Dreaded Calls From School, Prez, Bleeding Noses, Craziness, Dads and Donuts, Etc.

Yesterday morning I got the dreaded call from the school.  The phone started ringing a little after 9 am which never does mean anything too good.  I answered it only to find it was Matthew's teacher.  She knows I hate calls from the school so as soon as I answered the phone she immediately said all in one breath, "Hi Rebecca this is Mrs. Larsen and everything is ok at school."  It is time for Matthew's IEP (individualized education plan) to be reviewed in a week.  Mrs Larsen, Matthew's teacher, is setting new goals for him and one of the goals she has for him is to learn life skills which means he will be starting to have some blended services with the Functional Skills class.  This was a little blow to us.  The Functional Skills class is for kids who are mentally or physically handicapped where regular education would not benefit them.  Aaron and I knew eventually Matthew would need to transition to the Functional Skills class, but we didn't think it would happen until he started high school.  However, in talking with his teacher that morning she explained that she only wanted him to spend one class period a day in the functional skills class to allow him to participate in their weekly field trips in the community.  The functional skills class takes weekly field trips into the community to learn how to work with people in the community and to learn how to work with money.  I think this is a great opportunity for Matthew.  The reason why his teacher was calling that morning was because the functional skills class was having their field trip that day and wanted to see if I would be ok if Matthew went along with them.  That way the functional skills teacher could get to know Matthew a little bit and be able to write some goals on his IEP for him since he will be participating in her class a bit more.  That day the class was going out to get lunch at Carl's Jr. and then grocery shopping at Walmart.  This exercise is supposed to help the kids read a menu and prices then look at how much money they have and order appropriately.  In going to Walmart they are supposed to come with a grocery list from home with a few things to make a simple meal.  They then pick out their groceries and make sure they have enough money to pay for the items.  Anyway, Matthew went along and did ok.  He had a little bit of a rough time following the rules, but it is a learning curve.  Matthew did tell me he ran into someone from our ward at the store.  While he was telling me about it he got pretty excited so I can only imagine how excited he was at the time of seeing her.  He said he ran over to her and introduced her to everyone.  He was so excited to run into someone he knew.  The teacher had a hard time getting him to move on to grocery shopping, but eventually he did.  What a funny boy.  Anyway our IEP meeting is next week so hopefully things will run smoothly.

This week has been such nice weather that I have been walking Sarah to school in the mornings.  The other morning we got there early enough for her to play on the kindergarten playground.  Well Noah went over and started playing with her.  That morning there were lots of other kindergartners playing which made the playground kind of crazy.  Noah was running around a corner when a kindergarten boy accidentally elbowed Noah right in the nose.  The boy felt bad and tried to tell Noah sorry, but Noah was already running over to me. Unfortunately, by the time Noah reached me his nose was gushing blood.  There was blood everywhere. Noah kept trying to wipe off his nose which ended up smearing it all over me, all over his coat and clothes.  I tried pinching his nose and taking him inside to find a tissue somewhere, but Noah hated having me pinch his nose and he kept pushing my hand away which made it an even bigger mess.  Finally, I reached a sink and some tissues.  After calming him down he let me pinch his nose and hold pressure for a few minutes to stop the bleeding.  It took another few minutes to clean up the huge blood mess.  Unfortunately, the only sink and tissues I could find were right by all of the fifth grade classroom doors so during all of this chaos I had the fifth graders gawking at us as they were on their way to their classrooms.  Awesome.  Oh well we like to keep things exciting.  That whole episode didn't slow Noah down because the next morning he was ready to go and play on the playground again.

About a month ago we got a dreaded call to meet with the Stake Presidency.  Oh dear.  Aaron scheduled the appointment for a Sunday morning.  In the meantime we had to figure out how to juggle the kids with the appointment and finally decided to take Noah and Matthew with us to the appointment and leave the other three at home since they can usually be ok by themselves for about 30 minutes.  We got there early Sunday morning and when it came time to get back inside the Stake President's office I talked to Matthew and told him to wait out in the waiting room for a few minutes and that we would be back shortly.  Aaron, Noah and I went on back to the Stake President's office.  No sooner had we sat down and the door was closed did Matthew start beating on the door saying, "Hey Mom!!"  I jumped up and opened the door and quietly told Matthew to go and sit back down and wait for us for a few minutes.  Matthew is a little antsy, but he did wait for about 5 minutes before he came back to beating on the door again.  However, in that five minutes the Stake President extended the call of Elder's Quorum President to Aaron.  Seeing as Matthew was a little too antsy to wait in the waiting room by himself for longer than 5 minutes I just let him inside the office for the rest of the appointment.  The appointment took a little longer with Matthew with us because Matthew (aka Chatty Cathy) was trying to tell the Stake President about what was going on in Young Mens and asking him if he could release a few people and then he started asking questions about what was the next activity in Young mens, etc.  Oh my goodness it was a full time job trying to keep Matthew quiet long enough to hear what the Stake Presidency was trying to talk to Aaron about.  Anyway, Aaron was overwhelmed to say the least since this is something he'd never done before.  Good thing he had a month to think about it before he was set apart for the calling in the ward this last Sunday.  I think Aaron will do great.  I just have to get myself a little more organized now since Aaron will be gone a little more especially on Sunday mornings.  I never thought I would ever say this, but good thing we have late church.  That way I can have some extra time to get five kids ready Sunday mornings, get dinner in the crock pot and prepare my primary lesson while Aaron is in meetings.  Wish me luck on Sunday since it will be our first go around on this crazy schedule :).  I do have to say that at least I am grateful Aaron will be able to still sit with me on the bench during sacrament meeting because I do still need help keeping my brood under control during sacrament meeting....

Anyway, last Sunday all the primary kids got to sing two songs during sacrament meeting.  It was so weird to only have Matthew sitting with Aaron and me on the bench!  It was Noah's first time getting up to sing.  I was wondering if he would be ok getting up there, but he did great.  He didn't sing, though, but at least he got up there.  That's a good start, right?!  Josh, Daniel and Sarah all did a good job singing, though.  Noah just sat up there and pulled faces at me and waved.  Awesome.  Anyway, later on during church Aaron was set apart during Elder's Quorum as the president along with his counselors and I was able to see it happen.  I had to bring Noah along with me because he won't leave my side.  He was a little stinker during the whole thing, but it was a beautiful blessing.  I am sure Aaron will transition to the position fabulously.

Last Thursday was Aaron's yearly routine neurology appointment.  Since the appointment was during school hours and we were down to only two kids we decided to get a quick bite to eat afterward.  Also since Daniel wasn't with us we went to the most Daniel unfriendly place we could think of--Five Guys Burgers.  I am sure that even walking through the door Daniel would go in to anaphylactic shock due to all the peanuts and peanut dust around the place so the only time we can go is when Daniel isn't with us.  After ordering your food you can sit down at the table and crack open roasted peanuts and eat them.  I am embarrassed to say this is the first time Sarah has ever had shelled peanuts and she loved them.  I think she ate more peanuts than her sandwich which was funny.  

Last Friday morning was Josh's neurology appointment.  For whatever reason I had made the appointment for 8 am down at Primary Children's in Salt Lake--I don't think I was thinking clearly when I did that. They like you to be there 30 minutes before your appointment time so that meant we had to leave our house at 6:30 am--bleh!  Thankfully it was Aaron's off Friday from work so he was home to get the kids ready and off to school.  However, we had both forgotten about Sarah's hair needing to be combed.  Aaron has only done Sarah's hair one other time and let's just say it didn't stay in very long despite the 10 elastics he had put in it.  He got to try it again Friday morning and this time he did better.  He did a pony tail that did stay back for most of the day even if it did take him 30 minutes to get all the hair inside the elastic.  What a good dad to try.  Here's the 'fancy' pony tail done by dad:

During Josh's appointment we found out that he is a growing boy.  He is now 5'1" and 85 pounds.  We had to increase his medication dosage accordingly, too.  Also if he can make it until July being seizure free he will have gone two years being seizure free--wahoo!  By going two years seizure free that means there is a chance he can wean off his medication.  Although there is a flip side to this--that means they want to try another sleep deprived EEG to see if there is any seizure activity to see if he can handle being weaned off his medication.  Oh dear.  This completely scares me.  The last sleep deprived EEG he had 3 1/2 years ago ended up in Josh going in to status epilepticus (uncontrolled seizures), an ER visit at McKay Dee and then being transported via ambulance down to Primary Children's Hospital for 4 day hospital stay because they couldn't get his seizures under control.  So needless to say this is scary for me.  I told the doctor this and she said we still need to try.  I also told her we have tried to wean him off before two other times and both times he started having seizures again.  She said by going two years seizure free he has just as good of a chance as weaning off as someone who hasn't tried to wean off before.  Luckily I have until late July/early August to have to schedule the EEG.  Hopefully by then I will be more prepared.  We did need to get a new prescription for his rescue medicine that can only be filled at the Primary Children's Pharmacy.  It is specially prepared  nasal mist Versed that we are to give for any seizure lasting longer than 5 minutes or any seizure cluster.  It is the only way to stop the seizures immediately so we have time to call 911 to get help.  I am so glad for the new nasal spray since the last rescue medicine (which was super expensive) had to be delivered via the bum--not so great.  Anyway, since it takes time to mix up at the pharmacy we had 30 minutes to kill before we could pick it up. Why not have a morning breakfast date with my favorite Joshy boy?!  Between Sarah's hospital stay a few weeks ago and today I just couldn't get enough of Primary's Cafeteria--haha.

After Josh's visit I dropped him off at school and came and picked up Aaron, Sarah and Noah to pick up some groceries at Sam's Club.  I don't know what Sarah's problem was, but she was having a hard day that day.  If you looked at her wrong she would burst into tears.  It was bad.  Since it was about lunchtime Aaron stopped by to pick the kids up a cheap hot dog.  After Aaron ordered Sarah decided she wanted pizza instead.  We told her that we already got a hot dog and it was too late to order her a slice of pizza.  She did not like that answer and came unglued.  It was pretty bad.  The guy next to us started laughing and said he had five daughters and totally understands the girly irrationality and crying thing.  You can definitely tell she is my child because whenever she cries her face breaks out in red blotchiness that stays around for at least 20 minutes afterward just like me.  I have always wished I could be a closet crier, but, alas I am not because my blotchy face gives me away.  Looks like I have passed that on down to my daughter--poor girl.

 The other afternoon after Noah said he wasn't tired, we sat down to watch a show.  Within 10 minutes he was completely out.  This kid still needs naps, but I don't want to force the issue because I like the cuddles after he falls asleep.  I don't have too many more years of this so I am enjoying it now.

 Wednesday morning was Dads and Donuts day at the elementary school.  I am so glad Aaron is able to go to these things and likes to go to them.  He even had an extra neighbor kid tag along, too.  They all had fun eating their donuts, reading a story and looking at their different projects in their classrooms.

Wednesday night was the cub scout Blue and Gold Banquet.  It was lots of fun.  It was a western theme and so they made different wanted posters for each cub scout.  Here's Josh's:

 Daniel's:

 For the table centerpieces they did these small wanted plaques, too.  Here's Daniel's:

 Josh's:

 The beginning of the program they did a few skits.  Here's Josh helping in one of them:

 After dinner they had different western activities set up for everyone to do.  Sarah and Noah loved coloring and cutting out their snakes that went inside their boots:

 Josh liked the photo booth with the different props:

 They had a small spring horse set up that Josh tried out before he realized he was way too big to ride:

 It was just the right size for Noah, though and he spent forever playing on it:

 Daniel at the photo booth:

 They had a relay race, but they were too fast for me to get a good picture of:

 All in all it was a fun night. Matthew was there with us, but in the middle of dinner the young mens activity started and Matthew wanted to participate in that so he wasn't around for the after dinner activities.  He was with us during dinner, though.

I really have been impressed with Primary Children's Hospital this time around.  This week Sarah got a letter from them.  The letter was a note saying how much they loved taking care of her while she was in the hospital.  It was really cute.

I am glad that they really do try to make a hospital stay for kids a better experience than it would have been otherwise.  Hopefully we don't have any more hospital stays there, but if we do at least it is a good place.  I have a love hate relationship with that place.  I love that it is available, but hate that we need their services :/.  Anyway, we get a few weeks reprieve from visiting there.  Our next visit will be in two weeks with Sarah's next echocardiogram and cardiology visit.  Until then we will not miss that place :).

Specialistville, Brigham City Museum, Metal Mouth, Valentines

Daniel loves the restaurant Famous Dave's.  However, they are very expensive so the only way we can go there is if we get some free kids meal coupons.  It just so happens that Daniel's teacher has those free kids meal coupons in her classroom store.  Daniel has saved his class bucks up for a few weeks so he could buy five of those free kids meal coupons.  Wahoo!  That's where we went to dinner last Wednesday.  It was nice not having to cook or clean up.  Noah especially loved the BBQ sauce.  When his food was gone he started scooping up the BBQ sauce off his plate with his fork and eating it straight.  What a weird kid!  Daniel was excited to be able to 'take everyone out' so he made sure everyone told him thank you.  It was funny.

 Valentine's Day came up so fast this year.  Of course I did procrastinate helping the kids fill out their Valentines until the last minute.  Helping the kids fill out 120 valentine's and attempting to make a valentine's holder that didn't look dumb is a big pain in the rear!!   Luckily we only had to do a valentine's holder for Josh.   I am just glad I didn't have to worry about Noah and filling out even more valentines this year since he is not in school yet.  Anyway to celebrate Valentine's Day the elementary school let the kids do Valentine Grams.  It's a fundraiser where for a quarter you can write something on a cute heart and include a pencil for anyone at the school.  Daniel begged to have some money so he could do a valentine gram.  I sent him and Josh with the little bit of change I had.  Daniel came home that afternoon with a valentine gram.  It said To: Daniel From: Daniel.  Aaron and I asked him why he sent one to himself and he responded by saying, "I just needed a new pencil."  What a funny kid!

Anyway, the next morning Aaron did surprise Sarah and me with some pretty roses.  He was sweet enough to get up extra early so he could run to the store before work and set out the flowers for us.  When Josh came upstairs for breakfast he was pretty excited for Sarah to see hers.  He was so excited he went and woke her up to tell her to come and see her surprise--that's why she looks so groggy in the picture:

 My pretty roses:

 I had to do Sarah's hair in some sort of heart shape so this was the easiest and the fastest one I could find:

As the morning went on Matthew got on his bus and left for school.  Then it was Josh and Daniel's time to leave for school when Josh came to me just panicked.  He couldn't find his valentines anywhere.  I started helping him look and I couldn't find them either.  Uh oh!  I didn't want to have to fill out anymore valentines so I was starting to get panicked, too.  I even called Matthew's teacher (who was in the middle of teaching her class) to ask her to check Matthew's backpack to see if he had taken Josh's valentines by mistake.  His teacher came back to the phone after checking Matthew's backpack to say there was nothing in it.  I finally had to tell Josh that I would run to the store and make sure he had some valentines before his class party began--now that is motherly love right there because I have never wanted to do something any less than that!!  Anyway, thankfully Daniel finally checked his backpack only to find Josh's missing valentines.  Phew, crisis averted!!

At school Sarah decorated her own Valentine mailbox to hold her valentines.  Sarah was pretty proud of her monster:

It was all I could do to stave off Sarah from her valentines long enough to take this picture!!  She dug into her candy right after and Noah was so excited to help Sarah eat all her candy.  Sarah was nice enough to share which was great.  By the way I HATE those dip stick treats!!  The sticky sugar powder got EVERYWHERE!!  I still have blue powder in the cracks of the kitchen table that I can't seem to get out.  Oh well the kids enjoyed it.

 To surprise the kids and Aaron I made them all a HUGE sugar cookie with frosting and their names on it that morning and wrapped them up in a box to be opened after dinner.

 When Josh and Daniel got home it was candy galore!  Matthew was a little upset he didn't get to celebrate Valentine's Day in Jr. High, but that's how it goes when you grow up.  I did send him with some chocolate bars wrapped with bows to hand out to his bus drivers, teachers, peer tutors and friends.  He was ok with that.  You can see again Mr. Mooch (aka Noah) right in the middle of the action pulling candy out of their valentines boxes when the boys weren't looking.  What a little stinker.

 One of Josh's valentines came with the candy Pop Rocks.  Josh was nice enough to share it with everyone, however, Matthew was not a fan as you can see by his face.  He couldn't spit them out fast enough:

 That evening we had a fun candlelit spaghetti dinner.  I can't say it was romantic (how can a dinner with five kids ever be romantic?!), but it was fun nonetheless even though we had to keep relighting the candles because the kids thought it was hilarious to keep blowing them out.

 After dinner the kids got to unwrap their Valentine's cookies from mom and dad:

Aaron got to unwrap his cookie from me.  For whatever reason, though, I didn't get a picture of it.

Saturday we decided to do something different.  There is a museum up in Brigham City that is running a special Bison exhibit so we decided to check it out--plus it was free which is an extra bonus!!  They had some games set up that the kids checked out:

 They had a bison tail you could touch.  Sarah thought it was a wand and kept flipping it around.  Luckily, her brothers stayed clear of her until she put it back down--smart boys!

 Noah was fascinated with the horn and Josh wanted to try on the moccasins.

 They had a pioneer woodworkers shop set up with real tools you could try out.  It was interesting to see how time consuming wood working was before electric saws came about.

 They had a shoe repair shop set up as well.  Daniel and Sarah tried their hand at nailing a heel on a shoe.

 They had a carriage seat set up with the big iron spring shocks so you could actually have a feel for what riding in a wagon felt like in pioneer times.  Sarah decided to be the horse to help pull the wagon.

 Tuesday Matthew and Josh had an orthodontist appointment.  Matthew got his bottom braces put on and Josh got something called a Herbst appliance to help pull his jaw forward and decrease his overbite.  Josh has been so excited to get started on the path to braces.  He would give me weekly updates as to how many more days it was until this appointment.  Here's the beginning of a metal mouth for Josh.

 I  must say he wasn't so excited about it after it was put in his mouth, though.  He was formed quite the canker sore where the screws rub against his cheek--poor boy.  In six more weeks he will get his top braces on.

It has been specialist week at our house this past week!!  Jeez, it seems everyone in my family except for Noah and me have a specialist they have to visit.  It was Matthew's turn to visit the psychiatrist for some medication management earlier in the week.  Then Wednesday Sarah got to see the Cardiologist for her post Kawasaki echo cardiogram (ultrasound of the heart) to make sure there was no damage done by the Kawasaki disease to her coronary vessels.  She was the perfect patient.  All they had to do was turn on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse and she instantly went into couch potato mode and didn't even move.  I think the world could have imploded and she wouldn't have noticed because the TV was on.  She is definitely Josh's sister!!

Thankfully they didn't find any aneurysms or any other problems. The cardiologist just said that Sarah is anemic (which is common in Kawasaki disease) which is why she tires out so easy.  Other than that she is perfect.  Sarah was in heaven because she got to pick out some crayons and a coloring book from the prize box which she quietly colored in while waiting to see the cardiologist.  Have I mentioned how much I love Primary's?!  Anyway, since Noah was a good boy and sat through Sarah's echo cardiogram really well he got to choose a prize as well.  He, of course, chose a hotwheels car and happily played with it the whole rest of the visit with the cardiologist.

On the way out of the clinic we passed through the hospital where Sarah showed Noah the fish she got to see while she was a patient in the hospital.

As we were walking out of the hospital I jokingly asked Sarah if she wanted to have another sleepover in the hospital and she emphatically told me, "NO!!"

Today Aaron got to follow up with his neurologist for a check up and a new year long prescription for his epilepsy.  Thankfully, he has been seizure free for 15 years so if it's not broke don't fix it, right?!  Besides if he did want to try weaning off his medicine it means he couldn't drive for at least 6 months which would be too hard right now while we have so many kids that have to be so many different places at so many different times.

Anyway to continue with specialist week Josh gets to see his pediatric neurologist tomorrow morning just for a check up and prescription refills.  He has been seizure free for a little over a year and a half and we are thankful for that.  If he can go two years we might attempt to wean him off his meds again, but the last two times have been horribly unsuccessful.  Who knows maybe the third time will be the charm.  Anyway, he is good for now which we are so glad for.

 In a few more weeks Daniel gets to visit the allergist for the skin prick test to see if he has outgrown any more of his allergies.  We also get to see how his asthma and lung function is doing as well.  It's crazy trying to keep all these specialist appointments straight and followed through with!!  All I can say is thank goodness for modern medicine, appointment reminder calls and for health insurance!!

Parenting Funnies, Science Saturday, Crushed Ventricle...

We hardly have dull moments around our house.  Take for example this awesome conversation we had at the dinner table on Sunday (this is from Aaron's point of view):

Tonight at dinner, Noah was being a bit of a brat.  Since he is the youngest, Rebecca has always spoiled him a bit.

Me (to Rebecca):  Since you created this monster, you get to deal with him!

Josh (10): No, Dad, you created him also.

Me:  No way!!  I am the enforcer.  I don't spoil him!

Daniel (8):  No, you made him, too!  Remember you read us THAT book?  We KNOW you and Mom made him!!

I must say we had a small talk about the birds and the bees along with a children's book to help...um... illustrate a few things to Josh and Daniel about a year ago.  We never heard much about it during the talk or after from those two.  We just assumed they didn't pay attention like they do with most things mom and dad say.  However, judging by this conversation it appears they picked up on more than we thought.  At least now they all know I didn't create this Noah monster on my own, right?!  Haha!  Even though I try, sometimes, I wonder if I am failing in the parenting department.... :O**sigh**. 

Sarah is still trying to get back to her pre sickness Sarah energy.  She tires out more easily--poor thing.  For example on Friday she had a birthday party she went to.  After the party she went to a friend's house to play for a bit.  By the time she got home she immediately fell asleep as soon as she cuddled up next to Aaron.  She was worn out--Aaron didn't mind, though.  In addition she has lost a ton of weight.  All of her clothes are really baggy on her.  I hope she gets her appetite back soon.  She usually can keep pace with her brothers if you can believe it and that is saying a lot!

 Saturday was Science Saturday at Weber State University.  It is a free program for the community to get kids more interested in science.  They have it twice a month and we took the opportunity and went Saturday.  The kids love it.  First they got to learn about the different parts of a flower.  Then they got to look at the different parts under a microscope.  After they got to pick out a flower to take home and explore further.  Four kids picked out a red rose and the other kid picked a white tulip.  When we walked out of the classroom Aaron turned to me, handed me all five flowers and then jokingly said, "Here you go.  Does this get me off the hook for Valentine's Day?"  I said, "Ummmm, no!!"  What a dork--good thing I love him, though.

 Next we went to the station about different rock types.  After learning about the different rock types (metamorphic, sedimentary, igneous, etc.) they got to make their own sedimentary rocks.  They got a water bottle and filled it with sand, rocks and Plaster of Paris.  After a good shaking we got to bring them home and watch during the next week how the sludge in the water bottle will solidify and turn into a sedimentary rock--at least that's what it supposed to do.  With five kids to supervise/help at the same time I don't know if we got all the proportions correct inside the water bottle.  I guess that will be another experiment to see if it actually hardens or remains watery.

 Next we tried going to the station about the heart.  They had a bunch of cardboard boxes stuck together and set up in the anatomical shape of your heart.  You could crawl through the boxes pretending you were going through the heart's atriums and ventricles and follow the pathway the blood takes. It looked interesting.  There was a line so we had to wait our turn to crawl through the boxes.  After a few minutes Matthew got tired of standing in line waiting for his turn.  He decided to sit down and rest for a bit.  Unfortunately, he decided to sit on top of one of the 'ventricle' boxes which ended up collapsing it and tearing it away from the other boxes.  Whoops!  The workers in charge of the heart station were not happy.  I quickly got Matthew out of the classroom before he could sit on anything else.  Afterward they had to close down the heart station in order to repair the crushed box.  It took them a good 20 minutes to put the heart back together again.  It was a little embarrassing, but what can you do?  We decided to skip the heart station after that mishap...

We next went and watched a movie about the mythology behind the Orion constellation in the planetarium dome theater.  We had fun and even tried to get a family selfie, but it's hard trying to fit seven people in a picture at the same time.  Here's our attempt:

 After the movie we went and visited the museum.  The kids got to try and do a crayon rubbing of the fossil:

Noah tried to do a crayon rubbing only he forgot the paper and only did the crayon rubbing all over the fossil.  I love my kids, I love my kids, I love my kids.....

Here we are checking out the museum:

 As you can see Noah was more than ready to go home at this point.  We had fun together and was glad to get out as a family even with the craziness our kids bring.

In other things Noah refuses to take naps and has for a while.  He insists that he is not tired.  However, I tend not to believe him most times.  Yesterday I sat down to do Sarah's reading homework with her.  Noah quickly crawled up in my lap and, seriously, within two minutes I was hearing snoring.  He was completely passed out.  Maybe he was tired or maybe it was the exciting book (and yes I am being very sarcastic) about Sis and Nan that Sarah was reading that put him to sleep.  Those beginning reader books are just torture to listen to.  Maybe that makes me a bad mom, but I have a hard time with those beginning reading books.  I know the kids have to start somewhere, but that is pretty boring stuff!!  Anyone else feel the same?  Of course I don't let on my true feelings to Sarah, but wow, I really dislike those books.  It makes it especially bad when I have already gone through these same books four times and still have one more kid to go through them with **sigh**.  Anyway, who knows what put the poor kid to sleep, but I have my suspicions!

 I don't know what it is about this house's fireplace, but the kids insist on having it on a lot!!  We had one in our last house, but rarely used it.  Whatever it is about this one the kids love it!  As soon as Josh gets up in the morning he turns it on and snuggles up to it.  As soon as the kids get home from school they turn it on and sit by it.  Noah just following in his siblings examples he woke up this morning and turned it on himself.  He was pretty proud of himself.  He got all nice a comfy right next to the fire this morning.  What a crazy kid!!

 Daniel loves to show us the stuff he does in school.  Here's his latest masterpiece:

It is the Mona Lisa if you can't tell.  I love it.  I love the kids artwork!!  They are so fun at this age!  Daniel is quite proud of this one, too.