Hair Emergency, End of School, Programs, Sick, Memorial Day

Wow the end of school has come fast and hard!  All the kids seem to have a ton of projects and/or programs all happening all at the same time.  It has been crazy!  I'll try for a catch up in the last 12 days.  Last Saturday it was our wards service day.  Aaron took Josh and Daniel and went over to a neighbor's house to help with the yard work they were unable to do.  After some hard work, everyone got back together that evening for a BBQ at the church.  Surprisingly they had a great turnout and were able to help quite a few people.  Glad Aaron and the boys could help.  The boys were more excited about the BBQ food and thought it was an awesome reward for their work.  They had quite a bit of food so Josh was in heaven after eating two huge hot dogs and numerous desserts.

Last Friday during the morning chaos of breakfast and getting the kids ready for school I got a phone call from a friend.  She explained that her 6th grade daughter was doing a renaissance fair at her school and was going to be the queen.  However, she couldn't figure out a way to do her daughter's hair nicely and have her crown stay on so she called me.  She said she sees Sarah's fancy hairdos every Sunday and wanted me to do her daughter's hair for her.  I was more than happy to help.  I said to bring her over as long as she ignored the messy house and breakfast mess.  She brought her daughter over a few minutes later and I went to town.  It was fun doing an older fancy do on someone else besides Sarah.  I was glad to help out and was flattered that she called me.  She said she may call me again when it comes time for Prom.  I told her anytime :).

These past two weeks we've gotten a few honey-do list items done.  We got our garden in and we finally got our shed built.  We have had it for two months, but finally got the chance to put it together last week.  Our neighbor helped Aaron with the majority of it, but Josh helped with some, too.  However, in the picture it just looks like Josh is holding up the door while posing.  Just ask Josh...holding doors is hard to do--haha.  We are glad to move some of the yard stuff out of the garage into the shed to free up some space for all the summer toys--the bikes, scooters, etc.

 The other day I was on the phone and Sarah and Noah were being really loud.  I stepped into my bedroom and closed the door so I could actually hear the conversation on the phone.  When I came out 10 minutes later I found Sarah and Noah had thought it was an excellent time for a picnic right in the middle of the kitchen floor.  They even got out every single one of my bowls, forks, butter knives and spoons for their picnic, too.  Sigh....at least they were having fun.  Good thing I have a dishwasher ;).

 Daniel participated in the 2nd grade's patriotic program.  They sang a bunch of patriotic songs and everyone either wore a uniform or red white and blue.  Daniel was so excited to wear his Cub Scout shirt to school.

 They sang all kinds of patriotic songs:

After the 2nd grade program Daniel's class had a flute concert in their homeroom.  Daniel and three others volunteered to sing Yankee Doodle while everyone else played their flutes.  It was fun to watch:

Sarah had kindergarten testing last week so she didn't have school Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday.  I was so excited to be able to take Sarah and Noah out to do some fun things, but my plans were thwarted when Sarah came down with quite the raging fever Monday night.  Does this girl know she has already hit her fever quota for the century all ready?!!  Poor Sarah.

She still had the fever the next day so we took her to the doctor to find she had a pretty bad bladder infection.  She was also complaining of her back hurting so they think she also may have had a kidney infection as well.  Poor girl!!  She NEVER said anything about it hurting when she went to the bathroom so we had no idea.  Good thing she started feeling better within a few days of starting the antibiotic. 

Sarah also had kindergarten testing during all of this.  I had to give her some ibuprofen so she felt well enough to go for the 20 minute testing.  After the testing her teacher came out and said she was doing great and she is where she needs to be.  That's a sigh of relief seeing as how last term she missed 15 days (3 full weeks) of school due to Kawasaki disease and the corresponding hospital stay.  I was afraid she had fallen pretty far behind, but was pleasantly surprised to see that she is doing really well.  Wahoo for Sarah!!

Josh's patriotic program was Thursday night.  His grade has been practicing for it for the past while so Josh was really excited to have us see the program.  He even got to use a flashlight during it which he thought was pretty awesome.

 Josh had a speaking part and nailed it.  I didn't realize the part was right at the beginning so I didn't have the camera ready, but got most of it, though.

They sang a bunch of patriotic songs as well as went through our nation's history.  At the end they even acknowledged the servicemen past and present in the crowd.

There were four 5th grade classes that participated.

The whole 5th grade even learned the sign language signs for the Preamble to the Constitution.

It is fun to see the programs each of the kids have worked on.  I'm sure it was a big undertaking for all the teachers, but it is great.

Here's my cute Joshy boy:

 Daniel's class had a rocket party.  According to their behavior they got points.  The more points they got the more times they were able to launch their class made rockets.  Daniel named his rocket the BYU Firebolt.  Do you think Aaron has thoroughly brainwashed BYU in to this kid?!  Haha.  Daniel said his rocket went pretty high.  I'm sure it was a fun activity.

 Sarah's been busy with dance.  She had her dance pictures a few weeks ago.  They were outside and it was raining, windy and COLD when they were getting taken.  Sarah's trying to smile through the freezing rain:

 They turned out great.  She is looking so old!!

For Memorial Day weekend we spent Saturday mostly doing yard work.  Because of that we decided to make Monday a fun day.  We caught the Lego Movie at the dollar theater first.  Surprisingly enough it was funny even for adults.  Here we are waiting for the movie to start:

 Afterward we headed over to the splash pad.  It took Noah a few minutes to even want to get wet, but he finally got soaked and loved it.  Here's Sarah, Noah and Matthew playing in the water:

 Josh and Daniel also got completely soaked as well:

 They even replaced the playground with a new structure with a shade cover over the top.  It was such a beautiful day--perfect for getting wet.

 Here's my soaking Bubba boy:

 Daniel went to dry off on the warm concrete and Noah followed him over and did whatever Daniel did.

 Josh then came over to warm up on the warm concrete, too.  Good thing it was a warm day.  84 degrees was awesome!!

 The two weeks of school Josh's teacher decided to have a 'Student Teach' experience for everyone.  Every student had to pick a topic (hopefully one they were familiar with) and teach about it to the class.  There were different subjects such as fishing, bike repair, green smoothie making, making ice cream, etc.  Josh's topic was on cleaning pennies.  If you dip an old penny into a solution of vinegar and salt it makes them shiny again.  Josh explained the science behind it and then gave everyone their own pennies, bowls and vinegar to try it out on their desks.  Josh did really well and stayed calm and collected during the whole thing.  He even did well during the question and answer phase at the end of his student teach experience.  I am glad that it over, though.  Because even though it looked put together today in class, we didn't even come up with a topic until yesterday morning--dang procrastination.  Oh well it all worked out, but every time I keep telling myself to not procrastinate again, but I don't really learn my lesson.....haha.  Here's Josh during his presentation in front of his class:

I was glad Aaron and I could come and watch Josh, too.  Josh also finished his 40 book challenge that the teacher gave them at the beginning of the year.  They had to read at least 40 books, but of different genres.  Josh had to read 5 realistic fiction books, 5 historical fiction books, 5 fantasy books, 5 informational books, a few science fiction, a few mystery, a few poetry, a few biographies, and 10 chapter books of his choice.   After reading the books Josh had to write book reports about each one.  He finished his last book report last week.  Wahoo.  For the kids that completed the challenge the teacher is going to take them to Classic Skating for a fun activity.  Josh is looking forward to going.  Josh loves reading so this wasn't a very hard challenge for him :).  Now if my other kids would like reading that much it would be great :).

Shaving, Mother's Day, Helpful, Dance Pics, 1st Ever Milk Taste

Sunday morning Daniel came up to Aaron and me and in his most serious voice he said, "You know, I think I need to shave today."  At first I thought he was kidding, but after looking at his face I knew he was dead serious.  Aaron and I tried not to laugh (it was really hard).  I know Matthew is going to need to start shaving soon so I always assumed he would be the one to ask to shave first, not Daniel!  Aaron took Daniel into our bathroom and helped him with each step.  Daniel thought he was so adult-like.  Aaron first wet down his face with water:

 Then came the shaving cream:

 Aaron did about 5 different razor strokes and then called it good.  Daniel was ok with that, too:

 Then came the aftershave.  After Daniel put the aftershave on Aaron told Daniel to watch out because that will drive all the girls crazy in love after they got a whiff of it during primary.  Daniel remained so serious throughout the whole thing it was funny to watch.

Sunday was Mother's Day.  I was 'surprised' with breakfast in bed.  It was a little hard to be surprised because everyone was trying to help prepare breakfast and it made for some really loud talking haha!  Oh well it was still fun to see their faces as they 'surprised' me.  Aaron was a smart guy and made enough breakfast for everyone because he knew all the kids would want tastes.  I got bacon, eggs, toast and milk.

Aaron had all his meetings cancelled for that morning which was awesome.  He then proceeded to get all the kids ready for church so I could enjoy a quiet morning.  It was really nice.  He even did Sarah's hair for me.  He tried to vacuum ponytail trick, but he couldn't get it to work very well for him so he had to brush it back into a ponytail without any assistance.  I even tried to come in the bathroom to help, but he shooed me back out.  What a good guy!  I love that I can be a mom to all these cute kiddos.  I am not the most perfect mom as I am learning by trial and error as I go along, but I am grateful all these kids were sent to me.  Notice Daniel's smooth, freshly shaved face?  No more frog whiskers for him!  What a funny boy.

 During sacrament meeting they had all the primary kids come up to the stand to sing three songs for Mother's Day.  Now Noah was a little hesitant to go up, but after Josh grabbed his hand he followed Josh up there.  However, Noah refused to go stand in the front where all the younger kids were standing.  He wouldn't leave Josh's side.  Josh was a sweet brother and lifted him up and held him throughout the whole three songs.  By the end of the last song everyone heard a very audible sigh from Josh when he finally could put Noah down again.  It was funny.  I'm sure Josh being only 85 pounds it was hard holding a 35 pound kid as it was almost half his body weight.  Arms of steel Josh boy!!  After church Aaron came home and we had a BBQ.  Aaron cooked up some hot dogs and hamburgers and everyone loved them.  It was another Mother's Day present to me to not hear any complaining during dinner.  Awesome!!  It was a nice day!

Noah has really been into 'helping' lately.  He helped Aaron and Grandpa mow the yards:

Since we have planted all these new plants we have had to water them by hand until Aaron can get the sprinkling system set up to water them.  Noah has really been into helping with that.  So much so he will sneak out of the house and turn the hose on without me knowing about it.  Luckily, so far I have caught it before we have had a major flood.  The other day I was out spraying/pulling weeds when Noah decided he needed to water the plants.  He turned the hose on then drug it over to our empty garden and dropped it while it was still on so he could go play with the Wiggle Car.  I didn't notice but as I came around the edge of the garden I slipped and stepped right into the garden which was now a huge mud pit since Noah had left the hose running on it for about 30 minutes.  Unfortunately, my walking boot got sucked into the mud all the way up to the top of it.  DOH!!!  I had to take my walking boot off and squirt all the mud off of it--there was a ton!!  Thanks for the help, Noah.  Needless to say Aaron's next priority is to get the sprinkling system set up to all the plants because I don't enjoy close call floodings or stepping into mud pits with walking boots on!

Sarah had her dance pictures taken this week.  They were taken outside and it ended up being stormy and cold that day.  Luckily I snapped a few inside before we left for the pictures because it was so cold outside I don't know how the outside pictures will turn out.  Here's my beautiful baby doll:

 I have to watch out because Sarah says she has a boyfriend at school.  She told us his name is Ricky.  She also says that she is a really good listener, but that Ricky isn't a very good listener.  Uh oh she is only 5 and already is liking the bad boys!  Aaron and I think it's funny.  Hopefully her tastes will change as she gets older.

 Speaking of Sarah she's been having her countdown to the end of school going on.  Two days ago it was the letter 'S' for Sneak Peak into First Grade day.  All the kindergartners were supposed to bring a lunch from home or buy a school lunch.  Then at the end of the school day they were going to eat their lunch in the lunchroom so they can see what it will be like next year when they are in first grade and have to eat their lunch there every day.  Well I thought Sarah would enjoy eating a hot lunch so I bought one for her ahead of time.  Boy I was WRONG.  The day came and her brothers all were bringing their lunches from home to school.  Then when her friend that we carpool with came over with her home lunch Sarah came unglued.  I had reassured her multiple times that they would have a lunch for her at school, but that wasn't good enough for her.  She found her lunch box and refused to leave for school until I put something in it.  Just to make things easier I put a few snacks inside it.  Then when I dropped off Sarah at school I walked in and told her teacher that, yes, she did bring a lunchbox, but she was still going to eat school lunch.  Her teacher probably thought I was weird, but it was really just easier that way than trying to fight with her the whole way to school about it.

Today it was the kindergarten's field trip to the Treehouse Museum in Ogden.  They didn't ask for volunteers for this field trip so I was sad I wasn't able to go with her on it, but she had fun.  She was in a group with three of her friends which was good.  It was her first time riding a school bus.  My friend's husband went along and sent this picture to me via his wife.  It looks like she is having fun.

Since we are finishing our basement and are at the electrical stage right now my Dad has come up to help wire up the panels.  Grandma came along with him one night to visit and the kids wouldn't leave her alone.  Everywhere she sat Noah would follow her and he has no personal space.  I am sure she was done being mauled by the end of the night.

 The other morning I was out pulling weeds when I noticed the cows were close to the fence.  I called Noah over and we fed them.  They were a little skittish at first taking the grass from our hands, but then they got used to it.  Every time a cow pulled the grass from Noah's hand he would just giggle.  He didn't want to stop feeding them either.  I finally had to tell him that the cows were full to finally get him to come back inside.

 I HATE calls from the school if I hadn't mentioned it a bazillion times before!  I got one the other morning from Matthew's teacher.  She knows I HATE calls from the school so right after I answered the phone she immediately said this all in one breath, "Hi,Rebeccait'sMrs.Larsen,Matthew'steachereverythingisok!!" before I even had a chance to say anything.  Luckily the call wasn't bad.  His teacher had forgotten to send home a permission form for me to sign to let Matthew go on a field trip.  All the local schools' functional skills classes were getting together at Layton High school to have a dance and she needed verbal permission for Matthew to attend the dance.  I said it was fine with me.  Matthew was excited to go.  When he got home from school I asked him about the dance and who he danced with.  He said he mostly danced with the teachers.  He did ask one girl to dance, but she told him she had to think about it so Matthew moved on.  Luckily, things like that don't even bother Matthew.  He moved right on to someone else.  What a romeo!!  I wished I could have been there to see what it was like.  In other good news Matthew got accepted to two sessions of Camp Kostopolos this summer.  It is a resident camp for special needs kids.  He went for the first time last year and loved it so he is excited to go for two weeks this summer.  I just got the acceptance letter this week and the camp is in four weeks so in the next four weeks I have to get Matthew in for a doctor's physical, fill out a ton of paperwork and start gathering his camping stuff together.  I hope he has another good experience this year, too!

Exciting things this week.  Daniel got his first taste of undiluted whole milk on Monday.  In the allergy treatment he is getting he has finally worked up to this dose.  It has taken four weeks, but it's a big step.  Here's his very first taste of whole, unadulterated milk ever:

It did cause him to have a runny nose in the office so they made him stay an extra 30 minutes to make sure the reaction wouldn't progress any further than that and luckily it didn't.  YAY!!  They told us from this point on (barring any problems) we have 19 weeks left of this allergy treatment/program and then Daniel should be able to eat/drink dairy products without a problem.  To keep up the regimen at home we have to give him 0.3 ML of milk twice a day.  Here's how small the dose he gets is compared to a macaroni noodle:

 The funny thing is when we first started he had an anaphylactic reaction to a dose a tenth this size in the office.  It is so crazy that he can even handle this much at this point.  The progress he has made just makes me happy.  We have to provide the whole milk for him and they will only accept the Organic Horizon brand of whole milk and, of course, it's the most expensive.  $4 for half a gallon!!  Oh well if it works it will all be worth it.

 Random pics of the day--I came home the other day to find that Sarah had tied up her pillow pet next to the chair.  I guess you can never be too safe.  Those pillow pets are known for wandering away, right?!  Haha funny girl!

 For Mother's Day I LOVE the presents the kids make for me.  Sarah made me a cute poem book with her handprints on the outside:

 She also filled out this cute questionnaire about me saying my favorite color is purple (it's really blue), that I am 16 years old (I was a REALLY young mom haha!).  They asked how tall I was and Sarah put that I am almost bigger than my dad (Aaron).  She said my favorite food is salad and that how she makes me happy is by cleaning my room and making my bed.  What makes me sad is when she doesn't clean her room right (I have never gotten upset over that before) and that I make her laugh by tickling her.  They asked Sarah what does your mom do while she is at school, Sarah said that I go to the store sometimes.  They asked what is your mom really good at and Sarah said writing my letters (we have been practicing writing the alphabet and different words.  I guess my letters are pretty awesome.)  They asked what is your mom not very good at and Sarah said planting trees (I have to agree with that one!).  They asked what is your moms favorite thing to do and Sarah said play games with me.  What is something your mom always says to you and Sarah put that she loves me.  The last question was if your mom becomes famous what will it be for and Sarah said making her pictures.  I love these things!

 Here's a few of the poems and pictures she made for her book throughout the year.  I love them!

Daniel wrote me a sweet letter:

 He also brought me home a geranium and bean plant with two beans already on it from school.  He also brought me home a pretty flower from scouts as well.

 He decorated the cup he put the flower in, too.  I love how he drew flowers around it and wrote that it is for me.  What a sweet boy.

 Josh's class they made some fancy yarn hangers.  Josh couldn't get the puffs to stay on so he taped them for me.  I LOVE it!

 Matthew wrote me a letter:

Noah colored a note for me, too, but I can't find it :(.  In our sunbeam class we made all the moms these cute fingerprint flowers:

 This one was Noah's and it's cute!

Aaron and the kids also got me some pretty flower pots and a flat of flowers I got to transplant to make my own flower pots, too.

 They are so pretty.  Hopefully I don't kill them!

I love my family!