Lucky Thirteen

Happy Anniversary to us!  Thirteen years ago today, we tied the knot for eternity.  :)  Marrying Scott is pretty much the best decision I ever made.  Since we're all about the go big or go home, and last year we were planning a trip to Cancun, THIS year is very much a stay at home kind of deal.  But that's okay.  Staying in comfy clothes and vegging on the couch sounds like an ideal way to spend the evening with my best boy...   :)

Happy Birthday!

Now HERE'S a successful birthday celebration to blog about!  Alex "turned 4" today in his preschool class.  :)  All the summer birthdays got to have a day during the school year to celebrate their big day, and today was Alex's day to shine!  The highlight of this celebration was the opportunity to bring in a special treat.  Alex has been planning for WEEKS now to bring in some Spiderman fruit snacks for the snack.  And as a special bonus, I got to come in at the end of the day to read his favorite book.  His choice?  "A Weekend with Wendell," of course.  He's a big Kevin Henkes fan you know.   I got to his class just as they were finishing up Show and Tell, and then captivated the preschoolers with my dramatic reading of the book.  Hahahaha.  Alex was in heaven.  He was SOOOO excited all morning long waiting to go to school and then while I was there reading to the class, I could tell he was just about to burst it was such a good day.  Making the day even good-er?  The fact that there were 4 leftover fruit snack packs waiting for him in his back pack at the end of class.  Hahahaha.  He was so generous to share one with me, and then he scarfed down the other three on the way home from school.  Because that's the way he rolls. :)

 {I tried to get a close-up of him with his Show and Tell action figure, but it's not a great shot.  He brought "Captain Cold," in case you were wondering.  :) }

 Trying to get a better shot in the car was not very successful, either.  Hahaha.

"Happy Birthday" my not-quite-four-year-old!

Happy Birthday?

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the Family Home Evening program in our church!  When I told the kids this morning, they all thought it would be a good idea to have a birthday celebration for the big day.  And since I'm always up for a party, I decided to make their dreams come true.

But that's where I got into trouble.  Because you see, I like to think of myself as a realist.  I'm not pessimistic, I just tend to see things as they really are.  Except for things in the future.  For some crazy reason, I'm always foolishly optimistic for things that will be happening in the future.  School's almost out for the summer?  That's okay!  We've got a lot of fun stuff planned -- I think the kids are going to be great and I'll stay totally sane for the next 12 weeks!  Another weekend's coming up? Woo hoo! THIS weekend we'll finally get it together and ACTUALLY have a relaxing and refreshing break.  An impromptu FHE birthday celebration?  It will be awesome!  The kids will be so excited about how over the top it is that I got balloons, giant cupcakes, and Oreos, that they'll TOTALLY cooperate and behave and have so much fun!  Hahahahahaha.  Silly, silly me.

In actuality, Family Home Evening was a bust.  The excitement and anticipation of the celebration and treats must have run out by the time we actually held FHE.  Once one kid started melting down midway through dinner, it was just a matter of time before the domino effect knocked over each and every other child.  In retrospect, it was probably too much to have everything out on the table for hours after school and then NOT start with the party.  Trying to have a quick lesson, along with the song, prayer, and scripture, was practically impossible.

Even after getting through all of that, there was still fighting as we moved into the dining room.  Who would have thought that the color of the candle on the cupcake would be such a big deal??  I tried to get a few shots of the kids pretending to be happy and acting like they loved each other, but I don't think it translates very well in any of the pictures.  What do you think?  Hahahaha.

Thankfully, after we sang happy birthday, and everyone dug into their treat, we had a few moment's respite from the freak outs, but all in all, it was not quite what I had envisioned for the night.  Wah wah wah.

 Here we are just thinking how wonderful our offspring is.  Hahahahaha.

To end the evening off, we attempted to come up with a list of 100 things that we love about our family or favorite memories we have with the family or ANYTHING at all that has to do with our family, and we petered out at 16.  Clearly we have some more work to do.  Perhaps it's time to dust off that "Love at Home" initiative we tried to make happen a few years ago...

And there you have it.  Another Family Home Evening for the record books!  Happy 100th Birthday FHE!!

Those Kids!

"Those kids!"  Probably the most exclaimed phrase in this house.  Usually with exasperation,  occasionally with entertainment, it's pretty much a constant refrain.  Alex is the one I'm usually exclaiming this to, and he has taken to adding a "they're so naughty" in response.  Hahaha.  Ethan has been hounding me all week long to blog, so here is a brief recap of what THOSE KIDS have been up to!  Hahahaha.

• The kids' umbrellas were finally put to real use this past week when it rained one morning before the bus.  They were BEYOND thrilled to use them.  It was kind of hilarious.

• Jane was insistent a couple of nights ago that we do Family Home Evening again.  And by Family Home Evening, she meant cut out and color a bunch of jellyfish to glue to a piece of cardboard.  Hahahaha.  It was kind of adorable, though, to see how she got everything set up in the morning before she left for kindergarten.  The other kids were less than enthused about doing FHE on a non-FHE night, but we convinced them that going along with Jane's idea would be really nice and would help with our challenge for the week.  For our REAL Family Home Evening on Monday, I challenged everyone to think of one thing they could personally do this week to strengthen our family. Because, as I told them, if we're not strengthening our family, we're destroying it.  {Let's just say we've had a LOT of issues lately with mean words and actions being thrown around amongst the children.}

 Explaining the activity.

 Coloring our jellyfish.

 Gluing them on the cardboard.

• Grace convinced me to take her to Walgreens the other night because she NEEDED new highlighters for school.  While there, she also remembered that she NEEDED markers for her poster she was making about Little Turtle for school.  She also needed the poster board, and --when she saw it at the checkout -- she NEEDED this clown nose as well.  Hahahaha.

 "It's for a good cause mom!"  is what she kept insisting.

• And while we're on the subject of Grace, this crazy nut job convinced me on Tuesday night that she NEEDED new running shoes because her other ones were too small.  I swear I buy this girl new shoes every couple of months, and I was sure that her "need" for new shoes that day stemmed from her seeing MY new pair of shoes I had gotten earlier that day, but nevertheless she WORE ME DOWN and I ended up taking her to Famous Footwear 15 minutes before her bedtime.  Aaaaaaaahhhh!  Well, color me surprised when we measured her foot and discovered that her feet have indeed grown bigger!  She is a officially a lady.  Hahaha.  The last pair of running shoes I bought her a few months ago were a Youth size 4.  Her feet are now measuring between a 5 1/2 and a 6, and in the end she bought the EXACT SAME PAIR OF SHOES that I had just gotten, only in a size 6 1/2.  {Do sauconies just run small or something??  Because I still feel like it's a little nuts that her shoes are only a half size smaller than mine!!!}  She was SOOO excited about the fact that she is wearing women's size shoes.  Hahahahaha.  

 Grace's new shoes.  Twinners to mine.

 This was her "all black" ensemble for school today.  Even though I know she was so cold outside at the bus stop, she wouldn't put her sweatshirt on, and I know it's because she didn't want to cover up this look.  Hahahahahaha.

• Candy grams were all the rage at school this week.  The sixth graders were selling them for a fundraiser, and I wanted to surprise the kids and buy them each one for a treat.  Apparently a lot of kids at school got in on the action as well, and they've been buying them for friends and teachers all week long as well.  Sophie was sweet and bought one for all her siblings today, and Alex was SUPER stoked to see that his tootsie roll pop was dressed up as a superhero.  Hahahahaha.

• And finally, son number one has been begging for weeks to have a "bonfire" in the backyard so we could make s'mores.  Today was his lucky day.  After I saw him trying to prep the fire pit by blowing out all the leaves, I figured I ought to throw him a bone.  Even if it IS more effort and work than it's worth {in my book} for the reward of a s'more.  It was fun while it lasted, but time will tell if it was worth the late bedtime for Thing 1 and Thing 2 {aka Alex and Jane}.  Jane in particular was a train wreck by the end of the evening, but at least she fell asleep rather quickly.  Alex, on the other hand, spent another 20 minutes in his room playing with his action figures before finally succumbing to the sandman.  

One last hurrah on the trampoline before we hauled the little ones up to bed.

And that is all folks!  TGIF, right???  Here's to hoping THIS weekend is relaxing and refreshing.  :)

To the Rescue!

The day was saved this afternoon when my good friend brought dinner over for us, complete with a side salad and dessert!  After such a rough last week, and still feeling so sick-ish in the late afternoon/evenings, it was super helpful not to have to even think of something to make for dinner, much less actually make it.  And the kids were happy all around that tonight wasn't declared another "free space."  As they all said while eating, "It's nice to have real food."  Hahahahaha.  So, thank you Rachel for coming to the rescue!

 Gumbo!

 Sea Salt + Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Struggle Bus

Wow.  This past week was rough!  I was pretty much riding the struggle bus every single day, along with various children here and there.  I had something going on almost every single night last week, and as a result was up way past my pregnant bedtime for a week straight, and in one horrible night, I woke up at 3:30 in the morning to go to the bathroom, and then COULDN'T FALL BACK ASLEEP for the rest of the night.  Like seriously not at all.  So, pretty much I was feeling super sick for the majority of the week.

But enough about me and my complaining, here is a recap of the last week of our life:

*  Monday night brought struggles with getting certain children in bed.

Jane's Zoo.  Brought to you an hour past her bedtime because she HAD to finish up one of her project center's masterpieces from school that day.  She carried all her supplies up to my bed that night, and while I thought she was slowly losing interest and getting tired and falling asleep, she was ACTUALLY creating this entire project instead.  But look how happy she is.  Hahahaha.  :)

*  Tuesday night was Alex's Art Show {along with me leading Activity Days for the girls in the ward}.

 The little stinker wouldn't look at the camera to save his life!  Hahaha.  His preschool's art show is actually kind of amazing in scale.  He had a few different pieces of artwork on display, but these were the only shots I got.

*  Wednesday night I had a Primary Presidency meeting {followed by my middle of the night insomnia}.

The highlight of my week was possibly this note that Jane colored for me at bedtime on Wednesday night while I was at my meeting.  :)

*  Thursday night was a Girl Scout troop meeting.

*  Friday was movie night with the older kids, where we continued the Back to the Future trilogy with Part II.

*  Saturday was a packed day with a Daisy field trip in the morning for me and Jane, and opening day at the "Kite Intervention" for Ethan and Grace with Scott in the afternoon.  {Kite Intervention is the code name they created to keep the little ones from knowing they would be spending their afternoon at the amusement park.  Hahahaha.}

 Fun scavenger hunt for our Nature Hike!  

 Oh Jane.  She was NOT happy that I made her put her vest back on for the group picture. 

My cute little Daisies.  :)

 To keep the three youngers happy and occupied while the older ones were gone, we busied ourselves with a trip to the trail, some shaved ice at the trail side "Ice Shack," an exciting walk to the river to throw in some rocks {which ended up in some impromptu WADING in the river by the children}, a trip to a playground, and lots of fun playing in the gorgeous sunshine outside in the backyard with the neighbors.  In case you can't tell, it was an EXHAUSTING day.  Hahaha.

 Not as good as Paradise Ice, but it still hit the spot.  Haha.

And that was our week.  I'd like to say that Sunday was nice and relaxing and a refreshing day of rest to prep us for this upcoming week, but that's pretty much NEVER the case.  The kids are not always as cooperative as we'd like them to be when it comes to behaving at church.  Jane and Alex were especially on another level yesterday during Junior Primary, and Grace wasn't too far behind them in Senior.  

I had to take Alex and Jane back to the dentist this morning for fillings, but thankfully, there were no more gruesome, biting-off-chunks-of-her-inner-lip-occurrences for Jane in the aftermath.  Whew!  To close, I have to post a picture that made me laugh today.  While flipping through a People magazine at the Dentist's office this morning, I saw THIS feature that I had to snap a picture of to send to Scott:

This show is one of the kids' favorites.  Scott thinks it's hilarious, too, and while I don't love it -- and REALLY hate Cartoon Network, just for the record -- this show doesn't bother me that much, and every now and then makes me chuckle.

To close, I'll leave you with Grace's rendition of the characters in the show, drawn while she was "watching" Conference a few weeks ago.  And I have to say -- it's pretty spot on!  Hahahaha.

Thank you everyone, and GOODNIGHT!