Pinewood Derby

Friday night we had the Pinewood Derby.  Damon had a lot of fun and he worked hard on his car.  Doug of course did a lot but he really tried to let Damon do as much as he could.  He painted it all, I just drew the lines and Damon filled it in and outlined it.  Doug watched a lot of Youtube videos and tried to find the best things to do to make a fast car.  Damon's car was aerodynamic, ran on 3 wheels, was weighted in the right spot, and had turned axels so that it turned slighly into the track.  So it was kind of a bummer that Damon's car wasn't as fast as we had hoped.  He was about in the middle.  He finished 13 out of 20.  He was a good sport about it and he agreed that maybe having his Lego figure of Iron Man on the top might have slowed it down a bit.  So we'll try again next year, with two cars.  Tyler will start cub scouts in two more months.  

 Chris and the girls watched pretty well.  We debating on driving seperately or if I should stay home with the girls.  It started at 7:00 and was planned to go until 9:00 which is pretty late for them.

 Well, we all stayed, but they were very tired and grumpy by the end.  It didn't help that Kaylee fell off of the awards podium and got a big goose-egg on the back of her head.  Seems like we have had many tears lately.  I guess being sick doesn't help either.  Hopefully this week will be better.

But good job Damon on a great car and we look forward to next year. 

Kids are funny

Kaylee hasn't been sleeping in her bed lately for nap.  She will put her pillow and blanket on their hard toy box and sleep there sometimes.  This day she had put everything in the closet like this...

 but I found her like this: behind the rocking chair in the corner.  Funny girl.  Sometimes she falls alseep in front of the door - I have to be careful going in not to hit her.

 Doug finished putting together our shoe bench.  Jenna went and got my old pom-poms and cheered him on.  Girls are fun.

 Boys on the other hand are fun too, just in a different way.  The boys stuffed themselves with pillows.  I'm not exactly sure what figures they were pretending to be, but they had fun punching each other in their protected stomachs.

 Another thing the boys never did: want to help do the dishes.  Jenna wanted a turn with the sponge with soap and she commenced to scrub a couple of dishes.  It will be nice when they are older and can really help.

 We went to a new park for play group this week.  They had one of these roller slides.  They all thought it was cool.  They also had a robot thing that you could spin the nose to give it energy, then you could say something and then it would repeat it back to you.  Pretty cool.

 I took about 15 pictures of this pose, this was the only one with them all looking at me -pretty funny. This was a little water fountain at the park.  By the time we were done both girls had taken off their socks and shoes and were wading in the water.  Kaylee when in a bit deeper and got her shorts totally wet.  The bummer was that we were going to the store after, so she got to go around in her diaper.  It was a small consignment store so I didn't feel too bad about it.

Other highlights: Girls Night Out on Wednesday night was learning about freezer meals and we all put a chicken pot pie together.  I played Bohnanza with Damon and Tyler almost every day.  They asked every day, but sometimes our nights got too busy.  Thursday I started a temple swap with some moms.  We each will take a turn each month watching all the kids, so that they other moms can go to the temple or get things done.  It was my turn to watch this last week, so I'm looking forward to a temple trip this coming week.  Saturday I ran errands from 9:00-2:00, I came home hungry and tired.  I was looking for house stuff at Good Will and Hobby Lobby. I found some cute things, now I just have to figure out how to put it all in the house.   Then I went grocery shopping.  It always amazes me of how much food we eat.  I can barely fit it all in the cart as I'm walking and I need two carts to get it all out to the van.  I don't know what it will be like when the boys get even older.

A weird thing happened this week with me, I couldn't breathe very well.  Starting last friday I just could't take a deep breath or yawn.  I could every once in a while, but it was very annoying and bit concerning.  Finally by Tuesday I felt pretty bad and I wondered if I was having some sort of minor heart attack or some constriction of my lungs or something.  Doug found some stretches for me to do online and they helped a bit and he had me call my brother in law Evan who is a chiropractor.  He said that my syptoms seemed common for having a rib out of place and recommended that I go get adjusted.  So Wednesday I made an appointment for Friday.  The Dr. was nice but he didn't really see anything majorly wrong with me.  They took some x-rays then gave me some 'therapy' as they called it. It consisted of a massage on my neck and upperback with some electode things.  It felt really cool.  Then I laid on a bed that had a roller underneath that would move along my spine in a wave motion.  The Dr. adjusted me and sent me on my way.  I didn't feel instantly better as I was vaguely hoping.  In fact the rest of the day I was really sore and I had a headache, and I still couldn't breathe very well.  Saturday was a bit better and today is a bit better as well.  My back is still sore, but that may be just from other things.  I'm scheduled to go in again on Monday for a follow up visit and to look at my x-rays.  I really don't want to pay another $100+ just to talk to him about x-rays that probably don't show anything and get adjusted again.  I might call in the morning and ask if I really have to go.  So anyway, I'm glad that I'm feeling better on that, I did manage to catch Kaylee's cold that she started on Thursday.  So now I have a headache and feel achy with a sore throat, yay!

So because Kaylee was sick and Jenna felt a bit warm today they didn't go to nursey.  I just let them tag along with me.  I was the 'rover' role today for the presdency so I figured they would be ok. They did pretty well in sharing time and singing time, but they were done by the end of church.  They had a complete meltdown when Doug didn't let them buckle themselves up and they cried about it for the whole way home and for 10 minutes here while getting changed.  They finally settled down to take their naps, except Kaylee came down a minute ago with her 'I wake up" statement.  So I don't think she fell asleep.  Doug took her back up, so we'll see what happens.

On to the next week.  Good-by March hello April!  Only two more months of school! I'm kind of looking forward to summer break this year.  I hope we can do some fun things together as a family.

Spring Break Thursday - Sunday

 Thursday I tried to go get my driver's license in the morning.  They have a pretty cool system here where you can get in line online from your computer at home and then it will text you how many mintutes until your turn.  It sure beat the 'get in line an hour before it opens so you can get a decent spot in line' policy that happened in Colorado.  Well, that part was good, but I found out while at the office that I had the wrong marriage cerficate paper.  I had the one from the temple, but I couldn't find the offical one with the seal on it from the court house.  So Doug and I looked again but still couldn't find it.  So we mailed in a form to get another one.  I'm sure it was my fault it got lost, but I really don't know what happened to it.  Oh well, I'll try and get my licence another day.

I ran to Walmart and picked up a few things before lunch.  we ate around 12 and I put the girls down right after.  I think they had gotten used to napping a bit later and they would not go to sleep.  So around 1:00 we gave up and packed everyone up and headed down town again.  Every Thursday the muesums are free at certain times.  The museum of Nature and Science is free from 2-5 and the Children's Museum is free from 5-8.  We haven't been down town much and I now realize that I don't think I'll be going down by myself anytime soon, or at least not on a Thursday.  The traffic was crazy.  They had policmen on every corner directing traffic.   We were trying to follow Google, but the police wouldn't let us turn where we wanted to.  I think they were basically try to lead everyone out of the main part of downtown.  All of the parking lots were full anyway.  So we found a side road about 7 blocks away and parked there.  It wasn't too bad of a walk.

We get to the Museum and realize that we still have to have a ticket to go in.  The line was really long but it moved fairly quickly since no one had to pay anything, they just had to say how many tickets they needed.  There were so many people there, it was crazy!!! We were weaving our way between people the whole time we were there.

The museum seemed pretty nice.  We didn't get to see all of it.  I think it was harder to enjoy it because of the craziness and crowds.  But it would have cost us $115 to go on our own, so to take a quick look around for free was ok.

We left the museum and I took the kids to this park across the street.  Doug was going to go back to the van to get our sack dinners.  There was this cook little hill that had a spiral sidewalk up to the top.  I wasn't going to suggest going up - we had walked a lot already- but Kaylee said she wanted to go up, so up we went.  When we got to the top Doug called and said there was a long line at the Children's Museum to get in at 5:00.  We decided to have him stay there in line and we would go meet him, then he could go get our dinners once we were in line.

The kids were walking pretty slowly buy this time, but they were in pretty good spirits.  I was amazed at the girls since they hadn't taken a nap and we were all hungry.  So we got in line and Doug left to go to the van, but he didn't get far and called to say that they were letting people into the museum.  We figured we should just go in and eat dinner later.  I gave everyone a fruit snack and hoped it would get them through.

The museum was packed with people! It was so loud and crazy inside.  It looked like a really fun place, but we didn't even get to see half of it.  But the kids had a lot of fun.  Damon and Tyler liked the forensics area and figured out who committed the crime.  Chris had fun with the mirrors. The girls liked driving a car and playing with the water and playground outside.  The boys all got to go inside these big 'hamster balls.' They thought that was cool.  The last thing we did was a big 3 story maze.  You can kind of see what it was made of in the picture.  There were these platforms that were all contained with wire mesh.  All of the kids went in.  The girls did pretty well but we had to send Damon and Tyler to help them get out in the end.  It was funny to see all of these parents trying to tell their children where to go and how to get out of the maze.  It was a zoo!

It was funny to see 4 look alikes instead of just two. :)

I was glad to finally get out and go back to the van.  We all were grateful to sit down and eat something.  It was raining again as we drove home, it had rained when we drove down too.  It has been really rainy lately.  We got home in time to everyone to bed.  It had been a long day!

Friday we took the day off!  I did some laundry and tried to just get back to normal.  I spent some more time on my sharing time lesson and preparing my talk for Sunday.  I had worked on it earlier in the week too, but tried to get most of it done.  Doug went and got his driver's license and didn't have a problem - he didn't have to change his name when he got married. :)

The kids got to have their screen time and they played with Legos and blocks too.  Here are some of their latest creations:
Damon's version of the spaceship from The Lego Movie

 Tyler's cool block tower - they were playing Angry Birds with them - trying to knock them over with balls.

 This is Chris's spaceship with a robot guy driving it.

Damon and Tyler have really like playing Bohnanza, so we played that during quiet time.  After naps I said we should go to the park.  I had wanted to show Doug, Damon and Tyler the cool one we went to on a play date in January.  So we went and stayed for just a bit and went on the short nature walk that we had done before.  We found out that the park closed at 5 so we couldn't stay long.  It literally started to rain again as we were buckling up the girlst to go - it was such a blessing that it held off while we were playing.  We stopped for a Little Caeser's pizza and had baths and bed.

Saturday we cleaned the house and I worked on my talk some more.  Being 2nd counselor in the Primary puts me in charge of baptisms.  This one on Saturday was my first to help with.  I had to make the programs and print them out.  Doug was running errands so he was nice to stop at the church and make copies.

Tyler and I went to the baptism in the afternoon and we stopped by the grocery store on the way back.  We had dinner and cleaned up then Doug and I got ready for another date.  Our ward put together some groups of couples to get together and play games.  This was our first time meeting and it was so much fun.  There are in 4 couples in our group and it was a good mix of personalities  The hosts were great, we had homemade brownies and ice cream and played some fun get to know you games.  We laughed a lot.

We got home at 10 but I still had some last reviewing to do on my talk so I stayed up until 12 finishing up that and my sharing time. I'm pretty tired today.

Sunday: my talk went ok, I don't think it was my best talk.  It was just too busy of a week to really spend a lot of time on it, and I only had a week to prepare.  My sharing time went ok too - I get nervous in front of the kids and I get all tongue tied and can't really say what I want to say.  I'm slowly learning more names, but I still have a ways to go.

Well, that has been our crazy week.  Now we have to go back to school tomorrow.  I'm glad a bit, but it sure was nice to sleep in a bit and not have to worry about getting out the door on time.

Spring Break Monday - Wednesday

Alright, get ready for a busy week filled with Spring Break fun!

So we have a pretty amazing group of moms around here.  One in particular took charge and brainstormed ideas for things to do over spring break.  This was a great plan for moms who need to do something with their children over the break.  So on Monday the activity was an obstacle course by the library, picnic, and ride on the trolley.  I had never been over to the side of the library and we found a cute little hedge maze that had these large books as you went through that had fables on them.  We had plenty of time so we walked the maze and read all of the stories.

The kids liked the obstacle course, it was pretty simple, but they were excited about the popsicle at the end.  They had some balls around and Tyler had fun playing soccer.  Some dress up things were also brought and kids were encouraged to perform something at the little ampitheatre that was there.

 None of mine performed, but Jenna dressed up for a bit.

 Kaylee and Damon had fun singing along with the Pandora songs that were playing.

 We hopped on the trolley and everyone loved the bell when it rang.  The girls really love Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood, so they thought it was so cool that we were riding a trolley like Daniel.  The ride makes a big loop, it took about 25 minutes.

 It happened to be a free ice cream cone day at Dairy Queen so we stopped by on the way home after we had eaten our picnic lunches.

 The girls were pretty tired by the time we got home, but they were able to take a nap ok.  The afternoon was pretty normal.  The boys loved being home to play more and hopefully have more screen time :)

Tuesday the boys went to a Minecraft day camp.  A friend had taken her kids last year and said it was good.  It was a bit pricey, but since we weren't traveling anywhere for Spring Break I thought it would be fun for them.  Well, they loved it, but I came to find out that they mostly just played Minecraft the whole time.  They said we could bring devises, so I let them take the iPad.  They said it was optional so  I assumed that they would be doing other activities as well and just play and take turns for some of the time.  Anyway, my friend and I were pretty upset.  It just seemed wrong to pay that much money for letting my kids do something that they can easily do at home for free.  We complained a bit through email.  They wouldn't give us a refund, but they said we could go to a summer day camp for free.  So I guess that's ok.

So the camp was from 10-2:00.  It was about a 15 min drive away.  So the question was, do I just drop them off and go back home with the girls, making two trip back and forth, or do I run errands and stay with the girls in town and pick up the boys on the way back?  I knew the girls would be so tired, but they are getting better at having later naps if they need to, so I went with the second option.  I took the girls to a Marshalls store and we looked around for a bit.  The girls weren't in the best mood, Jenna especially.  She was already asking to go home, and I'm thinking "oh this is going to be a long 4 hours."  Jenna also said she had to go potty three times in the store.  I took her twice and she didn't go either time - frustrating!  Anyway, they had a lot of cute decor things there but nothing jumped out at me so I didn't get anything.

Then I met up with my friend who had her other kids at the day camp too.  We went to the Woodland's Children's Museum.  It was pretty crowded but the girls had a good time.  They even stayed close together which is rare but very helpful for me keeping an eye on them.

Because it was St. Patrick's day they had some fun Irish activities and we even saw some Irish dancers perform.

 The girls were getting tired and we left to go to a Jamba Juice nearby.  I had a BOGO free coupon.  Well, I should have left the museum a bit sooner because when we finally got to the Jamba Juice there was a huge line and I knew that there was no way the one person in the back could make 10+ smoothies in 5 minutes.  So we left to go pick up the boys.  Bummer!

Kaylee was so tired so I carried her most of the way back to the car.  Jenna was walking slow, but she didn't complain.  We picked up the boys and headed home.  Kaylee hit her meltdown and cried most of the way home.  She cried up in her room as I was trying to get her to go to sleep.  Jenna went down ok, but she ended up not falling asleep.  I had to keep going into Kaylee to get her to calm down and I finally gave up and let them both watch a show.  So much for quiet time.

Damon had scouts in the evening and we had baths and bed.

Doug took to the rest of the week off so we could do some fun things as a family.  Wednesday we couldn't decide if we wanted to go to the zoo or the rodeo.  The rodeo was a bit farther and we weren't sure about all the details of parking, tickets, excetera.  So we choose the zoo.  It was raining as we left and hit a heavy down pour along the freeway, but it returned to a gentle rain when we got there.  It was actually nice because there weren't that many people there.  (I found out later that the day before had been crazy busy - glad we picked Wedesday.)  The kids loved carrying their umbrellas and we tried to help them to not step in any really big puddles.  We saw the elephants get fed and then followed the map to the animals the kids wanted to see.  Tyler wanted to see the cheetahs and Damon wanted to see the bats.  The kids did great.  No one complained about all of the walking and everyone was pretty happy.  I had brought some popcorn to eat while we walked so that helped :)  It stopped raining half way through and by the time we left the sun was shinning and we had taken our jackets off.   We had left our lunches in the van so we just ate them as we drove home.  Everyone was pretty hungry and ate well.  The girls napped well when we got home too.

 Can you spot all 5?

On Wednesday evening Doug and I had a date.  I was able to buy some tickets to see Joseph and the Technicolor Dream Coat from a local mom.  I was so excited.  It was a lot of driving that day since we had already gone down town in the morning for the zoo and then drove back in the evening, but it wasn't too bad.  It's about a 45 min. drive.  Doug had never seen the show.  I'd seen it 3 times before, but it had been awhile since the last time.  I loved it.  The cast was great and the music is so much fun.  I think Doug enjoyed it too.  It was so nice to have a night together and have a break from the kids.

Busy with life

I looked at the pictures that I had taken this week and saw that there weren't that many.  I really had to think about what we did this week.  I know I was busy, but it was with normal things. My nights especially were all full this week.

Monday: FHE and grocery shopping late - I don't like going late, but it beats going with the kids.

Tuesday: I helped out in the Bear Den for Cub Scouts.  We made 'armpit' fudge and it wasn't that bad.

Wednesday: Relief Society birthday dinner.  I wish I would have taken a picture.  They really decorated well and had and fun game of guess who this funny fact belongs to.  They read a table at a time so you only had to guess between 8 people.  

Thursday: Tyler had a 'Reading Restaruant' in the evening that Doug went to.  They had jokes for an appetizer, a book about Tyler for the main course, and a thank you note for the dessert.  It was pretty cute and Tyler was proud of his work.  I had my primary presidency meeting at 8:00, then went to the store again afterwards for a few things.  I had been asked to make a birthday cake for someone in the ward and I needed some cake materials.  I ended up buying more than I planned to - they were having a good sale on some pantry items that I stock up on.  

Friday: I did all the prep work for the cake during the morning: made the fondant, cake, and buttercream. Then I colored the fondant and started shaping my 'wooden boards' for the side of the cake.   

We also had a movie night and watched Big Hero 6 for the first time, we even stayed up a bit late so we could finish.  The kids were really helpful beforehand, they picked up and helped clean up dinner so that we could all watch it together.  Everyone loved it and I loved that I could actually sit down and watch a full movie with the kids.  Doug wasn't so lucky.  Fridays are his busiest days and work pulled him away.  But he was able to watch some of it.  

Saturday: We did our normal cleaning - Damon and Tyler are doing a few more jobs now including the sinks and toilets in the bathrooms (I know they should probably have been doing them before now - but sometimes it's just easier to do things yourself).  They are vacuuming more carpet and tile areas as well, it's nice having the extra help.

I finished the cake and delivered it around 1:30 then went to my Scout committee meeting.  When I got home we went to the church parking lot to ride bikes.  Chris is getting pretty good at riding - this was his first time practicing somewhere else besides our front sidewalk.  He still needs to work on starting and stopping, but it's so fun to watch him learn so quickly - love the balance bike for that. 

We threw some quick hamburgers on the grill and enjoyed dinner, then went off to Toys 'R Us.  Damon and Tyler begged us to go so they could spend their money on some Lego Bionicle sets. They thought they had enough to buy one for Chris too, but they didn't.  Well, since Chris doesn't really have an allowance yet, we figured it was ok if we bought his.  We got home right at bedtime so we made them wait to open them until in the morning - I know mean parents. :)  So the first thing we heard this morning was the sound of Legos being built in Damon's room.  I think he finally gave up sleeping around 6:00 so he could play.  

For sharing time today I talked about the story of Moses and the parting of the Red Sea.  It was how if we follow the Prophet we will be safe.  The kids were more involved this week and I think it went well.   

I get to give a talk in Sacrament meeting next week - about prayer.  So we'll see how that goes.  I'm looking forward to spring break.  There is an amazing mom in the ward who got together with some other moms and have some things planned.  Doug is taking off work Wed. - Fri.  So we will see what fun things around here we will do.  The boys are going to a Minecraft day camp on Tuesday and are very excited about that.  

Overall a pretty good week and the sun came out yesterday for the first time in what seemed like forever.  I miss my sunny Colorado.  Hopefully we will have good weather for our spring break. 

March 2-7

Doug was out of town in Denver this past week.  It makes bedtime a bit slower and my patience seems to run out more, but we managed without him.  I really missed him on Monday.  I had scheduled dentist appointments for Damon and Tyler after school hoping that Doug could come home a bit early and watch the other kids.  Well, he obviously couldn't help out so I found a friend to watch them.  The appointment took FOREVER and I felt bad that she had to watch Chris and the girls for so long.  Damon's teeth were pretty good - just watching a spot but he will be losing that tooth soon so we're not too worried about it.  Tyler has to have some fillings fixed.  There are some big cracks.  I say that the previous dentist should have to pay for things like this - it makes me frustrated when we have to redo fillings - hard on the kid and the budget.  We have been going to a lot of orthodontist appointments for Tyler as well.  We checked out a couple and decided to go with Dr. Mardaga.  Tyler has a underbite that will need to get fixed while he is still young and growing.  So we will start that next month.  

I didn't think that I would ever buy a power-wheel vehicle for my kids (one- too expensive and two -conflicts with my upbringing I guess :) ) but when I saw one posted on our neighborhood Facebook page for $20 I gave in.  I figured we could use it for a while and then pass it on when we are done with it.  Chris was really excited - Damon and Tyler were too, but were bummed to realize that they are too big for it.  The girls really like it, but their steering skills are lacking.  I have to help them stay on the sidewalk.  But it is a fun new addition to our outdoor things-to-do. 

 The girls have been wanting to nap in 'nests'.

I had book group this week and since Doug was gone I was debating what to do.  I didn't really want to get a babysitter, but I really wanted to go.  We were discussing Pope Joan and I really loved the book.  So Doug and I thought that Damon was responsible enough to take care of sleeping siblings.  I left after I put everyone to bed and I had Damon text me with the iPad.  He checked in once and said things were fine. I only was gone for about 1 hr and 15 min. and Damon did great!  I can see how soon we won't need to get a babysitter all the time and that it will be so wonderful.  I'm glad that Damon's temperment is one that I can trust and he is good to take care of his siblings.  

 We went to a neighbors birthday party yesterday at a inflatable bouncy place.  They had a big slide, an obstacle course race course, and this jousting one.  Damon had fun trying to knock Doug off - I don't think he succeeded though.

 One of our trips this week to a park lead us to discover a woodpecker.  It was cool to see him 'knocking' on the tree.  We also saw a squirrel and some other birds.  The trees are blossoming as well and spring is here.

Hats! Second grade program

So awhile ago we sent in a form to school giving Tyler permission to audition for the upcoming second grade program.  I never received any word on if Tyler got a part or not, but he did bring home a script of sorts and he had some lines to learn.  Tyler told me that everyone was using their papers and that he didn't have to memorize his lines.  Well, 2 days before the program he told me that he did need to memorize them and so we did some last minute practicing - silly boy.  

Anyway, it turned out the Tyler was the main male part in the program.  It of course is a short skit and he only had about 8 lines - but the show was about finding a hat that fits your personality best and he and another girl didn't have a hat and they had to figure out what their hats would be.  He did a great job.  He spoke clearly and loud enough.  His stage manners needed some help though - we saw multiple yawns and picking at his fingernails. :)  But we love our Tyler and were very proud of him.  

 This is his teacher Mrs. Shepherd.