Has Spring sprung?

I think I finally dare believe it has! It's still been a bit windy, but the sun is shining, the flowers are blooming, and the grass is getting green and long! AP mowed last Thursday. He got out the mower, checked the gas and oil and got it started all by himself! And he had almost finished (front and back) before J even got home from work. He worked so hard and got so sweaty in the beautiful sunshine. I can't believe I didn't get a picture! We've all been out pulling weeds and J did the edging for the first time on Saturday. Here AJ is enjoying the freshly cut grass with a good book and the cats.

the dating game

We have been trying to be better about dating; not just between J & I (although that is part of the plan) but also with the kids. J took everybody on dates last month. He and AP did glow in the dark mini-golf and he took AJ to the Aquarium. He and D didn't do anything "formal" (they get plenty of alone time since if daddy is around D is attached). This month was my turn. Since AJ did such a great job talking up the aquarium that is where AP chose to go with me. He was so cute, wanted to hold my hand and was so excited to show me everything (I had never been). We were about to leave when he noticed the giftshop. I saw his eyes light up and was about to remind him that we weren't there to buy toys, but before I could he said, "I promised AJ I would bring her something!" So he picked out a little stuffed penguin for her (the penguin exhibit was still in the works when she and J were there so she didn't get to see it) and bought it with his own money. He was so cute trying to pick out something she would love and even called her to make sure he was getting the right thing. It was one of those experiences that makes parenting so satisfying!

Yesterday was my date with AJ. She wanted to go to the mall to ride the train and get some shoes that she had fallen in love with a few weeks ago. She was bursting with excitement and once we got to the mall she ran almost the whole way to the train. After the train ride and shoe shopping we got sundaes from DQ and topped it off with driving through In-n-out to take home for dinner. It was a lot of fun, but just not as great as the Aquarium (which is where she wants to go *again* on her next date; I guess we should just get a membership. AP on the other hand wants to go the mall to ride the train. . . As for D, he and I go on a date every Monday to the allergist. He loves to push the buttons and jump around in the elevator. At the doctors office there is a cute little playroom with a HUGE bucket of Duplos. He has a great time building towers and knocking them over saying, "Oh no! Crash!" They also have a box of dum-dum pops that he likes to choose from. He runs in saying, "pops, pops!" which makes the receptionist laugh everytime.

Sick

I have had sick kids this week. I kept AP home on Monday because he was so congested, but sent him on Tuesday because I think his is mostly allergies. Both he and AJ called that morning while I was out doing errands to say they weren't feeling good; AJ ended up being fine, but I brought AP home. He went yesterday and today; still congested but feeling a little better. Then yesterday I noticed D had a fever. Here he is just out of the bath (yep hair is still wet) watching Super Why. Poor little nose and teary eyes, but I still think they are cute and wanted to capture them (don't worry I wiped him up after I got the shots).

Look who turned TWO!

It's hard to believe it has been two years since this little guy entered our world; at the same time, he has made our lives so complete it's hard to remember life without him. He is so clever, and bright, and loving, and we are very grateful to have him in our family!!

He LOVES balloons (along with anything else bouncy and round) so we just blew up a bunch. He had a lot of fun helping me.

He also helped me with his cake; cleaning up the leftover batter that is!

The big wheel has been the biggest hit! J brought it home with him (after karate) causing all kinds of excitement among the kids!

Opening presents. . . he opened his boat/shape sorter first and then wasn't interested anything else! We had to keep prompting him to open the others. He did have fun with all of his loot.


And finally the cake. After a few bites he was done. When I asked him if it was yummy he said, "No. Mess." He is definitely our neatest child (takes after his dad).

AP's apology

AP's class is on a new system for behavior where there are basically four levels and if they get down to the lowest level the parent is contacted and in addition to the consequence at school is required to have a consequence at home. Along with his home punishment, I told him he needed to write his teacher an apology letter. That was the only direction I gave him and this is what he wrote:

Dear [teacher's full name],
I am deeply sorry and do admit it was foolish and cruel to yell you know what. I will NOT write it in this letter for fear of accidentally hurting your feelings again for you are an educator of the [name of school district] of [state]. I wish that I could send in a court order about paying teachers $5000 per week because without teachers there would be no jobs and every person would become broke. I am grateful that you endure the torture of getting kids to listen and to stop bickering. In the future I plan to try my very hardest to not get mad at you. I sincerely think you are making the world a better place.
From,
A------P------- H--------H--------
(he included my maiden name which I thought was pretty funny).

After enduring two hours of his shrieking and carrying on about the injustice of his punishment, I was grateful for the sincerity of his letter (and the laugh I got out of it).

Camera help!

Have I mentioned I need a new camera? Actually, I don't think I did, but if you have seen the pictures on my blog, you are well aware. To make a long story short, a big box containing canned food fell on my camera last summer almost severing the poor thing. It still functions, minus the flash, but sometimes you really need a flash (a lot of the time actually). I have been meaning to get a new one since said accident happened, but haven't done so because (1) I am afraid of getting another camera I don't know how to operate, (2) I haven't had time to do any research, and (3) the last time I got a camera I did a TON of research and still ended up with a camera I couldn't operate. I am no photographer, and I'm not very good with electronic devices so I am looking for something that is SUPER easy to use and will make every picture I take look professionally done (Oh, you actually need to have some skills to take professional looking pictures?) So give it to me: what is a simple point and shoot with a quick shutter speed and good pixel quality? Or if you can't tell me that, then just tell me what kind of camera you have and whether or not you love it! Thanks!

Easter & Conference

Easter was pretty low-key this year. The weather was yucky and since the city egg-hunt was the same time as conference we opted out of it. Instead, on Saturday we just stayed inside listening to conference and decorating eggs. Then when J went to the priesthood session I took the kids to the park and then to McD's for dinner. When we were leaving we decided to check Redbox and got The Princess and the Frog. Loved it! Even D sat for the whole thing and kept cracking up saying, "Frog, funny!" Here are a few pictures from our weekend:

Grandma helped AJ come up with a bunny costume so she could be the Easter bunny for D. What a cute bunny!

We took the eggs we decorated over to the park so they could throw, I mean roll them down the hill. D thought it was great.

The Easter bunny brought them each a new webkinz along with their candy.

Examining their loot. . .

With each egg he opened, D kept saying, "oh! candies. yum."

And now the epic conference tale: I did not plan very well this year. . . I've tried the conference packets in the past without a whole lot of success so I didn't even bother with them this year. I had gotten each of the older kids a journal (they were only $1 at Michaels) and gathered up my colored pens, stickers, and rub-ons for them to decorate their books while we watched. Well if there is anything that brings out AP's "aspergerness" it is stickers; he despises their stickiness and it's so bad that the site of them sends him to gagging fits. It's one of his sensory issues that really is beyond my comprehension and makes me crazy. However, I hoped that he would give rub-ons a try or in the very least just draw or write with the pens (he loves to draw comics). I asked him if he'd like to use the rub-ons, got a definite NO and told him to just take a pen with his book onto the bed (we were watching in mine and J's room). However, he didn't want any part of the book, and as it turned out AJ wasn't that interested either. Well it didn't take long before disruption ensued, with yelling and tears and AP ended up in his room. It was bad enough that I just wanted to turn the TV off and forget conference; I was definitely not feeling very spiritual. Well J gave AP his book and a pencil and told him he had to fill 11 pages before he could do anything fun that day. After some weeping and wailing he finally calmed down and got to work. In the meantime I got AJ to join me in making our books. A little later AP rejoined us and wrote quietly in his book while we finished watching conference mostly in peace. Here are our books:

That night they wanted to read them as their bedtime stories and AJ said to me, "Mom, let's keep working on our books so we can finish them by the end of the year." I was happy the books turned out successful after all and we decided we will spend a little time each Sunday working on them.

As far as conference being a success, I guess that is yet to be seen. J and I felt pretty deflated that our efforts to make it a good experience were once again thwarted and it certainly wasn't the spiritual feast we were hoping for. We just hope our persistence will pay off in the end and the kids will learn that listening to our leaders is important. . . because while we did "watch," in truth I can't tell you much about what was said. . . can't wait for that conference edition Ensign!

Fooled!

I had so much fun with my dinner trick last year that I decided to do another food joke this year. I was going to do mini sandwiches with raw veggies cut really small (matchstick carrots, tiny broccoli florets, cherry tomatoes, tiny gherkins, you get the idea. . .) and tell them that dinner shrunk. But I realized they would recognize the pickles (AP loves them and asks for them all the time) and canadian bacon (I use it in their lunches with crackers) and not be fooled. So I decided to use my mom's Thanksgiving joke and do a cornish game hen instead with baby corn. James and Ariel's kids were coming over so I told A&A that we were going to trick them that it was Thanksgiving (I also did a big turkey and regular corn). It worked beautifully! My kids thought they were in on my joke, welcoming their cousins with, "Happy Thanksgivings," and weren't expecting any other tricks from me. . .