Big brother time

Luke is a really good big brother to his younger sisters (most of the time). On this day he was trying to keep MJ occupied while I was doing some things so he took her down to the family room to watch a movie and he sat on the floor with her. She was almost asleep when I grabbed the camera and snatched this picture. She opened her eyes just as I took this picture and then she wanted to come and sit with me instead...

Day Trip to Provo

Monday, March 26, 2012

The elementary kids are off track right now and M&M had a day off of school as well so we decided to take a trip down to Provo and visit BYU's dinosaur museum and then go to DH's work and eat lunch with him. The kids had a good time at the museum, especially MJ who had fun running around and touching everything. Luckily it is a pretty kid friendly museum...
After the museum we stopped at a Subway restaurant on our way to DH's work and picked up some lunch for all of us. The kids had a lot of fun eating with their dad and running around the lunchroom at his work. I was hoping that the weather would be nice enough that we could eat outside at a park, but unfortunately it was fairly chilly and windy.

Next we headed back down to BYU and stopped at the bookstore for a few minutes. I let the kids pick out something to buy so we got T-shirts for all of the girls and a baseball cap for Luke. Then we headed home. I was exhausted at this point!! MJ was completely wild in the bookstore and didn't want to stay in the stroller and kept running around the store!

Fashion Statement

MJ trying out some of her siblings' things:

Principal's Pride for Blondie

Blondie received Principal's Pride award today for her "Perfect Persuasive Paragraph". Blondie's teacher was really nice and accommodating and waited until my chemo treatments were over before she turned in the award for Blondie.

We just found out the day before that the principal was offered a new job working for the school district that she has decided to take. Rumor has it that she will move on to that job as soon as they find a replacement for her - probably before the school year ends.

Fruit pizza

I made my first fruit pizza today! I have been eyeing a recipe that I have wanted to try for some time now and when strawberries went on sale the other day, I couldn't resist trying it out. I think it turned out very pretty and it tasted pretty good too.

MJ update

MJ was super whiny for almost a week after she recovered from the first sickness that went through our family. DH stayed home with her from church on Sunday while the rest of us attended. Finally once she got over her whiny mood turned into an absolute goofball. She has developed a super silly, almost maniac sounding laugh that just makes us smile when we hear it. Hopefully we can get it on video soon. At the same time she is a super impatient child and will sit there and just yell for something until she gets it. She also is very particular about what shows she lets us watch on T.V. If it is a show that she doesn't want to watch she will bring someone the remote and keep yelling "no" until the show is changed. She has a horrible temper and has started showing jealousy, especially towards Kay who is an absolute sweatheart. If Kay is playing with something or MJ sees me giving something to Kay, MJ will try and take it away or throw a fit until she gets it. And she doesn't even necessarily want what Kay has, she just doesn't want Kay to have it!

MJ is talking up a storm. She loves to repeat what everyone says and she gets a big smile on her face when she says something right. The funniest is when I am yelling for one of her siblings and she will start yelling for them as well. She also is learning some of the letters of the alphabet and will go around trying to identify letters that she sees. She probably gets them right about 20% of the time right now, but it's fun to see.

MJ loves my ipad and thinks that it is her personal toy. This causes problems, especially when I am trying to get something done on it - like updating my blogs... Sometimes she will throw an absolute fit when I have my ipad and won't let her play with it. I used to take it to church with me to use in place of my scriptures and manuals, but now it is too much of a pain because she will go crazy if she sees it.

The frustrating thing is that she is a super, super cute kid and can be really sweet when she wants to be. She has a super cute smile and her eyes twinkle when she is happy. Hopefully we will get to see more of that twinkle now that we are over our second round of sicknesses, I just need to find a way to get her to control her temper!

Sick again!

Friday, February 24 - Sunday March 4

Well, our family was hit by sickness once again this winter. This time I think it was the influenza virus and all of the kids came down with it. It started with M&M. She came home from school Thursday afternoon complaining about her back really hurting her. Then the next morning she had late start for school and when she came upstairs to eat breakfast, DH and I both saw her and knew immediately that she was too sick to go to school. Her cheeks were flushed and she did not look well at all. Later that evening the kids started dropping like flies - going from one set of flushed cheeks to another - with fevers. By Saturday all of the kids were sick and spent the day just laying around the house not doing anything. M&M was supposed to give a talk in Sacrament Meeting on Sunday and it was looking for a little while like she might be well enough to go, but by evening time again on Saturday she started not feeling well again. We all stayed home from church on Sunday. (I think this was a first for our family to all stay home from church because of sickness.) DH and I were both well enough to go, but MJ and Kay wanted me around because they weren't feeling well and with my weakened immune system DH stayed around to help out too. I did go to a meeting before church and DH went to the clerk's office after church to help count the tithing money, but other than that we stayed around the house handing out doses of medicine like it was candy...

On Monday, M&M felt well enough to go to school and it was a good thing because she had a performance downtown with a youth symphony group that she plays with. After she got home from that she crashed on the couch. The rest of the kids stayed home and DH worked from home so he could be around to help out if needed.

By Tuesday everyone was back in school except for Blondie. She developed a horrible cough and I didn't feel good sending her to school that day. On Wednesday I felt that everyone was finally well enough to go back to school. That evening though Luke started feeling not well again and he threw up in the middle of the night. So Luke stayed home from school on Thursday and Friday. He threw up a couple of times and had a bad stomachache as well as headache. By this point all of the kids had coughs and stuffy noses, but I sent them to school anyways. It's hard to know when to keep them home from school and when not to. Luke started feeling better Friday afternoon and was able to finally start eating normal meals again. By Sunday we were all well enough to go back to church. MJ still had a little bit of a cough and runny nose so I kept her with me in the primary room instead of sending her to nursery.

Amazingly through all of this I did not get sick (and neither did DH). The only thing that we can think is that it was the influenza virus and DH and I are the only ones who received the flu shot this year. We have never done the flu shot for any of us in the past, but this year with my chemo treatments we felt that I should probably get it as well as DH. I don't think that we have ever come down with the flu in the past either though.

I took this picture on Saturday, February 25th. If you look closely in this picture you can find 4 kids laying down, in various stages of sleep. Kay is playing in the background and I am holding the 6th sick kid, MJ, while I am taking this picture.
When I got home from my meeting on Sunday, this is how I found DH and MJ. MJ is not a cuddly baby so this is a very unusual sight to see.

Kay talk

I was sitting on the couch in the family room and burped. Kay, from across the room, said, "Nice burp Mom!"

Here are a few Kay talks that my dad sent me. They are told from his perspective:

Story 1: I was sitting on the chair near the hassock (leather footstool that they have) and Kay asked what the tape was for on the hassock.  I explained that it was broken and grandma fixed it with some tape so the insides wouldn’t come out.  And Kay said, “Oh it has an owie."

Story 2: It's always fun to be with Kay.  When I came to your home yesterday she greeted me with, "Let's play chess."  Later she asked, "Do you still have the rainbow ice cream at your home?" (My dad): "No." (Kay): "Well you can buy some at the grocery store."

Weekend fun!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Since the kids were off school on Monday for Presidents' Day, I decided to let them stay up late watching some movies and sleep in the family room if they wanted. We pulled out the sleeper bed in our sectional and the kids all piled on to watch the movies. The three middle girls were the only ones who ended up sleeping there, but everyone had fun!

Farmer Jo

Thursday, February 9, 2012

MJ loves wearing this hat from our dress up clothes and we all think she looks super cute in it:She also loves to say "cheese" for the camera.