Dr. Seuss week...

It was crazy hair day at school for Dr. Seuss week!  Juliet wanted this fun do.  There's a plastic cup in that ponytail.  And then leftover Halloween spray.  

We did another crazy hairdo the next day but I neglected to snap any pics.  She had tons of little twists that remind me of snakes.  When we took them out, she had crazy frizzy hair with tons of body.

And it's Leap Day!  I wish I could say that I took full advantage of an extra day in the year but it silently slipped away without any sort of spectacle or notice.  Sometimes that's just how it is.

It feels like Spring...

We are loving the warmer weather!  Mark and Mikayla want to play outside all day!

It feels like Spring because my apricot tree is starting to bloom!

We've also been doing yard work to get everything ready for Spring.  :)

Birthday week...

From Valentine's to my birthday has always been fun for me.  My birthday is usually pretty close to President's Day and I love having a day off from school and work around my birthday.  Lucky me!!  Merril surprised me with a night in Springdale for my birthday.

Merril's Dad came and watched the kids so we could spend a night away.  We got there at dinner but didn't want to eat until later so we decided to go on a little hike by the river while it was still light.

It was a pleasant hike and just the right amount of exercise.  Merril has decided to do the St. George IronMan in May so he's always up for some exercise.

As we finished the hike, the sun was just setting and we went to check into our hotel.  Merril worked on a machine and traded it for a night at the Flanigan's Inn.  The Tuesday after President's Day was dead.  We had the whole town to ourselves.

The hotel had a bidet!  (Which we used, I might add.)

We ate dinner at the Whiptail Grill across the street and then went back to the hotel to sit in the hot tub.  Merril also looked up a batch of questions that are supposed to make you fall in love.  We're already in love but they started some interesting conversations.  Like, "If you could wake up tomorrow with any ability, what would it be?"  I chose to be fluent in every possible language.  Wouldn't that be great for traveling??

We went to bed and woke up on my birthday and I opened presents.  I got some art, pictured below, new speakers for the Tahoe and an external hard drive.  Then Merril went for a long bike ride and I went for a short run.  After getting back, I went to a store to grab a breakfast snack and then sat in bed and watched whatever I wanted.  (That's a rarity in the mornings at my house.)  Then Merril came back and we got ready and went out to brunch.

We decided to get a famous Springdale bumbleberry pie for 'birthday cake.'  Unfortunately, they didn't have any whole pies ready, just one that they'd sold a slice out of.  We bought it anyway.

I got some silver candles at the store because that's the color that Mikayla wanted.  She really wanted a silver set that said, "29 again" but I objected because I'm proud to be 36 and don't feel the need to be stuck in the past.  

Some people like big crowds for their birthday but I'm better with just my little family.

Pie is way better than cake.

This is the picture series that Merril gave me.  I'd liked something similar on Facebook and it popped up on his feed.  Naturally, he knew the person.  She runs the place he goes and gets protein shakes.  He traded an afternoon of singing at her place for the pictures.  Hee hee.  I think it's splendid and wonderful to see any time of day.

What a great birthday!

Valentine's Day...

Valentine's Day landed on a Sunday.  That can end up being a little tricky because we can't go out to eat or celebrate in traditional ways.  Merril brought home flowers late on the 13th.  Purple orchids!  Gorgeous!  Those blooms last for at least a month so I'll have beautiful flowers to look at into March and April!  What a sweetie!

Merril got a new suit for Christmas and looks good in the slimmer style of newer suits.  These were our church outfits.  We didn't go anywhere for dinner except to my parent's house.  

May birthday week begin!

Not quite time for sprinklers...

I'm testing the sprinklers but to a child that means, "Go get on your swimsuit because it's time to get wet."  It was barely 70 degrees but Mikayla couldn't resist sprinkler testing.

Looks cold to me.

She loved it.

Part of me doesn't want to squash her adventurous spirit.  What do I care if she freezes her toes off by running through the sprinklers in February?  Whatever floats your boat, man.

Birthday #4 for Mikayla...

Can't believe she's 4.  She pronounces nightgown as night-gallon.  I secretly love it and don't even correct her.  Ha ha.  Maybe it's a way of trying to preserve her smallness.

Behold the cake!  It's strawberry on the inside and whipped cream on the outside.  The kids wanted to pipe designs on it.  I just let them do it, I didn't even help.

Mikayla loved it so that's all that matters.

I love blowing out candle faces.

And then it's time for presents!

Markers and paints were from Grandma Campbell.

The bean bag chair was from us.  Grandma Gordon got her a spirograph.  The older girls had fun playing with it.

Happy Birthday Mikayla!  Here's to many more!

Game night...

Merril made some new friends mountain biking and learned that they are also friends of our neighbors, the Chamberlains.  We were invited to a game night, something Merril and I were a little scared of because we're not real big board-game lovers.  The games turned out to be really fun, including this one were one tries to bounce ping pong balls into a tic-tac-toe pattern.  The opposing team is trying to do the same.  Our team lost but Merril and I celebrated personal victories because we both one.  My opposing team member didn't even land a ping pong ball in the water cups at all and I landed 6. 

 It was fun.

Afternoon tea...

Mikayla started preschool with lots of enthusiasm.  Now she's discovered that she has to do her work in order to go to recess and she doesn't like that.  Today she was crying because she really didn't want to go to preschool.  I told her that if she went, we could do something fun when she got home.  She requested a tea party on my real china.  Oi.  

But then I got over it and decided that it hardly gets used.  We might as well used it.  We had milk in the tea pot and pretzels and orange slices.  

She loved using the real tea cups and it was fun.  Nothing broke and we had some great buddy time.

Check out the snow!

We wished and hoped for snow at Christmas and it just didn't happen.  However, we finally got some now that it's February.  Mikayla just likes to eat the big snow balls.

Julie and Jack were attempting to make a snow forts.  It didn't really turn out.

Jack launched snowballs anyway.

Why don't you see Maxine?  Because Maxine cut her finger really bad while making her lunch.  It could've used some stitches but Merril just wrapped it up and she earned herself a day home from school.  She's just barely gotten over the whole sprained ankle thing.  I hope injuries don't come in threes.

 Mark's not out there because I don't have quite enough snow boots for both him and Mikayla.  She wears a 9 and he wears an 8 and I only have 1 set of boots that fit.  So he stayed inside and looked at the snow from the front door.

I let them play in the snow and then then drove them to school.

I probably could've let them stay home all day but feel that school is important and after playing for an hour and a half, they can head to school.

Step stool table...

My kids love to eat their food on a step stool.  They sit on one step and use the other as a table.  Mikayla doesn't do it as often as she used to.  Mark eats most midday meals and snacks at a step stool.  For some reason it doesn't apply to breakfast and dinner as much.  

Little hike by our house...

It must be the month for cinder cones because we found another right by our house.  We'd seen the trailhead but never ventured.  We decided to go get some exercise.

Julie didn't want to go so we left her at home with Mark, who was napping.

Jack, Mikayla, Maxine, Merril and Jamie hiked.

It was short and the top of the cinder cone looked like Mars.  It was barren with lots of red lava pebbles.  Now we know what's up there.

Big kid bed for Mark...

Mark has been sleeping in a pack and play in Jack's closet for a while now.  He pretty much fills the whole space.  If his head is touching one side, his feet touch the other.  For a few months, I've been ready to move him out to the bottom bunk but we were busy with the holidays.  I also needed curtains on the window to block out the light.  Got the curtains up, found a twin mattress on Craigslist and out he moved to his big bed.  

I was worried he wouldn't like it and he would try to climb out when it was nap time.  I'm happy to say that he goes right down for naps and stays in when it's bed time!  Wahoo!

Update:  The first week, I heard him open his door to get out and wander around in the basement.  I yelled down "Mark, go get in bed!"  He ran back to bed and had a nap, no problem.  He's a really great kid.

Decorating the mantle...

I feel like we are born with certain gifts.  Home decor is not my strong suit.  I took Julie with me and we headed out to find some things to go on the basement mantle.

It's taken a few weeks but I'm pleased with these items!

The huge marquee letter C lights up and is my favorite piece by far!  The lantern and the marquee letter are battery operated so I don't need to get any wires to them.  I think it turned out great!

Mikayla's fever...

Mikayla came down with a fever Sunday afternoon and it didn't quit for 4 days.  She threw up a couple of times so I figured it was a flu bug.  After giving her a bath on Wednesday morning, I toweled off her head and she said her ear hurt.  Knowing this, I massaged her neck and put a warm compress on her ear and within hours, her fever cleared up and she was fine!  The next day she wanted a hamburger and I agreed because she'd hardly eaten anything for 4 days and had lost 2 pounds.  We had Wendy's at 10:30 a.m.  That's the perk of being a stay at home Mom and getting to choose how we spend our days.  I'm very lucky!

I just threw this last picture in because I think it's silly.  Mark loves sunglasses.  Merril said he looks like the unibomber from way back when.  Ha ha!

Maxine's sprained foot...

On the first day back to school after the Christmas break, Maxine was stepping off the bus at school and rolled her ankle.  She hopped to first period and second but realized that her foot really hurt and wasn't just going to be able to walk it off.  She went to the office and they pulled off her boot.  Her foot had swollen considerably and so they iced it for a few minutes and decided to call home.  I picked her up and we wrapped and elevated her foot.  

We borrowed some crutches from Grandma Gordon and she hobbled around of them.  She stayed home the first day but used the crutches at school for the rest of the week.  We drove her to and from school so she wouldn't have to use the bus.

This is a week later and the swelling is going down and you can see the bruised ankle.  The bruising has leaked down to her toes, there was nothing wrong with them.

She got a lot of help from friends at school and was able to use the elevator, which is reserved for kids with injuries or a handicap.  

Update: After a week and a half, she was tired of the crutches and started walking with a limp.  After 2 1/2 weeks, she was walking normally again.

Hiking up the Cinder Cone by Veyo...

During the Christmas Break, Merril had to go fix something in Veyo and so we all decided to hike up the cinder cone.

It was kind of a cold day, a little windy and no sun.  We tried to bundle everyone up and most were fine.

Mikayla wanted to hike in a princess dress.  Go figure.

Mark was okay on the way up but was pretty grumpy on the way back because it was past his nap time.  

I ended up carrying a blanket that Juliet didn't want anymore.  I was a little chilly but not too bad.

It was a good little adventure.

By the time we got back to the car, Mark little hands were freezing.  I sat in the back to try and warm him up.  He cried until I warmed his hands with mine and then he totally zonked out and slept all the way home.