Zombies and Eye Infections.

3/3—I spent most of the day stressing about where I was going to take my BYU final exam.  I would normally have to go to PSU, but apparently I can take it with a institute  instructor…Just my luck one moved into our ward about 6 months ago.  So I was able to work that out.   

Ella can often be found on the table getting into who knows what.  Luckily she’s not too destructive. 

The weather has really warmed up this week.  I can literally feel spring right around the corner.  We took advantage and played outside after school. 

3/4—I chaperoned Andrew’s class field trip.  We saw the play Zombie in Love at the Oregon Children’s Theater.  It was super cute.  

3/5--Last week Josh’s class did the “egg drop” experiment.  He worked with a partner to create his ETV (Egg Transportation Vehicle) over the last couple weeks.  Then Monday was the big drop.  They must have done a great job because their egg did not break!   Wednesday he was able to bring it home to show us.

Lately I’ve become a snack control freak at our house.  I got tired of our kids pigging out on junk food after school, so now I pick what we’re having and they can eat that or nothing.  A common thing we have is smoothies.  I was never good at making them before, but I must say I’m getting better!  Andrew told me the other day I should open a restaurant.  lol.  

This afternoon my eye started showing signs of an infection.  It was totally not fun. Add that to a girl who was already PMSing and I was not a happy person.  Just ask Darrin.  So after Darrin left for his soccer game, I made cookies and ate half the dough.  It made me feel better. 

3/6—Ella woke up with a binky in her PJs again.  Silly goose.

I had an early dentist appointment this morning after I dropped the boys off at school.  I ended up wearing an eye patch so I wouldn’t gross out the hygienist with my eye.  I looked funny, but oh well.  I felt bad for her having to stare at it along with my teeth.  

After Luke got home and we ate lunch, we headed to the eye doctor to get me some eye drops.  They’ve been working slowly, but they make me want to claw my eyes out because it dries them out.   And the infection spread to the other eye, so that hasn’t been fun either.  I looked like Bob Costas for a couple days.

We hit up the library to get the new book club book, The Hiding Place.  Ella walked around and screamed at the top of her lungs when I made her go the way she didn’t want to go.  But we survived. 

 

Chicken casserole for dinner.  The kids don’t like the crackers on top so I have leave a section for them. Weirdos.  The crackers are the best part :) 

The kids think my room is the play room.  Ugh.  Go ahead play in there, but clean it up when you’re done…and make the bed while you’re at it. 

Basketball practice. 

3/7—Friday the weather was in the 60s.  We played at the park all afternoon. 

Later that night we got a babysitter and headed to the ward game night.  It was a blast.  On the way home from picking up the babysitter we hit 20,000 miles on our van.  Ya-hoo.

3/8—Saturday we didn’t do much.  I ran 2 miles and then did a 37 minute fitness blender video.  Darrin had a coaching meeting.  He’s gearing up to coach all three boys again.  Darrin also took the boys to look at bikes to get a feel for what Josh might want for his b-day.  For dinner we fed the missionaries, and then I went to Kohl’s with a  30% off coupon.  I found tons of stuff that I liked which was nice cause usually I only find stuff for Ella. lol. 

3/9—Morning church was tough with daylight savings.  Ugh. 

Ella did AWESOME in nursery!!!!  She still cried when Darrin dropped her off, but she actually played, ate the snack, and sang the songs.  Usually she just sits on Sister M’s lap the whole time.  It made me so happy!!

Our boys were dying to see their cousins so we had them over for dinner.  Always a fun time. 

Ella and her cheesy smile. 

The ward game night inspired us to teach our kids the game Racko.  They loved it. 

Queen Ella with her water cup. 

Peace out.

XOXOXOXO

Orange Rolls and Andrew’s school work

2/23—Back when we were younger and our family was younger, we would have dinner with our friends all the time especially on Sundays.  As our kids have gotten older and we’ve add more people to our family, we stopped doing it.  On Sunday we were invited to the Moss’ just like old times.  We had a yummy dinner of tacos and played The Rise of Augustus.  I made these super yummy orange rolls for dessert.  I may or may not have made them on Monday for FHE too :)

2/24—Monday was a rainy day.  These two cuties enjoyed the bus stop anyway. 

Ethan came over to play.  They crashed on Andrew’s bed and played the IPod for awhile.  Either one I’m not sure they had permission to do. lol. 

Ella finds these all over the house and puts them on.  The other day she had quite the collection. 

I have a goal to read the Book of Mormon this year.  I’m trying to treat it like the book I’m reading right now and just pick it up whenever I have a free minute.  It’s been great so far. 

Ella loves to help around the house:

emptying the dishwasher

and vacuuming are two of her favs.  If I don’t find her “vacuum” before I start, she chases me around wanting to push the real vacuum. 

2/25—Got back from running this morning and am loving how light it is.  And I’m loving how big my daffodils are getting!

You gotta get creative when you’re locked in the bathroom while your mom takes a shower. 

Tuesday was a day of visiting teaching.  I saw one sister in the morning and one in the evening.  Then mine came to see me in the afternoon.  We The kids ate dinner at McDonalds to support the school and then Josh had basketball practice. 

2/26—I worked at the school’s hearing screen in the morning instead of my normal volunteering.  It was fun to do something different. 

We had the Blue and Gold Banquet that night.  The theme was Legos and building your future.  Each scout got a pack of Legos at the start that they were supposed to build a car with.  Here are the scouts hard at work.

Andrew led the flag ceremony.

And the Bears sang a goofy song.  Josh is  in that group somewhere…

After dinner  the boys raced the cars that had made earlier on this ramp.  It was a really fun idea!

And Ella liked running around with Katie. 

When we got home it was time for baths.  Our kids like to dry off curled up like a ball on the bathroom floor.  Luke is on the left, Ella on the right. 

With my new calling I find myself practicing the piano at least once a day.  Brooke likes to sing arrangements that are not in the songbook  so that requires a little more practice than usual.  It’s been really good for me though. 

2/27—Ella can now reach food in the pantry and is always eating it or dumping it all over the house. 

Ella had her 18 month dr. appointment (finally).  She had fun in the waiting room with the toys and fish!

I had to fill out the ASQ when I got there.  Why they can’t mail these things to me ahead of time I’ll never know.  She obviously is still failing in the gross motor area.  She weighed 2 oz shy of 25 pounds and is healthy in all areas.  She did have to get two shots which she wasn’t too happy about. 

After the appointment Ella and I ate lunch at Potbelly’s to help us feel better after the shots.  And sadly I couldn’t get her to take a nap.

Ella loves to drink water out of normal cups.  I gave her some water and when she was done she tried to put the cup on the counter but couldn’t reach, and she ended up dumping it all over herself.  I think all my kids have done this a one time or another.   She obviously is not too happy about being wet. 

Josh had a basketball game which are always fun to watch despite the other team being really, really good.  We just couldn’t get a break, but Josh had a couple great shots. 

After that it was straight to book club for me.  I’m hoping this will help me to read more books.  We’ll see.  The discussion and company was fun.  Any girl time is needed and welcome!

2/28—Friday was Dad's and Donuts so Darrin got up and got the kids to school.  I slept until Ella woke up.  It was awesome!

These two are so cute at the bus stop together. 

After we picked up Luke from the bus we met Darrin for lunch at Panda and then it was off to the grocery store. 

The weather was actually pretty good so we played outside for a lot of the afternoon and we grilled chicken for dinner. 

We just got WiiFit to help inspire us to lose weight and the kids have loved the games.  Ella is always wanting to stand on the board while the kids play it though. 

Andrew brought home several things from school that highlight his personality. 

I think he wrote this in library.  It was just for him, so no teachers read it, but it still cracked me up. 

Then he shared four new year’s resolutions:

1) My first goal is to get faster at reading books.

2) My second goal is to teach my little sister to say please.

3)My third goal is to be respectful and tie people’s shoes.

4)My fourth goal is to get better at aiming on my air soft guns. 

3/1—Yesterday the boys cleaned up then went to the Lego movie.  I stayed home while Ella napped and worked on PTA stuff and paid the bills.  Fun I know. 

Ella’s been fighting a cold all week.  She woke up from her nap yesterday and was super snuggly for a long time. 

Ella went #2 in the potty for the second time in the last couple weeks.  She thought she was pretty cool. 

We booked two different beach house trips for us in the next month.  We’re super excited about them.  Let the partying begin!

3/2—Church was good today.  Andrew gave an excellent talk in primary.  Ella hung out with me during second hour and went with Darrin third hour.  She’s had a yucky nose, so she got out of nursery.  It was a little rough having her while I played the piano, but we managed. 

While dropping off the tithing money at the bank, Darrin locked his keys in the car while it was running,  so we had to go rescue him.  Then we followed him home.  He claims he had fasting brain.

Love to you all.

XOXOXOXOXOXO