Friday Match 18

I kept Cassi home today because I am pretty sure she has pink eye.
And the viral kind, so I can't give her anything for it, just have to wait it out.
So she was a good helper for me while the kids were gone to school.
Dad spent the morning ding outdoors stuff.
Anything to avoid house work ;)
Ha ha......he got the weeds sprayed, cut up some fire wood, and cleaned up around the deck.
And Cass and I did cleaning inside.
We had planned for a get together with the Salisbury's and the Terry's.
I told them about Cassi's pink eye, and they still all wanted to come :)
It has been years since we have all hung out together.
And now that the Salisbury's have moved back here from Minnesota, we can get together more often!
Dad also had scheduled to go to Elsie's class to talk about his career.
So we went there, and Elsie was so excited to have him talk to her class!
They LOVED having him come in!
They had so many questions for him, and good questions too!
I think dad had as much fun as they did :)
Then we came home and got the food and everything ready for our guests.
They all came about 6.
We talked and ate and talked more.
The kids all played and the weather wasn't terrible....it was windy, but not too cold.
So we had a fire with s'mores later on.

It is fun to spend the time together.
When we all lived by each other we had many, many fires and dinners together!
One of my favorite parts of the night.....Port and Laela :)
He is so sweet to her......and they keep each other calm.
Which is just amazing in itself!
Gotta collect all the pictures I can for the future wedding slideshow ;)

Thursday March 17

I have some fun pictures from the leprechaun's visit.

Port set a trap....and almost caught him!

But he must have chewed his way out!

But he left a mess with green footprints on the fridge, leaving green milk.

Dropping gold (rolos) all over the floor.

And using the potty, leaving footprints there and green inside.

Stinker even turned the fishbowl green!

It was a fun morning :)

After the kids went to school, dad and I went and ran some errands.

Then Drew and Heather came over.

Drew took some measurements for the cupboard doors.

Then we all went to Boise Fry Company for lunch.

So that was a fun time.

When we got home, we (Brent) took the tractor through the garden so we can get it ready to plant.

Yay!

I am excited to have my garden this year!

I picked Cassi up from school because she had a headache and felt nauseous.

She came home and laid down, and seemed to feel better after that.

Dad got the old mower going for Port.

Port has been wanting to turn it into a tank......

So they have worked on taking the mower parts off.

Anyway, Port wanted to drive it today.

And it was going good, until it died :(

Port's sad face when it died......so sad!

Dad thinks it needs a new engine........and Port is so sad!

They didn't tinker with it too much, because we had to get ready for Elsie's music program.

Elsie has been so excited for her program!

It has been a day to day countdown for at least a month!

She had a speaking part.

She said "We could go t the mountains and go hiking."

And she rocked it!!!!!

I took lots of pictures, but she was just so gosh darn cute!

We are very proud of her :)

Port took himself some stuff to entertain himself......and made this sign to wear on his head.

How cute is that?

It was a very cute program!

Wednesday March 16

Drew and Heather are putting in cement at their place.

And they removed a bunch of sod.

Well, since we are super happy to take anything free :)

We got the sod!

It has been sitting on the trailer for a few days, and today we finally got to put it down.

When we were putting the trusses up, one of the vehicles put some ruts in the back yard.

So that is where we put the sod, to help bring them back up and level.

Then Brent dug up and then reseeded the rest, or most of the back lawn, and other areas around the place.

Port was a big helper after school.

The big girls helped dad spread the grass seed too, while Elsie and I made dinner.

It will be nice to have real good grass in the back area!

It was so rainy and yucky again today.

I just want it to be nice weather!!!!

I did do some more pruning today.

Until I broke my cutters :(

That is a sign of way too many trees to prune!!!!!!

Ha ha.....I sure hope we get something from them this year!

Then after school it was the regular Wednesday run around.

Cassi piano, pick up little kids, pick up Cassi from piano.

Then we had dinner and the big girls and I had YW tonight.

We had a game/s'mores night.

Glad the rain cleared up!

But it was still cold :(

Port, driving the tractor all by himself :)

Lots of youth!!!!!
This is only a fraction of them!

Tuesday March 15

I helped in the office this morning, and then in Port's class.

I got home and Dad and I had lunch together, then did laundry together :)

So romantic.

He went and picked Madi up from school so he could take her to the DMV to get her permit.

So crazy....the thought of her driving.

But kind of exciting too :)

I picked up the little kiddos and then Elsie had speech.

Cassi had track again.

Poor girls has been so sore!

But I told her to be thankful that we have been excising together, or she would be a million times more sore!

She tried out the high jump today and she really likes it.

They haven't picked their 'events' yet.

But she is pretty excited about that high jump :)

Cassi got home about 5:15 and we had to hurry and eat dinner all together, because Port's football practice was at 5:45.

We left the girls home to clean up and do homework.

It was so cold out there....but port was so awesome!

He is like a little bullet with the football!

And he has a way of moving around that make it hard for anyone to pull his flags!

He is having so much fun, and so is dad :)

Then tonight, we had a little family movie night.

We watched 'The good Dinosaur'.

It was a cute one.

That definitely ended with a  few tears in our eyes....

But the best part, according to Elsie, are the long horn buffalo in the movie :)

It was a nice evening together.

Monday March 14

I want to start off with a baby update!!!!!

Both babies are doing so well!

After a long hard time with a very bad virus, Cole was sent home today!!!!!

Such exciting, and unexpected news!

Look how happy he looks!

So happy they get to be all back together again!!!!!

And sweet Kaiya got to go home last Monday!

She is doing so good.

She had to be put back on oxygen because of the altitude change from where they live vs. the hospital.

But I am sure she will be off it in no time!

Those sweet big eyes......what a darling!

So happy for them to have her home with them to cuddle!

*****

The day today was one thing after another, it felt like.

You know, when I finally got all my kids in school i thought I would have so much extra time on my hands!!!!!!

Not the case!

That's okay, it's all good stuff.

So I helped in the office this morning.

Then I went VT and that was a nice time.

I did some laundry, some cleaning,but not as much as I wanted to.

And I did some shopping for a few things we needed to stock up on.

Then Madi was home and then I picked the kids.

Cassi started Track today, which is fun!

She is excited about it :)

We got a carpool together, so that will help out a lot!

She had to workout in the hail storm we had come through!!!!

The little kids thought it was so much fun to play in :)

When they were all home, we had dinner.

I made pie....as in pizza pie, in honor of Pi day :)

Then we took a little drive to visit the Young's.

It is Kara's birthday today!

And Madi wanted to take her a present :)

It was a fun quick visit.....

Besides the fact that Porter was terrible :(

I don't know what got into him.......but I told him he made me super sad because he wouldn't listen to me when I asked him to calm down.

He had a talking-to when we got home and he was sorry for not listening.

Now we can only hope that Heather will let him back in her house again!

 

Sunday March 13

Today as stake conference......and I was really tempted to just leave the kids home and go......

But we all went and they did surprisingly well with the 2 hour block :)

As long as I gave Elsie unlimited access to the drinking fountain.....

After church we had lunch and the kids played a lot of organ music.

It is nice that Cassi is able to play some stuff so it isn't too much of me yelling at them for pounding on it.

They do tend to turn it up too loud sometimes though.......

O started rewarding Elsie and Port fake money for doing homework as soon as I ask, extra reading, doing extra chores.

And on Sunday's I let them pick out of what we are calling the "Grandma box".

Grandma Ene always had a box full of dollar store toys for the kids to pick from.

So that is where we got the name from :)

Port and I spent a couple hours on a coloring/activity book that he picked out.

I was pretty lousy at making dinner for them.

I let them pick whatever they wanted to eat.

We had quite a range....anywhere from Ramen noodles to oatmeal.

At least they didn't go to bed hungry!

Dad had a fun day today.

They got a call to come and help out at the Wings center where they were doing a courageous kids climb.

It is where disabled kids get to go and play at the wings center and climb the rock wall and stuff.

They have done it the past few years....but it is always on a Sunday, so we have never taken Elsie.

But It was such a fun time for Dad!

And even more fun, he got to work with Katie, Elsie's PT. the whole day!

Fun stuff!

And afterwards, Katie picked up her hubby and boys and they went to visit him at the fire station.

He told me about one of the boys.

His name was Jonathan and he is 11 years old.

Brent was saying how super smart he was.

Then he heard someone speaking Spanish and he got all excited and said he had just started learning Spanish a month ago and he wanted to try and have a conversation.

The fire guys were like, ya you just wanna say Hi?

And his mom said that no, he was 45% fluent in Spanish after one month!

Crazy!

Just amazing!

So it was a super fun day for Jonathan, but also for Brent :)

  

That's Katie in the pink shirt :)

And that boy is Jonathan.

Saturday March 12 (add pictures)

It was a late night (that is why am writing this Sunday morning....)

It was our stake conference, and afterwards we went out to dessert with Stacia and Paul.

Then getting the kids to bed, I kinda spaced blogging......

And now I am understanding why I write on the same day....because I feel like I can't even remember what happened yesterday.

Seriously, I think I have the worst memory ever!

So it was just a regular Saturday morning getting chores done.

After lunch Madi went to a friends house to work on an English assignment.

Oh, and Port and Dad went with Paul to visit a WWII POW.

Paul has been to visit him a couple times and took Brent with him.

Port was SO SAD not to get to visit a real Army guy......so they took him.

He had so much fun and was so excited to tell me his stories!

I did some quick errands after dropping off Madi at her friends....

When Dad and Paul came back they came back with an organ.

So I guess this guy, Clint, wanted to give his organ away so it could be used.

Now it is sitting in our front room.

The kids have loved playing it!

Lets see, I did go for a run.

And got more sheets washed and laundry done.

Then after dinner, Brent and I got ready and went to the adult session of stake conference.

It was so good!

I wish so badly I could get a written transcript of the night.

So many great speaker and I really should have taken notes!

But I left with a resolve to be a better person, to attend the temple more, to be happier for what I have been given, and most of all to be a better wife.

Afterwards we went to the Ram to get bread pudding with Stacia and Paul.

Oh I also got some tree trimming done during some part of the day.

And Brent finished the drawer fronts for the built in.

Maybe I will get it painted Monday........

Friday March 11

I spent my day cleaning upstairs.....

Well, I kinda got side tracked and hung pictures on Cassi's wall.

And I put a bunch of books on the front room bookshelves.....

But I still did get stuff clean and lots of sheets washed and laundry done.

Dad was gone for a lot of the day.

They give the guys who take the test a chance to go over it and argue questions that they got wrong.

So that is what he was doing today.

He also went and helped at Drew's house for a little bit......they are breaking up cement and going to put new stuff in.

After school, Madi went to the middle school basketball game with Cassi.

It was the 8th grade girls vs. the 8th grade boys.

Sounds like it was a fun game.

Elsie had her friend Belle come over after school.

They had fun for a little bit until Elsie, well, had a meltdown.

Then Belle played with Graham and Max and Port until her mom came to get her.

After that the boys played some football, well, practiced.

They are so cute :)

Cassi also had her friend Laynie over.

They have been talking about singing together.....so that is pretty much what they did all afternoon :)

And Madi babysat tonight.

She babysat her favorite little baby, so she was super happy about it :)