Abby's Birthday

Abby turned six years old on Saturday.  We had a great time celebrating her birthday as a family.  She chose Kangaroo Zoo for her birthday activity.  We went on Thursday morning to avoid the crowds.  It worked out great.  The kids bounced and slid and played hide-and-seek.  Abby made a boyfriend.  There was a little boy there who was visiting from California and he followed Abby around everywhere she went.  If he couldn’t find her for a minute, he would come over and ask me and Nate where she was.  It was pretty funny.

We didn’t do anything fancy on Saturday, but Abby had a great day.  She got to open her presents in the morning since it wasn’t a school day.  We gave her a new camera (since hers broke last month), a Perplexus maze ball (a huge hit with the other kids; hopefully Abby will get a chance to try it out soon), The Adventures of Frog and Toad book, some cute socks, and a little lip gloss and nail polish set.  She got a polka dot fish Webkinz from her brother and sisters and an Animal Search puzzle from Aunt Jody.  Grandma Reatha gave her a dolphin Pillow Pet and penguin Dream Lite (her favorite gifts of the day), and Grandpa and Grandma Nelson gave her the Lego Friends City Park Café.

Since it was the day before Easter, the kids colored eggs in the afternoon.  We tried out a new technique I had seen on Pinterest for ombre eggs.  Some colors worked better than others, but it was fun to try something new.

Abby originally requested BBQ chicken for dinner.  I was feeling too lazy to cook, so I suggested Arby’s instead.  Luckily she was a big fan of that plan.  We came home and watched Rise of the Guardians while I put curlers in the girls’ hair and then had strawberry-rhubarb pie for dessert.  Abby had never tasted strawberry-rhubarb pie, but when Ben took one to school for pi day she insisted that was what she wanted for her birthday treat.  Turns out, she doesn’t love rhubarb.  Oh well. 

While were eating our pie and ice cream, we took turns saying things we love about Abby.  Everyone was in agreement that her best trait is that she gets super excited over little things; her face lights up and she does the cutest little giggle.  It is fun to have an easy to please kid.  She was also voted the best self-entertainer.  She can play all by herself for hours and never get bored.  We sure love our Abby and are so glad that she is part of our family!

Spring Break

Mother Nature came through with spring break snow for the fifth year running.  We’re hoping she tries something new for next year.  We started our spring break with a quick road trip with my sisters and their families.  We spent one night in Vernal and one night in Park City.  It was fun to spend time with family and see some new things.  We learned all about the history of the quarry and Ben learned that you shouldn’t open the door of the fire extinguisher box or an alarm will sound and the grumpy lady that works for the National Parks Service will be even grumpier.  We saw the Vernal Temple and a cool but sad Indian cemetery in Fort Duchesne.  We went to the Olympic Park Museum in Park City and did a little shopping.  The highlight of both destinations for the kids was swimming and just hanging out with their cousins.  It was a fun trip (even if I am still a little bitter about the freezing cold weather).

The rest of the break was pretty low key.  We built lots of Legos, watched lots of “Say Yes to the Dress”, and did lots of chalk art.  I always have big plans for projects to get done when the kids are out of school.  We didn’t do everything, but we made a good dent with some cleaning projects and yard work.  It was a good balance of laziness and productivity.  A highlight of the week was when Nate did some “big game” hunting in our back yard.  The kids spotted a field mouse in our flower beds, so Nate busted out Ben’s BB gun and took care of the issue.  After two years of being mouse free, he apparently isn’t taking any chances on having another home invasion.

Nate also had some fun making some time-lapse videos using a new app on his phone.  The kids were certainly motivated to help clean the playroom knowing that their efforts would be captured on the video.

Quarterly Catch-up

I’ve been in a bit of a blogging slump for the last few months (or years).  I’m trying to do better.  Even when I was more consistent about blogging, there were lots of little things that were overlooked.  In an effort to stay more current and to have a place to put all of the little things that don’t make it into their own blog post, I’ve decided to do a quarterly post that will act as a catch-all for all of the things that were missed.  This first installment will span January-March of this year.

Minor Surgery:

Nate had a mole on his leg removed and the lab results came back saying that the surrounding tissue was abnormal.  He went back in and had a chunk of skin about the size of a quarter removed from his leg.  He thought it was pretty cool to watch the whole procedure as they cut open his leg, took out a hunk, and sewed him back up.  He regretted that he didn’t take a video to show me.  I assured him that I was fine with missing it.  He was tough and was running around playing laser tag with the kids later that night.

Morning Scripture Study:

Ben and I are having a contest to see who can read the Book of Mormon first.  I’m giving him a head start.  I told him to let me know when he finishes Alma.  He likes to sit on the heater vent in the morning to do his reading.

Lockets:

The girls got gift cards to Claire’s for Christmas.  They bought some clip-on earrings and a set of Best Friends Forever lockets. 

Bella Dancerella:

We were watching home movies one day and Abby saw the girls (and Ben) dancing with the Bella Dancerella DVD.  It’s been so long since the girls used the DVD, that Abby didn’t know we even had it.  She pulled out the dance mats and wands and spent the next few days watching the DVD and doing the dances over and over again.

Baptisms for the Dead:

My mom was watching the kids on a Saturday and, due to a series of miscommunications, Ben missed out on going with the young men to do baptisms for the dead at the Brigham City Temple.  He had really been looking forward to it and I felt bad about him missing it.  Nate called the baptistry and they said we could bring him right up.  It turned out to be a great experience for the three of us to be in the temple together and to have Nate baptize and confirm Ben.

Skiing:

Nate went skiing with the scouts.  He helped Ben and Tucker earn their Snow Sports Merit Badge and spent the rest of the night hanging out with the girls.  All four of them had a great time.

Hockey Game:

We got free tickets to an Ogden Mustangs hockey game.  It turned out to be a really fun family night.  Abby made friends with Murray the Mustang and he gave her a hockey puck.  She couldn’t have been more excited.

Stadium Chairs:

We scored a killer deal on some stadium chairs at RC Willey.  Our crazy kids hung out on them for hours playing telephone and “Would You Rather?”

Hobbit Feet:

The kids dared each other to run through the backyard barefoot, “like hobbits.”  Everyone but Abby made it to the gate and back (multiple times).

Henny Penny:

Emily was Henny Penny in her class play.  She had a big part and did a great job at memorizing all of her lines.  (I didn’t have my camera, but my friend sent me a picture she took with her phone.)

Scandinavian Cookies:

Jody gave us a set of rosettes to make Scandinavian Cookies over a year ago and we had never used them.  Ben decided we needed to make some for our family home evening treat.  They were amazingly delicious!  We decided that we need to bust them out more often.

Friends:

Our kids spend lots of time with friends, but I rarely take pictures.  Here are a few cute ones from the last couple of months.

Artwork:

Ben had to do a twist on American Gothic for an art project.  Nate named it American Gotham.

Emily did a mirror image of a picture from a magazine.  It turned out amazing.  She has mad art skills. 

Trampoline:

We set up the trampoline the first week of March.  I love that every year it is like a whole new toy for the kids.

Zoo:

The kids had a random Friday off school a couple of weeks ago.  When we found out Jody and Sarah were going to the zoo, we decided to head down and join them.  The weather was lovely and we had a fun day together.

Sarah:

I babysat Sarah while Jody was getting her taxes done.  I forgot how busy a two-year-old can be.  This is what happened when I left her alone for two minutes to wash her hands.

Daddy’s Girls:

Just a couple of cute pictures of Nate with the girls.  They are sure lucky to have him for a dad.

Notable Quotes:

Elise (in the JCPenney bathroom): “They charge 25 cents just for a napkin?  What a rip off!”

Ben: “Do you have an armpit stick I can try.”