Easter

It seems like I let one week go by because we didn’t do anything, and then it’s been three weeks all of a sudden.

Conference was wonderful. We spent Saturday shopping in Tri-Cities, so we were late listening to all of the sessions, but we did listen to it all. The beauty and downfall of not being able to watch it live on tv is that you can watch any time, but you have to make sure to do it.

AJ and I have been sick. He had a fever that kept him home from school a few days. I know he’s well enough to go now, but he would really like to stay home, and he’s been pitching a fit every morning when the bus comes. He’ll be out of school again Monday and Tuesday for conferences, so that doesn’t help anything. I just have a little cold.

Easter was also wonderful. We colored eggs the night before and had an Easter egg hunt outside. Joe mowed the lawn yesterday and found a missing egg – at least there was only one! We had a big dinner at Joe’s parents’ house for Easter. It was delicious, as always. The kids are still finishing off their Easter candy, or rather; Natalie is finishing off everyone’s Easter candy when we’re not looking.




Testimony meeting is always interesting. I was in the mothers’ lounge with the baby where it was quiet, so I actually got to pay attention. I have no idea who it was, but one man’s testimony went something like this, “You know, my son is a big football fan like me. And he always goes for the quarterbacks. But I really like the guys nobody knows about, like the linemen and the defensive guys. And in the church, the prophet is kind of like the quarterback. Like Joseph Smith is great and all, but I really like the twelve apostles, you know. And in the New Testament, Jesus is wonderful, like the quarterback of the team, but I just find myself rooting for His disciples. And I just think it’s great that we have a new apostle in the Twelve…” Wow!

Joe and I splurged on golf passes to the course next to our subdivision. Joe has been playing really well lately. I’m not as bad as I used to be! We can take Natalie and AJ with us, now that they’re a little bit older, but Brooklin is technically not welcome. We’ll have to figure out what to do with her while we go. Last time we went, we just pushed her stroller through the course, but I’m pretty sure that we’re not supposed to do that. Lots of fun though!

I went back to work on Sunday night. Ugh… It wasn’t as bad as I was afraid, but I survived, and so did my patients.

Happy 2 months!

My baby is already 2 months old. Brooklin is a sweet baby, and we couldn't be more thrilled that she is part of our family. She smiles all the time and sleeps 6-7 hours every night. In fact, she rarely cries at all. She's happy to sit and observe what the rest of us are doing for the most part. At her checkup today, she was 10#7oz. and 22 inches tall, which puts her in the 25-50% range. She's perfect!

Soccer

Let's see if this video of AJ's soccer game will work.

I have a couple good stories for the week. Friday night, to celebrate AJ getting bumped to the advanced reading group at school, we took the kids to Wal-Mart to pick a toy. We also decided it would be a good time for them to get to spend some of their allowance. Our kids have a really hard time picking up after themselves, so we instituted allowance as a reward based incentive verses punishment, which hasn’t been very effective. Anyway, I felt horrible for the people in line behind us because we took forever helping them count out their money to give to the clerk. On the way out, a man actually approached us and asked if we were doing okay financially because he saw us counting change. When we explained that we were trying to reward our children as well as teach them about money, he was actually pretty impressed. It’s nice to know there are still nice people in the world.


We painted Natalie’s bedroom this weekend. It was a bigger project than we anticipated, but I’m happy with the results. And unlike some of our other projects, it’s completely DONE!

Today, I got a call from Natalie’s teacher in Primary. She said they were talking about the Holy Ghost, and she was whispering the lesson for effect. They explained that you can have the Holy Ghost with you all the time when you are 8 years old. Natalie got a really worried look on her face and said, “I don’t want that when I’m 8. I’m afraid of ghostesses.”

We have to be careful what we say around our kids. AJ got out my Twilight DVD and was watching the bonus features. Natalie walked in the room and asked, “Why are you watching the extra crap?” She’s also taken to expressions like, “Oh, snap!” which are hilarious in her little voice. It’s a good thing Joe and I only para-swear.

Despite the rain and 40 degree weather, Joe and a friend shot 18 holes of golf at the nice golf course yesterday. His friend does business with the pro shop, so they let him golf for free and bring others along. Joe’s pretty excited thinking that he might get to go more often as long as he maintains that friendship.

week of March 22nd

This week flew by, which is odd because we really didn't do that much. The weather has been nice, so we took a few walks and played with AJ and Joe's RC car a few times.

We installed new (well, refurbished) cabinets in my laundry room. It looks much nicer and cleaner - at least it will when Joe's tools get out of there. I also started organizing all my scrapbook, sewing, and other craft projects in the cabinets upstairs. They're not installed yet, and I still need to buy the countertop I'm going to put up there to work on all my various projects. One of Joe's coworkers came over yesterday and gave us all kinds of ideas about what we should do with our dining room. What he wants to do wouldn't cost that much, but the excess isn't budgeted for. Stuff like that can kill you when you're doing home improvements. Everything is just $100 more.

AJ was pretty cute last night. He didn't want to go to sleep because he was afraid he'd have nightmares. So Joe went up and was trying to calm him down. AJ said, "Do you think we could ask Jesus to help me not have nightmares?" So of course, Joe helped him say a prayer. Then, AJ asked, "Dad, will you help me pray every night?" There's hope!!

That's it for now.

P.S. Liz and I went to WalMart for the midnight release of the Twilight DVD. Yeah, we're geeks. We know. Andrea put a Twilight background on my blog, and I'm not even gonna make her change it.

A bunch of boring stuff

Joe FINALLY got his Traxxas Summit (an expensive radio-controlled truck) in the mail. It was his turn to decide what to do with our tax return, and he really wanted a toy. I’ll have to post some video of him playing with it on YouTube since my blog has been rejecting my videos for the past few months.



AJ started soccer again this spring. It’s COLD! At least he gets to run around to stay warm. I hope it warms up a bit and soon.

I took the kids to Big R to see the baby chicks, speaking of spring. They were sure cute.


We had friends over last Sunday for dinner. We took pity on Ben and Shannon, who are in the middle of remodeling their kitchen.





AJ really needs to learn to behave himself at school. He had a bad day last week and ended up in the principal’s office again. Joe permanently relieved him of his light saber as punishment (he broke it in half in front of him). I don’t know what we’re doing wrong with him, but we’ve had it with him in trouble. Nothing we do seems to get through to him.

I took the girls to Spokane last Monday to get pictures taken and visit Andrea on her day off. We pretty much only had time for pictures and a bite of lunch at the mall. I had to drive home in a snowstorm to get AJ off the bus in time. I barely made it! The pictures turned out adorable – both girls were VERY cooperative. I wish I could afford to buy them all! But then, I think, where would I display all of them?

And pictures of the house and baby, of course…



Brooklin’s smiles are getting more frequent and much cuter than I can ever manage to capture with the camera.

Last week’s project was replacing the light fixture in my kitchen. It turned out to be a much bigger project than we anticipated because the old fixture was attached in the wrong place. So we had to move the wiring over a floor joist, put in a new wiring box, drywall patch the other hole, and paint the ceiling again to get the new fixture in.



This week, we started painting cabinets for our upcoming kitchen remodel as well as for my laundry room and craft area upstairs. We also finished tiling the upstairs bathroom and almost got the toilet back in place. Unfortunately, the water supply line we bought was too short.

Baby blessing and such

My birthday was last Wednesday. I celebrated by chopping my hair off and by taking a nap that morning after AJ got on the bus. Joe took me out to dinner that evening. He made it special by showing up in a suit complete with a dozen roses. He even arranged for babysitting, so I didn’t have to. I got multiple monetary donations to our house renovations as well as some jewelry, lots of cards, some treats, and Facebook/email shout-outs.

Thursday was AJ’s nutrition night at the school. They learned about eating healthy meals and emphasized eating breakfast every day. It’s funny. I feed AJ breakfast before he leaves for school in the morning. Then, AJ eats school breakfast again almost every morning when he gets off the bus. They taught the adults about the dangers of energy drinks and soda. We gave ourselves a pat on the back for not drinking the stuff like other people do. The interesting thing we learned is that a lot of energy drinks have alcohol in them as well. And since most people don’t know that there’s alcohol in them, they’re being sold to teenagers and people are drinking them in schools and workplaces all over. Scary!

The kids participated in a service project for primary on Saturday morning. We made cards and sung songs for a few of the nursing homes here in town. Joe and I were there to help as part of our calling as Valiant teachers.

Brooklin’s baby blessing was this Sunday. In her blessing, Joe said that she had a “strong heart” and that it would lead her to make right choices. He blessed her with wisdom and a desire to stay close to her family. Lots of people were able to attend, including Scott, Andrea, Joe’s parents, Liz and her family, Ben Justesen, and Brett and Jeni Hellewell. After church, we celebrated at our house while the kids destroyed my house. (Really, it wasn’t that bad). We also celebrated my and Dyana’s birthdays since they were both this week.





AJ had his first visit from the tooth fairy last night, who is apparently a lot richer now than she was when I was a child. AJ has a few more loose teeth, so it won’t be long before he gets visited again. I can’t believe he’s really that old.



As for our house, we’ve managed to tile the upstairs bathroom and get it painted. Looks good so far!