One of those perfect Saturdays

In between Conference sessions 3 weeks ago (while Noah was napping), the rest of us went outside to play football. :-) It turned out to be such a beautiful, perfect afternoon. So, I snapped some pictures. I have to put in a disclaimer here though. This is not how the girls usually dress; they were playing dress-up and didn't want to change when we went outside. :-)

Lindsay

Emma

Nathan

Jeffrey

Daddy and Jeffrey taking a break after the game!!

*Be sure to scroll down if you want to see Emma's school play

Emma's Kindergarten Play!

Yesterday was Emma's Kindergarten play.

They performed Tikki Tikki Timbo, and Emma was the lead girl part. She was Tikki's mom, and she did a great job.

She had several speaking parts to memorize as well as all the songs and a scarf dance (so cute)!!

Here she is waiting for the play to start

This is just part of one of the songs . . . it kind of explains the premise of the play if you're not familiar with it.

With her 1st and honored son:

Tikki Tikki Tembo No Sa Rembo Chari Bari Ruchi Pip Perri Pembo.

The Whole Cast of Characters. (You can tell which one is Emma, she is about a foot taller than anyone else out there :)

Jeffrey's Finger

On Wednesday I broke Jeffrey's finger. It still makes me a physically ill to think about it. Before you judge me too harshly, I have to tell you that I didn't do it on purpose.

Wednesday was the girls' school open house, so Lindsay, Emma, and I spent the first part of the evening with the parent club passing out sodas for the PFC barbecue, then the second hour we explored current and possible future classrooms and about 7:00 we headed home. I walked in the door and made a beeline for the restroom (funny how passing out hundreds of sodas and water bottles can make you desperately need to pee). I knew Jeffrey and Noah were following me, but I thought I'd outpaced them--regardless, I checked the open door for tiny fingers before quickly pulling it closed. Unfortunately his fingers weren't in the open part of the door, they were in the hinge side of the door. Fast forward 2 seconds and Jeffrey lets out a bloodcurdling scream. Not just his "she got there before me and closed the door so I can't follow her into the bathroom" scream. This was his "somebody is murdering me with a butter-knife" scream. I open the door and his left hand middle finger is spurting blood from a sizable cut across the pad of the finger, and the whole top of the finger is already turning purple. (AWFUL!!!!)

So, I called his doctor's urgent care line. But, I was holding Jeffrey and he was still screaming and I was falling apart and less coherent than I would like to be. I could barely hear the nurse on the line (and she made it pretty obvious that she thought I was a complete ninny). Anyway, she ended up advising us to just go to the ER, which thankfully we did. Jeffrey and I both sobbed the whole way to the hospital and when we got there they took pity on me and got him in for x-rays very quickly. Turns out he had a very, very small break in the tip of the finger, and the cut was shallow enough that they didn't have to do stitches. So, we went home with nothing but a gauze bandage on the finger. Evidently they don't cast fingertips (I wish they would, I would feel so much better if his whole hand was immobilized and wrapped up in medical paraphernalia. :-) And they say he will probably lose the fingernail, but it will grow back, and there shouldn't be any lasting damage. (Thank heavens . . . bad enough to have hurt him, how awful if I'd maimed him for life).

All through it Jeffrey was so sweet and tough. After about the first 15 minutes he didn't even cry or fuss at all (except when they were cleaning/bandaging his finger). In fact, he sat and played with his trains and charmed all the nurses and pointed out every single circle in the whole hospital. "ball" "ball" "ball" etc. My sweet, brave boy did so much better than his mom through the whole disaster that I'm a little ashamed of myself. But, I don't think I'll ever forget that horrible, sick feeling I get every time I see his poor mangled finger -- which I get to see often because the little stinker refuses to keep a bandage on it. So I have to re-bandage it a couple or three times a day.

Anyway, I guess the moral of this story is that kids are tougher than we think, they forgive very quickly, and check both sides of the door before you close it. *You can just BET I am*

Noah's Birthday!!

Noah turned one year old on March 7th, and he had such a fun birthday!

Here are some pics as well as a couple of videos.

Playing with his new water table.

He opened this first thing in the morning

For dinner he had macaroni and cheese, peas, and green jello . . . all Noah's favorites!!

Opening presents!!

He had a sports themed birthday, so his birthday cake was a basketball. It's my first attempt at a cake taller than two layers, so don't judge to harshly ok!! :-)

Here he is blowing out the candle . . . well, actually he's watching Jerry blow out the candle.

Enjoying his birthday cake and ice cream (REALLY enjoying it . . . we finally had to take the plate away from him or he would have eaten it too!)

Here are just a couple of videos of Noah, walking etc.

Happy Birthday Noah!!!!

Family Home Evening

Last night family home evening was more about obedience than enjoyment. Do you ever have Monday nights like that? We have FHE because we're supposed to, but sometimes I wonder . . . what exactly are they getting out of it?

Our opening song was the Barney theme song . . . I kid you not, "I love you, you love me, we're good friends like friends should be" (etc.) That is what passes as an opening song at our house. We definately aren't up to "If you could high to Kolab" yet. Then, Jerry was teaching the lesson on the scripture Jacob 2:18 "But before ye seek for riches, seek ye for the kingdom of God." A really nice concept, but just a tad abstract for our group. So, instead of sitting calmly and listening to the lesson, Noah wandered off to the other room to play with toys, Jeffrey ran in circles in the living room making a very loud, high-pitched squeeking noise, and Nathan, Lindsay, and Emma spent the entire lesson fighting over who's turn it was to sit by me. (so unfortunate that I only have 2 sides and one lap . . . it would have been so much more practical for our family if I had 3 sides and 2 laps). Finally, I am so frustrated that I threaten to banish my three oldest to the other side of the room if they don't stop talking and start listening and I'm pleading with Jeffrey to please at least be quiet if he can't sit down (I don't so much mind the running in circles, it's the keening that is getting to me). And, in-between scolding and pleading I am determinedly calling to Noah to come in and play in the living room (I don't really care if he listens, but he should at least be in the same room with us . . . who knows what havoc he is creating while my attention is otherwise occupied) -- of course he is resolutely ignoring me, and I'm too busy dealing with the whiney older kids and attempting to at least pretend to listen to the lesson to enforce with either of the babies. It was insanity . . . and all I ended up getting from the lesson was a headache.

It did get better after that. The kids always love the activity. :-) So, we ended up with a carry-a-cotton ball-on-a-spoon tournament. Lindsay and Jerry were our champions, Nathan kept cheating and holding his cotton ball on the spoon with his other hand and with Emma this is a contact sport, she spent all of her races trying desperately to hold her opponent behind her with one hand while she dropped the cotton ball off the spoon with the other hand. But, it was really very fun and we all laughed like crazy. Even Jeffrey and Noah got into it and were having a blast trying to race with us until Noah gave up on the cotton ball, started brandishing his spooon like a weapon, and ended up hitting Jeffrey over the head with it (poor Jeff). That was when we called it a night and finished up with gooey, fresh-from-the-oven, chocolate chip cookies (Jerry's specialty).

So, what did my kids get from that (I mean besides covered in chocolate)? I hope they learned that you are obedient to the prophet whether it's easy or not. If so, I guess it will be worth the headache. :-)

Jeffrey's Birthday

HAPPY 2nd BIRTHDAY JEFFREY!!

Jeffrey's Bob-the-Builder Birthday cake!

Bob-the-builder is his favorite thing right now.

Blowing out his birthday candles (with help!)

Yes, Jerry does accidentally sing to me . . . I think he was paying too much attention to his filming and not enough attention to his singing. :-)

Eating some birthday cake

Opening Birthday presents

Playing with his new toys

Sorry, can't seem to get this video to turn the right direction, and I've run out of patience. But, you can still hear him singing the Bob-the-Builder song as he plays with his new tool bench.

Coleman Family Reunion

The first part of February we went to Shaver Lake for the Coleman Family reunion! Once again, the weather was perfect and the snow was so much fun! And, of course, we all had a really good time hanging out with family!

Emma spent more time in the snow than anyone else. I don't think she even noticed the cold. She just loved everything about it . . . eating it, sledding, making snow angels, and building things out of snow.

Lindsay playing in the snow. You can't really see it in this picture, but her left arm with the cast is wrapped in two layers of plastic bags and covered up with a big snow sock! :-)
Nathan in the snow. (I really think he was having more fun than this picture makes it look like)

Our HUGE snowman! Jerry and I spent quite a while making this one, and it turned out to be tall enough that we had to stand on tip-toe to round out the top of the head. The middle piece was so heavy that we had to make a snow ramp to roll it up on top of the bottom piece and we still needed Ryan's teenager muscles to help us get it up!

The girls helped us decorate it with twigs and leaves, I especially loved the eyebrows that Emma came up with!!


Lindsay and Nathan running up for another turn down the sled run!

Emma's own personal snowman!
Jeffrey didn't really enjoy the snow . . . I can't decide if he genuinely didn't like it, or if he just hated being so bundled up. (poor kid could barely walk in all his snow gear)