Ada

Ada found out yesterday that her best friend is not Mormon. She also found out that sometimes she goes to church with her grandma. But she mentioned that she does not have any scriptures. Ada decided that she wanted to buy her some. She told me that she would use her babysitting money to buy scriptures for her friend. I told her that was awesome but for scriptures I would help her buy it. We went and picked her some out at the store. Ada was going to give them to her today. I wonder how it went.

3 year old museum-goers

The difference between the older kids and Seth at the Museum is their understanding of what's going on. My favorite is when he feels one of the fossils and instead of trying to identify it says it's a rock.

Blessings

I have been overwhelmed by the blessings of our Heavenly Father this weekend. My cousin was hiking in Moab with a bunch of college friends and fell when rocks on a cliff gave way. He fell 70 feet and landed in a tree. Because of the tree he didn't have any internal injuries, the branch missed his eye, and he was able to get life-flighted pretty quickly to the hospital. He had one broken vertebrae that they were able to do surgery on and say that next year he can get the hardware taken out. He's able to stand. To me it's amazing how much protection we can be afforded. I know his family is counting their blessings, because I am and I'm only a cousin.

Sam

I like his fashion sense. Scout belt over jammies.

Ada

Like most everybody, Ada goes through periods where she doesn't want me to touch her hair. But she also goes through times that she wants me to do her hair. Lately she's wanting me to braid her hair. We tried this one and she liked that one a lot.

Date night

Ada decided to make a restaurant for us. It was super cute.

Seth's truck

This is a truck that Seth Drew. I was rather impressed. It's pretty neat.

Cat

I love that the cat looks very unimpressed that we're ready to go.

Jonathan's bday

These nuts couldn't wait to eat Jonathan's cake. I'm glad they have each other.

Wrestling

My boys

These boys came with me to get my cast off. It was very exciting. They had forgotten to put me on the schedule even though they told Jeremy went to come in.

Last stage

Now that all of her teeth are in Ada can move on to the last stage of her Orthodontics. We're so excited to be done.

I took this last week

I was so glad to get my cast off last week that I celebrated by going grocery shopping all by myself. Of course Seth helped me. It was nice to be able to be independent. My foot got tired of walking around very quickly. I can tell I have some recovery time ahead of me.

Weird

We've lived in our house for about 11 years now. We never had problems with anything in our neighborhood until last year. Last year, a lot of things kept getting taken off of people's lawns. This year there have been several trailers stolen and cars broken into. Both of our cars were gone through. They stole Jers gym bag out of the back of his car thinking it was something important. I took a walk later that day and found that they have gone through his bag and dumped out all of his stuff on the lawn of a neighbor's house. The only thing that they actually really took was Jers running shoes.

Sam's friends

I have noticed that Ada and Evelyn love friends. Sam not so much. He loves the activities that go along with having friends around, but he never asks to play with his friends. That being said when I tell him to go play with friends he usually asks to go play with Milo. This is my Lowe's birthday party and all the boys in our neighborhood that are their same age. Sam is friends with them more or less. I love seeing them play together.

Dinner with Nelles and Seth

One of my kids stole my phone from me and took pictures of our dinner the other day. It was fun to have Nelly over. I think we're going to try to make that a habit I'm having our aunts and uncles over for dinner.

Awesomest doctor's office ever

Because of helping Cristina's family and last year Chun's family, Seth and I have spent a lot of time in doctor's office waiting rooms. This one is my favorite. They had a whole wall of things that kids could move and play with.

Last week

Last week they were checking all the fire hydrants in our area. They went around the neighborhood and opened each of them up. Ada, Evelyn, Laurel and a couple boys from the neighborhood follow them around. The girls got a little wet, but it was still kind of cold so they didn't want to get soaking.

Chiropractic

I went to the chiropractor. Sammy was invited to help him fix his table. He was very proud that he knew what the tools were used for.

Rainbow Brite and Starlight

Loose teeth

This little girl has lost 2 teeth this week. I love when the front two teeth are missing I think it's adorable. The first one fell out because she was running around with Seth and ran into his head. The second one was pulled out because it was so loose that it was pointing straight out. She didn't like that very much but she recovered quickly. She really likes that she got a dollar from the Tooth Fairy. She keeps asking me to go to the store with her.

Happy St Patrick's Day

Ada and Lizzie

Kids at play

Anna took pictures for me on my phone. This gem was on there.

St Patrick's Day

On Saturday we got to go to our neighbors St Patrick's Day celebration. She's from Ireland so she made real Irish snacks and had pillows and pictures of Shamrocks all over the place. The kids got to see their Bronley friends, and we got to visit with neighbors. Afterwards we invited people to our house to play board games and eat dinner. I made split pea soup and Jeremy made green cookies.

Low key Sunday evening

Habits

Seth just told me that because everybody's awake it's time to watch a movie. I think it's because he's been watching a lot of movies lately help keep track of him while my foot's not able to chase him. Habits form quickly.  In fact, just yesterday, we spent an hour of our morning watching the 1966 Batman in Spanish on tv.... because he wanted Batman, and that's what we found.  He thought it was awesome and I thought it was hilarious.

Funny kids

We were fasting yesterday.  Sam has never done well without eating.  As a toddler, he was only really grumpy if 1) he ate something he was allergic to or 2) he didn't eat a meal.   Last month he was a rock star and didn't complain once.  This month  was a bit more dramatic.  On the way back from church he kept saying things like, "My legs are so weary." He sounded like a Book of Mormon writer.  Jer and I had to try really hard not to laugh out loud too much.  Once we ate, all was right with the world.  He had a very tender experience though.  Ever since his baptism I've been trying to find opportunities to help him identify when he's feeling the Holy Ghost.  It's been hard because he's such a straight forward, no nonsense, literal child.  Every time I ask him to identify what he's feeling in situations where we've been talking about spiritual things he says things like, "Tired." or "Hungry."  Sunday, our neighbor was talking about how grateful she was to have the love and support of the ward and Heavenly Father while her husband has been doing cancer treatments.  Sam started getting teary eyed and I asked what he was feeling.  We finally were able to show him one of the ways that the Spirit feels like for him.  It's important for all of us to know the influence of the Spirit in our lives.  A lot of times it works in ways that we don't understand.  But I'm extremely grateful for it's guidance.

Evelyn was another kid this week that was super silly.  She's always super funny.... One day, I heard her and Seth playing in the kitchen.  They had pulled out a recipe book and were playing 'restaurant'.  I could hear Evelyn saying, "Isn't that right Seth.... isn't that right Seth...."  Seth would just nod.  Then they pulled out the play dough and they made 'ice cream' for their restaurant.  AND best part.... after all their cuteness, I told them to put it away.... and they did.  Evelyn focuses and works better with music.  Her mp3 player that was given to her two Christmases ago have paid for themselves by now.  She walks around and sings at the top of her lungs.  Her current favorites are Adele's 'Hello', the Beatles and anything by Mindy Gledhill.  She even has figured out how to plug her mp3 player right into my elliptical machine and will workout on it to her music.  Because of me not being able to drive, Jer has been taking Evelyn to and from dance with the help of my sister, Janelle, and mother in law, Judy. One of the days, she put 'Hello' on repeat and sang it at the top of her lungs the whole way home.  Jer said it was so adorable.

Seth likes to sing.  In the middle of dinner yesterday, he said, "Mom watch this, ABCDEFGHIJKDLAFLP."  The kids tried to correct him, but he didn't care.  I don't either.... for a 3 year old that I haven't taught the alphabet to, he did really well.  At church on Sunday, he was sitting on Jer's lap and very seriously joined in singing the sacrament song with gusto. It was adorable because he didn't know any of the words.

Ada's a little upset that she's not included in the youth group going on trek this year.  She's talked to me several times about how fun it would be.  On Sunday, she drew a picture of a handcart being pushed by two people with a little kid on top saying, "Weeeeee!"  I'm not sure that she understands the work that handcarts would take.... but she did get to pull one for a while at the This is the Place State Park.

Yesterday, we got to have my sister and brother for dinner.  That was so fun.  The kids decided to start wrestling.  They started with them laying on the floor biggest to smallest, then the older two were horses and shuttled kids between the couch and Aunt Nella.... then Ada started giving each kid piggy back rides.  She's a good kid and a fun big sister.