15 on Friday

It has been forever since I have done an update on what we have been up to.  So this might get kind of long.  This winter has been a bit of a struggle for me.  This is the first time I've been a SAHM while living in cold winter area.  When I had Leila in Utah I was working so it forced me to get out of the house and interact with other people.  And then we lived in Nevada and I had beautiful mild winters with plenty of sunshine.  Now going days and days without sunshine and being stuck inside the house with little kids has been hard.  I've struggled to have the motivation to do much.  I've kept the house pretty clean but doing anything extra or doing any kind of home improvements or crafts just has not happened.  And I've had no desire to bundle the kids up and find things to do outside our home.  We've all been suffering from cabin fever and maybe a little depression.  Most days all I want to do is lay around watching shows on Netflix, thankfully my kids don't allow me to do that .  So now that there is a little update on me, her is what is happening with the rest of the family

1.  Greydon tries so hard to be helpful with Asher.  The other day I found him feeding Asher applesauce.  Greydon told me Asher was just begging for it so he fed it to him and that it was OK because he had a rag in case he spilled it on the floor.  Applesauce was all over Asher and all over the floor but it was hard to be mad because he really was just trying to help.  In another instance of trying to be nice to his brother Greydon opened a bottle of nail polish for Asher.  Leila had taken my nail polish (without permission) to put in her little Caboodle she got for her birthday.  She left the box in her closet.  Greydon and Asher were playing in the closet and Greydon told us that Asher was begging for him to open the nail polish.  Well being the helpful brother Greydon opened it and Asher dumped the entire bottle all over the carpet.  I should have taken a picture but I was too upset and working frantically to clean it up.  The carpet now has faint yellow stains and will probably need to be replaced at some point.  

2.  My kids love the library, there is a train table, a Lego table, a car mat, puzzles, coloring pages and computers.  We usually end up at the library several times a month just so we can get out of the house during the winter.  

 3.  For Valentine's Day Leila needed to make a box to take to school, we had fun searching the Internet and Pinterest for ideas.  Leila picked this owl and it ended up being pretty easy and cute.  She also gave out little owl valentines to all her friends and teachers.  After school we made heart shaped red velvet cupcakes and then had heart shaped pizza and chocolate covered strawberries for dinner.  Paul brought home Valentine's treats for all the kids.

 4.  At the beginning of February Leila school had a family fun night.  They had different games and activities all over the school, pizza and frozen yogurt in the cafeteria and bounce houses and slides in the gym.

5.  Also at the beginning of February my parents came to town.  It was so nice to have some company and some extra sets of hands to help with things around the house.  The kids loved building towers with Pop and then knocking them down.  Leila and Greydon made sugar cookies one afternoon with Nana.   And I enjoyed having their help with some projects and fixing things around our house.  I can now look and my bulletin board and not be frustrated with it because it is no longer crooked. We spent most of our time just hanging out at home and they watched our kids while Paul and I got a much needed date night.

 6.  We still have gymnastics every Monday.  Leila is the one standing on the yellow balance beam.  She still loves going to gymnastics and wishes it was more than one day a week.  

 7.  I thought this sunrise was beautiful and maybe I was loving it because I was just so happy to see the sun.

 8.  We have had several big snow storms here.  School has been canceled a couple times or they have gotten out early.  One day Paul got home early, as in before 5 pm ( I think this is the first time it has ever happened since he started residency).  He took the kids outside to build a snowman, have a snow ball fight and sled down the deck.

9.  It has been really nice to find my kids playing nicely together.  I love when they just start playing a game together and there is no fighting and they include everyone.  It doesn't happen every day and usually doesn't last very long but its sure nice when it does.  

 On this day they were playing train and they even took turns being the conductor and and caboose. 

 Leila loves to practice her reading and I usually find her reading to one of her brothers

And this never happen, taking a bath all together.  They usually complain that there isn't enough room or they are fighting over toys but on this morning they somehow all got along.  

10.  The boys got sick with a nasty cold, they had goopy eyes, coughs, fevers and stuffy noses.  They both ended up having ear infections and pink eye.  Thank goodness for antibiotics, they were back to themselves in just a couple days.

11. I was able to attend Leila's music class and was quite impressed.  Their music teacher was amazing. She is exposing them to all kinds of music and composers.  She is working on rhythm and beat and teaching them to match pitch.  This class was much more advanced than any music class I took in elementary school.

12.  Just trying to enjoy the sunshine, even though there was lots of snow on the ground and it was only 32 degrees we had to get some Vitamin D.

13.  Last weekend Robyn invited us to their house for a visit and to attend a gymnastics meet.  We got to their house right before dinner and Robyn made us a delicious dinner of skinny pancakes.  We then head over to the meet.  The kids ended up loving it, even Greydon had fun.  Leila says her favorite thing was the uneven bars, she really liked when they got to stand on the bars.  That night after we got the kids to bed, Robyn and I stayed up way too late talking.  But it was so good to talk with a close friend who understands this whole medical training process.  The next morning we played around their house and the kids played in the snow.  We had to head home around lunch time so we could babysit some friend's kids.  It was such a fun visit and just what me and the kids needed.  

14.  Paul has had some really busy months lately, he has been on general surgery for the past two months and right now he is on trauma surgery.  He loves it but it is a lot of hours.  He leaves the house by 4:30 every morning and is never home before 6 pm, he gets 4 days off a month and they are always 2 days together, so basically he always has two weekends off a month.  

15.  Right now Paul is in Washington DC visiting his sister, actually his whole family is there. I don't want to share too much about this on my blog but last November Paul's sister was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer.  All I can say is cancer sucks and is so not fair.  But I am so thankful for our knowledge of the gospel and eternal families.  

Asher

Asher at 15 months or really 16  months because I'm that far behind.  He is just talking up a storm. Some of the things he says are: I'm stuck, want this, what's this, hold me, mom, Sissy, cookie, Dada, cukah (for when he has a poopy diaper), Pop, Nana, all done, night night, milk, go go (yogurt), up, down, on, off, no, ah oh, bath, hug, uh  uhh (he says this when responding yes to a question), thanks and probably a million other words but this is all I can remember off the top of my head.

He is very loving, he loves to cuddle, hug and give kisses.  He loves when Paul gets home and goes running towards him and shrieking Dada and grabs his legs and waits until he gets picked up for a hug.

He has quite the little scream, if his siblings are bugging him or I'm not paying enough attention he sure knows how to use his voice to get our attention.  Lately he has been very clingy, he wants constant attention and me holding him, that may have to do with the fact that he had an ear infection, cold and is getting his molars.

He loves playing in the basement with his siblings and trying to join in their fun, he does not like when he is left out of a game or activity.

He is my little climber, every time I turn around he is on top of the kitchen table.

He is teeny tiny, he was in the 10th percentile for height and weight but in the 95th percentile for head. Most of he clothes are big and baggy, partly because Greydon was so big, all the clothes I have in this season are 18 month.  Asher could still wear some 9 month stuff but is mostly in 12 month size.  He is in size three diapers but could still fit in size 2 if we really wanted.  He loves shoes and wants me to put them on him all the time, he especially loves his shoes that squeak when he walks.

Asher is my picky eater.  I stopped nursing him at 14 months, it was pretty sad for him, he would just cry and pull on my shirt but I just wasn't making enough milk anymore.  He transitioned to whole milk really well.  He likes it and drinks about 1 sippy cup full a day.  He really would prefer to eat baby food instead of table food.  He doesn't like cheese or pasta or bread.  Sometimes I can get him to eat a peanut butter sandwich but that is not very often.  He likes oatmeal, yogurt, dry cereal, applesauce, beans and smoothies (loaded with fruits and veggies).  I give him what we are eating for dinner but most of the time he spits it out or it ends up on the floor.  Since he is so small I usually resort to making him a smoothie so he gets some food.

He loves getting his teeth brushed and even had his first visit to the dentist.  The dentist couldn't believe how good he was, he let them check out all his teeth and clean them.  I have to keep the kids bathroom door shut at all times or Asher goes in and climbs the stool and sucks on the other kids tooth brushes.

He is down to taking only one nap a day that is a couple hours long and then goes to bed at 7 pm.  He is a pretty light sleeper and rarely falls asleep anywhere but his crib.

Overall he is just a happy kid and loves playing and being involved with the older kids play.  We love him to pieces and just can't imagine our family without this sweet little guy!

6

Where do I start with our six year old Leila.  Oh she has grown so much this year, not so much in height but in maturity.  She is still full of opinions and stubbornness but she is much more  reasonable.

Things Leila loves: Leila loves school and is just thriving there.  She says her favorite things are art, PE and media class.  She does so well with structure and routine and that is just what school has given her. She loves reading, I love finding her reading to her brothers or listening to her read in bed after I have tucked her in.  It makes me so happy that she has a love for books, not that it is a surprise she has loved them since she was a baby. She loves to bug her brothers, she loves to make faces at them, tease them, and make annoying sounds at them.  She loves to play with friends, as soon as she gets home from school she is asking to have a friend over.  She loves helping me cook and bake.  She loves doing art projects and crafting.  She loves puzzles and playing games, right now her favorite games are Busy Town and Headbanz, and Rhyming wars.  She loves gymnastics and if you know Leila you know that is no surprise.  She's always jumping and flipping and cartwheeling around our house and now she looks forward to every Monday for her class.

Things she dislikes: Leila hates being told what to do, she dislikes doing her chores especially when I tell her to do them.  She dislikes juice, milk and soda, she only drinks water.  She dislikes not getting her way, she dislikes not having plans or activities scheduled, and she dislikes when she doesn't get to be the boss.  She loves school but dislikes being rushed in the morning, she wants time to shower, get her hair done, eat breakfast and watch a little PBS kids which means we have to get up extra early to make sure she gets to the bus stop by 7:15.  She dislikes running errands especially to Costco, so its nice that she is in school so we can run most of the errands without her if I do have to take her its like pulling teeth to get her to go.  She dislikes being the shortest kid in her Kindergarten class, she keeps asking when she is going to grow.  And she dislikes not having a wiggly tooth, she really wants to loose a tooth like all of her friends.

Leila  brings the perfect  mix to our family,  she definitely keeps us on our toes.  She is great helper and tries to entertain her brothers and play games with them when I'm busy.

We celebrated her birthday with our family on Friday February 1st.  I went and had lunch with her that day at school and then when she got home we opened presents and went out to dinner.  She picked Culver's because she loves Cheeseburgers and ice cream.

She had been begging for a hula hoop and jump rope for quite some time.  She loves to play with them but it will be nice when the weather is warmer and she can use them outside.