My Flat Children

At school, Jacob's class read Flat Stanley. It is a book about a boy who became flat when a bulletin board fell on him. He has some interesting adventures since he's flat - his parents mail him somewhere for a vacation, etc. Each kid made a flat version of themselves to take around on spring break. Here is Jacob with "Flat Jacob" at the doctor's office Monday when we were getting Ally's ears checked.

Maddy couldn't stand to have Jacob doing something w/o her, especially since it involved pictures, so she made a "Flat Maddy" that started going around with us on Tues. Here they were at the park.

Since both other kids had a flat self, Bryson thought he needed one too. So on Wed., he made "Flat Bryson" and all 3 of my "flat children" accompanied us to the petting zoo.

The kids and the flat kids look very tiny compared to the Ostriches and Emu. You can see how BIG ostrich eggs really are in this picture. They say 1 ostrich egg is about the same as 2 doz. chicken eggs!

I meant to bring my flat children with us to the mall on Thurs. so they could play on the toys after my 3-D children got their pictures taken, but I forgot them, I mean I chose to let them stay home. ;-) The funny thing was that Jacob's teacher was getting her kid's pictures taken right before us and we couldn't even show her Flat Jacob's brother and sister. Oh well.
On Friday my flat kids chose to relax by the pool while the other kids swam their hearts out.

The kids all played basketball with their dad after dinner. I think Flat Jacob is goal tending. He had better watch out or Jacob will dunk on him!
On Sat. Flat Jacob enjoyed the town Easter egg hunt.
Here is Jacob taking Flat Jacob for a bike ride.
I think that ALL my children, flat and otherwise, had a fun spring break!

Happy Easter!

We went to the mall on Thursday to get the kids pictures taken in their Easter clothes. No these are not their Easter clothes, I had them change before we went to play on the toys. There was no line to see the Easter bunny and they let me take 1 picture with my camera, so I jumped at the chance.

Here is the Easter bunny at our town's Easter Egg Hunt. He sure looks a lot taller when he's not sitting down! ;-)
Ally was still sleeping, but here are the other kids finding their baskets. We decided not to mess with grass this year because of the mess, but then you can't really see what's in the baskets. Oh well, just some candy and stuff.
Here the kids are after finding their eggs. The Easter bunny was really smart this year and hid eggs that matched the kids baskets. That way Maddy didn't find all the easy eggs fast and leave all the hard ones for poor Bryson. Maddy really enjoyed the challenge this time.
Ally finally woke up and here she is finding one of her eggs. She didn't get as excited as the kids would have liked, but she did just wake up and would rather be eating breakfast. She didn't really get the whole Easter bunny thing - maybe next year.
I realized after we had all changed after church that I hadn't taken any pictures of the kids in their Easter clothes. Oh well, I got the professional ones done on Thurs., so we're safe. Whew!

1 year already!

Allyson turned 1 yesterday! Where does the time go? We wanted to do something special for her birthday, so we rented a bunch of inflatables and invited everyone we knew to the park......
...... Just kidding! I know some people get crazy for their kids 1 year parties or any birthday party for that matter, but not us. This is a picture of our town's big Easter egg hunt that we went to in the morning. As Jacob points out, it's not much of a "hunt" as hundreds of eggs are spread out on the baseball fields and not actually hidden, but they all really enjoy it. Jacob had so many eggs that they wouldn't even stay in his basket once he emptied them (and there is only 1 thing in each egg!). The kids had a great time!

Here is our real birthday celebration for Ally's birthday - just some balloons, a few presents and cake. What more could a 1 year old want? And quite frankly, she had more fun at her "party" than the Easter egg hunt.

Ally sat outside in her exersaucer on Friday watching Travis teach the kids how to intimidate your opponent while playing basketball by screaming while charging to the hoop. Now Ally is screaming all the time too whenever she gets excited. Here she is letting us know that she's having a great time by squealing at the top of her lungs.

I decided to do a bunny cake for Ally's birthday since it won't be close to Easter very often. (Plus it was really easy!)
She wasn't sure what to do about the candle. Jacob ended up blowing it out while we were trying to get her to blow. Maddy thought that was very unfair (but would have thought it was great if she was the one who had blown it out).

She didn't get as messy as I thought she would. I think she ate too much Mac-n-cheese for dinner. She's gotten much messier just at dinner, but she still got messy enough to need a bath.
She loved her new bath toys! Bath time is always a hit with her.

Happy Birthday Ally! We hope that you had a fun day!

Spring Break Gone Wild

Spring Break Gone Wild ... Oh and there were some animals too!

We had a fun afternoon yesterday at a petting zoo not too far from our house. We pass it every once in a while on the way to something else and never have time to stop, so I thought we would make it our destination this time. The kids had a great time. We were able to feed all the animals and even got to pet some.

If you can read it, the sign on the fence says "Yes, Ostrich Bite". They were pretty aggressive coming after their food. Fortunately they can't peck too far through the mesh fence and they have tubes to pour the food down into a tray for them to eat out of. If they didn't have those tubes, I guess our only other options would be to throw the food at them (and while my children do enjoy throwing things, I try to discourage throwing food!) or just feed the more gentle animals. Even with the tubes the kids were a little hesitant, but they all mustered up the courage. The ostrich were bigger than I was, so look how little Bryson is next to them.

They also had Emu. They weren't nearly as aggressive as the ostrich were! They weren't quite as big either, so that made them a little less intimidating too. The kids thought it was neat that some had blue necks.
The deer were really sweet. They were very friendly and gentle. Bryson was a little hesitant at first, he had his finger bitten while feeding a horse once, but when he saw the other kids doing it, he was willing to give it a go. They all loved feeding and petting the deer.
This was Bryson's favorite animal. This miniature donkey loved him for some reason. Whenever Bryson would come back, the same donkey would come over to him. Bryson would hug it and it would nuzzle his shirt. It was pretty sweet and he was just Bryson's size!
This was Maddy's favorite animal. She named this donkey Christy. I had to pull her away from Christy to finally leave to eat lunch. She could have pet her all day - literally.
All the kids loved the rainbow lorikeets. We had little cups of nectar and they would come and drink out of the cups. They always wanted to land on Maddy, but it took them a little while to warm up to the boys. (Maybe because they never hold still?!) We finally got birds to land on all of them. Maddy was thrilled in this picture because a 2nd bird came over. It was really hard to catch 2 birds on someone because usually the 1st bird would fly away right after the 2nd one landed. The birds were really interesting - they are so beautiful and colorful, but also they have fuzzy grey tongues (which we all thought was weird).
And here is poor Ally. She is always getting drug around with us to places she really doesn't care about. I guess turn about will be fair play when the older kids will get drug to places that are "too young" for them later so that she can enjoy them. Such is life! Look at those sleepy eyes! It must be nap time and therefore time to go.

Happy St. Patty's Day

For kids St. Patrick's Day is a big deal. My kids obsessed this morning about wearing the most amount of green they possibly could. We had to take Ally to the Dr. this morning because she woke up w/ a 102 degree fever - yep another ear infection! Ay-yi-yi, it may be another long night! Anyway, the Dr. was not wearing green and leave it to Jacob to go right up and pinch her! Maddy was kind enough to give her one of her stickers so she wouldn't get pinched throughout the day and then the nurses gave her another since she'd already been pinched. My kids follow the rules of St. Patrick's day strictly, just not any other rules that I feel are important. At dinner the kids asked Travis if anyone at work wasn't wearing green. He said that he was the only one wearing green, no one else. The kids' eyes lit up and they asked, "Did you get to pinch your boss?!" St. Patrick's day just isn't the same as seen through the eyes of an adult.

To have some fun with the day, we had green eggs and pancakes for dinner tonight. I do that for breakfast sometimes on St. Patrick's day, but I thought they'd enjoy it for dinner more. They all love to have breakfast for dinner, but Bryson especially loves it because I let them drink orange juice instead of milk. He is not a milk drinker. Here's a picture of our green dinner. It kind of felt like I was making play dough pancakes, but they taste regular.

Even Ally really liked the green eggs, which is a really big deal right now because since she's been sick, she pretty much won't eat anything anymore. She used to LOVE bananas, now she just makes a mess with them or anything else we try to feed her. I'm thrilled that she'll eat anything besides Saltines right now. At least she was nursing extra before, but today she won't even do that. I think her ear is really bothering her. She may just ween herself this week. We'll see.

Winter in the desert

We were expecting a cold front to move through today, but we were surprised by the hail that we got. The kids thought it was great! This is probably the closest we'll get to snow for a long while. It of course melted quickly, but it was fun while it lasted.

The House Fairy Strikes Again

I heard about the House Fairy in some of the emails that I've been getting from flylady (my attempts at getting more organized). Anyway, I checked out her website (http://www.housefairy.org/) and thought it was a good idea.

The House Fairy is Santa's younger sister who was born with wings. She was going to go to Tooth Fairy college, but because she was so unorganized and messy, she didn't have the grades. She got really sad. One day Santa called her to cheer her up and asked her to be his helper to make sure that children's rooms were clean; but she would need to learn to keep her room clean if she was going to check other children's rooms. Once she cleaned up her room, she was sooooo much happier and loved being in her room. Now she goes around checking the rooms of children whose parents sign them up for her services. If the room is clean, she leaves a surprise. If it's not clean, you will only see the fairy dust that shoots out of her wand, but no surprise.

I figured for only $13 it was worth a try. Maddy especially has a hard time keeping her room clean. So 2 weeks ago, after I signed up, we watched a couple of the little video clips that the House Fairy has made. We watched the story of how she came to be, about her magic wand, and how sad she is if she can't leave a surprise in your room. My kids were soooooo excited and wanted to clean their rooms right that instant! Maddy said she was sooooo excited that she could hardly breathe! Well the boys got their room cleaned up right away. Maddy has quite a bit more accumulated in her room and she got everything out to sort. Well of course she couldn't get it all done in one night, but she kept working on it. The "House Fairy" sent them a letter explaining the rules of a clean room. She came in a few days and left the boys some bubbles and a note for Maddy to keep up the good work. The next time she came Jacob had left his room messy in the morning, but Bryson cleaned it up in case the H. F. came, but not Jacob's clean clothes that were in a pile to be put a way. This time it was Jacob who missed out on a surprise. No one has forgotten to put dirty clothes in the hamper or clean clothes away since! It's amazing! Maddy even got rid of a laundry basket full of toys and things she wants to give away and a whole huge trash bag full of stuffed animals. Now it will be easier for her to keep her room clean, plus you never know when the H. F. will come! :-)

Here are pictures of their clean rooms. Even Maddy's closet is spotless! (It's one of the rules.)

The boys room doesn't look too bad either!
Here was their surprise today, alongside the fairy dust she always leaves behind. Who would have thought that a little snack that mom doesn't buy would be such a hit?!
I told the kids that if they kept the playroom clean too, I'd ask the H. F. to check there too.
Look what she brought the whole family for keeping the playroom so nice and clean! Thanks House Fairy!
I've got to say that the House Fairy is definitely worth the $13. I don't ever nag the kids about cleaning their rooms anymore. All I say is, "I hope the H. F. doesn't come today" and they hop to it, or they don't get a surprise. It's that simple. You are rewarded for being responsible. It's great! I've heard that older kids like to play along as well because they aren't getting nagged and still get rewarded for being responsible. I don't know how long the magic will last with Maddy, but it sure got her started and moving in the right direction. The kids think they'd the H. F. to bring bigger surprises sometimes too, so I told them that they may need to collect tickets for having a clean room to earn bigger surprises. They thought this was a great idea too. Only time will tell if this motivation really lasts, but at least their rooms are clean today and they are learning that clean rooms are more fun and more calming than messy ones. (I think the H. F. may bring movie tickets next week during spring break if everyone's room is clean.)

Jacob's Special Day!

At the beginning of the year our whole family set goals to work on throughout the year (as you remember, mine is to get organized!). Anyway, Travis' goal is to do something special individually with each member of the family. For a couple of months Travis and Jacob have been looking forward to going to a Phoenix Suns game. Travis had to find a game that was on a Fri. or Sat. and wasn't too late, as it's quite a drive! Well, last Fri. was the game they had tickets for. We were a little worried when Travis got soooo sick on Sun. that he wouldn't be able to go, or that Jacob would come down with it and be too sick. Fortunately, Travis was feeling fairly normal (at least enough to make the "sacrifice" to attend an NBA basketball game of his favorite team) and Jacob never has gotten sick. (Knock on wood!)

They had a GREAT time! Jacob was sooooooo excited to get a foam finger to wave during the game. The team shop was their first stop. Also, they have a Gorilla Jungle (named for the gorilla mascot) for the kids to play in where there are like 50 basketballs and several baskets at varying heights to shoot into. There is also a jungle gym with a zip line swing that you hang on to and slide down. Jacob played there before the game and at half time. Jacob had a blast. Jacob was pretty surprised when the game started and all the lights went out and then colored spotlights started going around and fire shot out of boxes on the floor. He thought it was awesome! They ate pizza, had popcorn and watched the game. Jacob particularly enjoyed being able to yell at the top of his lungs and not get in trouble for it. They both had a great time!

Their seats were in the very top row in the middle of the court, so we knew there would be no shot of seeing them in the crowd on TV. Travis thought maybe he could get Jacob in the background of the commentators before the game, but found he really needed to be inside during that time. (Jacob got to watch the players warm up close to the floor.) I was at home watching the TV, but didn't see Jacob in the pre-game show, so I thought he wouldn't be on TV. Travis was determined to get Jacob on TV if he could, so he left the game about a min. early and headed over to the commentators and got Jacob on TV during the post-game show! Holding Jacob on his shoulders, he called to have me record it, but I was already in bed trying to sleep. He thought that Jacob would just have to settle for seeing himself in the monitors there, but I was way ahead of them. I was already recording it in case they were on before the game. I took these pictures of the TV, that is why the quality isn't great, but it shows that Jacob was on TV and displays his great foam finger!

Sick Days

It's been a while since I posted because we have had a house full of sick-os. Me included.

Travis started us off 2 Sundays ago with a bad flu. He had a fever of about 104 for 4 days straight. He was either burning up (literally - you could hardly touch him!) or so freezing that he would actually be chattering. It pretty much knocked him out for 4 days, which doesn't usually happen. I don't think I've ever seen him so sick that he's just spent 4 days in bed or on the couch. Usually he just works from home on the computer when he's sick, but this time he actually took 3 sick days and then did a work from home day.

Bryson, Ally and I came down with it mid week. What I want to know is, when do I get to take a sick day, a REAL sick day? Fortunately I wasn't quite as sick as Travis was, and good thing because as you all know, the mom just doesn't get to take a REAL sick day.

Here's an example of my "sick day":
6:45 - " wake up" at regular time because the kids still need to get to school - I don't know if you can call it waking up if you were awake most of the night holding a baby in the recliner only nodding off every once in a while and spent very little time actually sleeping in bed.
7:00-8:30 - make breakfasts, read scriptures, keep prodding the kids along to get ready, make lunches, sign papers, hurry kids along, fix hair, etc. and finally get kids off to the bus stop.
8:30 - nurse Ally and make sure she's had her morning dose of Motrin. Give Bryson his medicine too. (Ally was down to 3 feedings, but is now eating every couple of hours around the clock for comfort and to make sure she's getting fluids and nutrients since she's not each much.)
9:00 - Open a new box of Kleenex (to be used up entirely throughout the day!), eat breakfast myself and then clean up all the breakfast and school lunch mess. Put a movie on to keep Bryson entertained.
9:30 - Crash in the recliner holding Ally
10:00 - Ally takes a nap just long enough for me to almost get a whole hot shower
10:30 - start a batch of laundry and then crash in the recliner again to nurse Ally. Find something else for Bryson to watch on TV.
12:00 - Fix lunch for Bryson and myself and try to find something that Ally will actually eat (to no avail)
12:30 - Clean up lunch and give Ally some Tylenol this time.
1:00 - Crash in the recliner again holding Ally and find a movie for Bryson to watch. Realize I'm burning up and take some Advil.
2:30 - Give Ally and Bryson Motrin again. Nurse Ally to try to put her to sleep.
3:00 - Put Ally down for a nap. Remember the laundry and switch the clothes over to dry. Put a new show on for Bryson and lay down until the kids come home.
3:45 - kids come home - let them get their own snacks and then we start on homework. Send Bryson to play on the computer so he leaves the kids alone.
4:00 - Ally coughs and wakes herself up.
4:20 - Have Maddy round up her piano books for her lesson at 4:30. Drive to Piano lessons.
4:35 - Finish up homework with Jacob.
4:55 - Leave to pick up Maddy from piano
5:10 - Start dinner (luckily we have leftovers!) Get Maddy going on her homework again.
5:30 - Eat dinner
6:00 - Clean up dinner. Travis does the dishes. Get Maddy going on homework again. Give Ally Tylenol. Nurse Ally again.
6:30 - Send Jacob up to take a bath, then Bryson, and finally Maddy.
7:00 - As kids finish baths let them get a bedtime snack (if they ate their dinner)
7:30 - Bathe Ally and get her ready for bed.
7:45 - Give Bryson his cough medicine and Motrin. Send kids up to brush teeth and get ready for bed.
8:00 - Travis says prayers with kids. I refill humidifier tanks and swap out the vapor plug in the boys nightlight.
8:30 - Give Ally Motrin and nurse her to "sleep"
9:00 - Remember the clothes in the dryer and take them out to fold tomorrow (too tired now - just want to sleep)
9:15 - Ally wakes up coughing and crying, only to do this off and on all night long. Alternating Motrin and Tylenol as well as periodic nursing will also continue all night long.
Then my day starts all over the next day at 6:45.

I think I need a vacation day to recover from my sick day ... but wait, vacation days are even more work than sick days!!!

Fortunately I think we are all better now. I probably shouldn't have said that because every time I do, someone gets sick again. I guess with next week being spring break, at least no one would miss school. I have been busy sanitizing the whole house, opening all the doors and windows everyday (fortunately the weather is cooperating!), and am pumping the kids full of orange juice each morning and making them wash their hands all the time. I think we've had every kind of cold or flu that is going around here, so we should be immune at this point ... at least I hope so! I'm hoping for a fun spring break with no illness! I guess only time will tell.

I hope everyone reading this is healthy and stays that way!

New family room!

While my mom was here, we were busy redecorating our family room.

Travis and I have really struggled trying to figure out how to cover the 3 windows in our family room because we couldn't find a rod long enough to go across the whole length and they are so close together that we couldn't really do 3 separate rods either. Travis built this box for me. It is 10 ft. 6 inches long and has the southwest edging to match our entertainment center. It was a no sew project, just some batting, fabric, glue and a staple gun. Well I guess there was a little sewing; my mom sewed 3 pieces of fabric together to make one long piece. (I forgot since I didn't do the sewing. Thanks mom!) It was tricky covering all the little corners, because the big piece of fabric only covers the top and bottoms of the box. We had to cut out little pieces of fabric that matched up with the stripes to cover the sides of all the little notches. It took longer than a regular straight box would have, but I really like that it is a little different.

We're still looking for a new lamp to go on the end table. We can't do a whole lot with the end table right now because it is Ally's favorite place to be. She knows she can reach anything on that table and she does!
My mom sewed these curtains for me. They are on the doors that go into our den. The color didn't show up that well in the picture, maybe because it's night. They are the teal color in the stripes on the window box, but they are sheer. If you notice all the mess behind them, you'll know why we choose these kind of curtains. You can take the tie back off when you want to block off the whole room. Some day I'll be so together and organized that the den will always be clean, but for right now, that's where a lot of things just get put until I have time to deal with them.
I'm still looking for somethings to finish off the entertainment center too. We found some candle sticks to go on the top left of the entertainment center, but they just didn't go, so I'm still looking for some that work better. I also just stuck a couple of pictures on the right until I can find a bowl to put some decorative balls in. I'm also looking for a darker picture frame, possibly with gold trim like the frame on the left, for our wedding picture (which we will lower when we find the frame).

Even though it is still a work in progress, I'm really pleased with how it is turning out. It was so fun to just go shopping with my mom and bounce ideas off her and get her opinions. It would have taken me forever to get the window treatments done without her!

Is it still winter?

It was the Mother / Son dance at Jacob's school on Friday night. The theme was Mardi Gras (hence the hats). We had a great time dancing and snacking the night away. Jacob is a very energetic boy and loves to dance. I'll have to take some video of the "dance parties" they have with their dad. He's a pretty crazy dancer sometimes. They usually have their dance parties when I'm gone to a meeting. That's dad's motivation to get them ready for bed quickly, so they'll have more time to dance and be crazy.

We've been unseasonably warm all week and Saturday was last day we were supposed to be in the 80s, so I thought I'd let the kids really enjoy it. Can you believe it's the first day of March and my kids are running around in the sprinklers?! They had a great time!

Can you count the ribs on Jacob? I swear that boy doesn't eat enough to stay alive, let alone run around with the amount of energy he has. We are always trying to get him to eat more. How would that be, to have someone trying to make you eat more so that you wouldn't be too skinny?!!

Ally had her own adventures on Saturday. She started out her day smacking her head on the tile because her jammies were kind of slippery. Can you see the big bruise on the left side of her head? After I forced her to let me hold her with some ice on the goose egg for about 10 mins, she bumped the right side of her forehead! At least it wasn't as hard and didn't swell up or bruise as bad. She is definitely entering the "school of hard knocks". There will be plenty more bruises as she gets more brave and starts walking. What can you do? They all go through it. Ally loves to try to grab the water when it's coming out of the faucet. You can tell she's confused by being able to see the water come out, but not be able to grab it. It's pretty funny.

There's been a lot of sickness going around here. I thought Jacob had the flu on Wed. He came home from school feeling sick and threw up as soon as we got to Activity Days for Maddy where the girls were putting on a carnival for the nursery kids and their little brothers and sisters. Luckily I had grabbed a bucket before we left! I had to leave Bryson and Maddy at the little carnival and bring Jacob home. He never threw up again, didn't have a fever or any other symptoms so I sent him to school the next day. I got a phone call from school about 20 mins. before school let out from the nurse saying Jacob's stomach was hurting, but that he didn't have a fever. I picked him up and realized that he has P.E. in the afternoon and it was after that he started feeling sick. I think he just wasn't drinking enough with the warm afternoons and over exertion. I think the bus ride home pushed him over the edge on Wed. because he does get car sick. At least it wasn't the flu and won't spread to the other kids!!!


I woke up with a cold on Thurs. I swear I can't have a house w/o at least one person sick for more than a day. At least it hasn't amounted to much, just congestion and sinus pressure. Nothing to keep me home from church or from giving my Relief Society lesson today. Darn! ;-) My lesson went OK. I don't know why I always stress about my lessons. They only have to be about 15 mins. long so that we have time for testimonies, but I still get nervous. At least I won't have to teach again for a while! (I guess that is unless one of the teachers can't teach last min., that has happened before.)