Chicken Pox...and more

I have had all of my children vaccinated so either Gunnar's chicken pox shot was unsuccessful or it gave him the chicken pox. Either way he got the chicken pox (or what we believe to be the chicken pox). He has almost fully recovered but it now appears that Brylee has them, not as many but still frustrating.

Last week I stayed home from church with Gunnar because Bryant was volunteering in Primary. I was supposed to teach Sunday school. I had printed off the lesson on a Thursday but still hadn't looked at it by Saturday afternoon. So I called the sunday school president and asked him to sub for me. He is also my home teacher :) I was grateful for his willingness and that I had been unable to look over the lesson so I had not spent all the time preparing. This week we all stayed home from school as we have lots of runny noses, Brylee has the chicken pox, Gunnar is almost cleared up, and Bryant was diagnosed with strep throat!

Thursday was our expected day to celebrate Valentine's Day. I am grateful that we did not buy tickets for a dinner and play since Bryant spent the entire day in bed. He went to an insta-care on Friday morning and was told he had strep throat and got a shot in his bum. He was well enough to go to work on Friday afternoon and has been feeling loads better since Saturday afternoon.

On Friday, to celebrate Valentine's Day with the children we made "gingerbread houses" with sugar cookie dough. We failed to make gingerbread houses around Christmas this year and so I told Hunter that we could make them for Valentine's Day. Well, when Tucker started talking about getting to have a party at school on Friday for Valentine's Day Hunter got super excited and reminded me that I said we could make gingerbread houses! I made the dough on Thursday night and Friday afternoon we cut out the shapes and built the houses (after cooking the dough, of course). Here are some pictures of their creations:

Here is a video :) Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's Day!

Hunter's song

Hunter was playing on the keyboard yesterday while I was working on lunch and came into the kitchen and asked if I heard the new primary song he was playing. I told him it was lovely (because, really what else do you say to that). Tucker then asked him what it was called and Hunter said it is called Heavenly Father and Jesus watches over us every day. He said it in a sing song voice so Tucker asked, "is that how it goes?" Hunter said no and then went to the keyboard to play and sing for all of us. I'm sad I didn't record it but here are the words of his song:

"Heavenly Father watches over us every day, every day. Even when you are hiding he can find you every day, every day."

I love Hunter's sweet spirit so much and the things he chooses to share with me when I listen. And I am thankful for a Heavenly Father that watches over me and lets me see the good things of hard days!

Tucker's Six!

Happy Birthday to Tucker!! He is such a great boy! He loves his brothers and sister and is quick to help and share. He was so excited to celebrate at school. All the kids in class drew pictures for him and his teacher put them all together in a book. He had lots of fun passing out fruit snacks and candy to the other kids too.

Here he is with his presents from Mom and Dad when he got home from school

Everyone is excited about the Lego Star Wars. He was also super excited about new shoes, a car math game, and some first grade work books! This kid loves to learn and I hope it never changes!

Because it is an even birthday, Tucker got to have a party with friends this year. He wanted to invite all the girls in his class that name's started with "j" plus a few others. So he ended up inviting 10 people for an Art party. Thankfully, four of the girls did not come. It is probably because their parents don't know me. I know the rest of the kids mothers from volunteering in the class, or because they are in our ward.

Because it was an art party, I decided they needed a craft that involved painting, because I have tons of paint left over from the Christmas presents I made for Bryant's and my parents. Painting meant aprons. A wonderful sister in the ward let me raid her fabric boxes for lots of girl fabric (I have mostly boy fabric, go figure :P) Then after a dream of all the children showing up despite not RSVPing, I made all ten aprons. Now I have 4 extra girl aprons laying around for when we need them

We made egg carton animals (frog, bird, or pig) The kids got to paint the egg carton pieces and cut out the paper for the appendages. Then I had them pick two small pom poms, which I hot glued together with googly eyes to be the "baby"

They had lots of fun "cleaning" off the table when everyone was done painting

We had a rainbow of colors to eat, kiwi fruit, red apples, yellow apples, oranges, pineapple, and rainbow goldfish. They had raided it well by the time I came to take a picture

Next they got to decorate a sugar cookie person however they wanted.

Then I gave them each giant sheets of paper (1.5 ft x 2 ft) to draw whatever they wanted on it. They all thought the giant paper was really cool. Most of them drew what they would normally draw on a regular piece of paper just REALLY big. It was cute.

Here is the cake that I made for Tucker. It is probably one of the easiest cakes I have made, and I almost spelt birthday wrong again this year. Silly me!

Everyone seemed to have a good time and Tucker enjoyed his party so much it was still on his mind when it came time to pray as a family that night. I'm so grateful to have him as part of our family!

January Pics

This month Brylee turned into the SLOWEST eater!!! She will start before everyone and barely touch her food throughout the entire meal because she is distracted by everyone. It then takes a hour (seriously!) to get her to finish most of the time. This is becoming very frustrating to me. She often throws food in the trash because she doesn't want to eat and I can't stay in the kitchen after meals every day!

Pics of Gunnar. He is getting so big. I started keeping a list of words he uses because I felt like he says nothing. Turns out he knows probably 7 words and 7 other signs. Without the signs he is on the low end of normal. He seems to trying to talk more each day but just doesn't know how to make the words come out. He has started saying "uh-oh" but it is not until he has said it two or three times that I realize he is saying it. It is probably my favorite word of his.

Can't take pics of Gunnar without others wanting theirs taken, which is good because otherwise I might forget to take enough of them :) Here is Tucker and Hunter

Brylee has decided the new way to take a picture is with her tongue hanging out (thank you older brothers)

Here is a picture that Brylee took of me. You can't really see my pregnant belly but it is starting to show more each week :) At my doctor's appt this week the doctor decided to check on the sex of the baby. I told him that if the ultrasound was inconclusive (because I was only 18 wks and 4 days) that I would not wait for 2 months to have another one (like he made me do with Brylee). If he was going to make me wait then I would just wait for my appointment next month like I was planning. Well, with this being my 5th child with him he was happy to oblige. AND..........we don't know what we're having! So wait till next month!

Gunnar loves climbing on the windowsill. We previously had a couch under most of the window but that led to him walking along the ledge to parts that were not protected by couch so I rearranged the furniture. He still found the small part of ledge to stand on but doesn't venture beyond it because the keyboard is blocking the way! Of course now he likes to throw himself over the arm and onto the couch along with climbing over the back of the couch. Oh well, can't win them all!

Here is one Hunter took of me. I actually have a face!

Gunnar was too tired to eat lunch so he passed out rather than eat much!

And so Hunter needed his picture taken

and so did Brylee (with her tongue hanging out)

Daddy was home from work in time to read books! The boys (and especially Brylee) sure do miss having him around in the evening. We love Daddy!