YIP - Week 10

Sunday, March 18th

I wrote before about Fin's fascination with the new chicks, which we named today, by the way.  They are Ginger and MaryAnn.  He is a complete bird dog and loves to chase all the little birds out of our yard.  He chases their shadows across the yard and barks them out of the lilac bush.  I don't know what he would do if he caught one.  Well, today Bump decided to torture the dog by putting Ginger down in front of him and making him stay still.  I got this great picture in the process.  I can think of any number of great captions for this.

 Monday, March 19th

Tonight's dinner did not just consist of peas.  It's all that was left on all 3 kids plates at the end of the meal.  They couldn't have dessert until the peas were all gone though.  It worked and all plates were clean in the end.  Don't let that smile fool you.  He didn't look like that until I got the camera out.

 Tuesday, March 20th

A friend of mine from high school that is an amazing pianist and teaches piano had this great idea on her blog one day.  She is teaching her 5 year old to play and gives her a jelly bean each time she plays through a song.  I have been struggling to motivate Gabby lately and her practices haven't been good.  I bought some jelly beans and gave it a try.  Wow!  Not only did she practice each song wonderfully, the next day she asked if she could start her piano practice.  I didn't have to beg and plead with her, she was excited and has practiced every day since.  It worked!  And it didn't work with just her, Quincy asked if she could do it and so did Corban (who hasn't wanted anything to do with piano).  

Wednesday, March 21st

Speaking of piano, today we got ours tuned!  We have owned it for 2 years and finally it sounds better! Not only did we get it tuned, but she fixed the G key that lost it's ivory.  Gabby has learned to rely on that brown G key and now she can't!  Yay!  The lady we used was great, but a string broke while she was tuning our 100 year old piano.  So, she is coming back on Tuesday to fix it.  She would die if she knew I took this picture.  If anyone needs a good tuner in Tooele County let me know and I will send her your way.

 Thursday, March 22nd

Today I ended up with a bit of extra time and had a friend willing to take the kids for me so I could run into the wood connection in Salt Lake.  Remember my shamrocks for St. Patrick's Day?  Well I needed something new for my front table.  This is what I ended up making.  Pretty cute huh?

 A scary thing happened while I was out.  I was at the store and had to make a left turn into the parking lot of the store.  There were about 8 cars in a line coming the other direction, so I put on my blinker and stopped to wait for the cars to pass.  A black truck pulled up behind me and waited for me to turn.  While we were waiting I heard a loud squeal of tires and a loud crunch.  A car had totally slammed into the back of the truck right behind me.  If that truck hadn't been stopped behind me the car would have slammed into the back of me.  I snapped a picture as I was leaving.  Everybody looked alright, a policeman was just filling out paperwork.  The car was pretty munched in the front.  I couldn't see a mark on the black truck!  Our honda pilot would not have fared as well.  I am grateful for the protection that I was given on this outing!

Friday, March 23rd

Gabby had a surprise tooth fall out today.  I was at the school volunteering in her class and she came to me with tears in her eyes.  She was eating a cookie and bit just wrong and suddenly her tooth was very loose.  According to her it wasn't loose at all before that.  She wanted me to pull it out right then.  I told her we would take care of it after school.  Just after she got home from school I pulled it out and that is her 6th tooth gone.

 I am so grateful for the lesson that my mother taught me.  We don't do teeth under the pillow at our house.  They can easily get lost.  Our kids are very light sleepers.  And if it isn't out in the open where the tooth fairy can see it and remember that she is supposed to leave money, it might not happen.  So, I am grateful that my kids are happy to put their tooth in a glass of water and leave it over the sink in the kitchen where it can be easily seen!  The tooth fairy never forgets at our house.  Thanks for the tradition Mom!

 Saturday, March 24th

Today was a fun and busy day.  We took advantage of very nice weather and cleaned out the chicken coop, raked the back yard and did a bit of trimming on our crazy, out-of-control vines.  We still aren't done with that.  Bump overdid it a bit and wasn't feeling well by late afternoon.

 So. . . he stayed home with the kids and I got to go to Maddox in Brigham City to help my sister-in-law, Sue, celebrate her big five-oh birthday.  We had a surprise dinner and it was fun to catch up with everyone there.

Sunday, March 25th

Tonight Gabby had her baptism preview.  She was asked to give a talk on baptism and did a fantastic job!  We have a great ward and a super primary presidency.  They made it really neat for the kids and gave them each a white towel with CTR and their name embroidered on it.  As you can tell by her super big smile she is very excited to turn 8 in April.

YIP - Week 9

Sunday, March 11th

I know that I posted last Sunday already, but right after I was finished with my post I caught the kids outside enjoying the spring sunshine.  They had been working for quite some time on this cool blanket fort out in the crab apple tree and were pretty excited about it.  I love Sunday afternoons when the weather is so nice!  Our YSA Family Home Evening was a success.  We did a treasure hunt around the church using clues from the new For The Strength of Youth handbook.  I think everyone had fun.

I had to include this picture also.  It seems that so much of life captured in photos are the smiling happy children posing nicely for their mom.  This one is such a true life photo for me.  Quincy has her hand down her pants, Gabby's got a nice plumber's crack going on and Corban looks like he's about to tattle on someone.  This such perfectly shows my life that I should have this framed and hung in my house instead of their school portraits.  I love being a mom!

 Monday, March 12th

Today was a typical Monday but with me not feeling at my best still.  I tried to get motivated, but ended up still kind of laying around recovering from being sick.  I realized after I put the kids to bed that I didn't have a photo so I took this one of my love!  I really like this guy!  He's taken care of me over the weekend and filled my house with junk food. . . yes, he went shopping.  :)  I love how he is posing with his new gigantic phone.

Tuesday, March 13th

Is Spring actually here?  I have proof that it is finally showing some signs at my house.  My cute mini daffodils are just starting to bloom and I am so excited.  I tell myself every year that I am going to plant more bulbs in the fall because they make me so happy, but I never seem to have money when the time is right for planting them!  Oh well!  I'll enjoy what I've got!  I felt great today finally and got caught up on my house.  Hooray!

Wednesday, March 14th

Today Bump got to go to the school with Corban and Gabby and read with them.  It's supposed to be a grandparent, but since that wasn't a possibility on this day, their dad got to go.  He just went in to work a few hours late and the kids had so much fun showing him around and introducing them to their teachers.  Quincy made the cutest little St. Patrick's Day mask.  I had to get a picture with her wearing it!

 Thursday, March 15th

Gabby keeps complaining about her feet hurting so I finally broke down and got her some nicer shoes to see if that would help.  She ended up getting 3 pair that have good arch support and look super cute so hopefully her feet can feel better.

Tonight I also attended my first caucus meeting.  How sad is that?  I am 37 years old and have never been to a caucus meeting.  It was a real treat for me to go.  Bump offered to stay home and watch the kids - it had nothing to do with the NCAA basketball tournament going on either.  Ahem.  Anyway, it was a neat process to see and be a part of and I doubt that I will ever miss one again!  Bump says that he will go next time with me also.

 Friday, March 16th

The day that the kids have been waiting for. . . the chicks that we wanted came in to Rockin' E Country Store.  We talked about getting two chickens to replace the two that we lost last year.  I decided that we loved our Americauna so much and I miss getting green eggs so we bought two of them.  They are tiny, cute little girls.  We named them Ginger and MaryAnn.  The kids are in heaven. . .

the dog is not.  They are driving him insane!  He wants to get them so bad!  His bird dog instincts are in over drive and he rarely leaves this spot by their house.  If their chirping gets too loud he is right there whining (probably wishing he could silence them - and there are times that I would not mind if he did.  Those chicks can be loud!)

Nosing his way as close as he can get.

 Saturday, March 17th

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  I have no pictures of the mess that the leprechaun made in my house last night.  There were foot prints everywhere and things knocked over.  The milk magically turned green, the coats were all off of their hooks and cupboards were all opened.  But he was nice enough to leave the kids all some treats.  I am wondering why he didn't leave me any since I'm the one that had to clean up the mess?!

After the leprechaun excitement we spent the morning cleaning out the basement.  Wow, it's been awhile since we've done that and it needed it badly!  I still have some drawers and bins to go through to organize it better, but it looks so great!  I even cleaned off all the shelves and vacuumed the old wood ceiling to get rid of any cobwebs - yeah me!  We are getting rid of things that haven't been touched in the 4 years that we've lived here.  I told you I was in an organizing mood!

Then Bump and I got all dressed up and headed over to the high school for the annual Old Folk's Sociable.  Remember Bump was in the program last year?  Well this year we didn't have to do anything, just enjoy it all.  And we did.  I didn't take any pictures at it, but here we are at home afterwards.  It was a nice night and I am grateful for everyone that works so hard to make it a fun night.

YIP - Week 8 - Sickness Strikes!

Monday, March 5th

What a fun way to start and end this fantastic week of sickness - with pictures of my toilet!  Quincy started bright and early Monday morning with a lovely display of vomit.  She was so good though and always made it to the toilet for me (unlike another someone who's name starts with a C in this house).  She felt pretty miserable most of the day and I got some quiet holding time with her.  While she slept I cleaned out my refrigerator and pots and pans cupboard.  Don't these pictures just break your heart?  I'm such a mean mom for taking them!

Tuesday, March 6th

I am in such a spring cleaning mode and have tried to do at least one extra cleaning/organizing thing each day.  Today after washing Quincy's sheets and scrubbing down anything that she was in contact with I finally made my shamrock craft that's been sitting up in my closet since last month.  They turned out really cute and didn't take too much time.  I found the cute "lucky" printout for free online.  I am so proud of myself for getting it done before St. Patrick's Day!

 Wednesday, March 7th

Quincy was excited to go back to preschool today since she had to miss on Monday.  Last week Gabby had a read-a-thon at school and today Corban had one in his class.  Quincy was feeling left out since she didn't participate in a read-a-thon, so she decided to have her own before school.  She got a pillow-pet and a blanket, a few books and a treat.  She quietly sat down and read all the books that she brought and was satisfied.

Thursday, March 8th

Bump is such a geek sometimes. He decided that since he was eligible for a phone upgrade that he was going to change things up completely.  Samsung put out a new phone called the Galaxy Note and Bump has researched and played with it and was just in love with the new really big screen.  He has loved his iPhone and was really feeling guilty about leaving Apple and going to an Android phone, but he did it today.  This thing is huge!  Way too big for me.  It's between the size of a tablet (ie iPad or Kindle) and an iPhone.  In the picture below you can see how much bigger it is than the iPhone 4.  It's funny watching him try to get it in and out of his pockets!  He knows nothing about Androids and has been spending too much time trying to figure out his new toy.  Hopefully it works out well for him.

Friday, March 9th

Last night Corban started throwing up and it made for a really long night and a lot of clean up.  He isn't quite as courteous as his little sister and I have had to learn how to clean up throw-up out of carpet now.  Yuck!  Anyway, he was up most of the night, so that means I was up most of the night.  Then today he was mad that I wouldn't let him go to school because "he felt fine now."  Things were looking good through the day until after dinner when Gabby said that she didn't feel good.  If I thought it was a long night with Corban I would gladly take that back after the night I had with Gabby!  She would not sleep and would not let me sleep either!  Good thing I love my kids so much because I was tired and grouchy and I really like getting enough sleep.

Saturday, March 10th

After the lack of sleep for two nights in a row and with this stupid bug going around it was inevitable that I was going to get it.  I tried to fight it off and cleaned and scrubbed until my fingers were cracked and nasty, but today it finally hit me!  Talk about terrible timing!  This weekend is beautiful and I have so many things that I wanted to get done while Bump was home and the sun was shining.  I still did what I could, but have really been down sick with this.  Bump isn't 100% either so between the two of us we managed, but didn't accomplish much.  I hate being sick!  Gabby is still not feeling great after her long night and all of us did a lot of laying around today.

 Sunday, March 11th

Last night the time changed and Daylight Savings Time began.  So, we lost an hour and have 9:00am church.  If I didn't have responsibilities I would have stayed in bed.  I still don't feel well today, but I had to teach Gospel Doctrine and do music in Young Women's.  My lesson went well despite my feeling yucky (thanks to the Spirit that is the true teacher in a class).  Tonight Bump and I are going to do a Family Home Evening lesson for the Young Single Adults in the Stake.  I should be fine, but I wish I was feeling better.  Here's hoping to a better week with no more sickness next week!!

YIP - Week 7

Sunday, February 26th

I love that Sundays are days of rest.  It usually means that the house gets a bit messier and I will have to deal with it on Monday, but that's fine with me.  It's a great excuse to blog, read, study my Sunday school lessons and relax with my family.  Tonight my parents came over again and we watched another Harry Potter movie.  Tomorrow morning they leave for Washington.  It's been such a treat to have them come and hang out with us as much as they were able to.  

 Monday, February 27th

Tera dropped Erick off at the airport this morning to head back to Afghanistan and then came to my house to feed her kids breakfast and get ready to head out to Washington with my parents and then back to Germany.  Corban and TJ got one more bit of playtime together.  They are best buds and I wish that they could live closer together to get to play more often.  It was so sad to watch Tera and my parents drive off this morning.  I couldn't help but cry because I don't know when I will see her again (I know it won't be for awhile).  I am so grateful for technology that makes it so we can talk with each other as often as we can.  It makes the world seem a little bit smaller even when we are so far apart.  She is my best friend though and I will miss her so much.  It was a bit of a gloomy day for me after they left.

 Tuesday, February 28th

Today was a busy homework day for me and a housework catch up day and all the usual mom stuff that I get to do.  Bump came home from work early for a doctor's appointment so we decided to celebrate finally getting our tax return by taking the kids to Applebee's.   They had free kids meal coupons that they got for getting good grades last term and were excited to use them.  After dinner I needed to go help out at Young Women's New Beginnings and Bump had Young Men's so my nephew Conner came over and watched the kids so we could both be at the church.  It was a busy day, but I got a lot done.

 Wednesday, February 29th

Happy Leap Day!  It only happens once every four years and today is the day!  Gabby had some dental hygienists come to her school class today and talk about good hygiene.  She was so excited to come home and show me her mask and gloves.  She even asked me to take this picture and send it to Uncle Darin (her dentist in Tremonton).  She says she wants to be a dentist when she grows up.  Good for her.

Thursday, March 1st

Today when I walked into the bathroom I saw a handsome male barbie doll doing push ups for his ladies.  I laughed out loud and had to shoot this picture.  March has come in like a lion for us with some awesome snow showers finally.  It's been such a mild winter that it's nice to get some snow that is sticking even if spring should actually be getting here.

 Friday, March 2nd

Tonight while Quincy was eating dinner I snapped a few pictures of her in the sunlight coming in through the windows.  My baby is getting so big.  Today we registered her for Kindergarten.  I keep wondering where has the time gone?  She is such a fun yet stubborn girl who reminds me so much of myself.  She still sucks her thumb, but is finally realizing that if she wants to be grown up she needs to stop that habit.  She plays the piano all the time and I know she is doing what I used to do and is imagining herself playing grand pieces in front of thousands of adoring fans.  She is reading better than most of the Kindergartner's in Corban's class right now.  She sings so well for her age and loves to snuggle up to me.  But ask her to clean her room or help around the house and she acts like I have just sentenced her to death.  What a stinker!

 Saturday, March 3rd

While we were getting kids up and getting ready to go to Ikea this morning my niece, Madison, was being baptized by her dad (my little brother, Thad) in Boston.  She is another of those little baby girls all born in 2004.  She is a beautiful girl and we are so happy for her!

We spent the morning with the kids at Ikea buying stuff to redo our office area at the top of the stairs.  I realize that I don't have a picture of what it looked like before, if I find one I will insert it.  Basically it was an old arm chair in the left corner and a computer armour with tons of junk on it and in it between the two windows.  It was full of papers, old paid bills and loads of dust (cough).  So, after buying what we needed and eating some Swedish meatballs for lunch, we headed home to put everything together.  This is what we ended up with.  Now we have space for two computers and lots more storage.  I still have more ideas to fancy things up a bit, but it's so much better than we had and I am really happy with it.

Sunday, March 4th

I know I started with Sunday and this week I am ending with Sunday because I am blogging Sunday night.  Last night we left our house late and headed over to Bump's parents for a surprise sleep over.  We haven't spent much time with them lately and neither one of them has been feeling too well so we decided to take the day and just be with them.  We brought all the fixings for breakfast, lunch and dinner and had a relaxing day just being together.  Here is Quincy and Grandma reading together.  The kids read and played while we talked and told stories.  It was a good day.