Let's catch up, shall we?

Last Wednesday was Ella's 9th birthday.

We started with our traditional breakfast in bed.  Most of the kids really make it easy on me.  They know that I will buy a box of cereal of their choice (even sugar bombs) so they usually just want that.   Waffle Crisp, juice, milk and fruit and she was happy!

I don't do friend parties for the kids every year.  This was an off year for Ella, but she definitely had a plan.  She wanted to get pedicures with me and then go to lunch and canoeing with dad.

We had a great time getting pedicures.  She loves the massage chair.  She got a manicure too since she was done long before me.   She hasn't bitten her nails in over a week and was super excited to show me that she is growing nails.

Marc has been busy at work and had to fix someone's something in surgery that day so lunch had to wait.  They tried to go canoeing, but Marc didn't get home early enough to make the last departure at 3pm.  Then they tried to go paddle boating and thunder and lightning rolled in.  They finally ended up at a local indoor go cart place.  

We did have a couple of families over in the evening for cake and ice cream sundaes so Ella would feel special.

Happy Birthday Ella!  We love you lots!

Thank You Taryn!

For those of you who thought I had forgotten about this blog, I didn't.  After I changed the template, the sign in tab at the top disappeared and I could not figure out how to access it!  My sister-in-law Taryn sent me a message with another way to sign in and it worked!  I was almost sick at the thought of losing all those potential blog books!  Updates soon!

Marc generously gifted to me (and himself) smart phones for Christmas.  It has been fun to learn to use it and to have apps to entertain the kids when I need to.  Mary has recently learned how to use the camera on my phone.  As I looked over the pictures, I realized a few things.

1.  She has taken ALOT of pictures.  

2.  I must hand her my phone very frequently.

3.  She has done a great job documenting what we have been up to!

Here are pictures she has taken as we have been out and about...

This is her view from the inside of my car.  No idea where we were or what we were doing but we do seems to spend a lot of time in the car!

We stopped at Marc's office one day to drop something off.  So she took a picture of daddy.  This picture is actually pretty good.  Most of the ones she takes of me are of my chest or belly! 

My feet and my mom's feet when we were out for our weekly lunch date.

Cousin Megan at that same lunch date.

 While shopping for a couch for the basement.

On a side note, I have been wondering whose genius idea it was to build a big open basement like we have and then put a 29 inch door at the top?  It is hard to find a comfortable couch that will fit.   We ordered one that we think (hope, pray) will barely squeeze through.  I'll let you know when they try to deliver it.

The girls had dress rehearsal for their dance recital.  Mary was done long before Sarah so she took pictures. Sarah is the last on the left in this picture.

I actually took this one.  She is giving me a hug while we wait in line at King's Island.

Tanner playing his DS on the way home from his football game.  For those of you who live in the midwest, you know what last Saturday was like.  The game was supposed to start at 4 pm.  We had to be there 45 minutes early.  It was 45 minutes away.  It didn't actually start until 4:45.  It had to have been 95 degrees at that time and humid.  Tanner's hair is wet from sweating.  It was miserable.  

Waiting forever at the Health and Human Services office working on some disability applications for Rylee.  I came home that day and thanked Marc for being such a good provider.

BTW, did you know food stamps make America stronger.  Me neither, but that is what the sign on the wall said.

Ella's music program.  I think I had at least 25 pictures of that zigzaggy shirt in front of us.

So that's what we've been up to, from Mary's perspective.

Three more days of school and we are ready for summer around here!!

Special Olympics

Rylee participated in her first Special Olympics a couple of weekends ago.

Here she is at the opening ceremony.

Here she is holding on for dear life as she took gold in the wheelchair race!

Next off to take bronze in the softball throw.

Enjoying the sweet taste of victory.

It was a beautiful day of positive energy and inspiring athletes.

The next picture has nothing to do with the special olympics.

I am posting it because it is funny.

Mary's reaction one morning when I told her she had to have oatmeal for breakfast.

Home improvement

It has been a couple of years since we painted the girls room and lost all motivation to paint.  A few weeks ago I finally gave in to Tanner's begging to have his room painted.  It has been beige chiffon (builder's beige) for nearly four years.  I chose a gray to go with his camo bedspread and he chose cougar blue for the fourth wall.  I think it turned out great.  I got the big vinyl 'Y' on Etsy and used magnetic paint under the blue (I don't recommend that) so we can put up some more posters wherever he wants.

We are trying really hard to convince all the kids that BYU is it.  So far I think Tanner is a believer!

And so it begins...

We have started to orthodontic process with Tanner.  His first appointment was uneventful but yesterday he had to have impressions done.  The only improvement in that process since I had it done is that it only takes 20 seconds and they flavor the play dough that they stick in the tray.  Otherwise it appeared just as I remembered!  Poor kid gagged and had watery eyes it was so bad!  He said he hopes he doesn't have to do that again!  Me, too.

Careful what you ask for

For I while I have been super frustrated by the state of my children's bedrooms.  The majority of our toys are in the basement but they each had a few in their rooms.  We have a rule that the kids can't have breakfast until they are dressed, bed made and room picked up, but their rooms always seemed to get messy enough that I would have to help them clean it really well every couple of weeks.  So I had the brilliant idea that we should move all the toys to the basement thinking that if there are not toys in their rooms there can be no mess.

So one Saturday I left to go grocery shopping.  I go on Saturday and fight the crowds because then I can go solo!  I asked Marc before I left to have the kids take ALL their toys down to the basement and told him my plan.  When I came home I was happy to hear that all the toys had been moved to the basement.  When I went down there however, I was no longer happy.  They had all thrown everything in a pile at the bottom of the stairs and called it good.  Here is what it looked like!

Clearly it was time for a good purge, so I decided to tackle it myself while the kids were at school.  That way there would be no, "but mom, I love that toy" from anyone as I tried to throw it away!  It took me more than a week to get it done, but it did get done.  I threw away three big lawn bags of trash and made a big pile for a garage sale.

It has been a few weeks and except for some minor messes the kids have done a good job of keeping it clean.  I think (hope) they are starting to realize that it is more fun to play with toys when all the pieces are together.