February 27, 2011

February 27, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

I will try my best to remember the week. I really am losing my mind sometimes I think. Monday was President’s Day. B-man and M were both home. We didn’t do too much to celebrate. Just enjoyed a day with nothing to do. I had a doctor’s appointment and then later we all went to Costco together. That night we had a patriotic lesson for FHE.

Tuesday we had a bit of a snow storm, and so B-man had a snow day from school. He was thrilled. We enjoyed a nice lazy day without much to do. I watched the kids of a friend so she could run an errand.

Wednesday we were back to the routine. I made it to the grocery store to finish our shopping for the week. That night B-man came with me to play basketball. After getting home I had just enough time to clean up and get the kids into bed before heading back out to go to book club. We discussed The Road and had a great night with a good amount of women there.

Thursday was a fairly slow day. I watched a little girl in the afternoon. J loves having friends over, and it really helps the time to go a little faster when people come over for short little bits. I can’t remember anything else.

(Look really closely and you can see J having fun with RM.)

Friday was another fairly normal day. We had leftovers for dinner (love that) and then for our family party we watched “Cloudy with a Chance for Meatballs.” I slept a little, the boys liked it, but B-man did get freaked out towards the end. He is such a complicated six year old.

Saturday was a busy day. We started off with a basketball game for me. The game didn’t start so well. We were missing our only experienced ball handler. At the end of the first quarter we were down at least 0-12. But, we started clawing our way back! We ended up going into overtime, and we won! We only five players (so no subs) so we were all tired and beat up, but it was a good game. I got out a lot of stress… We then came home and started doing our Saturday work. We were prepping the house for a final walkthrough before closing and so we did a bunch of deep cleaning. Floors, bathrooms, etc. B-man is great and cleans the sink and counters in his bathroom all on his own. We finished our jobs and then I ran a few errands, and then traded with M who went to watch the end of the BYU vs. SDSU basketball game. We love a win for BYU! After the game we spent the rest of the evening feeding the boys and getting ready for a date. Right after putting the boys to bed (except B-man, he got to stay up a little later) we headed out for our first night out with no children in a long time! It felt very good to have a date. Our realtors threw a party for clients and contacts to say thanks, and it was a lot of fun. Great food, and some of our friends from our ward were there so we were ensured a great evening.

Sunday morning M headed off to meetings and I got the boys ready for church. Once he got home I hurried to get ready, but lost track of time. We barely made it to church on time, which felt a little like we were late. M helped to bless the Sacrament, and for those twenty minutes I thought I was going to die. J was a crazy monkey all over the place, RM woke up and needed to be held, and I was not sure what to do. I stood up at one point to take J out (he has a VERY loud voice) and then realized that I was going to be making more of a disturbance leaving than staying so I just sat down again. Eventually the time passed and M was able to come help me. When I finally left to go feed RM I was sitting in the mothers lounge enjoying the quiet. I had completely forgotten to turn on the speaker so I could listen. Thankfully another mother came in and turned it on. After church we were thrilled to have gorgeous weather. Poor B-man really wanted to be running around the neighborhood with his friends. Instead he had to sit on the porch steps and chat when then came running around. I made dinner, and had a slight problem with the roast. My thermometer was off and so when it came out of the oven (and the rest of dinner was ready) it was not quite ready. We went ahead and ate everything else. Then after the boys were in bed M cut the roast and we had a few slices. It was delicious, just a little late. After the boys were in bed we went around and tried to get the house as close to ready as we could for the final walk through before closing on Monday.

We love you all!

The C Crew

February 20, 2011

February 20, 2011

Dear Family & Friends:

While I was at a training class this week, R had a fun time with the boys. I always seem to leave her with the boys on the crazy weeks. J is getting over a cold, ear infection and a runny nose and RM is stuffed up. It doesn’t make for fun nights.

For Valentine’s Day R made cupcakes with and frosting during the day with J. J has a sweet tooth and was very excited for the treats. For Family Home Evening they delivered cupcakes to some people and then had a lesson on J 3:16.

R had lunch with some friends on Wednesday. They surprised her for her birthday, for the following day. The kids all played around the house while the women ate a fun lunch. It’s fun to have such a good group of friends around.

For her birthday dinner, R took the boys to Wendy’s. It seems like the Jr. Bacon Cheeseburger is getting smaller and smaller. We’ll make sure we celebrate her birthday better this next week.

On the way home from work on Friday, I met R and the boys at a park. The weather was perfect, 72 degrees with a little wind, and the boys took advantage of it. They ran around for an hour before we went back home. We went to our friends for dinner – burgers in February! We ate out on the deck until the crazy winds pushed us inside.

R went to an auction on Saturday. She almost purchased a few items, but ended up not buying anything since we’re not sure what we’ll need in the next house. After she got back home, I went to the Stake Center to referee a couple of basketball games. It was my first time, and the young men didn’t complain too much about my calls.

Right after the game, I tried to find someone to carpool with to the temple. I couldn’t find anybody ready to go on such short notice, so I raced to get there by the 5:30 start time. While I was at the temple, Becca and the boys had a fun pizza dinner.

We all made it to church today, with nobody sick. J apparently forgot how to act at church, and had to be pulled out a few times for shrieking. Right at the end of Sacrament meeting, RM had a blowout diaper, a lot of which got transferred to R’s outfit. Thankfully, she had a jacket to cover up most of the mess. We went to a friend’s house for dinner to round out a nice day.

We love you all!

The C Crew

Rascal

J is a rascal these days. It's a good thing he is so cute and sweet while he is being a rascal or else it would be trouble. I was sitting on the couch on Friday feeding RM. I heard J getting into something, but I couldn't figure out what it was. I should have gone and checked. Then I could have avoided the mess... Silly me thought there was nothing in the pantry he would be interested in.

Birthday Surprise

I can't remember what I was doing, but when I found J he had a little surprise for me on my birthday... He had found a cupcake I was saving to eat later in the day, and B-man's Valentine's Day candy. He was pretty pleased with himself.

President's Day

Exactly one week ago J woke up crying early in the morning. That woke up B-man. J eventually fell back asleep, and then I heard B-man singing loudly a song that he had made up. In my early morning stupor I couldn't remember the words, but it was about George Washington. I stumbled into B-man's room and asked him to "please be quiet so J doesn't wake up again!"

B-man responded with an emphatic... "But Mom, he was such a GREAT man!"

Then all today he has been talking about President's day. He chose his outfit especially for this holiday, and he chose the pose. (This coming from a boy that no longer lets us take his picture at all!)

He chose the pants because they reminded him of the army, and the shirt because of the American flag. And yes it was freezing today.

February 13, 2011

February 13, 2011

Dear Family & Friends:

This has been a busy week, but nothing much to report.

Thursday evening M went home teaching and visiting a few families in the ward.

Friday M went out with the guys. A friend had come back into town for a few days, so they went out to dinner and went back to watch a movie. When M got home that night, he thought that he would try to fix the stove (yes, at midnight) and proceeded to make the stove worse than it was before. He was hoping to keep the problem from getting too expensive, but after spending a few hours (going to bed at 2:00am) he decided to call up a licensed technician.

M and B-man helped a friend move on Saturday afternoon. B-man was very excited to be able to help and M enjoyed chatting with his friend.

I took the RM and B-man to church this morning, while M went to the doctors with J. He’s been sick for the last couple of weeks, and he had a fever start up again last night. Since he couldn’t go to nursery, we thought it would be worthwhile to take him to the doctor. It turned out that he had an ear infection, but otherwise was fine. We are glad that it wasn’t worse.

M had to take off after dinner for a training class. We tried to find friends and family who could chat on the webcam.

We love you all!

The C Crew

Random Fun

Here is RM being ultra cute.

Sorry you have to hear my voice, just be grateful you can’t see what my face is doing!

And here is one of the older boys. This is a pretty typical evening in our house. Only usually we are all fully clothed.

January 30, 2011

January 30, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

This has been a strange week. Monday B-man went to school as usual. I stayed pretty close to home the rest of the day. The night we had FHE and discussed the articles of Faith and worked on memorizing one.

Tuesday was a teacher work day so B-man got to be home from school. We went to the grocery store, and he got to play with one of his friends in the neighborhood. It was a fairly slow relaxing day.

Wednesday morning there was a little bit of snow. Maybe just more than an inch. School was cancelled and B-man got a day off. The rest of the day was pretty nice, and even though the news was calling for more snow that day, it really didn’t seem likely. M even came home early because of the snow. But when he got home it still wasn’t snowing. We watched a little girl of some friends that are moving so that they could make a few runs of things to their new place. By the time she came to get her (and we stopped yapping) the snow was really coming down in earnest. It snowed very heavily for the rest of the day. There was even thunder and lightning when the storm started. Very strange for that to happen while it is a blizzard. I was so grateful that M was home. The roads were terrible and many people were stuck in rush hour traffic for hours and hours. What normally took people one hour to many people more than seven to get home! Gross! M shoveled several times while it was snowing. It was a super heavy wet snow, and he didn’t want to wait until the morning when it would be harder to remove than it already was. He came into bed about midnight after his last clearing of snow. We got at least 10” but maybe a little more.

The next day school was cancelled again. M had two extra hours from work to get into work so we all slept in a little…. (like 7:15) and then he went out and thanks to his shoveling the night before he only had to move what the plows had put back in front of our cars. It took him fifteen minutes and then he was off to work. I was really hoping that he would get the day off to, but oh well. That morning the roads were clear enough and I watched the kids of a friend so she could go do grocery shopping. B-man spent the morning outside. He was so excited to have so much snow to play with, and with all the neighbors out clearing off snow he had plenty of friends and other adults around. It was perfect for him. Somehow we managed to pack away his snow pants, so he has been doubling up and then I get more laundry, but it is worth the extra work. That afternoon M did come home early so that he could take B-man sledding. We have a great sledding hill nearby, but I just couldn’t take him with RM and J. Just a little too tricky. B-man has been waiting all winter for some good sledding, and this is the first storm that dropped enough for a sledding trip. M took B-man and at the last second also took J. I guess J even went down the hill once and was a fairly good sport. The boys all came home frozen and we had hot chocolate and then dinner.

Friday schools were closed again. B-man spent most of his time outside again. The day was fairly quiet and not a whole lot going on. M helped move our friends for most of the evening. We were going to have our friends over that had moved for dinner, but I discovered that J had a fever. So we had to scratch that plan. That night we had homemade hamburgers (or “burgers” in our house) and then we had a family party and played the Wii. It really is fun for all ages.

Saturday J woke up a fairly sick boy. Unfortunately for us the home inspection on our house was already scheduled and we had to be out of the house. I also had a basketball game, and the timing worked out perfectly. We went to the game, and M stayed far away from people with J and RM. B-man had a good time playing with his friends. The game was a forfeit (in our favor) but there were enough people that we were still able to scrimmage and have a good game. After the game B-man got to go home with one of his friends. He was so excited and it worked out well for us because we didn’t really know what to do with our boys until we could go back to the house. We ended up getting some lunch and then driving around. Luckily we discovered that the inspector had finished early so we came home and let J sleep in his own bed for a little nap. He was not a happy camper for most of the day. He had a terrible cough, fever, etc. I went to get B-man a little later in the afternoon. M (at the last minute) decided to go see a woman that he had baptized on his mission. She was in the area and would be returning to her country in a few days. He thought it would be a fairly quick trip, but in the end it took all the rest of the day. He was happy to have seen her. B-man stayed home with me, he played outside in the snow (it hasn’t been melting) and then helped me sample new recipe for baked churros. They were good, but they were more cream puff than churro.

Sunday M had no meetings. He ended up staying home from church with J who was still running a fever. In our Sacrament meeting our Bishopric was reorganized with a new bishop. Our old bishop had served for six years! That is a long time. In the third hour there was a Relief Society Visiting teaching conference. It went well, and then we were off back to home. The rest of the day was pretty quiet and uneventful.

We love you all!

The C Crew

P.S. Here’s a little movie of one of the ways J keeps himself entertained.

Shark Tooth

B-man is resembling a shark these days. Here is the evidence...

I know he will soon be losing his baby teeth. I mean they have to come out sometime right? And for next several years I know his smile will be resembling a jack-o-lantern. So I wanted to make sure I got a picture of his smile right now. With all his baby teeth...

January 23, 2011

January 23, 2011

Dear Family and Friends,

This week has flown by so quickly! Monday everyone was home because of Martin Luther King Day. We had a great day. We headed off to a community center nearby that has an indoor pool and water play area. The boys all went swimming while RM and I watched from a bench. J was a little hesitant, but eventually he was so happy he didn’t even want to get out, even though it was apparent from his shivering that he was freezing. B- man loved the water slide and went down it too many times to count. We went early on purpose so that we would miss the crowds and have time for naps in the afternoon. On the way out of the pool there was a little miscommunication. By the time I met up with the boys B-man was getting ready to climb a 30 foot rock wall. I fed RM and we cheered him on as he climbed. He tried about four times. Every time he got a little higher until he finally made it to the top. I was very impressed! We stopped for a quick bite to eat at Costco on the way home and then immediately put J to bed. He was wasted! While J was sleeping B-man played with some boys from the neighborhood. They were outside running around playing football etc. I ran quickly to a few model homes to try and get some ideas for decorating. When I got home B-man was still outside playing. I warned M that we should probably expect a meltdown at the end of the day because he had been doing SO many physical, demanding things. About twenty minutes after I said that B-man came in with a hurt nose. We got him fixed up and warned him that it was almost time to come in and have dinner. Well when it was time to come in and have dinner he wanted to go to a park in our neighborhood and keep playing. He had the ULTIMATE meltdown when we said that he couldn’t go. Luckily we were mentally prepared so we mostly found it entertaining. He even mentioned running away and living with his friends. I remember using that line. M even got out the video camera to record what he was yelling from his room. But by the time he got it going he was starting to wind down. Once he calmed down we were able to have a more normal evening. We ate dinner, and then had FHE and discussed faith.

Tuesday B-man got to stay home because it was a snow day. We had about an inch of snow and ice, and so all the schools were closed. Sadly there wasn’t enough snow to go sledding, but we had a good day of hot chocolate, playing the Wii, and reading books.

Wednesday was back to our normal routine. That night I went to a Relief Society meeting. Thursday was a super slow day. M traded cars with me so that we could get some work done on my car.

Friday went by super fast. I did visiting teaching in the morning, and then right afterwards M and I set off to buy a dishwasher off Craigslist. Right before we got there the person selling it said we couldn’t come because they couldn’t get the dishwasher out. We decided to go anyway, and M would figure it out. When we actually saw the dishwasher we decided that we didn’t want it. It was a little older than they said and was missing an option that we wanted. Since it was stuck it was an easy way to say “no thanks…” We then drove home and made it just in time to get B-man from the bust stop. It was a fun date in the car at least… We then went to Costco to get some things that we needed for the weekend before finally heading home. That night we did homemade hamburgers for dinner and then had our family party. We played on the Wii and had a healthy competition in bowling and baseball.

Saturday morning we all went to my basketball game. We were missing one of our key players and it was obvious. Plus the team that we were playing was really good. It was great practice for all of us and will keep us humble. In other words, we got creamed. We had a few hours after the game that were quiet. M then took B-man with him to set up chairs at our building for Stake Conference. When he got home he had to hurry and get ready for the Priesthood meeting. While he was gone we ate dinner, played games, and got everyone bathed and ready for bed. He picked up our babysitter on the way home, and then once he got home he took me back with him for the adult session of Stake Conference. We had a visiting authority (Elder Lansing) and it was a great meeting. Very good talks. After the meeting we then went to the home of a family in our ward. They had invited anyone that wanted to come over for appetizers and desserts. It was a nice way to get together and visit with people from the ward.

Today has been a good day. Even though Stake Conference was an hour later than church, we barely made it on time. Not sure how that happened. Stake Conference with kids is always an adventure, and today was no different. But we were able to get some good things from the meeting despite all our children trying their best to distract us. After dinner we had a great leisurely afternoon and then had some friends over for dinner. We have to be careful who we have over right now because we got rid of most of our chairs. Luckily this family only has one child. Now the boys are in bed and we are winding down for the evening.

We love you all!

The C Crew