Science Saturday

Yesterday the local college hosted a Science Saturday at the planetarium which was free for all the local people. They do this once a month and we haven't made it until yesterday when we finally decided to go. They had all kinds of exhibits and classes to see. The kids enjoyed it for the most part. We got to see and touch a 15 foot python which by the looks of its huge belly had just been fed. I only got a picture of the tail because there were so many people there. We also got to make pictures using the mediums of shaving cream and food coloring, learn and play with lasers and test our aim with them, learn about how microbes help make the food we eat and then have some taste tests of rootbeer, crackers, cheese, and salami. We tried to watch a few of the shows in the planetarium, but we ran out of time. Sarah wasn't too cooperative because this happened to take place right during naptime and she was not happy, but we still had fun despite her crying and tantrums. We also got to look around at the museum and see some dinosaur bones, different minerals and rocks, and different skeletons of animals. It brought out the nerdiness of Aaron and me, but we enjoyed and hope our kids really like the science part of things as much as we did and still do. An added bonus is we got to sign off a few of Matthew's scout requirements along the way--which is always nice.

The Failed Experiment

Yesterday morning we only had 5 minutes before we (Josh, Daniel, Sarah and the neighbor kid) HAD to leave for school to make sure the kids were on time. I was trying to get Sarah dressed and her hair done and wasn't paying too much attention to what Daniel and Josh were doing. Josh decided he wanted to try an experiment. He wanted to see what the Nesquik powder container (that has a clear lid that doesn't fit very well) looked like upside down. Now that's a good thought in theory, but I am still waiting to see what it looks like too because when he turned it upside down to look the lid came off pouring powder all over ANYTHING and EVERYTHING. Now this container of Nesquik had just been opened so it was almost completely full--meaning there was more powder to get spread all over the kitchen. I had to get Daniel out of the way since the Nesquik is loaded with milk products and frantically tried to clean it up while Josh had to go and find new clothes to wear since his were covered with pink powder all over. Did I mention he did this only 5 minutes we were supposed to LEAVE for school? The kids were still late for school, but it got cleaned up and Daniel didn't go into anaphylactic shock--so two pluses in my book. Now I will be keeping a closer look on Josh's "experiments" from now on. Here's a picture of the next fresh container of Nesquik with the clear lid that I had to open since our last one...well, is now empty. I am praying Josh learned his lesson and doesn't try it again.

We Took the Plunge

We finally did it. We bought the new "pre-owned" car. Now everyone can fit comfortably. The only downside is that it has doors that swing wide open unlike the van doors that slid open. We have gotten some nice door dings so far on Aaron's car from the kids bashing the doors open. I guess it will see a lot more wear and tear as the years go on. We plan on having this for a very LONG time. It has also required some serious maneuvering skills since it doesn't fit in the garage very easily along side Aaron's car. This is the view from our family room door into the garage: As you can see it is a pretty tight fit. It also is pretty hard to park in a parking lot. I will be looking for the pull through spots from now on I guess. When we were looking at the suburbans the salesmen kept referring to it as the big rig or the people hauler. Great. Oh well I guess if you need it, you need it right?!?

In other things I must say honesty is not always the best policy. Yesterday right after dinner I was sitting back in my chair resting my arms on my baby belly. That's when Josh exclaimed, "WOW, Mom! Your baby has sure grown a lot! (aka Wow, Mom, you're FAT!)" Aaron trying to help my self esteem whispered to Josh something like that's not very nice. Also lately, we have been really stressing the importance of being honest since we have had a few problems with that lately--like no one fesses up to the huge messes or the punching of the brothers, etc. After Aaron told Josh that what he said wasn't very nice he then told Josh to tell me how skinny and pretty I was. Josh just looked at Aaron like, "Are you kidding? Is this a trick question?" I guess that gave me my answer as to what I really look like. Oh sigh--I can't wait until I can start losing the weight instead of gaining it!! Kids can be too honest at the times when you need them to not be so brutally honest.

Bullet Proof Head

This morning as everyone was getting ready for school and the day I decided to let Josh take things a step further. This year we have been encouraging more independence so Josh has gotten into the routine of picking out his own clothes, socks and finding his own shoes. I thought I would see how much more he could do on his own so while I was waiting for Matthew's bus to come I sent Josh to comb his own hair. Josh has watched me comb his hair almost every day so I thought he should be able to do it. After Matthew's bus came and went I noticed Josh was still in the bathroom so I decided to check things out to see what was taking so long. It is never a good sign when they take THAT long in the bathroom. I walked in to find him muttering about how bad his hair looked. When I looked closer I saw he had drips of something running down all over his face and neck. On even closer inspection he hadn't even combed his hair he had only almost emptied a whole can of aerosol hairspray on his head. His hair was completely wet from the super hold hairspray with the excess running down his face and neck so I had to work fast after I finally got control over my laughter. Luckily I was able to comb it before the super hold hairspray set. He has had helmet head ever since it finally dried. He will probably not have to comb his hair again for the next month with so much hairspray on his hair. It is practically bullet proof. These pictures were taken tonight and there still isn't a hair out of place from this morning.

Adventures in Car Shopping

We have finally come to the sad realization that our almost 7 person family is not going to fit into our minivan when the baby comes--meaning we need to get a bigger car to fit everyone in including all five kids' carseats. I am sad about it because I was really enjoying not having a car payment...but I am trying not to think about that part of it. Since Sarah has been feeling better, we spent today out looking at cars. To see how everyone was going to fit inside the new car we brought along all four kids--yea, not so much fun. I must say they were better behaved then I expected, though. At one place we got this poor salesman who was a very young single guy with no children. Getting in the car, Matthew, within milliseconds discovered how to fold the middle seat in half while collapsing it forward with the touch of a button--unfortunately, Daniel was trying to climb in his car seat on the middle seat at that particular time so he got smashed by the seat with his car seat on top of him. That started Daniel into a fit of hysterical screaming which is normal for him at any given time, but not normal for the average young, single guy to hear. When I heard the screaming I went over and got things straightened out and settled. Then the poor salesman had to sit in the back seat with the kids so Aaron and I could sit in the front to test drive. Daniel was really excited to have a new buddy to talk to and turned into a Chatty Cathy telling him all kinds of things. Where's that mute button in kids when you need one? Daniel struck up the first conversation with, "Hey, my sister Sarah had a huge booger on her cheek, but I got it off for her." The guy just nodded and smiled and mumbled something like, "Um, yeah, ok." Then during the test drive the kids were getting loud and rather rowdy. Aaron asked the salesmen the rhetoric question, "And you wonder why we are having another one." The guy answered a resounding YES! before he thought about it. I just wanted to chime in--yea, us too. Oh the adventures in car shopping and parenting.

Whoa, What a Day!!

All I can say is Whoa, what a day about yesterday. It started out early in the morning when Aaron went out to leave for work and his car wouldn't start--that's never a good thing. Luckily, we are a three vehicle family so he ended up taking the truck to work instead while I still had the van. Later on during breakfast Sarah was crawling up on the table, but had only made it up on the chair when she tipped the whole chair over. I made sure she was ok and that's when I had realized she had broken yet another chair--grrr. This is broken chair #3 for her and I have only had the dining set for about 4 months. I guess you can definitely say it my dining set has been "broken" in, right?!? (Yes, the pun was intended.) You can still sit on the chairs, but the spindles on the back of the chairs are broken and they can't be fixed. I am in the process of ordering a dining bench to save the rest of my chairs from the Sarahmeister, but it hasn't come in yet. I am keeping a nervous eye on the rest of my chairs, but I can only keep a chair vigil for only so long :). The rest of the day, other than dealing with a sick baby, was good up until the boys came home from school. Now we have been working at adjusting Matthew's medication so he has had an extra rough time the last week and a half at school and at home, and, unfortunately, yesterday was no different. Let me just say his teacher this year hasn't been the easiest to work with either, but that's the way it goes. Anyway, his bad day was partly my fault because I sent Matthew to school thinking one thing would happen and something else happened instead. If you know Matthew he doesn't deal with change very well and it showed. Since he had a hard time with the change in plans at school, his teacher emailed me at the end of the day explaining to me about what had happened that day and what a hard time he and his teacher had had. Again it's never great to get an email like that. However, I must add that we have been trying to manage his medication and last week's medication trial didn't go so well. We ended up changing him to a different medication instead on Monday and we have seen a wonderful improvement in the few days he has taken it--so far so good anyway. (I am so thankful for a doctor that is willing to work with us and him so well!!) Hopefully, his teacher will start seeing the improvements in him soon. Anyway, I was mulling over Matthew's bad day and the teacher's email when I got a phone call. At the moment I answered it all the kids decided they NEEDED me and that was time to scream. I had to run upstairs and lock my bedroom door to keep the kids out so I could hear the caller on the other end. The caller ended up being Josh's teacher--again, never a good sign. I had to make sure she was really calling about Josh since he is one I would never think I would get a bad call from a teacher about. I was trying to listen to her while trying to block out the knocking and screaming at my bedroom door--not an easy thing to do, I must say. Why do kids always wait until you are on the phone to decide they NEED you right NOW and it can't wait? Josh's teacher wanted to tell me about what happened with Josh at school that day. I guess during recess Josh decided he would be cool like his friend and just go to the bathroom on the field instead of using the indoor bathroom. His teacher asked him why he did that and he said because his friend told him to do it. Ah--peer pressure at its best. His teacher and I both had a good talk with Josh about how to choose the right even if people tell you to do otherwise. Hopefully, Josh learned something. I am just hoping I don't get any emails or calls today from any teachers because I got my fill yesterday!! As for Aaron's car he figured out it was the battery--the huge pile of battery acid seemed to give that away. Hopefully, he can fix it and we can get back to normal, whatever "normal" is ;), later today. Whew--glad today's a new day!

Poor Sarah

I had all kinds of plans today because Daniel had play group and I would be down to one and a half kids which is prime time for grocery shopping and errand running. Those were my plans until I went and got Sarah out of her crib this morning and found a very snotty, red cheeked, teary eyed, sick baby girl. I tamed her hair down a little and wiped her face off for the picture, but this is basically what she looked like all day with a nice productive cough and slimy, snotty nose/cheeks to accompany it: I guess my grocery shopping and errand running will have to wait for another day. I hope she feels better soon. Sick babies are so pathetic looking. If there is one good thing about a sick baby is at least I got lots of baby loves today--poor thing.

Hardware Ranch

We decided to visit Hardware Ranch yesterday. It is a winter feeding area done by the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources to keep the elk out of Logan valley during the wintering months. Hardware Ranch takes horse drawn sleds out and lets you get a close up look at the wild wintering elk. It is pretty interesting. We stopped by the visitor's center and looked at the displays and then headed out on the sled. Some of the elk were less then 10 feet away from the side of the sleigh. It is neat to see them so up close. Sarah was so excited to be waiting in line as you can see. The only way to contain her was to put her up on Dad's shoulders where she couldn't get down and run away. She wasn't too happy about that.
Afterward the boys wanted to look at the horses that pulled the sleigh. Josh the animal lover went over and petted the horses. We didn't wash his hands before he rubbed his face and about 20 minutes later his eyes were about swollen shut. I guess he is allergic to horses. Good thing I always have a bottle of handy dandy Benadryl with me at all times. It was a fun trip, though.

Lil Miss Mind of Her Own!

Oh what am I going to do with my little girl? She has turned out to be the most stubborn, willful child of mine so far. Just a few examples of the last few days:

During Daniel's playgroup she decided to climb on the table and then climb on over about 2 long feet into her high chair--without any help by the way. I am glad she made it without falling on her head!!

At church last week she had had enough and wanted to wander around the aisle about 5 minutes into the meeting. I tried to wrestle with her and then the people in front of us took her for a few minutes until she tried to escape from them too. We got her back and while I was trying to find her a toy in the diaper bag she made her great escape. She crawled under our bench, under the bench of the people sitting behind us and she was free. She started wandering the aisle when I realized what had happened. I went to grab her and she threw herself to the ground and went limp--you know that lovely go limp, go stiff move babies like to do. She was doing all this while screaming. Luckily, we were pretty close to the foyer door so after I finally got a good hold on her we were able to to get out quick.

Earlier this week I took Sarah and Daniel to story time at the library. Sarah listened to the first book and then she wanted to wander. I wrestled with her for a bit, but she got too loud and I had to let her wander. Before I knew it she was almost out the front door with me still back in the story time area. I ran to get her and chased her for a few minutes. When I had had enough I grabbed her and sat down with a book so we could look at the pictures. A few pages into the book she grabbed and page and ripped it almost in half. It was ten times worse because everyone was very quietly listening to the book being read so the ripping noise really got everyone's attention. I could hear the collective gasp from all the other moms whose children were sitting like angels listening quietly to the story. I wished I could have disappeared right then. What I should have done was stood up and announced, "Yes everyone I teach my children to destroy books at home!" ending with a very evil laugh bwahahahahah. Instead I just closed the book and quietly slipped it back on the shelf while pretending nothing happened with a super fake smile plastered across my face.

We were out shopping and I was talking with Aaron in the checkout line. Since Sarah refuses to sit in the front part of the cart she usually stands in the basket while we shop. She tried to climb out of the basket only to be rescued by the observant lady in front of us in line who thankfully caught her mid fall before she would have hit the ground with her head.

Lastly, she will not let me hold anyone. If I try to snuggle with Daniel she runs over climbs up in my lap and forces her way in between Daniel and me. She will stay like this until Daniel hops down or I get up. If Daniel does get down off my lap she will then get down, but the same thing happens all over again if Daniel tries to climb up in my lap again. Hmmm--some jealousy issues perhaps?!

Maybe this is the reason why I will only ever be having one girl. I don't know if I could handle another little girl if all of them are this way!!! However, I seem to overlook all her independence when she gives me snuggles and loves. She also does a lot of sweet things, too. I do love her a lot and am glad I have her--also how could you ever stay mad at this sweet, innocent looking face?

I am NOT Tired!!

I AM NOT TIRED!! That is what I heard from Daniel multiple times about 30 minutes before I took this picture:He ended up staying asleep for about 2 hours, too. Moms always know things (the droopy eyelids and extreme whininess kind of gave it away), but kids don't ever believe them for some reason.

Health Insurance--How I Love and Need Thee!!

In the last 24 hours 3 different members of our family have seen 3 different doctors for 3 different things--OUCH!! I am so glad for health insurance and that our Flex Spending Account reset the beginning of January. That is crazy since we are not even two weeks into 2010 and we are already about $200 into our Flex Spending account. Enough complaining let me explain what has happened in the last 24 hours.

Matthew had an appointment with his child psychiatrist who works a lot with kids with autism. He has been going to see her for about 5 years so she knows him and us pretty well. It was divine intervention that we even ended up seeing her in the first place, but that's another story for another time. The reason he needed to be seen was it was time for some medication management. Matthew seems to have a cyclical nature to his behavior. Between him growing so fast and just the nature of the different medications, he needs his medications readjusted every so often which for some reason usually happens around the beginning of the year. We had hit a hard patch for awhile, but before doing anything drastic we try to ride it out. Like with every kid, everyone goes through a hard time once in a while. This hard time lasted a couple months which showed me it was time to make the appointment. Now I am not a person who is pro-medicate your child and it took a lot of soul searching before we decided to start Matthew on medication in the first place. Before we started the medication we had to think long and hard and finally came to the conclusion that he was not happy functioning the way he was and we felt like we weren't letting him function to his full ability, either. Once we started some medications and got him on something that worked where he could learn and participate in school as well as at home we could finally see what he was missing out on. Since then every so often because he is a fast growing kid things need to get tweaked and it is not always easy to figure things out. Each autistic child is so different and their needs are so different that unfortunately, some of it is just by trial and error. Good thing most of the few different things we have tried have been successful. As for now it is another trial and error type of thing. Hopefully we can get him to a point where he can be happy and be able to function while learning in school again. It is hard to see him struggle as with any other child--maybe more with him because I am looking at the long range picture and it is going to be hard, long road, but if anyone can do it he can. So far so good and I am hoping it stays that way.

Anyway, as for Daniel, yesterday he never acted like he was sick in the least. He was up running around like usual just maybe a little extra whiny, but that's not all that unusual for him. He went and sat by Aaron in the afternoon and Aaron felt him and told me he felt warm. I went and got a thermometer and checked it and sure enough he had a temperature of 103 degrees. I medicated him with some ibuprofen and went on about the rest of the night. I thought it was strange because he had no other symptoms whatsoever. I went to the gym and by the time I got back about 10 pm I checked on him and he was burning up. I took his temperature and it was up to 104.3 and that was with two different thermometers giving me that reading. I made an appointment with my not so favorite 24 hour pediatrician's office and took him in. By the time we got to the office and they took his reading it was up to 105. That scared me quite a bit since Josh's first seizure was supposedly a febrile seizure. Anyway, Daniel still was not acting sick at all which was strange. He was talking with the medical assistant and PA like it was no big deal being at the doctor's office about midnight with a 105 degree fever. They did a strep test which came back negative, but when they looked in his mouth his tonsils were HUGE, spotted and looked pretty red and angry. Why Daniel wasn't complaining I don't know because I know I would have been complaining had it been me. We finally got the antibiotic prescription and came home about 1 am. I medicated Daniel with Tylenol and ibuprofen and sat with him until his fever broke and then went to bed. I finally was able to make it to the pharmacy this morning for his antibiotic so hopefully he will be feeling better soon even though he didn't really ever feel "sick".

This morning Aaron was nice enough to stay home from work with Daniel and Sarah while I went to my scheduled OB appointment. Everything with me and the baby are going great. It is still a boy and I even got to see a 4D ultrasound of him. He must have been shy because he refused to move his arms away from his face so I only got to see his nose and mouth with two hands covering the rest. I am starting to realize how soon he will be here and I am starting to get excited to see him even though I still feel really overwhelmed at the thought of having another baby. My next appointment is the big ultrasound where they look at everything to make sure it all looks normal and healthy and it is also my glucose screening. It is the only time where it is actually doctor's orders to eat a candy bar and drink a regular soda (not diet) for breakfast. AWESOME!!

Anyway that is why I am thankful for health insurance and Flex Spending Accounts since we had three different doctor's visits within 24 hours. Hopefully we can get everyone happy, healthy and fully functioning for the upcoming long holiday weekend...What a way to start off the week or the year for that matter...

Extreme Awkwardness

Matthew has really gotten interested in music lately. During Christmas time his favorite Christmas song was Elf's Lament by the band Barenaked Ladies. Just to clarify since the name can be somewhat misleading they are a very CLEAN and fun band to listen to. Aaron and I have even been to a few of their concerts and have included a few of their songs on our blog song player. Also at school Matthew has been learning a lot about computers and the internet. Anytime he wants to learn about something he figures he can just type in the subject and include the www at the beginning insert the certain subject and then add (dot) com at the end and be able to see anything. For example last month he was following the phases of the moon and he just told us to go to www . moon. com (which by the way did not bring up what he needed) and be able to find what he wanted to see. Unfortunately, some websites are that easy but with others you may get some other unintended subject matter. This came back to haunt us during Thanksgiving dinner. We shared Thanksgiving dinner with my totally computer illiterate, don't even own a computer, and don't even see the need for one, grandparents who are in their late 80's. They are very nice, but let's just say not technologically savvy. Anyway, during dinner Matthew sat across the table from them and thought he would make small talk with them as only an autistic child can. He told them "I like to go to www. barenakedladies .com." (Which, by the way he has never even been to the website so I don't know why he even said that.) Quickly, Aaron (who was sitting next to Matthew) tried to explain to my grandparents who the Barenaked Ladies were and that Matthew was intending to go to an innocent website, not the website he was saying. His explanation fell on deaf ears as they had no idea what Aaron was talking about. They only understood that their eight year old great-grandson wanted to go on the internet to look at barenaked ladies and that it sounded like his Dad let him. Um, can you say AWKWARD! Aaron finally stopped trying to explain, realizing that the hole was only being dug deeper with no graceful exit. He tried to change the subject and move on with dinner with the rest of us trying not to notice the awkward silence. I was over in the corner trying not to laugh too hard. Kids can really put you in embarrassing and awkward situations that aren't easily remedied. Gotta love it! By the way http://www.barenakedladies.com/ is in fact the band's website if you are at all interested, but don't try to explain that to my grandparents...

Hair and Tiredness

This last week Matthew brought home a permission slip for me to sign to let a trade school perform haircuts for the whole school--Matthew included. Seeing as I am always up for freebies--and really how bad can you screw up a buzz cut?--I signed it and sent it back. I hate doing haircuts so this was great. This bought me some time between the boys' haircuts because Matthew's hair is the worst offender when it comes to uncontrolled sticking up as it grows longer. Now that Matthew's hair is taken care of the rest can wait a little longer before their next haircut. Here's Matthew's new hair (or lack of hair): I told them short, but I didn't mean cancer patient short. Oh well, I guess I won't have to comb it for a while--YAY for me!

As for Sarah she has been on strike from letting me comb her hair for a while. I finally had enough of her pulling out the simple 5 second do's she would allow me to do. I decided to stick her in her high chair with food thinking it would keep her preoccupied while I tried to do something a little more substantial. When I finished Daniel came over and told me he didn't like her hair do. I asked why and he told me because it looks like sprinklers. I always love the positive feedback I get from my kids...If it looks like sprinklers now maybe it will look like sparklers for the 4th of July in 6 months. Hey, I am just trying to stay positive here.

In other happenings Daniel has been complaining he doesn't like his bed. He has given me all kinds of excuses--it's too cold, it's not comfortable, etc. I finally got down to the heart of the problem. I guess the bed was too big and Daniel was too lonely. Daniel somehow persuaded Josh to share a bed with him. Why Josh gave up his own cozy bed I don't know. Here's what I found the other night as I was checking on them before I went to bed: Maybe this might help with Daniel's nighttime wanderings or maybe not. They are both crazy sleepers so I don't know how it worked out for them. Maybe that could explain the next day orneriness from both.

Sub Zero Is Closer to Us, YAY!

For Family Home Evening this week we were able to take the kids to an ice cream parlor. This is not any ordinary ice cream parlor either. It is called Sub-Zero and the closest one to us used to be in American Fork, but they have now built one in Centerville. They had a family night special so we thought we would take advantage Monday night. It's an ice cream place where you get to choose your base (cream, milk, etc.) with mix-ins (fruit, candy, etc.) and then they pour liquid nitrogen over the top of your creation and get it to instantly freeze before your eyes with lots of smoke. The kids loved it. The reason why we chose this place is because they actually have Daniel friendly bases like soy and rice milk. Daniel was so excited to eat ice cream like the rest of us. He chose strawberry flavored soy milk base with gummy bears and he ate the whole thing--which is amazing for Daniel because they were pretty big. Josh chose bubble gum flavor with gummy bears and Matthew chose bubble game flavor with Reeses Pieces mixed in. Now they keep asking when we are going back.

Here they are pouring the liquid nitrogen over the top of Daniel's. They mix it all up to make sure it all gets frozen to ice cream consistency. Sarah even got in on the action by trying to climb on the table to eat some more.

Sarah's 'Tude

Here's Sarah's latest acts to prove her independence: when she is done with her drink she will take a big mouthful and then spit it out all over her clothes and whatever else is around. The best part is when she does it while you are holding her and it gets all over your clothes as well. Too bad most the time it's chocolate milk which stands out pretty badly. She had just done this while finishing dinner as you can see by looking at her shirt. I had just scolded her a little and she was not happy for the picture evidenced by her extra pouty lip.

The next thing is she has found her new favorite perch. She can get up there, but can't figure out how to get down yet. As soon as you grab her and put her down she immediately climbs back up on top of the table again. I have never had a climber before so this should be fun. She has discovered the joys of carting a step stool around, but it can't get her as high as on top of the kitchen table where she usually finishes cleaning off her high chair tray.

More Family Togetherness

Yesterday we spent pretty much the whole day together with our family and extended family. It started out celebrating my Grandpa Terry's 90th birthday--who is my Dad's dad. His 90th birthday happened on January 1st. Wow 90 years old and still kicking and doing amazingly well. If I didn't know I would have never guessed he was 90. We celebrated with our annual Pig-Out pizza bash at a church since that is the only place big enough to fit all the aunts, uncles, cousins, grandchildren, great grandchildren, great-great grandchildren etc. followed by a roaring game of BINGO. The BINGO presents are about the same useless gifts as any year so into storage they go to re-emerge for next year's BINGO game. It still is fun to open the wrapped presents to see what we have gotten when the game is over. I am glad to say we didn't get the super gag gift of the humongous macrame that no one knows what to do with--whew. It was more fun this time because the boys, Matthew, Josh and Daniel, actually understood and were excited to play BINGO this year. At the party we also celebrated my grandparent's 69th wedding anniversary that occurred on December 24th and my Grandma Terry's 87th birthday earlier in the month. I always wonder if this year will be the last BINGO party with my both my grandparents in attendance since my Grandma resides in a nursing home and my Grandpa moved into an assisted care center about a month ago. We have been blessed so far and I hope to continue to be blessed with their presence next year. The following picture of Great Grandma and Grandpa Terry is a few years old, but I like it: Later that evening we were able to see my nephew baptized and confirmed a member of the church. This made Josh really excited for his own baptism next year. I still can't believe he is getting that old! That was some family togetherness all day, but it was fun.

On a side note today in primary all the kids moved up a class. Matthew's teachers from last year worked so well with him they moved them up with Matthew which I am glad about. Josh and Daniel seem to enjoy their new teachers as well. As for nursery we lost 9 kids to Sunbeams, but our nursery still has at least 18 active kids on the roll with more to come in as the year progresses. This makes for pure craziness during nursery. Since I am in nursery I just take Sarah in there with me, but she is starting to turn in to the jealous type. If I tried to hold anyone else she burst into tears and tried to climb into my lap to assert her position. She then stayed right by my side to make sure no one could get into my lap, either. I think we may have some issues when the new baby gets here. What do you think?

Bowling the New Contact Sport

Yesterday was staycation day #3. We let the kids vote and decide on what the day's activities would be. They all voted and agreed on going bowling again. When we got to the bowling lanes they were pretty busy so we had to wait for about 45 minutes to even get started. In that 45 minutes we browsed around the arcade and played a few games of Air Hockey and Ski-Ball. Josh was doing great at Air Hockey until we caught on to his strategy. He figured out that if he kept his coat on he could put his sleeved arm in front of the goal and block any and all attempts by his opponent. We put a stop to that as soon as we figured out what was going on. Gotta keep an eye on that kid!! When it was our turn to start bowling we got all situated and started playing. A few frames into the game Daniel got a good score and was running back to the table to show us. Right before he got to the table he tripped and smacked his mouth right on the edge of the table. He instantly got a huge fat lip and loosened his front tooth. I guess the Tooth Fairy will be coming to him sooner than later. Hopefully, his front tooth won't die and turn into an abscess like Matthew's did. If that happens he will need his front teeth pulled and go around front toothless for a while. I guess there could be worse things right?!? Here's some pictures:

Staycation Day #2

Yesterday was day #2 and we decided to take the kids sledding. Last time we went the kids had so much fun and we thought that would be the same yesterday as well. We were sorely mistaken. Sarah started screaming and didn't stop from the time we got her out of the car to the time we walked through the door at home after everything was done. I guess that set the mood for everyone else since all they wanted to do was scream and cry too with the exception of Matthew who actually seemed to enjoy himself. Good thing we didn't go too far from home because the park by our house has a huge grass amphitheater which makes for a fun sledding hill that's big enough but not too big for little kids. I even tried a few runs with the kids, but my belly is getting big enough that I really don't fit on the sled very well anymore. We were only there for maybe 30 minutes until Aaron and I couldn't take the whining and crying anymore so we came home. The pictures don't even come close to showing all the whining and crying they were doing.

Later on that night we spent New Year's Eve at a friend's house. The kids didn't stay awake until midnight which surprised me. Matthew went to sleep first since he is Mr. Routine and had to go to bed at 7pm--good thing we brought a sleeping bag and pillow for him just in case. Josh and Daniel ended up finding some blankets and pillows from our host's house and falling asleep on the floor. Josh and Daniel lasted the longest not falling asleep until about 11pm. Sarah stayed up with the rest of us until midnight and amazingly was happy for the most part. After midnight we brought the kids home and put them to bed. Aaron and I were still awake and we thought the kids would sleep in the next morning we stayed up and played the Wii for a little while. I was wrong about the kids sleeping in the next morning. I was awakened by Josh turning on all the lights so he could eat breakfast at 7am. I came downstairs and found Josh had woken up Daniel, but Daniel just came upstairs with his blanket and curled back up and fell back asleep on the couch. I picked him up and tried to take him back to bed, but he loudly protested that he was not tired--um, right. Matthew got up about that time too as well as Sarah. It looks like we will have a bunch of Chuckles--aka ornery kids--today so we will have to play today by ear and see how much we will be able to do before we can't handle the whining and crying anymore. I can forsee some quiet time in our futures today;). HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! Wow it's already 2010. I think that's pretty crazy!

Our Staycation--Day #1

I just noticed we are 20 weeks along in the pregnancy--Yikes!! Have I mentioned I am not ready for this new baby?!? Anyway, back to topic--Aaron wanted to take a few days off around Christmas and New Years so we could go on a mini vacation since we won't be able to go too many places this summer with a newborn in tow. Unfortunately, a bunch of people at Aaron's work thought it would be a good idea to do some big testing on the lab Aaron was working on. That meant Aaron had to either be on call or at work and stay close enough so he could go into work if he was really needed--which did happen a few times. So instead of going anywhere we decided to stay local and have a staycation instead. Monday and part of Tuesday Aaron had to go into work, but except for a few calls on Wednesday he has been around so we have been living it up--well as much as you can live it up with 4 kids who all really like their regular schedules. Wednesday we decided to take the kids to play some galactic mini golf. It is a mini golf course lit with only black lights. Good thing we were the only ones inside the course because Josh and Matthew waited for no one and about finished the course while Aaron and I were still on hole #5. Daniel didn't care too much for the course since he thought it was too scary, dark and loud inside. Sarah just hung out in her stroller and tried to take a nap since it was so dark. Afterward we went and did a game of bowling. I am very embarrassed to say I came in 4th place out of five players including my 6 and 8 year old who beat me. Daniel only came within a few points of my score as well. Let's just say bowling is not my forte. We then went and grabbed a late lunch and came back home and had a Wii party--which happens to not be my forte either. The kids like to play with Dad because he is better, which means funner, to play with. Here's a picture of Daniel showing his distaste for the galactic golf with Josh and Matthew in the background trying to get their golf balls in the hole.

Here's a picture of Daniel trying to bowl up the gutter by accident. This must have take some special skills because the bumpers were up at the time.