daycare update

Tester was a little rough. I had gotten into a routine and then had two unexpected kids brought right as I was getting kids down for naps. Then my partner called and asked if her after school kids come come for an hour because she had to go to her niece's wedding... So I ended up with 10 by the end of the day.  Plus my 4. It was a little chaotic but no one died and most days aren't like that. It just happened to be when one of the babies is teething and wanted to be held all day. Today was much easier. I had 4 plus mine. They've all come down with a cold so we've been doing lots of nose wiping and hand washing. We ended up watching a movie because they were all so tired from being sick. 

Crazies

I love this family of mine.  I'm happy to be a part of it and happy to help shape it every day.

Family pictures 2019

Wilcox Family 2019

This is my  side of the family.  They are growing up.  It's fun to see the almost teenagers be almost as tall as the adults.  They're going to overtake us soon.

Seth 2019

This little monkey has one of the cutest stinking grins.  Love it.

Evelyn 2019

This one kept goofing off, but we eventually got what we could.  Growing up too fast.

Sam 2019

This kid is really very easy to take pictures of.  I say smile and this is what he gives me.  That's definitely not the case with most kids.

Ada 2019

My Mom was having our extended family pictures taken, so I snagged my camera and did a 30 second photoshoot with each of the kids so that we had some current ones for Grandma Robertson's wall.  It was good that we did because not even a week later Grandma said that James was in town and wanted to help her update her family wall.  Grandma has one more chemo treatment next Thursday and then radiation... counting down.

Christmas goings on

Ada's sunday school teacher always brings these fancy cupcakes.  Ada asked me to take a picture of it and the little Christmas lights on it.  I did and then promptly stuck my finger into it as I put my phone back in my bag.  Whoops!  She was very forgiving.  

We went to the University Mall where they have installed some Light the World boxes this year.  It was nice not to have to go to Salt Lake for it.  Ada kept finding all the hats and making me take pictures of her with them.  This was my favorite.  The kids all decided to wear their coats backwards and zip them up.  They all thought it was funny until the line would move and none of them could see where we were going.

We chose to buy some chickens and meals for the hungry.  Ada went with the YW this week for their purchases.  Our YW were challenged to do their Personal Progress and for every one completed they would get a dollar towards Light the World.  The goal was to buy a single goat.  They earned almost $400.  They split into 4 groups and got to choose how to spend that $100 within their group.  Ada's group bought a midwife sink in another country and suicide prevention training.  

For my Mom's birthday, she asked for her brothers and sisters to get together.  They haven't all been together for something like 15-20 years.  I'm glad that they could all come!

Mom, Mark, Lee, Reid

Darlene, Diane, Beth

The kids' school tries to be very well rounded.  They push science and reading, they also have art, music and physical education both during and programs after school.  This is Ada and her science buddies right before the STEM day.  They designed and made lanterns out of ice.  It was pretty neat.  Sam's class made magnetic cars.  His team's car won the class competition but got stomped on in the grade competition.  Evelyn made marshmallow shooters.  Seth's did balloon propelled ziplines.

Ward Christmas party

Our Ward has many people with connections to Hawaii, so they chose to do a Hawaiian Christmas.  Chicken, pulled pork, macaroni salad, guava cake, etc... I had volunteered to make a guava cake and Jer had volunteered to make a macaroni salad.  Oops.  They both turned out okay.  The guava cake was better with coconut on top.  They had a Santa come in at the very end.  He had the kindest face and smile, and an amazing Hawaiian shirt.

Seth wouldn't talk to him, but Evelyn kept hovering around him with her little friends.  Eventually Seth used her as a shield to get close enough to take a look at him.

Sam's scope

Sam was certainly less scared going into his second scope.  It's official... He has EoE.  I don't know why the specialists don't know if EoE gets better if you do allergy shots, but we're going to try it.  They said that his is the worst case they've ever seen and they're the pediatric specialists.  They managed to stretch his throat a little, not as much as they'd hoped, but Sam says it is easier to eat.  He has to go in fasting.  They had put him very first so that he wouldn't have to fast during the day, but I got him up to get ready and he forgot and had a bite of a cookie that was sitting on the table.  He swallowed, panicked and came to talk to me.  I couldn't find the phone number anywhere, so I just took Seth to my Mom's house (thank you marvelous woman) and took Sam down to the Hospital.  They did push him back 6 hours, so I was so glad that my Mom had Seth.  He was being snarky with each of the nurses and I eventually told him to knock it off.  He was nicer to all of them after that.  After he woke up from the anesthesia and they were bringing him back into the room where I was waiting, he heard the doctor talking to someone down the hall and in his half awake state started yelling, "Hi Dr,____!"  until the doctor answered, "Hi Sam!"  His oxygen monitor kept slipping and the monitor would start beeping.  He kept telling me that I had to come turn it off and I kept telling to keep breathing. He was fixated on the IV coming out too.  The minute he was brought into the room he was asking the nurse to take it out.  She told him that it would be about 30 minutes, so he looked at the clock at said, "It's 2:18.... so it will be at...." 

The day after, he was back at school, but I told him to stick to soft and cold foods.  I choose to get him a slushy and surprise him at lunch.  We got there and he hated the flavor, so Ada drank it instead.  Seth and I sat there long enough to have lunch with Ada, Sam and Evelyn before Seth started his classes.  That was fun.