A homemade Christmas

We are helping contribute to a homemade scrapbook for my mom for Christmas this year. I interviewed each of my kids about what they love most about their grandma and it was so darling! They each drew a picture for her and I can't wait to watch her enjoy the treasures she will find in there.

These were some of their responses:

If you could do anything for your Grandma, what would it be?

Sam: I would probably make her a big batch of cookies.

Nate: That she could be young again.

Max: I would vacuum her house!

Hannah: I could wrap a little tiny present for her. I could give her the present but I don't want her to open it.

Kids are so cute and I'm so glad to have times like these to remind me how lucky I really am.

The last three weeks....

Life has thrown a few curve balls lately. First one being the flu (possibly swine, we weren't officially tested) that circulated through our house, everyone getting it by the end. Just in time for everyone to be feeling better, it was time for Max's tonsil and adenoidectomy. FUN! He had them removed this past Tuesday, and let me tell ya, recovery just plain stinks! Max has been pretty miserable for 6 days and I guess he has another 4 to go before he turns a corner. Wow! That was a little unexpected but I guess we're on the downhill stretch.
I'm so ready for some normalcy, but wait a second, what IS normal??!!
We did enjoy General Conference in the mist of the yuckies. I loved Elder Bednar's talk and hearing his experiences that he's had with his three boys. It made me realize that energetic boys can still learn from FHE, family prayer and scripture study! So we'll keep pluggin' along....

Nate's wierd bug bite

So recently Nate had a bug bite that looked like the usual mosquito bite. Several of us in our fam have a fun reaction to mosquito bites with lots of swelling around the site for several days. I was informed by a doctor that usually the swelling reaction decreases over the course of the summer as you get bitten more and more but we have yet to see that! We must have sweet blood or something.

Anyway, after 2 weeks with this bite, Nate woke up with it looking like this. The center was not swollen but there was a swollen, itchy, red ring around it. After googling this and finding references to Lyme Disease (which was actually shocking) I decided to take him to the doctor. The doc gave him a usual round of antibiotics to take for 10 days and reassured me that the risk for Lyme is very small here in Idaho. Fun family life adventures~

our recent "Monk" moment....

So I am laughing to myself realizing it has been a year almost to the day since I've last blogged on here. I enjoy fbing and that has satisfied my desires to connect to family and friends. I've decided it will serve me well to document moments with my amazingly funny kids before I forget them. Traditional journal writing is sparse for me so I will turn to alternative measures.
One amazingly funny moment occurred on Nate's baptism day a couple weeks ago. If you've ever seen the TV series "Monk," it will help you capture the essence of the moment with my two Asperger's boys perfectly.
We were sitting in the chapel listening to the opening talks on baptism. Now, just keep in mind that my Aspie boys dread going to anything in the chapel. We ended up sitting in the second row, much to my dismay. Doug and Nate were sitting on the front row with the other dads and kids getting baptized that day. I was sitting in between Sam and Max with Danny on my lap and Hannah going back and forth between me and Doug.
The "Monk" moment came when Sam needed a tissue for his nose and was asking to leave the chapel to get one. I knew once he left, he wouldn't come back so in quick desperation, I found one in my mom's purse. He blew his nose and then asked to leave to throw it away. I whispered to him quite forcefully, "just put it in your pocket!" His adament reply, "No, I'm not going to put it in my pocket!" (His thoughts being that this is full of germs!) We volleyed back and forth before I quickly realized that this battle was not worth fighting and took it and shoved it in my pocket. Just then, Max sat up and turned around in his seat to look over the crowd of people in the chapel. I quickly wanted to get him to turn around and sit down again when I decided to ask him first what he was doing. His reply was "I'm counting all the people." Oh yes, of course you are! So I said, trying to find another diversion for him to keep him occupied "Yes, see all these lights on the ceiling? Why don't you count those too and the lines on the walls?"
In my desperation, I was trying to find anything that would keep him busy in that room until it was time to leave. Did I already mention that I love the show "Monk?"

Picture of the day

Here's Max. Gotta love the pictures my kids take of themselves that I have no idea about until I upload them. It makes me smile~

Hannah's new do

Oh, and I almost forgot, Hannah got a new haircut, courtesy of mom. Just don't look too close! ;-) Doesn't Danny look too cute in the doll stroller?! He's looking a little nervous though too....

Life in the Fast Lane

In realizing I haven't blogged in almost 2 months, here is a quick snap shot of our latest adventures.

*School started! Sam is in 4th, Nate 1st, and Max prek. Our latest adventure is that Sam is doing homeschool with the k12 virtual academy this year. It is going better then I anticipated and we are having fun and learning lots. I love being his teacher. Nate loves being in school all day and eating lunch at school. Max still loves his preschool and his teachers that he had last year.

*Hannah is going to be potty trained! She's not sure she wants to be, but mom is!!

*Danny is 6 mos old now and eating solids. He's crawling all over the place, much sooner then any of my other kids, and is growing up way too fast! What happened to my newborn?!

My life is in the fast lane and I'm learning new maneuvers to keep up!

The Farm at Oxford

Doug's family owns a farm in Oxford, Idaho. I'm sure you've never heard of this place unless you've been there before. It is north of Preston, Idaho, ya know, Napolean Dynamite's hometown. Well, there's an old farm house, an old barn and just a big, open field for the kids to run and explore. Oh, and two great rope swings that the kids loved. It's one of Doug's favorite places to be; just being "one" with the wide open farmland and the brightest starry nights. The mosquito's are pretty friendly too. Twin Lakes are nearby and we spent an afternoon there splashing around trying to cool off. We can't wait to go back.

The Great Outdoors!

We finally pulled off our first camping trip here in Idaho. We went about 2 hours NE from Boise at a campground called Elk Flatts by Anderson Ranch Reservoir. My brother, Mike, and his family joined us and we had a great time. We happened upon some natural hot springs that we could walk to and enjoyed a nice soak. Camping with five was a little crazy, but it was worth all the effort. I love the great outdoors!

My keyless moments....

Here is Hannah. Here is my laptop. Put them together and you now have a happy Hannah and a keyless laptop. More about this in a bit....
Doug and Sam left Monday morning for Utah for the week. Doug's dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer a month ago and is undergoing surgery Thursday morning to have the cancer removed. They will be back hopefully Friday.
I have been writing down all of Hannah's "terrific two" moments of the past few days. The day we found out from the ultrasound that we were finally going to have a little girl, all I could think of was a little angel with pink frills. Well apparently we have a different breed of angels around here. Here are her latest adventures~

~Hannah climbing up on my lap during the passing of the sacrament during church and throwing her arms up and shouting "Ta Da!"

~(We get out of church at 4:30 pm-I know, not great for afternoon nappers) Hannah falling asleep at 5:30 pm and waking up at 1:00 am ready for the day!!

~Getting in to Grandma's egg carton and cracking 1/2 the eggs while grandma was gone. Thankfully she cracked them back in to the carton!

~Dumping dry cereal on the family room carpet and throwing it around the room as I shout, "No." My shouting seemed to increase her throwing speed.

~Getting in to my purse and taking out my car keys and when she sees me coming towards her, takes off running away in the opposite direction as fast as she can.

~Coming to me and announcing that she has "poopies" while she holds up her two hands that are covered with you-know-what! 2 x's so far this week.

~Trying out a pair of scissors on her tongue.

~Chasing her older brother, Max, around the backyard while trying to hit him with two handfuls of rocks.

~While her baby brother is laying on the floor, she loves to run and jump over him to see mom's reaction!

~Riding Max's training wheel bike with no shoes or helmet and trying to ride to the park 5 blocks away.

Well, that's all my sleep-deprived, frazzled brain can remember of this week's keyless moments....

Danny's new discovery

Danny has discovered his tongue. He just cracks me up everyday with his silly little tongue expressions! I just had to share.

Our friendly neighborhood SpiderMax!

SpiderNate also came to visit us!

Me and Danny enjoying the Eagle Fun Days parade a week ago.

Summer Begins!

Sam and his small wooden catapult he made at Scout Day Camp this week. He has had tons of fun seeing how far he can launch different objects at home. I finally put my foot down when the boys started using the catapult to launch things in to a floor fan to see how far the fan could launch things. Boys are amazing! My IPhone pictures aren't the best, but they'll have to do tonight!

Hannah in her workin' boots-Max's winter boots.

Max hanging out as Spidey all day. Life doesn't get any better than this!

Whats a little girl in a pretty dress got to do? Play in the dirt. Her brothers have taught her well.

Nate and Danny

Baby Danny

Max and Nate at Nate's Kindergarten graduation

We have posted!

We are officially blogging! I can't tell you how long I've wanted to get this started and life has just been, well, life! It seems that things have calmed down a tad bit lately (knock on wood); our new little Danny, aka DJ, is now 3 months and we're not moving this summer. Phew! Also, I won't have morning sickness like I did last summer which means I can get some more things accomplished around here...well, I'm hopeful.
On to our latest news: We've had quite an eventful week. Sam, Nate and Max finished school last Thursday for the summer. Sam finished 3rd grade, Nate finished Kindergarten and Max finished his first year of preschool. Thursday was a fun-filled, busy day as I went from one last-day-of-school activity to another. So this week, our first full week of summer, Doug had a four day work retreat to attend. No big deal, it's the beginning of summer vacation-life is good! But nope, not going to have that nice, happy dream when Sam puked Monday evening, the night before Doug was to leave. After Hannah puking on Sunday, I knew that we had a stomach bug just beginning! Gotta love the timing. So needless to say, I've had very little sleep the past two nights and hoping for a better nights rest tonight since everyone had it. And so it goes....
The silver lining this week has been the fun that Sam's had at Scout Day Camp the past two days. Also, finally got around to starting a job chart for the three boys and they've been really great about keeping up on their jobs. Why didn't I do this a long time ago?!