Tuesday Highlight (Last Week of School)

With no homework this week, we had a little extra time for other things. Katy decided to sell eggs. We had 6 dozen fresh eggs from the chickens and they needed to be sold. She packed them up in her wagon with a blanket underneath so they wouldn't break. She grabbed a water bottle in case they got thirsty. Shawn jumped on his wiggle racer and together they headed out to sell.

Katy was so brave and responsible. She wasn't sure if Shawn would make it very far but she said she would help him if he needed it.

I love how excited and confident she gets to sell the eggs. She is a hard worker and great big sister.

Monday Highlight (Last week of School)

Tyler's class invited all the parents who helped in the classroom this year, to come for a "thank-you" party. We each got a loaf of Great Harvest bread and a thank you note signed by all the kids. It has been so much fun to be in both Katy and Tyler's classrooms this year. I love getting to know each of the kids in their classes and helping them with different things.

I love hearing them yell "Hi, Tyler's Mom" or "Hi, Katy's Mom" when they see me around town or outside the school. I feel blessed to have been able to help in the classes this year. I have a spot in my heart for each of those kids. They are all darling.

Easter 2011

Happy Easter . . . a little late . . .

but at least you don't have to look at David G. anymore

or listen to the birthday song :)

We love you all!

Happy Day!

Hoof or Heel?

We discovered some "Mr. Incredible" socks in Shawn's closet last night. With Shawn having a new craze for being like Dash, he was so excited to wear them. He put them on all by himself and climbed into bed.

The first thing he said to me this morning when he woke up was,

"Look Mom! Mr. Incredible's face is on my Hoof!"

I tried to convince him that it's called a Heel not a Hoof.

But he's determined that he's right so . . . Hoof it is.

First Swim Meet of the Year

Tyler had his first meet of the year at the Provo Pool and he did awesome! It was so fun to see how much he's improved over the last several months.

While we were waiting for Tyler's turn, Ty asked Bret to write "Eat my Bubbles" on his back with a pen. Bret agreed . . . only he wrote his own little message. It took Tyler awhile to figure out what we were all laughing about.

Ty swam in two events this time . . . 50 Freestyle and 50 Breaststroke. He swam the 50 freestyle first and beat his time by 5 seconds. I wish I had a video of him when he climbed out of the pool. He was so excited! He was jumping up and down and yelling "YES". It was so fun to see his reaction. He beat his "50 Breaststroke" time by 3 seconds too.

I'm so proud of Tyler and the hard work he has put into his swimming. Beating your times at a meet makes all the hard work worth it. Way to go Bud!

Field Trip with a Buddy

Shawn had a field trip coming up and Katy was dying . . . she wanted to go so bad!

So I checked her out of school a little early and she came with us to the Orem Library. These two are the cutest buddies. They held hands all the way in.

We couldn't pass up the spiral "Rapunzel" stairs out front. Katy was so excited to show them to Shawn and yelled "Rapunzel, Rapunzel! Let your hair down."

The story glass window is always so fun to look at. We found lots of fairy tale stories . . . lots of favorites.

Shawn followed the librarian on a little tour . . .

. . . and then listened quietly to the stories

We have so many memories of this field trip . . . each one of the kids got to go when they were in preschool. It was fun to have Katy come with us. She was so excited to be a part of it with Shawn.

Jenny's Next Phase of Braces

Jenny has had her braces on for a little over a year, and her teeth are looking beautiful. They all look perfectly straight. But now it's time for the next phase of work on her mouth.

Jenny got this new appliance put on her teeth that is permanent and it looks so uncomfortable. It's call a Herbst. It's like a giant hinge that is built to pull her bottom jaw forward so it doesn't sit back so far.

She climbed in the car and took one look at her mouth and started to cry. I told her "Poop! You got this jaw problem from me." But she took a deep breath and was brave from there on out. 8 months with this thing seems long, but it will be over before we know it and then we will be homeward bound.

Bedtime Stories

I tucked Shawn in bed and was ready to read the book he had chosen. He told me we were going to read 2 stories tonight . . . one book and one Book of Mormon story without a book. This was news to me so I went with the safest one I had from memory.

After telling Shawn a little bit about Lehi and his family. . . specifically Laman and Lemuel and how they were always complaining when their Dad asked them to do anything . . . Shawn had a really concerned look. He said that if he were in that family, he would punch Laman and Lemuel in the face

(and he demonstrated a punch in the air).

I told him we wouldn't want to do that because it wouldn't be very nice. We should just ask them to be nice and not complain so much.

He listened to what I said and then put his hand over his mouth and giggled saying,

"I like my way better."

Shots or no Shots?

Well . . .

Bret said, "Yes" to flu shots this year

I said, "Hmm . . . Maybe not. . ."

and . . .

we didn't get them.

So, now we have the flu . . . Poop!

These little eyes tell me throughout the day how they are feeling at the moment. Every once in awhile I see a little sparkle, and then the fever hits again and they kind of glaze over. We've been through tons of medicine, and it looks like we are going to need some more for awhile.

But I count my lucky stars all day that these little bodies aren't so little anymore. I know that we are are big enough to fight hard, and soon it will all be over.

Miracle Fire

We woke up yesterday morning to 6 inches of snow. Bret was out at 7am blowing snow for many of the senior members of our ward. We got home from church at noon and Bret and Tyler were out the door again . . . shoveling just a few more homes. Jenny and I decided to start a fire to warm us up. It was a perfect day for a fire.

Later in the day, Tyler noticed that our kitchen smelled like some sweet frosting. He kept asking me what kind of secret treat I was making, but unfortunately there wasn't anything up my sleeve. We didn't know where the sweet smell was coming from.

Bret and I ran up to Matt's house to help him with some things. We were gone for close to 45 minutes. When we got back the smell was even stronger but kind of different. We did a little family night and that's when the smell started bugging me. It was boarder line electrical fire smell but still sweet. We started smelling around the kitchen and thought maybe it was coming from one of the outlets in the wall. Bret pulled the plate off to check the plug but nothing looked suspicious. While we all stood around and watched, Shawn leaned up against the wall and then pulled away saying, "Ooh, That wall is hot!"

That's when we noticed that the wall on the back side of the fireplace was really warm. Bret put the fire out and sprayed cold water along the back of the fireplace wall. Once that was cooled, he grabbed a couple bags of frozen peas and pressed them against the wall in the kitchen. By this time the house smelled like smoke and the air was a little smokey too. Bret noticed that the paint on the wall was starting to bubble and was coming off the wall in pieces. He pulled about a 2 foot by 3 foot chunk of messed up paint off the wall. The paint had a sweet smell to it . . . the sheetrock underneath smelled like an ashtray. It was so bad!

After awhile of pressing the cool bags on the wall, it cooled down quite a bit, but the smoke smell still seemed to get worse throughout the evening. We went to bed with a really stinky house and a 2X3 foot space of paint pulled off the wall. We were frustrated . . . we weren't sure what to think.

I slept awful that night. The smell was so bad. The whole house smelled like a huge ashtray.

I woke up the next morning to a huge surprise . . . scary surprise. The smell was so bad. I decided to cover up the exposed sheetrock with a plastic bag or something. When I went in to work on it, I saw that we had a basketball sized burn hole in the wall. The sheetrock was black, the baseboard was completely gone and part of the floorboard was gone too. I went in to wake up Bret and told him the wall had burned and the baseboard was gone. He tells me now that he thought I was crazy. He thought I was still asleep and loosing my mind. Unfortunately this time, I wasn't.

Throughout the day we have thought about how blessed we are that our house didn't burn. . . When we went to help Matt and left the kids home with the fire, when we were all asleep in the night . . . We are so grateful to have our warm home standing in one piece today. It's an absolute miracle that a blazing fire didn't start in that wall. We are so grateful that our family was protected last night. It was a Miracle. . .