Monday, May 11, 2015

March, St. Patrick's Day, and Other Shenanigans

 March! March was a good month. I accomplished a whole lot plus it was beautiful and everything bloomed all of the sudden and it was simply lovely!

Now, to get down to business...

I work at the salon every Tuesday, all day long. I have a class right after until 10 PM. Andy usually works Tuesday nights, so my mom will come over every Tuesday (after watching Magnus all day) and help my kids with homework, take them to their various activities, and bring us dinner. Seriously. Every Tuesday. What an angel of a mother I have, am I right? I don't know if I could do this crazy work/school thing without her help as well as the help of my sister Rachel. They watch Magnus for me all of the time. 

Anyway, after a particularly harrowing day full of midterms and a completely full book at the salon, I came home exhausted to this:
 (Well, the coke came home with me.... I needed it to do homework that night ;) But this simple meal-- a salad, cornbread with honey butter, and chicken chili was like manna to my mouth! So good.

Laylah and Daphne got the stomach bug for the second time after we got home from Disney. UGH! It went through all of us twice. It was completely awful. So glad we made it through that alive.

Magnus started preschool through our community preschool program. They evaluated him for 60 days to see if he qualified for their Special Needs program since he is considered to have a  TBI (traumatic brain injury) from his resection surgery. I'll talk more about that later. But he has absolutely loved preschool.

My dad and I took my cute older kiddos skiing. I haven't been skiing in years. I LOVED it! I forgot how dang fun it is. I made myself a promise that I will go way more next year. And I told Andy that he needs to learn so we can go together. It was such a beautifully perfect day.






 The Utah State Aggies had their last home game and Laylah was able to go with Andy. All of my kids got a turn to go and had so much fun. They love watching their Uncle David play ball.



 I had an MRI to check on my pituitary tumor. It is stable and looking fine. I only have to take meds for it once a week to keep it stable and my meds also regulate my hormone imbalance caused from the tiny tumor. I am so grateful for modern medicine. I avoided an MRI for about 5 years but my endocrinologist said I can't go that long again, haha. He said we will check it again next year.


 Laylah gets her braces tightened once a month. It really hurt her the first couple times, but she is an old pro now. She only has top braces right now but later this week she will get her bottom braces on as well. Lucky girl!

My amazing aunt and uncle sent us such a wonderful Christmas gift.... a new tramp! Our old one had a decent frame, but the mat was falling apart. We tried twice to order a new one but it didn't fit either time. We are so thankful to have a brand new one. We put it together in March. The kids have really missed jumping and it keeps them busy for hours. Literally. Trampolines are the greatest invention ever.

Daphne was able to participate in the Biography Fair at school. Daphne has a slight fascination (okay, full blown obsession) with Laura Ingalls Wilder and anything to do with her. She owns all of her books. But she didn't stop there. She found out Laura's daughter, Rose, was also an author and she has read all of her books as well. Then she found books written by Laura's mother, Caroline, as well as Caroline's mother (whose name I don't recall). She has read every single book about that pioneer family that she could get her hands on. She chose Rose Wilder to do her report on and portray. She liked her the best because they had some similarities. Rose was a tomboy and she loved to write and draw. Daphne loves those things too. 
How it works is, the kids all have a "button" on their desk and when someone "pushes" the button they act like their person and give a little speech about their life. It is darling. I loved it, and Daphne did such a great job.

This March I really took spring cleaning to heart. We switched all of our rooms around. We moved our office downstairs, moved Laylah into the office, Andy and I moved into the girl's room, the boys moved into our room, and Daphne moved into the boy's room. It just worked better with our furniture and Laylah was getting old enough to have her own room, and the boys ended up with their own bathroom. Win, win, win!
  I cleaned as I went and got rid of so much stuff. It felt so great! I still have my kitchen and basement to do, but I will definitely have more time this summer.

St. Patrick's Day came, my least favorite "holiday" (that isn't really a holiday ;) Everyone wore green and we ate a green breakfast.


 The Leprechaun brought us treats. And that was that.

 I have taken to trying on every shade of lipstick at work so I can see if I like it or not. This dark purple was just a biiiit much. Haha.

 I went down to Salina to see my best friend, Cristan, for a couple days. I love her.

I took the kids skiing by myself one day. Jonah's friend came with us. We had a blast and skied into the night. The resort had a fireworks show that night, not sure what the occasion was. But it was really fun. And that concluded our ski season for the year. I hope to go much more next year!



The girls and I went to our annual Sperry/Hyde ladies luncheon. It is a lunch we do with distant relatives at the Lion House every March to celebrate my great, great, great, great (I think?) Grandfather and his legacy. It is fun. I mostly go for the rolls. My girls have been old enough to come the past few times and I love it.

This is my very good and obedient children walking to church one day. I had worked a graveyard shift at my rehab job and then had to go to my salon job for a mandatory meeting one Sunday morning. My husband went to work that morning as well, which left our kids the responsibility of getting ready for church and getting over there on their own. As I was driving home from my meeting I saw them walking and was just so grateful that I have such responsible and wonderful children. I really love them so much. 

Here;s my cute baby boy at one of his many doctor check-ups. Just because he's cute.

Kaylie and I making hideous faces. She's the best.

Laylah went to the State Science Fair with her two best friends from school. They didn't win anything but they were able to miss school for the day and they had a blast together.

Andy got a new motorcycle. All of his dreams have come true.

Spring exploded in March and these BEAUTIFUL blossoms were everywhere. And I loved it.

We had spring break in March and the first order of business was to match all of the socks that had been sitting in two giant laundry baskets. I threw away all of the ones that were mateless. Stupid socks.

We were able to go to Cinderella with Hope kids. It was the best movie ever! I loved every second.

The boys were invited to go camping with their friends for Spring Break. We missed them but had lots of fun without them :)

Waiting at another doctor appointment...

Magnus got a booster pack of tons of fun stuff from Joy Jars aka Team NEGU (Never Ever Give Up) So cute and so fun.

Pretty and delicious food.

I spring cleaned my laundry room and it looks so lovely! I have been so much better about keeping up on laundry. It makes me hate it much less ;)

And last of all.... a Sadie dog. Freshly groomed and cute as ever. 

And that was our March!

Sunday, May 10, 2015

Disneyland Vacation Part 3

On our last day at Disney, Friday, we were up early again to make the most of our day. Jonah wasn't feeling well again so Andy stayed with him at the hotel in the morning. We headed to California Adventure and spent half the day there.

Kaylie always makes the best faces for photos. Oh, how I love this hilarious sis of mine!








We went on Screamin' twice in a row because the line was so short and that was not the best idea for me. I definitely felt nauseous afterwards. Sad. No ride ever used to make me sick to my stomach.
 

 
Andy and Jonah joined us around lunch time. This sweet worker sat and talked to us and offered to take our photo.



Yay! More character meet meet and greets! Haha. Poor Magnus, he missed out on these ones too.... sleeping again!


I thought it hilarious that Laylah and I are making the exact same face in these two photos without the other knowing. Like mother like daughter...
We spent a lot of the day eating treats, watching several of the fun shows and parades, and just spending time together. It was a chill day and just fun. We also let the kids shop for a souvenier. 







Cars Land! One of my favorites.
 








Silly souveniers! Jewelry for the girls, a hat for Jonah, and toys for the two little boys.


We had been trying to make it to Fantasia every night we were there. I have such amazing memories of the very first time I saw Fantasia. I was 6 years old and it is really my first memories of Disneyland. I remember sitting on my daddy's shoulders and watching the Disney magic unfolding before my very eyes. I was absolutely amazed at the magic, the wonder, and the sheer excitement I felt is something I will never forget. That's when I became hooked on Disney. I love how they never do anything halfway. They always go above and beyond. I wanted my kids to see that and feel that. It is such a wonderful part of childhood.
 
We had gotten fast passes so we had really good seats. The problem is, we had to be there 30 minutes before the show started. Within 10 minutes all of the kids had fallen asleep on the ground. Oh well.

Andy went and got a bunch of treats to keep us occupied. Behold, the famous Dole Whip! I had wanted one the whole trip and finally got my fix. It was amazing and worth every sugary calorie!

And then the show started and all of the kids woke up and watched it with wondering eyes and loved it as much as I hoped they would. And when it was finished my Disney trip was made. It was just after 11 and I begged someone to stay with me until they closed but I was highly outvoted, and that's okay. It was the perfect way to end our magical, wonderful, with a few bumps-in-the-road vacation.
 
The next morning we packed up and got ready o head back to St. George where the kids would spend the night at their cousins house. M, Andy, and I slept at my parents house where Andy and I caught up on homework, ugh.
 
And here are our sad faces that our vacation was over:

 
All the way hoe from St. George it snowed and it made me really sad that I didn't live in California by the ocean, even though I love the snow.

We made it home safe and sound and so grateful that we had the opportunity to go on such a wonderful, fun, exciting, family trip. It was a blast!