::it's all about love::

We had a fun valentine's day. The kids had their class parties and got lots of treats, and then they shared with Bubb when they got home (Bubb kinda likes candy). Then we stayed in. We cooked a heart-y dinner, exchanged valentines, and just had a lovely evening.

Our Valentine's Day in pictures...











xoxo.

::pay day::

So we made it through our first 2 weeks of our "jobs," all the way to pay day! And a happy day it was! The kids were so excited to get their money and go spend it (after their 10% to tithing, of course). We tried to explain to them that they'll get more money in another 2 weeks and they can get something bigger and better (like a Wii game or save for a 3DS or something), but it seemed to fall of deaf ears. It was burnin' a hole in their pockets already, and they'd only had it for a few minutes!
'


So here's our system...

Chloe and Port each have 10 jobs worth 10 cents each (so they can make $1/day.) If they do their job with a happy heart, they can double their money (20 cents) and possibly make $2 for they day and even possibly make $20 for the 2 weeks! Awesome, right? They really did pretty well. Bubb only has 5 jobs 'cause he's little. They didn't quite make the full $20, but they did pretty good :] Chloe bought some Poke'mon cards (it's some kind of "thing" with the kids in school) and had money left over. Port bought Mario Kart for the Wii (he had some left over Christmas money), and we split the cost with him since he wouldn't be the only one to play it :) , and he had some money left over. Bubb got a blue car that makes LOTS of noise and even drives by itself (he had some leftover Christmas money too), and had some money left over. We were big on them having money left over.

Glad to have 'em on the payroll.
:]

::lakers game::

Last Saturday, we, along with Jared and Sarah, took our tickets from Santa and went to the Lakers/Jazz game in Salt Lake.  First we went to Z-Tejas for dinner.  Oh!  It was goooood!  And there were TONS of Lakers fans in there, so that was kind of fun :]

 The game was not s'good.  The Lakers lost.  Matt and J made sure to zip up their jackets over their Lakers shirts after the loss.  That's alright, it was a fun night.  I hear their road record is turrible.  TURRIBLE!

(The only photo of the night.  Pre-game.  I was all ready to get a photo of Matt and I with the court down behind us, and realized the memory card was NOT in the camera!  My specialty.  So I was left with my phone, and one not very good picture.)

In other news...

What's new this week?  Not a whole lot with us.  We've all just been tickin' along.  The kids are good.  Parent/teacher conferences went great.  Chloe and Port are doing awesome.  Their teachers say they are super proud of them and think they're awesome.  We agree :]  Bubb gets to go to a preschool open house in a few weeks, and he's so excited about that.  He thinks it's awesome that he's going to go to preschool (I'm a little nervous about it).  And the teeny girl might be teething.  I'm not sure.  She doesn't have any teeth at all (they've all been late teethers), but she's been kind of clingy, a little warm, super drooly (which actually isn't abnormal for her), but she's been really tired and cries a lot.  I don't know, I guess she could be trying to get sick, but I think I felt a bump when I stuck my little finger in there for a quick second before she knew what I was doing.   I guess we'll see.

::sledding or bust::

Our Saturdays, sadly, are usually pretty boring.  They end up being lazy days filled with a little bit of Wii time, movies, coloring, you know, stuff like that.  Sometimes we go out to dinner, but not too often.  Last week I decided that we've had enough lazy Saturdays!  We needed to do something fun.  So I told the kids that next Saturday we would do something fun.  They wanted to know what, but I didn't know yet, so I just told them I didn't know, but something fun.  Sometime during the week, sledding was decided.

The weather was perfect!  The snow was not.

Since we have NO snow here in Perry, we thought Mantua (which is a higher elevation) would be a good bet for some sledding.  We went to the "sledding hill" up there, and it was a rock hard hill of chunks of ice.  Bad idea.  We tried it (with me on the back and the three kids on the front) and it.was.scary!  If any of us had fallen off, somebody would've gotten hurt!  The snow wasn't soft at all!  So then we told Matt he maybe oughtta pull us behind his 4 wheeler.  Well, all the fields up there were pretty much melted, and we weren't too sure about the terrain, so Grandma & Papa Snowman's backyard was where we ended up.  It was SO fun!  I rode with Chloe for a while, and Matt whipped us around the yard (he might have flung me off into the pine trees), and it was just plain fun.  The little boys were less excited about the ride.  Coop rathered to ride on the 4 wheeler with Dada, and Port liked Matt to pull him on the sled by hand.  And Ave just stayed inside with Grandma :)

It didn't go according to plan, but it was fun.




In other news...

The kids started their "jobs" this week.  Matt and I have talked on and off about doing that with them for a while (jobs and allowances).  I was never excited about it because I didn't want to feel like I couldn't do it (I know that sounds ridiculous-even as I'm typing it I realize that), I thought they were too little, and I didn't want them to have to pay for everything with their own money from then on like when I was little (when I started getting an allowance, I had to pay for everything I wanted with my own money-treats, friends birthday party presents, everything!  I just don't think that's fair or realistic.  Anyway, we came up with some age appropriate jobs, and....this week was the week.   So far it's working out pretty well.  Even Coop's makin' some money!  They're excited to get their work done (make their beds, clean up their dirty clothes, show good manners (Porter!), read, etc), and they LOVE that they can make money and even double their money.  They get paid double if they do their jobs with a happy heart and with nobody having to ask them to do it.  It's kind of fun to go over their charts with them at night before bed.  We put little stickers on them, and they get excited when we add up their money for the day.

Also...

We have parent/teacher conferences this week (today and tomorrow) for Chloe and Porter.  I love to go and hear all about how they're doing in school.  I don't love that I get to take all 4 littles with me by myself because my appointment times are before Matt gets home from work.  So that's where I'm off to in a few minutes.  Chloe's is today.  Hopefully the other kids (Bubb) are good.

One more thing...
I talked to my dad today.  We talked about different things, and he mentioned that he was going to Alaska in June with my Grandpa to go Salmon fishing.  That's one thing that comes to mind when I think of my grandpa-fishing.  I think it's precious that they're going on this trip-just the two of them.  I wish I could go to see him enjoy his trip (I have no interest in fishing of Alaska-other than Barrow, but that's a whole other story), but I'd just love to watch him fish and love it!  Dad said Grampa's always talked about going, and has never been.  He's going to be 80 this year, and he's finally going to Alaska to go fishing.  I love it.

::absent::

Dear Mrs. Barker,

Please excuse Chloe from school today as she is having eye problems.  She can't SEE herself going to school.

Thanks.

(She dialed up the pitiful-ness just for the picture)

She came into our room just before 6 this morning.  She said she had a headache.  I told her she had another hour before she had to get up for school, so sleep a little longer and maybe it'll feel better.  Seven came, she still didn't feel like getting up.  Now it was her throat.  I told her she should get up and have some cereal or at least something to drink and maybe her throat would feel better, but we needed to get up or we would be late.  "Nooooooo, Mom!  I really don't feeeeel good!!"  I decided to let her sleep a bit, and I'd take her a little late-like when I take Portie to the bus, I'd take her in to school.  Well, that never happened.  She got away with it.  I called Matt.  I told him she's having eye trouble.  We laughed about it.  

Me: (in my best mocky baby voice) "oh poor sick Chloe!!"
her: "I was sick this morning, but now that school's out, I feel better."
Me: BAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
Her:  "I DO, MOM!!"

We all need a day off once in a while, don't we?

::busy::

Sometimes...

She's too busy to get dressed after her bath.


So she plays in her nakeds.

Also,

She says "baa" when we play with her ball toys, she claps her hands, and she shakes her head no.  She's so fun.

::finally, some snow::

Monday. 6:30 pm.  

Mantua. 

Plowin' some snow.

Finally.

 

In other news...

On Sunday, we went to Springville to celebrate Mia's 2nd birthday with her and her family.  We gave her a little tu-tu and some fairy wings.  Isn't she cute?

 In more other news...

Matt went to Florida last week for work.  It was more of a reward trip than work.  He got to go see the GEM-60 launch (it's a commercial program that ATK does-not a NASA program).  He was excited to go, and was glad his bosses thought enough of him to send him.  We missed him-especially Bubb.  He's pretty attached to his Dada.  He got a little teary eyed talking to him on the phone Thursday night (the night before we went to pick him up), so we changed the subject and started talking about cookies.  We were glad to have him home.

::I have a dream::

"This new generation, however, is the most colorblind in history, and they have the unique opportunity to lead us further into the dream, and beyond; a chance to show us all how to judge people based on the content of their character and not by the color of their skin. And that will free us all."

~Oprah Winfrey

Civil rights day today. No school. No major plans. Play-doh, games, books, laundry, grocery store, etc. The tv's been on most of the day. I was a little disappointed in the history channel. I was hoping to turn it on and see some stuff about MLK Jr. today, but they're running a pawn stars marathon. What? Nothing about the Freedom Riders, Rosa Parks, a biography of MLK Jr.? So many risked and sacrificed so much, and there was no mention of it today. I'm kind of mad about that. Such an important day in our history...Pawn Stars, really?

Chloe's been learning about Harriet Tubman in school. I remember doing a book report about her when I was her age. I remember reading about the Underground Railroad and realizing what an amazing person she was, and she's been important to me ever since. Anyway, we've been talking a lot about slavery, segregation, racism, things like that. We even talked a little bit about the Civil War. Who knows how much she'll remember, it's just kind of fun to share with her and hear what she thinks about it all. I told her a little bit about The Help, and how the whites treated the blacks. Her attention span in these little discussions isn't terribly long, but my point gets across, she learns something, and my favorite part is that SHE TOTALLY GETS IT! She said that if she lived back then she would never treat somebody that way, and she said that all it is is skin, and it doesn't matter what color it is (I talk a little to Portie about it too. He agrees, but I'm not sure he quite understands the importance of it all yet). She totally gets it. Without hesitation. I love that. Proud isn't even the word.

::now what?::

I was trying to change my header photo, seeing as it's no longer Christmas, and I got this lovely little message...

Well...

That could be a problem.

I knew I was getting close.  

Time for some reconfiguring.  

Any suggestions?? 

Dang high resolution photos, files too big, I could save them at lower res, but I like high res, better quality, 4 kids, lots of photos to take, and they're all so beautiful, too many pictures, but I love pictures, lots to look at, new camera lens, have to learn how to use it, more photos to take, holidays, birthdays, parties, school, vacations, can't miss anything, want to remember every little detail, fuzzy memory paranoia... 

What? 

::Christmas rewind::

Papa Guitar came to visit us on New Year's day for his usual Christmas visit, which we love. He tries to come visit us as close to Christmas as he can, either before or after. Usually our tree and all our decorations are down by then, but we left them up a few extra days just to make it feel Christmassy a little longer. He was only here a couple of days, but he stayed with us for 2 nights, which was super fun, and the kids looooved that!

He played games with us, built some lego towers with us, played some play-doh with us, watched some football with us, and some basketball with us. We talked had a couple of dinners all together, and it was a lovely visit.



We did our little Christmas with him while he was here. We gave him some fancy glasses from Crate & Barrel. I painted the bottoms with chalkboard paint so when he entertains (which he and Gayle love to do and they do a lot) their guests can write their names on their glasses and not get them mixed up--plus I kind of like the look of the black bottom. Anyway, I hope he liked them.


He brought us lots of fun stuff too. For the kids, he brought some books and all new snow clothes(but not Avie-she got some jammies and little baby stuff)!! They got snow pants and coats.


(the little boys were so excited to wear their new coats. Too bad Papa didn't bring any snow to go with them ;) )

On Monday we had my brother and his date over for lunch with us and Dad.  His kids couldn't come, they were with thier mom.  It was kind of weird.  I don't think we've ever had him over without his kids...weird!  Just one of those things I guess (He and Suzie got divorced this past summer).  Anyway...the lunch was great.  I made.......Aunt Jeri's spaghetti!  Surprising, huh?  What can I say, it's one of my faves.  We all ate too much, played Brain Quest with Chloe and Port, talked, and said bye to Billy and Gloria about 5ish.  Dad left early Tuesday morning.  It was such a great visit.  Hopefully we can go out to see him sometime this year.

In other news...

Avie had her 9 month check up yesterday.  She's growing like crazy!  She likes to babble a lot.  She says "Mamamama" and "Dadadadadada" and also just "Mama" and "Dada" and "bababa" and "papapa" and other similar "words"  She likes to ask lots of questions.  Like she'll say "adaaah??" or "ehh"  Her inflections always sound like a question, and it's so funny!  She knows her name.  She crawls everywhere, and she's fast!  She stands up to all the furniture, and walks along it.  She can climb the stairs-all 13 of them, all by herself (we just follow her just incase she tips backwards or tries to sit down and falls).  She doesn't love her carseat.  She lilkes to eat.  She likes juice, fruits, not veggies so much.  She likes to be held facing out so she can see what's going on (but she's kind of always been that way).  She loves her brothers and sister.  She knows her brothers are a little rough, so she squeals in anticipation.  She doesn't like to be left out...if a door's shut, she wants in or she gets mad.  She's getting long little baby hair, and I love it.  I like to fluff it up after she gets out of the bath, then i dry it to the side.  She still smells so good.  I looooove her smell.  Sometimes when I'm driving in the car, I can smell her, and it's lovely.  She's such a doll, we all love her so much.

Her 9 month stats:

weight:  18lb (28th)

height:  29 3/4" (97th)

head:  44.3cm (54th-aw, no more tiny little head)

She didn't have to get any shots, which was a big relief.  I hate when they have to get shots :(  Her next appointment is her 1 year (1 year!) and she has to get 3 shots. Poor Bebe Ava.