Happy Birthday to me and Cubscouts Feb. 19-25

The kids built a fort in the movie room on Sunday.  We let Damon sleep in it, which was just him basically sleeping on the couch, but he thought it was cool.  

 Damon submitted a Lego Creation for the the Lego magazine.  We will see if he gets picked.

 Monday was hard.  We were supposed to go to the Aquarium for a field trip with a bunch of friends but it decided to rain on our holiday.  So we played at home and then I took the boys over to the church to play poison ball.  I had picked up some neighbor kids too since their mom was out of town.  I felt like I was driving all over the neighborhood  taking trips back and forth.  Kaylee had been sick in the night, but it was just a quick thing - so it was good that we just stayed home and didn't spread germs.

Tuesday Jenna decided to throw up in the morning, but just like Kaylee she was better by the days end.  But it prevented me from going visiting teaching.  We just stayed home again.

Wednesday was my birthday.  I had a great day.  The kids made me cute cards and helped out all day.  Doug was sweet and gave me a coupon for a massage and let me take the day off - it was great.  I got a new shirt, necklace, perfume, and dress.

 I went out to lunch with some friends - I have the best friends. One treated me to lunch, one made a scrumptious dessert to eat with our lunch, one gave me a Cake Doctor recipe book, and one gave me a cute new shirt and skirt.

 We ordered Chinese for dinner and we had lots of leftovers so that was nice to eat all week.  I got to relax in the evening and read a book - it was the perfect day.  Thanks to everyone and Doug for making me feel loved and special.

We did the Blue and Gold in a team effort with the other pack this year.  So we set up on Wednesday and then came back Thursday morning to touch up and set up our tablecloths.  I think our jungle theme turned out pretty well.  I bought real tablecloths so we could use them every year.  It was a bit of a bother to wash and fold them, but it will save us on our budget and they looked nice.

 For some activities the boys could shoot Nerf guns at the balloons for target practice and we had a little scavenger hunt looking for stuffed animals and things around the gym.

 I made neckerchief slides again, these ones looked like snakes.  The cake from last year held up pretty well.  The top layer was just a bit faded.

 Our photo op.

 Our new cubmaster wanted to make a nice meal so he volunteered to make kabobs.  They were tasty.  We had plenty of food.

 I loved our snake cake.  Each boy could bring a decorated half bundt cake to build our snake.  It was a bit messy, but so much fun.  Tyler's is the orange and blue diamond one.

 I did the tail.

 We had a local 'Snake Lady' come and talk about snakes.  She brought a turtle and snake to show.  The kids liked that.

 All in all, it was a great night.  Clean up went pretty fast so that was good too.  Then I went over to help a friend comb out her girls hair - she found out that they had lice.  So it was a late night for me, but I was happy to help.

Friday I went to the Sam Houston Memorial Museum with Tyler's field trip.  It is the site where Sam Houston lived and showed his house and other buildings that were around at that time.  It was a beautiful day which made it so nice to be outside.  There were four stations we rotated through then we ate a picnic lunch.  The travel time is about 50 min each way, so it seemed like we didn't get to stay that long once we got there.  As a funny side note I went to the Sam Houston Statue first, then found out that I was at the wrong place.  I pulled in right behind the buses so I wasn't late.

 Saturday was a busy day.  I had a stake women's conference in the morning from 9-12:30.  It was nice and listened to 3 talks.  Lunch was catered by Olive Garden, soup, salads, and bread sticks.  Then I went up to flag football where Doug had all of the kids.  I needed to pick them up and take Tyler to a birthday party, while Doug stayed with Damon for his game.  The parking there is crazy and I drove around for 15 minutes and could never get lucky enough to get a spot.  So I just waited behind our van so we could just swap parking spots.  Well we finally got the kids settle and I switched vehicles and pulled out of the van so Doug can park the truck - and what happens? Some guys pulls around Doug and takes our spot.  I was so mad at that guy.  I'm sure Doug drove around and parked somewhere else or went out to the street, but I thought it was pretty rude of that guy.

So we went to a trampoline jumping place (SkyZone) to drop Tyler off.  Of course Chris and the girls  wanted to stay and jump, but I told them we would do our own fun thing.  We went to McDonald's for ice cream and to play.  I figured it was better to just wait around for Tyler's party to be over since he was kind of late anyway than to drive home and then drive back.  So after about an hour we went back to pick him up.  Turned out he had been waiting for awhile.  I felt bad and wished he would have borrowed a phone to call me since we were just waiting for him to be done.  Oh well, we finally made it home around 3:30 - long day.

Valentine's Week Feb 12-18

Sunday we had our Primary teacher training.  We had a quick meeting reminding our teachers how important their jobs are and encouraging them to do their best and really focus on teaching with the spirit and teaching children - not lessons.  We almost had everyone come. :)

Monday the girls had their Valentine party at preschool.  They made a cute craft, played M&M bingo and exchanged valentines.  They had a fun time.  

 After working on our service goal for the first month we filled up our jar with pom-poms so we earned our first reward: an ice cream sundae.  I bought some fun toppings and the kids had a lot of fun eating them.

 Damon lost his last baby tooth, guess he's not a baby anymore.

 I tried to make Valentine's Day a little more special this year for the kids.  I wrote them a note and gave them some cotton candy as their valentine from me.  I made cinnamon rolls that looked like hearts and cut strawberries for breakfast.  I made a nice dinner and we had Itailian cream sodas and heart oreo cookies for dessert.  I had done the 14 days of Valentine's for Doug - it was fun to give him a little note or treat each day.  We delivered some extra cookies to friends.

 I may have found my favorite way to plan my menu.  I printed out a list of all of the things we eat and I just put a small magnet with the letter of the week by what we will be eating.  I love it.

 Chris was being cute by reading to his sisters.

Saturday we had a big group date to celebrate Valentine's Day.  We went to a local Italian place for dinner.  It was good.  I had a lobster bisque and salad, Doug had lasagna.  Afterwards we went to an escape room place.  You get locked in a room with some clues of how to escape.  Our room was a time travel theme.  There were three rooms and we had to find one item in each room to fix our broken time machine to return back to present day.  It was a ton of fun, I can't wait to go back and try another room.  We got the second best time ever escaping.  We had to solve puzzles, decode things, find hidden pieces, and figure out patterns to complete the room.  We stopped at sonic for a shake afterwards.  It was a fun evening! I wish I would have taken a picture.

SuperBowl and dentist trips Feb 5 - Feb 11

Sunday I made a few finger foods for our dinner.  The kids loved it, they said they wanted it all the time.  I just had some tater tots, jell-o jigglers, carrots, cream cheese/ham roll-ups, chips and queso, cherry tomatoes, and these new hamburger bites.  They were quite tasty.  They have a tater-tot shell filled with hamburger, cheese, and sauce.  

We watched the super bowl and put the girls to bed.  Damon and Tyler watched the end.  Chris kept sneaking out of his room.  It was a crazy ending and an exciting game to watch.  

 Still amazing that we can jump on the tramp with sprinklers in the winter. :)

 All the kids had dentist appointments this week.  Chris had the hardest time, but everyone did well and no cavities.  Jenna had some dark spots, but they just put some sealant on it and we will keep an eye on them.  They all got to pick out a doughnut afterwards - since there is a little bakery next door. :)

 Other things I did this week: book group on Red Rising.  It is a Hunger Games type book.  I liked it OK, interesting enough story line, but a bit violent and crude for my taste.  I got the van inspected, had a meeting for Blue and Gold coming up, ordered some books from an online Usborne party, and went to a meeting for Damon going to Jr. High.  That was pretty crazy to think about.  Damon will have 7 classes next year and he gets to pick a few electives.  They have some fun ones so I hope Damon will get some of his first choices.  Damon also earned Tenderfoot at his Court of Honor.  It was the same night as his school meeting, but I was able to leave the school quickly and make it to the Court of Honor just a bit late.

Saturday I took all of the kids to football so Doug could get some stuff done at home.  It was crazy hot - I was sweating so much.  It's hard trying to keep everyone happy and fed and try to watch games and carry all of our stuff - but we did it.   Here is Damon's team.

At least this week it was at a different field and they had a playground to play at. 

Just as a memory these bugs are called Mosquito Hawks.  I'm holding a regular clothespin next to it so you can see how big the leg span is.  They fly in at night, drawn to the light.  We catch them and send them back outside.  They eat mosquitoes, so we try not to kill them.  I was so scared of them the first time I saw one - but now they don't bother me.  Guess I'm getting used to Texas a little bit.

Pretty flowers and pretty girls Jan 30 - Feb 4

Life continues in its normal course.  This week I had a presidency meeting on Tuesday. We are always looking to fill empty spots from move outs or change of callings.  We have some great teachers though.

Wednesday I was able to go to the temple.  It was a beautiful day and the flowers were so bright and colorful.  

Friday Damon took a field trip to see the movie "Hidden Figures."  Damon wasn't that excited and I honestly didn't think it was the best destination for a field trip.  They had been talking about Black History so I guess it went along.  The girls and I went to Pump it Up for play group.  They had been wanting to go for so long.  They had a good time.  I talked with the moms and asked advice about Chris.  He had a total meltdown that morning and told me that he hated me, wanted a different mom, and wanted to kill me.  We have had tantrums before but this one was the worst.  I admit I had shouted at him and wasn't being my best self, but I was at a loss of how to help Chris get over a very simple thing.  I feel bad for Chris, he has been making lots of poor choices lately so it always seems like we are disciplining him and he keeps losing privileges.  Anyway, I wrote him a note and took it to the school.  I was afraid he was going to have a terrible day with the rough start that we had, but I think he was able to move on ok and he told me he loved me after school and gave me a hug.  Anyway, it's kind of rough being a mom.

That night we hosted game night with some friends.  We had everyone fill out a get to know you questionnaire and it was fun to learn a few new things.  We also played the 'couch game' where you draw someone else's name and try to move 4 girls or 4 boys to the couch by calling out names.  It took us awhile, but the girls won.  We tried a new game that was like name that tune, but we were naming movies and bidding on how many words you could say.  It was pretty fun.  We had some yummy treats  I made cinnamon rolls in addition to what others brought.  A few stayed and talked for quite awhile, I don't think we went to bed until after 12:00.  It was a fun night.  We have some great friends here.

Saturday Doug helped collect food with Damon and then the boys went to Football.  They have been doing pretty well.

Doug had a guys game night, so he had two fun nights in a row. :) I'm glad that he gets to do some fun things with his guy friends sometimes.

Jenna finally let me put these curlers in her hair overnight.  We tried the first time on Christmas morning, but it wasn't long enough for them to set.  I used all three packs, 30 curlers and probably could have used a few more.    Her hair was so pretty.  She wanted it done up like Belle.

I love my two girls!