To Do, To Do, To Do

So, we've had a LOT going on. In no particular order we've weathered the following:

* lots and lots and lots of doctor's appointments
* not a lot of sleep
* musical bedrooms with the kids
* a birthday (Sophie) and a benchmark (Alex - 6 months old!)
* school performances
* our first Pinewood Derby
* Ethan's surgery
* and some New Year's resolutions recorded in the kids' new dream books/journals

And that's just to name a few things. We've been busy!

I don't have any visuals of the journal entries, but my personal favorite was in Grace's where she drew a picture and recorded the following dream: "Be great with babes." [babies is what she was trying to spell]. She also wants to finish reading the entire Judy Moody series this year, get a dog, have fun at school, get lots of sleep, stay on "scejwol" (schedule), make new friends, take care of her stuff, watch "16 wishes," and never watch "The Cat in the Hat." Hahahaha. How cute (and thorough) is she? Ethan is planning on finishing the Harry Potter series this year as well as the Book of Mormon. And yes that is on odd juxtaposition of reading material. Hahaha. He also wants to run a 5K and learn how to play some hymns on the piano. Sophie just wants to learn how to read chapter books and we all want Jane to get potty-trained. The kids chose Alex's dreams as well, and the dreams we have for him include sleeping through the night and learning how to crawl (and sit up and walk). My dream for the year also includes sleeping through the night as well as making it to my Lifetime membership goal for Weight Watchers. As for Scott -- well, Scott's dream is to audition for Jeopardy. 2012 is going to be a banner year!

In other news, we've been trying to figure out sleeping and bedroom arrangements for the kids for the last few months. After some shuffling around and then some more re-shuffling we have finally settled on the following: Ethan and Sophie are sharing the bunk beds in Ethan's room; we found a toddler bed for Jane and have moved her into Grace's room; and we've FINALLY moved the little fella out of our bedroom and into the crib that Jane is no longer occupying. We've had a few rough nights with the transition from crib to bed for the little Sugar Pop, but I'm hoping all those kinks will be worked out shortly. Especially since that little rat has decided she no longer wants to take a nap for me. What this means is that from about 3 o'clock until bedtime every day she is a melting down mess of a monster. The only time she does fall asleep during the day is if we're in the car driving somewhere during certain key (and therefore dangerous) times of the afternoon. The problem with these catnaps is that they recharge her battery just enough that she won't go to sleep when it's time for bed! Needless to say, we're all suffering from a little sleep loss over here.

Grace and Jane's "new" Room

Doctor's appointments have also played a prominent role in the last month and a half. The kids seem to like getting sick when Scott goes out of town, so we dealt with that for a few days at the end of January. And then Jane also had a mystery rash for a few days after that. Fun times. Ethan had surgery at the beginning of February and had a much quicker recovery time than Grace (prompting him to complain that it wasn't fair that Grace got out of doing chores for so much longer than he did). And then there were the allergists appointments scheduled for the 4 younger ones a week or so after that. Jane and Grace went in together for one of the appointments and Sophie and Alex went in together for another.

Jane and Grace are both allergic to tree nuts, and Jane is also allergic to peanuts and eggs. They both have eczema and they both were an absolute nightmare to deal with while we were there. The appointment was for first thing in the morning and I didn't realize until the doctor was in talking to us and Jane was FREAKING out for her bottle that I don't think anyone had gotten her any breakfast much less her morning hit of milk. Nice. Hahaha. I don't know what Grace's problem was, but she certainly wasn't helpful in calming Jane down. In fact, she was doing everything she could to rile her up even more. It was not fun.

(unrelated to her appointment, but here's a picture of Jane with her mystery rash.)

Sophie is still allergic to tree nuts, peanuts, eggs, and dairy. When they did her skin prick test, her back was literally covered in welts. She was screaming and freaking out the entire 15 minutes we had to wait for the test to develop. And I'm sure you can imagine what she was like when they had to take her blood for the RAST test a little while later. I brought Alex in to confirm my suspicion that he is also allergic to dairy. A couple of months ago when Jane kissed him on the forehead with her mouth covered in milk his skin broke out into hives. Since the same thing happens to Sophie when milk touches her skin I thought an allergy might be the culprit. They didn't test him for anything else, but his skin prick test was definitely positive for the dairy. :( I guess it's a good thing I've never tried giving him formula. That probably would not have ended up so well! Between all the kids' allergies, though, we have about 5 EpiPen, Jr.'s hanging around the house so I think we're pretty well covered in case anything were to happen.

(superfluous shot of this little cutie pie)

In more exciting news, Ethan had a lot of fun participating in his very first Pinewood Derby for cub scouts. Unfortunately, the Derby took place on a Friday night when all the rest of the kids were still sick so Scott was only one able to witness his middle-of-the-pack runnings.

I know you'll find this REALLY hard to believe, but Ethan designed and created his car all by himself. Hahahaha. [It's supposed to be an iPod in case you're wondering.]

Grace treated us to a performance last week at school with the 1st and 2nd grades to Dr. Seuss's "My Many Colored Days." It was adorable. And I really would have loved to have been able to enjoy it. However, Jane had other plans. I spent most of the time chasing after Jane while juggling Alex as Sophie and Ethan sat and watched the afternoon performance. I don't know how it's not illegal, but the kids' school has no ramps and is completely un-stroller (and certainly un-wheelchair) friendly. This makes it REALLY hard, if not impossible, to ever go to the school when I have to drag the little ones along as well! Without being able to strap Jane in, it was pretty much a lost cause. Nevertheless, I was able to get the gist of Grace's performance and it was a really cute and fun production. Grace really enjoyed being a part of it.











This past weekend was when our month peaked with Sophie's 5th birthday. I let her have a friend party this year and she invited 3 little friends from preschool and the other 3 kids from her Primary class. For her party, we went with a Valentine theme -- it's always the easiest route to go. Hahahaha. I found some cute Valentine-y stuff at JoAnn's and an idea on Pinterest to create roses out of coffee filters to create decorations for the party. On the agenda was musical chairs, decorating sugar cookies, opening presents, and eating strawberry shortcake. And yes, Scott and I did look at each other about 5 minutes into her hour and half long party and realize that we didn't have NEARLY enough planned to fill all that time. Hahahahahahaha. Hahaha. Everything worked out fine in the end and Sophie had a really fun time. Not to mention she totally scored in the present department. All in all, though, I'm glad that we have an understanding in our family that friend birthday parties will not happen every year.

Here she is modeling the super cute apron that my sister Emily made and sent her for her Birthday!


The Decorations:

Treat Boxes to put the decorated sugar cookies in.

Party Favors

(Random side-note -- Sophie has a thing for "centerpieces." Hence the bowl of extra "roses." Hahaha.)

The cleanest this Dining Room has looked in a LONG time.



Musical Chairs:

The Whole Party:

Sugar Cookie Time:

Presents:

Cake Time:

And finally, Alex has hit the half year mark! Can you even believe it?? I know I can't. I tried to do a photo shoot for him on the 13th, but the weather was really cold (for like the first time all winter) and he was not super cooperative in the whole looking-at-the-camera thing. Oh well, I'll get him another time! Other milestones he's hit thus far are: rolling from back to tummy and then from tummy to back over and over again all around the room -- he's one roly-poly little boy! He has also cut his bottom two teeth and entered the brave new world of solid foods in the form of Rice Cereal. I buzzed his head a few weeks ago to get rid of some of his scraggly baby hairs, and his bald little head is the cutest little fuzzy thing ever. Even though he didn't have a whole lot of hair to start off with, he is REALLY a baldy now. Hopefully it will start growing in soon.

Alexander Nicholas -- 6 months old

Well, I think that's that. And that's enough, don't you think? Hahaha. We still have one more item on our to do list, though, as we are leaving tomorrow morning to go down to New Orleans for Mardi Gras! I'm so excited. The kids have never been, and I haven't been back for it since I left for college. We haven't been to New Orleans since we moved here a year and a half ago, so it will be fun to go home and see family and friends. Once we get back the month's not quite over until my birthday is celebrated on the 28th. It's my Double Sweet Sixteen and I plan to celebrate accordingly! Hahahaha. Until next time, here are some pics of the kids playing in the only good snowfall we've had this season...