This Week...

What have we done this week? Plenty, but nothing really noteworthy (or picture worthy)! It has been nice to finally catch a breath this weekend.

• Kids off on Monday. Lots of friends over to play
• Jackson had a biography book report on John Glenn (spent MANY hours on that!)
• Jackson and Paul had parent/teacher conference
• ran a total of 25 miles this week (starting to train for Ragnar)
• James said he would run the Ragnar, lots of time at the gym for him
• Visiting teaching - lots of visiting teaching!
• Friday night date night
• James finishing up framing in the basement
• Jackson and Paul's 1st indoor soccer game!
• Babysitting swap 
• Tried many new vegan recipes
• Primary meetings
• Carpooling, cleaning up messes multiple times/day, laundry etc. etc. etc. 

Not too interesting, but sometimes that's life! I just keep focusing on our planned vacation to San Diego - in September! It's 6 months away, but I'm already excited!

My Sweet Valentines!

In Jackson's class ,they got to make a "Valentine Box," where classmates could drop off their Valentine's. This is a HUGE deal in his class, and this year he wanted to make something really cool. We decided on R2D2, and I was so proud of him for sticking with his project and completing it. It was a lot more work than he thought it would be, but I think he found it a worthwhile project in the end. My dad came down and gave the kids Frosties and balloons for Valentine's Day. Few things make kids happier than having their own balloon!

I went and helped with Alanna's preschool Valentine party where they played games and got to decorate their own heart cookie. It was fun to watch them lick the frosting off of their knives and look around at all the adults just waiting to be scolded. Miss Lisa lets them do many things that they aren't allowed to do at home! That's part of what makes preschool so much fun I suppose.

I was in charge of Paul's Kindergarten Valentine Party. We played 3 different games, passed out Valentine's, and then ended with pizza and soda. Kindergartners are so much fun because they think everything is funny. One of the games was a relay race where they had to wear mittens and run to the other side of the room then open a candy bar and eat the entire thing before running back to their team. They were rolling on the floor laughing at their classmates trying to accomplish the task - I wish I had a video of them.

I'm so blessed to be surrounded by so much LOVE in my life!

Fast Forward 95 years...

And this is what Paul thinks he will look like at 100 years old! At school they celebrated their 100th day of Kindergarten by dressing up as if they were 100 years old. He chose his own outfit, and I think it represents his little personality! They also got to bring a bag of 100 of the same items with clues to help the class guess what was inside. Paul chose to bring something that is chewy, is sweet, and is all the colors of the rainbow. Did you guess jelly beans...you are correct :)

Moods...

Sometimes our kids are so excited to have their pictures taken, but sometimes not. At times they will ask me to get out the camera and take pictures of them. Other times, I am really wanting to get pictures of them, but they DO NOT want to cooperate.

 Blaze had decided that he is officially a big kid. He tries to wear his older brothers' shoes around, and he will not sit in his high chair any longer. He has graduated himself to the barstool to eat amongst his siblings (even though he can't reach the bar and has to sit on his knees).  At times he insists on drinking out of a cup without a lid - like his siblings. I'm okay with it if it's only water :)

 Dressing for church is a HUGE challenge with Alanna. She changes outfits multiple times, and often they are inappropriate. This skirt is one of her favs, and it's size 18 months (she is 3 1/2) She is skinny enough to wear it, but it's looking a little short these days. I'm just going to have to "accidently" pack it away.

 Miss Attitude - she threw a fit and was hiding behind the chair because I got the camera out. I just wanted to show her how cute her curls were!

Blaze just wouldn't stay still for a picture here, and this is his defiant face. This was the first time he wore this cool track suit that was given to Jackson from my brother Paul. He already loves it and throws a fit when I want to take it off to change him into p.j.'s.

Fancy Friends Party...

I have this friend Liz, who is amazing at crafting and party planning. Her daughter, Ansley, is Alanna's good friend. They celebrated Ansley's 4th birthday on Saturday in a very fancy way. It being a mom and daughter party, I snapped away with my camera.

To begin with, the invitations were as fancy as a wedding announcement, and Alanna carried it around in her little purse for days before I convinced her that it would be safer on the fridge (away from Blaze!). Alanna wore a very fancy outfit, and when we arrived she was even further "fancified". We painted nails, put on makeup, and received countless accessories like feather boas, multiple necklaces and bracelets, some pink fishnet gloves, a tiara, a wand, a ring, a feather fan, etc. etc. The girls learned to walk fancily with a banana on their head to encourage proper posture. Then they decorated a picture frame and the cover for a fancy drawing book. They also got to bling out a purse to take home all of their fancy goods.

The food was wedding reception quality - very fancy of course! There were about 7 different kinds of cake balls (I tried them all, some 2x :), and about 20 kinds of dippers for the chocolate fountain, and very fancy PB&J and tuna sandwiches with the crust cut off. There was pink punch with tiny umbrellas, and everything was served on Fancy Nancy paper goods. Alanna had to take her Fancy Nancy napkin home because she was so excited about it. And if that wasn't enough, the girls got to help themselves to an ice cream bar and choose between about 10 flavors of icecream and 2 table lengths full of toppings. Liz asked why none of the moms were having ice cream, and we had to confess that we were sugared out due to stuffing our faces with too many cake balls!

Having such great friends here is one of the many reasons why I LOVE Herriman. My kids are growing up with such great examples around them, and plenty of kids their age.

I remember loving the Calgon commercials when I was a kid! Little did I know that I could someday feel like the "crazy" mom who was about to pull her hair out :) I don't have too many "Calgon" moments , but yesterday evening certainly qualified as one. How dare I multi-task!

I finally got Jackson to focus on his homework, Paul and Alanna were playing in the playroom, and Blaze was happily playing in a corner of the kitchen. I thought it would be a good time to cook dinner and make bread, since we were out of it. While my wheat grinder was grinding, and my Bosch was mixing, and I was chopping veggies for dinner, I was feeling like everything was under control. Then I looked over and saw Blaze "painting" with something that resembled beef stew. It was poop - it came out of the side of his diaper and down his leg. And he left several "plops" of it before he decided to sit down and rub his hands and feet in it. I had to rush him upstairs to put him in the bath and sanitize EVERYTHING! In the meantime, Paul ran up to tell me that Alanna had got Jackson's gummy candy set down and poured the powder all over the floor and then poured water on that. Of course, they each blamed it on each other. When they saw what was going on with Blaze, they had to go check out the poop, and I was stuck in the bathroom yelling at them not to go in the kitchen. As usual, they ignored me.

I won't go into detail about the disgusting clean-up, but you can imagine that I wasn't too hungry for dinner after that. I had "had it", so I took off to the gym as soon as James got home. This may be why I get in my best work outs at night! I guess relaxation for me comes in the form of sweating it off, rather than taking a bubble bath. I still love the Calgon slogan though :)