Avalanche game

Aaron and I went to a professional hockey game Saturday night.

We sat so close that we could smell when they opened up the locker room for the opposing team to walk in and out of. A small room full of 20 sweaty guys? Yeah, you can imagine the stench.

No fights. Just some good hockey-besides the fact that they lost.

Homework Project

Caroline had to disguise her Kindergarten Thanksgiving feast guest: a turkey. This is what she turned it in to...

An angry bird.

Henry also had to play, so he disguised his dinosaur into this...

Happy Thanksgiving!

Ooops

Aaron apparently got dressed in the dark today because he put on one brown and one black shoe and went to work!

>chuckle<

Missing Summer?

Henry is pretending to go under water and swim (in the dirt). 

Afternoon at the Park

Oliver in the swing!

Sunday Afternoon Fort

I was taking a picture against the sun, but I couldn't resist. My sweet family decided to create a fort in which we watched a movie from. How was your Sunday Afternoon?

And 6 Months Later...

My three beautiful kids

A happy ER visit #4

ER visit number 3 was a false alarm. Just a bad sprain. (Thank goodness.)

I've decided that taking a picture with your phone and texting it- is a whole lot faster than blogging it. (Please excuse the poor quality of pictures. They are taken with my phone for the reason stated above.) There. There is my excuse. I just couldn't not share with everyone else (other than my siblings or parents) about what the stork brought home!

Oliver Jacob

born November 5, 2012

2:22 am

9 lbs 1 oz

20.5 inches

 Oliver. Not even hours old. Not a family name. Just loved it! Jacob is Aaron's brother's name. I have always wanted to use it... Henry Aaron was almost Henry Jacob. Jacob also happens to be my great grandpa's name.

 Caroline and Henry meeting their brother for the first time.

 Dad sleeping with son.

 Opened my bathroom door to this one morning!

 Caught him smiling

Need white noise to put keep baby asleep? There is an AP for that!

This sweet girl...

is loving dance and preschool!

This good looking kid is obssessed with dinosaurs!

Carrying his basket of dinosaurs and eggs... like a baby doll and a Moses basket.

Hope all is well with you. Life is good with a precious newborn and a loving family; immediate and extended!

Caroline's First Day of Preschool

And she loved it!

Second ER Visit

Happy (late) 4th of July!

We went to Utah for the fourth and was able to stay with my Mom. We just so happened to see my sister's family and brother's family.

We went to a Water Park on the Fourth and had a blast! Henry was... mad that we left.

Caroline and I on the train ride to the Baseball game.

Caroline at the Baseball game.  We watched an awesome firework show. We were so close that the firework pieces actually fell on us. 

Caroline with her "New" smile. Notice anything different from the last picture? She and Henry ran into each other going full speed. I didn't really notice it before, but Henry's top of his head is the same height as Caroline's mouth. It was a weekend night after 8 o'clock (again). Her teeth were knocked back and crooked. They were extracted that night. It has been about a month now. We have had our ups and downs, but she is used to it. We went to the dentist 2 weeks ago for a check-up and her Dentist said that it looks like she may lose her front two bottom teeth by spring!! Poor girl 4 missing teeth?? She won't get her top teeth for another couple of years. Three is my guess. Henry's head? Bruised, but fine!

Showing off her new smile with her sweet cousin Avery

We went to the Dinosaur Museum earlier in the week. I seem to treasure those pictures with her teeth!

Our most recent family picture. Had to add it. Beautiful huh? In front of a shark.

Baby 3 on the way. It's a boy. 3 hospital visits in a year. Hopefully no more unscheduled ones. 2 ER visits in one month was a killer. Thanks shark. You probably jinxed us.

Grandmama soaking up her grand babies.

Crocodile Green

Well, he definitely looks better than the last picture I posted of him!

Ask Henry what color his cast is and he will say "croc." He chose the color on the color stick at the Doctor's office- we asked him twice just in case. As the nurse was putting the cast on, we told him him it was green like the crocodile he was holding. We were able to get material on his arm that can be in the water... so he can take a bath and go to the pool with it on! He only needs to wear it for 3 weeks, but 3 weeks from today is July 4th, so it will be closer to 4 when we get it off.

We all feel better around here. I don't have to get on his case for being a boy; running, jumping, and crashing on purpose! He can do all those things now with his cast keeping his wrist in place, so we are all happier!

Change of Plans

Funny how life can be sometimes. You finally decide on something or have a plan and then things can change. As people, we are flexible. We have an amazing ability to adapt. Sometimes changes are accidental but most of the time it is simply because of other people's choices; like 2 months ago a girl decided to text instead of focus on driving which resulted in a totaled car of ours. Or when a lady decided to be kind and drop off a balloon and M&M's for a boy who made him (and his sister) so happy. Or when a house owner didn't put in a drip line because he knew he was leaving, caused dead trees for the new house owner.

Do things really happen for a reason?

Did I really need to learn how to put a drip line in my backyard?

I had a plan. Henry was going to be potty trained this week. He had been going 3-5 times in the toilet last week. We even went to the zoo on Friday and he was dry the entire time. He has been doing awesome! I have 3 diapers left this morning- except for a box that I was hoping to take back to the store.

Saturday night changed my plans. This sweet boy fell off a 3 foot retaining wall and got a pretty nice owie on his face and a broken wrist.

Henry at the Children's Hospital ER on Saturday night with Dad.

 A picture of the x-ray showed a compression fracture and another fracture.

(I know I can't really see it either)

 Here he is about Midnight. Exhausted and not happy about the sling.

The doctor's orders were rest (ya right for my 2 year old) and a lot of TV and Movies. Just what a Mom wants her kids to do ALL day long. He has been really sensitive. He doesn't sleep well at night. And, well, trying to take away his "Mouse" diapers are just probably not a good idea. He gets a cast in the next couple of days, then we won't have to watch TV all day. No pool for the next 4 weeks at least. Bummer. Hopefully I can potty train him sometime in July. Until then, my choice is to keep encouraging him to go potty in the toilet. Just not completely taking away the comfort of mouse diapers.

What are you choosing to do this week?

Duct Tape

My calling in church right now is Activity Days with the 9 year olds. Translation for those who may not know LDS language is that I have been asked to work with the 9 year old girls twice a month and do activities. We have some fun activities that we do with them. This last month we played with Duct Tape! We made Duct Tape flower pens for Mother's Day and Duct Tape flip flops for the girls. We practiced on a pair for Caroline before the girls came over. She wears them ALL of the time. She loves them so much I had to tell her they were indoor flip flops and she can't go outside with them. They have turned into "house slippers." I covered the bottom with some extra craft foam I had. For the other girls we used cardboard or hard felt. Sadly, I think Caroline's will last longer.

Trap created by 2 year old

On my way to the fridge I found this...

Luckily, I didn't step on them. As you can tell they are a little pokey. I picked them up and put them on the counter. Fifteen minutes later I found them on the floor, again, on the way to the kitchen sink.

I think Henry is out to get me.

Caroline's Perspective

Caroline: "Henry, do you want to be a Mom?"

Henry: "No."

Caroline: "You don't want to be a Mom?! But when you are a mom you can have a jelly bean anytime you want!"

Is it me or her?

I look over and Caroline has brought the broom out, the vacuum- plugged it in and was about to vacuum. I asked her what she was doing . She said that Henry had crumbs everywhere. She turned on the vacuum and cleaned half of the kitchen floor. I finished the rest.. since it was out. And Caroline put it away.

So, is this a reflection on my tidiness? Or on her idiosyncrasies?

Happy Easter

Our Easter Bunny Holiday was full of egg dying, egg hunts, candy and toys. They LOVED it!

Our Easter Sunday was all about Christ, church and family.

It came to my attention of a few traditions I think I would like to add to future Easter's. Just to make it more memorable, fun and Christ centered.

Monday

Mondays are my laundry day. I usually stay home, clean up the extra mess from the weekend, catch up with life, do laundry, put it away :), and possibly iron.

Today my kids are "helping" me with the rags.

PS We didn't spend all day inside today! It is 71 degrees and BEAUTIFUL. We ate lunch outside and played on our play set! Loving the warm weather!

Unexpected visit to the Doctor's Office

He looks okay in this picture, but this was taken at the Doctor's office.

The kids were playing around and thought it would be funny to put tissue in their noses. I saw them and told them to take it out. Then I saw them dancing around with it still in their noses and I told them to take it out because it was dangerous. Caroline, concerned, took it out and asked why it was necessary. Henry was successful with one nostril and the other one was still there. He tried picking at it, and I told him I would help him and I tried to take it out, but he ran quickly away. He came back a minute later and it was gone. I guess I didn't think much about it. The kids wanted water so they got out new cups and I was filling them up when I noticed red stuff all over Henry's. I looked over at him and his nose was bleeding. He had blood on his arm and hand. He started to cry, like really cry, not pout. Caroline fetched me a flashlight and sure enough the tissue was a Henry-finger-length up his nose. We called the Doctor's and was there in 20 minutes. One Mom, one nurse and one doctor with long tweezers later, pulled out the tissue. There was a WHOLE lot more than I thought. Poor little kid. He was just fine after that.

Caroline wanting a picture too. The doctor's chair. This will tell you how... just slightly obsessed I am with a certain TV show, but Caroline saw this silver round thing and started spinning it. She gasped and with a cheery voice said "Mom, it's just like the bonus round!"

Life continues on...

Later that day we went the Nature and Science Museum. They have a temporary exhibit of lizards and snakes. The kids had a blast.
Paper Geckos (that I made mysteriously disappear)

Caroline's First Ski Day

Do you see how hesitant her smile is? It takes a lot out of a little person to walk in ski boots. By the time we got to the bunny hill I thought I should have driven our own car up the mountain. That my little girl was not going to last all day. She didn't want to do it. She didn't want to ski and she didn't like it.

Oh.. but we went with my amazing friend Jessica! She was very encouraging. Jessica has a 4 year old of her own who did not want to spend his whole day on the bunny hill. And a 2 1/2 year old who has gone at least 15-20 times before and can ski great all by herself. Jessica (6 months pregnant) was wonderful to even try to teach her! She was very positive and Caroline listened to her!

Here they are skiing down the bunny slopes.

5 or 6 times down the bunny slope with Jessica.. she was skiing all by herself.. and
loving it! Check out that smile! She was saying I can do this! I love to ski! I can do hard things! I should never give up!... Oh how glad I was to go with Jessica at this point! Thank you- thank you!
She didn't want to take breaks. She didn't want to try and follow me (to try and learn how to turn). She didn't want to go to lunch. She just wanted to go down.. fast. I was so happy to see her loving it!



It ended up being a truly successful skiing day! She didn't want to leave. She even made up her own song on the way home. It went something like, "I like to ski, ski, ski, ski, ski, ski! {giggle giggle}." I can't wait to go again with her... and Jessica!