Dear Family and Friends,

Rough start this morning. Jeremy came downstairs to find Mickey torturing Storm, Allison's hamster. He rescued Storm just to watch him do his death spasms for a few minutes and for Allison to be woken up to say good-bye. As you can imagine there were lots of tears this morning. Storm is currently curled up in a small box on our counter awaiting a hamster funeral. He has lasted 2 1/2 years which is a record in our house. There has been lots of second guessing as to how the hamster got out. Spencer has come up with some creative ideas on how to punish the cats until he was informed that gruesome cruelties were not OK to even talk about. So instead he and Allison broke out his forensic science kit to look for clues. Much better channel for all the emotions around here.

This has been a week of high emotions. I will start with the bad so I can finish with the good. Friday was not the best of days. It also made me realize what a good man I am married to! Let me set it up for you by telling you that Jeremy has been bringing in lunch every day and working at his desk. Without his usual hour break of going out to eat and talking with his co-workers it makes for some long days of hard work and stress. Thursday after spending an hour waiting at the dentist and taking the boys to school late, Spencer had his new retainer. Thursday afternoon I picked up Spencer's new prescription to find out that our co-pay was $260, just for one of his meds. Thursday night Jeremy spent the evening making posters for a stake event for me.

Then dawned Friday. Snowstorm blew in so everything was icy and wet. Robyn continued her week long streak of spending breakfast time either whining or crying. Spencer had a ski trip with his class which he was excited for and left with high emotions and forgetting all his stuff. So Jeremy ran him back to get his gloves etc. He had a great day snowboarding and then spent the afternoon shoveling the basketball court so he could practice for his game. Jeremy showed the condo then ran to Costco to pick up the poster prints he had made for me. Had to wait an hour an a half as they were 3 hours late getting them ready. Then he comes home to find Robyn had ripped off one of our kitchen cabinets. We just have to smile about how when you are trying to save money, it always comes up that things break etc. Then we looked at Spencer's mouth and asked where his new retainer was. Much wailing, gnashing of teeth resulted. It had been less than 24 hours! We think he left it on the bus to go up to Park City. After all the screaming, crying and self-recriminations we sit stunned on the couch trying not to be angry. We had talked so much about how with this 3rd retainer he needed to always put it in his case if it wasn't in his mouth. And of course he chose not to bring his case with him. Then just as we start watching Fame, Allison comes down to show us how she broke her glasses. Movie was so bad we just turned it off, had to laugh at how bad things had gotten and went to bed. Best part of the evening. Saturday was MUCH better.

So now on to the good stuff:

Robyn is officially 4. On Monday there was no school so we had 12 little girls and boys over and 4 "helpers". There was no real theme as Robyn wanted to do a hodge pile of events. Spencer and Allison and their friends divided up all the activities and they were in charge. It was great as they all had a good time. Spencer, Conner and Garion set up all the play-dough. Helped the kids make their shapes and then cleaned it up afterward. Girls directed puppet making and making necklaces. The boys taught them how to play duck, duck goose. I just had to supervise and cut the cake. Robyn then went home with her cousin Kayla and Garion stayed here. So we spent the afternoon cleaning up while the boys had a wii fest. Made a bunch of cupcakes for Robyn to take to preschool. Picked up Allison from gym where she said all the bending hurt her stomach and drove out to pick up Robyn and drop off Garion. On the way I hear those horrible sounds from the backseat that just makes me gag. Yep, Allison lost it. Luckily she aimed into an empty glass so the puke didn't go everywhere. And then she spent the evening and early morning hours in her bed and in the bathroom. I am so grateful that she is old enough to make it to the toilet and take care of herself without waking me up. Early morning puke calls are at the top of my hate to do list.

Tuesday we sent Taylor off to school and took Robyn to a friend's for the morning. Spencer, Allison, Jeremy and I headed up to Ogden for my Grandma's funeral. I have already told all my siblings all the details but it was really a nice day. The early morning sleet and snow pushed away the inversion so the afternoon at the Salt Lake Cemetery was full of blue skies and sunshine. It was neat to see all my extended family as its been a couple of years with most of them. And I was able to remember how much of an influence my grandparents had in my life.

Robyn had a great birthday playing with friends and going to preschool. She opened her family presents that night and we all enjoyed left over cupcakes. She went to bed a very tired and happy girl. And that chased away any lingering sadness I was feeling over the day.

Rest of the week is the regular laughter, tears, work and sometimes play that makes up our lives. Allison still enjoys her dance classes and has one more gymnastics class. Spencer got to dress up and go home teaching with Jeremy. He was in charge of a game for the little kids. We have been cleaning out Spencer's room prepatory to painting it. It has been a gross experience and we will NEVER let his room get to that state again! Kids had a Primary activity. Spencer had basketball practice and a game. Jeremy and I were able to go do sealings. Our neighbor was in a horrific car accident so we were able to bring them dinner.

It was just one of those weeks that was good but sort of left you feeling shell shocked. Thank goodness everyone is willing to laugh about things and that tomorrow is always another day! Love to you all. Lots of pictures to follow.

Heather



Spencer took this video so its a little choppy.

Still doing yoga. Robyn loves "helping" me.

Tuesday morning Robyn channeling Dr. Seuss is ready for the day.



Allison made Robyn a crown to wear for her party.