Snow Days

Caleb and his Monster Truck line up and fort.

Bryce and his castle with a dinosaur attacking it

Later that night we tried snow icecream. It was interesting. The kids thought it was delicious!

 

 

The kids had 2 snow days last week. We were supposed to be in for a SnowMageddon but in my opinion it was a bust. They called school off on Thursday evening before the snow was even falling. It was supposed get bad during the day so I guess I saw their point. I just wish snow days would have been so easy to come by when I was little. We woke up Thursday morning to NO SNOW. The kids were thrilled to have a day off, of course! I spent the day trying to entertain them from the couch. The boys played blocks and Lego's and built some pretty cool towers. The little neighbor girl was bored so she invited Abby over to play babies for the morning.
The saying that 3 is a crowd really seems to hold true in our household. If you put any 2 of our kids together they do pretty good. When all 3 are together someone is always the left out one. The day was busy but it went alright. We finally saw a few flakes at 11:30 and by the time school would have been out there was probably a whooping inch on the ground.
That night the snow continued to fall and the wind picked up. The SnowMageddon that was supposed to dump up to 12 inches on us only left 5-6 inches. Never the less again there was NO SCHOOL. Things didn't go quite as smooth the second day. The boys and Abby fought all day. I was tired and in a grumpy mood. So pretty much a recipe for disaster. The day didn't go well and by noon I was begging Robb to come home and rescue me. Luckily he felt sorry for me and came home at 4. He took the kids outside despite the 3 degree temps they seemed to have fun.

Valentines Day

 I saw everyones cute Valentine pictures of their kids, so I tried to get one too. My kids were less than cooperative and this was the best one we got.

 This is really the kind of picture they wanted to take!

 This was the first year Abby got to have a Valentines Party. She was so excited! She passed out Brave Valentines with M&M's and pencils. She wrote her name on each and every card. I was so proud when I saw that only 2 other kids had wrote their own names on the cards. She was very excited to dump her bag out and look at everything that she got. She even got a heart snake from her teachers.

 Bryce and Caleb had their Valentines party at school. They too were very excited about it! Bryce passed out Star Wars cards and took great care to pick a sticker that each person would like to put on the card. This year the boys had to write each childs name on the card and then write their own name too. This took awhile but they are doing so much better with their writing than last year. Last year it would have been impossible. This year it was just time consuming. Bryce did all the girls last and all the girls got Storm Trooper cards because they are the bad guys and I guess girls are too.

Caleb passed out CARS cards and he too was very careful to give all the boys the coolest ones and then whatever was left over was for the girls. Although he didn't care much about what cards the girls got he did take great care picking out and signing a special one for his teacher. He can be pretty sweet at times.
I think everyone had a fun Valentines Day.
Abby and I made Daddy his favorite cookies and I got a yummy box of chocolates. It is hard to believe that 10 years ago Robb was proposing on his knee in the rain and now we have 3 wonderful kids to celebrate with.

Pedicure Time

 The week before Valentines Day our neighbor Michele got Abby and I out of the house for some much needed fun! I have been stir crazy in the house and so has Abby. We aren't used to staying home so much. We are usually busy running errands and running the boys to and from school. Now we are lucky if we get to leave the house once a week.
We went to get pedicures and Abby got a manicure and a pedicure. She is such a girly girl and loves doing this kind of thing. She wasn't nervous at all.

 Robb thought mine should probably be half price since I only had 1 foot that they could work on. My lady was really nice and after a little difficulty with the language barrier we got it figured out that no I could not put that foot in water, but I would like the toes painted still. Now my toes don't look as terrible.

 Abby picked Red for Valentines Day and on her fingers she did red with sparkles.

Abby's cute heart toes.
Thanks Michele for getting us out of the house! We had a blast.

Sickness Hit Our House

I knew we had just been WAY too LUCKY this year! The Influenza A and B epidemic this year has been terrible and so has the stomach flu. I couldn't believe that we had managed to stay healthy! Before this year our kids were sick ALL the time so it is extremely unusual that no one has had a sick visit in over 9 months!
We had planned Abby's birthday party for Sunday the 3. On Friday night Caleb was a little quiet and wanted to lay on the couch with me. I thought he was just tired. Before bed he complained of a headache and Robb gave him Tylenol. He immediately threw that up and we knew he was SICK! He spent the entire night until 4am throwing up and miserable with a fever. I don't remember our kids being that miserable ever! By Saturday morning we had made the call that we would have to cancel the party. Poor Abby! Again she got the short straw for her birthday. When Robb told her that we weren't going to Norfolk she was a little sad but then a couple minutes later it soaked in that she would be missing her birthday and the poor girl was crying.  Caleb spent the weekend miserable and laying around. Luckily no one else got it as bad as Caleb. The next week I had a fever and felt miserable for a couple days but no one else got the full blown flu! Thank goodness after 6 years and 4 years it seems my children may have finally gained a bit of an immune system.

Getting My Cast

My casting appointment was on Abby's Birthday. Although I was really ready to get my cast instead of the splint, I didn't think it was going to hurt that bad and make poor Abby's birthday so hard for me to enjoy. After dropping Abby off at preschool, Robb and I headed to the Orthopedic office. I was by far the youngest person in there by about 20 years.

They took the splint off and it was pretty shocking to see my leg! It was all sorts of colors from bruising and the scrub they used during surgery. I was also surprised that I had an incision on both sides of my ankle. On the left side I had about 8 staples and on the right side 20 some staples. The first couple staples they took out weren't too bad but after 28 it was terrible. It hurt more and more as they pulled them out. The physician assistant said everything looked okay and the plan was a cast for 4 weeks and then possibly a walking boot.

 

This picture was before the staple removal! I wasn't smiling after that!

 

Getting the cast wasn't painful except my leg was down for a long time and started to swell. By the time we got home and I put my leg up I was hurting! So much for having a good 2d trip out of the house.

Our Little Girl Is 4

 Happy Birthday to my Sweet and Sassy little girl Abby. I can't believe how fast 4 years have gone! You were a very easy baby and a challenging toddler. You have grown into a caring little girl that knows what you want and doesn't let anyone especially your brothers push you around. You can be quiet and sweet and turn around and scream at the top of your lungs to get your brothers in trouble. Our family truly wouldn't be complete without you to add a little spice. Happy Birthday! We Love You!

Abby and Daddy. You make your dad sad on a daily basis because you won't give him a kiss because he is a boy. Poor Daddy.

Abby and Mommy. You still call me Momma and it always cracks me up but I love it. You are such a Momma's girl that when you are sad almost no one else will do except me. Although it makes things tough at time I love that your a Momma's girl.

You took Rapunzel Birthday Cupcakes for your Birthday at Preschool. You and Grandma Hansen made the cupcakes. You were so proud to be the line leader and birthday girl at school for the day.

I felt bad this year because you kind of got the short straw for your birthday celebration. I got my cast on that day and wasn't feeling very good so it was very simple but I think you still had fun. Bryce and Caleb got out of school early that day so you got to open gifts when they got home. You were very excited about all the gifts but you really loved the Easy Bake Oven that your brothers got you!

After the gift opening we had to break out the Easy Bake Oven and cook some snacks. The kids had a great time cooking.

Modeling your new Brave outfit with your Brave Doll.

Usually I make a special cake for your birthday but since I was unable to do that this year Daddy took over and you and him went and picked out an ice cream cake. You found one with a fairy on it so you were thrilled.

This is how we would all like to eat our cake we just don't. My little silly chocolate eater.

Although it wasn't the traditional birthday celebration I think you had a great day. We Love you Abigail!

Missing Something??

 

Showing off his new smile

You can't really see it but there is his baby tooth.

On Monday, January 28th I was on my own with getting the kids ready and out the door with one leg. Robb had to be out of town that day so he had gotten everything ready to make it as easy as he could for me. But you can't prepare for everything. That morning everyone was eating muffins for breakfast and then there was a lot of crying and a scream and Bryce spitting muffin all over. Come to find out he had bit down and almost lost his loose tooth. After taking a look at it I put a Kleenex around it and with just a little tug it popped out. He was really freaked out by the entire thing. Losing a tooth involves blood and that means he loses it. Once it had stopped bleeding he was pretty excited about showing everyone at school and it then occurred to him that he would get money from the tooth fairy.