A Little Update of Little Consequence

So, it turns out Andrew has an ear infection, and probably has had it for at least a few days now since they told me that he had some fluid in his ears over a week ago when I took him in for the pink-eye. Earlier this week he started having a temperature, mostly in the afternoons, but he always told me his ears didn't hurt. I finally decided to have a doctor friend who lives down the street come take a look because Andrew seems to be almost deaf the last day or so. Just today I let both of them go play with friends (this doctor's kids!). I'm starting to think maybe I'm too lenient on taking my kids to playgroup/church/school when they're sick. Maybe we're the one's that start some of this stuff around the neighborhood! Now that they are old enough to want to play with friends more, it's hard to decide when a cold is bad enough to keep them home or take them to the doctor. And how sick is sick enough to warrant bailing out on commitments to primary, playgroup, appointments, etc. (I tend to feel guilty about those kinds of things)????
Anyway, that's enough whining...
I really should be thankful that this is the extent of my daily concerns when there are so many people out there with much bigger daily concerns than the repercussions of the common cold.

Spring Downtime

Last week, we had some nice weather so we went to the park for Family Home Evening to play and walk along the creek. The kids were excited to get in the tree, but once they were up there, they were pretty nervous, so I took a few shots and then we headed to Culver's for frozen custard- yum!



We also recently planted seeds in pots (Andrew planted marigolds and Eden planted Zinnia). A few days ago, we started to see the very first little leaves! We still haven't decided exactly how we'll do our container vegetable garden, but I found out we have few more weeks before we should plant outside anyway.

Not a whole lot more exciting than that. We started getting sick (again) right at the same time as we got some really nice weather- sunny & 75 for a couple days! So, I tried to deny it, but it turns out both kids got pink-eye and we're all still struggling with a nice cough. So now I'm trying to just accept the fact that we need downtime and really this week is a pretty good week to be sick- not a whole lot going on, and the weather here is cooling off again. In fact, the tornado siren went off while I was typing this! So, the kids are watching TV and I'm updating the blog and then I'm planning to do some scrapbooking, and we still haven't changed out of our pajamas! Monday was about the same, on Tuesday I took the kids to the park but it really seemed to wear them out (especially Andrew) more than usual, so maybe they weren't quite ready for that. Meanwhile Scott is TDY to a conference- staying in a hotel on the beach! I just tell myself it really wouldn't be that fun when you're 7 months pregnant...

A Hedgehog, a Reader, and a Snowman

Andrew got this very cool Sonic the Hedgehog hand-me-down shirt from his cousin Bryan. He thinks Bryan is so cool and that Sonic is supercool too (he didn't even know who Sonic was until he got this shirt). When I do convince him not to wear the shirt, he always asks if he can still be Sonic and if we will still call him Sonic. He was wearing it this morning before we got ready to go to church, and he decided he would be "Sunday Sonic" when it was time to put the church clothes on. I should have taken a picture of it the last time he wore it before this picture. He had dug it out of the laundry hamper- it was stinky and dirty and even had a smear of stain-stick on it. This picture is from the day when I finally did laundry (I actually did a smaller load sooner than I normally would have done) and washed the shirt for him. Thanks Bryan (and Laura)!


Eden has been learning how to read. We've been using "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons", and she really enjoys it. Now she's about two thirds of the way through it and is reading pretty big stories. She's even starting to read words around the house and trying to spell things out with the magnets on the refrigerator. Way to go Eden! We weren't able to start her early in kindergarten this past fall (her birthday is a couple weeks past the cut off), so hopefully she's not too bored next school year.


We've had some more snow here. It seems to snow everytime I finally move the snow boots from the entry-way to the bedroom closet shelf. Since its not quite so cold, the snow stuck together a little bit better, and we were able to make a small snowman. The kids were a little disappointed at first, we thought the bottom of this snowman should have been the head of a much larger snowman, but the snowballs didn't stick together so well when we started rolling them around to make them bigger. In the end, they were happy with how it turned out. Eden wanted to stay outside longer and make a snow-family, but Andrew was ready to go back inside after this one was done.



GENERAL CONFERENCE WEEKEND

Eden's Ties and Andrew's Fingerpainting

This weekend was great! Friday Scott got to come home early because the base passed the ORI this time. Then that evening we went out to eat and the kids got to play at a friends house. Saturday morning Scott put together a Deck Box we bought to store the outside toys in and the kids cleaned-up the backyard.

We got the kids excited for General Conference by having our FHE lesson on prophets and talking about the fun things we would do this weekend. We made the layered bean dip in "The Friend" magazine before the first session (we were actually finishing it up while we watched the Solemn Assembly). Then let the kids start on their Conference Activity packets the primary handed out last week (similar to the one making the rounds in email). Eden was really excited about coloring the ties of the prophets and apostles, so she paid pretty close attention (for a five-year-old) to every session. By the end of the last session, she only had blank ties for Elder Cook (he spoke in the Priesthood Session) and President Faust (who was on the page by mistake). I bought new crayons and markers (thanks for the idea Saundra!), so even Andrew colored a lot more than he usually does. We went to a baptism between sessions on Saturday, then I stayed at the church building while Scott and the kids went home. Eden and Scott listened while Andrew took a nap. That night, Scott went to the Priesthood session and the kids and I made Snickerdoodles.

Sunday morning we had sticky buns and scrambled eggs, then got ready to go to the church building to listen to the morning session. The kids worked on their packets again (I was surprised how entertained it kept them, since their were quite a few activities for older kids), I also printed out some of the coloring pages that are in "The Friend" from lds.org. Andrew kept the older couple behind us entertained, he somehow managed to stay really quiet while he was playing handgames with the husband. Sunday afternoon we had veggies and ranch, and more bean dip while we listened to the last session. The kids also got to play with MoonSand (not less messy than playdough, by the way), and fingerpaints during that session, which kept them pretty quiet and at the table with us while we listened.

It was wonderful for all of us to be able to participate in the Solemn Assembly and sustain our new prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and a new apostle, Todd Christofferson. I hope we can keep this tradition of making Conference Weekend something the kids look forward to, so that it can become meaningful for them. We are so blessed to have a prophet today, and even more blessed to be able to listen to the inspired counsel given by him and by others who have been chosen to lead this church, in our very own homes!