Gold Forks day

Today has been another great...and very relaxing day.

We both slept in.

I had no idea I could sleep all the way until 8:30...crazy stuff!

It sure was nice.

We got up...ate some breakfast and hopped in the hot tub again.

It was snowing...kinda of a lot...

That was fun to sit in the hot tub while getting snowed on.

Then we laid around and watched movies and cuddled.

That is what vacation is for, right?

Later in the day we took a drive around.

And we decided to go to Gold Forks Hot Springs.

It was a pretty bad drive up there.

Lots of snow.

But we made it there, safe and sound.

And it was so much fun.

Such a great hot springs place.

And amazingly beautiful views, especially with the newly fallen snow.

We almost had the place to ourselves.

There was another little family there.

It made us really lonely for our little ones.

And we are definitely planning a trip out here with them.

It had a lot of different pools with the hottest being a 108 degrees.

It was the coolest thing...watching the natural hot water coming out of the rocks.

Man, I love nature!

It was nice a steamy.

I told Brent that our poor skin isn't gonna know what to do when we go back home.

We have been immersed with hot water the whole vacation.

But it sure is nice.

It really was beautiful.

We got to talk with the little ones again too.

It is silly.

I am totally loving the time with just Brent and I.

Joking and playing around and teasing and snuggling.

It is so great.

But both of us have a hard time forgetting about the kiddos.

We keep saying, "Oh Madi would love this!" or "Cassi would love that!"

How much Elsie would love the hot tub...and how much Porter would love the snow.

We sure miss them.

According to Em, they have been pretty good today.

And last night wasn't too bad for her.

I hope they have a great night tonight...and I can't wait to see them tomorrow!

Just the two of us.....

Oh man...this is so much FUN!!!!

It is so beautiful here.

This is just what we needed.

Look how BEAUTIFUL this is...all nestled in the woods.

Our very own Hot tub...

We left home around noon.

Did some shopping for some groceries....and got to the cabin around 2.

After unpacking and jumping in the hot tub....we made a really REALLY yummy dinner!

Okay...cheesy picture, I know...

But it sure was yummy!

And, or course, we can't end the night without telling the little ones how much we love them.

We walked the laptop around the cabin to give them a tour of the place.

And we told them that we definitely plan to bring them here some time soon.

Cause they would LOVE it here!

We sure to miss those kiddos.

The peace and quiet is sure nice, but we still miss those noisy messy kiddos!

Sounds like things went pretty good for Emmy today.

I wish her the best of luck tonight.

I hope they all sleep really good!

Thanks, Em.

We really are so very thankful for you and your willingness to do this for us!

We love you.

Happy Valentines Day!!!

Happy HEART day.

We all had a fun day here.

Elsie got to take Emmy to school today and show her off.

One of her teachers told Emily that she was like a rock star there at school the way Elsie spoke about her.

The kids had a lot of fun...just sugar after sugar...

And more sugar...

They had a little game/therapy with these tongs picking up sweethearts.

Then they decorated cookies...

Then they got a big chocolate cupcake...

THEN they got a pink rice krispy treat...

SO MUCH SUGAR!!!!!

But it sure was a fun time.

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For dinner tonight we made fun pink heart pancakes with fruit and whipped cream.

Yummy!

Now I need to start thinking about packing.

We leave tomorrow.

I am excited for some time away with my hubby.

I am so Thankful to Emmy, and her willingness to stay with my kiddos.

I am so glad she loves them so much!!!!

I just hope they are perfect Angels for her.

(I swear I do NOT teach that head tilt that my kids tend to do for pictures...I think it is so funny that they do it!)

I sure hope she survives!

Emily has got to be so exhausted.

In church today she had a hard time keeping her eyes open.

Yes, she is in primary in her ward, so just sitting there is a hard thing to do!

But I do think that her exhaustion has a lot to do with these little kiddos of mine.

Elsie holds her hand and races back and forth and back and forth all around down stairs...all day long.

Porter likes to wrestle her and tackle her.

Elsie spurts out "I love you Emmy!!!" about every 10 min and gives her a giant hug along with it....it is pretty cute.

Porter likes to shove things up, or down, her shirt.

Oh, did I say that Port likes to tackle her?

Oh, we sure do love having her here...

I hope she is enjoying herself...

And I hope she can get enough sleep.

And we just thought that Porters diaper was pretty funny.

I wonder how much these things can hold?

Can't get enough Emmy!

Elsie has not left Emmy's side.

One time Emmy went to the bathroom, and Elsie kept yelling from the bottom of the stairs, "You done yet?  You done yet????"

Emmy might be completely exhausted by the time we even leave for our vacation.

Let's hope she survives!

They sat in the kitchen for a long time singing primary songs.

Elsie always has such an endearing look in her eyes when she looks at her Emmy.

It is pretty great.

A couple weeks ago we ordered new doors for the downstairs.

They finally came in, and Brent put them up today....I am so in love with them.

They still need to be painted...but we will wait until the weather is warmer so we can pull out our paint sprayer and do a good job.

But they are solid wood, and they just look so beautiful.

I can't wait to finally get the kitchen finished...but that will still take a while.

The picture shows the before on the left and the after on the right.

I love the straight lines...

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We had a fun night.

We all hopped in the car and went out to eat at Red Robin.

Good stuff.

Then we came home and they had ice cream floats...and then we put some very tired kids to bed.

It was a good day.

And the mauling of Emmy begins!!!

Emmy made it here safe and sound.

Elsie waited around all day long....

She was upstairs when Emmy showed up.

Madi went and got Elsie...and she must have been hyperventilating...

When she got to Emily she had no color in her lips and she looked VERY pale.

Needless to say, so was VERY EXCITED to see her Emmy.

Elsie didn't leave Emmy's side all night until she went to bed.

And I have a feeling that is how it is gonna be for the whole week.

It came!!!!!!!

I am so excited!!!!

Our big book came today.

And I think it is beautiful!

I am so happy with it, and can't wait to do year after year.

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Today went a lot better.

I guess you gotta have the bad days to appreciate the good days.

The kiddos all slept good last night.

The morning went by pretty smoothly.

Got the things that needed to get done.

We are just looking forward, and very excited, for when Emmy comes tomorrow!

Kinda rough.

Sometimes you just have a bad day.

I am thinking that kinda happened around this place to most of the ones who live here.

Elsie was up at 3:30...and went back to sleep at 6:00.

Porter woke up at 6:30...so that makes me VERY tired.

My visiting teachers came over this morning....and while they were here, I got a call from the school saying that Elsie Had fallen at school and now she wasn't putting any weight on her leg.

So I went and got her.

They told me that she had fallen three times during P.E.

The first two times, she needed help getting up.

The third time they said it was a really loud crack...and she couldn't put weight on it after that.

I brought her home and we just relaxed...I waited to see how bad it was, and if I needed to take her into the Dr.

She scooted around all day on her bum...and then after a few hours of that, she tried to walk again, and this time she could do it.

So I am not exactly sure what happened.

Her knee is very bruised up...but she can walk.

Poor kid.

I felt bad for her.

I hope she gets some good sleep tonight.

She tends to fall more often when she is tired, or the weather is cold...or if she is sick.

Let's just cross our fingers that tomorrow goes well.

I did get a 20 min nap while Porter was sleeping and Elsie was watching Elmo's world.

So that was nice.

I had to get a few groceries...so we went out.

Things were okay.

And I even got to the gym again, thanks to Jenni.
When the big girls got home...they opened the letter we got in the mail from Aunt Emmy today with some cute little Valentines in it.

Little Valentines with tattoos inside.

Well, Cassi went right away to put the tattoo on...and it kinda smudged a little bit...and her world fell apart.

I felt bad...but it was hard not to laugh, and I didn't, because she was so dramatic about it.

Porter kept looking at her like he had no idea what in the world was happening.

And he tried to do his best to console her.

Isn't that just the sweetest thing?

Anyway, I guess Madi had a rough day too, she is getting a bit stressed about this PACE project that they are starting at school.

I am kinda bummed that she was assigned someone she isn't too interested in.

But I keep telling her we will keep reading and she will find something interesting about him.

But when she gets stressed, there really is no reasoning with her.

I think we are all needing Dad back around.

That will be nice.

We miss you Dad.

Bubble bath....in the car...

So it was kind of a full day today.

But it was a fun day.

Even though I feel like my head is gonna explode!!!

Dumb sinuses!

Anyway....

Thanks to Elmo's World today, and his Bath theme...the toy car got turned into a bathtub.

That Elsie does have a pretty great imagination...and she makes do with what she has.

Porter is happy to play along...he is learning a lot from her about imaginative play.

He didn't seem too sure about Elsie giving his hair a nice washing...I think he thought she had gone bonkers!

I thought it was hilarious!

Madi put a little house together for the car turned bathtub to fit into.

I had the box from the basketball hoop in a closet upstairs, that I took out to throw away...

Perfect roof for a nice big house.

Elsie was loving it....Porter just wanted to get ON the roof.

Happy Elsie was not happy when I made them get out for dinner.

Cassi was hanging out in her room upstairs making some kind of craft...I think she was making herself a calendar.

I love when they go on their own and do their own little creative thing...I guess even if it messes up the bedroom that I cleaned earlier today.

She is pretty funny...she  puts Taylor Swift on loud, zones out and then gets crafting...usually singing along with Taylor.

And I do love her voice.

Madi Bell had activity days today.

I really think that is a fun program to have...and I wish it was around when I was younger.

She has gotten to do a lot of fun things....while hanging out with good quality friends.

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I kept Elsie home today cause she said her tummy hurt...but she was great all day.

I am a little worried though...she had a little bit of a hard time going to sleep and kept saying that her ear hurt.

No fun.

I hope she doesn't have an ear infection too.

And she WILL NOT take medicine...hasn't since she got her tonsils out...that kinda ruined that.

So I sure hope she is okay.

We will see how the night goes.

Jenni and I swapped kids today to go to the gym.

While I had the kids at my house, I had a chance to go through all the toys in the toy closet and clean it all up...all while they were playing amongst it.

Pretty good, I think.

Then Jenni and I went out with some friends in the ward for a fun little lunch.

It was a great time.

Got home...cleaned up for the big girls to come home...that is when all the fun house making happened.

Since there was so much going on after school...I let the big girls stay up a little longer after the little ones had gone to bed.

I am really taking this Christlike Communication seriously!!!

And let me tell ya, it is kinda hard at times.

But I don't want it to be so easy for me to get frustrated and yell at the kids...cause they are definitely learning that bad habit from me.

So I am doing it...and I have very high hopes.

Anyway...now I am going to bed so my head doesn't explode.

Oh, and I sure miss the hubby.

This whole week he is taking a class...8-5...man that is rough.

I don't know how people do that....I sure have been spoiled to have him around so much.

I am getting excited for some one-on-one time next week!

Bop-it...bop-it good!

The kids got this Bop-it game for Christmas.

The big girls have had a lot of fun with it!

Madi has the high score of 97...

Just recently, the big girls have taught Elsie how to do it.

It goes pretty fast...bop it, pull it, twist it...in no particular order.

Elsie has been having a blast with it...

And she does pretty dang good.

Her high score is like 6 in a row, or something like that.

She just sits with it and tries it over and over and over again.

Laughing some of the time...completely concentrating the rest of the time.

It really is fun to sit and watch her...

When she misses it, she laughs...does a little "aw dang" shrug of the arm...and goes again.

I think it is a great exercise for Elsie to test her reflexes...and she is having fun.

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Port didn't think I should be taking pictures of Elsie and none of him...

So, here ya go.

Port and Buzz.

Yes, he got a bigger buzz.

He was on clearance for $5.

And since the boy is spoiled...I couldn't pass it up.

He is pretty funny with Buzz and Woody.

He will come to me with Buzz and tell me that Buzz hit Woody and he needs to go to time-out.

Then it will be visa-versa...or that either Buzz or Woody are being mean to him, Porter.

It cracks me up every time...and Port sure thinks he is funny.

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Port slept good last night...it was Elsie who had a bad night.

Lets hope that they all sleep good tonight...cause I think I am getting a sinus infection...YUCK!