Happy Easter

Here are some pictures from our Easter weekend. It was a bit sporadic as we tried to take advantage of bits of sunny weather and work around an all day temple trip. So we had an easter egg hunt on Friday, temple trip Saturday, filled Easter baskets Sunday afternoon, Easter dinner Sunday afternoon with Joseph and Lisa, and did a treasure hunt for the Easter baskets Sunday night. I kind of liked doing the baskets on Sunday night, because then the kids aren't on a sugar high all through church and may actually eat Easter dinner.

Emily and Kimmie dashing around the backyard looking for Easter eggs. We hid the eggs twice for them since they had such fun looking for them, but couldn't interest them in a third time... they wanted the candy.

Calvin enjoyed gnawing on his token Easter egg and soaking up the sunshine while the girls did the egg hunt.

Showing off their booty! They had so much fun finding the eggs!

Here's a picture of the kids on Easter Sunday. If you can't tell, Em is trying to pose for the picture and keep Calvin from launching himself off the step! I'm learning how hard it is to get all three kids smiling and looking in the same direction at the same time!

John and Calvin on Easter Sunday. Doesn't he look just like his dad?!

I will have to post the pictures of the treasure hunt and stuff later. John is trying to reclaim the computer. Nothing to report jobwise. We are thinking about just heading out west, maybe we'd have better luck in person. Kimmie is officially potty-trained!! We haven't tried underwear at night yet, but that's next. Calvin is rolling all around the room, and will get up to crawling position and rock back and forth. He's so ready to go! Watch out world!!!

Hooray for Kimmie!!!

Kimmie went potty today! Both kinds! Can you hear the shouts of joy all the way from Kentucky?! And John is officially in charge of potty-training from now on. I can't get Kimmie to go for anything, but John got her to do both. I knew she could do it, she just is stubborn and won't do it for me. I'm still not exactly sure why. John just knows how to motivate her, I guess. Maybe she will be willing to do it now, knowing that she can. I hope so! What a relief, I was afraid she be in diapers til next Christmas!
On other fronts, Emily is finally feeling better from having hand-foot-and-mouth disease again! And I am recommitted to getting her to stop sucking her thumb!! Aaaugh! It has been so frustrating and I am sure I have shot myself in the foot several times with the whole process.
John is looking for jobs full time now, which is good and nerve-wracking at the same time. A couple leads, nothing for sure yet. But we'll be moving back west sometime soon!
I sang a duet in church on Sunday, it was really fun. I am getting a little better each time at not getting so nervous! On Easter Sunday the ward choir is singing a few numbers, and I get to sing the high part on one. Whoever thought, even a year ago, that I could hit a high B flat! Not me. All growing up I thought I was an alto.
Anyway, here's a video (for Ayden and Claire especially) of Kimmie playing with Calvin. Also a picture of Kimmie out in the rain with her "cinde-weh-wa" (somehow we've mixed that up with "umbrella", not sure why) and one of Calvin "folding" the laundry. Gotta love these kids.

Kentucky snowstorm

Last Friday the weatherpeople around here were going crazy with predictions about a huge winter storm that was going to hit that night--estimates of 6 inches of snow were conservative, they said, and signs were similar to the blizzard of 1993! John was smart enough to blow them off, but I got all hyped up about it. Friday night the roads were bad with the freezing rain and stuff, but when we woke up the next morning, what did we have? Probably about four measly inches of snow. I guess it was a pretty good snowfall for one night in Kentucky, but how disappointing! Still, we got to go out and play, and the girls had fun building a snowman with Dad. Then Emily and John went to the park to try sledding. We don't have a sled, so John finagled some cardboard with plastic on in, an old roasting pan, and a couple other things. I think Em said the pan worked best--she had fun and didn't care much what she rode in. I don't have pictures of the sledding, but here are some from our playing in the backyard.

Calvin's first snow. It's kind of bright, Mom.

Emily shows Calvin what this stuff is all about.

Emily had fun throwing snowballs at Dad. Dad had fun throwing snowballs at Mom. Mom wasn't amused.

The gang playing in the snow.

Snow baby.

Hi everybody!

Emily pelting Dad while Calvin surveys the scene.

Emiliy pushed that snowball all the way over to the other one. When she was done she said, "Phew! That was really hard!" Or something to that effect. The funniest part was the "phew!" complete with the wipe of the forehead.

The finished product. Our snowman lasted all of two days. Alas, only a couple snowballs remain of him now. But it was fun.

newport aquarium

We convinced Dad to take a day off from work for a family fun day. We went to the Newport Aquarium, just across the river from Cincinnati. It was very fun. The girls loved petting the sharks (little ones), watching the big sharks, watching the penguins, otters, alligators, turtles--but really most of all the sharks. Which was good, since that was the main attraction. John had fun being a kid too, while I had fun watching (petting sharks was not so interesting to me). I think I was ready to go home long before everyone else was... But I love that John is so good at showing the kids the wonders of the world we live in. Including sharks. Here are some pictures.

You can't see this one really well, but I thought it was so cute how Kimmie was putting her arm around her dad. She's so fun like that.

Here's Emily in the Shark Tunnel. This was by far the coolest part. I thought.

Everybody looking at the fish. Too bad I couldn't get any of the sharks in it. Some of them were pretty big.

This is how Calvin spent most of the day (ie the thumb in the mouth). He was such a trooper the whole day!

Emily, Kimmie and Dad petting the sharks. Em had a hard time warming up to it, but after she saw Kimmie having fun she decided to try. Then we had a hard time pulling either of them away!

The girls outside the Aquarium. Aren't they cute?!?

Kimmie posing with the big fish.

So we had fun. By the end of the day we were all exhausted and slept on the way home (except John, who was driving). It was fun to spend the day together!

hooray for family

We had such a fun time with my parents when they were here. Granted, some things didn't go exactly as planned--such as an ice storm on the night of our planned dance workshop, and John being sick in bed for most of their visit, but overall we had fun. The kids got lots of time with Grandma and Grandpa and Uncle Brian. I think they read "A Fish Out of Water" about 3 times each day. I feel bad that we didn't really do anything exciting, but it was so cold and wintry and nasty outside! And I felt bad abandoning John at home alone with a fever. Hopefully no one else got sick. So far so good here, though Em's starting to get yet another cold.


Anyway, here's a couple pics from their visit.

Reading with Grandpa--yep, it's the fish book.

Grandma getting some cuddle time with Calvin. He didn't mind too much either.

Grandma putting Kimmie to bed for a nap. :)

Reading with Grandma--the fish book again!

Brian and Calvin playing with the toys. Not sure who was more fascinated with some of them. :)

So there you go. We loved having them here, and I was very sad putting the house back to normal after they left. I am ready to move back West. We just need a job...

winter fun

So it's been cold and icy here. I'm attaching some pictures of our ice storm, nothing like what it was a few years ago, but I guess it made for some interesting driving. Notice the ice layer on the windshield of the car that John had to break off, and how low the branches of the trees are (normally you can't even reach the leaves, but they were all bowed over from the ice) The storm was also fun for Emily and her Dad. Kimmie's like her mom in being not particularly fond of cold, so she stayed in; but Emily is always game for going out to play in the snow with John and building snowmen--notice the mini snowman in our flower pot.

Also attached is a video of Calvin playing peekaboo. He was so funny! He would put the cloth over his head all by himself, and then get so excited and kick all over the place until you took it off and said, "peekaboo!" I really couldn't believe he was doing it so well, since he's only 5 months old. He loves to play though. He's definitely a boy: loves sound effects, playing games, bouncing, and being swung around.

Also, Calvin slept all the way through the night last night!! From 10pm to 7:30am!!! {Insert full-blown "Hallelujah Chorus" here} My first full night's sleep in over 6 months! My, what a difference a full night's sleep makes. I think my brain is fully functional for the first time in a long time. I actually feel like doing something. I downloaded Jennifer Lopez's "Let's Get Loud" and danced the chacha around the living room--very fun, highly recommend it. Although it brought to light how very out of shape I am. First sleep, then the exercise regimen.

meanderings...

My mind is meandering today. I'm skipping choir practice today (sorry Brianne) because I have a cold and can't really sing anyway, and John made the mistake of leaving the computer on, so here I am. And I am tired. Sometimes it is very difficult to be a mom, because there are no sick days. No vacation days, no personal time to take off, no lunch breaks, nothing. And even when you do get away, your charges are there in the back of your mind the whole time. Which is a good thing, because you couldn't do the job if these kids weren't in your head the whole time and if your whole self wasn't dedicated to their wellbeing. It just gets tiring sometimes. And yet, somehow, you know you would never do anything else.

I think I am just emotionally fried because of John's job and the miserable state he is in, and the uncertainty of what might be coming. Blah, I think my mind has fallen completely off the track, not merely meandering. I better just quit. Here's some pics of the kids.

a windy night

Understatement of the year. Last night Fayettle county had its first full tornado warning since we have lived here. We have had a few tornado watches, which means that tornadoes are possible in current weather conditions, but this is the first real warning--meaning that tornadoes are likely and to get to shelters now.
I was watching the news and saw the tornado watch up earlier last evening, and knowing that my paranoid self would not be able to get to sleep with a very strong squall line approaching, I stayed up to watch. It was a unique feeling to watch these storms, moving at about 50 miles an hour, approach from the west and counties one by one light up in red on the state map as tornado warnings were issued. It was about 1:15 am when the warning for Lexington was issued, and I got John out of bed about the time the sirens started going off. Yeah, that was freaky. We got the girls out of bed and huddled on the floor in the hallway in front of the coat closet--our designated shelter spot. We stayed there watching the news until about 2 am. It was weird because we had less lightening and thunder with this storm than we've had with many others, but John went outside and said the wind was really blowing. I guess there were gusts of 60 mph at some points. Fortunately, the storm went over with no major problems. I think there was damage in other parts of the city, trees fallen on houses down in Harrodsburg (about 40 minutes south of us) and seven people dead in the state (again, mostly in mobile homes). It was a freaky moment though, with the sirens going off, and then all of a sudden the tv went to static, and I thought, "oh, here we go," but it came right back on and we really were fine. About 2 am we all went back to bed as the storm front had passed. Emily was a little scared afterward, but John told her to pray to Heavenly Father for help to not be scared, which she did. Kimmie then said she wanted to, too, so John helped her. I sang them a song and they went to bed pretty quietly. Even Calvin went back to sleep. I think we were all pretty exhausted.
Anyhoo, it was an interesting night. We are thankful for the protective bubble that seems to encase Lexington whenever there is a severe weather threat. It's things like this that remind me how much we really are in God's hands, and that life is never certain. And so, a renewed effort to live to have no regrets.
Happy calm Wednesday.
Ps... if you want to call me today, you'll have to call the home phone. John's got the cell at work today.

modern medicine

Can I just say, thank heaven for childrens painkillers?? Emily had four shots yesterday (joy of joys) and today she has been whiny and tired and upset all morning. Dose her up, and 20 minutes later she's a different kid. I was bracing for major drama yesterday at the dr. office because Emily is, let's just say, intolerant to pain. But, she didn't start crying til they laid her down on the table, and stopped fairly soon after. We have had moments of crying since then, when she has to get pants on and off and when she's afraid she's going to lose a band-aid (can't figure that one out), but otherwise she's been great.

In other news, Kimmie fell down some stairs and cracked her head on a bookshelf. She's got a nice bruise along the side of her face and on her ear, and I got all worked up worried about a concussion, but she's fine. We are thanking the Lord for His tender mercies, because it could easily have been much worse. And, Calvin LOVES his cereal. Can't get it fast enough. Never mind that it takes three or four tries to get one spoonful entirely in his mouth, he loves the stuff. And, he's also definitely my kid: I gave him a small taste of ice cream last night and let him suck on the spoon--he threw a tantrum when I took it away. Literally got mad. I had to laugh. Here's some pics of Calvin, courtesy of Emily the new family photographer:

Here's Kimmie: she loved flying, she loves her dress, her hair is cute, Mom was pooped. :)

Finally, here's a couple cute pics of the girls in their playhouse/tent. They love having their own space, and I love that it can be taken down and put in a bag for storage.

musings on women...

I heard from my friend that there has been a lot of broo-ha-ha about Sister Beck's talk on "Mothers Who Know" from General Conference. This surprised me some, and didn't suprise me some. I remember both her talks, and thinking "Whoa," while she was giving them, because she was laying down the law. I remember feeling overwhelmed, mostly because there were a lot of things I needed to work on that she addressed. I remember feeling somewhat affronted, reacting to my guilt and I think trying to justify myself a bit. But I have been thinking about it lately, mostly about trying to swallow my pride. I wonder if others do that too, that all the kafuffle about it is because we as women can't admit that we really aren't doing all that we have the potential to do. We have become complacent listening to our amazing priesthood leaders in the praise they have given to the women of the church and the things they do--which I am very grateful for--but we seem to be having selective hearing, in accepting the praise, but not the remonstrations. So the question is, do we support the prophet or not? He is called of God, and Sister Beck and her counselors are as well. I tried, I think, right after her talk, to write off some of the things she said as "new calling zeal." Now I realize that was wrong, that she said the things she needed to say, that we needed to hear, and was perhaps the only person who could really come out and say them. I think I need to read over that talk again. And instead of getting overwhelmed with all the things I should be doing and feel to give up, move past the pity party and stretch myself to become the person God needs me to be.

cute baby

Here's a couple pictures of Calvin. I'm sorry, but he's the cutest boy ever so I have to post tons of pictures of him. Thanks, Laura, for the adorable outfit. It is so cute on him, and warm too! I have to take advantage of these moments, since I am learning (most recently, as we were packing up to head to church--and late already) that he will readily leak out his diaper, no matter how well you fasten it or how expensive the diaper. Though if you get the Pampers swaddlers, it doesn't leak as much.

Here he is after a bowl of cereal. He loved it, but would hardly relinquish the spoon so I could get him some more. He seemed to think that if he sucked on it hard enough, he'd get something. He's actually not too bad of a mess, considering I had to try to get the spoon into his mouth before he either grabbed the spoon with his hands, the cereal dripped off the spoon, or he stuck his thumb in his mouth and I'd have to start all over again.