Coloring Eggs

The kids always have a blast doing this and Robb and I just try to prevent disasters from happening. This year the boys used gloves so they didn't have colored hands for days on end. 

We did an egg hunt after we were all done coloring eggs. It was full tackle egg hunt. It was the most intense egg hunt I have watched in a while. It became obvious that the boys are too old to do this. Abby and Emmy had a blast!

Clothing Challenges

As much as we love Emmy, it is no secret that she is one of our most challenging. Her stubbornness and fireball personality poses many parenting challenges. Our biggest one currently is that she hates to wear clothes. Its not that she wants to be naked. Its that most clothing feels bad to her. Tags are terrible, long sleeves feel too long, sweaters feel too furry, shoes feel to tight and pants always feel BAD! Well it's winter in Nebraska and pants aren't negotiable this time of year unless you want to freeze to death! We have been dealing with this for quite a while and I finally asked her pediatrician about it. He thought it was mostly behavioral since this behavior doesn't occur at daycare. He did give us the name of a counselor to see though. I went to the parent meeting and immediately felt judged! This lady had one child and I'm sure she did everything perfect because she wasn't above telling me I was doing almost everything wrong. She was disappointed in our lack of routine for getting ready in the morning, getting to bed and really everything else. I tried to gently remind her that the lack of routine had to do with things like us having jobs and 4 children but she felt like we could still do better. I went to talk about trying to get Emmy to wear pants without a crying screaming fit and spent most of the hour explaining/defending our bedtime routine. I left super frustrated but the catch was she hadn't even met Emmy yet. I set up our next appointment which Emmy would come to and then I figured that she would see that this 4 year old was a force to be reckoned with! At the next appointment Emmy came and of course acted like a complete angel. We again didn't get anything accomplished and I felt like it was a waste of time again. She did want us to try playing clothing BINGO and it sounded funny so we did. This might be the most inappropriate game we have played with our children to date. We had people throwing underwear over their clothing, striping off clothes to put tights on. Layering shirts over shirts over shirts. It was chaos and it was hilarious. Pretty sure that it didn't help with the clothing issue but it made us laugh. We only went to one more appointment with that lady before I stopped answering calls from the office and avoiding them forever. We just started letting Emmy wear about whatever she wanted even if she looked ridiculous and we all were happier.

March Madness

Bryce is completely obsessed with all things basketball. So, March Madness is one of his favorite times of the year. He has about 15 brackets going and made everyone in the family fill one out. He was not impressed that I picked my teams based on how cool the mascot was and he wasn't impressed that Emmy based her picks on how cool the team name sounded. 

Since he loves basketball so much he was thrilled when Uncle Mitch got and extra ticket to the March Madness games in Omaha and invited him along. He even got to get out of school early to go which was just a bonus to all of this. 

Science Fair

The science fair at Norris is done on a voluntary basis so I was pleasantly surprised when all the kids decided to participate. Abby researched what project she wanted to do and decided on the color changing flower project. She did a really good job with it! We took pictures of what she did and used them on her poster that she made.

Her flowers all changed colors. It was a success.

She did a great job presenting her project at the science fair!

Bryce and Caleb decided that they wanted to do a project about a metal called gallium. It is a very odd metal in the fact that it melts at a low temperature so you can play with the melted metal. They researched it and made a poster and we ordered tubes of gallium from Amazon. They played with it at our house and even managed to spill it on our floor. What a mess! They took it to school to show at the science fair. It was a hit because it was really fun to play with.

Happy Pi Day

Occasionally, Robb and I are more nerdy than we would like to admit. This was one of those times. We told the kids that we were celebrating Pi Day but they thought we were celebrating Pie Day. No one knew what Pi meant so Robb gave them a quick math lesson before he would let them eat the Pie.

We Need Nice Weather

It seems like winter may never end this year. Winter started pretty mild and we had nicer temps into November but now we are paying for it. It is Mid March and still cold most days. We just need some sun shine in our lives! Emmy and I were home one day and we decided we were going to the park, whether it was cold or not. We had a blast! Firth has a really nice park so we went to check that out. We played pirate ship on the jungle gym, played on the swings and even tried the death trap slide. We used to have these metal slides like this all the time when I was a kid and now watching Emmy crawl up it I was certain she was going to fall and break something. It's a wonder all the kids of the 80's ever made it out alive. Lucy came with us and she even got some much needed exercise by crawling up and down the playground with us. When we were done we headed over to the café in Firth to eat. It was fun having a day of fun with Emmy. It won't be long and she will be going to school everyday with the big kids.

PINK concert

Steph and I went to a PINK concert when I was pregnant with Emmy and now 4 years later she was going to be performing at Pinnacle Bank Arena in Lincoln again. We had to go! It was the most impressive concert I have ever been to. Steph got us amazing seats and we have been waiting 8 months for the concert date to arrive. Again, she did not disappoint! The concert was amazing and we had a blast!

Steph had just gotten her new puppy, Bueller, that week so Abby said she would babysit him during the concert. He is adorable! I don't think Robb was very excited about puppy sitting but he was a good sport.

I got a text during the concert that Robb couldn't get Bueller to go to sleep and he had been barking for a long time, so I was suppose to be quiet when I got home. I got home late and poor Bueller heard me come in and the barking started up again. Both girls were sleeping in our bed with Robb and he had the industrial fan running to drown out the barking. I took Bueller out and then gave him some food. Didn't solve the barking. I tried to lay with him and then tired to rock him to sleep. Finally, at about 1am when I had decided that I wasn't cut out to have anymore babies or puppies that stayed up all night, he fell asleep while I was pacing the floor with him. It's a good thing that my nephew dog is so cute!

NYB comes to an End

These boys have been a fun team to watch over the course of the season! They all get along really well and encourage each other to do their very best. Bryce has enjoyed being a part of this team and although he was the only new member this year he felt a part of the team. The coaches have been really good and Bryce has learned a lot. We still didn't manage to get him over the brain block he had about worrying that he was going to mess up and to just drive the ball. I hope his confidence will be higher next year and we will see him moving the ball more like we know he is capable of. Their last game was a double header against 2 teams that were their rivals. The one game they were down a couple points most of the game and the refs were not calling in their favor at all. They ended up winning it by one shot in overtime. Such a fun way to end a season!

The boys became quite the team as the season went on and so did the little sisters. These girls all got to know each other very well and became good friends.

Congratulations on a great season Norris!

(back left-right) Bryce, Thomas, Grady, Carson, Aiden

(front left to right) Barrett, Levi, Tanner, Josh