Tough Boy

We had no school last Friday for records day for the teachers. My older 3 were scheduled to go to a friend's house to play with the older kids there, and I was taking her 3-year-old twins to play here with Erik. Austin, not wanting to get dressed and do his job, was harassing Victoria instead. A big door slamming fight went on between her and him, contrary to my council, ending with Austin's big toe being slammed on the hinge side of the door. I knew it was bad from the sound of his screams and from the fact that Victoria felt instant remorse, something she doesn't usually do. We iced it for a while, but I told him he couldn't go play with Max and Zach because he didn't get dressed or do his job. Suddenly, he moved faster than I have ever seen him move. Getting dressed and cleaning up the 20 toys in the basement, with no one else down there (very unusual for him), happened in a few short minutes before they were to leave. I decided he could, hoping the injury would help teach him the lesson.

When they returned, we were scheduled to go sledding with our neighbor. Austin screamed with agony as we tired to put his boot on, but insisted we still go, even though his toe hurt. He cried the whole way to the park, because of the pain from the boot, limped his way up the hill each time, but had a blast. On the way back he said, "My toe doesn't hurt that much!"

I wondered if I should take him to the doctor, but kept thinking, it's only his toe, it'll be fine. Saturday, he limped around at the church Primary activity and then got invited to go to the science museum in Detroit that afternoon. I asked him if he thought he could handle all the limping around the museum, and he assured me that he would be fine.

Sunday, more limping, but no complaining ever. He just always insisted putting he socks and crocs on himself (church shoes on Sunday). When we asked people what they thought, they always said what we thought, "It's just the toe." Online, though, it said that an injury to the big toe is more severe, so I decided Monday morning to take him to the doctor. I watched him limp to his classroom Monday morning and picked him up a couple of hours later.

The doctor ordered some x-rays, one of which they thought they saw a chip in the bone, but it turned out there wasn't. So, not broken, whew! The doctor said it was good we went in, though, because if it needed medical attention, it could have affected the growth of the toe had he not gotten what he needed.

This was three days later Still swollen and of course black and blue.

He just has to not jump up and down on it right now, according to the doc. It seemed his limping to class today was not quite as bad. He has been a trooper with getting around with this injury. Let's just hope everyone learned their lesson from this experience!

Room Improvements

What is a visit from Grandpa Jim without some projects? Our rooms are small in our house. With Karissa getting the Barbie dream house for Christmas, which is the size of a piece of furniture, I wanted to get new doors on her closet. She had those pull-out ones that not only pinch fingers, but took up two feet of space when opened (too bad I didn't take a "before"picture.) Grandpa traded those out and put the sliding ones in. Bonus: we decided to get mirrored ones so the room looks even bigger!

 Victoria likes all her craft things and needs a quiet place to do her homework and art projects. Jason had decided to make her a wall-mounted desk. Of course we had to use Grandpa's help!

Here is is open.

 This is closed. They painted magnetic paint and chalkboard paint on it so she can put up papers and write notes on the outside. She now has a place on the floor for her dolls!

Thanks for your help, Grandpa!

Another Party

My kids love birthday parties. Karissa has been planning her Disney party since before her last birthday. She didn't know, over a year ago, that we were going to Disneyland on her actual birthday (I didn't really know either until right before we went to Cali). When we returned, it would have been perfect to have a Disney party, but Frozen had just come out and we were frozen here, so I had to take advantage of the easy attend-the movies-party. This year, she still wanted that Disney party. She had written all her plans down and came up with some games of her own. Usually, I throw her parties in the middles of January. Coming out of the holidays, it's just too crazy to plan a party the weekend after her birthday, plus, it's hard to know what friends would be able to come since they don't go back to school until after that first weekend. She convinced me this year to hold her party the first Saturday after returning to school. It was doable. I sent invites in the mail, though one she had to bring to school Monday because we didn't have her address or phone number. Unfortunately, only 3 of the 6 we invited could attend. One was sick and two had other plans. In the end, it was best that way. She could enjoy her three friends (one is her BFF) and siblings. We also invited our neighbor, Bethany. She's Victoria's age, but may as well be a friend/sister to Karissa.

Goofy girls

According to Karissa's plan, we started with dancing to Everything is Awesome from The Lego Movie (not Disney, I know, but it's fun and that's what she wanted).

Next, it was a game of Scene It, a game about Disney movies.

Then, we played a scavenger hunt game. Karissa had drawn a bunch of Mickeys and Minnnie's and hid them around the house. She wrote a Disney movie on the back. After each person found one, they had to act out the movie and the rest had to guess which movie it was. We couldn't stop after just one round, so we made up our own afterwards to continue on for a while.

Suddenly, Karissa said it was time for the craft. We went and made these Disney flowers at the table.

A few rounds of hide-and-seek to get the jitters out, then it was on to cupcakes and snacks.

Mickey cupcakes made with Oreos.

Presents and many rounds of Disney's Just Dance on the wii, finished the party.

Since I was getting over a cough and had a major case of tired/lazy/winter blues, I was glad it was an easy party and that Karissa played a big roll in planning it!

Birthday and Baptism

Karissa celebrated her 8th birthday on Tuesday. As usual, she didn't have school on her birthday and got to celebrate with all her family and some extras. This year, Grandma Pat and Grandpa Jim, who were here for Christmas.

My kids love getting their own special balloon,

IKEA give free kids meals on Tuesdays, remember?

The library is a great place!

Especially when the library offers activities like making Frozen bracelets!

She wanted a very chocolate-y cake. It had extra holes from Erik's work with the candles.

She enjoyed playing with her presents from Christmas and all the new gifts she opened. Her ears aren't pierced, but she got some special clip-ons.

Karissa loves to read and is very good at it. Her intonation and voice fluctuation are excellent. She likes reading to her brothers and pretending to be a teacher to Austin with his school-work. She loves to make crafts of any kind and loves to plan out her play dates with what crafts she will do with her friend. She enjoys her piano lessons and will sometimes play longer than is required. She takes ballet and jazz through the school district program and seems to like it there. We haven't had as much music at home lately (bossy 3-year-old), but she always loves to dance and sing when it's on. When went ice skating later last week and she decided that's something she also really enjoys. Still cuddly and sensitive, she likes to comfort the boys when they get hurt. And of course, she still has a sweet tooth!

Since she turned 8 this year, she got to be baptized! It was a nice ceremony. Grandma gave the talk on baptism, Grandpa on the Holy Ghost, and Victoria gave a prayer. Jason, the kids, and I sang Love is Spoken Here, mostly because it's Erik's bedtime song and he usually sings it with Jason. He didn't at the baptism, of course, but the other kids did great and it was a unifying event for us. Grandma treated us to a dinner at Antonio's, the restaurant of Karissa's choice, afterwards.

Karissa has her own set of scriptures now and has read parts of the Bible on her own two times now. I can tell that today she was trying hard to remember her baptismal covenant made just yesterday. I'm very proud of her! When the member of the bishopric had her stand in sacrament meeting today for the ward to see her, she was barely taller than when she was sitting, but she was excited to stand and be welcomed as the ward's newest member.

Obviously taken over the summer. This was the picture we handed out on little cards with two little doughnuts on sticks to look like 8s. 

Congratulations and Happy Birthday Karissa!