Broadcast for the Kids

 I wish I could get around to blogging more often because it seems like there's so many things that I think about during the week that would be good to mention in the blog but then I never seem to have the energy to do it. Then it's been a week and I have forgotten many things. Oh well, do what I can do I guess.

The church had a special broadcast last Saturday for primary kids. My girls loved it! They even had an artist on there that teaches kids how to draw. We have seen this artist before because there were times last fall and winter that Charlotte's teacher would assign an art video to do and it was the same guy! I had to help Alice draw hers so she could just color it. It was a picture of a child praying. It was a very good broadcast for the kids and I enjoyed it too. Even Garrett started to watch it. Then we watched it again after church on Sunday and Jack watched it as well.

Charlotte's picture

Alice's picture

Tuesday was the first time we have ever taken our older cat Sage to the vet. I honestly did not know how often we should get cats shots, etc. We also didn't really have the money to take her to the vet back then. I decided it was time because of all the mice she had been eating last year thanks to Stardust. We have started to let Cocoa outside a lot more now that he's been vaccinated. However, once earlier this week we let him out and he was gone for awhile. When he finally came back, his collar was missing and Nikki said he seemed a little skittish. That makes us wonder if he got chased by a dog or something and maybe lost the collar getting stuck under a fence. But there's no way to tell for sure what happened. I had intended to take the bell off so that it wouldn't attract dogs but I hadn't done that yet....oops! When we get him a replacement collar I will take the bell off right away. If for some reason he loses that one too we may just give up on him wearing a collar. At least Sage still has hers.

So I didn't do a lot of preschool stuff with Alice this week but on Tuesday we did some. I have a paper with ideas of things to do to help prepare your child for Kindergarten (something I got when I registered Charlotte for Kindergarten). There are some ideas on it for helping to learn how to cut with scissors. There are different activities that they can do that just help their hands do things. This time we hung a string up and had her hang pictures on it with clothes clips. She enjoys doing these little activities.

Wednesday morning Charlotte and I had our yearly eye check up. It was scheduled for December but we had to reschedule after we had been exposed to Covid. My eyes are about the same as last time. They are border line to needing glasses at least for reading but he said it was my choice. I'm going to wait as long as possible! He said age 45 is about the age when people need glasses so I've got a few more years hopefully. He didn't actually say whether Charlotte's eyes were worse but he went over the things we had learned the first time. She needs to be wearing them for reading and school work for sure. Her left eye is working harder to focus than her right eye but if she wears her glasses they will work the same. With Covid messing everything up we kind of slacked off on her wearing them. I guess she would wear them at school sometimes this year but she would have problems with fogging while wearing a mask. It will be so nice when we can stop wearing masks.

Yesterday was a babysitting day for me. As soon as Jack gets home from school he starts playing with the girls. When I got back from picking up Nikki and Charlotte from school (Nikki stayed after to make up a quiz since she was sick on Monday) he had the girls running and screaming through the house. Sometimes I'm happy that he's playing with them and getting some energy out but sometimes he doesn't know when it gets out of hand. I mostly have learned to tune it out. He also got them playing laser tag since their dad was running late to pick them up. I figure they had a lot of fun so it was worth the bit of craziness for a little while.

Last night we also had activity day boys at the church. This time I was in charge. The theme for the night was "putting on the armor of God". I know this lesson is actually a couple weeks away in the Come Follow Me manual but after Jack's birthday party I thought it would be fun to incorporate a nerf gun war into our activity days. It was a hit! We started with a couple of short videos I found on the church website. Then we had one of the boys dress up in costume armor while I had another couple of boys read some scriptures (D&C 27: 15-18). I had the other boys line up at the back of the room with their guns and talked about what some fiery darts of the adversary might be. Then they all got to shoot the boy who was wearing the armor. He was protected from the fiery darts of the adversary because he had put on the armor of God. After that we split them into two teams and let them all have some fun shooting each other. I had brought my radio to use as speakers for my computer for the videos so I put on some Mission Impossible music. Then we decided to play some capture the flag. Sister Nickell had brought some blankets to throw over chairs and tables to use for hiding during the shooting. We used her two scarves as our flags. We played about 3 or 4 rounds and then it was time to clean up and have a snack of granola bars and water. We had 9 boys there last night and I think they all had a really fun time. I didn't get any pictures though since we were using my phone for music (it was connected to the radio). 

This morning I had to run to the grocery store to grab some groceries. I signed up to take dinner to the missionaries tonight. We're doing Italian Chicken on rice with some Caesar salad. I also baked up some zucchini bread since I still had some frozen zucchini in the freezer. Anyway, I'm ready to relax for awhile now.

A Week of Appointments

 I tell you what, if it's going to snow it sure did it on the right days this time....when the kids don't have school! There wasn't any school on Monday because of Presidents day and it snowed again several inches. I'm not exactly sure how many but the forecast had said 3-5 inches. I went out to shovel in the morning with Garrett even while it was still snowing because we needed to get our garbage out on the street for garbage day and I also had an appointment later. My neighbor across the street saw us out there shoveling and offered to let me use his snow blower, so I did! That's the first time I've ever used one I think. I may have used grandma's a long time ago but I don't remember for sure. It wasn't necessarily faster to use it but it did sure save my back some pain. Although, I ended up shoveling snow later to help build a snow slide in our yard. Garrett started building an igloo but didn't get very far before he got too tired and I was too tired to help him either.

I would have liked to make it longer but I was too tired and it probably wouldn't have been worth it. You would need a good running start and can't do that from the angle we made it. We borrowed the neighbor's round sleds and decided that we need to get some of those next year.

After hours of playing in the snow we came in and did a few chores and then watched some Full House. Then I had to leave for my dentist appt to get a filling done. He had to poke me several times because after the first round of Novocain it wasn't enough. From being very tired from playing in the snow and then having a sore mouth we vegged out the rest of the night watching Full House again.

The next morning I had an appointment for Cocoa to get his booster shots. Got him taken care of and now I feel more comfortable letting him outside. He didn't seem to get grumpy like he did last time so I'm thinking maybe the rabies shot was the one that made him so sore because he only needed that one once.

Charlotte really wanted to go to the park or the church after school and do some sledding. We decided to do the church but it was just me and the two girls. It was nice because there wasn't anyone else there and the hill at the church might be a little taller than the one at the park. We played for about 30 minutes. Charlotte was wearing her nicer black boots because she finally decided that her rain and snow boots were both too small. Considering she got sores on her heels I think that's what finally made her change her mind. Time to find some bigger boots!

It was a little windy that evening so it made it more chilly.

This blue sled doesn't slide as easy as the other one but it is stronger. The other one is already cracking and we just bought it this last Christmas. We need better sleds.

Wednesday morning Jack and Nicole both had orthodontic appointments. Nikki was just getting an exam and pictures to see what would need to be done. Jack got his brackets placed. Although they did have to wait for a few weeks before putting the wires on because they're trying to create some space because some of the teeth. They shoved these white rubber bands in between the teeth that need spacing. Then they will make and use a better spacer. Well, here we go with having kids with braces! Nikki is scheduled to get her teeth scanned today right after school and will get her braces on in one month. Garrett will be on March 3rd. This has been a crazy month for appointments! Fortunately for Jack he will only need them for 8 months and only on the top. He already can't wait until he gets them off and I don't blame him. I've been there, done that! 

He got purple bands on because he really likes purple right now.

The girls were so excited to go to a friend's birthday party in the afternoon yesterday also. It was for Alice's twin friends, Lochlyn and Shayla. I babysit them and their older sister. I will always remember their birthday because my twin aunts Deb and Diane also had their birthday on the same day. I also learned that it was Cindy's birthday as well, my new sister in law. 

Anyway, the girls had a little tea party with two flavors of drink, chocolate milk and juice as their "tea" and then a bunch of snacks and treats. The younger girls put on a dress up dress first. Alice chose the Anna dress from Frozen. The girls had a great time!

Well, there's a forecast for more snow tonight so Alice and I dashed to the DI this morning and were lucky enough to find some boots for Charlotte! They're even purple and black and Charlotte loves purple right now. They're also a little big so they will hopefully work for next winter as well. Her boots she had were size 11 in toddler sizes. Then it goes 12, 13 and 1. Her black boots and tennis shoes are size 13. The new boots are size 1. 

Curtis made it back into town this morning and dropped his dad off at his house but then headed to Meridian to try and get some work done. Long story short, he felt like it was a wasted trip and a waste of his time. He's getting backed up at work and trying to study also. Two months until his test and we really need him to pass! 

I'm hoping to go to a relief society activity tonight about gardening. Nikki will finally get to go to her activity tonight because she planned ahead and asked for the night off. She's going to help with teaching some art. Well, I will be off to take Nikki to her scan appt soon then to pick up Charlotte from school. Life is crazy for this busy mom!  😉

From Spring to Winter!

 On Tuesday Garrett had an orthodontist appointment where they did some scans of his teeth. The next time he goes in they will be placing the brackets on his teeth. The very next day Garrett also had a heart doctor appointment where we met his new cardiologist, Dr. Robert Adams. We were forced to get a new heart doctor for him because his previous doctor, Dr. Womack, has decided to change course with his career. He will no longer be seeing patients in outpatient. He had hoped for this to be a gradual change and we were supposed to see him in January but contracting issues with St. Luke's made it not possible. They called us the week before his appointment. I was really disappointed that we didn't get to see him one more time. We really liked him. However, we did meet his new doctor who looks fairly young so I know he'll be around for awhile. So far we like him. Our appointment was out at the new St. Luke's hospital behind Costco. It was nice not to have to drive to Boise like usual. They did an EKG, an ultrasound on his heart and then even though the doctor said everything looked and sounded good he decided he wanted Garrett to wear a heart monitor so he could see what the patterns were on a regular basis. Fortunately technology has come a long way and the heart monitor that he wore was a small device that stuck on over his heart with a sticker. No wires or big boxes to carry around. The doctor also told Garrett that he wanted him to exercise regularly and brush his teeth twice a day. He stressed the importance the benefits of exercising especially for someone with an irregular heart. Basically, if he wants to live a longer better life then he needs to exercise, which could be said for all of us.

The weather was so nice earlier this week that it felt like spring. That very afternoon after coming home from Garrett's heart doctor appointment I decided that we better start exercising while we have this nice weather. So Garrett and I rode scooters while the two little girls rode their bikes and we went on a little ride on the pathway behind our house along the canal. It felt so good being outside. After we were done Charlotte proceeded to be Alice's bicycle teacher. She really wants to teach her how to ride without training wheels. I told her repeatedly that Alice is not ready to go without training wheels yet. She just got her bike for her birthday and she needs to get good at riding with training wheels first. They had so much fun anyway that the girls planned for them to do it again the next day after school. It was a little more chilly that day but we went on a short walk. Charlotte has a long sleeve shirts that she thinks works like a jacket. Well, she found out that it wasn't quite warm enough that day. Alice wanted to keep going and Charlotte wanted to turn around and go home because she was cold. It started to rain after we got back so it was good we kept it short.

Charlotte also wanted to start teaching Alice her ABC's so she got out her old ABC book from Kindergarten.

Little did we know that the colder temperatures that day would be followed by snow on Friday! It snowed most of the day but the roads stayed pretty clear because it just melted as it fell but it did accumulate on the grass. Alice really wanted to go out and play in the snow after we dropped Charlotte off at school. I shoveled the light layer of snow while I was out there. I also pulled her around our yard on the kid's new sled. It works pretty well.

Snow angel! She really was having a good time even though her face doesn't look like it.

Later I decided my toenails needed to be trimmed and repainted. So I asked Alice if she wanted hers done too. Of course she did!

Trying to get a drink of juice while waiting for her nails to dry. She did green on her fingers and pink on her toes. I'm honestly surprised she wanted green at all because she loves pink. I also added a layer of purple sparkles on top of her green.

Charlotte was so excited to get home after school on Friday because she got to bring home Valentines and goodies! She spread them out on the front room floor as soon as she got inside.

Drinking from her juice robot/monster (not really sure).

Not too long after she got home from school I was picked up by Dad, Laverne, and Grandma to go to Texas Roadhouse for our Valentine's day dinner. Curtis drove straight from work and met us there. As I was expecting it was busier than usual even though we got there around 4:15pm but Curtis already had a table for us. The food was very good and even though I had leftovers I ate too much. We decided to watch a movie at Dad's house afterwards but stopped to get ice cream first at Coldstone Creamery. Curtis and I put ours in the freezer until towards the end of the movie. We were planning on watching "A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood" (Mr. Rogers) but we couldn't find it and Dad realized they must not have bought it like they thought they did. We watched the newer Doolittle  movie instead. 

Well, we knew we were supposed to get a lot of snow over night because of the winter storm warning we received on our phones Friday but it still surprises you when you wake up and see so much snow! And it was still snowing and continued to snow all morning. we had not let Cocoa outside yet without a harness but I decided that maybe now was a good time since he would be surrounded by snow and not want to go far. And I was right. He has calmed down quite a bit and acting less like a kitten. We love our two cats.....except when they tear up our toilet paper! We have to keep the bathroom doors closed at night because of that but sometimes the kids forget and that's been happening quite a bit lately. Grrr and I don't know for sure which cat did it so last time it happened I sprayed them both with water.

It went from spring at the beginning of the week back to winter by the weekend. This is really the first time we've had to shovel snow this winter as we have barely had any snow. We needed this!

Even though Garrett only had to wear his heart monitor for 24 hrs we ended up keeping it on for 3 days since that's what the doctor had on the order. Honestly, I would have taken it off sooner but Garrett didn't seem in a hurry to get it off so I figured might as well keep it on. However, that meant that we didn't take it off until Saturday morning when we had been dumped on with snow. I had to drive to the post office to get it mailed as quickly as possible. I brought a snow shovel in the van just in case I got stuck anywhere but fortunately there was no need.

Curtis had also surprised me Friday night by hiding a bouquet of red roses and a big bag of Hershey chocolates in the truck at the restaurant. He nailed it on the chocolate this time. For my birthday he had bought truffles for me and I don't really like truffles.

I already had this vase from a time he gave me flowers years ago.

I've been sharing with the kids and the only kind they like are the ones without nuts. So, 1 out of 4 different flavors. The other 3 had nuts and I love chocolate with nuts!

It was a good thing we celebrated Valentine's on Friday because the weather was better then and today (Valentine's day) Curtis had to leave right after we got home from church to drive up to Lewiston for a work trip. He'll be gone until Thursday. I hope the weather isn't bad for his drive but at least he's driving his truck.

Jack's 12th Birthday - Family Party

 Sunday was our family birthday celebration for Jack. Along with our family we had my parents, my grandma, and Curtis's parents come over. We didn't have the party until 5:30pm so after church and after the kids ate lunch they really wanted some cake leftover from the friend's party. Originally I said I was going to save that cake for the family celebration but Garrett told me that he would bake the brownie mix that I bought (as back up) if they could eat cake right then. I finally gave in and thought the grandparents would probably enjoy brownies more than cake anyway. I know I would (and did)! Anyway, the grandparents all showed up and then we visited for a little bit before singing and doing presents and dessert. The nice thing about brownies is I didn't have to do any icing for them because that's the way we prefer it. And because half of my kids don't like them we did not have any nuts. We also had ice cream sandwiches to go with them.

He likes his new Nerf gun he got from one of his friends so of course he posed with it. And this time I put the number candles on along with his tune playing candle.

Grandparents knew he was getting a new bike so my parents gave him this camel bag that holds water in it like a back pack and has a straw that comes around front making it easy for you to get a drink while riding.

The Butterfields gave him a pouch that attaches to the bike to hold stuff.

The birthday snack, M&M's. We had to change it up from the usual Oreos.

Legos, he has been itching to build stuff and so far he's loving this gift. I will have to take some pictures of what he's built so far.

And we knew he would need a container for those Legos so we got him these boxes that have little separators in them to keep the colors from mixing.  He loves it!

After we were done with gifts and dessert we headed back to the family room to play a round of Air Pictionary. Curtis's parents left early because they hadn't eaten dinner yet. Then after the game was over the rest of the grandparents left. It was a great weekend celebrating his birthday. I'm so glad I get at least 2 1/2 months break before we do Charlotte's birthday! I'm all partied out right now. 😂

Jack's 12th Birthday - Friends Party

Jack's friends party on Saturday turned out pretty well. Jack and I had come up with a scheduled plan of events for his party before he made the invitations and we did pretty well sticking to the schedule. They played a little bit of Uno (Super Mario version), a little bit of ping pong and foosball, then an hour of video games. After video games it was eating time where we served pizza, a veggie tray (carrots, celery, broccoli, dip and red grapes), and soda pop (Sprite, Root Beer, & Crush Orange). I felt like I had to have a veggie tray so we didn't have so much junk food, even if the boys didn't hardly touch it. It gave me something healthy to snack on at least. Curtis also has been buying salads with our pizza the past few times we've gotten Papa Murphy's and so he brought home salad for the two of us as well. After they finished eating Jack opened a gift from his friend Xavier, who said he had to leave early. It was a $20 gift card for the Nintendo Switch so he could purchase a game online. Then they played a little more video games. At about 5:30 it was Nerf war time in the family room. They were all really excited about that. We purchased a pack of 200 bullets so they would have plenty to play with and nobody had to bring their own. I also found safety glasses at Walmart for nerf gun wars and bought enough for everyone to have some, even Charlotte and Alice. They did the war for the next hour. At 6:30 we did cake, ice cream sandwiches and gifts. We decided we would only give Jack some of his gifts from us at that party. The rest would be given at the grandparent's party the next day.

Nikki gave this to Jack Friday night since she would be gone to work during the friends party. It's the block you see on Super Mario Brothers. It's a light that you push down to turn it on and off and it makes the ding sound each time. He loves it!

Jack with his 5 friends and brother playing Super Mario Uno.

Jack wanted chocolate cake with vanilla frosting. He also did the decorating. I love when they get older and want to do more to help with their parties. Less for me to worry about.

This is how the boys decorated. I'm going to have to teach them how to properly hang streamers. I didn't have time to help them this time around. Maybe at Charlotte's birthday in April.

Playing some ping pong on our kitchen table. Curtis and I played a round after the boys got on to their video games.

We had half in the family room.

The other half playing in the office.

Jack getting ready to light his cake. The blue candle had a special holder that turns on to play the tune of Happy Birthday. 

Porter gave Jack his first official Nerf brand gun. The other ones he has are other brands. It's funny because Jack's middle name is Porter and he has a friend named Porter.

Rhett gave him laser tag, which works with Garrett's laser tag game also since they're the same brand.

Chase gave him nerf bullets and a $10 Walmart gift card.

We gave him this jacket. Don't let the face fool you. He actually really likes this jacket and wore it to school yesterday.

Finally upgraded to a bigger bike. He kept telling me that he wished he had a new bike.

And a book we thought he would enjoy called "Middle School Field Trip Fiasco".

The boys had a little time after opening gifts and eating dessert so they got back to their nerf gun war and even did some laser tag as well, with the lights turned off in the family room. I think everyone had a great time.

After all the kids left and we got the girls bathed we ended the night by relaxing and watching a movie that I borrowed from my friend Whitney called "Little Boy". If you haven't seen this one, it is really good! Be prepared, even Curtis cried.

Mouth Mystery

I was feeling some pain or pressure in my teeth since the end of last week and it wasn't going away even after making sure I flossed everywhere. My rear molars on the bottom are so hard to floss between the tooth and the gums that I usually just don't but that was where I was feeling something going on. I also had a few canker sores on my bottom lip on the same side so I really didn't want to try flossing back there but after a few days of the pain and pressure (feeling like it was swelling up or something) I finally forced myself to get some floss back there. I was able to get a little food out so that was good. But even after getting that out I still felt it for a couple days. On top of that I was also feeling pressure (it wasn't really pain) on my front top teeth. This was so weird. Finally, on Wednesday I started feeling some pressure in my sinus area and decided I needed to get into the dentist to see what might be happening. Fortunately, there weren't any problems with my teeth. He tried tapping on each tooth to see if anything hurt. Nothing did so he took an x-ray, the kind that goes all the way around you while you stand there, and it showed that there is something going on with my sinuses. So he just suggested to use a neti pot (which we already have) to rinse out my sinuses and use a nasal decongestant. And just to be safe he gave me prescription strength mouthwash. Two days later and yes my mouth is feeling better. I just need to keep my nose clear and clean for several days to make sure it doesn't act up again.

Since I was already in Meridian for getting my teeth checked out I was able to get over to Simmons and pick up my wedding ring. I've been without my ring for almost two months because it needed to get retipped and resized. The process has been slowed quite a bit because of Covid so I didn't get the call that it was finished until Tuesday afternoon. It feels good to have it on again and to finally fit my finger correctly. It's been a little big and my ring would occasionally fall off my finger while doing things. I waited this long to resize it because I wanted to wait until after I was done having babies, with gaining weight and losing it.  But man, when she handed me my ring back on Wednesday it looked like a brand new ring! It was so shiny and sparkly. I'm happy!

We have been having a few warmer days here and there and so I took Alice and the boys to the playground at our neighborhood park the other day. Charlotte was at school. It felt good to get out.

The boys are on the toy in the background. Garrett's hanging off the front.

I don't do preschool at home with Alice every day but I do have this old preschool book that I had bought for Jack years ago that we're trying to finish using all of the pages out of so that we can get her a new book and start over (especially since some pages had been done already by Jack and Charlotte). I went ahead and picked up a new book at Costco the other day since we're almost finished with the old book. I also had Alice practice cutting straight lines on a piece of paper. I just used a pink marker to draw lines. She's actually getting pretty good at it. I feel like now I will just plan on being her preschool teacher at home next year instead of trying to get her into the Rec Center preschool or somewhere. She got a good start at the preschool she was in this year but now I think maybe I can handle it as long as Charlotte keeps on going to school most days of the week.

Alice ended up with a fever yesterday afternoon. Today it's gone but I'm really hoping that no one else gets sick. Jack's birthday is today and he's celebrating with some friends tomorrow and grandparents on Sunday. I would hate to have to reschedule his birthday activities. Even though we're not celebrating until tomorrow and Sunday I decided he could still have his birthday breakfast. He decided to go with donuts instead of cinnamon rolls. I told him that we'll just make the one cake for his friends party and use the leftover cake for Sunday. However, if for some reason there isn't enough cake left for Sunday I picked up a brownie mix just in case. Garrett however, decided that he wanted to make Jack some special pancakes this morning for Jack's birthday even though he's going to get donuts. He made the letters of his name and then some video game related pictures.

He forgot to make the J backwards because it would be flipped over. He made sure to do it right on the other letters.

His name, Plants vs Zombies, and it's hard to tell on the last plate. I think there were things stacked on top of each other. Possibly the Nintendo Switch was one of them.

Garrett, Nikki and I sang to Jack after we got back from picking out his donuts. He was lucky we found a single candle in our stash so we could light one on his donuts. I'm saving the number candles for the parties.

Happy 12th birthday Jack! More pictures to come when we do the parties. (hopefully)