On the slopes

This morning we took Amber skiing for her first time. I've looked forward to her first ski trip since she was a baby. She did great! Rich was a ski instructor at Brian Head, back in the day. He was a great teacher for Amber today; patient, fun, & informative. He knew just how much to push and how much to play. I was excited to see Amber learn to love one of my favorite things. I mean REALLY excited! As we approached the ski hill I told Rich "Getting close to the ski hill makes me giddy." If I'd been the teacher I'm sure there would have been more tears and fear than smiles.

We wanted Kate to come too, but she wanted to stay home. She told me she'll learn to ski when she turns 8. I know she would have enjoyed it today if she'd come.

Next favorite activity on the list: rock climbing!

Every Day Moments

I spent a few moments this evening in tears. My entire life aspiration is to be a good mother. Yet, lately I feel like there's just not enough time; everything else gets in the way. My kids are growing up too fast. Maybe I have too much on my plate, maybe my kids have been sick too long and I feel like I have a lot of catch up to do, maybe I'm still adjusting to life with three kids, or maybe I'm just hormonal. And perhaps God grants us those moments of sadness to encourage us to intentionally choose our priorities. I'd love to know how other people simplify, prioritize, and organize so that their kids come first.

On a happier note, here are some photos.

I'm giving up on babyfood vegetables. Jessica has such a strong gag reflex she throws up if I sneak veggies in her mouth. Yesterday after two bites of sweet potatoes and a highchair tray full of vomit she got a quick bath in the sink.

When I can convince myself to slow down, I really enjoy games with Kate.

Amber, Kate & I went to the dentist yesterday. No cavities! Amber found out she has her first loose tooth!

Jessica wiggles on command. I'm thrilled to have caught it on video.

Jessica is also learning to sign. She is signing all done. She saw me getting out babyfood carrots tonight and immediately started signing "all done". We rewarded the behavior. She didn't have to eat the carrots. Rich and I both think she says "all done" too. She also signs "more" by clapping. She signs for more food and for more playing.

Richard thinks the videos with our baby playing with scissors needs a disclaimer. So here it is, I let my baby play with scissors. (Don't worry, I was standing right next to her).

You've GOT to be KIDDING!!!

I just finished reading "Someone Named Eva" by Joan M. Wolf. It's great book about a Czech girl who was taken from her home by Nazi's and sent to a Nazi school for girls. It was eye opening, heart wrenching, & fascinating. The night after I finished it I looked at my frail, thin, pale Amber in the bathtub and thought of the Nazi's prisoners. My heart sank. She does not look healthy. She has been sick too long!

Amber woke me up in the night because she didn't feel good. Sure enough, in the morning Amber had a fever AGAIN!!! Rich agreed to watch the girls so I could go work out. I sat in a spin class in a complete fog, praying my heart out that I'd know what to do for her. I felt completely befuddled.

Arriving home, I felt like I simply could not handle another day with sick kids. Jessica has had diarreah all week with the accompanying raw diaper rash, Amber has still not recovered & Kate seemed to be sympathetically sick. I'm going crazy!

At 2:15 the nurse finally returned my phone call. She rechecked the results of the recent labs we did. They were all negative. We decided it would be best to have her weighed today and then keep a food journal for a couple of days before having her rechecked by the doctor. Because really, the flu shouldn't last 5 weeks! My amazing selfless mother agreed to take Amber, since I had piano students arriving soon. Just before they left I decided to check Amber's throat. Yep, she had lesions on her tonsils. The doctor did a strep culture on her while she was there. It tested positive. I've never been so excited about an antibiotic. I suspect she's had strep for weeks, or maybe this is just one more illness to top them off. Kate was complaining of a sore throat when she went to bed. I suspect we'll be filling a prescription for her in the morning.

Sigh

7 things

7 Things I Can Do:
1. Ski downhill
2. Play & teach others to play the piano
3. Digital Scrapbook
4. Cross country ski
5. Read
6. Play Webkins as a favor to my kids (Did I really just write that?)
7. Love my kids

7 Things I Can't Do:
1. Get enough sleep
2. Read my scriptures every day (It's not that I can't, I just don't)
3. Get anywhere on time
4. Manage my time to get ahead
5. Follow through with my kids consistently enough
6. Draw
7. Stick to a budget
This list was much easier than the list of things I can do. My glass is half empty right now.

7 Things I Say Often
1. I love you
2. I'm so sorry that happened
3. Amber did you. . . .yet?
4. Jessica, that's yucky (diaper changes)
5. What was your best/worst thing that happened today?
6. Did you hear me?
7. Just a minute

7 Things I Love About Rich
1. His unending kindness
2. His gentle touch
3. The way he plays with his girls
4. The way his looks at his girls with fondness & adoration
5. He understands my need to "me time" and "social time"
6. He never ever ever criticizes me
7. His courage to go back to college

7. Favorite Foods
1. Fruit, especially berries
2. Ice cream
3. Chocolate
4. Any meal I don't have to purchase, prepare, cook, and clean up
5. Really, nothing else appeals lately. The work and money behind it all it ruining my appetite.
6. Anything my kids will eat without complaining
7. Can water count?

I tag anyone who wants to play along.

Sleeping in cardboard boxes

Amber has spent the past 3 nights in this "kitty bed" cardboard box. She confesses that it's hard to bend her knees in the morning, but she loves living in her pretend world so much she just keeps on doing it. The bonus: the box was free! The styrofoam head supports broke out of our Graco carseats, so Graco sent replacements free of charge the next day. I think I'll keep buying Graco. I love companies who stand by their products.






Kate earned an iceskating trip by practicing writing a letter and a sentence each day until she finished the alphabet. We finally went today. The whole on-ice experience lasted no more than 15 to 20 mintues, but she enjoyed it. I wanted so badly to give in and let Amber come too, but I kept my end of the deal. She hasn't earned her trip yet, so she'll have to keep working on obeying the first time she's asked.

Lessons learned

Things I've learned this week:

1. The little things are the big things. We prepared a special valentine suprize for Rich each day in February until Valentines day. He enjoyed it. I actually forgot a couple of days. He spent those days trying to guess where we would have left him something.
2. Vomit launched off the top bunkbed has a large spray radius. Enough said.
3. It's wise to wait until after everyone finishes their round or two of the stomach flu to clean your carpets. (No, we haven't cleaned them yet. Rich must have wonderful foresight).
4. 8 to 10 ounces of fluid coming back out of a baby really is A LOT of fluid! Poor Jessica has been throwing up several times a day this week. She's starting to believe it's just normal.
5. I really do enjoy company, especially family. Rich's brother Dan & his family came up to visit for the weekend. They're wonderful. P.S. if they get the flu I'll feel terrible. I really thought we were past it.
6. Rich really is an easy guy to please. For his birthday he received new garments from me, cheapo sunglasses from Kate & a pencil container filled with candy from Amber. Pretty lame-o because December to February are the slowest months for his business. He didn't mind. He even said he had a good birthday. We went out to dinner the night before and spent his birthday snowmobiling with our neighbors the Evans & my dad.
7. Mothering is exhausting, especially when kids are sick. After 20 days of tummy aches, Amber seems to be better. I think she'll be eating a ton this week to regain the weight she lost. Kate had one severe day of vomiting, but rested a lot and recovered quickly. Jessica, has been throwing up for 8 days & is still going strong.
8. I have a great husband. He understands that I need to get out once in a while. He has saved my sanity this week.
9. It's mortifying to stand just out of reach as your daughter throws up all over your sister-in-law.
10. I'm really grateful my kids are healthy most of the time. How do people deal with chronic illness?

Rich has a tradition of giving each of his girls a rose for Valentines day. They treasure them.


I go a set of collanders, disguised as flowers. I've been using the same miserable collander for ten years. It's so pathetic that Rich threatened to buy me new ones for Christmas. I gave him a hard time when he didn't becuase Santa brought him salt & pepper shakers. I was touched by his creativity. The vase is really a blender attachement I can use to make smoothies and blend babyfood. Again, thoughtfully creative!

We took Dan & his kids snowmobiling & tubing in the fields behind our house. I think everyone had a good time, even me. I was so proud of Kate for taking a turn on the snowmobile and in a tube. She's been pretty scared of snowmobiles.

Taniya & Madison

Dan, Taniya, Kelsey, & Rich

We have the best tree behind the shop. It's great for climbing has a rope & a rope swing. The kids had fun swinging into the snow filled ditch. This is Kate.

Madison

Garret

The kids harvested huge icecycles from the house.

Happy Birthday Rich!

Winterfest

We went to Rexburg's Winterfest celebration two weekends ago. My sickie, Amber was completely disappointed that she couldn't join us. It's the one event she looks forward to and talks about all year. Kate & I went anyway, because I really needed a breath of fresh air, and Kate had looked forward to it for weeks. We were able to meet up with my two awesome sisters, Tonya and Rebecca, with their kids Emma & Ryken.

The sleigh rides are always Kate's favorite. So we did that first.

Kate did a pretty okay job hitting pictures of snow animals with balls.

She loved coloring the snow with colored water in a spray bottle.

She looked hard to find a burried coin, to trade in for a piece of junk treasure.

We loved the snow carvings, especially this bear. We had a great time, but were frozen to the core by the time we returned home to Grandma's.

Sickness and prayers

We've had more than our fair share of illnesses already this year. It started out in January with a nasty respiratory virus. From there we moved on to ear infections and for Jessica, a yeast infection diaper rash. Then it was onto a stomach virus for Jessica and Amber. Amber had the worst of it. She complained of stomach aches and threw up off and on for nearly two weeks. I breathed a sigh of relief today when we all went to church together for the first time in weeks. Today my Sunday nap was interrupted with this news, "Mom, Jessica just threw up." Sigh. Poor Jessi feels terrible! There's nothing more saddening than a sick baby. Who knows what this week will hold for us.

I'm grateful for the power of prayer in the lives of my children. Tonight at dinner, Kate reminded Rich to pray for Jessica. I love to hear Kate pray. Instead of "we ask thee" and "we thank thee" her prayers are made up purely of "we thank thees", even for future events. Maybe I should insist that she say "we ask thee", but I choose to believe her abuandance of "we thank thee's is a sign of her pure child-like faith. Her memorized prayer goes something like this: "We're grateful we won't have bad dreams. We're grateful we won't be scared and no one will come to our house. We're grateful bad guys won't be real. We're grateful we won't wake up mom and dad at night. . ." and so on. Can you tell that not waking mom and dad up at night is a top priority around here? Now I feel I must explain. I'm not a completely selfish & incompassionate person, but if my kids wake me up in the middle of the night, I usually can't go back to sleep. Dumb, I know.