Dear Family and Friends,

What our Sunday afternoon looks like, after church: comics and toast




I have decided that comic books are an investment in family peace and solidarity in our family. Kids are always sprawled around reading them, especially when their stash from the library is gone. Don't know where they could have picked up the reading bug from (haha) but even Robyn likes to "pretend". Allison's teacher sent home her reading report card this week showing her jumping from level E at the beginning of the year (she was level B at the start of kindergarten) to a level T at the end of the year. Since I enjoy reading so much I am glad that our kids have picked up on it.



Allison lost another tooth this week. There is no way that an adult tooth can fit into that little hole. Even she is realizing some teeth pulling is in her near future. This week was the last week of school for Spencer and Allison. So lots of year end parties, field days etc. Kids did not want to stop playing or go to bed at night and were ready for school to be over. Friday the kids were only in school for 3 hours. They took their bike and wave with them in the morning and Robyn and I met them with the stroller (after pushing up that huge hill by the temple!). They were too fast for us but luckily our carpool partner/friend Monica and her two kids were all on bikes as well. So Robyn and I brought up the rear! Allison spent the afternoon at a friends pool/pizza party to celebrate the end of the school year. Then she came home and invited a friend over for pizza and movie night while Spencer invited 2 friends over for a sleepover. They all watched Twilight, ate brownies and popcorn and had a great time. I threatened Spencer and his friends about this trial sleepover since last time didn't go so well. So everyone was out by 9:30 and they did great. They woke up the next morning ate a bunch of french toast and played twister and k'nex till they were all kicked home.

To continue the end of school festivities we quickly did our jobs and headed over to the American Fork Pool. We won a 3 month family pass at the kids' school's 5k. This was our first time going and we had a great time. It was really overcast so there was hardly anyone there. With the clouds I didn't bother with sunblock much so we are all a little toasty today.

After all the celebration our kids and us were tuckered out. Allison fell asleep on the swing this afternoon and looked so peaceful.



Until Spencer pushed the swing and Robyn jumped on her. So nice to have sibilings!

On Monday Spencer had his cast taken off.


He seemed disappointed that there wasn't any gross skin underneath! His ulna is all healed up but his radius still needs to fill in some more. He thought he was all done but handled the news with a shrug. He is in a brace for 2 weeks full time and then in a brace for 2 weeks whenever he is active. This week we have really been noticing his obsessive tendencies. Doubt there is any medicinally we can do about it but man is it a pain. Whatever he wants, he needs to have it right now and is just heartbroken and sobbing or mad and yelling if he can't. Reminds me of a 3 year old! I keep trying to explain to him that his feelings don't match up with reality but its a hard concept for him to get. Hoping we can work through this stage to a manageable level soon. Not sure if it is all the changes with school, cast, friends etc but there has been a general crankiness lately. Last night Jeremy bravely bit the bullet and took Spencer shopping. Size 8 mens shoes are just painful to buy for a kid you know will trash them within months. But now he has PJs that won't split down the rear when he tries to bed over. (For his sleepover he stayed in his clothes because he had no other options). He definitely has a little flubber to loose but he is a big kid now.

Robyn has given up naps completely now. I wonder if quiet time is really worth the hassle but I figure its better than nothing. She is great 3/4 of the time and the other 1/4 is a little terror, running around, refusing to cooperate and throwing tantrums. Just like any other 3 year old. My friend Brenda and her neighbor do a play group once a week while they take turns going to the temple. They asked me to do it with them for next year and invited me to bring Robyn over Thursday morning for their last playdate of the school year. Robyn had a great time and I felt wonderful going to the temple during the day. Can't remember the last time I did that. What a great start to the morning. It makes me really excited for next year and Robyn didn't want to stop playing with her two friends.

Had another friend join the running group in the morning. It sure helps me get out of bed. Although not everyone is there each morning, there is always someone watching my door to see if I show up. I am falling asleep at night without any problems now! I run better too because I feel like I can't stop or slow down when someone is running next to me. Worked in the garden again whenever I could. Spread that truckload of mulch and remembered how sore my back got when we put our yard in. Planted a new tree to replace our dead one - a santa rosa plum. Planted potatoes for the first time. See how they do. Read two new Robert Palmer books (the Spencer for hire series). They kept a smile on my face most of the week - I really enjoy his books.

Jeremy has been working, getting the new grill hooked up and doing church stuff. I was reading through old posts the other day. Sometimes I wonder if anyone reads what I write. But it sure brought back memories of past events and made me grateful for how relatively smooth our life has been going the past while. Guess I shouldn't say that too loud! Friday morning we had a bathroom incident involving an embarassed Spencer taking a shower, lots of bleach and disinfectant, a load of laundry and me needing a shower afterwards and a bite of chocolate. Thought to myself that I can handle mornings like that if thats as bad as it gets because we have had things so much worse.

Love to you all, Heather

PS - Read Spencer's blog if you have a chance. He has been anxious for comments.

Dear Family and Friends,

Taylor's swing has become the family swing. Currently Spencer and Allison are out there lounging with their books. (Taylor is napping with the air conditioning otherwise I am sure he would join them). Every day after school the kids run out there to sit and eat their snacks and all reading is done while swinging away. Who knew it would be such a hit?!

I spent any free time I had this week out in the yard so it is all starting to come together. For FHE we planted one of our boxes. Not quite an ideal family togetherness moment but each kid planted a plant and was quite proud of the fact. We have in this year: tomatoes, tomatillos, squash, zucchini, peppers, beans, watermelon, pumpkins and beets. See how they all do. Allison is very excited that our raspberries have started to grow. Amazing what happens when you start to actually water them! We planted our flower pots and added 2 hanging baskets to our porch this year. I was most excited about those. Robyn has been enjoying the whole process or running rampant at the nursery, stuffing her pockets from their free bucket of unshelled peanuts and smelling EVERY flower she finds. I am so excited to be planting and a little horrified at the nursery bills that her antics haven't even bothered me. They are probably a good thing as they prevent me from staying there too long. The yard isn't all the way done. I have our weed corner to tackle, a few plants left to put into the ground and a truckload of mulch waiting to be unloaded. The kids have 4 1/2 days left of school so I should make it!

This week Robyn and I discovered Utah's version of Trader Joe's. We were very excited! Its called Sunflower Market and its just a healthfood type store with tons of good deals on produce and then all those yummy not so good for you things - different flavored hummus, a whole rack of brands of tofu, aisles of bulk dried fruits, nuts and then all of the above dipped in different types of chocolate and sugar. You get the idea. So we have gorged on fruit this week and I have discovered I really like frozen cherries. I am trying to make up for the fact that between Taylor's party and Mother's Day I made 4 9x13 pans of really good cakes and we ate up all the leftovers!

This week was made up of just lots of odds and ends. Got the racks put on the van, took dinner into a neighbor who is dying, had the cousins over for a day, had a couple of play dates etc. Normal everyday, sometimes busy, sometimes boring, often funny, occasionally irritating life.

I decided last week that I should stop feeling annoyed that I am looking scroungy till noon as I try to fit in my exercise time so I made the goal to get up early. I know exercising at 6 am is not early to most but to me it is! It didn't use to be a possibility as Taylor had to be gotten up at 6:30 but now I don't have to start kids till 7. I figure if I can keep it up through the summer it will be easier to get my running in too. The first few days killed me and I crashed every night but my body seems to have adjusted to the new schedule. I mentioned it to a friend so I ended up having 3 neighbors join me to run outside M, T, Th. That was fun although they expect me to talk and all I can do most of the time is pant. One of my friends went to Florida for a week and she loaned me her 'transfirmer' videos so I have been trying those out a little bit. Didn't think they were doing much till the day after when I noticed all the muscles I had obviously not been using previously.

Quick run down on everyone: Jeremy has had couple of EQ meetings this week including hauling mulch in a wheelbarrow for an hour or two. He also has been working on a video for the kids' school that they are using at the end of the year assembly tomorrow. Luckily he was able to take a mental health morning Friday and go hike Timp Caves with his photo friends to unwind and enjoy his hobby time. Between the mulch for the ward member and the hike his knees are a little stiff but he is doing OK. He gets the missing hook up for his new BBQ this week and excited to try it out.

Taylor went fishing this week with his school and came home wiped out and smiling of sunblock. He is noticably more cheerful with the sunny weather.

Spencer gets his cast off tomorrow. He decided to do football this summer/fall which I think will be a good thing. It was a LONG debate. He is working on playing Axel F for his piano lessons. We recorded part of it for him to take in for his class talent show. It only took us 20!!! minutes to get the 15 second recording necessary for him to take in. His teacher asked me to practice with Spencer every day. Easier said than done. If I sit there correcting him for every wrong not it turns into an exercise of anger management. He really just doesn't understand the concept of practicing. Hopefully it will click soon.

Allison is convinced that a time without a friend is wasted time. She stayed home sick Friday with a fever she developed Thursday. She was fine except for a fever and not wanting to eat or sleep much. Just puny. But with cousins over she was happy to put on a swimsuit and run around the sprinklers with them.

Robyn is loving the warm weather. She runs around in different outfits or swimsuits alternating covered in sand or water but having a great time. She is doing better on the potty training and only had one accident last week and that was because she couldn't make it to the toilet fast enough. So I am hoping we are getting close to an end of spraying lysol everywhere. Haven't tried to tackle nights yet. I am waiting till days are perfect first.

Love to you all. Lots of pictures to follow. I am sure you can guess which ones are by the professional:) Love Heather



Allison had her friend Kambry over Saturday and they made crafts to sell at their stand in the front yard.








Robyn is LOVING the tiny sprinkler set up.






Friday night pizza and movie night. Everyone had to eat their pizza outside. The good weather feels too good to miss.



Our vegetable garden weed free. I should have taken a before picture for you to really appreciate this.



Cousins all getting wet together



My beautiful baskets. I learned that it takes a month or two for the sides to fill in to get that big lush look. Next year I need to start earlier and use tinier seedling plants along the side. Putting big fat bedding plants through holes in the side was hard and pretty traumatic to the plants I think. I have been wanting to put these up for a few years now so I am quite excited. Now if I can just keep them alive!



Robyn and Luke helping me with our "weed garden". Luke is still Robyn's dress up friend and yes his parents know all about this.



Spencer's video

Dear Friends and Family,

Let the teenage years begin! We FINALLY got Taylor's swing yesterday. We have been planning to get it for the past couple of years but couldn't find one that we all liked. But we found one that had enough cushions for Taylor and he loves it. It seems like all the kids really like it and have been spending all their free moments out there.

Yesterday evening we had Taylor's annual BBQ. I always mean to take pictures but then get sucked into talking to everyone instead. Jason's family and Lauri were able to come as well as 10 families. So we had a big crowd of kids running around, food everywhere and lots of catching up. Warm weather all day and then chilly breezes as soon as the party started. But everyone toughed it out. Taylor swung, ate a bunch of better than cake and was very happy to have everyone giving him hugs.

Special note to my mom - Happy Mother's Day! I read a quote once that a dad said he wished that he could be the type of dad that when his son grew up he would want to be the kind of dad he was. I am still trying to be like my mom and often failing miserably. But the attempt always makes me a better person. I find myself saying or doing things I remember my mom doing and Jeremy will laugh and point out my "lyndaisms". Lucky for me I think its a great compliment to think I am becoming my mother!

Spencer and Allison set their alarm clocks early this morning to make me breakfast and Jeremy valiantly staved them off till 7:30. All the kids piled into the bed for a half hour of snuggling with Mom and giving me handmade cards and bracelets. Jeremy filled our kitchen with flowers, gave me a year supply (well knowing me, a month) of chocolate and fed all the kids. So life is pretty dang wonderful this morning. Jeremy brought Lauri back to our house this morning and pinned her corsage on. She is going to church with us and spending the day and then tonight Jason's family is joining us for dinner.

Family summary: Spencer had his arm x-rayed Monday. Everything is healing up and he was given the OK to start riding his wave, doing karate and sports again. Its a good thing as that extra energy needs to go somewhere! Does it count as self medicating if you do it with exercise? So life has been much better this week. One more week and the cast comes off! He really doesn't complain abut it but the awkwardness is a little tough to live with.

Allison has spent the week crying or hugging me. Jeremy pointed out that if we ever wanted to know what wailing and gnashing of teeth sounded like - now we know! I really don't think I am being that mean but you sure would think it to hear the sound effects when I say to make a bed or pick up toys. It seems like lately our kids are wearing ear plugs and don't hear us till voices are raised! I guess I need to start whispering more as I am sure our neighbors are starting to wonder what is going on in our house! Friday afternoon she went to a build a bear birthday party and returned with her new friend "spot" a stuffed puppy that is going with her everywhere. Friday evening was an elder's quorum movie night at the church. Spencer brought a friend to sit with him and Allison has Spot all set up next to her on a blanket, popcorn and all. I brought home a bunch of new american girl and the little series of books for her from the library. So her nose has been in a book whenever she isn't playing.

We were able to babysit friends for Robyn twice this week, a friend Raquel on Tuesday and her cousins Kayla and Brynn on Friday. So Robyn was in heaven and wondered why every day couldn't be a friend day. She is still going through multiple outfits and dress ups every day, sometimes crashing for a nap but usually just sleeping in till we wake her up and then having quiet time for 30 minutes (does jumping up and down on your bed, barbies in hand count as quiet time?).

Jeremy has been cleaning the mud off the quad and trailer - massive amounts were deposited over our yard and street. He was excited yesterday that Father's Day came a little earlier than we had anticipated. Someone was returning a natural gas BBQ to Home depot while we were picking up Taylor's swing. They offered it to Jeremy at a good deal so he snatched it up. We still have to get the hook up for it but it will be nice to have a BBQ that actually works. Our old one was thrown around by windstorms so much at our old house that it can barely burn a hot dog now.

Tuesday this week we had our stake auxiliary training for relief society. We toured the bishop's storehouse and did a service project there and had some welfare training. It was really neat and I learned a lot. Rest of the week I seemed to spend just working on projects. Don't know why I was trying so hard to play catch up on yard and house work. Its not like anyone cared that our vegetable beds were still full of weeds last night. I shouldn't get so caught up on my to do list! Robyn and I did go get a truckful of sand Friday and spent the afternoon shoveling. So kids were happy to discover the overflowing sandbox on Saturday and I am sure a bunch is now in our yard. I think I am out of shape with yard work and most days this week I fell into bed so happy to see my pillow! Had some problems with our bank this week and a mistake that was made. Had to spend a long time on hold with different people and it just set my teeth on edge a little bit. Signed up for a half marathon in August so am trying to run outside more now. It always feels so much better than a treadmill. You forget you are pushing it till the next day when your legs are tight. It feels so good though to be outside again with spring finally here and staying here.

Life is good and I am enjoying our family today. happy Mother's Day to you all! Heather

Dear Friends and Family,

Got back this morning from our annual camping trip to Palisades. The little figure above in the pink sweatshirt is Allison off to catch minnows and tadpoles. We came back early to make church. Kids snored all the way home, girls curled up with their dad to snooze some more this afternoon and are off to bed early tonight. A sign of a good camping trip is how tired you are when you get home!

This is the earliest in the year we have ever gone. No one wanted to try swimming and we had a few hours and most of the nights filled with rain. Kids determinedly went down to catch minnows the first morning there, rain or no rain. But after getting drenched they decided they would rather trailer hop and wait out the storm. We had 5 other families go all of us with kids. So we all had a great time, eating, hiking, riding quads in the nearby canyon, catching lots of tadpoles and minnows and making up all sorts of crazy games by the kids that involved lots of running and yelling. It was a lot of fun. Jeremy got to have some male bonding playing golf. He commented how fun it is when everyone is equally bad!





Jeremy borrowed kids' helmets so all the kids took turns riding around with Jeremy. Robyn did one loop around the campsite and was thrilled.





Spencer went in for the hardcore quad riding with Jeremy. Friday night they went up to the overlook and then Saturday after the rain stopped they went out in the mud. Spencer came back covered in mud but with a big grin an hour later.

All the kids did much better sleeping this year. They have the routine down now and are set up in their sleeping bags asking for their hot chocolate and cookies and wanting to know what movie is showing that night. I think I am mostly tired because of Taylor's inevitable 3 am chirping that doesn't let up or Rocky's neurotic whining/crying because of the storms. Glad to be home and close the doors and ignore all the kid sounds unless screaming is involved.

Spent a lot of time this week pulling weeds and cleaning out the trailer. You can now see clearly in our yard what are plants and what are weeds so I am making progress! The trailer I am not sure why I bothered as this was a very muddy trip. I couldn't figure out why the trailer was smelling still after I had scrubbed everything out. Then I found the piece of deli meat left in its package stuck under the vegetable bin in the fridge. Ewwww!

Spencer was going a little stir crazy this week with not being able to do much physical activity. Tomorrow he gets his arm re-x-rayed and we are hoping he is able to start doing PE and karate again. He really, really, really needs it! Had pack meeting this week and he was thrilled to run around digging up fake dinosaurs, eating all the treats and laughing at the not so funny skits and jokes.

Allison has been on a no glasses kick this week. Then when I finally realized she had been going without I found them with the lens popped out thanks to Robyn. So we are making a trip to Costco tomorrow.

Thursday morning Taylor went in for dental 'surgery'. I had to get up at 5 am and felt like I had been hit by a truck the rest of the day. They had Taylor go first just in case there were complications. He did great. He had 5 baby teeth pulled and they cleaned up all of his teeth and put sealants and stuff on. His mouth was pretty raw the rest of the day and he kept getting bloody noses from the tube being put down. But it went really well. I had high hopes that like his VNS surgery this might knock out his seizures for a while but no such luck. Oh well, he has shiny teeth now! Found out that one of his adult teeth, his incisor is just missing. So they are going to leave the baby tooth in as long as possible as when it falls out he will just have a big gap. Jeremy spent the morning riding herd on the kids and hooking up the trailer. Robyn was extremely helpful with that!

We have made up this week for a bunch of the babysitting favors we have called on. Robyn has loved having friends over most days this week.

Been spending my nights making Relief Society handouts, invites etc. Jeremy pointed out how much time I would save if I would just type out the information, print it out and be done. But how cute would that be?

Seems like my to do list lately is longer than my time to do it list. Try to remind myself that that is a good thing and if kids have to fend for themselves a bit more it builds character! Love to you all. I am going to go crash in bed for some make up snoozing and ignore the piles of muddy clothes until tomorrow!

Love you all and very, very Happy Birthday Mom!

Heather

Dear Friends and Family,

Yep, we knew it was only a matter of time. In retrospect I am surprised we made it 10 years. But Monday Spencer flipped off his skateboard (don't worry Mom, none of your ramps were involved!) and landed on his wrist. Once all the screaming and dramatics were over we thought it might just be a bad sprain because it wasn't swollen too badly, he could move it everywhere and didn't complain if we touched it. A little scenario of the boy who cried wolf - hard to believe he was really hurt. Called the doctor and they said give it a day and see how he does. Gave him some tylenol and sent him to bed. The next day it seemed like it was getting better but we wrapped it in an ace bandage and sent him off to school with some more tylenol. Checked on him mid-day and he thought it didn't hurt too badly. But after school Allison ran by and brushed his arm and you would have thought the world was ending. So Jeremy took off work early to do gymnastics duty with the girls and Spencer and I visited the pediatrican and then the radiologist. Turns out he broke the radius vertically and the ulna horizontally. They were all impressed with his pain tolerance. Then they sent us home (never knew a broken bone was such a LONG process). Next day after calls back and forth with the pediatrician (and Spencer impatiently waiting at school, we're such mean parents) we took him to an orthopedic surgeon that afternoon. Decided the bones were in the right position for now so they casted him. It was the season for broken bones as they were out of blue and camo and only had 1 black left. Spencer was thrilled with his cast and has been busy getting signatures ever since. We went and got frosty's to celebrate his cast and Allison's bravery (more to follow on that). We go back in a week for another x-ray to make sure no pins or maniuplation is needed. He warned Spencer that his cast would start to stink no matter what he did. It took an hour the first night to get Spencer in the shower because he was so worried that he would stink at school the next day from the cast getting wet.

So we have had a week of an onery Spencer. Jeremy that first night made a comment about how I would be eating a lot more chocolate the next few weeks. Spencer couldn't figure out why! He really has been good about it although it still bothers him and he gets cranky at his awkwardness and inability to do things. It hit the other day that he couldn't skateboard, run, karate etc for a couple of weeks to prevent falls. That was a real downer for him.

You know how when you run longer than you are used to you get that feeling of pushing your body beyond its normal limits although you know its capable of doing it? This week has felt like that in a emotional/physical sense. Just the feeling like my patience, tolerance and endurance is being called on more than usual. I thought I was just being wimpy about things but Jeremy confirmed to me today that our kids are being a lot more in my face wanting things this week. Not bad, just wanting me to look at them, talk to them, listen to them with full on attention. I think they have some plan where they coordinate their speech/acitvities so there isn't even room to draw a breath before the next one starts. Waiting outside the bathroom tapping their feet or in Robyn's case coming in with her friend while I am in a bath because she can't wait a minute for me to grab a towell. I am working on giving them eye contact and stopping whatever I am doing when they talk in the hopes that when they realize they are getting 100% of my attention it will lessen the need to have it 100% of the time!

Really it was a good week, just full. First part of this week was full of sunshine, last part was full of rain clouds. I think someone dumped a bag of weed seeds in our yard but I get a bucket or two now and then and hope to catch up someday.

On Wednesday Allison had a dentist appointment to fix 2 cavities. It was the first time she has had to have shots and she was extremely nervous. She said a prayer and held my hand tightly, got her nitrous oxide and did great. Then she and Taylor (thankfully a friend kidnapped Robyn for the afternoon) got to watch Spencer get his cast. The ortho did a fake cast on Allison and she spent the rest of the evening putting herself and her friend in bandages. Allison has spent her days playing with friends and devouring a new series called pixie tricks that I picked up for her at the library. On Friday night we made a late dash to Target to buy her some running shoes. Then Saturday morning she and I got up early to do a 5k for her school - her idea! She and her friend walked with a periodic 10 second sprint trying to pretent that I and her friend's mom Monica were not walking behind them. It was the slowest 5k ever - 1 hour and 5 minutes. Picking flowers and talking takes up a lot of time! They had a breakfast afterwards and we won a 3 month membership to American Fork's rec center - they have a pool so our summer is now set! Then the 2 girls since their slow pace hadn't tired them out begged to walk the 2 miles home. So I walked home with them. Took us an HOUR!!! Exercise in slow motion. Halfway home Allison fell and skinned up her knees and elbows so she got a piggy back the rest of the way with the periodic high pitched wail in my ear. She has been very proud that she walked 5 miles in one day. I just try to smile and bite my tongue.

Robyn is getting better at toilet training. She still has that periodic accident but I don't know about till I trace the smell. I find soaked clothes in the corner of her room or a bunch of used wipes in the trash and a rinsed out pair of underwear in the laundry basket. Trying to be helpful! We are putting lots of soap on her hands right now. Late Thursday night I was told I needed to drive for Spencer's field trip Friday. So Robyn and 4 boys piled into our van to drive to Camp Floyd and then a western museum. Robyn had a great time with the boys teasing her. She wore a big headband all day so they would know she was a girl. I don't think I could be an elementary teacher as field trips just get me ready for bed!

Friday night we hosted a dinner group for our ward's activity. Thursday we found out that some dinner groups had fallen apart so we inherited a few more people and then Friday afternoon got another couple. So we had a big party! Ended up with 3 people being assigned to bring desserts so Cafe Rio salads and then a dessert buffet - how can you lose? Our kids didn't think an adult party was too fun but they hid in the basement watching cartoons for us.

Jeremy's EQ meeting Wednesday night kept him up thinking a lot. So Thursday he decided to take a mental health afternoon and clean up his office downstairs. There used to be piles of boxes everywhere in his office and hallway. It is all gone! Either put away, trashed or DI'd. So nice! Saturday night we were both tired out from the week so we ran errands (got Jeremy's new glasses ordered! bought wedding reception presents and took Lauri her jewelry box), got a free Mexican meal off Jeremy's punch card and watched a movie at Jeremy's office. Its true that it doesn't matter what we do, its just being able to be awake and in the same room without kids. Doesn't happen that often these days!

Taylor is doing well. He has been going outside and walking a lot at school and comes home smelling of sunblock and smiling away. Friday he went and walked around Thanksgiving Point gardens and came home to crash and nap. This week on Thursday he is going into the surgical center to have his teeth cleaned the remainder of his baby teeth pulled. I am hoping that it will be a repeat of last time he had general anesthesia where he stopped having seizures for a few months. See how it goes!

Tomorrow we are cleaning out the trailer as next weekend is our first camping trip of the year. Kids are very excited. 5 other families are coming so lots of kids will be there. Think some trailer hopping will be going on .

Love to you all. I am going to go curl up with my new book and some chocolate from my stash.

Heather

Dear Friends and Family,

Lots of good things this week and a bunch of bad ones. The story of our lives, it seems. It was spring break so kids were very excited to be out of school. Monday we schmoozed around the house, played with friends and enjoyed the sunshine. The rest of the week looked like this:



Tuesday was rainy and by Wednesday we were a winter wonderland! But by Friday it was melting and Saturday we spent the day working on the yard.

For Spring break we really were a bunch of lazy slobs, sleeping in every morning till 8 at least. Allison by Friday was not moving till 10 am. and then thought she should stay in PJs and eat cereal from a box even longer. It was a good reminder to myself of what to gear up for with summer. Monday evening the girls helped me set up for an old ladies' luncheon put on by the stake. It brought back memories as they "rode" on the serving cart passing out the salt and pepper shakers and laying out the silverware upside down. Tuesday I took them all grocery shopping and realized that yes I can do this! Spencer pushed Taylor, Allison entertained Robyn while I manned the cart and tried to prevent too many "want to have it junk foods" from making it into the cart. We all celebrated the realization that we could go grocery shopping for the week together by getting sodas afterwards. It sounds like such a small outing but I am pretty wimpy and for me it was huge. Wednesday we had the cousins over for a play day - all had a good time. Thursday we headed to the children's museum. Robyn loves it, Allison thinks its OK and Spencer thinks he needs to do something more grown-up. So he chased Robyn around with a camera for me. He thought that was fun and tried to be a spy while doing it. One of his picts:



Friday we headed to the zoo once the snow melted. With the cold weather the place was pretty deserted. Spencer tried to have some "this isn't cool enough" attitude:


But he couldn't help cheering up with the sun and the animals:



The girls were in heaven, especially Robyn who walked everywhere despite me pushing the big double stroller. Allison realized when she got out of the car that she hadn't brought a sweatshirt despite me asking her to bring one several times. So she froze not wanting to wear mine because she didn't think it was cool enough. But then she got cold enough or enough self confidence to think it might look neat after all. Where do they get these self-esteem issues? Not like I with my buck teeth and coke bottle glasses and early height and boobs EVER struggled with those!







I was reminded that you cannot seriously walk by a carausel with a 3 year old and not give her a ride. While putting her on her grasshopper I got a close look at the side of her head and realized her hair wasn't tucked behind her ear - it just wasn't there!





After I had done her hair and was running on the treadmill she took scizzors to herself and Rocky. Found clumps of hair hidden by the back door when we got home that afternoon. Robyn obviously was not phased by my scolding:



That night I tried to trim it. Couldn't decide which was worse short all over or mullet style instead. So I did the very short, can you tell its a girl type haircut. Pretty sad.



I am going to invest in some big headbands and bows this week and hope I can keep them in her hair.

One of the big downs this week was finishing up all our taxes and having to write enormous checks and watching our hard won savings go down. And then having to prepay next year's taxes for the first quarter. Just very hard to do.

One of the big ups is that we got our new van. Its a metallic slate green (it really looks more like a light blue) Honda Odyssey. Our kids were almost more excited than I was. It has a DVD player in it so our 2 trips to SLC were one of the highlights of the week. Even Taylor chirps away in his new big captain chair and Spencer is enjoying not being drooled on.

Saturday we worked at cleaning the yard. Jeremy labored on the lawn which can no longer could be called flat as mowing feels more like you're walking on a roller coaster. He scraped up all the dead pee spots from Rocky, shaking his head. That night for our date after the temple we went out and bought these supplements that are supposed to help. See if our lawn improves. I am trying to focus on how many weeds we have pulled out instead of looking at how many are left. It just felt so good to be outside again and have the faint sunburn on the head to prove it.

Robyn has her ups and downs with the whole toilet training. She will do great for a couple of days and then have several "accidents" requiring me to do loads of laundry and crawl around on the floor sniffing to find the pee spots versus the tea set got dumped out spots. Not my finest moments. Kayla informed me that her mom never gets mad at her when she pees on the carpet. Since I swear Robyn does it on purpose sometimes, I felt like my anger was justified but decided I better tone it down if my neice if lecturing me on it! I just keep trying and assume someday it will all click.

Allison has another loose tooth, has a new set of American Girl doll books to read from the library and amazes me with her ability to tune the world out when she reads (wonder where she gets that from?). She built a snowman Wednesday for us.

Spencer has had a super up day today bringing me flowers and random hugs. Makes up for the down days earlier! He wants so hard to do grown-up, cool things. We went to the library Monday and he only wanted to check out the adult mystery section - everything else was too "babyish". So he is reading a collection of Agatha Christie books and the like. See if he realizes the young adult/junior section really is more his speed. I remember at the age reading all the Alfred Hitchcock books in the library so it must be something about 4th grade. This week reminds me I need to work on the idea of toning down the neediness. Seriously hours will go by where he has not left my side and just want to constantly talk, ask questions etc. Its great for a while but after a few hours you just hide in the toilet and tell him he can't talk to you for a few minutes till you come out. So he sits on the floor outside, tapping his feet, just waiting! Need to build up my patience I guess.

Taylor has been happy and cheerful since the sun came out Friday and visibly perks up when we go outside.

Jeremy had a city ask to use one of his rodeo pictures for their city rodeo publicity which I thought was cool. He was able to go help out with a photo class this week which he enjoyed. Tonight watching him make a fire for the kids' to do s'mores and then helping them dunk the basketball just reminded me of how much he tries to balance everything out. A hard job sometimes around here. Saturday Jeremy tried to take pictures of the girls for a project Christina was working on. Allison was especially ornery about being too big to dress up like a fairy and Robyn tried to copy her attitude. But I thought he did amazingly well considering the attitudes he was working with. You can see the pictures here:

http://gogetphotos.com/gallery/7945636_z2evC

My life is just keeping on top of everyone else's and periodically sneaking away to eat chocolate and read a chapter or two of a new book. I ran to Jeremy's office yesterday to meet everyone to clean it. It felt so good to be able to run outside although today I can't touch my toes - muscles are a little tight. This coming Saturday Allison and I are running a 5k for her school. See how it goes. And the best news for the end is that Meredith is going to be staying around for another year!! Yeah, we are all doing happy dances.

A few more pictures and love to you all, Heather



Robyn at the city easter egg hunt. Jeremy was with the big kid section.


Dying easter eggs. Went extremely fast. Next year I need to come up with some more elaborate designs so the process takes longer

Heather covered the updates, so I will just share a few photos from the day. Enjoy.

Jeremy