March 30 & 31

Wednesday, March 30th-

Grant post!!!

Grant
Photo by Grandma Aitchison

Grant is a super sweet boy. He hardly ever causes me problems and is so helpful. He is the first one to give me a hug when I'm sad. An example of his sweetness: On Valentine's day when Silas got home from work Grant said, "Dad, sorry I didn't get any Lemonheads." He knew that his dad likes Lemonheads and would have shared them all with him if he had received them that day.

Grant does really well at school and is reading like a champ. He is especially good at math and comes home with 100% tests pretty regularly...it's impressive, even for a 1st grader. He gets his homework done quickly and rarely needs help.

Grant is still innocent. He still thinks the best of everyone and everything. When Grandma and Grandpa Aitchison were here a few weeks ago, Grant asked Grandma Aitchison if she had plastic surgery to look like a "normal mom." We never quite figured out what he meant, but we're pretty sure it was a compliment to Grandma Aitchison's youthful looks. :)

 The other day, Grant got hit in the face at recess and he told us that something broke in his mouth and he swallowed it. I looked in his mouth to see if he chipped a tooth but he pointed to the inside of his cheek. I said that would heal and he said, “Oh good. I thought it was a taste bud.”

We love our cute, Granty boy.


Thursday, March 31st-

I love my girls. They are cute. They are funny. They are super hyper.

Molly
Photo by Cora

Conversation with Molly:

Me: Molly, you have the best dad ever.
Molly: Yes. Him soft.

Molly is getting to be a funny, independent girl. She really could be potty trained by now, but I'm not quite ready. haha. It's serious business and she's super stubborn so I need to be completely ready for it.

Our beautiful baby
Photo by Grandma Aitchison

Molly is VERY smart, which isn't surprising considering how smart all of her siblings are. Sometimes I am amazed at what she observes and how she applies it in her own actions.

Lately she has become more and more attached to her blankets, so we are working on keeping them in her bed. When she asks for them or gets them, we tell her they are for bed time only. This has created a few more naps than normal because she goes back and sits on her bed with them, but she is getting better at leaving them alone during the day.



Sad face
Photo taken and edited by Cora

Molly has always been aware of her own emotions. She says she's sad when she's sad and if she is validated, she can move on. This helps eliminate some of the drama that comes from little girls. The other day I told her no about something and she said something about being frustrated. She can't form a complete, proper sentence yet, but she can express her frustration better than most adults.

Pretending she's on the computer
Photo by Grandma Aitchison

Molly is a great pretender. She loves playing with babies and stuffed animals. She loves being a baby or an animal. Whenever she plays baby or puppy, her name is Ella and her parents died at work. Ever time. It came from a game Cora and Molly started playing a while ago where Cora found a baby (Molly aka Ella) and brought her to me because she didn't have any parents. Somehow it was decided that her parents died at work so I told her that I would be her mom and take care of her. Now we have this conversation regularly.



Loving Bolt

Cora
Photo by Grandma Aitchison

Cora... she is... hmm. I don't even know how to describe her. She is a nut. She is a genius. She is a stinker and she is a sweetheart. Cora can pretend but it's harder for her. She wants to be entertained. This can sometimes be frustrating for me as I am busily trying to take care of other kids or the house, but when I can give her some direction, she creates amazing things.

Being creative with magnets

Hanging out on the couch
Photo taken and edited by Cora

Cora really loves to write notes to people. Right now she mostly writes love notes to me. It's pretty cute.

Cora gives very beautiful, thoughtful prayers. She says, "so very grateful" often and in a prayer last week expressed her gratitude that she would be starting kindergarten soon. The other day she said, "We're thankful for a family and a house to live in and with." Even though the words were a little mixed up grammatically, it showed me that she is thoughtful and also displays the grasp of syntax which she has always shown.

Lately, she has also been taking a lot of pictures with my phone. Sometimes I delete lots of pictures of nothing, but sometimes she takes great photos.

Mostly, she takes selfies...

 

Happy birthday, Silas

Monday, March 28th-



Picture taken earlier this month, but pretty
much illustrates the constant fatigue of
this new, busy Bishop

Today is Silas’s birthday. The girls and I took him lunch, donuts and balloons while he was at work. One of the reasons we took him lunch was so that he could get off work early. And he got off early to pick up last minute groceries and then to make dinner. He really is the best. He decided on Jambalaya for dinner, which he always makes so he just did it without saying anything. I am very grateful for him. Brett and Deruchette and their kids came over for dinner and cake (angel food cake)!



Milk testing

While the Warbys were here, we helping Leksi with her science experiment which was testing which 2% milk was best. It was pretty funny. The one most of us liked most has the Great Value brand from Wal-Mart. Haha.

 

 

Tuesday, March 29th-

 

Remember that one time I started blogging because a lot of fun things were going to happen this year. Boy, am I glad I decided to do this. Writing down our fun, crazy and sometimes overwhelming comings and goings really helps me to see the blessings we have in our lives.

 

Tonight was another evening without Dad at home. The kids and I got chores and homework done and watched a few things together before bed. We miss him when he's gone, but we can do this!

 

Eating angel food cake at lunch today, posing for
me when I realized I hadn't taken a birthday
photo of him yesterday

Easters

Saturday, March 26th-

This morning the boys went outside to see if they could find any eggs that were missed last night during the Easter egg hunt. Some of the neighbor girls had already been out there so Cleod was only able to find one egg with a few pieces of candy. I had to babysit and the gym and was chatting with him through text. He sent me a picture of the candy from his one egg and a text that said, "Look at all the candy I found." I wrote him back that I was sorry and would give him some extra Easter candy when I got home. He wrote me back that he wasn't being sarcastic but that he was really happy with what he found.

Cleod is a complicated boy. He can sometimes be hard for me to figure out and deal with, but he is one of the nicest boys I know. I am so grateful for him and all the help he is to me and to his siblings.

Random Cleod quote of the month:  "I have never seen a buffalo in my whole life!"

Sunday, March 27th-

What a day!

 

Easter baskets



Waiting for breakfast

Silas made sure he didn't have meetings this morning so we slept in, which NEVER happens on Sundays for us. The kids and I prepared a pan of Resurrection rolls last night and put them in the fridge so Cleod put breakfast in the oven. Love having big kids.
 



A Resurrection Roll that really looks
like the empty tomb!

While we waited for the rolls to bake, the kids hunted for their Easter baskets. We don't do Easter bunny but Silas and I get something useful for the kids along with some candy. This year we got them notebooks and mechanical pencils.
 

So Silas hides the baskets and we play the hot and cold game until they all find their baskets. They were really happy about their baskets.  
 

After breakfast, the kids put on their own egg hunt while Silas and I got ready for the day. They used their own eggs and were all super nice to each other. Ryan even hid an empty egg to symbolize the empty tomb. He is very sensitive to the real meaning of Easter.
 

In the late morning Silas and I went to the hospital to visit a sister in the ward who is in the ICU. She was sleeping but we visits with her daughter and had a good visit. And after church one of our neighbors asked if we wanted some good because they had so much left from Easter dinner so Silas and I took the food to a family that has been struggling.
 

Molly and I during the egg dying

Our first sacrament with Silas on the stand was interesting, but not necessarily because Dad wasn’t with us. I performed “O My Father” to the song “Homeward Bound.” I have been working really hard on it and it just happened that the music person asked me to do it this week. I arranged for Ina and Jay to sit with us so that Cora and Molly would have someone while I was singing. It was really nice of them to be so willing to do that...even though it didn’t exactly turn out the way I wanted it to. As the speaker before my song was ending her talk I was trying to get Molly to sit down. She was standing in front of me and I needed to stand up soon. When it was my turn, I started to stand and move her but ended up bonking her head into the pew in front of us. She didn’t really cry but I knew that she wouldn’t stay with anyone at that point. She’s super stubborn that way. So I ended up having to take her with me and handing her over to Silas. It was a little embarrassing and Amber reminded me later that I totally sighed into the microphone before starting. The musical number ended up fine, but I was disappointed a little because I have been preparing this song for months and I didn’t want it to be just fine.
 



Dying eggs

Silas had to stay after church for a couple hours. While he was gone, our home teachers came to visit. The kids were a little silly, especially the girls. Grant even quoted Nacho Libre and told our elderly home teacher that he had diarrhea since Easters. Good grief.

We had some good family time today though. We dyed eggs before bed. It's always fun to see what the kids do with their eggs. Cleod was very patient, trying to dye his  eggs just right. The other boys were also trying really hard to dye their eggs with more than one color. Cora just plopped her eggs in whatever and Molly didn't want to dye eggs at all. Haha.
 

To finish the night off, we had the missionaries stop by to talk to Silas and a friend from the ward stopped by with goodies and we chatted for a while. I was a crazy, busy, awesome day.

 

March 24 & 25

Thursday, March 24th-

Today was a perfect example of why we shouldn't over-schedule life. After school we didn't have anything (Dad had church stuff but the rest of us didn't have anything). So when I picked the boys up from school, we had time to play at the park. The kids enjoyed time in the sun, rolling down the hill and playing at the park.

In the evening we caught up on chores, homework and had time to just be together. It really was a lovely day.

Molly wearing Cleod's glasses

Independent girl, combing her hair

Friday, March 25th-

I love Fridays. I seem to have more time, less to do and then we have DATE NIGHT. The bad part of Fridays is that I try to be really careful about what I eat so that I won't have to worry about not eating whatever I want for dinner/date night. Today Cora took a picture of me at lunch eating broccoli. I love having broccoli with a little cheese for lunch. It is an example of how I have tried to change my eating habits. I don't eat just veggies for lunch all the time, but I enjoy it when I do...even if I get a little hangry before we finally get to go out for dinner.



Broccoli for lunch!
Photo by Cora

Molly hunting for eggs

Molly got the special egg with $5!

Tonight when we got home from our date, we had a neighborhood-late-night-Easter-egg-hunt. When we talked about it this afternoon, I was a little skeptical (mostly because I am not a very fun mom and would rather have my kids in bed) but it ended up being SO much fun! The Redhouse family headed the hunt and hit 250 eggs (we contributed about 50) in the "back-back" or the unfinished dirt area of our townhome community. None of the eggs were hidden but because it was dark and we could only find them with flashlights, it made it hard and fun for all the kids. Molly was hilarious and wanted more and more eggs. All the kids were really nice and shared with each other. No one was selfish or had a melt down. I hope we do this every year.

Sadly, Cleod had a really bad headache so he stayed in the house. We got some eggs for him, but I was way bummed for him. He has been getting headaches so much lately and I think because it happens so often, he tries to push through it and continue doing what he's doing and sometimes that causes bad, migraine-like headaches like tonight. Poor boy.

March 22 & 23

Tuesday, March 22nd-

Yesterday afternoon the girls and I went to the school to watch Cleod present his New York State Report to his class. He did a great job and the class seemed to enjoy it. I was super proud of him and relieved that it is done.



One of the slides from Cleod's New York State Report

Cleod presenting to his class

The girls and I had a busy day today! We woke Grandma Warby up and fed her breakfast and did our errands. We dropped by Amber's house during her lunch break with a treat and a gag gift. It was fun to sit with Amber and Mike and chat for a few minutes. We headed home at this point and had some lunch and I made a couple of lasagnas to cook later. In the afternoon before getting the boys from school we visited the Breinholt's for a few minutes and took one of the lasagnas to the to the Medina's. I wish we could have stayed and visited with them, but our timing was off.

After school and into the evening we had a good, stress-free time together. It was a little too cold to play outside but after homework and chores were done, they all found different things to do and everyone was happy. Ryan has been trying to work out more which mostly consists of jumping rope and doing push-ups. Cora and Molly water colored or drew pictures. Grant has had Legos out on the card table for a few days so he is always there when h can be. The other kids come and go from there as well. Cleod read or played with Legos.

Later in the evening, Silas and I went to Republican Caucus for our precinct. We had been before but this year is a presidential election year so there were lots more people and it took a long time. It was very interesting though and made me want to be more involved or at least more educated.



Wednesday, March 23rd-

Today after school Cleod handed me a folded post-it note with his grade from the State Report. He got a perfect score! We were all really excited.

Wednesdays are always a little crazy. It's early out day so we have some extra time for homework and such, but both boys had scouts at different times, I usually have a YW Presidency meetings and then mutual and now Silas is at the church for several hours every evening. I was going to stay for mutual for a few minutes but got a text that the girl tending in the daycare had tripped on a toy and hurt her foot. I left right away but found out that I didn't need to go in and went home to get kids ready for bed instead. I spent a long time texting several people about it. I feel so badly that it happened in the daycare and hope it doesn't cause any problems for the gym.

I got the kids to bed and had a few quiet minutes to get some things done before Silas got home from the church. Tonight was a hard night for him and he was unhappy. This is going to be the hardest thing for me, I think. I know he will be away from home a lot and that other people will want his attention. But the negative stress that comes from some of the situations he will had to deal with and the way it personally affects him is painful for me. I want to fix it for him. I want him to see how great he is and how he is doing exactly what he needs to be doing. But life is messy and we need to have the courage to continue, trying to be kind while we are struggling.

March 21

Monday, March 21st-

Ryan and Cleod both had orthodontist appointments today. I got them some lunch and ice cream afterward, which took way longer than the actual appointment. We need to not do that again.


Cleod staring at the TV

Ryan

Dr. Webster
Photo by Cora

The girls waiting patiently

Today I decided to try doing only ONE load of laundry a day. That means wash, dry, fold AND put away. It's killing me not doing more since today is my normal laundry day, but my upstairs hallways looks nice and clean instead of full of clothes. I am going to try it for a week, maybe two and see if it helps in the long run. If I start having dreams/nightmares about laundry again, I might have to re-think my life.




Dad reading to Molly while he was home for lunch

Sunday!

Sunday, March 20th-



Cora's drawing of our family and the
Cedar City Temple on the hill

Today was the Provo City Center Temple Dedication, so we didn't have regular church meetings. Silas took Cleod with him to the first session (broadcast at the Stake Center) and Ryan and I went to the second session at noon. It was really beautiful to here stories about the temple and testimonies of the peace that it provides. I know that it is a wonderful place to be and that it makes me want to be a better person.



Cora eating divinity off the beater

This afternoon I made divinity so we could take some to our friend Ina who had surgery this week. I love making divinity. It reminds me of my mom and of her mom, who died when I was little. Cleod wanted to help, so I had him watch the thermometer. That's pretty much all he could do, because divinity is pretty particular.



Yum!

While I was making the divinity, one of our ward members brought a bag of oranges. I decided to see how much juice we could get from them. Ryan was really into it and ended up juicing most of them himself. It took 36.5 oranges to make ONE QUART of juice. Crazy! And it probably took him over 30 minutes.

This guy!

New faucet!

Saturday, March 19th-

We got so much done today! It was the Saturday dreams are made of...although we didn't get to the yard or garage, so I guess it wasn't quite the dream Saturday. haha. I have high expectations. :(



New faucet!

BUT...Cleod finished his state project today and Silas installed the new faucet!!! Taking the old one out took way longer than installing the new one. I am very happy with the new faucet. We have had a leaky or non-working faucet for months, so it has already been so great to have one that works!!

It was a really nice day today, so the kids spent a good chunk of the afternoon outside. Our neighbor Gabriel has some awesome PVC Light sabers that his dad made him and the kids had a great time with them. Silas enjoyed playing with them for a while too, when he came out to see what we were up to.



March 18

Friday, March 18th-

Me and Der at the movie

Cora the Leprechaun

Went to Allegiant last night super late with Deruchette and some of the other Warby gals. If you compare the movie with the books it was not great, but as a movie by itself I think it was good. If that makes any sense.

Cora had preschool today and they did St. Patrick's Day activities. She is the cutest Leprechaun ever.

After school we ran to Wal-Mart to get some birthday presents (Ryan has two parties this weekend and Cora has one) and some paper plates and bowls (just in case our sink continues to be out of commission past tomorrow).



Molly is a big helper at the store

For date night tonight, Silas and I went to Lupita's, a super, yummy and authentic Mexican restaurant in town. It was very delicious! Then we went to Home Depot and purchased a new sink faucet. Our friend Josh Williams came over last night to look at the current faucet and said that it wasn't fixable. We were planning on buying a new sink and faucet in the near future but to save money we decided to wait on the sink and get just a faucet. (We don't NEED a new sink, I just want a deeper one.)

We also went over to Joann's where I found a floral arrangement, vase and some bark to fill the vase as a decoration for the Bishop's office. It took me a long time to decide but I am very happy with what we got.

Almost done decorating the office




Picture Cora took and edited during the
Pinewood Derby last night

Kindergarten registration

Molly after combing her own hair today

Thursday, March 17th-

Molly had a fever all evening yesterday. This morning she was fine and then whiny and then fine again. Not sure what's going on, but this afternoon was Kindergarten Registration so Silas came home to hang out with the sicko while I took Cora to the elementary school.

Cora was really excited and not nervous at all. In fact, she was a little sassy some of the time. I don't love that but I'm glad she is confident. She did really well on all the little tests they gave her and she is even more excited now to go to school. I'm excited for her too, as well as a little sad. Thank heaven that Kindergarten is only half day here so that Molly and I can have her around most of the day still.

Vision test

Looking at her worksheet

Hearing test

How we found Daddy and Molly when we got home