Dear Family and Friends,

We finally have sunny skies and the kids are being kicked outside. Robyn is always begging for "backyard". Spencer has discovered a neighbor's trampoline while Allison is busy creating "creations" out of sticks and branches.

Monday the kids were out of school and after the fun weekend with Daniel and Mimi were happy to hang out at home. My neighbor broke her tibia so we are having her daughter Mia over every Monday, Wednesday and Friday for a while. Mia is Robyn's special friend so Robyn is ecstatic. Spencer wrenched his neck on the tramp and came home from school Tuesday because he cried every time he turned his head. It was a good warning to me that I better have a good plan in place before summer starts. My suggestion to complaints of boredom that our kids need to clean the bathrooms or other jobs to occupy their time was not met with smiles of approval.

Tuesday I had all my cavities filled on my right side. This week I do my left. Its pretty bad when the dentist takes an x-ray to check on one cavity and finds out that it has spread to the tooth next to it. I have never had fillings done in the front of my mouth. I swear the shot of Novocaine enters the nasal cavity. I usually can suck up the pain but that sharp inner nose pain just brought tears flooding down my face. I will be glad after this next week to be done with the dentist for awhile.

Wednesday was Garion's birthday and he had a party at Chuck-e-cheese that Allison and Spencer were invited to. It was a late night for those two but they had a great time. Allison didn't want me to stay the whole time - she has a fear of being different than other kids. So I happily went shopping at the mall across the street for an hour. Allison was thrilled as I bought her some new clothes. All our kids seem to be shooting up lately. I don't think its t-shirt and short weather but Allison seems to be impervious to the cold as long as she has on her new clothes - the price of beauty I guess.

Taylor has a cold right now and is happy even with the periodic snot eruptions. I never knew what a blessing having a kid being able to blow their nose is. With the sun coming out Taylor has become more vocal and has been giggling at school again. He must be growing as he now has stretch marks forming on his thighs. Its hard to believe in 2 months he will be in young men's - we have been debating how to make that work the best.

Allison has had many play dates this week. Last night Jeremy and her went to Meredith's dance recital. With the late night and then daylight savings time emotions are running close to the surface today. For example she had to carry her own coat home from church today and you would have thought the world was ending or at least stitches were required. She loves her swimming class and can now backstroke 12 yards. She can only do 8 yards frontstroke with side breathing and then she needs to doggy paddle for awhile and get her breath back. Friday night she had a friend over for pizza and movie night and we watched Enchanted. She taught Robyn how at every kiss she needs to cover her eyes and say eww - of course only one eye is covered so they can eagerly watch the screen with the other.

Spencer struggles at times with his strange fixations or ideas but overall is doing good. He just gets very anxious over things you wouldn't think were important. He went Friday night with Jeremy and bought himself a watch which he is very proud of. He is very conscious of what time it is or when things should happen. On the plus side he is getting to places on time or early lately. This week is his play about which he is very excited.

Robyn is just a lot of energy and curiousity in a little body. She doesn't walk to places she runs. Yesterday we got a call from our neighbor that Robyn had sneaked over there wearing Allison's coat and shoes and had asked to play. She throws little tantrums now when she doesn't want to do something. She tells long stories that you can sort of get the gist of if you listen carefully. In church it hit me again how much she watches other's behavior. She got out the hymn book and sang along - very loudly - her version of the song. Then she put it back and hopped back up to fold her arms. I was beaming with pride until the sacrament reaches her, she reverently takes a piece, puts it in her mouth and decides it didn't taste right, so she spat it back into the tray and reached for another piece. We're the entertainment for the row behind us.

Jeremy has been immersing himself lately in photography more. He started a new flickr group to share how they create different images and photos. He was able to get a hold of the electrician this week so Sam is finishing up the electrical work downstairs for us so we can start progressing on the basement. As I contemplate Jeremy being gone for 3 weeks in May having access to a treadmill and a set of weights downstairs sounds really good.

I have been reading a lot lately. It must be all the junk mystery/romance books I check out lately. I was excited Friday to have our washer/dryer delivered. The idea of being able to get through more than 1 or 2 loads a day sounds wonderful - but I will have to adjust my routines now. Yesterday Robyn and I got to take Lauri out to run some errands then to lunch at Kneaders. Robyn got some packs of butter, a knife and a few pieces of bread and was in heaven. I decided to branch out from my cheesecake festish and had carrot cake - really good, they do a mixture of whipped cream and cream cheese for frosting. Robyn dropped her knife on seeing the cake and wouldn't stop asking for more cake after that.

My goal this week is to finish painting our bedroom. I pulled out all the furniture yesterday to help motivate me. It feels strange to sleep in a bed in the middle of a room and not against a wall. I am off to read a bunch of spiderwick and hopefully watch Spencer and Allison drift off for a nap - they are so beat. Love to you all, Heather

PS I will try loading pictures later, I am having trouble with them