Creative Options

Karianna woke up one morning around 10 (thank you, spring break!) and upon pouring her cereal, found no clean spoons.  She quickly came up with an alternative that I just watched in amusement:

 I told Karianna that was probably not going to work very well and she would be better off getting an actual spoon, even if it meant cleaning one.  She acquiesced and got a spoon:

 Yes, that is a ladle.  Anything to get around actually cleaning a utensil from the sink!  Oh, silliness!

Spring Break: Saturday

Today marked the last day of spring break-and the last day for our family to visit the Zoo.  My zoo pass expires on the 31st of the month, and while I will probably go back to the Zoo next week, today was our last visit as a whole family.  We used a free guest admission pass for James, and I found a few people in line to give my other 2 free passes to; I did the same for 3 train passes that I was not going to use either.  We actually spent about 3 hours walking around and playing in the splash pad-the animals were not great, but the weather was nice, and the kids seemed to really enjoy guiding Jared around since he doesn't visit the zoo often at all.  We had an awesome time before heading home for lunch and naps.  We ended the day with some cleaning projects and fruit popsicles-SO yummy!  We'll have a nice Sabbath tomorrow, and then head back to school on Monday-I can't believe how quick Spring Break went!  Definitely didn't get in the variety of activities I wanted, but I can look back at this week and legitimately say I had fun with the kids and got a lot accomplished.  I think summer break is going to be awesome-and I think it is going to be here much sooner than I expect!

Spring Break: Thursday and Friday

Thursday and Friday have to be combined since we literally did the exact same thing each day, just with different people!

• Because we are crazy, we went back to the pool on Thursday; it was 73 degrees.  We were among maybe 20 other crazy people.  Interestingly, the water was warmer than Tuesday and we stayed for 2 hours!  The kids, once again, had a blast, and when we got a little too cold, we went into the locker rooms, which were seriously heated.  On Friday, it was 80 degrees, and again, the pool was NOT crowded.  Everyone lived up their last swim opportunities, and as icing on the proverbial cake, Jordan lost a tooth! It has been hanging off his gum at a 60 degree angle (give or take) for the last week, and it finally broke through.  I think we are just lucky it didn't get lost in the pool!

• Karianna and Sara got to go to lunch with Grandma Lautenschlager on Thursday, and JD, Jordan, and James went on Friday-super fun for them!  They were seriously spoiled, as is a Grandma's privilege-full meals, sodas, fries, ice cream!  They really loved hanging out with Grandma.

Spring Break: Wednesday

Well, today was not as exciting as I was hoping. Wanna know what we did today?  We folded clothes.  And clothes.  And clothes.  I have had a huge goal of sorting through clothes and packing up winter stuff/donations/garbage.  As such, we have been gathering all the clothes, once washed, in Jackson's room.  Unfortunately, I have not gotten to this chore as quickly as i wanted, especially with moving new furniture into the house and potty training James.  So we bit the bullet and just folded them......all 15 or so loads.  Took FOREVER!  We celebrated by getting ice cream at McDonalds and enjoying the rain, which was awesome!  So while our plans to go park-hopping failed, we still ended up having a busy and enjoyable day!

Spring Break: Tuesday

Today's big claim to fame was visiting Mesquite Grove Aquatic Center, otherwise known as the Dump Bucket.  The kids are so awesome for consistently calling it that!  Temperature at the pool was 91 degrees, and the water, while a bit nippier than I anticipated,  was great for March swimming.  The four older kids did FANTASTIC!  I initially told Sara to stay with me, but I quickly realized that she is extremely independent in the pool and doesn't need me.  She quickly visited every single pool attraction multiple times, including both slides (dark and light), diving boards, and the toilet.  James jumped right into the water and he too was everywhere, although he had his puddle jumper on.  Jackson stayed in my arms most of the time and did not seem crazy about getting wet-I didn't care. :)  Karianna, JD, and Jordan picked up right where the left off-racing in the lap lane, wrestling in the toilet (that is a funny phrase), diving on the boards, and floating down the lazy river.  Karianna impressed me by hanging out with James in the deep end-such a good babysitter!  We lasted about two hours-longer than I thought!  It was great fun, and I really enjoyed visiting this pool again-already looking forward to the summer!

The second highlight of the day was going to see Cinderella with Karianna and Sara!  We used a gift card that covered all three of us, and indulged in some movie popcorn-always a treat.  The movie was pretty great actually-we all loved the costumes and thought the stepsister's singing was dreadful!  We were in the largest theater with only 20 people, so all the more enjoyable!  I really enjoyed hanging out with my girls, they are both beautiful and kind young ladies!

Spring Break: Monday

In order to keep myself accountable for getting out of the house everyday of spring break, I am going to log what we do each day.  This is not going to be anything amazing, but it will keep me motivated.
Monday:

• Today, we spent the morning dong cleaning projects.  Sounds boring, but it was necessary and actually made the day go quickly.  The biggest project was my room actually.  The kids helped, and we cleaned out and moved my old bookcase and TV into Jackson's room, reorganized the DVDs, cleaned out/polished the armoire, and made my bed.  Again-sounds boring, but with the new bedroom set, my room really needed some attention.  We tackled the bedrooms, I went grocery shopping during naps, and we filled the new fridge after wiping it down from top to bottom.  
• We then spent the afternoon playing outside and, in part, walking to my mom's house to play in the backyard. We jumped on the trampolines of course, jumped rope, played on the swings, and laughed our heads off at Jackson running around the trampoline.  Except for one scooter accident (Karianna got some road rash), it was a fun afternoon with beautiful weather.  

Jackson Update

 I started weaning Jackson off of nursing about....maybe 4 weeks ago, and he got down to 2 feedings a day (morning and night) without any issues.  I was worried about that in terms of my recent bout with mastitis, but it went so smoothly-I was really relieved.  Out of nowhere (quite literally), I started having those same twinges mid week last week, indicating a clog, and within 3 hours, I was back in the beginning stages of infection-body aches, chills, and pain.  Ugh.  I immediately started taking my prescription that I had from the last round that I was given as a precaution.  I had a hard night, but was feeling a bit better the next day-not out of the woods, but reassured that the meds (which I do NOT react to) were doing their job.  I was able to go to my Grandma's house that night to make some decisions about furniture we are inheriting, and by that point, felt well enough to make plans for the next day.  It is just so crazy how quickly my body reacts to a simple clog-which was ridiculous in and of itself because at that point, Jackson hadn't eaten during the day for a few weeks!  Just crazy.

I took my prescription for a week straight, and decided to knock out the night time feeding while on meds, since I know that will be the hardest.  i think it was wise to do that, as it was definitely not easy.  It was successful though, and now Jackson is down to one feeding per day-in the morning.  I started giving him breakfast (usually a whole banana and a small handful of dry cereal) before nursing him, and by the time he nurses, he really isn't even all that interested.  Next week I will drop it to every other day, and the week after (or sooner if he is amenable to that), we'll nix it all together.  I think my goal of being done by the end of March is totally doable.

In the meantime, Jackson is ramping up his intake of grapes, which he LOVES and doing better drinking a sippy more frequently, which he still doesn't love, but will do when thirsty.  Growing up!

The Zoo: Coming to a Close

Well, my zoo pass is about to expire, and I am not renewing in protest of the ridiculously increasing prices and the constant zoo construction.  We have been going every week and today was definitely well worth it!  We took the Bear path, which we do not frequently take, and it was awesome:  the animals were out, the clouds kept things cool, and the kids did fantastic!  James can get into stubborn, grumpy moods, but he did great today, and Jackson was in heaven with his baggie of pretzels and animals moving all around him. Becca and her kids were awesome companions, and it was just a great outing.  Picture to commemorate the day!

 Pretending to be a flamingo!!!!

 We thought the splash pad would be on, but it wasn't, at least not in the morning when we were there.  Regardless, the kiddos played in and out of the cave, and as James' eyes can attest, he was uber excited!

 Jackson would not look at the camera, he was too into exploring.

 Very intently watching a bird...I put the camera upside down right in his face, and he still wouldn't look!

 Watching the bear pace.  When we got to the backside of the bear exhibit, we were able to see the orangutan hut on the other side-just the back of it, so that is usually not a big deal.  But today, the two orangutan kids had climbed all the way up to the net-roof and were swinging from it!  It was perfect timing, and cool to see them being that active so very high up!

 The jaguar was awesome, he was in the keeper's building when we came to see him, but the zoo worker told us he'd be out in a minute.  Sure enough, he came leaping out of the little door, and showed off for us quite a bit!  At some point, he jumped into that tree and stared us down, right as James dropped his shoe over that fence in the picture....oops!  Luckily, i was able to reach in and grab it.  Quite the excitement!

 Before we hit the other splash pad-which was thankfully on-we got to watch the elephants being fed up close and personal.  The elephant was actually talking, which I have never heard before!  It was neat!

We ended our visit with the second splash pad, which I don't usually love, but it was actually pretty fun for the 10-15 minutes the kids played.  Jackson was leaning over the turtle in the picture below at one point and the water spout came on-a full face of water for that boy!

 After the zoo, we met up with Jared to get lunch at Sweet Tomatoes, probably our favorite place right now to get a really, really good salad and macaroni.  James calls this his place, as he has been there 3 or 4 times for lunch with Jared.  Anytime we go to the zoo, he always tells me we need to go to Dad's work to go to his lunch place.  :)  I enjoy getting to see Jared too, and it is a nice reprieve from the day.

Side note:  James is handling outings like a pro in terms of potty training!  He did pee in the splash pad stream, though when I took him to change his underwear, he peed a ton in the toilet-so that makes me think he didn't really do a ton in the stream, rather just catching himself right before he let it flow.  This is a funny conversation-only a mom would write this bluntly.... ;)

The Dishwasher

I asked Sara to empty out the dishwasher, and this is what she did-love the color coding!

And I totally need to fix the red eye in this shot, but I'll leave it for the time being. 

Primary Kids!

 I am putting together a few things for our primary president who just moved away from the ward, and took these pictures of our primary as part of the project.  We may be small, but we sure do have a great group of kids (granted, I am partial to five of them....)!

Potty Training Round 5!

 This little boy is officially in underwear!  We started potty training on Monday, following my preferred means of training:  clear guidelines, switching straight to underwear, and setting the timer at 20 minute intervals.  James was so excited about his underwear, which we have had for a while, and which he picked out.  He has used the potty multiple times in the past, just not with strict potty training rules.  He is obviously ready to potty train at 3, we just have put it off with surgery, recovery, holidays, and illnesses.  This was the perfect week to do it, and I had a goal to get this done by the end of March.  So Monday was go-time, and I felt it would go well.

Monday went great-one poop accident, and one pee accident, which I am grateful for-I like my kids to feel the grossness involved in accidents, and call it strict, but I make them clean it up.  it is very cut and dry-you made the mess, you clean it up.  James did great with that, and obviously didn't like the wet sensations.  he did great the rest of the day, and by the end of the night, he was going potty on his own, without the timer, and without any help.  Tuesday through Thursday were also great, which was weird because I got very sick, yet he still succeeded.  Friday was a bit of a test, as we went to the Zoo and then to a restaurant with Jared-again, he did great, zero accidents to speak of, and he even kept underwear on during naps that day.  I am super proud, and feeling like things are going very well.  

I am sure we will have some bumps, and we will work on naps next week before tackling bedtime.  James seems so much more grown up-he took to this so well, but he is walking with an extra swagger in his step, and that is just so cute!