The Big Top!

The highlight of our week was going to the circus!  We got free tickets through one of Mike's advertisers and they were for the good seats =).  We were all so excited to go!  We went right after school on Friday afternoon and we were mesmerized!  Even Celeste sat still for the first hour.  There was everything you would expect from the circus - clowns, trapeze, tight rope walker, elephants, horses, tigers, dogs, contortionists, and other entertainment!  It was loud and big and bright and awesome!  We finished our night with pizza and a treat!

We watched this girl get shot out of that cannon - it's a very quick video you have to watch it!

Eating pizza at Cici's

Anna Elise and Calvin sat across the aisle from us.  Celeste joined them after peeing all over her highchair - the joys of a toddler! =)

Our Family spotlight for the week is Celeste.  We aren't going to talk about potty training.  I'm tired of it.  She actually does really well, but hasn't ever pooped in the potty so that is not going so well...She is becoming more friendly, which is good.  She is learning her colors - she has known what pink is for months now, but seems to be picking up on a few of the others as well.  She figured out how to climb out of her crib just yesterday and now won't sleep at night.  It's not fun for anyone!

LOVE!

It felt like Valentine's Day all week!  On Monday we got a package from Aunt Jenny!  It was full of fun Valentine surprises including lips, candy, decorations, and socks!  It was such a fun surprise!  On Tuesday after school the kids decided they couldn't wait another day to do their school valentines - so we put together a lot of valentines cards and candy.  When the day finally came on Thursday everyone was ready!  After the kids went off to school I scrambled around trying to put together little goody bags from me to the kids and then we were off to play group.  When we got home I found red tulips, a bag of chocolate truffles and the best Valentine's card EVER.  I was laughing out loud.  When the kids got home from school, loaded down with cards and treats they laughed at my card too!  We had a great time looking at everyone's cards, the kids did a great job of sharing their candy with their little sisters, and we enjoyed our afternoon.  Mike finally came home and we fed the kids their dinner and put them to bed.  Then Mike went and picked up our dinner and a redbox movie while I set our little table upstairs - we had our own little Valentine's Date but without the hassle of dinner reservations and a babysitter!   It was a great day!  On Friday we got Grandma's  valentine gift and had to rush straight out to the dollar store so everyone could spend their dollar - Anna Elise got some markers, Calvin a Chess game, Madeline got play-dough, Lilah some coloring pages, and Celeste got a 'Barbie' (not really, it is a little fairy doll, but any kind of doll is a barbie).

Calvin has been playing Chess since he bought his game - he has played with anyone he can talk into it, Anna Elise, Madeline, Mom and Dad have all been involved.  It's been amazing to me how much he loves it and how quickly my kids picked up on the rules, I didn't know if they'd be able to do it.

Our Family Spotlight this week is me!  I'm the only one left.  I got a new calling at church today.  I was called as a nursery helper.  I've been helping in nursery for the past three months.  The week that Celeste started nursery they split it into two classes and released the nursery workers - so they have been very slowly staffing the nursery and I have been doing a lot of substituting.  I am helping in Celeste's class - which I was worried wouldn't be good for her, but honestly, I don't care anymore, I love being with her and I love the nursery leader, she is so much fun to serve with - so I'm loving it!  I also negotiated with the bishop's counselor that called me to do it - is that bad?  I have been a RS teacher for the past year and I LOVE that calling.  So I talked him into letting me keep my current calling and doing both!  I've got a permanent sub for that 1 hour a month I'll be teaching.  I couldn't be happier!  In other news, work has been good, but a bit slow, which means I've been going into the office even less - which is good =).
I have to share my Valentine's Card from Mike:  "For my Wife   You're not just CUTE, you're HOT!  And you're not just HOT you're SIZZLING HOT!  Any you're not just SIZZLING HOT, you're... (inside the card)  " SMOKIN'!".  When you open the card there is a loud annoying beeping sound, like a smoke detector then eventually a siren is added.  It's extremely loud and very annoying.  Mike wrote "It's really hard to write a long thoughtful note with this beeping sound..." (but he did write a very short thoughtful note).  It just made us all laugh!

 Valentine's Bingo from Aunt Jenny

 Cute decorations from Aunt Jenny and tulips from Mike

Dinner upstairs with our sparkling grape juice

 Intense chess game on Saturday morning

 

Busy, Busy, Busy

It's been a busy week for us.  We haven't seen much of Mike, I had to go into work, went to the church cannery, we had parent teacher conferences at school and Anna Elise had a concert (not to mention all the normal stuff that you do with 5 kids, church callings, a couple of business, full-time job, and everything else =)).  Our highlight of the week were the parent teacher conferences.  Calvin and Madeline were struggling a little bit after the first quarter but both are back on track and even surpassing where they need to be right now - both of their teachers had glowing reports.  I tell everyone that one advantage to going to a rougher school like we do - is that you stand out - everyone thinks that we are super stars!  We'd just be normal at a good school, sometimes it's nice to be noticed.  Mike was able to come home and watch the kids while I did parent teacher conferences but then had to leave unexpectedly.  I got home to find out that I no longer had a babysitter so everyone would be coming to Anna's school concert.  Lucky for us Grammie's valentines had come in the mail that day and she had sent everyone a McD's gift card!  Yeah!  I was so grateful!  I loaded everyone up and we went out for dinner and then back to the school.  Everyone was better behaved then I expected and Anna Elise did a good job singing with her class!

Potty training update - after a moderately good week with Celeste I wasn't seeing much progress and I was wondering if I just needed to give up and wait a little longer when on Friday we had a breakthrough!  She woke up dry and actually told us she needed to go potty!  She went the whole day without a single accident. We are definitely not there yet - it's still mom doing a lot of work - but  she is doing well enough that we are going to keep working on this!  I think she finally 'gets' it and it's just a  matter of practicing a bit more.

Today in sacrament meeting Lilah was 'helping' Mike pass the tray and she 'helped' dump almost all the bread on the floor.  Not good.  Calvin said the bishop was laughing.  I'm sure it was at the horrified expression on my face.  The poor deacon didn't know what to do when we handed the tray back to him with two pieces of bread  - we were sitting on the third row - he had a lot more people to pass to!  I'm not sure what he did - I was busy cleaning up bread off of the floor and then avoiding looking at anyone until my face went back to it's normal color.  But - we didn't have to take anyone out today and Mike did a good job on his talk.

Family Highlight of the week is Anna Elise.  Anna Elise is growing up so much!  She can be such a big help around the house - she takes good care of her baby sister (who she shares her room with), helps clean up the house, does well in school (she was recently tagged as gifted in reading/language arts) enjoys her activity days, and still loves to read.  She still enjoys dressing up and playing with the girls - they were all being cheerleaders this week and did such a good job cheering for Calvin while he played soccer in the front yard.  We need to find her some new books to read - she is a little bit picky about what she reads so it can be a challenge to find something she likes!

Potty Training!

Our big news this week is potty training!  Celeste likes to sit on the potty and I'm so ready to be done with diapers - so we decided to give it a try.   She is a bit young, just turned 21 months yesterday, but certainly old enough to know what is going on.  She has done ok - not great and not a disaster - just ok.  I took a break today - but we are going to try it for one more week and see if she can 'get' it.   We've spent a lot of time singing songs, reading books, making faces, painting nails, and whatever else we can think of to keep her occupied!

Other news: I shampooed the absolutely nasty seats in our car.  It's amazing what 8 years of kids can do to a car!  I was pleasantly surprised at how much better they look.  I used Oxy Clean (thanks Nancy) in my carpet cleaner - with the upholstery attachment.  They don't look good enough for me to embarrass myself with pictures of them =)

Calvin decided to give Celeste a ride on his skateboard.  She loved it!  Madeline and Lilah made bridges for her to ride under.  It's become a regular activity for the kids while I fix dinner.

I got up the nerve to wear my skinny jeans with my new boots!

Family highlight this week is Mike.  Mike recently got a new calling at church, he is the ward mission leader.  It was a big surprise for us and not exciting news for Mike, but he is doing his best.   He enjoyed his week at convention and came home with lots of ideas and motivation to make his business even better.  This is also the time of year where we start to get really busy, there are homeshows to go to and Mike is taking back all the sales and estimates outside of Richmond - which means he is super busy!  No matter how busy he gets, he tries to be home for dinner and he spends as much time as he can playing with the kids.  Here are some pictures of Mike jumping over all the kids and them walking on his stomach.