Happiness

Ethan in the school spelling bee. They allow you to write the word on a white board before you spell it, so that's what he's doing in the picture above. He did really well and got in the top three- just barely getting out on the word acetone saying "a-s- I mean a-c " and you can't self correct! We've been trying really hard for Ethan to gain weight with his ADD medicine. It suppresses his appetite and when a few months ago he weighed a whole five pounds less than Jonah, we decided to do something about it! First, we gave him protein shakes in the morning and sometimes as night. When he lost interest in those, we gave him peanut butter toast or let him eat whatever he wanted to after dinner. It still didn't help much.  After that we decided to switch to a new medicine and see if that helped. It didn't and so I took him off for a month or so. When we went back to the Dr. today he had gained 3 pounds! The Dr said "I was going to say the medicine is h...

Ethan and Jonah made rockets for a school project and Declan found them in the coat closet. He loved blasting them off and he loved having me take his picture and then show it to him again. What a fun kid!

Here's my headache update. My headache has been so much better! I hardly notice it anymore but when I think about whether it's there or not, it still is just a little. It's been amazing to see the growth and progress as it's gotten better. It started out with long stretches of being better and then has gotten to this point of me barely noticing it. I went to a neurologist at the U and he just gave me a list of triggers to watch out for since I'm doing so much better. Yay!! Here are a few pictures lately: It's been quite the snowy winter with a storm at least weekly dumping 4-8 inches each time. Declan loves to go out and eat the snow- even if it's dyed a little green! Ethan made this green snow tree covered in snowballs- pretty neat! The morning after another storm came and left everything covered in white. The kids love it! I wrote this post about two weeks ago, but it still snowed this morning so I can still say it snowed! It's been warmer and rainy an...

Declan loves these Pajamas! They have moons on them and he loves seeing the moon! Hanging out with big sister at the local library. Declan loves: His colors. He knows for sure black and orange- I think- but is working on all the other ones. He loves that Sadie is black! His letters. He points them out wherever we go! He definitely knows O, X and I and is still working on the others. He has a dvd that he loves to watch.  His brothers. He calls them by name- sometimes even shouts- and they come running! The other day we dropped them at school and he was so sad to see them go! Elizabeth. She babysits him every Friday or Saturday night and he loves her! Trucks, balls, music, water, throwing snowballs, nursery. He is such a fun, fun big kid and we love him! Oh, he also loves to go on the top bunk bed with Ethan and read books with him. He shouts out letters and it is so cute to see!

***I wrote this post two months ago, but am posting it anyway! This morning was a crazy morning. The carpet cleaners are coming to clean our carpets- I got a great deal on living social- so I was trying to move stuff off the carpet. Declan woke up for the day at the early hour of 6:40 am and he woke up grumpy! I woke up at 5 and meant to go back to sleep but checked on the kids and found Ethan awake with a sore throat. Then I couldn't fall back asleep so I got up and did some meditation. On to the subject line of the post. It rained last night instead is snow so the 6 inches of snow covering our whole back yard was now covered in a layer of ice topped snow. The kids had 5 minutes before it was time to go to school, so they decided to head out back and realized what a icy adventure our yard had become. I quickly wrangled them back inside before anyone got hurt! Then, I went to toast an English muffin and something in the bottom burst into flames! had toasted a cheesy jal...

Christmas came and went like a whirlwind of red and green confetti. Declan was up part of the night and so I found myself asleep at 7 am and wondering why in the world Josh was getting up so early- it was Christmas! The kids were great sports about the delay even though Jonah said he about died waiting for us to come get them. We celebrated Christmas Eve by reenacting the Nativity story. Declan was the cutest little shepherd! The kids got to open one present which is always new pajamas- although this year the boys got pajama pants. Christmas Day was wonderful! The morning seemed to fly by since we started the gift opening so late (not really!). Gifts were given and received very thankfully and joyfully. The 3 big boys got big nerf guns from Santa which they later made armor for out of all the empty boxes, Elizabeth got Just Dance 2016 which I can happily say I win 2 dances with and Declan a tricycle which he loves! A little shepherd showed up on Christmas Eve. As well as a King, anothe...

I enjoy having a birthday at the end of the year. Most of the time. As I decide what I want to do during my upcoming year of life, I also decide what New Years Resolutions I want to make.  This year, my 38th year of life, I want to keep things simple with some goals but nothing out of reach for me. I want to read the entire Ensign magazine each month that it comes out. I want to spend time writing each day. I want to move each day- walking or yoga or running if my head feels better. Doing something. I want to rejoice and enjoy the fact that my headaches are beginning to lessen and there are stretches during the daytime when I forget they are there. I want to attend a book club and host one for one month as well. I want to laugh and play and wrestle with my kids. I want to attend the Temple twice a month and go to choir. I want to blog every other day and take more pictures with my real camera. I want to be social and go to every event that I'm invited to if I can. I want to plan on...