Sneaky Bug

I enjoyed Valentine's Day with my loved ones. It was a somewhat relaxing, peaceful day.

Erik at a little playgroup Valentine's Party. There are mostly boys his age at church right now- lucky him!

Austin's 100-day celebration hat and photo bomber.

Sweet-tooth Karissa.

Victoria with her card and candy loot. 

My favorite Valentine!

We've just had the best weather... not!

The week after Valentine's Day is always midwinter break around here. Every year I wonder why we have such a break. Last year we'd had 5 or 6 snow days between winter break and midwinter break! While we've only had two so far, I still wonder. Yet, every year I realize why: this is when everyone gets sick! I'm telling you, it's the real reason for this unnecessary break! I actually don't think any of us were sick the last two years (plenty of our friends were, though). This year, it just snuck up on us and hit us like we were dominoes.

Around midnight on Saturday, Victoria was the first knocked down. I barely fell asleep after throwing her bedding in the wash and settling her on the lower bunk before Karissa was up, luckily she had made it to the trash can so I didn't have any bedding clean-up. Not long after, Jason was up for himself. We thought it was food poisoning, but it wasn't. I took the boys to church, but didn't feel great the whole day. Just ate simply and tried to care for the 3 sick ones (Jason was pretty bad.) I finally got sick Sunday night. The blessing: that was the only time I threw-up, which is an unusually low number for me in that situation. Jason and the girls outdid me, but I still felt awful and my headaches were bad enough to wake me up multiple times a night, for two nights. The other blessing: four of us were sick at the same time, instead of dragging it over the course of three weeks! Jason took two sick days and the kids were already off, so we just rested and ate nothing together! (Unfortunately, Austin hasn't gotten it yet. I did get him some food, mostly snacks, though, to his delight.) I think Erik had it last week. There was a day he spit up and he didn't eat much for two days.

We've slowly gained our strength back and I'm beginning to think that Austin may not get it. My biggest fear was that he was going to get sick yesterday or today and take out the rest of our vacation days, keeping us cooped up at home again.

We're all healthy and ready for school next week!

Odds and Ends

I wasn't quite sure what I should blog about this week. I have already posted the pictures of Austin at the Mother/Son dance on face book, which just about covers everyone who reads my blog now, so I don't need to post those pictures again. I don't have a ton of other exciting things to blog about, but I will give a couple of details that happened at the dance, as well as an update on Austin's toe.

As I walked into Austin's room to help him button up his little suit cute, he looked at me and said, "Is that how you looked in high school?" I had to smile at his cute flattering comment and took it as a compliment since I took an extra 2 minutes to look nice for our special date. When we came downstairs, one of the girls (I can't remember if it was Victoria or Karissa) asked the same exact thing! So I answered, "Why, yes! I don't think I look too different from what I look like now." I did have bangs and shorter hair later in my senior year, then of course was blond for a couple of years in college and when we got married, but I pretty much look the same. I guess that's a good thing!

At the dance, Austin received many compliments about his dancing and he danced the entire time in the disco lights by the DJ! Except for the first slow dance. When I went over to dance with him, he wasn't interested and wanted to eat a snack instead! It's already begun! He did dance with me for the second slow song (I think there were only the two played, unless they played one at the very end, which we were gone by then). During our dance, he would lift his arm up every now and then so I could turn under, which was a challenge because of our height difference, but he was very good at leading the motion. Toward the end of our time there, he told me to stop following him. So, I was given the shaft by my 5-year-old son and went and talked with my friends.

Here's a look at his toe. The toenail is to be expected, but look at the skin underneath, yuck!

That boy is an accident ready to happen. He fell out of his chair at dinner the other night and scraped his back on the fireplace bricks. It's definitely not the worst scrape in the book, but still no fun!

Progress is Progress

Remember the "mom card" I'm supposed to play after Erik's well-child exam to get him to eat more? After the holidays, when the kids went back to school, I played my "mom card" well. He also accepted it well. When he wants his "hot chocolate", I tell him he can have it after he eats two carrots. Usually he does, sometimes he wants to have some apple slices or another fruit instead. He still won't touch any greens, but, progress is progress. Also, with the holidays over, the junk is gone. He doesn't think much of candy or other treats that he would eat because we just don't have any!

The best part: I had signed him up for a Mommy and Me cooking class which took place for three weeks on Thursdays. The first day, we read Stone Soup and the kids got to help cut up veggies for our soup. We also read Chicka Chicka Boom Boom and they made their own coconut trees.

Cutting those green beans!

Erik enjoyed eating the letters and banana, He also enjoyed cutting up the veggies, but when it came time to eat the soup, it was a no go. Most of the other kids at least tried it, some ate most of theirs. I tried to get him to eat some of the alphabet noodles that were in it, but they were covered in the V-8 juice, so he wouldn't touch it. He likes nothing combined together! Later that day, he helped me prepare dinner. We made the soup again one time, but still no interest for him. Sigh.

His Alphabit cereal at the bottom of the "coconut tree'" went first.
(He was on my lap, so taking pictures was not easy!)

I thought it was delish!

The next week we read If You Give a Moose a Muffin. We made blueberry muffins and berry jam to go on top. They also got to make their very own moose puppets. Surprisingly, Erik did eat the blueberry muffin, minus 2 bites! There were real blueberries in it, so I couldn't believe it. Every other kid was eating theirs, so maybe that helped. I also gave him the first few bites without many blueberries in it, then just kind of shoved the rest in. (Yes, I did have to fee it to him because he wouldn't touch it and he didn't want anything to do with the jam.)

I still can't believe he ate those blueberry chunks!

The last day we read The Little Red Hen and made bread and butter.  We made the bread backwards so it would have time to rise and bake. The teacher had the dough ready for kneading when we got there. After it went to rise and bake, we started from the beginning and got to bring home the dough to make into bread later. Erik made his dough into a ball and an E. He loved it, but didn't want to put butter on it. Funny thing is, I make bread fairly often. Erik doesn't usually like to eat it, unless the dough is made into rolls, which he did with his dough. Usually, he just eats the dough when I make it, but he does help make it. At class, they showed us a stalk of wheat, something he'd never seen, and wheat berries, something he's sees all the time when I grind my wheat into flour. It was fun to make the connection with the stalk.

The wheat and the whipping cream in a jar that we shook like crazy!

The butter came out nicely!

I'll just say that it was pretty fun cooking with Erik when I didn't have to be the one cleaning everything up! We had a great time and I think it helped him. Today, he ate 3 muffins at home! They weren't blueberry, just plain whole wheat, but, progress is progress!

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!