Dear Family and Friends,

Robyn's birthday week has officially started.  For some reason this birthday party and all the events associated with this week have been building up in her mind for months.  She and her friend Luke are here decorating her poster for her to be star of the week in her kindergarten class.  She also had to design a flag, answer a questionnaire, bring in a box of show and tell and bring treats in on her birthday.  Add that to being sung to in Primary and getting a bag of gumballs (because she "chews" the right), and having a party on Monday and she has been literally giddy.  Now I just hope everything lives up to her expectations!  She wanted a 'Tangled' party and luckily we have a sister-in-law Mimi and several on-line sites that had some great ideas.  Only thing I am nervous about doing is the floating lanterns but I am delegating that part to Jeremy.


Three times a week Robyn comes home to find McArthur here to play with.  She said that she hates babies except for McArthur because he is cute.  He really is like her own Cabbage Patch doll and she follows him everywhere.

Spencer's friend across the street broke his leg quite badly last week when all the kids were out riding on bikes.  As a result Robyn has dug up my crutches and has been using them all week.  Walking around Walmart with her hopping next to me made me very grateful this was not a permanent thing in my life.  In fact one day this week Taylor's wheelchair lift on his bus broke so I had to take him to school.  McArthur was already here so he came with us.  Pushing Taylor and carrying a carseat, brought back a lot of memories and made me wonder how I ever did that.  And made me grateful for all those people who helped me during those times in my life.

Spencer took this photo for me as he and Allison were laughing at the situation.  Kids were going to bed, I was settled on the couch for a TV show, apple and peanut butter in hand with Jeremy sewing his light box project.  Glad I wasn't the only one to see the humor of it.  Jeremy had two photo events this week, one for fun that he enjoyed and one for a job that was a challenge he was glad to be able to accomplish.  It still amazes me that this talent of his is something he discovered and has developed all within our married life.

Taylor is doing well.  He has grown - a lot.  I thought it was just my imagination but today Jeremy pointed out that earlier this year he was at my chin.  Now he is right below my eyes.  Plus he is getting heavier.  I refuse to believe that we are getting weaker.  To help fuel all this growth Taylor has decided to eat as much as we can give him.  This seems to have solved his digestive issues and left us with the unfortunate part of doing lots of laundry and more frequent diaper changes.  But a happy, healthy Taylor is worth it.  I finally put out a classified ad for a respite worker this week.  I got a few responses but when I sent out a more detailed message describing the job I didn't get one response.  Makes me worry that I scared them off!  So I will try calling them this week to see if I can make it not seem so bad.  Spencer and Allison do a good job of babysitting but they can't change Taylor or feed him.

This week I painted the toilet room part of the kids' bathroom.  I did not realize how bad it was until I started.  I am thinking less of my cleaning skills now and hoping the paint has anti-fungal properties.  So their bathroom is now neon green as we had paint left over from Allison's room.  Now I just need to paint the door from when Rocky scratched it up a few years ago.  For some reason this time of year I seem to notice all the dents, marks and dirt that need to be fixed up everywhere.

On Thursday I packed kids up to go see a dance outreach program of Labyrinth.  They only did an hour of the show and would stop to explain and talk to the kids about what was going on.  Spencer looked at me after five minutes to say with a disgusted look, "its' all ballet".  He had been quite excited to see a production of the Labyrinth.  Obviously he missed the part about "Wasatch ballet company presents...the labyrinth".  So for pizza and movie night we had to watch the movie of it.  Kids talked it up to their friends so we had a few extra kids over.  It was a nostalgia weekend as Saturday night we watched Back to the Future.  Luckily Robyn was oblivious to all the swear words as she was busy coloring her poster in the kitchen.  Why do 80's movies have so many swear words? Spencer said in the olden days, ie the 80s people smoked and swore a lot because they didn't know better.  Made me feel so ancient.

Allison continues on with basketball.  She came home Wednesday night with a bloody nose from getting hit in the face with a ball.  I guess at practice all but two girls got hurt.  It was a rough practice.  This week Allison and I worked on a skirt for her to wear to church.  She wore it today and we have decided we need to re-do some things.

We still have no snow but there are hints of a snow-storm coming tomorrow.  We have enjoyed the warm front all week that comes in front of a storm.  Yesterday kids were running outside without coats or jackets.  Taylor laid on the grass clapping and chirping while I pruned some bushes.  It just feels wrong to say its January but I am soaking up every moment afraid it will end.  We even opened up all our windows to air out the place.

Spencer took a photo with his touch for me

Spencer got his touch back Saturday after loosing it for the last month and a half due to poor grades in some of his classes.  But it is a new term, so he is back at straight A's.  It is up to him to keep them there.  Allison has been using Jeremy's old phone whenever she can so the amount of devices being used in our house is a little ridiculous.  The other day her friend Alena, Allison and Spencer were all in a row texting to each other.  Enough to make me kick them all outside and deny the reality of what is coming.

Kids have long abandoned the sugar free month, but I am hanging in there.  Don't know how much it actually improves our eating habits but it sure wakes me up to how much sugar our family takes in every day.  Robyn was in tears this morning because there were no chocolate chips in her pancakes.  Figure its a good reality check for everyone.

Love to you all and will post lots of pictures next week of Robyn's birthday excitement.

Heather