High School Musical 2 AND High School Musical 3. Could a girl ask for any better? I think not.

A Birthday Breakfast Montage (crazy faces courtesy of Grace)

The Cheesecake Factory was delish as always, and I went with my now standard Luau Salad. With crispy wontons, tangy dressing, and grilled chicken and veggies, it doesn't get much better. Oh wait, yes it does. You can't go to the Cheesecake Factory without getting cheesecake, right? Right. And I LOVE cheesecake, so there was no way I was going to pass that up on my birthday.





While we're still on the birthday theme, I have to post a picture of the present that my sister Emily sent for Sophie for her birthday. She made these adorable letters for her that spell out her name. Unbeknownst to Emily, Sophie is obsessed with her name and loves the "ABCBs" as she calls them. The gift was a big hit!

The letters are made out of felt and fabric with fun, cute stitching all around.

What else has been happening this month you ask? Well, let's just say we've been taking care of business...

Item no. 1:

See the calendar up there? Notice all the check marks above the dates? Well, in a surprise move, Grace has decided that wanting to get her ears pierced was motivation enough to stop sucking her thumb. At the beginning of the month, while Grace was in the midst of one of her rambling, one-sided conversations with me while she was on the toilet, she told me that she wanted to get her ears pierced. Now, we've talked about it before and in the end she's always decided that having a hole poked in her ear doesn't sound like much fun. This time she was serious -- even when I mentioned the hole-poking and potential accompanying pain. She was still insistent that she wanted earrings. I told her I'd talk to Scott about it and it wasn't until the next morning that I struck upon the ingenious idea of telling her that if she wanted to get her ears pierced, she had to earn it by not sucking her thumb for a whole MONTH.

To be honest, I thought that would postpone the time indefinitely, but what happened instead was akin to a miracle. She quit cold turkey. The first few days I was just in shock and disbelief mingled with complete amazement. Because believe me when I say that prior to this bribe Grace's thumb was in her mouth a good 90% of her day and night. But she has now gone 3 weeks without sucking that thumb AT ALL. I still can hardly believe it. And I've only found it in her mouth 3 or 4 times while she was sleeping. I never thought Grace could be so motivated.


Item no. 2:

Other necessary business this month was making a leprechaun trap, of course. For St. Patrick's Day, all the Kindergarteners had the assignment of creating a leprechaun trap to bring to school. They were given such clues to help them as "leprechaun's are very small" and they "don't like to obey signs," as well as they "love anything shiny or glittery." To be honest I was not looking forward to doing this project because I was sure that Ethan would get frustrated if he couldn't think of any ideas, and would just want me to do it for him. However, Scott took over helping him with it one Saturday morning, and here is Ethan's brain child:

In case you can't tell, that is supposed to be a pot of gold inside the box to lure the leprechaun in. He thought of the signs himself (Gold Inside, Don't Come In) and he found those glittery pom poms in the art box and wanted to glue them on. AND, as far as trapping the leprechaun in there, he came up with idea to put a big piece of tape on the bottom so that he couldn't get out once he was in. I have to see that it was quite impressive to see the other kids inventions when we picked up Ethan from school that day. Apparently they left their traps outside to "catch" the leprechauns and when I got Ethan he was all excited to tell me that he caught a leprechaun and it was in his backpack. Well, I was certainly curious as I opened his backpack and could hardly keep a straight face as I pulled out a shiny green, glass marble and asked Ethan if that was it. It was, of course, only leprechauns are so tricky that sometimes when you catch them they turn into stone so that you can't make your wish. Or at least that's what I think Ethan was trying to explain. Let's just say that Grace can't wait to go to Kindergarten to make her own leprechaun trap.


Item no. 3:

The kids were anxious to get a jump start on our garden for the year so a few Saturdays back when we happened to have GORGEOUS, warm, springy weather we took advantage of the day and planted some seeds. I have to say it was quite exciting when we discovered some of them starting to sprout a week or so later. Now they can't wait to transfer them to the actual garden, although unfortunately they'll have to wait a little bit because it's still not quite spring yet.

Item no. 4:
And finally, my most successful bit of inspiration yet. You see, Ethan, as you're well aware, is in Kindergarten. And although I know of many other Kindergarteners out there who are already prolific readers, this is NOT the case with Ethan. He has definitely learned how to read this year, but he is not a super confident or quick reader. And he'd usually rather be doing something else. So, in an effort to increase the amount of reading time he gets in, I created a contest between him and Grace to see who could read the most books this month -- although I am the one doing most of the reading, of course. For each book they read (or I read to them as the case may be), they get to write it on a strip of paper and add it to the chain. And while Ethan has DEFINITELY been reading more this month, Grace is for sure smoking him. The winner gets to go on a special date with mom or dad and choose whatever they want to do, and with only a week left for the contest, I'm curious to see if Ethan's competitive spirit will kick into high gear here.


On the to do list for next month:

Figure out how to keep the kids from melting down EACH and EVERY Sunday. For a day that is supposed to be one of rest and peace, Sundays sure are the most trying day of the week for me. I feel like we're a 3 Ring Circus during sacrament meeting each week, we can never make it to church on time, and by 5PM every Sunday all three have dissolved into a mess of fits, fights, freak-outs, and tears. Can't wait to throw a newborn into that mix!

(These pictures could be entitled "Any Sunday, Any Week -- Dinner Time")

Also on my to do list:

This is a bit of a random sidenote, so I apologize -- but, I taught again in Relief Society this Sunday, and the lesson was on Elder Perry's talk Let Him Do it With Simplicity which I really loved. I ended the lesson with a challenge to evaluate our lives and decide on ONE thing we can do this week to simplify our lives. My thing involves laundry -- or in other words, the bane of my existence. Being a bit of an extremist, I tend to not do any laundry at all, letting it pile up until finally Scott takes pity on me and does a few loads, OR I attempt to do all the laundry in one day, which usually backfires in that all the clothes may get washed and dried, but they inevitable will sit in the baskets and never get put away because the task is so overwhelming. Since neither of these options are really an option, I decided on a 3rd way to approach the laundry this week to make my life more simple. Here is what I have come up with -- "a load a day keeps the laundry at bay." Catchy, right? This approach is far more manageable for me, and has already made my Monday and Tuesday much simpler. I don't quite know why I decided this was blog-worthy to discuss, but I would be interested to hear what other people do to simplify their live/houses/families. I could always use a few tips.

(Random side-note over.)

And finally, in exactly one week from today we will finally find out this baby's gender! To say we're all anxious is an understatement. Sophie is in the minority of thinking the baby is a girl. Ethan and Grace are "sure" its a boy, and I've just been assuming all along that we'd have a boy next as well. As we're getting closer and closer to the ultrasound, I'm getting more and more nervous to find out whose right. I've been wrong with every pregnancy I've had so far, so I really should be prepping myself for hearing its a girl. But the truth of the matter is, if it really IS a girl, it is going to throw me for a major loop! Stay tuned to find out...