I am thankful

I have so much to be greatful for in my life. I have 4 awesome kids that are super smart, loving, kind to those around them, good examples to their friends. A loving husband that takes care of his family in so many ways. Parents that are there for me whenever I need them. Sisters that even though are across the country thay are my best friends. Lets not forget brothers that are there to lend an ear or a skype call when I need them. Not much more I could ask for.

Tired of dental work

Leo was fine last night thank goodness. He even went to school. Katie on the other hand had to get 2 baby teeth pulled. They were teeth with no adult teeth under them. So with her orthodontic treatment she will eventually have to wear rubberbands to puller her teeth together to close the gap. One baby tooth left but we are going to wait for the adult tooth to push it out. So she got to miss most of school today. If she wasn't doing well in school I might be worried how much she has missed just this week alone. But she stays on top of it and earns good grades.

December already?

It feels like we just got to 2015 and now we are about to leave it. I have not been such a faithful blogger these last two or three years. I am committing to blogging more. I have things going on that I would like to have somewhere as a memory. I am not so good at keeping a journal. So my blog becomes kind of like a journal to me. So here goes.

Things around here have been a bit crazy the last few months. Back up into September and I will share a little of what I did. Somehow I was talked into putting together the family fun night at our elementary school. I felt like it could be my one big contribution for the year and then not feel bad for not helping in other areas. Well, I will say the night was a success. As far as I could see everyone had fun and that's what really counts right? So it was great. We had giant games. I kid you not. When I say giant, I mean GIANT!

We also have giant Kerplunk that I apparently have never taken a picture of. So that was all fun and adventurous. So if that wasn't enough as it was, I put it together in about 3 or 4 weeks. I can't remember. A huge thanks to my Dad. It would not have been possible without his help. For those that know him know he is a great handyman. In my eyes he can do just about everything. You see that awesome connect 4 game. Yeah without his help it would not have gotten built. We also had giant checkers, giant tic-tac-toe, giant jenga (provided by someone else), along with pictionary and bingo.


October was for the most part uneventful. November did bring a different sort of fun. Leo is taking piano lessons, 2nd year. He went to a local university here one Saturday and was judged in his skills. He did wonderfully. A few days later was his recital. He did great there too. He played a simple version of the merry melodies theme song. He rocks at piano when he practices.

Along with all that it was thanksgiving. My parents were going to come but their furnace broke a few days before and after all that ordeal of getting it fixed they couldn't make it. So at last minute we had a family from church over to join us. It was fun and felt more like holidays having someone over. Otherwise I would have just been fixing dinner for my family, and I do that all the time. It just would have been a more elaborate dinner.

Now brings us to most recent. It amazes me every year how fast time goes by. As a kid it feels like forever between birthdays. I could never understand as a kid how adults could forget what their age was. If some one asked them they would say something like "wait let me think, how old am I now? Umm ## or am I ##? Oh I'm ## that's right." As kids we just didn't forget what age we were. I always knew I was 9 or 12 or 16. It was just what I was, for a whole year!!! Well, I recently did have to put a lot of thought into how old I was. I really could not remember if I was a certain age or not. Then I remembered I was in fact not the age I thought. I was a whole year older!! And with that comes my kids growing up. And growing up means new things all the time. Our newest thing?

Yup, she got braces. I can't believe she will be 12 soon. We are counting down the Sundays until she gets to young women's. I'm not so sure I am ready for that step. I am the primary chorister at church and I am worried I will cry when we sing to her one last time.

I guess that brings me to now. I have a sick son. Leo.  Kind of. He threw up once and has been sound asleep since so hopefully that was it. I don't want him to suffer through a whole night of being sick. He is already guaranteed to not go to school tomorrow. But he is sleeping on a mattress at the foot of my bed snoring away.

On a happier note. It's only December 3rd and I am done with Christmas shopping!!!

And a bit of random. We went to a jumping place the day after Thanksgiving. Kids had a blast and it was not crowded at all!

And Oliver riding on a remote control car. He really made it look like that's what it was made for. Silly boy.

I forgot another thing that happened in November. I can't believe I forgot this. Katie hatched chicks! They hatched November 6th. We have recently returned them to the person that provided us with the eggs. But here they are.

There were seven eggs. 3 hatched but one died. I think next time since we know better what we are doing we will have a higher success rate.

Happy blogging. I will be back soon. Promise.

New toys for me!

I have an awesome toy!!! It's all mine. A present from my hubby. And I just made my first "real" craft from it. Love my scroll saw!!

It is hard to put back together. But I love it! And I will be making more.

Mystical Creatures

I had the privilege to attend the dedication of the Indianapolis temple at the stake center. Leo and Katie attended with me. It is fantastic to be able to have a temple so close. I plan to go a lot!

Storm is getting use to maneuvering worth the cone. She doesn't like it. But she doesnt fight it either. I have figured out that it's most likely not a separation anxiety thing. I think she truly does have some itchy dry spots. Right now on the back of her legs. I'm thinking I'm going to have to go for oatmeal shampoos to wash her.

We had some interesting encounters this week.

This guy was on our bathroom window for about a day. I think it died and ended up in my neighbors backyard.

Some sort of giant moth at a friends down the street.

We have a family in our ward who's son is into exotic birds of a sort. He has a bunch of different fowl. He latest exotic. Emus. Awesome!!

I went to my friends awesome birthday skate party last night. It was great. I love to Rollerblade!!

Unfortunately, I did crash. One time. Pretty hard. I think falling forward would have been no big deal. But I didn't. I was in the process of turning around to skate backwards when it felt like one of my skates tripped up on something. Nothing was there. But back I went. And maybe it wouldn't have been so bad. Up until my head whipped back and smacked on the ground. I'm fine. Really. But the back of my head hurts a bit.

Storm (my dog) has to wear the cone of shame. She really doesn't seem to mind it. Once we had it on the first time anyway. Getting it on the first time was a hassle. She really knows  how to look pathetic.

17 Months!!

I have not blogged here for 17 MONTHS!! I was trying out a new blog, but that got me no where. Here we are a whole school year later. Katie is now in 6th grade and loving it. Last year she got straight A's all year. Leo is in 4th grade. The last year at the elementary school here. And Simon is now a first grader. Time has gone so fast. It once seemed like Simon was never going to be in school. He did great in Kindergarten.

Oliver is my guy at home now. For a few more years. He just turned 2 a couple months ago. He is such a smarty. He loves playing with boy toys. Dinosaurs, cars, legos, trains. He will be my tall kid. He is already wearing 3T clothes comfortably.

Other news. I have a tank full of fish. I know, big whoop. But the news there is that Katie's goldfish of almost 2 years got flushed yesterday. She got him at a fair. He reached a point though where he couldn't open his mouth to big. Like not at all almost. So he couldnt eat the fish food because we were feed them pellets. So we switched back to flake food. He was able to eat again. But then he reached the point of not being able to open his mouth at all. It was a slow starving process. I felt really bad but what do you do. It's a fish! Well, on Friday I noticed he was hanging out at the bottom of the tank not moving much. I knew we were getting to the end. But he held on. Finally last night (Sunday) Hugh flushed him (and he was still hanging in there). He didn't tell Katie he did it. Bit of a relief. Cause. saddly enough, I knew he would finally die and not suffer anymore. She handled the news well when she saw he was missing. My real worry was because she wanted to give him a burial.

R.I.P Swish

On to other stuff. My dog is awesome. Oliver tortures her and she just takes it. You would think I would always be yelling at the dog to leave him alone but that's not the case. I am always having to get after him to leave her alone. He tries to ride on her back, hug her, grabs her nose, sits on her, pokes her eyes. Seriously. And she just lets him.

Eye poke footage.

OK, OK, now time to get down to business. My friend on her blog posted about making a list of things to sew over the summer and she did it. So that motivated me to make my own goal. But it won't be a list so much. I really would like to sew through my stash. I know I don't have as much material as some I have seen, but it is more than I wanted to accumulate. I want to get through it this school year. Anytime I see something I want to sew my husband says "don't you have enough material at home?" So this school year I am busting through my stash. I will post completed projects along the way.

Boys doing homework together.

 Katie looks grown up to me in this selfie she took.

Simon is getting ready to lose his 3rd tooth. Goofy picture of him.

Oh, and, I'M BACK!!