A few random pictures

Our lovely girls at New Beginnings. We may be small in numbers, but we are big in Heart. I just love these girls! 

Callie had her senior recognition night for Basketball season. Her parents walked her across the stage, but I was glad to be able to be there to watch it.

Look closely and you will see a nasty raccoon walking in my neighbors driveway across the street from my house. There were two of them.YUCK! And what's even worse is that they were in OUR backyard later that night and scared me half to death when I opened the back slider to throw away some garbage. Paul threw some balls at him and he ran up the tree and up onto our back hill. I'm sure this wasn't his first or last visit. Ewww….I do not like raccoons.

A first for Carter

Carter had his first Dentist appointment this morning. He was excited because usually he has to just wait around while the other kids got their teeth cleaned. But now he's a big boy and gets to join them. He did really well considering it was his first time. They were really good with him. Slow and steady and explained everything so he wouldn't freak out. He was happy as a clam….until the electric toothbrush came at his mouth. Then he freaked out. But he calmed down and even though they didn't get a super thorough cleaning, they were able to do a pretty good job, floss his teeth, "count" them, and take a few xrays. So I consider that quite successful. AND….no cavities. Best news of the day. 

The girls got a clean bill of teeth health too. Brandon on the other hand is not so lucky. He has two cavities and has to go back next month. He's my hardest kid at the dentist. Has to have laughing gas to calm him enough to let them clean his teeth. And even getting him to breath it in enough to get him calm is always a challenge. But it's getting a bit easier every time, so I'm hopeful that one day I won't have to pay the extra $40 for the laughing gas, which insurance doesn't cover. 

And on an unrelated note, I got flowers for a baby shower I had at my house earlier this week and decided they made a nice Valentine week center piece. So even though I bought them myself, I think it still counts! And they smell good.

Leah's 8th Birthday Party

After much deliberation, Leah finally decided she wanted her BIG 8th Birthday celebration at Hugo's Gymnastics. We waited a bit too long to plan it and ended up having to celebrate two weeks early, but I don't think Leah minded too much. That just means her day gets spread out even more. 

She selected her guest list and we got all the arrangments made in just one weeks time. Whew. It was a whirlwind of a week prepping, but it all turned out perfect and Leah and her friends had a blast. There was no other party going on that afternoon so her and her 14 other guests had free reign of the whole gym. It was pure heaven. The kids ran from thing to thing playing and jumping and flipping around. Callie even got in on the action and did some fancy cheerleading gymnastics down the long tramp for us. It was fun to watch her. 

After an hour and a half of play time, we headed into the kitchen area for pizza and cake. Leah wanted a Frozen theme (what little girl doesn't right now?!). There was a DEFINITE shortage of Frozen themed items around town, so we luckily were able to borrow some figurines from Dewy's parents. Leah was a happy girl!

And this is to document that Brandon in fact ate FOUR pieces of pizza. I'd like to say this is not a normal occurance, but really it is. He can easily down four pieces and still have room for cake. Definitely a growing boy!

                                        

More Birthday fesitivities to follow on her actual day coming up in one and a half weeks.

Love you Leah Peah!

Valiant Viking

Almost forgot to get a picture of my Valiant Viking in front of the school by her name! Woohoo Leah. Way to go girl!

Lately

Carter still LOVES to help me cook in the kitchen. Doesn't matter what I am making. If he sees me, he pulls his chair up to "help". He is getting rather good at flipping pancakes though. Now we are working on getting him to EAT the things he helps me make. So far…..not so good.

Brandon and Carter were pretending to cut each others hair one night while in the bath. I guess I should have expected this, but I was still shocked when a little while after getting out of said bath, Carter finds a pair of scissors and cuts his hair for real. Off to the barber shop for him.

Ashlyn got an award for "Excellence in ALL academic subjects". Way to go Ashlyn! SUPER proud of that girl of mine.

Had an impromptu playdate at the mall last week after I attempted to take Carter down to OT and traffic was seriously at a stand still. I guess a semi was blocking four lanes of traffic. It took Paul almost an hour and 45 minutes to get to work. So I was glad I called to cancel OT and headed to the mall instead. 

Here's an after shot from Carter's hair cut. You can still see where he cut it, but it's not as noticeable and hardly at all when I spike it up. I just couldn't bring myself to buzz his head. 

We went to watch Callie cheer for her school's basketball team. They were playing Golden Valley High, which is where my kids are zoned for, so it was weird to think that someday we'll be on the other side of the bleachers cheering for the "other" team. 

Caught this SUPER adorable picture of Carter and Ashlyn hugging. Sure love these cuties.

And this is the best shot I got of Callie. But hey, at least I got one. They mostly sit in the stands to cheer at basketball games, so I wasn't at very good angle for pictures. Ignore the random cheerleaders booty in the picture. She leaned over at exactly the wrong time. 

I took the girls out for a much needed mommy-daugther date night to Chilis. Leah had a free meal from some award she got at school, so even though it wasn't exactly one on one time, I still think the girls had a good time. And they got along really well, so it was a really fun night together. Leah suggested we play truth or dare during dinner, but once I started asking her questions she didn't like, she all the sudden decided she didn't like that game too much. 

After dinner we headed to Target and the Dollar store to get ideas for her birthday party this weekend. We are having it a little early but oh well. It'll just make it seem to last longer. 

Paul comes home pretty exhausted from church each week. He's not too much of an early riser anyway, so having to get up early for his meetings, is pretty painful for him. He fell asleep pretty quickly after getting home. Carter took the opportunity to come and snuggle with him. Awake or not.

AND super exciting news around here. LEAH GOT VALIANT VIKING AT SCHOOL FOR THE SECOND TIME!!!!! When I asked her if she was suprised, she said, no….I expected to get it. 

Wow…ok. I guess the girl is confident. Nice for her that she didn't have to be disappointed.

Either way, I'm really proud of her. 

Date Night

LOVE LOVE LOVE date night around here. We don't get out every single weekend. Too much going on usually, but we do get out pretty often. I rarely take pictures though and probably wouldn't have this night either except for the fact that our key lime pie was SO yummy I had to document it. As you can see, it's half dug into before I thought to take a picture. We got "lucky". There was a group of at least 20 at the tables next to us. Winter formal for a high school in our Valley. First of all it was a cold night, but I'm not joking not a single girls dress came past her mid thigh and most had NO straps. Or teeny tiny ones if they did. I swear my bathing suit covers more than what most of these girls had on. They were all sitting there looking awkward and a lot of them on their phones texting or at least appearing to be texting. I was glad to not be a part of that. Married life sure is nicer than dating life.  

We went to the movies after dinner, but had about 30 minutes before it started so we sat in the car and chatted while our HUGE meal tried to digest. I guess that's what old people do. Recline their chairs and take a nap before the 7:30pm movie. LOL. Ok, we didn't really take a nap. But makes for a funnier story. 

A sad day for Carter

Last Friday Carter had to go get his blood drawn after his OT appointment. It's for his allergist who wanted more specific tests for his nut allergies. It was a traumatic day to say the least. In an effort to prep him, I made the mistake of telling Carter where we were going. He literally cried the ENTIRE 25 minute drive there. Then once we got there, it took me 5 minutes to get his shoes on and get him to get out of the car. Once out of the car, he would not walk with me and kept running in the opposite direction or moving backward everytime I took a step toward him. We were already late to his appointment so I was trying to hurry him, but it wasn't working. If I walked toward him, he ran off and I couldn't catch him and didn't want to risk him running back into the parking lot. So I had to wait until I could coax him over. It took about 10 minutes to get him in the office although he was still screaming and crying. I signed him in, and tried to sit down with him. He was making such a scene though and kept putting his hand to his mouth so I knew he was about to throw up. I ran him outside, and he did infact throw up. We went back in. He cried some more. Put his hand over his mouth again and so again we ran outside where he threw up…again! Got back inside and he finally started to calm down. After another 5 or 10 minutes they called us back and he started screaming all over again. So I literally had to pin him down while they drew two vials of blood. It was terrible. I felt so bad. I know he was just scared and I wasn't mad at him. Just exhausted at the situation. He cried until they were finally done and we were thankfully walking out the door. 

So whoever says it's better to prep your child and talk to them about their appointments BEFORE going, obviously doesn't have a child like mine. 

We went to lunch to calm down and then got some Menchies. It was a rough morning for both of us. Glad it's over and hoping we don't need more blood drawn for a good long time.

Later that afternoon, we had Beth's kids over to play. Leah went right in to dressing and primping Audrey. Make up and all. Doesn't she look beautiful!

And Cole is just one of the cutest kids around. He loved all the swords and guns and had one in his hand just about the entire time. 

Brandon and Tyler played legos almost exclusively and compared lego sets with each other. It was super cute. Fun to see my kids getting along well with others. 

 And I was happy the day ended better than it began.