SNOW "MAN"

Ben came home from school today and could hardly wait to get in his backpack. He pulled out this darling little snowman that he had made:

I was carefully looking him over when Ben said, pointing to the brown pipe cleaner on the bottom, "See this mom? It's his pee pee!"

MOM

I saw this questionaire on Facebook a while back and asked Nick to answer these questions about me:

1. What is something I always say? "What do you wanna have?" and "Make your bed!"
2. What makes me happy? If I give you a kiss.
3.  What makes me sad? If I don't do what you say.
4.  How do I make you laugh? By tickling me.
5.  What do you think I was like as a child? You were nice.
6.  How old am I? You're 33.
7.  How tall am I? You're four feet. No. More like five. Close to five.
8.  What is my favorite thing to do? Probably cook. You really like to cook. No, wait. You really like to      read with me.
9.  What do I do when you're not around? Go shopping.
10.  What am I really good at? Cooking.
11.  What am I not really good at? Electronics. Like putting in light bulbs and screwing in wires and stuff. No, wait. You're bad at planting. Practically all of our garden died.
12.  What is my job? Your job is a mom.
13.  What is my favorite food? Mashed potatoes, I don't know!
14.  What makes you proud of me? When you clean up my room instead of me.
15.  What do you and I play together? We throw the football up and down on the deck, we play board games and chit chat and look up cool things on the computer.
16.  How are we the same? We both wear socks.
17.  How are we different? I do karate and you don't.
18.  If I were a cartoon character, who would I be? Tweety bird.
19.  How do you know I love you? You make us meals.
20.  Where is my favorite place? Probably Five Guys. Or Texas Roadhouse. Or Chick-fil-et. Or with your family.

TAT

Not that I have much experience with the whole tatoo thing, but I think this is what the experts refer to as "sleeved out......"

PHONE CALL

I just got a call from the kids' school. Does anyone else get a tiny bit nervous when the school calls and the kids are already home for the day? My stomach cramps just a tiny bit....and we have really good kids! Anyways, it was Nick's teacher. And she was calling to tell me she forgot to send something home with him, but wanted to give me a "heads up." I thought I knew the meaning of a "heads up"...... But this time, I didn't. She was calling to let me know that Nick had been chosen, for the second time in his school career, as an outstanding role model, example, and friend to his classmates. His teacher was very excited to tell me that he will be having breakfast with the principal on Friday to celebrate what a great kid he is! She went on to say how she just "really loves" him and told me a cute story that "melted" her heart. The kids have been working on money values in class and earning play money which they can spend at the school store. On the day of the long awaited visit to the store, one of Nick's classmates realized he had lost one of his dollars. To go to the store each student had to have $5.00, and now this boy only had $4.00. The teacher had to tell the boy that he would need to earn another dollar before he was able to visit the store. Then, she said, Nick approached her with his wad of money and in private asked if he could give the classmate one of his dollars. She asked if he really wanted to do that and he said he was sure, that he wanted to share. She thought it was really something that a first grade boy would so easily give up something that he had worked so hard for. I was crying. Silently, of course. That was my Nick. The crazy loud boy with the gigantic heart. I was so so so proud of him.

He was at a friend's house when his teacher called so I waited to tell both him and Chris once they were home. I started out by telling them I got a phone call from the school and little Nick, bless him, said right off, "How come, Mom? I didn't do anything! What did I do?" I quickly got to the point of the call so he wouldn't get too sad. His face turned from worried to this sweet little precious smile as I retold the story the teacher had told me. It was a special moment for us as parents, I must say. We have good kids. They try so hard to choose the right. And at times, their little hearts seem bigger than their bodies! I love ya, Nicky. Eat lots of donuts on Friday! XO

This was definetly worthy of the red plate...

Fancy new t-shirt from Friday's breakfast!

CHESS

So back in December, Olivia had four teeth pulled by her dentist. (Small mouth, big teeth, hello braces...) She really was a champ at the appointment and the dentist rewarded her kindly with a $25.00 gift card to Target. Yeah, I know. Gone are the days of little rubber bouncy balls and flavored dental floss.

We headed to Target and I figured she would spend it all on gum, mechanical pencils and weird little stuff that kids love. But she has been very wise in her purchases. Her first and biggest purchase was this chess set. It came with all kinds of other games too and she was pretty excited to only have spent $11.00 on it. She has been begging me to play but I haven't a clue what that game is about. Tonight she got Chris into a game the second he walked in the door:

It was really fun to watch the two of them playing together. Chris narrowly won. Apparently Liv is a pretty decent chess player. His comment to me after the game was, "Don't ever play her. She will kill you...."

SUNBEAM

Today was Ben's first Sunday in the Sunbeam class at church and he was SO excited to be going to Primary with Nick. In fact, they held hands all the way down the hall on their way to the meeting room. And he wore the "CTR" necklace he colored in class the rest of the afternoon.....

 Early morning church services had us scrambling this morning. The kids were a little grumpy and not too sure what the heck was going on but I am sure we will be used to it in a few weeks. It is so nice to go at 9am and then have the afternoon to relax at home!

I love this picture! Ben wasn't thrilled in the least about mom pulling out the camera. He didn't care about the toothpaste dribbles on his pants/hair and he certainly wasn't going to tuck in his shirt or pull down the sleeves of his sweater to make himself a little more presentable.  I managed to get this giggle by going against everything I know to be right when I said to him, "Hey Ben, I think Nick tooted..." The things we do sometimes......

SNOW DAYS

I have lost count of how many snow days the kids have had in the last month. Maybe six? Seven? I know it's been enough to cut spring break short by three days, Easter break by one day and to add a couple more days to the last week of school. I think Missourians are crazy/wimpy, but that's only because I come from a place where winter is nine months long. I have to admit, it has been fun having them home. We (I) got caught off guard the first time around, and had to come up with stuff to keep them busy while they were home. We organized their school boxes, cleaned up their rooms, watched movies and played the wii. And it was nice enough outside that they spent a lot of time in the snow.

Every serious sledder wears ski goggles...

The second storm was a dakota-style blizzard. But we were ready. Groceries? Check. Hot cocoa with marshmellows? Check. Library books refreshed? Check. Craft projects? Check.  We did Valentines for the upcoming school parties and painted big brother/sister shirts for when the baby arrives. We read books by the fire and consumed large amounts of hot chocolate. And it was wonderful. So wonderful that I was a tiny bit sad when the three days were over...

I love watching Ben write his name...

I love these little rascals! Thanks for hanging out with me, guys! XOXOXOX

NEW YEARS EVE

The day before New Years Eve, we headed to Omaha to see some of our favorite friends from Chris' graduate school days at Creighton. The Eichmanns are (now) a fabulous family of seven who, dispite all of our moves, we have managed to see at least every year since we all parted ways. Last year they visited us for New Years and it was so much fun we decided it should be an annual thing. This trip, we really wanted to get to the temple so we dropped the kiddies off as soon as we got into town and flew then to the temple, making it just in time for the early session.

Winter Quarters Temple

Afterwards, the kids play beautifully so the big people laughed for hours over old memories and take-out fish from "The Dell." These are the kind of friends we just hang out with. No big complicated plans or running around, just hanging out. This year, the boys watched football and Becky and I were so immersed in "catch-up" conversation that we didn't get out of our pjs until 5pm! Once the moms were dressed, the party really got started. Our other friends, The Sorensen's stopped by for a bit and it was so great to see them, too. After lots of pizza, soda, and yummy snacks, we rang in the New Year with all the kids at 9:00pm...let's just say they needed to get to bed earlier than they had the night before!

The adults managed to keep each other awake until midnight, but barely. Things have changed since the rockin New Years parties we had back in school....wild games, late night friends and sleeping babies are long gone. (Seriously, we are getting old....!) After a few quick New Years kisses, it was lights out for the old folks too. 

Is it obvious that I really get into the whole New Years kissing thing?!

The next morning we packed up and headed home. It was such a fun few days catching up with great friends! Thanks guys! HAPPY NEW YEAR!