Not ALL Rosy

While my last post was singing the joys of the month, I have to confess that there were some harder bits of the month.  Nothing huge, but we did have:

*Ben out of town for a week.  He got to go to Mexico, but his brother served a mission in that area, and told him that since he didn't speak Spanish, it would be better for him to stay in at night.  It was a long week for all of us!

*Cold weekends.  The weekdays were sooo nice, but it always cooled down or rained for the weekends.  Scott is trying to earn his Outdoorsman badge for Webelos, and needed to pitch a tent and sleep in it, so on President's Day weekend, we finally got that done, despite the colder temperatures.  Ben, Scott, Emma, Gracie, and Caytie slept outside, while Tessa and I stayed in.  They were all freezing and damp in the morning.

*Sick girls.  Tessa started first, with a bad, bad cough, a little fever, and lethargy.  Caytie got the same a couple days later, except her fever came almost a week later, and was high.  I took her in to the doctor, but she tested negative for everything.  They just had a bad virus, and they are still coughing and tired from it.

*Ants.  They, for some reason, like our master bathroom, and since the weather is too warm to kill them off, we had to find a way.  It took for different tries, but I think we finally got rid of them.  This time.

*A big mama.  I think I might have mentioned it before...  And it's not just in my mind.  I went to a church activity this weekend, and four people said essentially, "Wow, when you start to get big, you really get big fast!"  I couldn't disagree with them, although I feel like I've been pretty big for a while now.  I am swelling and putting away maternity clothes that I've outgrown.  And I am (not so) patiently waiting for some of that nesting energy to come my way.  My poor house needs it.

On that happy note, I wish you all a wonderful Leap Day tomorrow!  (Are there any traditions or foods or anything that we are supposed to do for this occasion?  I should look on Pinterest, except that I don't have an account, and I am avoiding getting one--I hear it's pretty addicting...)

The best of February

Happy end-ish of February!  At this point, any completion of any month is cause for celebration, since it means the baby is coming soon.  But this has been a lovely February, and not just because of the weather.  (I do know the cold is good for killing off bugs and for the plants and so forth, but we are enjoying it!  It was 80 degrees today!  But even when it drops to the 50's, we don't mind too much.  There are weeds popping up in the flower beds already, and the ice cream truck comes by every afternoon.  In February.)

We were able to Skype with my parents in Guatemala for my mom's birthday.  My kids love it, despite how chaotic they are when Grandma and Grandpa are on the computer.

We took Emma in for her bi-annual heart check-up, and her EKG (when they put the stickers all over her chest with clips and wires, and then read the electric output from her heart) was so good that she was able to skip the echocardiogram (which is like a detailed ultrasound of her heart).  She doesn't have to go in again for two more years.  Thanks again to her surgeon who fixed her heart so well six and a half years ago!

And...what's that?  You want more pictures?  And lots of wordy descriptions?  Here you go...

The Pinewood Derby was a great success, much to the relief of Cubmaster Ben.  He was literally dreaming about it for days, hoping that it would all work out, and that the boys would ALL have a good time.  He even made trophies for all of them this year.  This (below) is Scott and his good friend Spencer watching the races:

 Though he won a couple races, Scott didn't place this year.  But his car won "Best of Show."  His dad may have had a hand in shaping the car a bit, but Scott can definitely claim the paint job!  It was a great looking car.

What do the girls do while the boys are away?  Play with dolls and color?  Not always...  Sometimes there are major forts to be built, and mountain couches to jump on to and off of.

At our house, the princesses tend the babies.  (I have doll stroller pictures like this of Scott with Emma, Emma with Gracie, and Gracie with Caytie.  Maybe someday I'll look them all up and put them together...but not today.)

We love Valentine's Day!  I got this idea of "love note jars" from here, and the kids really had fun with them.  We decorated the tags for Family Home Evening, and then had a few weeks to fill them up for each other with notes, trinkets, candy, and so on.  They were fun to look through on Valentine's Day morning.

 Also for the morning, I made heart cinnamon rolls.  I'm not one to take pictures of the food I make in general, and also, in general, I'm not one to make bread from scratch.  So, I used the canned cinnamon rolls, and took a picture to remind me of how simple these things can be.  (They looked better cooked and frosted, but I wasn't sure they would turn out, but since they did, and I had hungry people wanting to eat them, I did not get a post-cooking picture.)

 That night I made a heart-shaped pizza for the kids, and then a special dinner for me and Ben, as my gift to him.  I made heart shaped rolls, a spinach salad, red pepper soup, and salmon with vegetables cooked in parchment paper (which, though I had never done, now highly recommend).  I had some ice cream and raspberries for dessert, but we were too full to eat it.  I then took two days off of cooking and dishes.

Caytie is now a fashion designer.  Here she is, with her model, in the first of her spring collection:

Basketball season finished up, and Scott had a good time with his team.  (He was the "least tall" on the team, and I'm pretty sure he was the youngest, but he learned a lot.)

 This is him in his last game (and sorry that it's blurry).  His friend Spencer was guarding him, and had this big grin on his face the whole time.  Scott asked him if he chose to guard him, and Spencer said yes, so that he could talk to him during the game!  They ended up losing that game, and Spencer's team came in first place for their division.  Spencer's sneaky tactics worked!  (Since they were the key players for their respective teams, of course.  Or maybe not.  But they had a lot of fun.)

Here's to a great last week of a pretty great month.

I'm not sure I should even write this post...

...because even though I have plenty to write about, and pictures to go with it, my energy level and writing brain are done for the day.  

I'm getting big.  Again--too tired to go get the camera and download something (and PS--I don't think I even have a picture of me with my pregnant belly yet), so I whipped this up on paint:

Yup, that looks about right.  30 weeks along now.  And that's nicer than a picture, because now I don't have to crawl around to pick up the floor to have a nice background.

Ben went out tonight to get some bread and milk, and surprised me with a stroller/car seat combo that he found on clearance.  It was totally unexpected--baby things are not usually on his radar of things to buy.  But that is our first official purchase for this baby.  (We gave our old single stroller away long ago, and the car seat probably would have worked, but it is 10 years old, and past its "use by" date, by a few years.  Yes, it's the one we used for Scott, and all the girls!)  Now with Scott's old baby clothes that I pulled out (and still need to wash), we're just about set.

I think I will be motivated to write again soon.  The little one inside is kicking me in agreement.  (PS--we chose a name.  Any guesses?)

Enchanted Meatballs!

My four and a half year old has a few "Caytie-isms" that she's holding onto longer than I thought she would--and I really don't mind a bit.  Most of the cute things she says are just mix ups of consonant sounds in her words, such as "maz-a-geen" (magazine), "am-i-nal" (animal), "oc-puh-tus" (octopus), and the most common one, "guh-fot" (forgot).  She says that one several times a day, and she knows she's saying it wrong.  When she tries to correct herself, it comes out "ger-fot."  It's cute--except that now Tessa is saying that one, too. :)

The other day we were at the library looking at the movie selection.  Caytie saw one she wanted, and said to me, "Let's get 'Enchanted Meatballs'!"  It took a little detective work to realize she meant "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs."

On Sunday Caytie came home from church and told me a story about her teacher.  She was giggling and said that her teacher told her another girl in the class had ants in her pants.  I asked her if the girl was being really active, and Caytie said, "No, and she wasn't even wearing pants!"  The look on her face was so funny, like she couldn't believe her teacher would say such a thing.

I think four-year-olds are some of my very favorite people.