November 9, 2014

Seth stepped on a rusty nail this week.  He and Ruby were playing on the side of the house with the air conditioners.  They never play there, so we've never worried about some old bike ramps Danny made once and stored there.  It got red and swollen.  He's on some strong antibiotics.

The kids have a 5 day weekend.  I forgot how messy the house gets when they're all home!

The kids had parent teacher conferences last week.  All had great things to say.  There were no complaints with Rachel, she's a delight and works hard.  Aaron's teacher is impressed with him and asks him to explain things to other kids sometimes.  Her only complaint was that he talks a lot! Somehow he still gets his work done while talking, but the kids around him aren't as good at that.  Danny is doing well too.  He is smart but doesn't always try as hard as he can and his teachers only complaint was his horrible hand writing.

November 2, 2014

We had a fun Halloween week. Danny was a gorilla, Rachel was a black cat, Aaron was a werewolf, Seth was a knight, and Ruby was tinkerbell.  We had trunk r treat on Wednesday and then our potluck with friends and trick or treating together Friday night.  My mom got here during the Trunk or treat wednesday night.  The kids were out of school on Thursday and Friday.  Thursday we went to flip n out with some friends to celebrate Aaron's birthday.  Friday my mom and I went to check out the new mall in summerlin. Saturday Seth got the stomach bug that had been passing around the ward all week.  So we got chinese and brought it home and Danny and Rachel watched the first Hunger Games movie with us at night.

October 26, 2014

Danny accidentally got another girlfriend.  We've had good talks after the last one and since then and I think he really understood how and why that wasn't right.  But I was checking his email a few weeks ago and one said "I broke up with her" and the thing that set me off was that he was emailing the girl I knew was his girlfriend last year.  So we talked about it. He was defensive, but once he understood I just wanted to know what he was thinking he answered my questions.  A girl liked him for a while. He admitted to his friend that he kind of liked her too, but he wasn't going to do anything about it because he knew what happened last time.  But his friend told the girl and somehow, Danny doesn't really know, they were then boyfriend and girlfriend.  So he had to tell the girl he didn't like her like that.  But it was just so funny how he was totally confused about what happened.

Our Family Home Evenings have been going better.  I've been putting more of an effort into them and praying about what I  should teach.  That makes such a big difference rather than just picking what I want to teach.

October 21, 2014

Life is so busy.  I keep trying to figure out what to cut, but I can't find much.  There are just too many people in this house with activities they like and messes to clean up and food to buy and make.

Bob took the boys camping at Goblin Valley last weekend. They had a great time.  The girls stayed with me and we went to the fall festival on Friday night. It was fun and so much easier with only 2 kids. Rachel stayed home from camping to go to Stake Activity Days Camp on Saturday.  They do an amazing job with it.  Rachel had a good time.

Rachel and I went to see Wicked.  We had a great time.  She really liked it and it was nice to spend some time with just her.  We went on Thursday night and we didn't get home until 11. So she skipped her first 2 periods on Friday and slept in.

Sunday was Aaron's 9th birthday.  We got Krispy Kreme's the night before and he opened his presents in the morning.  Then we had white sauce and noodles and his funfetti birthday cake and ice cream after church.

My mom and maybe my dad are coming for Halloween weekend.  That will be fun.

September 28, 2014

The kids had a half day on Thursday and no school Friday so we decided it would be the perfect time to go camping.  It was still pretty hot so we couldn't go to our usual Valley of Fire camp spot (plus that place isn't so magical for us since Seth fell off the mountain).  So we went to Mt. Charleston.  That was the first time we camped there overnight.  We had a great time.  We enjoyed the fire quite a bit since it was colder there.  We made tinfoil dinners and s'mores in a cone, as well as the usual roasted marshmallows and starburst.

It was windy but we didn't really notice how windy until we went to bed.  In our family prayer Danny asked that the wind would stop.  I knew that prayer probably wouldn't be answered the way we wanted it.  So I suggested in everyone's personal prayers that we ask that people will sleep soundly. That prayer was definitely answered because it felt like we were sleeping in a walmart bag with a fan on it! The wind was insane.  Bob and I were up most of the night.  But the kids all slept perfectly! Aaron and Seth woke up once but went right back to sleep.  Ruby, who hasn't slept through the night in 2 weeks since her surgery, begged to go to bed and fell asleep first and was the last to wake up.

Ruby is doing so much better.  It was right about 2 weeks.  She's eating so much better and she's so fun and happy.  I hadn't realized how much I missed that.  She's such a fun little girl.  She had her follow up visit and the dr said she was healing well.  He gave us the report on her tonsils.  They were both about 3 x 2 x 1 cm.

September 21. 2014

Middle School basketball didn't work out.  In the end neither school was willing to work with me even though they say they are supposed to. Bummer.  But maybe it'll be better for Danny to be one of the really good players on his Somerset team.

Ruby is slowly getting better.  I felt impressed to put her name on the temple prayer roll when we were there Friday night and I think that's really helped her.  She was just getting tired of not feeling well, I think.  By Friday she was hardly eating or drinking and didn't want to take medicine and she was being a lot more grumpy and tired.  She's still talking funny and cries easily, but she's doing better.

I'm trying to get our family to eat healthier.  It started because I had a few minutes a few weeks ago so I watched the beginning of a documentary on netflix called Hungry for Change.  It talked about how industrialized and processed all our food is. So I started reading some things and researching.  One of the things that confused me was that a lot of the current trends and "clean eating" things say to stay away from wheat.  That must be wrong because the word of wisdom says wheat is for man.  So today I started reading the word of wisdom and praying about that.  Then I found several websites where other people have studied about it and tried living it and learned a lot.  I'm going to start working toward understanding and living it better.  We bought a wheat grinder on craigslist an I've made bread with it a few times.  Maybe I'll make that a regular thing.  I'm going to buy plain greek yogurt and have the kids mix honey or berries in it.  And I'm going to buy less chips and crackers and cereal and be better at making healthy after school snacks and more smoothies and have more fruits and vegetables available.  I've let me kids know my plans so hopefully they'll get on board and not fight it too much.  I like the feeling of being more in control and knowledgeable about what we're eating.

We're still discussing the possibility of buying Bob's grandparents house next fall.  There are just so many variables that would have to work out right for it to be a good fit for us.  But we keep thinking about it.  Maybe it's really a good option for us or maybe we just like the excitement of possibilities.

September 14, 2014

Ruby had her tonsils out on Friday. Bob and I dropped the other kids at school and then drove to the Summerlin hospital.  She was a little nervous but did ok.  Her surgery only took about 25 minutes. Both the Doctor and Anesthesiologist commented on how enormous her tonsils were. She woke up and was happy.  She said her throat hurt one time, but other than that was happy and ate all day and even had chicken nuggets for dinner.  She did so well they let her come home that night.  During the night her pain medication wore off and she woke up crying.  But during the day she was fine and playing.  Then again the next night she was hurting again.  I told her to take some medicine and it would help her feel better.  But she said it would only feel better when the sun was up.  I guess that's what she's experienced so it made sense to her.

Her breathing is already so much better. The Doctor said she'd still snore for a few weeks while she heals.  But her chest doesn't suck in nearly as far as it did.  When she's not breathing her sternum is dented in more than a normal person's.  I'm hoping that will get better over time.

I'm getting going with the kid's days pretty well.  Rachel and I talked about taking care of our bodies and we talked about healthy snacks and some exercises she can do.  I hope it helps empower her to be healthy and not worry about what she looks like.  Danny and Seth built solar ovens out of pizza boxes and cooked smores in them.  It worked so well.

I'm trying to get the school stuff set up so Danny can play basketball at Cram middle school.  Everyone says that will be great for his skills.  Hopefully we can make it work.