A Leprechaun Visit

Before last year, St. Paddy's day was a simple day.  Wear green, eat a yummy corned beef dinner, say something Irish, and call it good.  But ever since we've had kids at school and had teachers who get so enthusiastic about it, the kids have come to find out that apparently leprechauns visit other people's houses. 

Awesome.

I got home late the night before the big day without any special ideas in mind.  So Ben and I kind of flew by the seat of our pants.

I was still upstairs when the big reveal happened and so when I was at the bus stop with Lily and Skyler that morning, Lily said, "And it was so funny when the leprechaun cut out -- oh wait.  No never mind.  I'm not supposed to tell you."  I was laughing inwardly at that point.

We were out of green food coloring and so Ben mixed yellow and blue in the toilet instead.  He told me the next day when they found it that the yellow coloring had sunk to the bottom and all you could see was the blue on top.  The kids weren't disappointed and were thrilled that since it was green pee last year, "the leprechaun is peeing in a rainbow and will leave purple pee next year!"  Because we all know leprechauns love rainbows so much that they even pee rainbows -- RIGHT?

Well it really was a lucky day for me because I was able to find a dining room table (very similar to THIS ONE) I have had my eye on for a couple of years on a local buy/sell/trade site for a fraction of the cost.  I could never bring myself to pay that much for a dining set and I knew I would only ever buy a used one.  I don't have a picture of it but will post pictures when we're done refinishing it.  Woohoo!  We are a step closer to homeschooling!

The Boys

Our family has been sick for a long, long time.  Not the entire family, just one person getting one thing at a time.  I wish we could have just gotten it over with by having the entire family sick for 3 weeks and we could have lived off of freezer meals and breakfast for dinner, but it has been slow-going instead.  This means that all things social have been extremely limited and the kids have been so sad that we haven't had anyone over for a long, long time.  *sigh*  This is the price we pay for deciding to have a large family, I guess.

A couple of Sundays ago I stayed home with the boys who were both sick with different things.  They kept themselves busy by making piles of blankets to jump into and playing together.

(Skyler was actually mid-jump in this photo)

Skyler's little genius engineering mind is always trying to design the next coolest paper airplane.  He tests them for distance, speed, and whether or not they spin.  It's pretty fascinating to watch him.

Thaddeo loves riding on the plasma car.  Seriously, if you have hardwoods at your house I think this is a necessary toy for your kids.  Oftentimes someone else will be riding it when he wants a turn and they won't want to let him climb on.  But never fear, Thaddeo is a professional carjacker at this point and can figure out how to get on by himself.  Lily is usually nice enough to let him on when he wants a ride.

I'm posting this because I love having recordings of the kids' toddler voices/language.  

Rapunzel Hair

I thought I was going to keep my long hair for a while.  But I started craving a cut and decided it was the right time to donate it.  If I can't donate my blood due to my heart problems, at least I can donate my hair to someone in need.  I was surprised when my stylist cut it slightly shorter than I was expecting, but at least that means I donated 14" of hair -- which is a great thing, right?

The reactions from my family were as follows:

Thad:  stares at me wondering if he knows me or not.  Or maybe he was zoned out from his high fever.

Skyler:  "You look so cool, Mom!  Your hair looks really pretty!  But it also looks really weird..."

Lily:  "You look like Rapunzel when her hair's cut!"

Ella:  *stares at me horrified while backing away from me* "Your hair, Mommy.  You're crazy, you're crazy, you're crazy...."

Ella's Oddities

If it weren't for their tantrums, I think two year-olds would be the funniest people on the planet.  Ella is no exception.  She is a crack-up.  Some of the things that Ella does just make me go, "Whaaaaa?" 

The girls have their own bathroom.  They're not old enough yet to utilize all the drawers and cabinets.  They have tons of space to spare.  Yet, this is where Ella is determined to store her toothbrush.  

Ella's biggest obsession (as far as possessions go) are popsicle sticks.  She calls them "keys" and has to take them absolutely everywhere.  She's been doing this for months and I'm wondering if it's ever going to fade away.  The longer this goes on the more I have my doubts.  Hopefully Ella's college roomies won't notice that she has to fall asleep with at least "5" (actually meaning 2) "keys" in her hands.

Sometimes those sticks are hard to hold because she has her "glubs" on.  She loves to go through her sock/underwear drawer and put socks on like gloves.  Or if she's downstairs she might find a stray sock previously worn by one of her older siblings.  Ella's not picky about trivial things like whether the sock is gross or not. 

Ella also loves anything princessy.  But when she's being a princess, she likes to cuss like a sailor.  Ella, until yesterday, could not pronounce "castle."  Instead, she pronounced it "a**hole."  As bad as it is, it always gives Ben and me a good laugh.

If it's anyone's turn for prayer other than Ella's, she gets upset.  When we tell her it's someone else's turn she'll just say, "Okay, I'll say it with you," and will then repeat it after them.  Ella gets to say every prayer this way.

In many of her prayers that she says without help she often says that she's thankful for nursery, which makes complete sense since she still puts up a fight to go in.  (Speaking of nursery, they let Thad come in early since Ben and I both teach.  Woohoo!!!  It's a day of celebration y'all!  No more babies to hold during the last 2 hours of church -- EVER!!!!)

Ella can count to 11 and name a few numbers by sight simply because she HAS to be the one to push the buttons on the microwave.  Ironically, whenever she counts she usually skips 4 but 4 is the number she remembers best on the microwave.  ???

Ella is a person who needs routines.  She gets very upset if any part of her routine is out of place.  Simply getting into the van is one of her problems.  Here is how Ella likes it to happen: 1) open van door, 2) climb in, 3) push door button to close it in my face, 4) climb into booster seat, 5) scream at me because I opened the door just a split-second before her bum was in the seat, 6) make me re-close the door until she's fully sitting down, 7) re-open door, 8) buckle her, 9) hand her a popsicle stick.  Every single time. 

Y'all Gonna Make Me Lose My Mind, Up in Here, Up in Here

Blowing me kisses or hitting himself in the face?  You decide.

 While I realize that for some people having a spotless house is the norm, I shamefully admit that I am not one of those people.  Not that that's any surprise to you since you've probably seen countless pictures of our messy house in other blog posts.  A few months ago I just felt heavy with the burden of it all and I realized that I was the only person in our house doing anything to clean up.  It made sense, though.  Two of our kids are really too young to do anything and the other two were only occasionally asked to help out.  Ben works all day and has mutual and temple appointments and if he ever wants free time, it's in those evening hours or on weekends (which is also his family time).  So it has been just me.  For years.  I'm surprised I didn't lose it earlier.  When I finally realized it, I sat down and talked with Ben and told him that we were going to have an FHE about chores.  But then other topics were more pressing FHE subjects and then the holidays kicked in and it kept being pushed back.  But at the beginning of the year it happened.

It was life changing I tell you!

The kids are expected to do 4 things each day without reminders: 1- brush teeth, 2 - make beds, 3 - keep the bonus room clean, and 4 - keep rooms clean.  If they do all four things all week, they get $1.  Any additional chores (sweeping, washing windows, cleaning bathrooms, dusting... all things they know how to do...) get additional compensation.

Ever since then it has made my load easier to bear and I've been able to do a better job myself since I'm trying to be a better example.

You wouldn't be able to tell from this picture that he has the flu.  If his nose didn't explode every time he sneezed (about every 5 seconds) I would love all these extra snuggles he's giving me.

Although yesterday he sneezed straight into my mouth.  So my prediction is that I will be getting the flu sometime in the next 24 hours.  Maybe Ben will be feeling better by then and I'll be the one quarantined instead?

Speaking of sickness, we haven't had all 6 of our family members healthy at the same time since before Halloween.  There have been many days when I think I could just sit down and cry from it.  I'm so sick of being sick.  But then I tell myself it really, truly could be worse and I try to be grateful.

But if we're not healthy when Becca and Preston are here during spring break...... so help me.

If I could describe Thad in one hyphenated word it would be "Mini-Ben."  He is so downright adorable and charming and oh so mischievous (or as Ben would pronounce it, mis-CHEEV-i-ous).  Every day I get Thad and Ella sippies.  He quickly abandons his and goes for Ella's as soon as she has her back turned.  Every. Single. Day.  

Since he has the flu, I told Ella she needed to be especially sneaky with her sippy.  I told her to hide it so that he didn't spread germs.  See her rain boot she's holding in that picture?  Well look even closer:

I can happily report that he didn't find it today, a first.

High five to Ella for her brilliance.

In other news, 8 out of the last 10 school days have been cancelled because of 4 snow/ice storms.  Remember how in my last post I talked about how much I loved all this time with my kids?  Scratch that.  This snow has got to go.  Cross stitching this would seem appropriate right now:

NC Snowpocolypse

The kids and I had crossed our fingers for weeks and it finally happened -- SNOW!

(And when I say that it snowed, what I really mean is that it snowed for 5 minutes and then turned into freezing rain for the next 12 hours.)

But that wasn't a problem at all.  We pulled out the sleds and were thrilled when we found that the solid ice was ideal for sledding.  We discovered that when we started at the top of our yard, it had the perfect decline for sledding all the way back to our property line.  A few times we had to break hard so we didn't fall into the creek back there!  The houses across the street from us also have seriously steep driveways -- so steep that we didn't buy them because we couldn't even drive our low-riding Camry up them without scraping the bottom the car.  But they're also ideal for sledding.  I helped Skyler and Aanya (Lily's friend and our neighbor) get over their fear of sledding.  I'd say it was a successful day.

Lily and Skyler were outside for 8 hours on Tuesday.  Two thumbs up from this mom!

The ice was the coolest texture!  It was like huge granules of sugar.

My little babies watching the bigger babies.

The next day the older three kids played a human bowling game that involved a sled and human pins.  They had a blast and didn't get hurt so I didn't stop them.

Take 2: Thursday we got another short snowstorm.  Lily spent half the day at Aanya's house and they spent the rest of the day here making cookies and playing in the snow as it fell.

The kids ended up having 4 days of school cancelled this week.  And while many parents get annoyed with it, I kept thinking it was such a gift.  It was so wonderful to have the magic of winter weather since we really only get it once or twice a year.  I was able to sled with the kids for hours and have some great bonding time.  Plus, we don't have any neighbors who go to Lily and Skyler's school.  Here we have the option to choose a year round or traditional calendar school.  We are the only ones around who have chosen traditional and so it is a rare treat when all the kids in the neighborhood are out to play at the same time.  This week has been a great time to relax and just have fun.

Valentines Day Fun

I love love love Valentines Day.  I love to use it as an opportunity to remind each other how much we love one another.  And also to be extremely cheesy.

The day before V-Day I took over Ben's facebook wall with valentines.  I think I posted 19 memes.  Here is a small taste of what he got:

Unfortunately for Ben, two days before V-Day he had a root canal.  He has been on some serious pain killers which make him snore like crazy which makes me not sleep.  :)  So he let me sleep in on Valentines Day and made this pink breakfast.  I, in turn, then let him go take a nice nap while the kids and I cleaned up the house like crazy to surprise him.  And those were our gifts to each other.

Ella was so excited that we had juice -- a rare treat.

Around lunch time I let the kids open their mailboxes.  They had been drawing each other pictures and putting them in each other's mailboxes for a couple of weeks.  I guess Lily must have been doing most of the giving because all she got was a lego car from Skyler (???) and a rock.  I laughed out loud and immediately thought of THIS.

Skyler was due to have a date with me soon and when I found out that Orange Leaf was doing buy one get one free frozen yogurt on Valentines Day, I decided that we would go!  $3 later and Skyler was a happy kid.

This is our 8th year doing fondue for dinner.  We dipped bread, broccoli, cauliflower, apples, and mushrooms this year.  Every year it's slightly different.  This year was the first year that our cheese turned into rubber.  Ha!  It was quite hilarious.

Every year we dip strawberries in chocolate, but this year Ben had the best idea yet: peanut butter rice krispies.  Oh they were SO GOOD!  I'm guessing that will be an annual tradition.

Today in Primary our music leader celebrated V-Day by wearing a giant heart and letting kids use blow darts (Nerf darts) to hit numbers on him.  He is the best music leader.  Plus any bishop when released who asks to be put in Primary is cool by me.

We had the best weekend.  Seriously, I loved it.  And weird story -- we've had such a boring winter here that I got a little gloomy about it the other day.  I felt like such a kid and actually asked for "just a little snow" in my personal prayers.  The next morning I woke up and found out that they had just put snow in the forecast and we should be getting some tomorrow.  That was one of the best Valentines of all!