Recent random happenings

My blogging, lately, has left much to be desired.  What can you do?

A quick recap of our lives lately is definitely in order.  A hodgepodge of things, really.

My littles have really turned into monkeys lately.  I often find them (one or both) doing gymnastic-like maneuvers on the couch.  That's what couches are for, right?

My mom gave me the entire set of Anne of Green Gables books for Christmas this past year.  I grew up watching the movies many, many times and loved them, but have never read the books.  What a shame, right?  I read the first book back in February and LOVED it.  Can't wait to read the rest.  Why did it take me 28 years to read them?  A shame, I know.

I also belong to a book club locally with some friends.  I hesitated to join for years because all of the book clubs I'd seen on TV were intellectual groups that sat around and discussed the symbolism of the book and characters and deep things like that.  A good friend finally convinced me that it wasn't like that at all and I attended my first meeting in the summer of 2011.  It is such a fun group and keeps me reading on a regular basis.  I have always loved to read, but kids and a busy life (kids) have kept me from reading as often as I would like to (or works as a good excuse).  My older sister and mom are avid readers as well and the 3 of us exchange books back and forth that we love.

Ben's green thumb boss at work is always sending plants home with Ben.  A month or so ago, he sent home these bulbs in a glass container.  The kids helped Ben plant them and we all watched and waited with eager anticipation.

Weeks later, these beautiful pink tulips grew.  Looking at these beautiful flowers in the dead of winter reminded me of the song "My Girl" where it sings, "I've got sunshine on a cloudy day."  These were our sunshine during cold, dreary days and I smiled every time I looked at them.

Our biggest accomplishment this winter has definitely been the cleaning and organizing of our garage.  I really shouldn't say "our" accomplishment.  Heaven knows Ben did 98% of the work.  I am really, really kicking myself that I didn't take a "before" picture of our garage.  I think I mentioned when we moved in that the previous owners left mounds and mounds of junk stacked high in the garage.  It was so overwhelming to look at and I couldn't imagine it ever being clean.

In January, Ben and I (here's my 2%) spent a few Saturday's getting rid of all their junk.  One Saturday was spent sorting through anything that was garbage- and there was a lot.  We folded down all the seats in the van and filled it floor to ceiling with garbage.  Ben hauled it off to the local dump.  Here in Seattle you have to pay to drop off junk (growing up in Idaho we did not).  Our van was very heavy and I think we paid close to $50, but it was so worth it to get rid of all the stuff.

Another Saturday, we sorted through the rest of the stuff and loaded it into the van to take the rest of it to D.I. (our church sponsored Good Will type store).  We had to take a couple of trips to get it all there. We did glean a few treasures out of their stuff- some rollerblades, helmets, a small, decorative table I hope to refinish (when I suddenly become crafty), some basketballs and other sport balls, etc.

Over the course of the next few weeks, Ben spent hours and hours in that garage organizing, and then reorganizing all of our stuff.  We have always had the dream of parking a car (or two) in the garage.  Our garage at our previous house was too small to park in- we needed every last inch for storage.  Now with a basement and a indoor storage room, we finally saw our dream become a reality, as we didn't need to put as many storage items in the garage.

And one beautiful sunny day, Ben called me down to witness the maiden voyage of the van entering a clean, spacious garage.

It was a beautiful sight.

And she fit!  What a great day!  I have looked forward to unloading kids in a dry, warmer space and avoiding rain as we unload groceries for years.  And years.  Ben's hard work has been well enjoyed.  If you see him, congratulate him on a job well done. :)

Oh, these little girls of mine never cease to make me smile.  Grandma Blakeslee gave them swimming outfits and hats last year for their birthday and recently found the swim hats and had to try them on.  They have been asking multiple times a week when it will be warm enough to go swimming.  With no concept of time, it's difficult to explain to them.

Leah then wore her hat most of the day.  She was pretty stylish as we dropped the other kids off at school.

For Valentine's Day, my parents sent the kids a super cute V-Day package in the mail.  The kids received their own bag of candy (hot dog!), a cool wash cloth and their own puzzle.  Mitch loved putting his puzzle together (with a little help).

For days, he couldn't get enough of that puzzle.  (More to come on Valentine's Day in a separate post).

Our school district does a "Mid-Winter Break" in February.  It's not my favorite thing in the world (it just delays school getting out and comes so quickly after just having had Christmas break).  We usually just stay home that week, but this year we decided to make an extended weekend trip to Tri Cities and visit Ben's family.  One of Ben's sisters had a baby in January that we were anxious to meet (and boy was she so, so sweet), and had a great time visiting with all the family that lives there.

Ben's grandparents live there.  Those 2 are amazing people and I love that my kids get to spend time with great-grandparents.  They are two of the sweetest people I know and are so good with all the great grand kids that run around their house on any given visit.

On one visit that week, Mitch wanted to show Grandpa his counting skills and counted all the way to 100 for him.  Counting to 100 is one of Mitchell's favorite things to do.  Just ask him- he will do it for anyone.

Lexi also took quite a liking to him and was checking out Grandpa's self-proclaimed big hands.

As fun as the weekend was, we had some little girls who didn't feel their best.  We thought it was just a cold.

But on Friday night, Leah was up all night complaining of an earache.  I couldn't do another sleepless night, so we decided to take both the twins in to an urgent care Saturday afternoon.

Waiting for our turn

Can you tell she doesn't feel well, at all?

I was sure it was going to be an ear infection, but turned out to be Strep instead.  The doctor decided to treat both the twins because it was pretty likely that if one had it, the other was going to get it soon and we didn't want to be coming back to the doctor again in a few days.  Bummer!

Later that night, Ben's awesome sister Bethany took Chloe and her cousin Stella out on a special "girl date."  Beth had bought tickets for the 3 of them to see the BYU Young Ambassador's sing and dance at a local high school.

Before the show with their tickets!

They got a picture with one of the performers after the show.

After the show, Aunt Bethany took them to Baskin Robbins.  Chloe came home with the BIGGEST bowl of ice cream I had ever seen.  Aunt Bethany is the BEST.  The girls had such a great time and it was a really special night for these two 8 year olds.  Thank you Beth!

We left Tri-Cities on Sunday, but were a few family members short!  Ben's parents asked if the twins could stay with them for a little while, since we were driving back through in just over a week for a wedding in Utah.  The twins were excited- but there was tears from the big kids when they found out.  "It's not fair!" they both cried.  We told them they have stayed with Nana and Papa a few times themselves when they didn't have school to worry about. 

It was a very different 10 days without those sweet girls.  We almost didn't know what to do with ourselves at home.

Ben's parents were so great to text us pictures and videos everyday.  It was quite obvious that they were having too much fun to miss any of us very much.  What a fun and special experience this was for the girls and I'm so glad they got to experience it.

They were spoiled rotten.  Papa is a grandkid's best friend.  He will do pretty much anything his grandkids ask, and always has treats and goodies to share.

One of the best things about the week was all of the cousins they got to spend time with.  Both of Ben's married sisters and their kids live there, so between Nana and Papa's constant attention and cousins to play with every day, they never had a minute to be bored.

Evie is a year older than the girls and they were the 3 musketeers all week.  So cute!

Walking to the park.

Playing at Aunt Megan's house.

Nana and Papa wore these girls clean out!

Sharing lunch!

Playing house.  Lexi was the baby.

Going to church!

Thanks Nana and Papa for one of the best weeks the twins have ever had!  They were so full of stories when we picked them up.

With the little girls gone, we decided to do some fun things with just the big kids.  I took Chloe and Mitchell to a cheap theater one night and spoiled them with popcorn and soda (which we NEVER buy at the movies). 

One night we all went out to dinner at Red Robin (the kids' favorite place), then surprised them by going to Chuck E. Cheese.  We've only been there once before and the kids loved it.  It's a crowded, hot, loud place with random, unsupervised kids running around but every few years, it's definitely doable and a treat for the kids.  We paid $20 and that gave us all 2 hours of entertainment- not bad at all.

I'm not a video game person, but I have to admit there are some fun active games that even I enjoyed.

The skeet ball game was fun for all of us.

We also loved the basketball shoot off.

The football throw game was my and Ben's favorite.  I'm not going to lie- I beat Ben in a BIG way and got the high score of the night on the machine.

At the end, we turned in our tickets for the junky prizes.  I got a fun dip and the kids got fake teeth and something else small.  We had a really fun time.

I got to take this handsome guy out on a lunch date one day.  He sure was sweet that day.  It was fun getting some one-on-one time with him.

Ben and I also met up a few times during the week for solo lunch dates on the days when Mitch was in school.  I felt weird going to meet him during the day with no small kids in tow- that just never happens.  We had a great time.

Chloe recently got her class pictures back from school.  My sweet girl in the second to top row was the only kid with her eyes closed.  But doesn't she look so cute anyway?  It didn't bother her at all, which was a great attitude to have.  A picture to remember, for sure!