Yesterday vs Today

Yesterday...

- School

- Zumba and Kids Exercise Class

- Play at the Park

Today...

- Eden stays home sick

- Thus we all stay home

- School

- Movies

- Naps

Thanksgiving in February

After thanksgiving, our neighbors gave us all the good for a thanksgiving feast that they inherited, I believe, from their church....including a turkey.

It sat frozen, taking up a large amount of space in my freezer.

After talking to my neighbor, I came to find that she ALSO inherited a turkey that was ALSO taking up a large amount of space in her freezer.

We made a decision.

It was time to celebrate Thankgiving in February.

We invited another family with us to feast.

So, on Saturday we had the Rutschkes, Seastrands, and Finlinsons get together.  The kids played, the parents visited, and food was eaten.

We split up the food preparation, tested out new recipes, made some old favorites, and at like pigs.

...and then ate like pigs again for leftovers.

It was fabulous.

My only regret, I didn't get any pictures.

Cooking School

Eden's having an increasingly difficult time finding motivation to do homework after school.

She is supposed to do 20 minutes of some form of homework, 4 days a week.

We have to log what she does with a special chart.

So, today I got creative and found a way for her to "take a break" from the normal "homework".

I had her make dinner.

Fractions, chemistry, reading comprehension....

Yep, it counts.

She made dinner completely on her own (except me putting and taking things out of the oven and opening some jars and cans that she struggled to open).

It was a new recipe I never tried.

Beef stroganoff casserole.

With at side of cooked carrots.

As for the other girls school.

The highlight was when we had to do a mini outing day (because of time constraints) and of all the things they could have chosen to do, they came up with the idea to go visit their next door neighbor, Grandma Helen. We haven't visited with her in a while. I'm sure she loves the company.

Time to Party

Update...

Paige is no longer sick.

And Eden is $1 richer and the Tooth Fairy let her keep her tooth.

Now that we are better and the weather is amazing...it's time to play.

Library story time.

Dinner and a movie.

It really has been quite a party over here.

The girls filled up the pool in the backyard.

We've been to the park more times than I can count.

We had gymnastics today.

Michelle, my friend, came with her kids to visit KC after having moved to CO.  So we went over to say goodbye and the girls got to play with Bella one last time before she went back.

My visiting teachers also took me and the other girl they visit teach out to Yogurtini to celebrate my birthday. So, we got to have girl time and eat ice cream.

But we've also been busy.

I cleaned out a ridiculously dirty car.

Have done a lot of grocery shopping and errands.

And not to mention house cleaning. *sigh* never ending house cleaning.

But overall, it's been good.

Though, Tyson may disagree. 

While I party with the girls, he's been working and studying....

Vomiting, Trip to the ER, and Eden Finally Loses a Tooth

Today we planned to watch a friend's kids.

Take them to the zoo with us.

And then go to the Pinewood Derby and Ward chili cook off.

Plans changed.

Paige woke up at 5 am throwing up.

And throwing up.

And throwing up.

We tried to get to her keep anything down....with no luck.

We had to inform our friend that we couldn't watch their kids.

The other girls went out all day to play with friends.

Tyson and I were on full time Paige duty.

Snuggle.

Try to get her to sip some form of liquid.

Vomit.

Change clothes.

Give Paige a bath.

Repeat.

After Paige had thrown up everything we tried to get her to drink using various methods...

(Ten vomiting episodes in total.)

We decided around 6 pm to take her to the ER.

She felt pretty good.

Only a low grade fever.

As long as she didn't eat or drink, she didn't throw up.

But she was weak from lack of energy.

So, we waited in hospital.

They knew how to clear it up.

They gave her some nausea medicine.

Gave us a Gatorade and a medicine syringe.

Told me to let them know if she throws up.

Instructed me to give her a little syringe full every 3 minutes.

Then after 20 minutes we gave her two syringes full every 3 minutes.

It was really quite torturous for Paige.

Drink a tiny sip of juice then force her to wait another three minutes to get another sip.

This is her "More Juice!" Face.

Then I'd finally get her calmed down and distracted.

And then it would be time for her next sip...and back to sadness.

But she finally finished her Gatorade.

She hadn't thrown up.

So they sent us home around 9 pm.

And I came home to a girl with a missing tooth!

Eden has officially lost her first tooth.

Tyson convinced her to let him take a tug at it.

She expected a lot more pain and was in shock to find out how easy it popped out.

She is having a hard time parting with her tooth...

So, she wrote the tooth fairth a little note.

Guess we'll find out how the tooth fairy will respond.

Valentines

Valentines was fun.

Eden had a school party.

I did her hair for the occasion.

I signed the girls up for their co-op homeschool classes.

We has a good time.

Today we kept busy.

Running at the gym.

Picnic at the park.

Trip to the bank.

To the grocery store.

Then to another park.

And Eden came home with a much looser front tooth.

Then we used the old "string between her tooth and door, then slam door" trick.

And it is MUCH looser.

Which is good because her other tooth is coming in behind.

And that was my day.

Happy Birthday to Me

My last day of being 32 wasn't the best day for me.

Granted, I'm healthy and extremely blessed...so, I am overall grateful.

But I was feeling tired and un-spoiled.

That's so selfish of me, I know.

I had to wake up several times in the night with kids.

Including Paige's decision to wake up at 6 am to be ready to start the day.

So, at 6 am I made my own special birthday breakfast.

We recently started a birthday crepe breakfast tradition.

But Tyson slept in while I made my own 6 am birthday crepes.

It wasn't his fault. I didn't inform him I wanted to celebrate my birthday a day early because it was the weekend while Tyson would be around and Monday, my actual birthday, he wouldn't be around.  And I felt selfish to wake him up and say "So, I decided that today I celebrate me. To celebrate me, I wish for you to wake up and take the kids while I sleep...and make me crepes. Thanks."

But they were really good crepes.

Then we went to church.

After church the kids seemed to argue all day.

I made my own birthday dinner, which I didn't want to but didn't want to tell Tyson "Now make me dinner." Though, I'm pretty sure he even offered because by then I think he knew my plan to make today my birthday day but I planned a dinner that he had never made before.

More arguing...

I was having a bit of a sensory overload and wanted to run to away and hide the rest of the night.

But I didn't.

Instead the home teachers came over.

Did a magic trick and lesson. (Yes, our home teacher brings magic tricks.)

Then we had birthday leftover Oreo trifle.

It was leftover because I actually made it Friday and it seemed pointless to make something else when we had so much leftover.

I then realized I wasn't prepared for the girls valentines party the next morning.

I made them some quick Valentine boxes for them to decorate in the morning.

Tyson stayed up with me and made some quick Valentines because I didn't have enough to give out.

And I cried myself to sleep.

Probably mostly because I was so tired.

That was my last day being 32.

My first day being 33 has been much better.

I woke all the kids up at 7:30.

Ate leftover crepes.

Sent Eden out the door.

Took the other kids to Target to complete their valentines.

(I decided to not just buy some because they wouldn't have enough time to sign their names on all the cards by the time the party was to begin.)

And ran to the homeschool co-op party.

And it was fun.

After the party, we took a quick trip to a clothing store I wanted to look at briefly because they had in a new stock of swimwear. I at least got to see what they had but couldn't try anything on because the kids were loaded with sugar and crazy.

So, I drove home.

Then I gave myself a birthday present.

I put Paige to nap.

Put the other kids in front of Netflix.

And I took a birthday nap.

Then I woke up to Eden coming home from school.

Then Tyson came home.

And we went out to dinner at Red Robin.

(Where kids eat free, we have a gift card, and there's an amazing balloon artist on Mondays.)

We invite our friends, the Stanleys as well.

We had a good night.

Then the kids went to bed.

Happy 33 to me!

A Beautiful Day

It was really nice weather today.

We de-junked the house.

Played at the park.

Had bubble and sidewalk chalk time.

Ran some errands.

...and gave Paige a haircut.

A Good Day with Sore Arms

Today was a good day.

(Minus my sore arms....I'm sure I pulled my arm muscles.)

I told myself to be me and be brave.

Don't care so much about what others think of me.

So, I wore my bright red lipstick and proudly marched through my day!

I didn't take any other pictures today.

I figure that it's because I was too busy having a good day.

Leila and Molly had devotional today with Kirsten.

I'm not sure if I mentioned that I combined with a friend and we take turns doing lessons on Fridays.

This month we are talking about love, being Valentine's Day and all.

Leila found some wood projects, so today we built little wagons.

I went through a bunch of toys in the girls closet and did some minimizing.

I found out about a consignment type place where I can sell some stuff we are getting rid of.

I just want it out of the house.

The weather was fabulous, so we played at the park WITHOUT jackets.

We made an Oreo lovers dream dessert for family movie night.

Watched The BFG.

Eden finished reading the first book of A Series of Unfortunate Events.

So the other girls went to bed...

...and Eden, Tyson, and I watched the first two episodes of A Series of Unfortunate Events on Netflix.

Eden's School Student Led Conference

Today Eden had a student-led conference with me today at her school. 

She showed me her desk, what she's been working on, her goals, things she's done, etc. It was fun to see what she does in school all day. 

She has been loving school. It has been a really great experience.  

She has been the AM announcer for the past month or so where she gets to create a video with the announcements and other fun things like "Throw back Thursday" where they get to show a picture of a teacher when they were in elementary and have students guess who it is. 

She's also been working hard on her Kenya project and fractions. 

The librarian recently told her that she now knows more about what books Eden reads and her reading level and introduced her to higher level reading material that she is excited to read.  At home, she's been reading A Series of Unfortunate Events and loving it. She's become quite a bookworm.

Today's other activities:

Exercise at the gym

Mailing Valentines to family

Costco for a car tire check

And a Lipsense party

Keeping Busy

Breakfast.

Core exercise class.

Zumba class.

Kids "Totsercise" class.

Lunch.

Gymnastics.

Valentine's card making.

Dinner.

Relief Society activity.

Home.

Kind Notes and LEGOS

Found this little note written in the middle of my dinners/grocery list.

I can always count on Eden to make me feel better.

Not a lot has happened these past few days.

I went to the gym yesterday for the first time in a very long time.

I'm ridiculously sore.

I cleaned the house today.

It was WAY worse than I care to admit. Now it is manageable.

I got my tires rotated.

And Leila used a Target gift card she's been saving.  New LEGOS.

There's been a lot of Lego playing and dragon play going on at my house.

It has been fun.

Still Recovering

Obviously the sick are still in recovery mode.

How can I tell?

These pictures were taken at 6pm as I was calling them to come eat dinner.

Eden came home from school saying, "I'm tired. I'm gonna take a nap."

Dad came home from work saying, "I am so tired, I need a short nap."

And Molly uncontrollably cries for no reason until she falls asleep on the couch.

Three of the six people in our family were fast sleep. I was the only one sick that wasn't asleep...at six. I admit that yesterday I took a nap mid-day. Yesterday must have been my recovery day.

I wasn't sure what to expect tonight when bedtime came.

So, we rented Pete's Dragon and had a late night movie and dessert.

Eden and Paige fell asleep mid-movie.

Molly and Leila decided they wanted to sleep in the family room.

Tyson's already asleep.

Now it's time for me to head to bed.

Goodnight.