Soapmaking

What a fun time we had at Savannah's Keepers meeting this month. First the girls learned about hygiene - bacteria, germs, all that good stuff.

They even got to try out this glow-in-the-dark liquid that you put on your hands after washing them and it shows all the dirt and germs that were missed. All the girls really liked that.

What better activity to follow up all that "being clean" information with than soap making? Savannah had a ball. Each of the girls got to make two soaps, adding color, scents, and texture to each one. It really was a lot of fun and Savannah is excited to make some more soap.

First Trip

I must admit that I have never really wanted to know how much blood results from a split lip but Tuesday night I found out. The kids were downstairs playing and all I heard was a bloodcurdling scream and Savannah shout, "Go get Mom right now!" I ran!
When I got to the basement I was greeted by Noah, his face covered in blood, blood dripping all down his clothes and onto the floor, his outreaching hands covered in blood, and Savannah explaining to me that Xander had hit Noah in the face with a baseball bat. (Good thing we don't have any aluminum bats; our problems might have been a whole lot worse!) I grabbed Noah and ran to the kitchen sink to see if I could figure out if he had a broken nose or some lost teeth or just what the heck was causing all this blood. After cleaning him up as quickly as I could, I was able to determine that he had a split bottom lip and a nice puncture wound on the top lip. Divine intervention happened next. As I struggled to decide if I could take care of it myself at home or if Noah needed some medical attention, my sister Heidi called. Normally in this kind of a situation I would never have answered the phone as I tended to my hurt child. My sister Heidi's husband is in medical school, however, and, since the whole family has been turning to him with our medical questions since before he was even accepted to medical school 4 years ago, I knew that he could direct me on the right path. His advice? Take him in which I did. Although the medical person who saw us decided against stitching and just used a steri-strip to hold the lip together (laziness on the doctor's part, according to my brother-in-law), I was just relieved to have everything taken care of. Noah was so good during the whole thing, impressing all the medical people who attended to him. Noah has now officially experienced his first emergency trip to the doctor and thank goodness it was only for a split lip.
His monster shirt looks even better now with real blood splotches on it.

2 Months

Two months. Has it really been two months? Yesterday marked two months of David being unemployed. Needless to say it's been a tough time for us and it would be so easy to dwell on all the limitations that have come into our lives because David was layed off. But it has also been a time of great blessings and I never want to lose sight of the great love Heavenly Father shows our family time and time again. As I count our many blessings, here are just a few:

• having David home with us all the time - I absolutely love it!
• the kids have been able to spend so much quality time with David sledding, building snowmen, playing games, reading, and just having fun
• spending Christmas with my family
• being uplifted by many prayers given in our behalf
• family that is so loving and supportive
• sisters who listen to me when I just need to vent
• friends who have done so much for our family - watching our kids so David and I could go to the temple, delaying payment for lessons until David has a new job, phone calls that come just when I need them, and the list goes on
• grocery shopping by myself
• learning to truly recognize what is a "need" and what is a "want"
• feeling my testimony strengthen and my faith and dependence on the Lord grow

The weak moments still come but they happen less frequently as I focus on the truly important things in life. I know that we have had this trial come into our lives for a reason and I am determined to learn from it.

Snow Much Fun!

My mom asked me the other day if we are all going stir crazy being stuck at home due to all the massive snowstorms we've been experiencing. Well...maybe a little but we have tried to keep ourselves busy. On the days without blizzards, we get the kids outside to do some sledding, build snow tunnels, and have fun with their friends.

Savannah built this "ice castle" out of icicles. We thought it looked like Superman's home but she doesn't know anything about that.




With the kids out of school all week we have tried to keep their brains working by doing some workbooks as well as a whole lot of reading! They did Valentines for their classmates as well as family members.

We introduced the kids to the world of Harry Potter movies (with some editing) and now we have "Hermoine" and, you guessed it, "Lucius Malfoy" running around the house casting spells on us. (The only reason Xander is Lucius and not Voldemort is due to editing of the movies...we didn't feel we should introduce the extremely scary character of Voldemort just yet! But I know Voldemort would have been his first pick; he's such an "interesting" child.) We've also watched other movies, played lots of Sorry and Memory, played games on the Nintendo (yes, we're the Flintstones), made cookies, played dress-up, and yes, even done some cleaning!

All in all it has been so much fun having the kids around for a little unexpected vacation at home.

Diggin' Out!

David spent a good portion of Sunday and Monday digging our cars out and part of our street. The snowplows didn't get to us until late Sunday so David, along with many of our neighbors, worked on getting our street clear. Boy, is David tough! I shoveled some of the snow that had been under my car and that was enough for me.


The kids came out for awhile to "help".

They all love playing in the snow but they were especially excited to find that they didn't need me to lift them up into the tree. They were able to climb the tree quite easily with a boost up from the snow.


Now we're preparing for the next storm!

Snowed In!

Our second major storm of the winter hit Friday afternoon and it snowed well into Saturday afternoon. Due to the 24-26 inches of snow we received, we are pretty much stuck at home for the next few days. Church was cancelled today and Savannah and Xander won't have school tomorrow. David has been trying to keep on top of the shoveling but the plows haven't even made it to our street yet so we're all buried up to our knees around here.
Mid-Saturday view of our front yard...

and headed up our street.

David trying to get some shoveling done.

The kids all wanted to go out and play for awhile so I spent 1/2 an hour getting them all bundled up...for about 15 minutes of play. They went outside when it was still snowing plus the wind was blowing which made it even worse. Needless to say, Noah had a meltdown after 10 minutes of tromping through snow taller than him and the rest quickly followed.

A happy moment!

This morning we were greeted with beautiful, clear blue skies and our cat Googie sitting on top of the snow on our deck waiting so patiently for his food. Now comes the hard part...trying to get rid of all this snow from our streets and sidewalks!

"Mommy, I'm ready to go back outside!"

FINALLY!!!

Finally!! The battle that has been waged the past few months in our house has come to an end. Both sides refused to give in but eventually someone had to win...and it was me! Savannah's tooth did not want to come out but last Thursday, after looking at that tooth grow more and more horizontal, I decided the time had come. I started yanking and pulling and an accidental fall by Savannah while I had a good grip on her tooth brought matters to an end. Blood was everywhere but it was worth it!

Finally!! I have three healthy kids. No more runny noses, coughs, ear infections, strep throat, or puking!! And it even looks like David is on the mend as well.

Finally!!! This one is a big one...Noah is finally potty trained. Yay!!! I have said goodbye to diapers!



Finally!!! My head has stopped threatening to explode every time I think about President Obama's State of the Union address last week. The arrogance, the condescending manner in which he spoke to us, the nation, the way he reprimanded the Supreme Court...ahhh!! Oh no, my head is threatening to explode!

Finally!!! My boy (Peyton Manning) is back in the Super Bowl. Go, Colts!

Finally!! My Utah Jazz are on a roll. Oh, no...I probably just jinxed them.

Finally!!! The new season of LOST starts tonight. I finally have a good reason to turn on the TV (besides sports and Glenn Beck, of course.)