Who said life isn't FAIR?

We had our last Book Fair for the school year in April. Which means I'm officially done being in charge of the Book Fairs. (I'll help next year, but I'll pass on the main responsibility!) We were pretty steady all week, so it seemed to go fast. (The picture was taken while the fair wasn't open.)

The Buy One, Get One Free Book Fair always keeps us busy.

Drop, Cover, and Hold On! We participated in the Great Utah ShakeOut! It was a state-wide earthquake drill. (I got the school to sign up too.) We were at the school during the drill, so we got under the table for one minute, and then evacuated like a fire drill.

Under the table at the Book Fair.

That same week was the Science Fair. Woodruff had 181 participants! That's a lot of projects. Andrew choose to feed 12 different ingredients to some flowers. We took pictures of the plants each day to monitor the progress. The first plant (that was fed vinegar) died overnight, so we had results to document immediately. Along with some other things, he learned that feeding a plant milk makes it stink, that power aid survived for quite awhile, bleach and window cleaner died pretty quickly, and that water is the best for plants.

Andrew showing off his display.

Tyler was assigned a partner in class and worked on his project both at school and after school. Toby and Tyler decided to see what brand of bubble gum could make the biggest bubble. Tyler got the job of measuring Toby's bubbles, since he can't chew gum with his braces. They found out that when Toby has one piece of all the brands of gum in his mouth at the same time, he could make the biggest bubble. (Isn't that funny?)

Toby and Tyler showing off their display.

Next year's PTA Board had a Convention at the end of April too. (Yes, I threw things off by having my due date fall the same time as the Utah PTA Convention in Provo. So we made our own training and retreat.) We had a great turn out and had a lot of fun as well as setting up the calendar for next school year's PTA events. I'm excited to work with my new board next year, I think we will have a great year! We have some fun stuff planned and a lot of willing volunteers! I just need my boys to stop quoting the book Diary of a Wimpy Kid. "My mom is the President of the PTA, and she can ruin your life!"

Happy Valentine's Day!

Everybody picked what they wanted their own card to look like. Andrew wanted his to have a pencil this year. It says "You're the 'write' one for me."Tyler added "I think you're sweet!" to his. (And a kiss on his cheek too.)

The kids were being silly...

Maybe I should be logging her hours...

Haircuts that come in phases are not my favorite. (Laura's hair was still recovering from the last time this happened.) However, Shayla lives too far away now to do the second phase, so off to the beauty school we went. If you haven't guessed yet, Emma found the hidden scissors. She cut a little bit of Laura's hair in the back. I think Laura protested or she would have done more. Emma also cut her own hair. (Her hair was all the same length, about 6 inches below her neck.) Here are the phase one and phase two pictures.

Not really a "before"  more like a during phase one.

Phase one back view.

Some of Emma's cut off hair.

Laura's phase two front view.

Laura's phase two side view.

Laura's phase two back view.

Emma's phase two front view.

Emma's phase two side view.

Emma's phase two back view.

November 2011: "Tuesday"

This particular Tuesday was not my best mothering day. I could not keep up with the girls! During the speech clinic I have to keep Laura quiet in the observation room while Emma works hard on her articulation for an hour. That within itself could be a long story, but that happens twice a week, so it seemed somewhat normal. I made the mistake of going to the grocery store right after the speech session. Expecting them to be good at the grocery store after that was something I shouldn't have done. Still not too far from the ordinary, just how my day started out. (It was as I was in the parking lot leaving the store that Lee called and said he didn't pack himself a lunch, and could I bring him one. Sure, Subway with a drive thru it is...but at least I got to see Lee for lunch.) I came home and put the food away while the girls were playing downstairs. They got out a blanket and spread it out on the floor, found a plastic Rubbermaid type tote and with a bucket used the bathroom sink to try and fill up the tote with water to make a swimming pool. The tote however didn't hold much water because it had a large crack running all the way down the side of it. (I don't know if it was cracked when they found it or if they cracked it by both trying to sit in it at the same time.) They even found the pool toys. They did not find the swimming suits, so they were skinny dipping. When I showed my frustration Emma told me "but it was relaxing". Not for me it wasn't. They did have enough water to both get their hair wet. I got them dressed, and cleaned up the water stuff, the blanket was really wet, but the floor was not too bad-only a little wet. (Andrew was home by now working on his homework.) While I was cleaning up the "pool" Laura must have decided she needed a snack. (I really thought the pantry was locked.) She got out a loaf of bread, a knife, and the butter and took them all to her room. She found a new bottle of cinnamon sugar too, but because it was a new bottle it still had the paper/foil liner on it and she couldn't get it open. She buttered herself a piece of bread. I got done cleaning up the pool and came in the room to find her. I kicked her out of the bedroom and told her to go to the kitchen. As I gathered the butter knife and the loaf of bread, Emma helped Laura take the paper off the cinnamon sugar. I walked into the kitchen in time see the entire bottle get dumped onto the kitchen floor. (Now Tyler is home from orchestra and working on his homework.) Some neighbor friends came over to play and all the kids went downstairs while I swept up the cinnamon mess. I talked with a friend that lives out-of-state, that I don't get to talk to enough, for a little bit and then went to make dinner. I had eggs I needed to use soon, so German Pancakes was the plan. The dozen eggs that I needed to use were in the fridge, but the dozen I had bought that day were missing. All the toy food in the toy kitchen in the carpeted toy room was apparently not fun enough. In a small toy mixing bowl they had real pieces of cheese, a partial stick of butter, Tyler's candy bar, a few plastic toy foods, and a dozen eggs-all cracked open. The egg shells were on the carpet with the rest of the mess of stuffed animals, coloring books, and more toy food. The bowl was overflowing and running down the wooden once-an-entertainment-center-now-a-toy-kitchen and onto the carpet. It took me about a half an hour to get over the shock of the mess and really start cleaning. (The toy food/kitchen has since been removed from the toy room.) After that I didn't really have time to make the pancakes. I told the friends to go home and my kids to come eat because dinner was ready. (Lee was working late that night.) When Andrew came upstairs to see we were having cold cereal he ran back to the front door and yelled to his friends that they had to go home so we could eat cereal, he was not pleased. After dinner, I called my mom and asked her to please tell me she has had days like this. The conversation didn't get very far when I had to hang up because Laura had pooped her pants. After her bath I had everyone get ready for bed. I went to a primary presidency meeting. When I recounted my day someone suggested we should have canceled the meeting. Are you kidding me? I needed to get out of the house!

Laura was happy with her butter and bread.

A close up of the butter.

October 2011: First Day of School

When Laura graduated from the Up-to-3 Program she started school at Riverside Preschool.
Her teacher is Ms. Kim.
And she finally gets to ride the bus with Emma.

Laura's first day at Riverside.

Getting on the bus with Emma.

October 2011: Laura's Birthday

Laura turned 3.

Happy Birthday Laura!

She likes her doll.

Laura's cake.

September 2011: Science Experiment

How long does it take to dump out a large can of strawberry milk mix?
Laura thought she should find out.

The "clean up" process.

Even though they were putting it back in the can, we threw it all away.

I eventually got out the vacuum. It smelled really sweet every time we vacuumed after that for a while.

August 2011: First Day of School

School started at Woodruff.
Tyler is in Mrs. Olsen's class. Andrew is in Mrs. Galloway's class.

First day of Fourth grade.

First day of First grade.

Happy for a new school year.

The girls wanted their pictures taken too, even though school wasn't starting yet.

August 2011: I Spy

I spy a bed, a dirty knife, a loaf of bread, and a jar of peanut butter.

I spy mischief. I spy a very happy girl.

Laura made her own sandwich.

August 2011: Budding Hobby

During my cousin's wedding the kids waited outside the Temple. Tyler spent the time taking a few pictures.

Buddies

Most of the time all of my kids get along with each other. But lately Laura has loved hanging out with Andrew. They are really cute together. Laura likes to sleep on Andrew's floor, but one night she was upset and he let her sleep on his bed. When Lee checked on them as we were getting ready for bed that night, he found them like this...

Laura's First Haircut

Laura got her first haircut yesterday. Her haircut came in two phases. Unfortunately, Emma cut the first phase. And not just a little bit. She cut off four-inch long chunks all over Laura's head, and cut her bangs to her scalp. I tried to buy Laura happiness yesterday. Balloons, candy, stickers, a toy, silk flowers-to make more hair clips, chocolate, she didn't want anything. She cried the whole afternoon.

 Fortunately, Shayla cut the second phase. Laura still has some sections that are, umm, let's say layered. Shayla was smart enough to just leave some pieces shorter. I thought it would have to all be as short as the shortest part, and that is really short! It looks lots better than I thought it could. The layers blend in pretty good. Her bangs, plus some more under where the flower is, are really short. Laura wouldn't let me take a picture without the flower. I'll be making more large hair clips really soon. Thanks Shayla for making time for us, even on Zoe's birthday!

Kindergarten Manners

I helped at the PTA Valentine's Tea at Woodruff. I was only there for half of the day. I wasn't there when Tyler's class came in, but I was there for Andrew's. (Along with most of the other mothers from his class. It looked like the paparazzi when Mrs. Kelly brought in her class.) We served cake and red Kool-aid (I know brave!) and reminded the students to use good manners. It really isn't that surprising, but the Kindergarten kids showed better manners than the Fifth graders. I guess we remind the younger ones to say Thank You more than we do the older kids. Nothing major, just an interesting observation.

 Mrs. Kelly and Andrew.

There really were enough of us moms helping from this class that we had them do a class picture. We didn't do that for any of the other classes.

Laura had a great time playing with lots of other two year old "helpers". I bent down to take a picture of her, so she bent down too. Such an imitation age. We better be good examples.

Happy Valentine's Day!

"I bow my head and close my eyes and say a little prayer"

The night before we moved, we all had a bowl of ice cream (I needed it gone) during family scripture reading. After the ice cream was gone, and scriptures were over we said our family prayer still sitting at the kitchen table.
Laura bowed her head right into her bowl.

How big is Laura?

I just weighed Laura. Fully dressed she is 19 pounds. She is almost 18 months old. Our doctor had us switch her car seats a few months ago. He said that even though she hasn't reached the magical weight of 20 pounds yet, she has good muscle tone and head control. She can have juice occasionally, but for the most part she drinks whole fat milk and an Ensure type product. He told me to give her full fat foods like cheese and yogurt. I can't even find yogurt that isn't low fat. She doesn't feel like it if you pick her up, but she is a pretty good eater.
Here is the funny part. This pink shirt is a size 9 month. It is Carter brand, which I remember with the boys (Emma was smaller too) was a brand that was sized small. So, if the tag said 9 months, they could maybe wear it up until they were 9 months old, but no later than that. Actually this shirt might be a dress, but it fits her as a shirt, so that might also explain the smaller sizing.
The two pictures were taken less than a week apart. This shirt is one I put on her in a hurry one morning. I grabbed it out of the laundry basket, but it is Emma's shirt. It is a size 4T. Emma has, I mean had, two shirts this style. They now belong to Laura. Just another example of my saying, don't trust the tag size.
P.S. The dress I got Emma for Easter is a size 6. Her legs are too long for smaller sizes.

Happy Heart Day

Who taught her to pose like that?

Even though you can't tell, Emma's hair makes a heart. Happy Valentine's Day.

Does she get any happier than this?

Last week Laura had an appointment with the ear doctor. Before the doctor came in, the Physician's Assistant was checking her ears. He asked me how many ear infections she has had, and gave me a look of concern/disgust when I said I didn't know. Then he looked in her ears, he said that the left had too much wax so he couldn't see her ear drum, and that the right had some wax but he could see part of the ear drum, and it looked good. Enter doctor Scheuller. He asked me if she pulls at her ears, no. Does she seem to be in pain, no. Does she get a fever, no. How do you know she has an ear infection, a doctor says she does during a well child check. He gave me a head nod and said that's what he thought. Dr. Scheuller said that (just like Emma's ears) they have had fluid in them most likely all her life. The longer the fluid is there, the less that the symptoms bother the patient. This was her normal. Then he looked in her ears and said they had lots of fluid that was a dark amber color and that tells him that it has been there for a long time. (The PA was still in the room and I think he felt like he had just got caught making a mistake.) The doctor said that looking at her past visits, and hearing tests, and because she just finished a dose of strong antibiotics but still had fluid in her ears, it was time to do tubes.

Today was the day. We woke up way early in the morning, got kids ready to go to school and grandma's, and went to the McKay-Dee Surgical Center in Ogden. Laura was happy, even though she couldn't have breakfast or anything to drink.

Laura was trying to help the nurse by holding the stethoscope. She made the nurse make funny faces and laugh. A different nurse told our nurse it was no fair that she got the cute patients.
She had a fun wagon ride down the hall to the surgical room. The anesthesiologist told her to "smile for the scrapbook." I told him it was really a blog, he laughed.

The doctor said her ears were full of a thick syrup like liquid. (This should definitely help her hearing!)

After she was done, she wanted a drink as soon as she saw a cup. She downed a lot of apple juice, so much that she didn't want breakfast at grandma's later.She slept on the way home. Had a normal afternoon of fun with her siblings and then brought me her blanket. She sat on my lap for a couple of minutes and fell asleep again. I am, again, awakened to how things must seem new to her. Hearing things that she hasn't been able to hear before. Eating things that would now taste good instead of bland. It opens up a whole new world, so many new things to discover.