Camping Trip

We went on a super fun camping trip a couple weeks ago. It was our first as a family and we all had tons of fun. We went to City of Rocks and had a great camping spot right by a practice climbing rock. The kids, well all of us, had so much fun climbing these enormous rocks. I'm excited to get more experience so I can help with all the work. Brad made the fire, pitched the tent and cooked all the food. It was a little difficult to deal with Claire too, she wanted to crawl in the sand and touch the fire. The weather was pretty great though, it was chilly and sprinkled a little but the morning was glorious. The worst part was all the crazy wind at night, I seriously thought the tent was going to fly away with all of us in it! But the kids were so tired from all the climbing that they slept through the night no problem. We're all excited for our next outing.

Molar Pregnancy

Sunday June 2nd Brad and I went to the ER so I could get my molar pregnancy removed. Heavy bleeding started the night before and our scheduled D&C was moved up due to the risk of hemorrhage. We found out a few weeks ago that this pregnancy was molar, which means it was basically a cancer and not a baby, we never saw a heartbeat. I still have to go get my blood drawn every couple weeks now to make sure that the cancer continues to go away and not come back; if it does then I will have to get chemo. Also because of the blood tests we are not allowed to get pregnant for about a year. This was all very difficult emotionally and made for a really rough couple weeks. I'm feeling better now, we've been really well taken care of by my mom and our ward. I'm now really looking forward to losing another 20 pounds and having a fun summer with the kids.

Magic Milk

Today Ruth said, "When I'm angry and I drink my milk all gone, I'm not angry any more!" I need to get some of this magic milk. I've been so overwhelmed recently, tired, and cranky...my poor kids. I just feel like I give everything I have in me to take care of everybody else, take care of the house and the laundry and the dishes and the plants. But the house is still never clean, my kids faces are still always dirty, the kitchen floor is still covered in dirt and sand, and the darn bushes we planted in the front are dying!!! It's just never enough. And to top it all off we're having another baby in December ... surprise! This happy but very unplanned pregnancy feels like it was the last straw on the camels back. This old camel is a mess.

Alas, I can't change the present. And there are a few things that have helped me to make it through emotionally difficult days.

ZUMBA: I love zumba, it feels so good to move and listen to fun music with a group of ladies who are encouraging and positive. I've seriously nearly cried in my classes lately because I've needed the positive uplift so dearly.

CLAIRE: I have cherished cuddling my little almost 1 year old. She is so sweet, and I have loved sitting in our recliner and holding her as she falls asleep. It has helped me to relax and take a break.

THE BACKYARD: The warm weather has made it so Ruth and Will have spent hours in the backyard everyday. It has been so nice to send them out with their water bottles and be able to take an hour nap while they play in the sandbox or jump or swing.

I know I am truly blessed: Brad has such a good job, my kids are happy and growing and learning, and the only pregnancy symptoms I've had are being more tired than normal and super hungry. Well, now that I've vented a bit I feel much better, but I really should go find some of that Magic Milk!

Amalgamation

This is another A letter activity we did. I wrote big and little A's on the non sticky side of clear contact paper (little a's had to be written backwards, which was easy because they just look like capital D's). Then I cut out colored A's and a's so they could match them to the corresponding A's on the contact paper. They loved this activity and Will did surprisingly well putting the A's the right direction and matching them to the correct case. HOORAY. It's so rewarding to teach my kids and have them get it!

 Will loves Claire so much. He comes up to me quite frequently and says, "Mom, I love Claire sooo much." And I reassure him that she loves him too. He's just so rough with her!

She is getting into everything these days, here she's "helping" with the dishes. She's become such a busy-body recently that I've been telling her "no-no," so she has started saying "no-no" to everything too.

And this dude! He turned 3! I can't believe my little guy is already three. That also means we've lived in this house for three years. I can't believe how fast time has flown by. We had a fun day playing in the 90 degree weather.

I made him pizza for dinner, we opened presents, smacked open a pinata and ate brownies (idea courtesy Kristen).

This week Brad is once again out of town. Here we are romping around at Shoshone Falls park.

Update

Brian, Tia and kiddos came to visit last week which was a total blast. We went to Boise with them for a day and went to the aquarium. It looked lame from the outside but we had a ton of fun. 

 Unfortunately I didn't take any other pictures while they were here, be we also went on a picnic and a waterfall and played. It was so fun.

In other news, Ruth made herself a blue ribbon and glued it onto her clothes

Since our colors of the week ended up being successful (Will is now very color competent) I decided, since he's turning three next week, that he should start learning the letters. This week is the letter A. We made "A" animals:

We are making an "A" letter wall. It's awesome how I can adapt our activities for both kids. Ruth helps me come up with the "A" words and even wrote some of them, and Will looks at the words and shows us where the "A" is and tells us what sound the "A" makes.

 Today we made letter "A" sun catchers for the back door.

Yesterday was also Brad's birthday, like mine it was a pretty uneventful day for him. He went to work. When he came home we went to a greenhouse to get bushes and flowers for our front yard. Then I made him homemade mac and cheese with bacon and goat cheese and we had banana cream pie and strawberry rhubarb pie with ice cream. Happy 30th bebe!

April Stuff

 We made playdough 

 Brad had all the kids laughing with duck sounds

Ice cream while Brad was out of town

Claire eating her first ravioli, pasta is her new favorite

Will being a beast

 Ruth's costume for the dance show

More Stuff We've Done

Paint our hands and feet

Will so kindly shared his new pajamas with Ruth, who could hardly stand still

Yellow week crafts and activities

Yellow sorting

Yellow bee

Push-pin worksheets

Easter Eggs

Grandma watching the egg hunt

 Grandpa watching the egg hunt

My Birthday

My birthday started out super uneventful, like any other day. Zumba, park with kids, make food for people. But then Brad and I went out to a new sushi place and ordered a Happy Boat filled with chicken and beef teriyaki, sushi, potstickers, fried veggies and pineapple. I thought it was gonna be a little plate sized boat thing, but no, it took up our entire table...and it was delicious!

Spring Break

We had lots of fun with my parents and Uncle Matt

Days 3, 4, and 5 of Orange Week

We made ORANGE handprint flowers:

We played in our ORANGE tupperware and blew bubbles with ORANGE straws:

We made ORANGE tigers:

 And today we made ORANGE paint and made prints by only painting on one side of the paper:

This week we also got PINK eye!