Update!

It's been too long since I posted and too much has happened to catch up on! I know it's only been 9 days - but that's forever with three kids.

Anna Elise - Anna has learned to write her whole name. She used to just write Anna, but this past week was able to master the s and small e to do Anna Elise. Next we'll work on Russell.

Calvin - So his news is kind of gross, I'm just warning you before I continue. Calvin needs either mom or dad to see his poop before he can flush. We're working on getting over this habit. He came running into the kitchen a few days ago to inform me I needed to come look. So I went and we had the usual discussion about what it looked like, etc. It was lots of small pieces. He then explained to me that it came out in one big piece but he broke it into lots of little pieces. I asked him how and he explained in detail how he did it with his fingers. Oh course i'm thinking, what have you touched since then? Did you touch me? Where have you been? We had a very serious talk about never ever touching poop. I wonder how many times he has done this? I don't really want to know!

Madeline - Madeline has mastered walking over the past two weeks. She doesn't really crawl at all anymore. I was finally able to get her on video this afternoon. She has also learned to fold her arms for prayer and she has just started chatting constantly. I'm not sure if she is really saying anything, but she seems so earnest about it. You can have long conversations with her and she seems to think she is communicating.

That's my update. I now have to figure out how to post my video! BTW, Stephanie, I did tag you two posts ago and I haven't seen a response on your blog yet!

We are having problems getting our video off the camera and onto the computer, so I may not be able to post the video for a little while. Sorry

The Kid's Valentine's Surprise

Grandma Brown sent Calvin and Anna Elise Valentine's cards. They each got a dollar in their card. They were ecstatic! They love getting dollars from grandma. Mike usually takes them to spend their money and I'm always intrigued by what they pick. Mike took them to the dollar store.

Calvin didn't come back with gummy worms or a car like he thought he might, he came back with a whole package of sandwich cookies - can you see how many he's already eaten?

Ann Elise has been obsessed with gum lately. She got a mega roll of bubble tape and here she is "blowing a bubble"!

Can you tell which one shared with Madeline? She absolutely loved it!

Thanks Grandma!

Tagged

Jana - if you do that again - I won't read your blog anymore! OK, that 's not true. I've become addicted to reading blogs. I end up clicking on links that lead to more links that take me to strangers blogs and I can't stop! I'm hoping the novelty will wear off soon. So, regardless of the threats I make, I'm sure I'll be back to read more!

OK - here goes:

10 years ago:
Ten years ago I was at BYU, it would've been my last semester before graduating with my bachelors degree. I was probably miserable because I had just gone through another Valentines Day without a boyfriend. I was probably also worried and nervous about graduating because I didn't know what I wanted to do! It was a tough time, but if I could've seen into the future I would've known it was all for the best. Eventually I figured it all out.

If I were suddenly billionaire:
That's so much money it isn't even fun to pretend. I actually play this game a lot with a million dollars, now that I can spend! I'd pay off debt, go on a good vacation, move closer to my family, and I'd give money to my parents and siblings, I think seeing their faces when you hand them a check would be amazing!

Things on my to do list today:
Go for my 5 mile walk
Take a shower
Do the laundry
Take the kids to the store to spend their valentine money from Grandma
Buy insulation for our crawl space
Work for a couple of hours


3 bad habits:
I stay up way too late reading when I'm 'almost done' with a book
Getting flat tires (5 in a 6 month period)
Leaving my cell phone at home (especially when Mike needs to call me)

3 Places I've lived:
Mattawa, WA
Provo, UT
Richmond, VA

5 Jobs I've had:
orchard slave
tagging fish at the fish hatchery
Teaching Assistant and then Course Assistant for Statistics at BYU
Curriculum Data Manager at the Kennewick School District
Data Coordinator at the School of Nursing at VCU

5 Things nobody knows about me:
I only shower every other day or 3 days a week - water dries my skin and hair out and I hate being cold after a shower.
I'm addicted to Sudoku puzzles
I speed
I get lost going to places that I regularly go to - ok not lost, I know where I am, I just don't pay attention and miss exits, turns, etc.
I LOVE grocery shopping

I'd love to tag Trina, so she would have to start a blog and Mariah because she hasn't posted since November, but I doubt either of them will read this...so I'll tag Stephanie too since she will read it!

I guess that is it. I actually have pictures and a real post to do tonight as well!

Valentines

On Saturday we decided to make valentines for the cousins. The kids had a great time doing it. We get to have another session later to make more for local friends, but we needed to get these in the mail. We all got a little carried away and after we were done we made heart-shaped pizza for lunch. Anna Elise was in heaven!

This morning we were ready for church really early. Side note - we are never ready for church early. 10 am church doesn't seem early, but when I have to get myself and three kids ready

all by myself it is always just pure chaos! We aren't late, just not usually ready early. So, the

reason we were early this morning is because Calvin wet his bed at 6am and woke Madeline up so we just all got up an hour early - hence we were ready for church early.

So, Madeline actually got to take her morning nap before we went to church and I had time to take a few pictures of the kids all dressed up!

From Hawaii with Love

Our package from the 'black' grandma came yesterday. Side note - Mike's mom has red hair and
became the red grandma when Anna Elise was very young. Naturally, that makes my mom the black grandma, although she has brown hair, it looks black to the kids. I have to say that living in Richmond, we get funny looks when the kids talk about their 'black' grandma!

Anyway, mom sent a package from their trip to Hawaii. I had all the kids put their shirts on for a picture. Anna Elise had been crying and refused to smile. Madeline let us put her new shirt on, but as soon as the picture was over she got down, crawled over to her normal shirt, drug it over to Mike and begun tugging at her new top. It's so fun to see her able to communicate her opinion (well, except usually it involves crying and that's not so fun!) The kids also got some pieces of coral. Anna Elise insists that they are sea shelfs (that's not a typo), she doesn't know what coral is, so it can't be coral. Calvin believes her, not mom. She has been asking for the past 2 days if she can wear them like the Little Mermaid wears sea shelfs. We don't own that movie anymore. It was thrown away a year and a half ago when at the age of 2 1/2 she informed me "I'm not a child anymore". Although the movie is long gone (along with several others) we are still dealing with the effects of it. We had another lesson on modesty (besides wearing coral there would hurt!).

We've all had the flu for the past week and a half. I'm just starting to feel better and the kids are still grouchy and tired. It really came at a bad time since we had 70 degree weather for the past 3 days that nobody felt like enjoying and this weekend it will go back to being cold.
I'm sorry for all of you in Washington state right now dealing with the snow. That is one thing I
don't miss!

Against my will

Well, maybe it's not totally against my will, but I really wasn't interested in having a blog. I like
reading most of the blogs that I gets links too, but it's never really appealed to me. I do have
to say that I liked the idea of having a convient place for everyone's blog links, instead of
scrolling through my old emails to find them, they would all be in the side bar, but that didn't
seem to be a good enough reason to start a blog. Then last week, my mom informed me
that 3 of her 5 married children had blogs and she thought I should start one. My mom doesn't really ask me for much - so the guilt has been eating at me - I knew that for my mom I needed
to start a blog. So, here it is. Unfortunately, since my pictures are on our other computer, I
won't be posting any pictures tonight.