Dear Friends and Family,

Mom's happy dance was cut short this week. Sunday I noticed that Allison had a rash on her forehead which was pretty round and not looking like eczema or a scratch. It didn't look so bad so I sent her off with Jeremy to her Great to be 8 Fireside. She giggled with her friends, ate a bunch of cookies and was suitably impressed with the responsibility of turning 8 and what it means. Despite a late night she and Spencer were up bright and early Monday morning ready to go back to school. Robyn had to be dragged kicking and screaming from her crib - those sleeping in days from Christmas can be quite addictive. I did a little jig in the parking lot and Robyn and I made a mammoth shopping run to Costco before the snow storm broke. Then we started getting calls from the school. I had told Allison I wondered if her rash was ring worm. The school was very concerned and separated Allison (without letting her know) from the other kids and asked her to stay at home till the rash was gone. So we went into her pediatrician who said it was ringworm and gave us a stronger anti-fungal cream for it. School policy was that Allison had to stay home for 2 days.

So we spent some quality female bonding time at our house for a few days. Allison and Robyn butted heads as Robyn thought Dora was the only show to watch while I ran while Allison vehemently disagreed. During my Relief Society meeting at our house it was a little screaming match before they realized there were 2 T.V.s in our house and then peace prevailed. Allison kept asking why I was cleaning so much and was surprised to hear that that's what I always did - guess she just thought it magically happened! She was a little disgruntled with the unexciting aspects of helping me at home and was very happy to go back to school on Thursday with a bandage on her forehead so no one would come into contact with her rash. Its looking a lot better and hasn't spread anywhere else so I am hoping one more week and it will be over. Allison was feeling like a leper and very picked upon. But now she has a pretty good attitude about it. And the school has been careful not to talk to the other kids about it although Allison cheerfully tells all the other kids and they just think its cool or gross depending on the gender.

This week our kids realized that they hadn't gotten paid for a while. And they had the brainstorm that they could use their money to do things. So they made arrangements to go to the movies with friends, asked me to be their driver and started seriously bugging Jeremy about payday. So he stayed up late one night working on accounting and got checks into their outstretched hands. Robyn got 2 quarters because she demanded HER money - which was promptly spent at the bank's candy machines. Spencer and his friend originally wanted to go to the movies by themselves and have me just drop them off. Said that was a no go until he was 12 but I did agree to sit in the lobby with a book while they watched. But then Allison thought it was such a good idea, she and her friend wanted to go. So I went with the girls and we pretended that we did not know who the boys sitting on the other side of the theater were. So all were happy even Robyn who enjoyed having her dad all to herself.

Saturday the kids invited their friends who used to live next door over for the afternoon. They had a messy, loud ball of a time. Jeremy left the chaos for a photo meeting with a smile on his face and missed most of the fun! Then Jeremy and I that night go to go to the temple and out to dinner.

OK I wrote a bunch more after this but blogger just deleted it all!!! Very frustrating. Jeremy's family is coming over for dinner so I need to get cooking on Mrs Reese's noodles. So to sum up: Robyn is very excited about her birthday party and we did invitations this week. I finished Robyn's curtains although they don't look quite right yet. I need to get the pleats in. We had a huge snowstorm of over a foot in 24 hours. Lots of shoveling! And for the new year we are reading the Book of Mormon as a family to meet our stake's goals. Its going well so far although Robyn REALLY struggles with not acting up during our reading time. Pictures to follow and love you all, Heather





Allison has some creative pronunciations at time but I am surprised at how well she can read.



This is how Robyn usually looks during our scripture time. Can't you just see her mind deciding what trouble to cause next?





A rare moment of Robyn looking interested.






I tried cutting Robyn's hair to hid the worst of the damage. A short very layered bob with periodic bald spots was the result.