Dear Friends and Family,
Yep, we knew it was only a matter of time. In retrospect I am surprised we made it 10 years. But Monday Spencer flipped off his skateboard (don't worry Mom, none of your ramps were involved!) and landed on his wrist. Once all the screaming and dramatics were over we thought it might just be a bad sprain because it wasn't swollen too badly, he could move it everywhere and didn't complain if we touched it. A little scenario of the boy who cried wolf - hard to believe he was really hurt. Called the doctor and they said give it a day and see how he does. Gave him some tylenol and sent him to bed. The next day it seemed like it was getting better but we wrapped it in an ace bandage and sent him off to school with some more tylenol. Checked on him mid-day and he thought it didn't hurt too badly. But after school Allison ran by and brushed his arm and you would have thought the world was ending. So Jeremy took off work early to do gymnastics duty with the girls and Spencer and I visited the pediatrican and then the radiologist. Turns out he broke the radius vertically and the ulna horizontally. They were all impressed with his pain tolerance. Then they sent us home (never knew a broken bone was such a LONG process). Next day after calls back and forth with the pediatrician (and Spencer impatiently waiting at school, we're such mean parents) we took him to an orthopedic surgeon that afternoon. Decided the bones were in the right position for now so they casted him. It was the season for broken bones as they were out of blue and camo and only had 1 black left. Spencer was thrilled with his cast and has been busy getting signatures ever since. We went and got frosty's to celebrate his cast and Allison's bravery (more to follow on that). We go back in a week for another x-ray to make sure no pins or maniuplation is needed. He warned Spencer that his cast would start to stink no matter what he did. It took an hour the first night to get Spencer in the shower because he was so worried that he would stink at school the next day from the cast getting wet.
So we have had a week of an onery Spencer. Jeremy that first night made a comment about how I would be eating a lot more chocolate the next few weeks. Spencer couldn't figure out why! He really has been good about it although it still bothers him and he gets cranky at his awkwardness and inability to do things. It hit the other day that he couldn't skateboard, run, karate etc for a couple of weeks to prevent falls. That was a real downer for him.
You know how when you run longer than you are used to you get that feeling of pushing your body beyond its normal limits although you know its capable of doing it? This week has felt like that in a emotional/physical sense. Just the feeling like my patience, tolerance and endurance is being called on more than usual. I thought I was just being wimpy about things but Jeremy confirmed to me today that our kids are being a lot more in my face wanting things this week. Not bad, just wanting me to look at them, talk to them, listen to them with full on attention. I think they have some plan where they coordinate their speech/acitvities so there isn't even room to draw a breath before the next one starts. Waiting outside the bathroom tapping their feet or in Robyn's case coming in with her friend while I am in a bath because she can't wait a minute for me to grab a towell. I am working on giving them eye contact and stopping whatever I am doing when they talk in the hopes that when they realize they are getting 100% of my attention it will lessen the need to have it 100% of the time!
Really it was a good week, just full. First part of this week was full of sunshine, last part was full of rain clouds. I think someone dumped a bag of weed seeds in our yard but I get a bucket or two now and then and hope to catch up someday.
On Wednesday Allison had a dentist appointment to fix 2 cavities. It was the first time she has had to have shots and she was extremely nervous. She said a prayer and held my hand tightly, got her nitrous oxide and did great. Then she and Taylor (thankfully a friend kidnapped Robyn for the afternoon) got to watch Spencer get his cast. The ortho did a fake cast on Allison and she spent the rest of the evening putting herself and her friend in bandages. Allison has spent her days playing with friends and devouring a new series called pixie tricks that I picked up for her at the library. On Friday night we made a late dash to Target to buy her some running shoes. Then Saturday morning she and I got up early to do a 5k for her school - her idea! She and her friend walked with a periodic 10 second sprint trying to pretent that I and her friend's mom Monica were not walking behind them. It was the slowest 5k ever - 1 hour and 5 minutes. Picking flowers and talking takes up a lot of time! They had a breakfast afterwards and we won a 3 month membership to American Fork's rec center - they have a pool so our summer is now set! Then the 2 girls since their slow pace hadn't tired them out begged to walk the 2 miles home. So I walked home with them. Took us an HOUR!!! Exercise in slow motion. Halfway home Allison fell and skinned up her knees and elbows so she got a piggy back the rest of the way with the periodic high pitched wail in my ear. She has been very proud that she walked 5 miles in one day. I just try to smile and bite my tongue.
Robyn is getting better at toilet training. She still has that periodic accident but I don't know about till I trace the smell. I find soaked clothes in the corner of her room or a bunch of used wipes in the trash and a rinsed out pair of underwear in the laundry basket. Trying to be helpful! We are putting lots of soap on her hands right now. Late Thursday night I was told I needed to drive for Spencer's field trip Friday. So Robyn and 4 boys piled into our van to drive to Camp Floyd and then a western museum. Robyn had a great time with the boys teasing her. She wore a big headband all day so they would know she was a girl. I don't think I could be an elementary teacher as field trips just get me ready for bed!
Friday night we hosted a dinner group for our ward's activity. Thursday we found out that some dinner groups had fallen apart so we inherited a few more people and then Friday afternoon got another couple. So we had a big party! Ended up with 3 people being assigned to bring desserts so Cafe Rio salads and then a dessert buffet - how can you lose? Our kids didn't think an adult party was too fun but they hid in the basement watching cartoons for us.
Jeremy's EQ meeting Wednesday night kept him up thinking a lot. So Thursday he decided to take a mental health afternoon and clean up his office downstairs. There used to be piles of boxes everywhere in his office and hallway. It is all gone! Either put away, trashed or DI'd. So nice! Saturday night we were both tired out from the week so we ran errands (got Jeremy's new glasses ordered! bought wedding reception presents and took Lauri her jewelry box), got a free Mexican meal off Jeremy's punch card and watched a movie at Jeremy's office. Its true that it doesn't matter what we do, its just being able to be awake and in the same room without kids. Doesn't happen that often these days!
Taylor is doing well. He has been going outside and walking a lot at school and comes home smelling of sunblock and smiling away. Friday he went and walked around Thanksgiving Point gardens and came home to crash and nap. This week on Thursday he is going into the surgical center to have his teeth cleaned the remainder of his baby teeth pulled. I am hoping that it will be a repeat of last time he had general anesthesia where he stopped having seizures for a few months. See how it goes!
Tomorrow we are cleaning out the trailer as next weekend is our first camping trip of the year. Kids are very excited. 5 other families are coming so lots of kids will be there. Think some trailer hopping will be going on .
Love to you all. I am going to go curl up with my new book and some chocolate from my stash.
Heather
Dear Friends and Family,
Lots of good things this week and a bunch of bad ones. The story of our lives, it seems. It was spring break so kids were very excited to be out of school. Monday we schmoozed around the house, played with friends and enjoyed the sunshine. The rest of the week looked like this:
Tuesday was rainy and by Wednesday we were a winter wonderland! But by Friday it was melting and Saturday we spent the day working on the yard.
For Spring break we really were a bunch of lazy slobs, sleeping in every morning till 8 at least. Allison by Friday was not moving till 10 am. and then thought she should stay in PJs and eat cereal from a box even longer. It was a good reminder to myself of what to gear up for with summer. Monday evening the girls helped me set up for an old ladies' luncheon put on by the stake. It brought back memories as they "rode" on the serving cart passing out the salt and pepper shakers and laying out the silverware upside down. Tuesday I took them all grocery shopping and realized that yes I can do this! Spencer pushed Taylor, Allison entertained Robyn while I manned the cart and tried to prevent too many "want to have it junk foods" from making it into the cart. We all celebrated the realization that we could go grocery shopping for the week together by getting sodas afterwards. It sounds like such a small outing but I am pretty wimpy and for me it was huge. Wednesday we had the cousins over for a play day - all had a good time. Thursday we headed to the children's museum. Robyn loves it, Allison thinks its OK and Spencer thinks he needs to do something more grown-up. So he chased Robyn around with a camera for me. He thought that was fun and tried to be a spy while doing it. One of his picts:
Friday we headed to the zoo once the snow melted. With the cold weather the place was pretty deserted. Spencer tried to have some "this isn't cool enough" attitude:
But he couldn't help cheering up with the sun and the animals:
The girls were in heaven, especially Robyn who walked everywhere despite me pushing the big double stroller. Allison realized when she got out of the car that she hadn't brought a sweatshirt despite me asking her to bring one several times. So she froze not wanting to wear mine because she didn't think it was cool enough. But then she got cold enough or enough self confidence to think it might look neat after all. Where do they get these self-esteem issues? Not like I with my buck teeth and coke bottle glasses and early height and boobs EVER struggled with those!
I was reminded that you cannot seriously walk by a carausel with a 3 year old and not give her a ride. While putting her on her grasshopper I got a close look at the side of her head and realized her hair wasn't tucked behind her ear - it just wasn't there!
After I had done her hair and was running on the treadmill she took scizzors to herself and Rocky. Found clumps of hair hidden by the back door when we got home that afternoon. Robyn obviously was not phased by my scolding:
That night I tried to trim it. Couldn't decide which was worse short all over or mullet style instead. So I did the very short, can you tell its a girl type haircut. Pretty sad.
I am going to invest in some big headbands and bows this week and hope I can keep them in her hair.
One of the big downs this week was finishing up all our taxes and having to write enormous checks and watching our hard won savings go down. And then having to prepay next year's taxes for the first quarter. Just very hard to do.
One of the big ups is that we got our new van. Its a metallic slate green (it really looks more like a light blue) Honda Odyssey. Our kids were almost more excited than I was. It has a DVD player in it so our 2 trips to SLC were one of the highlights of the week. Even Taylor chirps away in his new big captain chair and Spencer is enjoying not being drooled on.
Saturday we worked at cleaning the yard. Jeremy labored on the lawn which can no longer could be called flat as mowing feels more like you're walking on a roller coaster. He scraped up all the dead pee spots from Rocky, shaking his head. That night for our date after the temple we went out and bought these supplements that are supposed to help. See if our lawn improves. I am trying to focus on how many weeds we have pulled out instead of looking at how many are left. It just felt so good to be outside again and have the faint sunburn on the head to prove it.
Robyn has her ups and downs with the whole toilet training. She will do great for a couple of days and then have several "accidents" requiring me to do loads of laundry and crawl around on the floor sniffing to find the pee spots versus the tea set got dumped out spots. Not my finest moments. Kayla informed me that her mom never gets mad at her when she pees on the carpet. Since I swear Robyn does it on purpose sometimes, I felt like my anger was justified but decided I better tone it down if my neice if lecturing me on it! I just keep trying and assume someday it will all click.
Allison has another loose tooth, has a new set of American Girl doll books to read from the library and amazes me with her ability to tune the world out when she reads (wonder where she gets that from?). She built a snowman Wednesday for us.
Spencer has had a super up day today bringing me flowers and random hugs. Makes up for the down days earlier! He wants so hard to do grown-up, cool things. We went to the library Monday and he only wanted to check out the adult mystery section - everything else was too "babyish". So he is reading a collection of Agatha Christie books and the like. See if he realizes the young adult/junior section really is more his speed. I remember at the age reading all the Alfred Hitchcock books in the library so it must be something about 4th grade. This week reminds me I need to work on the idea of toning down the neediness. Seriously hours will go by where he has not left my side and just want to constantly talk, ask questions etc. Its great for a while but after a few hours you just hide in the toilet and tell him he can't talk to you for a few minutes till you come out. So he sits on the floor outside, tapping his feet, just waiting! Need to build up my patience I guess.
Taylor has been happy and cheerful since the sun came out Friday and visibly perks up when we go outside.
Jeremy had a city ask to use one of his rodeo pictures for their city rodeo publicity which I thought was cool. He was able to go help out with a photo class this week which he enjoyed. Tonight watching him make a fire for the kids' to do s'mores and then helping them dunk the basketball just reminded me of how much he tries to balance everything out. A hard job sometimes around here. Saturday Jeremy tried to take pictures of the girls for a project Christina was working on. Allison was especially ornery about being too big to dress up like a fairy and Robyn tried to copy her attitude. But I thought he did amazingly well considering the attitudes he was working with. You can see the pictures here:
http://gogetphotos.com/gallery/7945636_z2evC
My life is just keeping on top of everyone else's and periodically sneaking away to eat chocolate and read a chapter or two of a new book. I ran to Jeremy's office yesterday to meet everyone to clean it. It felt so good to be able to run outside although today I can't touch my toes - muscles are a little tight. This coming Saturday Allison and I are running a 5k for her school. See how it goes. And the best news for the end is that Meredith is going to be staying around for another year!! Yeah, we are all doing happy dances.
A few more pictures and love to you all, Heather
Robyn at the city easter egg hunt. Jeremy was with the big kid section.
Dying easter eggs. Went extremely fast. Next year I need to come up with some more elaborate designs so the process takes longer
Heather covered the updates, so I will just share a few photos from the day. Enjoy.
Jeremy
Dear Friends and Family,
This week started off with a whimper. Me sitting in bed hearing Robyn get out of bed yet again. I realized that what was bringing me so low was realizing what I was loosing - "me" time. With her new bed Robyn decided she no longer needed to sleep and didn't think she should waste any valuable playing time by staying in bed either. And with the lack of sleep came the general crankiness, tantrums and constantly in your face talking or whining that drives a strong woman to some serious chocolate binging with "mom, mom, what are you eating, mom can I have some, can I, can I, can I". Even my exercise time became one of exasperation. No longer was she content to sit in the next room for her special cartoon time. She needed to be swinging on the treadmill or jumping on my stomach while I did sit-ups.
Tuesday night I gave myself a little slap up on the side of the head to stop mourning the easiness of yesterday and work on today. So Wednesday I ran laps around the gymnastics building during her class to get the endorphins flowing and spent nap time sitting guard on her door and putting her back into bed constantly till after 2 hours I quit. Wednesday night was a repeat of the same till she fell asleep shortly before I crashed. I started reviewing my tough moma mantras. My mom used to be called the "tough grandma" by my kids (said in a very loving, respectful way of course :) ) but there would have been no sneaking out of bed with her on board!
Thursday night Jeremy was home while I was running some secretive Easter errands. After a major tantrum he put Robyn to bed and said with the force and conviction that I obviously lacked that she better go to sleep and stay in bed! And she did. Friday, life was calm and relatively screaming/tantrum free again. She even took a nap for me! Life was so good. Our house was clean, I was able to run on the treadmill. I am sure this marks the end of happy nappy time every afternoon but I will continue to clean to the hope of happy nappy time and early bedtimes for as long as I can.
This week was full of the odds and end trivial activities that keep our lives busy. Monday I abandoned my massive piles of laundry and quickly worked through our grocery list (it had reached emergency status as I was informed by everyone in our family that a stick of butter was no substitute for a tub. Toast is just not the same unless you can spread it.) Then we enjoyed the glimpse of the sun and worked outside. We cleaned out the playhouse and got it all set up for the summer. Only Peter probably appreciates the effort of that sentence as he saw the effects of having a flock of birds and a bag of sunflower seed spend Christmas day in there. Then we shoveled copious amounts of dog poop so we could mow for the first time of the year. That only uncovered more copious amounts of dog poop that had been hidden in the jungle of our yard. Spencer was slacking this winter on the scoop patrol! Went out whenever the rain stopped this week to pull weeds but you really can't tell the difference yet. It hit me Sunday night as Robyn and I did a walk surveying the yard what work I needed to tackle. This time of the year it is always exciting to get outside but the task always seems a little overwhelming. Oh well, maybe I will revert to my mom's more "natural" gardening look. It always seems to look beautiful for her!
On a funny note with the poop patrol. Saturday I came home to find Jeremy vacuuming the whole house and kids diligently cleaning away. So nice! (Best part is that they were doing all that while I was using a christmas gift certificate for a massage!) But Spencer had done his jobs so he could play. Jeremy asked if he was sure he had scooped all the poop as he was going to check. Spencer quite arrogantly said he was sure. So Jeremy headed out with a shovel and his eagle eye with the agreement that Spencer would be doing 10 push-ups for every pile he found. First pile or two Spencer just shrugged and said "whatever, I can do 10, 20, 30 etc pushups" By pile 30!! Spencer was just almost crying that he would die trying to do that much. So Jeremy said he could do them over a week long period. So Spencer is cranking sets out morning and night and has promised to never miss a pile again.
Wednesday the kids all had early dentist appointments. The benefit of having older sibilings is that Robyn knows the drill and hops right up for x-rays and to have her teeth cleaned. The pink sparkley sunglasses that she gets to wear helps a lot too. Spencer had his retainer glues back in AGAIN. (I really wonder with him if the straight teeth is worth it. He seems to break his retainer every few weeks through diligent efforts on his part I am sure. He says he must do it in his sleep but...I caught him 'scratching' his retainer with a butter knife yesterday because he said it itched. Wonder how his retainer breaks?) Kids were all thrilled that they didn't have any cavities till we got to Allison. One of her teeth had come in without enamel on one spot. It had chipped off and a cavitity started that spread to part of the adjoining tooth. She is extremely nervous about getting those fixed in two weeks. They also discussed how before any more adult teeth try to come in she is going to have to have some baby teeth and adult teeth pulled. I just feel bad that so much of my defective genetic genes have been passed onto her! Glasses and now teeth! She is very freaked out about the idea of pulling teeth but we told her its a year away so worry about it then. Taylor is going to go in on the 30th to be put under with a general and have the rest of his baby teeth pulled and have his teeth really cleaned up, gums cut away etc. Sounds very painful but I am excited at the idea that history might repeat itself with the general anesthia as last time he went under he was seizure free for 6 months.
Friday night was movie night. Allison went with a friend and her mom to see Hannah Montana. Kids got paid this week and money was burning a hole in their pocket. I spent Wednesday evening driving Spencer around so he could buy a new game for his game boy. He found a used game store, that I am sure we will visit again with the next paycheck. So Spencer invited a friend to go to a movie and informed me he would need a driver! So after some talking about kids abusing me I got to go with Spencer and his friend to see Monsters vs Aliens feeling very cool in my 3-d glasses. Robyn in tears at her abandonment soon was all smiles with a kiddie cartoon, Jeremy and a plate of nachos. So all had their special time! Taylor was happy to have peace and quiet and a warm couch to lay on. The week of tantrums and constant noise was getting to him I think!
Saturday was a cleaning day. We cleaned the church at 8 am (that doesn't sound early till you have to get up for it!). Then took a candy break at the city easter egg hunt (rain, cold, hundreds of kids, thousands of eggs, 30 minutes wait and 3 minutes of locusts swarming the fields to pick up the eggs in a wild run across the field). Then with sugar high, smiling kids we cleaned the office. No matter where their life takes them, they can always fall back on their janitorial skills for a job!
Middle of this week we got hit with two big items of financial news for us. First we found out that we had WAY underpaid our pre-payment of taxes because we had put so much into our house that was non-business related. So stress and sadness about that. Then we found out that Jeremy needs to buy his truck this week but we also need to pick our van by this week. We hadn't really been thinking or looking at vans yet. So Thursday we spent the afternoon van shopping and looking online at options. Then Saturday for our date we did a repeat of the same. Narrowed it down to the Dodge Caravan or the Honda Odyssey. Personally I prefer the Odyssey but I am more into comfort than driving ability so we will see what we get. To make up for the car overload Saturday night we used our gift certificate to get fat and happy at the cheesecake factory. I have a new all time favorite there - Chris's crazy chocolate cake - brownie, cheesecake, cake, ganache, fudge, coconut frosting - all the good stuff. I have been nibbling on leftovers all day hiding my head behind the fridge door. Kids I am sure have been amazed at my good mood all day - the power of a good chocolate fix. While we were busy getting mega-calories our kids were too. Brave Meredith volunatarily (that crazy woman) took all of them to a wedding reception. Multiple slices of wedding cake later they came home to ask where's dessert?
Easter has been good. We re-learned that trying to take pictures of kids not in the mood REALLY doesn't work. But Jeremy got some very cute one after church when they were in the mood. I will have him post them. Kids all got new balls that they have been busy bouncing around, flip-flops and swimsuit paraphenalia. Robyn of course has been wearing her swimsuit most of the day. We dyed Easter eggs Friday afternoon and ate half of them already with our egg salad sandwiches for brunch. The one time of year we make those. Jason and family and Lauri came over for dinner and a big easter egg hunt afterwards. They color code the eggs for each kids so Spencer's eggs are always harder to find etc. We all had a great time. Lauri seems good although really tired and a little spacey. Not sure if meds are off or what but we will look into it.
On the personal front I have been mostly listening to an incessent Robyn this week. I did get my hair cut and the girls did as well. Allison and I have bobs to our shoulders. Robyn they turned into a pixie cut which when she lets me put some gel on the ends and flip it out looks really cute. I asked the hair stylist to see if she could make it look like her hair was done on purpose instead of a home hack job. Spencer is trying for the skater look again and doesn't believe us that wings for sideburns does not look cool when your hair is that thick.
I have been reading Wicked so I could understand the plot of the play. The book reminds me of a college english assigned reading and really is adult themed. Not sure if I would reccomend it. I am sure I missed half of the political satire if not more. They must have really rewritten the story to do the play. Will have to see it sometime.
This week is spring break so I am looking forward to lazy mornings with kids. Kids are planning play dates galore and lots of junk food and hanging out. We bought an air popcorn popper this week and have been rediscovering how good real popcorn is. Kids love to devour a bowl of it.
Love to you all, Heather
Dear Friends and Family,
The sun has finally reappeared after a week of snow and cold. Jeremy had to break the quad out Monday to scrape the drive way - it just seems wrong! And I was seriously starting to wonder if I could handle driving and taking the kids somewhere warm by myself next week (Arizona?) Today between session to celebrate the warm weather we broke out the big stroller and we all walked to a nearby field where kids ran around and Rocky could poop to his heart content. Its been a great two days but it reminds me that as a mom the line between being abused and loved is a very fine one. I would have one kid on my lap and one squeezed in on each side, squirming, whispering with droplets of spit flying in your face, wanting help with their questionnaire booklets and then later their sewing projects. On the plus side I went into the weekend not expecting to hear much and was surprised by how many talks I was able to hear at, least big chunks of at a time.
Taylor seems to enjoy his new school. He comes home quite chiper and happy. I decided I was being lazy by just combing the tangles out each morning and have started gelling his hair in a messy spikey way - looks very cute. And its a good motivator for me to shower him every night instead of saying its late and we're tired, he can skip a day. As puberty is hitting more - he really can't skip anymore. Taylor has been very congested the later part of this week and stayed home Thursday to be snotty with us instead of his teacher.
Spencer said his stomach was hurting Monday and ended up calling from school 10 minutes into the school day to come home. I always take his declarations of sickness with a grain of salt as he goes a bit overboard in displaying how weak and pitiful he is. But he came home and slept till lunch, drank a few sips of soup (DOWNED a soda), watched a cartoon and then was back out till dinner. So obviously something was wrong. Tuesday was spent in the whiney, grouchy stages of being sick where you just want to smack him upside the head and send him to bed. But Wednesday he went back to school and has been fine since.
On Friday Robyn and I got to drive Spencer's class through a wet, cold snowfall on a field trip. We hiked around the State Capitol, the Daughters of Utah Pioneers Museum and the This is the Place Park. There was a tour guide, a scavenger hunt, pulling handcarts, watching different exhibits and learning the Virginia reel. I decided that the teachers' plans were to have the kids move at such a fast pace that there would be no time for any mischief and no one could complain about being bored.
I came home zonked out and recovered by talking to not only my parents but Mimi as well on the phone. I was thinking of how lucky I am. Despite not having any of my family in the state, I will within a years time spend time with my parents and all of my siblings plus I get to talk/blog with them all the time. It is pretty amazing. Revitalized by family we packed kids up and headed out to UVU to watch Meredith's senior dance showcase. Robyn was mesmerized, Allison and Spencer were a little bug eyed. It was modern dance so it was a combination of coolness and weirdness. Robyn was there with bells on meaning she had her swimsuit on under her clothes and a Santa cap on her head to stay warm with a fistful of candy and yelling for Meredith. Honestly she was pretty good but I am sure some parents were wondering about the competency of her parents. Spencer hit his limit after 30 minutes and his head started bobbing.
The difference between boys and girls amaze me. Girls giggle and hold hands and sashay. Boys nervously only hold onto wrists or clothing and never sasahay only stumble back and forth.
Allison lost her first tooth Monday during FHE as we drove treats around to Jeremy's family. She was VERY excited and proudly took a capri sun to school the next day for lunch so she could suck with a straw through her "hole" in her teeth. She has been having play withdrawal and has been busy writing, directing, making costumes, scenery, tickets, posters etc for "her" play. She has been happy to play with friends everyday and is in her own little world while friends are over. It doesn't really matter what you say or ask if friends are around it just passes right over her head. We're working on that. We found an old pattern of my Mom's to make a tooth fairy doll that has a pocket to store your lost tooth in. She wanted to sew one as well so today has been busy breaking out the needle and thread.
Last night during Priesthood session two of my friends and their kids came over. We made homemade cafe rio style pork salads and the kids were ecstatic to run everywhere. Allison said we planned the party on purpose to make up for sitting all day. Allison and her friends gathered in her room to giggle and make strange crafts out of her sewing basket. I was just excited to catch up and listen to other adult women talk. I swear there is some need that cannot be met by simply talking to husband or kids you need friends to bounce thoughts off of.
Robyn is the cute little wild child. Some days she is doing great in underwear other days you just have to shake your head and wonder what is wrong. I don't have any diapers to fall back on though so we will persevere! She had nightmares Thursday night with all the wind and storm outside and by 2 am I was dead on my feet and made the mistake of letting her crawl in our bed. NEVER AGAIN! It brought back memories of disrupted sleep and kicking and turning all night long. Friday night again the nightmares came back but I stuck it out till by midnight she crashed. I am so glad that usually our kids sleep through the night now as I am not a fully functioning person without sleep. She was excited this week as we got her vinyl letters to write Robyn's nest up on her wall.
Robyn at the capitol.
Robyn's nap time. I tuck her in and find her either sacked out later surrounded by dolls and in some new outfit or she finds me saying its time to wake up!
Robyn "watching" a movie with her friend Tally and then dancing to a youtube video. There is no such thing as "down time" right now with her.
Jeremy has had a photography week. He was able to meet his photo friends for a photo store launch, go to a photo gathering, take pictures for a friend of his dad's funeral and then spending Saturday morning taking bridal pictures and then staying for conference in SLC and taking pictures afterward. With his new EQ meetings and then covering for me, he has been pretty busy.
I was able to go Tuesday up to temple square for the general Relief Society training. I learned a lot. They had some very different approaches for visiting teaching and enrichment that made so much sense when they discussed it. Now to figure out how to implement the changes! Thursday I was able meet two of my friends with Taylor in tow to celebrate a friend's birthday at Kneaders. French toast is always a good way to start a morning! Kids range from crying to giggling, yelling to loving, housework goes from done to piling up and I periodically find a book that steals me away for a while. So although it seems like not much gets done - life gets done. And most of the time its pretty fun. I had my fitness check with Jeremy's work this week and realized my lack luster attempts at the treadmill need to be taken up apace. So the next day I was having trouble walking and bending very well! I am hoping my body and will power will catch up with what I need to do. Jeremy keeps bringing home chocolates to ease the pains of sick or grumpy kids and I am just not resisting! So life is good.
Love to you all, Heather