MUSICALS, FIELD TRIPS, PRINCIPALS AND MORE...

I have neglected to blog about Emma's school recently and since Eli just had a field trip today, why not update it all.

Emma decided that dancing 2-3 hrs a day, 6 days a week wasn't enough of extra curricular activities...she thought it would be great to go to school an hour early 3 days a week for 6 months so she could be in her school's musical theatre club. At the end of the 6 months they performed a musical for the school and parents. Her and Maddy and the other 4 little girls they car pooled with did really well. Emma and Maddy decided they wanted to be singers and dancers in the musical (shocker I am sure!). It really was a really great musical and of course our girls were super cute! Besides the performing in the musical, she also got to take a field trip with the musical theatre club. They had a great time and performed a couple of songs in front of a dozen other local elementary schools. My favorite part about the field trip was that Emma still likes to have me around and holds my hand :) For the first time 4 years at her school, she finally got picked for the Principals Breakfast! Of course, it was the only semester her dad was gone, so Thank you Jenny N. for watching the boys for me at 7:30 in the morning! She got picked for this award because her friends were arguing at recess and she didn't want to get in the middle of it so she sat on the sidewalk during recess, YES!!! I taught her that and she put it to good use, she listened to her momma - woo hoo!! Her teacher was really excited for Emma and even came and ate with her as well. The last week of school was also Dr. Suess' birthday. They wanted mystery readers to come in all week and read to the class. Every time Jared and I have tried to go in a be a mystery reader, some how Emma knows and ruins it for us :) Oh no, not this time. I got her. I went in like a nerd while she was out at recess. I sat on a chair in the middle of the room with a blanket (one she is not familiar with) and covered my whole body with it and then the kids asked questions and I only nodded until they figured it out - yes! I read them all Cat in the Hat and then afterwards we all frosted sugar cookies with white frosting and then used red licorice as the stripes. They had a lot of fun and I loved going in and being with Emma (PS - it was baseball hat day at school, that's why Emma is wearing her dad's hat to school!)Eli had his first field trip today. Him and the twins have been so excited about it - they didn't even really know what it was, but they were pumped for it! They have been learning about the desert and everything in it so we went to Usery Pass and took a little hike and got to learn about rattle snakes, coyotes and everything else while on the hike. Eli was lovin' it! He didn't hang out with me and twins at all, he wanted to stay up in the front with Ms. Nikkii and his class mates.

Here is Eli on the hike learning about rattlesnakes.Shelby tried to take a picture of the boys for me but as you can see they had the sun in their eyes and were not cooperating but I still thought the pic was cute.I wanted to get the boys nice and worn out so about 3/4 into it I made them get out of the stroller and walk with me. They did pretty good, we ended up dead last, but hey, we were walking! woo hoo!! They started to get a little sluggish but ain't nothin' a package of fruit snacks can't change.At the end of the hike all the kids gathered around a table while the Park ranger talked to them, Eli saw me taking a picture of him and decided to show me his tongue, nice one buddy.Right before we headed off to have a picnic and play on the playground, all the kids got Junior Ranger Badges. Eli and Tyson really liked theirs and as always, Tyler just wanted to hold his and stare at it with no expression on his face, dang I love that boy.

THE UGLINESS STRIKES AGAIN!!

The ugly warts claim another innocent victim in our family. It seemed to skip over Tyler, but man it hit Tyson hard (although, Emma really had it the worst). Eli had been asking to go to the dr to get his "owies" gone and since Tyson had a huge one that was growing by the week and he kept complaining about it too, I decided to take both the boys in.

Eli had been telling me for the last couple of days he was going to be brave and he was really pumped about going (not sure why but ok!). We get to the dr and finally the nurse calls us back to the room and she says, "Tyson and El-ee-us, you can come back now" Eli kept sitting there because that is not his name and he didn't realize she was talking to him, in fact I had to correct her 3 times, whatever. Then she had the nerve to walk in with the liquid nitrogen, I was very quick to let her know we will NOT be using that stuff and we will only be doing the chemo and she could quickly remove that crap from the office :)

They start to work on Eli and the kid is still smiling and talking about being brave, but once the needle went in and she started poking all underneath the wart on the tip of his middle finger and then in the crack of his ring and middle finger, the poor buddy lost it. The tears came and while he was crying he said he was done. Luckily for us it only lasted 30 seconds and then the pain was gone and the numbing medicine had kicked in.Tyson was also all hyped up to be brave and go to the dr's office as well. He continued to be all smiles until Eli started crying, then he sat in the chair with a very concerned, panicked look on his face!Next up was Tyson's turn. He layed down very nicely, but started breathing very heavily. He was getting very scared, poor buddy. Oh the tears, the tears came down, then boys both rushed to the bedside to stare very intently at the little guy and make sure he was ok. Eli kept trying to tell him to be brave and that it was ok, he even stroked his cute little forehead for a second or two. His tears quickly stopped and then he was able to watch the dr and nurse poke at his little finger.We finally left the office and the dr said Eli was ok to go to basketball practice but that he would probably be in pain right after or even during, depending on when the numbing meds wore off. He started to whine a bit in the car about his hands, but that wasn't going to stop him, he was going to go to basketball practice! What a brave boy! At night right before baths the boys wanted their band-aids off so we took them off and the picture isn't very clear, but can you see Tyson's finger, doesn't it look like raw meat?!Then after Tyson saw he it, he turned into a sad little puppy and just layed on my lap! I liked it. Look in the corner of the picture how he just lays his hand there not moving it, awhhh.Well, hopefully it is a decent amount of time before we have to go through this again, but we have a feeling we will become pretty good friends with our Dr and he will probably be at the boys mission farewells - ha ha!

LAST WEEK OF SPRING BREAK!

There was nothing particularly exciting about the last week of spring break, but I still want it for the family journal.

Another view from Jared's apartment and oh yes, the minivan I drove around and was pimpin' it in for a weekWe came back from Oregon on Monday, Jared came home with us because he had to work down here for 2 days and then flew back again. The flight was pretty good, but not as good as it was going there. The boys were not as behaved as they were going there, but they still did pretty good. There was a really really LOUD man behind me who kept talking to his kids and they were hungry for snacks and he didn't pack any and he kept talking so loud and because I am so rude I couldn't help myself...I took out my yummy snacks for my kids and passed them to Jared, but held them out just so the dad and kids could see, I wanted to annoy the dad and make the kids whine more cause he was annoying me - I think my evil plan might have worked - muhahahaha!Sunday was our last full day in Oregon and we had a good relaxing Sunday. Slept in, made German pancakes, slowly got ready for church, had naps afterwards (well me and Emma didn't but the boys all did), made dinner, put a log in the fireplace and put on a kid movie for the kiddos while Jared and I packed to come home. When we were done we joined them for the rest of the movie, sent them off to bed and enjoyed our last night downstairs together watching a grown-up movie. It was kinda fun to snuggle together on the couch every night and watch a different movie together during the week.

Tuesday we were crazy busy with I can't even remember and I kept putting off going to the grocery store, but we had nothing to eat for dinner and then about 3pm there was a lovely knock at my door and a very sweet friend dropped off dinner for us. It made my day! Veggie pizza and a 7 layer bean dip, mmmm good!Thursday night my friend dropped off some yummy chicken soup for me, again, thank you very much because peanut butter sandwiches and chicken nuggets are getting really old, ok, we are past the "getting there" stage - it is waaay old.

Friday I got to see my very good friend Katie Smith. I met her in Oregon in 2006 and she was amazing and we became very close. I eventually had to come back down here to AZ and she ended up moving to UT. The last time I saw her was 3 years ago when I flew up to UT with Joel. It was so great to catch up, see her kids again and we picked up right where we left off. Eli and her oldest son, Jack, are just a few days apart and we used to get together all the time and we have a picture of them laying side by side so we took another one while they were together this time around. Later that night Eli was telling Emma about his friend, "Emma, I played with Jack today and we were babies and we played cars and wrestled" I think he was trying to say that Jack and him were friends when they were babies, ha ha. Katie reminded me of how when the two boys would lay side by side each other one minute they were next to each other and the next minute some how Eli would be on top of Jack, usually his head was on his belly, it always cracked us up cause we never saw them move, they couldn't roll over or sit up or anything at this point but somehow they always ended up on top of each other.

Jack and Eli 2006 (for those of you who didn't know Eli back in the day, he was quite the chunk, he is only 3 months in the picture and it doesn't even begin to show his chunkiness, in this pic his nickname was "95" cause he was in the 95% for everything, then he got even bigger so we had to call him Bubbas - and that's how he got that nickname...)Jack and Eli 2011Katie and meI really don't remember everything that happened this week, but there was lots of time spent with friends for me and the kids, dance stuff, Carsen's baptism, etc. Now school is starting on Tuesday and I guess its back to the day to day routine (which I actually secretly love).

SATURDAY!

The sun was out and Jared was thrilled, I on the other hand was a little sad. We wanted to make the most of the rain free day so we decided to take the kids and go over to Multnomah Falls and the Bonneville Fish Hatchery.
With the sun being out it kind of tricked us and we forgot to dress warmer for 48 degrees :)The last time we were here there was only 3 in our family and we came when Bryant came to visit us, sometimes realizing we have 4 kids is just crazy.Tyson was being typical Tyson and just wanted to be held the whole time and not walk the .2 hike to get to the bridge in the middle of the water falls. Mostly we made him walk, but how can you deny carrying this cute little face a little bit :)Not to be outdone by his brother, Tyler joined in on the fun of getting carried as wellThere was a very kind stranger who as he was passing by us, asked if we wanted a picture together with all of us, of course we would want a picture with all 6 of us...he looked through the camera and said, "oh good, I got you all!" YES! Thanks kind sir. Just curious, how many people do you see in this picture?I told Emma to pose with a sassy face on...hmmmmmMe and my buddy!Just because I liked seeing some of my boys holding hands together...After the Falls, we headed over to the Bonneville Fish Hatchery. Robyn was awesome and suggested we hit this hot spot up. We are very glad we did - all the kids loved it and it was very gorgeous there.There was a pond there with Rainbow Trout and Herman the Sturgeon (70 yr, 10 ft long sturgeon) swimming around and it had a looking glass window you could watch them fromThe kids really enjoyed putting the quarters in and getting out the fish food - the funniest little things make them so happy!After the hatchery we decided to go check out the dam. It was nothing to exciting but Jared saw this out front and wanted to make sure we took a picture of it, I think for Joel Votaw, but I am not really sure...

FRIDAY!

Jared was nice and came home at 9am from work for a little bit so I could go to my last TKB class at the gym. It was sad. I just love working out at the gym here. When I got home he helped me load up the kids and we were off to go play at Playdate PDX and Jared went back to work.Playdate PDX is a giant indoor play area set up like a medieval castle with a shooting area, dragons to climb, hot lava to avoid, slides, a big video game to play with your feet on the ground, etc. The kids were loving it...I on the other hand was bored just sitting there by myself. After 3 hours I was done and we headed home to make dinner. Obviously the boys were done too, but they just didn't want to admit it - check out what I found in my car...I found out that you could leave and come back the same day so as soon as Jared came home from work we finished eating and headed back there. This time we were much more prepared. We each brought a laptop, bought sodas, muffins, laughed, talked and Jared even set up a facebook account - something he swore he would never do - even more so than me. We stayed another 3 hours and would have stayed even longer except that the place was closing. The time flew by and we had a great time. We even made fun of ourselves for being one of those nerdy couples who goes out and just gets on their laptops - ha ha.It was another great day and the kids were exhausted after 6 hours of running around non-stop.
Oh and the best part of the day was when they had to stamp each kids hand and it came time to stamp Tyler's hand...he cried so hard and was shaking so bad I think he must have thought he was getting a shot instead of a stamp - ha ha!
This was Eli's favorite spot...the video giant floor video gameTyler having a great time trying to stand on these things and walk across the "hot lava" without falling inTyson's turndoing it together..."brothers gotta hug!"Emma hanging out inside the castle