Whirlwind

Seriously, this past month has been a complete and total whirlwind.  It just flew by, and I feel like I've barely even had a moment to catch my breath!  But life is about to get a LOT simpler if we can just make it through the rest of this week!  All our sports and other activities are coming to a close, I'm almost done all the thank you gifts for teachers, coaches, etc, and my calling will be a lot less time consuming for the rest of the Summer!  Maybe Lee and I will actually get to spend some evenings together again!  We have just been running from place to place, and having to split up to be at 2 places at one time.  But enough complaining, there's been a lot of fun moments as well, so here are some of the highlights:
   At the end of May, I got to go on another "Girls Trip" with 4 of my friends to Palm Springs!  The new plan is for it to be an annual thing every Spring, but I was surprised Lee was okay with me going away again.  He is definitely a supportive and caring husband, who never complains about what I want to do.  I did feel a little guilty since I just went away in December, but I have to admit, it was another wonderful break and a fun time with my friends!  I had never been to Palm Springs, but it was BEAUTIFUL!  The mountains, desert, palm trees, and golf courses are a beautiful combination!  The weather was 41 degrees, but we were just happy to have some sunshine.  We spent about half our time at the pools in our resort, and the other half shopping and eating out!  I came back home feeling refreshed and excited to see my kids again, and so grateful for such a wonderful husband!  I missed him a lot.  Made me really want to go on another trip with HIM!

Next highlight was the Piano Recital that Ash put on for all of her students.  She did a really good job, and gave them all cute awards and stuff.  Unfortunately Mason had a baseball game that night which Lee though he really needed to be at, so Mason missed the recital, along with 2 other of Ashlyn's students.  It still turned out good though.  And saddest news ever is that Ash has decided not to teach piano anymore, so this is her last year teaching my kids! She will be MISSED for sure!!

Then, Dakota also had a dance recital for her Hip Hop class.  It was the cutest thing ever, I loved seeing her moves!  I am going to keep putting her in Hip Hop and live my dancing dream vicariously through her! Ha ha.  She had a lot of fun with her friends in her class too.

Griffin has also graduated from Preschool, so we went and watched his little "recital / graduation ceremony". It was cute to see him sing his songs, and he was sure proud of the graduation certificate he got from his teacher!  He is SO ready for Kindergarten, but will definitely miss his friends from preschool as well!  His class also got to have a day at Midnapore lake, and a bouncy castle day.  Good times!

 And then of course, the thing that has been keeping us the most busy over the past couple months, is the sports!  I have promised to post pictures of them at their games, so I will finally do that!  Mason is still loving baseball, and he has the sweetest most encouraging coach ever, so it has been so wonderful for his self esteem.  He's improved a lot of the season.  Dakota is just killing it in Soccer, she just had the best game ever this week, we were so impressed!  She scored a couple goals and just missed like 5 more!  And Griffin is such a cute little soccer player - he does so well when he feels like playing, but sometimes he just doesn't feel like trying!  He's loved playing with his best friend Jack though.

And what was Scarlett doing while we went to all the sport games?  She was just "hanging out", ha ha!

And last highlight to add - Lee and I actually did find time for a date night out!  We went with the Irvines to the shooting range to shoot some skeet.  It was SO much fun.  I actually did quite well too, even out-shot Caleb.  Lee did the best though!  It actually is a pretty cool feeling to shoot one of those clay discs though and watch them shatter!  We want to go again soon! :)  Here's a sweet picture of me and Katerina with out guns!!

Oh and I don't think I mentioned that my new calling is a Young Women Advisor for the Mia Maids.  I love working with those girls, and love the women I work with too, but man, I do not like teaching the new curriculum!  It consumes me all week stressing about it and trying to come up with a lesson plan out of nothing!  Especially since the girls in my class don't talk!!  I guess it will help me learn and grow though!

May Long Weekend

So we got to go to Ashley Lake for May long weekend this year with my parents. (Mainly so Lee could finish off the cabinets and stuff that he started renovating last year!)  The weather wasn't great, but it was just good enough to be able to do everything that we wanted to!  It kept looking like it was going to pour rain, but then it would just sprinkle.  We went on a walk, bear-spray and all, we did some hot tubbing, had a campfire with hot dogs and smores, played some horseshoes and other games, went shopping in town, ate at Famous Daves, and of course did lots of quadding!  We all had a lot of fun, and Scarlett actually cooperated better than I thought she would.  She seemed so excited to be there that she was constantly running around happy and even played with some toys! (For anyone that knows Scarlett very well, she doesn't really seem to play with toys usually!  The only things that generally keep her happy are ones that she knows she's not supposed to be doing!)  The kids have all got very good on the quads now, even Griffin.  He finally looks where he is going instead of smiling and trying to get our attention while he continues to drive blindly!  Scarlett loved riding on the big quad with me - it was cute.  And Dakota, our brave little girl, fully went into the cold lake TWICE so she could earn some money!  We all didn't actually think she would do it, but that girl is tougher than we would all ever imagine!  

 

 

Here's some other photos from the cute outfits we got in Montana... sweet matching girls!  And here's Scarlett doing one of her favorite things these days... swinging on a swing!  You can see the joy in her face, love it!

Sports and a scary occurrence...

Well, the Spring sport season has begun in full force!  We've got Griffin in Soccer on Saturdays, Dakota in Soccer on Tuesday evenings, and Mason is in baseball 3 times a week!  Life has just got a whole lot busier, and will continue to be busy until the end of June!  So far the weather has been pretty good for most of the games though, so it's been fun to watch them for the most part.  I need to remember to take pictures of them all in their uniforms so I can post them.  Mason especially looks so cute dressed in his full official baseball uniform!  He is definitely the smallest and least experienced on his team, so we kind of worried about him, but he seems to be holding his own.  Griffin is kind of dominating his soccer team - he's one of the oldest and by far the biggest.  He scores way more than everyone else.  And Dakota is actually doing quite well this year too.  Finally she's in the older age group on her team, and she seems to really have gained the motivation and competitive spirit this year too.  She scored a goal in her first game as well.
As for Scarlett, she is enjoying going to the park and playing outside. By far, that is Scarlett's favorite thing to do.  She's kind of (still) at a tough age, and is grumpy and hard to entertain most of the time, but going outside seems to work for a while.  We are planning to head to Ashley Lake tomorrow as well for the May long weekend, so that will be a fun break too.
I had a wonderful Mother's Day last Sunday.  The kids and Lee spoiled me as usual!  I love to see the cute things the kids made for me at school and stuff.  They are always so excited to show me.  Lee made his special omelettes and even thought of buying something easy for dinner at the grocery store the day before so that he could do most of that too.  He also got me a new steam mop since mine broke!  After dinner, we joined my other siblings and their kids to decorate Mom and Dad's house as a mother's day gift to my Mom.  The kids made a whole bunch of pictures that we hung up everywhere with streamers and balloons too.  My parents were just coming back from their Mediterranean cruise with Ash and Jeff that evening so it was a big surprise to see it all when she arrived.  She loved it.
And lastly, the other day, a really scary thing happened.  This is kind of a gross story, so here's my warning if you don't want to continue reading!! Lee and I went to bed as usual, feeling fine.  Then a couple hours later, Lee woke up moaning in a lot of pain.  He went to the bathroom and had some diarrhea and his stomach was really hurting.  So he decided to go out on the couch and watch TV since he couldn't sleep.  I didn't think too much of it, he's had a stomach flu before and done the same thing.  Then an hour later, I heard this big CRASH.  I figured it was one of the kids and jumped out of bed, only to discover Lee sitting in the kids bathtub, covered head to toe in vomit and not really responsive.  I asked him over and over what had happened but he couldn't answer me.  Finally he recovered enough to tell me he had felt excruciating pain in his head and had blacked out while he was sitting on the toilet and he had no idea how he got in the bath tub or when he had vomited.  He showered off and then went back to the couch and got all emotional.  And to see Lee cry is extremely rare, so it was very weird.  He didn't know what was wrong or what had happened.  I was feeling really scared and didn't know what to do.  I would have called my parents but they were of course out of town, and I wasn't sure if I should call one of my siblings or friends.  I decided to pray to know what I should do, and I was able to feel peace (somewhat) and felt like it would be okay.  I still kept checking on his breathing though, and my mind was racing trying to figure out what would have caused it all.  Lee's Mom passed away when he was young of a brain aneurysm so I am always nervous of that happening to him.  Since it was to do with his head, I am worried something could be wrong there.  Of course it could just be some wicked stomach bug, but it is still weird that he passed out.  Or maybe he had a seizure or a mini stroke, or who knows what.  I made Lee go to the doctor the next day and ask to get things checked out.  So he is getting a Catscan next week and just got some blood work done as well.  I am feeling a little nervous about him all the time though now.  What if this is the beginning of the end?  What if I lost him one day suddenly?  Life is so fragile, and I don't know what I would do without him.  Sure makes you think..... a lot.  I just hope and pray everything will check out normal.  We both just can't get over how wierd it all was. He said he tried to talk or something before he blacked out, but couldn't, and I remember hearing some wierd noises before the crash, but I have no idea what happened.
And to add to the crappy night, I had to clean up the nasty mess of vomit that was ALL over the bathroom.  Usually Lee is the one who handles the vomit in our house, because I have such a weak stomach myself, so I really didn't think I would get through it.  It was seriously a TON of vomit and was in every nook and cranny of that bathroom.  But I put on some gloves, sprayed a lot of cleaning supplies, and held my breath, running in and out of the room for air.  Thought I was going to black out too!  It took me over an hour, and it was so nasty, but I was so proud of myself for getting through it!  Couldn't get the tub unclogged though, so that had to wait until the next day, but at least the bathroom was usable for the kids in the night.

As promised... Easter outfit pictures... finally!

Here's my cute kiddo's in their Easter outfits... a little late, I know!  Thanks again Grandma for buying them, they sure look sharp!  And we even finally got Scarlett to pose and smile for pictures!  That's a big accomplishment!  I just love how she looks like one of the gang now, she's getting so big!  

Hip Hip Hooray!

A couple of weeks ago, I enjoyed watching Dakota's final dance class for her "Musical Theatre"!  She did a cheerleading routine to a song from High School Musical, and it was really cute.  Definitely more her style than ballet!  She had a fun time with it, and had her best friend Laura in her class of course!

 And totally unrelated, we went out last weekend to "the Sultan's Tent", a really cool Moroccan restaurant.  It was the first time all of my siblings had ever gone out with my parents and our spouses, and no kids!  It was a really nice experience, and we thought it was a great way to celebrate my Mom's birthday!  It was pretty neat to have them wash your hands at the table with some orange blossom water, and then bring out one course at a time of really unique food.  We were there for almost 4 hours, and were definitely full at the end!  It was a lot of fun though, we'll have to go out together more often.

This and That

I haven`t really done anything too exciting lately, but I should probably try to keep my blog up to date!  I am finally back into all my exercising after having to take time off for surgery, and it is SO nice to be back!  It`s amazing how much I miss it now when I don`t go!  Life has felt busy lately, but Lee and I have recommitted to take our kids out on their individual dates!  So I went to the mall with Dakota one night and bought ourselves an outfit and had Cinnabons (she was a sweetheart - so happy to be there with me and so grateful), and I also took Griffin out to Moxies for dinner and dessert one night.  He was very cute too, he just kept saying what a fun date it was and how much he liked to be with just me.  Here`s a picture of him with his `volcano` dessert, although you can`t really see the mist coming off the dry ice in the photo...

I really do believe it`s important to take the kids out on their own - it makes them feel so special, and I really feel like Scarlett keeps me from giving them the attention they deserve most of the time!  So sadly, it`s great to be Scarlett-free now and then!!  She`s a bit of an attention hogger! :)
We also took a trip to Cardston last weekend for a basketball tournament that Lee was in.  I didn`t really want to leave town again, but it turned out to be a really nice visit with my Grandma and Grandpa Cooper.  We always love going to their house, they are just so sweet and make us feel so loved!  My parents came too, so we were able to give their house a bit of a facelift with new curtains and rearranging photos, etc.  And it was nice to visit and talk to them and Debbie and her kids too.  The kids had lots of fun, especially playing with Grandpa - he played tennis with them in the basement, which I think is just so sweet since he`s getting so old and frail but he still wants to bond with them.  Mason sat on the bed with Grandpa for a while too as he told him War stories!  Cute.  My Grandma also bought them all new coloring books, and gave them candy and $5 each!  Talk about spoiling them!!
I watched one of Lee`s games, and it was a very exciting one that went into overtime, and they eventually won.  It was fun to watch.  He lost the other games though, but he sure enjoys playing in these tournaments.
Oh I forgot to mention the ward talent show that we just had as well that I was in charge of planning!  I was worried that it was going to be a complete failure since no one was really that eager to sign up, but it turned out really well in the end!  There were a lot of really funny acts that people did that they got off of Youtube.  Almost every act was humorous instead of serious this year, so their were lots of laughs!  I had Dakota and Mason show off their `bug eating`talents!  Everyone was amazed (or disgusted) but it went over really well!  They ate meal worms, grasshoppers and large superworms that we bought at the Pet Store. I found a really funny website on the benefits of eating bugs so I also said a bunch of the facts while they were preparing, and then at the end, I told them that I found some great recipes that had bugs in them, and that I hoped they enjoyed the chocolate chip cookies that I had set up at the door when they came in!  Everyone was freaking out and wondering if I was serious or kidding, - I actually did put bugs in the cookies, all ground up into flour, but still nasty!  I felt a little bad for some of the older adults that had eaten the cookies, but they seemed to take it pretty well! ha ha.

Easter Time

Since we were away in Edmonton most of the Easter weekend, the Easter Bunny came to our house on Easter Monday. The kids were thrilled with what they got... not a whole lot of candy, but some fun toys!  They had a fun day playing and doing crafts and then we had another Easter dinner at Grandma and Grandpa Nielsons!  Lucky us, double turkey dinners!  She also had an Easter egg hunt for them.  It was nice to play with all the cousins over there - seems like it has been a while!I don't have any pictures of their Easter outfits (courtesy of my Mom of course!).  Since we were in Edmonton, I didn't want to drag them there, so we will wear them and post pictures next Sunday in our ward!