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.

                           
                            

Cold!

I know it's been cold everywhere this week.   It's probably been a lot colder for everyone else, but I do not like the cold!  We just have a heat pump and not a furnace and although we are ok, our house does feel cold when it gets below freezing.  When it stays below 30 degrees for 4-5 days straight I get to the point where I just want to sit on the couch with a blanket all day!  But, we survived!  The week started off warm enough with a day off school and having fun with Aunt Jenny on Monday.  We walked to the park and played some basketball, on the playground and with some chalk!  Then on Tuesday it got cold and Jenny had to go back to sunny southern CA.
We spent the rest of the week indoors trying to stay warm.  On Saturday it started warming back up and we ventured out to clean the church and then later to run some errands.  The kids got new shoes and mom nearly lost her sanity getting them!

Celeste fell asleep on the couch one afternoon

Anna Elise modeling her new 'shoes' and the cute pot holders she made at activity girls this week.  Techincally her 'boots' are tennis shoes - they will work for gym class so they meet my requirements.  She absolutely LOVES them.  Her dad said it was ok with him if she wanted to look ridiculous...

Celeste modeling mom's new cowboy boots.  They aren't 'real', they were 50% off and they will work with my 'new' skinny jeans that Rachel found for me at the thrift store last week.  Score!

I thought I took a picture of Calvin in his new blue tennis shoes, but apparently I didn't.  So a picture of his newest lego creation with have to work.

Our family spotlight is Calvin.  He goes through shoes every couple of months (ok, maybe it's more like 5-6 months, but it feels like I am always buying him new shoes!).  He just goes and goes.  He can't hold still.  He is either digging in our yard (we just had some stumps removed so it's prime digging) playing basketball against himself, playing with his legos, playing the wii or begging his dad to go throw the football.  He thinks that life should be fair.  I told him if life was fair, his situation would most likely get worse, not better, but it's hard for him to see any kind of injustice.  He enjoys reading and is getting better at it, he does his homework standing up or dancing around the table, he is well liked, very competitive, and is growing like a weed (straight up, but not out).  He eats more then anyone else in the family and thinks his mom is a good cook (don't tell him otherwise).

Coming & Going

This week was full of comings and goings.  First Mike left.  He had his annual NHance convention.  It was in Florida this year.  He opted to stay an extra two days for the sales seminar.  He left on Sunday morning.  I stayed home from church with sick kids.  On Monday Calvin stayed home sick, but he was feeling much better that afternoon when our friend Rachel came over!  She was in Richmond visiting for a week!  We got her on Monday afternoon and then again on Tuesday night through Wednesday afternoon.  We had a lot of fun visiting and thrift store shopping!  We missed Dave and the kids but had fun with 'Aunt Rachel' as the kids call her (or Rachel Gordon as Lilah calls her).  On Wednesday evening our super babysitter came to see us - Anne came with belated Christmas gifts and stayed for dinner and bedtime.  I had a grouchy baby on my hands and was glad to have some help during dinner.  The kids loved seeing Anne and they love their cereal bowls with the built in straws.  Late on Friday night Mike came home and then Aunt Jenny (Mike's sister) came for a visit.  The kids were so excited to wake up Saturday morning to see Daddy and Aunt Jenny.  We played and went to a civil war battle ground for a 'hike' and some history.  It was a fun (but kind of hard) week for everyone to not have Dad around but to get so many fun visitors!

Other things - it rained ALL week and on Thursday evening the water backed up in our utility room.  It's a sunken concrete room with a drain actually built into the floor so the water does occasionaly back up.
When the ground is so saturated then our washer won't drain.  I really needed to do laundry on Friday (and since it snowed the ground wasn't going to be drying out anytime soon) so I had to haul out the washing machine drain water in 5 gallon buckets in order to do laundry.  It was not my favorite way to wash clothes, but I take that over scrubbing them by hand in the river =).  I had kids stay home on Monday and Wednesday and school was cancelled on Friday - so I didn't get everything done that I thought I 'needed' to get done - but sometimes things don't really 'need' to get done =).  I was so glad to see Mike!

I didn't do so well with taking pictures - there were lots of great moments I thought of taking pictures but didn't =(.

I did get a couple of pictures from our snow day on Friday:

Lilah wore her fancy feathery gloves with her ring!

Our family spotlight this week is Lilah.  Lilah is at a good age - she has outgrown the terrible 2's & 3's and hasn't gotten into what I call the emotional 5's yet.  She is helpful and fun to have around.  Lilah is more social then I realized.  She really misses her siblings when they go to school.  She plays when Celeste is around and enjoys her even though she complains about Celeste taking her toys or ruining her play.  As soon as Celeste goes to bed Lilah is bored and subdued.  She either lays around doing nothing or follows me around the house.  She doesn't really play with Celeste, but needs to have someone around in order to play - so funny.  Lilah is one of our  more serious kids, but just cracks us up.  She has a somewhat dry sense of humor and expresses her every thought with her beautiful brown eyes.

Happy Birthday Madeline

The highlight of this past week was Madeline's Birthday.  She turned 6 on Thursday.   She picked donuts for her birthday breakfast, hot dogs (her very favorite food) for dinner with a chocolate birthday cake for dessert.  She wanted blue frosting with a rainbow and clouds.  After dinner she opened her presents.  I think her favorite present was from Anna Elise - she gave her a polished rock and a coupon to play with her beloved doll.  She had a good day!

Other highlights of the week include a trip to the dentist for appointments for all five kids (and no cavities!) and some exceptionally warm weather and playing outside!  Unfortunately it also includes some sick kids, but we are hoping it doesn't spread...

Pictures from Madeline's Birthday:

 Birthday cake helper - right before her bath

Madeline opening presents (yes thats the best one we had, I may fire our photographer =) )

Singing Happy Birthday

Madeline is our highlight this week.  Our very observant and considerate middle child is loving kindergarten.  She loves going to school and being with her friends.  She makes friends easier then anyone else in our family but she is most often found sitting on her top bunk bed, surrounded by her hidden treasures, playing by herself.  She is also very sneaky and is probably the best at getting out of chores.  She loves to laugh and to make people laugh.  She has longer hair then anyone else in the house and probably the smallest feet for her age!  She is so excited to be 6!