Getting Out

Last Friday morning after Curtis took off for work and dropped the boys off to school, he called me and said we should do something fun with the kids that night and get them out of the house. He had heard about a mini golf glow in the dark place. It was a little expensive to take our whole family but we decided it would be worth it to do something fun as a family and break up the usual movie/video game weekend. Well, we still watched movies afterwards but at least we got out of the house. Even Garrett seemed to enjoy himself. It was nice to have something to look forward to throughout the day. Curtis also said we should make something for dinner together as a family and to ask the kids what they wanted to do. The kids decided on French toast for dinner. I added in bacon, hashbrowns, and orange juice. Garrett made the syrup. Jack cooked the bacon and helped Alice make the juice. Curtis did the hashbrowns and Charlotte helped me with the French toast. It was fun having everyone help out. After we finished eating and cleaning up, we took off to go play some golf.

We were keeping track of scores, but I don't even know what score I ended up with. Some holes I played well and some I didn't, so I don't really know how I did but I don't really care about the score anyway. 

Like I said, we still came home and watched movies afterwards. Garrett, the girls and I went downstairs to watch Sing 2. We like both of the Sing movies, but we like Sing 2 better. For the last couple of weeks, I have been waking the girls up to songs from those movies and they love it. We love listening to the songs. Curtis and Jack watched either James Bond or Pirates of the Caribbean. I don't remember. 

Saturday morning, the boys did chores in order to get ready to play D&D with their friends again and we took the girls and Milo for a ride in the truck to the park. It was the longest ride he's been on and he wasn't scared this time. Of course, this time he was riding in the truck with the girls instead of in the kennel in the back. He loved it and so did the girls. He was a bit nervous going to the park though when he saw other people. We need to get him out more and get him socialized. Curtis walked around with him while the girls played and I watched them. 

He was in the middle of a big yawn.

After our outing at the park, Charlotte started coughing a lot on the way home. This keeps happening any time she runs around while she still has a little cough. It will seem like she's better and then she runs and plays and her cough acts up. I had to get her on the nebulizer when we got home and just let her watch tv for awhile so she could rest and relax the cough. Later she was feeling better and I took her out shopping to try and find her a new dress that she will actually like. She's very picky about dresses and doesn't like very many of them. Her criteria were that it needed a high neckline, short sleeves, stretchy material, long length and she was hoping for it to be yellow. I was disappointed in what we found or should I say, didn't find at Ross and Burlington. There was only one dress that she was willing to try on and because there was elastic on the sleeves, she didn't like that. The next day I decided to look online to see what I could find. I really want her to have a dress she likes and the one red dress that she's willing to wear right now is all she has worn for the last year and it's not going to fit her much longer. Fortunately, I found exactly what she is looking for on Amazon. It was even yellow and has pockets! I just hope the size I ordered is the right size. She is a bit overweight and short for her age. The dress is due to arrive next Monday, so crossing our fingers it will work. If she likes it enough, then I'll buy more in other colors so she can have options.

Sunday morning, Charlotte was coughing a lot, so I had her stay home with Milo while the rest of us went to church. Alice was about to say something about her wanting to stay home also but I quickly told her that I get to go to class with her that day! The primary was having a special class for the kids turning 8 this year and talking about baptism with their parents. She was excited to have me in class with her. The primary president showed a video and talked about baptism and the bishop also talked a little bit about the bishop interview before baptism. Alice will be turning 8 at the end of the year, so she won't actually get baptized until next year. She is very excited to get baptized! The primary president also gave each child a bag of goodies.

Donuts on a stick in the shape of an "8".

She got a dry erase chart to write goals on, stickers, a picture of Christ with a child and a temple ring.

Here's her temple ring. I love these temple rings and wish they had them when I was a kid.

The rest of our Sunday was kind of lazy and everyone was doing their own thing. I watched several episodes of the Chosen.  We finally got together after dinner to play a game of Uno and shared the remainder of the girls' Valentine candy. I was so happy to see Garrett playing with us and having fun. He even wore some silly heart shaped glasses while playing.

Being silly for the picture. Alice was ducking down to hide.

We finally used our new card shuffler that Curtis's parents gave to him for Christmas. It works really well and I'm glad we have one now.

Listening to the "Lollipop" song while licking suckers.

He was faking it.

Lick, lick, bite!

Overall, it was a good weekend. I was hoping to get some yard clean up done on Saturday but that didn't happen. The weather has not been cooperating with me this week either to be able to do it. It's either really windy and cold or it's raining. March starts tomorrow and things are starting to grow. I'm getting anxious to get out there and get things done but will have to be patient.

Our Valentine's Week

On the evening of the 13th Jack had a jazz dessert night fundraiser for the music department at the high school. Curtis was still in Idaho and so the girls and I decided to attend while Garrett stayed home. We paid for our tickets and sat at decorated tables in the cafeteria and listened to music while eating different kinds of desserts. The girls were happy to bring home some balloons from the event. I wasn't even sure I was going to go to the event until the girls got home from school and I asked if they wanted to go. I'm glad we did because it was fun and they enjoyed it also. They had a silent auction for different baskets and things. I bid on a Southridge blanket but got outbid and didn't win. Charlotte was really bummed.

They had a cute display of balloons to take pictures in front of.

Listening to the band now.

He loves that black hat.

Enjoying their desserts.

The napkins were wrapped like a rose. It looked so cool.

Jack and his girlfriend, Morgan.

The balloons the girls were lucky enough to bring home. 

Charlotte had woken up with an aching ear the day before the concert, after we got home from Idaho. Her doctor didn't have any appointments available, so we took her to the express care close to our house and was able to get her in that morning. It was just an outer infection in one ear, so the doctor prescribed some ear drops for that ear. That's the first time ear drops have ever been prescribed for my kids. Usually, they are given Amoxicillin. The next day (same day as the band concert) she was feeling good and went to school and then of course the band concert. Garrett had also stayed home on Monday still not feeling well (like he did in Idaho). I started him on Dayquil and Nyquil pills and made sure he got them regularly. He felt good enough to go to school the next day. For the next few days I would bring him his pills at lunch time to the seminary building to make sure he would get the next dose when he needed it. He continued to feel better each day and eventually didn't need the pills anymore. Sure glad they worked!

The girls had a fun Valentines' at school and brought home lots of goodies. Curtis traveled home that day and brought me a bag of dark chocolate truffles and roses. I'm surprised the roses lasted the trip home. We didn't go out to dinner since it was Wednesday and they had mutual. I was fine with that. Curtis was having tooth trouble while in Idaho and ended up having a tooth pulled by his brother Casey, where a root canal had failed. He may put an implant in that spot later on but for now he's just healing up.

Alice made me a cute Valentine at school. Charlotte made something similar to it for Mother's Day last year. Their teachers must have shared the idea.

The girls and their Valentine loot.

That morning before the girls went to school, I surprised them with the Sing 1&2 DVDs as a Valentine gift. I don't normally give them a Valentine gift, but it was an excuse to get them these movies. They were super excited and couldn't wait until Friday to watch them for the first time. They had discovered music videos from the movies on YouTube and kept watching them over and over. That's when I secretly ordered them on Amazon. Curtis and I were interested in watching them also. They had some good songs on the show that we recognized. We watched them together Friday night. Curtis wanted to watch them but ended up falling asleep for most of the first movie. He didn't want to watch the 2nd one until he could rewatch the 1st movie. They were cute movies and the girls and I enjoyed them. Garrett enjoyed them also. Jack wasn't interested and didn't watch with us.

That night Charlotte woke me up in the middle of the night at 1:30am with both of her ears hurting now. The one that had ear drops (her right ear) wasn't hurting as much as the other one, but it was still hurting. I had to give her some Ibuprofen and sit up with her until the pain died down enough for her to go back to sleep. She was definitely going to stay home from school again that day. I called the express care as soon as they opened at 8am but there weren't any openings anywhere that day. Even the express care takes appointments only. We had to wait until the next morning (Friday) to get her in. Luckily, she only missed half a day of school on Friday because they were having a special early release that day. I took her in and she had inner ear infections in both ears. The doctor prescribed amoxicillin and Flonase. She had a cough on top of that and the doctor said she sounded a little raspy inside and said to use her nebulizer a couple of times a day and to have the humidifier on at night. I was really missing our old pediatrician that week because I know we would have only had one appointment. He would have done the Amoxicillin from the start just to make sure it didn't spread (like it did). 

Alice loves to wear dresses and wore a dress to school that Friday and when she got home she put on the crown that Grandma Vernie gave her. She wore it the rest of the day. I love this girl and that she likes to look like a princess. She's my only girl who likes to wear dresses.

Curtis and I did end up going out to eat Friday night before we watched the movies. I guess that was considered our Valentine's date. We decided on a Chinese restaurant. It was good but I didn't care for the chow mein. I got to thinking that maybe it was lo mein that I ordered on accident because it was more of a sauce than noodles. Maybe it wasn't the greatest Valentine's week but it was still good.

Another Trip to Idaho

Well, we were finally able to make our trip to Idaho for Garrett's orthodontist appointment and this time the whole family went. I don't like taking the kids out of school but we had to this time and it was totally worth it. We had a great weekend! Curtis and I drove separately because he had to travel to a place in Oregon for a meeting and he also needed to stay a few extra days in Boise to train someone. We decided to meet up in Pendleton to caravan. The kids and I packed up the van and left after school on Thursday. I did get the girls out a little early so we could get on the road faster. I think we got on the road by 4:00. Garrett switched vehicles in Pendleton when we met up with Curtis, so he rode with him the rest of the way. We got to Grandma's house around 9:00pm. It only takes 4 hours but with the time change it seemed like 5 hours.

Garrett's appointment was at 10:30am on Friday and it was a quick appointment. They just did the usual tightening. If he can remember to wear his rubber bands at night, he should be able to get his braces off soon. There's just one little space they are trying to close up on his upper left. After that, he'll get them off. Garrett told the orthodontist that he keeps forgetting to wear his rubber bands and the orthodontist said well, I just might forget to take your braces off. Ha ha. Even after that, Garrett still has a hard time remembering, so now I have to start reminding him again until he gets in the habit.

Garrett seemed to think that it was going to be warm in Idaho because it had been nice here at home and so he didn't pack a jacket or even a sweatshirt. He quickly regretted that when we woke up to snow and had to drive in it on the way to his appointment! He said he needed a new jacket anyway and asked if we could go to Walmart after the appointment, so we did. We found him a jacket and a nice button up long sleeve hoodie.

This is the long sleeved hoodie. It's nice to see him trying new styles.

Later that afternoon, Dad, Laverne and Joyce came over to grandma's and we (the adults) played lots of Golf. Curtis wasn't there though because he went to work in Meridian.

Laverne gave Alice this crown that she had received from a church activity. Alice loves it! She's my girly girl.

Dealing out the cards for Golf.

After Curtis got home from work, we got ready to go to dinner with our friends, the Ballantynes. Jack is best friends with their son Porter, so Porter came over to hang out with Jack while the parents went out. We invited grandma to come with us to thank her for letting us stay with her again. Dad and Laverne had to go home to get to bed early since they work in the early shift at the temple on Saturdays. All of us like Jade Garden and hadn't been there in a long time, so that's where we went. 

Before we left for dinner.

These two ate a muscle at the same time. They said it wasn't too bad.

After dinner, we went back to grandma's and watched a movie called "Knight and Day". It is a romantic comedy action film. Heather had suggested it because that's the type of movie Curtis was in the mood to watch. It has Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz. We enjoyed it.

Grandma, Jack and I started a puzzle during the day and after the movie was over, I started working on it again. Grandma joined in. Heather wanted to join also but they needed to leave because Porter was going to a ski competition the next morning for his school ski team. Grandma and I were able to finish the 300 piece Civil War puzzle. I had been hoping to do a puzzle while we were here so I'm glad we were able to start and finish in one day.

Picture with the finished puzzle.

Saturday morning our family went over to my in-laws to have breakfast and a late Christmas (and some birthdays) with them. They fixed us some German pancakes, sausage, bacon, hashbrowns, and orange juice. Curtis had mentioned to Ricky that we would be there, so their family came over as well.

Alice got a cute animated puppy for a birthday gift and some art things for Christmas.

Charlotte got a Harry Potter t-shirt, penguin socks, and colorful stretchy shoelaces. Now we need to buy her some shoes that actually have shoelaces. Most nowadays have velcro or zippers.

Garrett was pretty happy with his Zelda picture. Grandma did good!

Jack got a game, some quarters, and fidget puzzles.

They gave me some new pajamas and a butter dish. I was excited to get the pajamas because mine were starting to fall apart. I love the ones she picked out for me. They are medium weight colored purple, red, blue and black with pant pockets and they are pretty comfortable. I asked how she knew I needed new pjs and she said she saw my pjs (either when they visited or the last time I visited, I'm not sure) and knew I needed new ones. Curtis got a BSU t-shirt and a card shuffler. I'm excited about the card shuffler too because ever since using the one at Grandma's, I wanted one too.

Afterwards, we played a couple rounds of "Pass the Pig", which is a fun and simple game that you can play with a lot of people. Then we decided we wanted to go see Ricky and Jenna's new house they just moved into over in Boise. It's a nice house in a nice neighborhood and they have neighbors with pastures behind them, so there's plenty of space. They have a cool little playhouse also that has lots of windows and clear roof, so there's lots of light. There's also a wrap around deck on the whole playhouse. I wasn't very good at taking pictures though.

Lexi and Alice are a year apart, but they love playing together. They were dressed like twins and look so much alike that we had to take a picture. They are definitely related!

We hung out over there for a couple of hours and finally headed back to Grandma's.  We had to stop by Walmart on the way to grab a veggie tray and soda because we were having a get together with Grandma, Joyce, Dad, Laverne, and Tammy's family. They were all bringing pizzas. I told Whitney we were in town and so she stopped by for a bit as well.

Getting ready to play Golf again.

That evening there was an event put on by "The Chosen" at the Idaho Center. It was a free interfaith event but required tickets. Laverne was able to get 7 tickets and the adults all went to the show, except Chris who watched his kids and Charlotte for us. I took Alice over to see her best friend Sydney (our old neighbor). The Ballantynes were going to the show too and they had an extra ticket, so they picked up Jack to go with Porter. We were all able to sit together. Garrett stayed at Grandma's and watched classic Disney cartoons like Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, etc. I think he got in the mood to watch them because of the drawing videos he watched.

Anyway, the Chosen event was really good. They started out with a prayer and a band singing. Then they had 4 actors from the chosen take turns telling their faith stories and experiences with the show. They had some more music after that, but we had decided we had seen what we came to see and left a little early. We wanted to beat the traffic anyway and have time to pick up our girls.

The guy who plays Andrew (Simon's brother).

The girl who plays Tamar.

The guy who plays Shmuel.

The guy who plays Zebedee. (I don't remember their real names.)

The next morning we went to church at 9am with Grandma, Dad, Laverne and Joyce. Garrett woke up not feeling well, so Curtis went to the store for some cold/flu pills and Garrett stayed at Grandma's to sleep. It has been years since I have been to 4th ward and stayed for Relief Society but I wanted to this time. I warned the kids several times that we were staying for the full two hours. The girls didn't want to go to primary at first. They were going to come with me to Relief Society but Laverne said they have a very small primary (about 6 kids). I think Charlotte got nervous when she saw all of the women going into Relief Society and changed her mind. Alice still wanted to go with me but we talked her into trying primary. It was a good thing they went because there was only one other little boy. With them, it was just 3 kids. They combined all of them into one class and the girls were glad they went. Jack went to class with Curtis.

After church, we had chicken noodle and Zuppa Toscana soups along with bread and leftover veggies and soda. Tamara's family came over again and so did Whitney again for little bit. She painted me some more ornaments as a gift. We visited until about 2:00 and then started loading the van up. Curtis packed the van up for me but then he decided to go spend the next few days with his parents at their house. Laverne got a picture of us before we left.

Jack was trying to play the piano with Grandma. It was fun to watch. They were playing a song from the newer version of Pride and Prejudice. We love that music! 

I got on the road about 2:15. I did struggle to stay awake during this drive because I was already pretty tired and had to pull over once for myself, but we made it home safe. It was a great weekend visiting family and friends!