Update

Summer is almost here! The kids are enjoying the fun "end of year" activites at school. Conner has his preschool graduation/swim party this Thursday, so that will be it for him until September, when both he and Mallory will be in preschool. Mal on Tues. & Thurs., and Conner M, W, F.

Speaking of preschool for Mallory, my goal this summer is to get her potty trained. We FINALLY took the binky away yesterday. She is so terribly attached to it, it breaks my heart. But she's 3, and too old for it. She cried at bedtime, but slept all night. She asked for it all morning today, and wanted it at nap time. Guess it may take a few days.

Kelsey is working hard to earn the Young American Award. It's a nationwide award 5th graders can get by doing all of these things: Passing a test of "100 Questions all Americans should know", memorizing the Presidents in order and their years in office, memorizing state's capitals and their abbreviations, memorizing the Gettysburg Address, the Bill of Rights, both verses of the National anthem, and the Pledge of Allegiance. I think that's all of it. She's passed off everything but the Presidents, so we're working on that.

Emma had to get an ingrown toenail cut out. She gets them a lot, and the podiatrist said it's hereditary. I didn't know that, and both Jared and I have had them before. The doctor was SO great with her, I really, really liked him. She had to get 3 shots to numb her toe, then he dug it out. Generally, when it comes to needles and blood, I try to avoid looking. Once I watched myself get a deprovera shot, and I almost passed out. But that was when Kelsey was a baby. So I kind of watched what he was doing. Pretty quick, I started to not feel good, the room got really hot, and I could feel myself slipping away. I couldn't believe it! The doctor helped me into another exam room and had me lie down, his nurse got me a drink of water and a cold rag. Luckily Jared was there.

I'm nearing the end of the first trimester of this surprise pregnancy. Everyday I still can't believe it, I was done! We are excited and I'm looking forward to not being sick to my stomach all day long.

Ashton is loving soccer. My 3 oldest are playing, but I think Ashton enjoys it the most. It's so funny how different boy games are than girl games. For 7 and 8 year olds, they are intense! It's all about winning to them, no matter how much you focus on the fun. There have been a few games this season where the ref gave free kicks for tripping and pushing, not because of Ashton, luckily.

We had a fun trip to Yellowstone with my side of the family, minus the Indy clan. It would be so much fun for all of us to be able to go. Maybe someday. The weather was great, and we all had a lot of fun. Mallory was sick for part of the trip, she had a fever, cough and runny nose. I didn't have a thermometer, which started to drive me crazy as medicine and baths didn't seem to make her feel any cooler. She was miserable, and she was so hot to the touch, I just couldn't relax or sleep, I was really worried about her. Jared & my dad gave her a blessing on Saturday night, and she woke up that next morning feeling better. Her fever was gone after that, she still has the cough, though, and shared it with me.

Conner's Sensitive Stomach

Yesterday Kelsey came screaming in the door from school. She had fallen off her scooter in the street and hurt her arm & leg. She didn't break anything, just some painful scrapes on her elbow & hand. She was hardly even bleeding. But it was enough to set off Conner! I was in the kitchen helping Kelsey when Jared called me to the office, Conner was as white as a ghost! His lips started to look purple. I've had kids faint on me before and I don't like it at all, it freaks me out. So I grabbed him and brought him in the kitchen. I got him to take some deep breaths, but it didn't seem to help much. His eyes were kind of rolling, and he said, "I want to lay in my bed" and then he threw up on my kitchen floor. He had just had a nice big glass of Nesquick chocolate milk. (Sorry for the visual that might give you!) That kid CANNOT handle blood, but neither can both of his grandfathers and some of his uncles on both sides. I had him lay down on the couch for a bit, and after about 30 mins, he was right as rain and asking for some chocolate milk. Who wants to eat the same food that they just threw up? Sick!

Good Times

Spring break was pretty boring for my kids. Jared left on a business trip early Wednesday, so it was just me & the kids. I was busy getting some things done around the house. We aren't like a lot of married couples in that Jared cooks almost all the meals and cleans it up, and the fact that "honey-do" lists are meant for me. Besides doing the regular cleaning and laundry, I needed to tighten some door handles, fix our loose toilet paper holders (both bathrooms), change the furnace filter, touch up some paint and put two porch rocking chairs together. The chairs I never got to, and I started to touch up our ceiling paint, then realized it was the wrong color. My biggest feat was the file room. It is FINALLY clean! I had piles & piles of '09 payables to organize. Jared had a secretary for a short while that made an absolute mess of the '08 payable copies. I got those organized a while ago, but I just kept stacking the '09 copies. Lucky for me I have a ton of counter space, so I brought it all out in the kitchen & got it all organized, finally got the folders put together, and all filed away. I started Friday night after the kids were down, then finally finished & went to sleep at 5am Saturday morning. I knew I was in trouble when I heard some birds chirping. The kids were up early, somehow I got up at 7:30 and actually functioned.

To help the kids feel like spring break wasn't totally boring, Jared told them that I would take them to a movie & he would keep Mallory with him. We decided to see the 3:00 3D Monsters vs. Aliens. Something came up at the last minute for Jared, so we had to take Mallory.....with no nap. I was a little concerned, but they were all great. It was a good movie! The funniest thing happened on the way to the movie, Mallory noticed a ladybug on her window & started freaking out! She was so scared, trying to move away from the window but strapped into her car seat....hilarious! I was laughing so hard. It was on the outside, but she was not happy.

Today I was on my way to take Conner & my niece Libbie to preschool when Emma called & said she threw up. So after I dropped them off Mal & I went to the school to check Emma out. I had to go get Jared's mail, and Emma thought she'd be OK for a little drive. So we got to the post office, I ran in & got it, and we were almost to my parents house when Emma said she was going to throw up. Now, no mother wants that in her car. I grabbed the diaper bag, lucky for me there was a large Ziploc bag with M&M's from the movie yesterday, so I just dumped them out and gave her the bag just in time. I'd rather clean up M&M's than vomit any day. Oh, the smell! It was awful! I put the windows down, it was cold & raining, but I didn't care. Then Mallory started telling me to put the window up cause she was cold. Obviously she wasn't as bothered by the smell as I was....gross, gross, gross!

Typical After School Craziness

Here's a typical day with Ashton. He's such a goof ball! He went into the garage and grabbed a 12 pack of Diet Dr Pepper Cherry and took it upon himself to stock up the fridge!

Then he decided he needed to make a Dr. Pepper commercial. Emma took these videos, it's one of their favorite things to do!

Sugar,spice & everything nice....sometimes

Let me preface this with how much I love my girls. It is so much fun to watch them grow and learn. They can be so sweet, helpful, and caring. And then there's the times they aren't so much...

All week Kelsey & Emma have no problem picking out their clothes. They get their outfits together the night before and lay it out so it's all ready. Never a word to me, unless they can't find socks or pants, and they are old enough they don't need help coordinating. But when Sunday morning rolls around and I say, "Go get dressed"...watch out! "I don't have anything to wear", "I don't like that dress, it's itchy", "I wore that skirt last week", "I can't find anything!" So yesterday I was in their closet helping them. Emma picked out her shoes first and asked what dress would go with it, so I grabbed a cute denim dress and told her to get some tights...done! "Um, I don't think tights go with it Mom"....."Yes, they do, go get dressed." She didn't complain much at all.

Kelsey wasn't so easy. She had an excuse for every dress, skirt or blouse I showed her. She had plenty of options! I tried, it didn't work, so I threw my hands up and told her to just pick something, I had myself & 3 other kids to get ready. "Why won't you help me?!" Really....what was I just doing for the last 10 minutes? "Why don't you care?!" Now we're getting dramatic. I said, "Kelsey, I tried to help you. Just get dressed".....to which she replied, "You're bugging me today!" This was a first! I don't think I have heard my kids say something like that before. I could've been angry, or sad. I just thought it was kind of funny, but I didn't let her see that.

Time is precious on Sunday morning, you can't waste it or you'll be late. So I left the room anyway & told her to figure it out. Thirty minutes later it was time to "do hair". I yelled for Kelsey, it was her turn. Low & behold...she was dressed! She some how found something to wear! She looked cute...so I told her she looked cute. I got a real nice rolling of the eyes and sigh from her. Aren't preteens fun? She'll be 11 in June, she's already mature for her age and almost caught up to my 5 ft 1 inch shortness, which is too tall for a 5th grader in my book.

Mallory lately has developed what we call in our house a "princess complex". She is the baby, and she's so stinkin' cute, we all spoil her. She is talking like a 5 year old and gives me her opinion about everything from a pair of shoes she doesn't want to wear to a dinner she doesn't want to eat. In Sacrament meeting yesterday she kept taking her shoes off so she could put them back on. As long as she's quiet and not destroying something, I don't care what she does. Kelsey started to help her with the strap, which made Mallory upset. She threw her shoe down, folded her arms, made a mad face and said, "I hate Christmas!" Kelsey & I tried to not bust out laughing. She has watched "The Grinch" one too many times obviously!

Stupid! Stupid! Stupid!

Maybe my brain was still asleep....maybe my kids were distracting me....maybe because it's Friday the 13th! This morning when I was leaving to take the kids to school (8AM) I backed up too soon, before the garage door was all the way up, and put a real nice dent in it. The kids heard it first. I pulled the car forward a bit, put it in park and stepped out to look at it. My first thought? Jared's gonna kill me. Then I said out loud to the kids...."Dad's going to kill me!" I hurried into the house to tell him the bad news....better sooner than later. He was already at work in his office. Of course he didn't actually kill me, but maybe if looks could kill...

We called a guy Jack said was reasonable, he'll be here around 3:00 today. The door won't shut, the bottom wheel came off the track, it put a small dent in my car.....ugh!! I am more mad at myself than Jared ever could be. He reacted better than I thought he would. I must have left my brain in bed this morning!

Little Artists

Lately Conner and Mallory have been little artists! They sit together at the table and color for a large portion of the day. More often than not, it ends up on their faces, hands, arms and clothes. What did mother's do before washable markers? I love it! It's always nice to see the kids entertain themselves and turn the tv off.

Here's Mal! She wore this Barbie 'Diamond Castle' dress all day today.

Conner with his Wall*E book he forgot about because he put it with the reading books! I showed it to him today and he was pretty excited. Downside....Mal kept asking where her book was! Sorry honey, no more missing books to find!

They usually sit right by each other, but by this point I had to separate them. It's a fuzzy pic, but you can see Conner has his hand out; he was giving Mallory a hard time because she was "scribbling" and not coloring in the lines. Give her a break kid! She's not even 3!