UC Visit of 2016

The past four years Austin has had one big visit to the Urgent Care. I guess it's better than multiple visits each year, right? Better then the ER too. The first one happened over the summer (the big one where he sliced his forehead on Gramms' and Abuelo's camper and got four stitches), but the other three have happened in January or February. He likes to start the year off with a bang, I think.

 Three years ago he got his finger caught in the stool and it was bleeding pretty badly for a while. I ended up taking him in the next day (it happened at night), but he didn't end up needing any stitches, just a super good band aid. Last year, his big toe was slammed in the door. I was worried about it being the big toe and future development. He got an x-ray, but nothing was broken, it was just very painful for him and nasty looking for a while.

Last Thursday, I dropped off Victoria and Austin at Miller and then dropped Karissa off at Gallimore. Leaving Gallimore, on the way to pick up balloons for the baby shower I was helping put on at the church, I received a call from Miller saying that Austin has slipped and fallen on his face and that I needed to come see him. School hadn't even started yet! He was racing his friend and slipped on the over-abundant amount of salt chunks, meant to keep the black tops from being slippery. Looking at his face and discussing it with the nurse there, we decided I should take him to the UC. He had a small gash above his lip that looked questionable. Since I was in charge of the main egg dish for the shower, that needed to be baked, and the decorations, I quickly stopped off at home to grab them (luckily I was prepared the day before and everything was ready to be grabbed) and dropped them off at my friend's who was also helping with the shower. She baked the egg dish and saved the shower! The end....

Meanwhile, I continued on to the UC.

Luckily, again, they decided Austin should been seen right away, so we didn't have to wait! They cleaned him up and gave him one stitch above his lip. I was to keep him home the rest of the day to keep an eye on him.

Above the lip doesn't look much worse than by the eye here, but around the eye was just a big scrape. We're lucky he didn't get much lower! His one front tooth was a little bloody, but there were no problems with the teeth.

On a positive note about doctor visits, a few days before this incident we went to the dentist. Erik has been two times before in the hopes (my hopes) of him sitting in the chair and having his teeth checked and cleaned. This time was the right time! I prepared him and told him exactly what they were going to do: count his teeth, introduce him to Mr. Sucker and Mr. Spray, clean and tickle his teeth with a special toothbrush, and use the spray and the sucker. He was pleasantly surprised when they mentioned that the 20 teeth he has is the same amount of fingers and toes he has. He had to promptly count them all to make sure. It was great up to that point, but I forgot to tell him about the floss. It all went downhill after that...

At least he got his teeth looked at and cleaned and he had no cavities! Next time, I will include the flossing.

He even got to wear sunglasses!

Chef Party

Karissa has been loving to help bake and cook lately. That, with her love of all things crafty, helped us come up with this year's party theme: chef party. We started with a get-to-know-you game. Karissa has a taco made of tissue paper that Victoria made for her. Whoever held the taco got to talk. They each shared their name, what school they go to, and something unique about themselves. This was important since Karissa had two friends from Gallimore (one of them went to Miller with her), one friend from Miller (which is where Austin and Victoria go), and two friends (twins) who moved from Miller with their mom, but their dad still lives in the neighborhood. They all were great and had fun together.

Then, we played a round of Headbands, food style. Each kid got a food card on their headband. They had to guess what food they had by asking everyone yes or no questions. Next, they each decorated an apron for themselves. When the aprons were finished, Karissa opened her presents. Her BFF, Olivia, had wanted her to open the presents before we got to the food prep. She had given Karissa some American Girl doll cooking supplies and wanted her doll to participate with us. It was great to have the present opening out of the way, but we didn't have her doll participate.

decorating aprons

Trying to so off their aprons.

 After the presents, we were ready to decorate pizzas! I have to say it was easier and more fun than I had thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, I make pizza with my kids all the time, but I have never done it at a party before. I always have a fear of too much mess and no one eating much of their own pizzas and having to throw it all out. Well, it was not! We had all the toppings organized on the table, they did well with the dough, everyone had an apron on, and everyone pretty much finished more than I expected! I sent home two that had a lot left still, but the rest ate right to the crust! Jason was able to make one for the two of us to share and help clean up as the pizzas baked and I worked with the girls (and Austin) on the next activity: gumball necklaces. I had poked many holes with a metal skewer in these gumballs. It was tricky for me to get the ribbon in, but it ended up not being too bad. For the girls, not so much, so I finally opted for the easy-way-out and got out my lanyards. Nice and stiff, but not quite as cute. No one cared, though. They just wanted to finish them so they could eat their pizza!

Making gumball necklaces.

Birthday girl necklace and apron.

Enjoying their personal pizzas.

Crazy kiddos.

Last, but not least, they decorated their own cupcakes with lots of frosting and sprinkles and we sang Happy Birthday. They had just enough time to look at a few of the gifts together and be a little crazy.

Real serious about how much sugar they put in their cupcakes!

Big sis was a real ham at the party, but everyone was entertained by it.

9 candles on a cupcake it hard to do!

It was a very smooth running party, contrary to what I thought it might be. Plus, I didn't have to decorate the cupcakes myself, nor the pizzas. I didn't even have to provide other food items, the pizza was just enough, with a drink , of course.

We had planned out ahead of time to watch Inside Out for our family movie night after the party was over. It was a great movie and a perfect end for the party for our family!

A New Year

We got to go to Zap Zone on New Year's Eve morning for some free bumper cars, laser tag and glo golf, organized for our church members in the area here. Way later, when it was actually evening, we enjoyed our annual Mercado dance party and bubbly drinks to greet the new year... at 7 pm here. (I didn't want to start the new year off with overly-tired kids!) Though, Victoria somehow convinced Jason and I to stay up 'til midnight by watching 1 1/2 movies with her. I'm just not a night owl anymore, I was tired! I did enjoy watching the rest of The Parent Trap, which she had started earlier that week, and showing Jason the new Cinderella. It was a chick-flick night!

Erik loved the bumper cars!

I forgot to post these fun pics of our ice skating trip the last week of vacay.

Erik enjoyed the use of the "walker".

I love to ice skate! Victoria is in the distance in turquoise.  She brought a friend and I never got a good shot of them. 

Austin, the ice man!

 This year church starts at 1 now, so we came home after 4 on Sunday, which was fast Sunday, to a delicious crock pot of split pea soup. Erik had done really well in the CTR 4 class and seemed a lot older to me when I picked him up from his class. He was happy that his classroom is closer to mine now and that he got his very own CTR ring. Taking advantage of this new Erik, when we got home I told him it was the day he was going to throw away his sippy cup and drink milk from a big-boy cup at the table with us during dinner. (He had told me that after Christmas he would throw it away, so it wasn't too big a surprise. I just wanted to wait until the new year). Still feeling older, he gave me no resistance and threw it away! Of course when I offered him the many cups from our cupboard to choose from, he chose the "big-boy" disposable sippy cup that I had on hand for guests. Since it was smaller and harder to drink from, I complied. He has drunk a little less milk since then because it is harder to drink from. Yesterday, he picked out a set of three new cups at the store and we threw away the disposable sippy cups (he called them big-boy cups). His new three come with lids and straws, maybe one step better?

Sippy cup in the recycling bin!

For the new year we are trying to have the kids more responsible for the home. They have made new job charts which include their daily, tri-weekly, and weekly jobs. Each of the older three will also be cooking dinner once a month (Victoria choose to do it twice) and washing dishes once a week. They have done well so far and I already feel a load lifted of my shoulders! I have a feeling, though, that we might be eating mac and cheese for dinner here and there. Hopefully I can convince Karissa and teach her how to make something different!

I think our basement project will be done soon. It has slowed down since Jason went back to work, but we are now mudding it. I even watched a 25 minute video yesterday about the proper way to do it so I can help more!

Jason at work. He looks like Grandpa Jim here with that belt!

To the left, where it's cream colored, is the start of my new shelves, the whole reason for this project. More melamine will go up over the frame in the middle there and complete the back of the shelving section. 

Here's to a new year!

My 9-year-old

Believe it or not, Karissa is now 9. I don't think I've totally come to accept it myself, since she still wears some size 6 pants. It also means that we've been in Michigan for 9 1/2 years! Having a birthday right between Christmas and New Years has it's ups and downs, but we've come to include it as one of our "holiday" traditions.

She enjoyed helping me make her breakfast pancakes (hers was a huge chocolate chip one), opening presents first thing in the morning, and playing with her siblings with her new gifts from Christmas and her birthday. Since Karissa loves to read, I took them all to the library to pick out some books and videos. While Jason worked on the basement, the boys entertained themselves while the girls and I went to get Karissa's ears pierced, something I didn't think she was ready for last year, but I think she is now.

She got a lavender scented warming buddy that she loves to sleep with.

Before piercing

After piercing!

While I helped Jason in the basement, the kids watched Cinderella (the new one), that we got from the library and Erik graciously let them watch as opposed to Wild Kratts.

We had coupons for Dave and Busters, an arcade/restaurant that we thought would be fun as an early New Year's activity and birthday bash, so decided to try it out. Well, Wednesdays are half off day, which was good, but we couldn't use our coupons and I think all of Detroit was there, it was pretty busy! The kids had a great time, even though they aren't really experienced at arcade games, though Austin would love to be, I'm sure! The food was good, but it took a long time to get it! We'll see if we end up using the coupons later.

Watching Austin play a video game.

Birthday cake and the our traditional birthday song by the Beatles were our final celebrations when we got home, then Karissa got some quiet time with her new Legos, crafts, and books before going to bed.

Karissa has really enjoyed being in the TAG program this year. She gets to ride the bus home with her BFF Olivia every day. She doesn't have a ton of homework, but she is a perfectionist, so it takes her longer to get her work done than it should. She also gets distracted by wanting to make a craft or write a story before completing her work. Sometimes, she will wake up first thing on a Saturday morning, turn on the computer, and start writing a book. She has a series she's working on right now called Ice Cream and Oatmeal. You'll have to look for it one day at the bookstore when it's published! And the crafts... she will take any scraps and make something out if it. She thrives on that! When she's not making a craft, she's playing a make-believe game with Austin or dolls or Shopkins with Victoria. She also enjoys reading. When she finds a chapter book she likes, she'll read the whole thing before I knew what happened! She still plays the piano and is going to be involved in a sewing class and a tennis class soon. Both are short-lived and I'm not sure when the sewing class is yet. Hopefully it doesn't interfere with the tennis class I just signed her up for!

Crazy fun!!

She is still very cuddly and sweet, but if you catch her when she's tired, look out! She's always the first to help someone when they're hurt or sad and has lots of patience with little ones. She will be a very good baby-sitter one day!

I look forward to our traditional mid-January birthday party coming up!

Season of Giving

It's hard to believe that Christmas has come and gone already! This year we had a great opportunity to bring the blankets that our Relief Society made to COTS (coalition on temporary shelter). I was in charge of the activity in November, so I decided to wait until the kids got out of school so they could help me deliver the blankets in downtown Detroit. While we didn't come in contact with any of the residents there, I could tell the experience humbled us all. We also delivered handmade headbands for the missionaries here that the Relief Society had made. While on Erik's preschool field trip to the fire station in November, I learned that the hot commodity at the fire station here is peanut butter, so we brought two huge Costco jars of peanut butter to the fire station on the way to go caroling at the nursing home on Christmas Eve. It was great to see the smile on the face of the fireman who took our gift and the nursing home residents as we sang. Oh, and I almost forgot about the best gift from the kids. When Yoda died, Karissa put together a jar for them to donate money to help other animals. They all took a fair amount of money from their own allowance and put it in the jar. I wanted to donate it before it lost it's meaning to them. We counted it up and they had collected $39.14, so Jason and I matched it and donated to the humane society.

 While we have these opportunities to serve those around us and each other, sometimes we still forget on Christmas day as we get caught up in opening our own gifts. There were a few complaints about not getting this or that on Christmas, but I was impressed at how excited they were to give their own gifts to each other. Victoria made an American Girl doll bed for Karissa and gave her old tablet to Austin. Karissa made a picture collage for Victoria and Star Wars armor for Austin. Austin had bought some things at the dollar store and was so excited to purchase gifts for his siblings with his own money. They gave some of their old favorites to Erik and I helped him by stuff for them. Handmade pictures for Jason and I and Victoria wanted to pick out a new sweater vest for Jason that she said he had mentioned needing. I was touched by their eagerness to make each other happy.

Blankets we donated.

Headbands for the missionaries and some necessities.

Jar of money for the Humane Society.

Erik allowed me to take one picture with all four of them after church. Luckily,  it turned out okay!

Ours didn't turn out too well, though. That's what happens when a 6-year-old takes it....

 Fun faces of surprise on Christmas day.

After the gift giving and receiving, it was back to work for Jason, and me when he needed my assistance and when I wasn't doing something with the kids. Remember our basement project? It's still going, slowly, but Jason is doing a great job. The foam boards are up and the framing has been painfully slow with all the windows and the slant of the floor. Jason has been getting in some good math and puzzle time. I've been sticking around to help him here and there, so the kids have been mostly home, but playing so well together! We'll be glad when this is done! It is our final gift to ourselves!

Ice Hockey

One of the things I have always loved to do is ice skate. I'm hoping to take the kids over the break. I will definitely enjoy skating with Austin. He's been in ice hockey since September. He was involved last spring for a 6 week free program. Now they improved it and it's a free 6 month program! (When we have to pay for it later, if he sticks with it, I won't be bragging then!) Every month there is a game and every week they get a free juice box at the end. It's called Juice Box Ice Hockey, after all.

Our computer has been updated, so I'm not sure where the video is of his last game, but here are some great pics of this boy who is really enjoying this sport with his friend Dallin.

He's the one in the red shirt and white helmet.

Mr. Juice Box himself.

The dynamic duo.

These boys are pretty intense! They're excited to go each week and come up with their own strategy before going out. There is less time on their bums now, and more time skating! This last week, they jumped over a hockey stick. Two out of the three they both did it without falling! Way to go!

Crafty Kids

My kids have been really excited to make each other Christmas gifts this year. I don't "require" them to give each other a gift, but some years I see if there is something small I can help them buy or make for each other. This year, on her own accord, Victoria started making gifts for her siblings, two weeks before Thanksgiving! Then Karissa and Austin started to follow suit. On Sunday, when Victoria realized she had two things for Austin and only one for Karissa, she started on Karissa's other gift (an American Girl doll bed). Karissa started a project for me that she wanted Jason 's help with. It turned out that she was in charge of the family activity for Family Home Evening, so she decided to make it a family affair. She wanted to make a nativity. She had already made Mary, Joseph, and the stable. Then when we all joined in, she made the star, Victoria made Jesus (Austin made one too, but he's keeping his. That was a sore spot in the activity.) Victoria also made the sheep. I made a wise man and Jason made a shepherd. It was a great project to do together! Even though I get annoyed with the mess my kids make (and don't clean up very well) when they get into their crafty modes and with the junk I have to store so they have resources (toilet paper rolls, boxes, beans, fabric scraps,....), I am so glad they have these talents and are able to put their creativity to use. They are pretty great!

Oh, yeah I forgot about the angel. We just took it from the tree on a last thought. Either my mom or I made it when I was in high school.

Erik wanted to be a photo bomb.

A close-up. You can tell where the kids get their artistic abilities from.... (not from me!)