hitting 100

So it's been a couple of weeks since I last posted and it looks as though Blogger has changed it's format (we'll see how this turns out!). 

So LAST weekend, the older boys and I got out our roller blades and had some fun playing roller hockey in our backyard.  It is fun to watch them get better at new things.

We had them do some shucking for the first corn on the cob of the season.  We are getting watermelon and all sorts of summer foods here.

Tosh has been very ill--probably the worst in his life.  I mentioned in my post two weeks ago that his asthma was very bad and they suspected pneumonia (didn't do an x-ray).  Well, he caught the stomach flu on top of that and threw up from a week ago last Wednesday until Monday morning.  I took him to the doctor (again) last Monday and wasn't surprised when he weighed over 2 pounds less than he had the week before.  They sent me for an x-ray as his lungs were "a total disaster" to quote the doctor.  Yes, it is pneumonia, and we will need to do another x-ray in a week or two.  So, Tosh did a second round of antibiotics and steroid treatments.  He is finally doing much better. 

Here are some silly shots we took of the kids playing around last Saturday night:

Tosh had taken a three hour nap on the couch, but perked up to laugh at the kids making "static hair"

This is a cute dress that Liv's 13-yr-old cousin wore to Aunt Sue's wedding reception.  With her hair in a high pony tail she looked very "60's" to me:

Liv's different faces crack me up! What a ham she can be.

So, this week was our third week of having someone sick and me feeling "stuck" at home without taking the kids out to do much of anything.  Hewitt got the stomach flu and was home from school on Tuesday and Wednesday throwing up and with a fever.   I have tried to stay busy with a couple of easy projects so I don't go too crazy in my somewhat "Groundhog Day" life (where everyday feels like I clean the house and prepare and clean up meals over and over...).  I saw this cute idea on Pinterest and thought it would be perfect for the wall on Liv's room by her bed where I don't have anything.  Liv LOVES butterflies and I was able to make these (2 sided butterflies) with paper that I had on hand.  Turned out really cute and Liv loves looking up at them while she is in bed.

So it has hit the 100s already!  All of the kids were healthy enough to swim yesterday.  Rob even got in and said that the water felt great--cool and refreshing and not too cold.  I was so happy that Tosh was able to swim several lengths of the pool and never started coughing.  This second round of meds is obviously working!

I love these cute pictures of Liv just after she got out of the pool yesterday afternoon.  Unfortunately, she got sick and threw up about 15 minutes before I was going to pick up the babysitter so Rob and I could go out to dinner last night (Liv had a bit of a fever on Thursday, but then seemed fine on Friday and all day yesterday).   She had an ok night and is keeping food down, but is super tired.  Looks like today will be week 4 of someone staying home from church sick.

Yesterday morning, my friend Alecia and I (and her hubby, Rob) did the Pat Tillman 4.2 mile run.  I had been super nervous about it all week thinking I would get the flu and not be able to do it (or have it hit me during the race--can you imagine!).  My right knee has been hurting off and on the last couple of weeks--especially when I run any hills or incline.  My time from last year was 37:01 and I had a secret hope to beat my time, and told Rob a while back that I would love to get the time of 35 min, but didn't think that would be possible this year.  Well, I tried to push myself pretty hard (the race is in Tempe around Sun Devil stadium and it is lots of uphill running).  I was really excited when I looked up my time yesterday afternoon and saw that my official time was 35:18.  I have to laugh that while I am running any race I am thinking, "Why am I doing this?  I hate this!" but then as soon as it's over I am looking forward to the next race.  Strange. 

p.s.  Alecia and I have joked all year about the fact that when I sprinted at the end of the race LAST year, I got trapped (super crowded) and sort of cut her off on accident and ended up beating her time by ONE second!  Well this year she toasted me by almost a full two minutes!  She is trying to talk me in to doing a marathon in October.  I have no desire for anything like that... maybe someday (like when all of my kids are in school all day).  We will see. 

After I got home from the race we spent the morning cleaning up and vaccuming the house.  Burke put together this aweome 'bed' of pillows and blankets (that I felt like staying in all day, but didn't).  Here is a cute pic of all of the kids testing it out:

'hoppy' easter

So it looks like I actually have two weekends to catch up on here.

This is a funny picture I took of Tosh with some huge malted milk balls in his mouth. I've gotten used to his short hair again. Boy, it is nice not to have to chase him around with a spray bottle in the morning.

Tosh's asthma has been horrible this past week. We've been doing albuterol treatments with the nebulizer and took him to the doctor on Friday to get a steroid treatment and antibiotics. I guess they listened to one part of the lung to determine pneumonia and the doc said the he sounded like that (bad) all over his lungs. He isn't contagious or anything, but what a challenge to keep him down and not running all over the place (especially when he feels fine other than a tight chest). He has thrown up from coughing so hard a couple of times... he seems to finally be doing a little better today. While I'm talking about sickness, Liv had an ear infection this week as well. Looks like one of her tubes has fallen out... I'm sure hoping she won't need them put in again!

Last Saturday after General Conference, the kids decided it was warm enough to swim (too cold for me, thanks). Here is Hewitt's first flip of the season:

This is the only shot I got with all four kids:

Liv inherited this swimming suit from her cousin--it's about the cutest thing I've ever seen:

I ran some errands by myself last Saturday (bliss) and when I came home from the store, I hardly recognized the young man that came out to help me carry in groceries... I guess that Burke was asking Tosh how he liked his hair cut while they were swimming and then requested the same! Burke hasn't had his hair buzzed since he was three years old! He got a good reaction from me :). Here is a shot of Burke at the piano (a common thing these days). He works really hard at all of the songs in the "Star Wars" book and is really getting pretty good.

Hewitt has made a couple of Power Point presentations at school this year. He came home the other day and asked if he could make one on my laptop. This has pretty much become his new obsession and what he tries to spend most of his time doing. He has created over 96 pages, some with sound and animation. He started out writing about himself and his interests and then started creating a book with characters, etc.

A big highlight of the week was having Rob's sister and her family here with us. Aunt Sue and Uncle Zach are beloved by our kids (Tosh never left Zach's side once) and we had so much fun with their twin 10-month-old boybies, August and Kiefer. They are crawling all over the place and such cuties!

I was pretty horrible about taking photos while they were here, but here is one that we took on Friday morning before they left:

Sue and I covered some canvases in paper for Liv's room (I had previously painted something on them, but the paper flowers are way cuter). This was a fun and fairly easy project thanks to Sue's instruction.

Rob and I finally got around to hanging some things in our bedroom after living here for 2 1/2 years... Thanks again to Sue and Zach for giving their input on where things should go (Sue made that cool ceramic guitar by the window for Rob last Christmas).

I took Burke with me on Saturday morning for my run. He biked next to me and we did about 4 miles or so. It was so much fun, and I'm hoping he'll want to go with me often.

That afternoon, we dyed Easter eggs and then went to Mesa to attend the wedding reception for Rob's cousin's son (Jordan Fisher). We were in and out of the Fisher's house pretty quick (not used to taking four kids to a wedding reception). We hit the dessert table and then got out of there before Liv and Tosh could start jumping on the trampoline and climbing on their jungle gym :)

Fun with eggs:

At the reception (from Rob's phone at dusk):

We had a quiet Easter. Especially for me since I stayed home from church with Tosh. Here are some shots of the kids during the egg hunt:

Tosh found the golden egg!

In addition to candy, the kids got some Nutella, swimming noodles, and the new "Muppet Movie" for Easter.

The other night Burke was talking about his upcoming birthday and told me that he wanted the Muppet Movie and an ice cream maker for his birthday. He is SO my kid!

This next photo of Hewitt with the fake grass on his head makes me laugh. I didn't even notice he had done that until I looked back on my camera!
No cute Easter picture of the four kids this year... but I did snap some of Liv looking 'fancy' before church just like she likes. It was kind of nice to prepare Easter dinner and dessert in a quiet house yesterday afternoon while Tosh was resting and everyone else was at church. I tried a new chocolate cake with a yummy frosting/filling made with cream cheese, brown sugar and whipping cream. YUMMY! My cousin Bob joined us for ham dinner with his dog Carmella, of course.

Friday, was my mom's 71st birthday. I think of her everyday, but especially with her birthday and Easter this weekend. I sure hope that they have chocolate cake in Paradise :)

This next week also marks the one year anniversary of my mom being diagnosed with cancer. I feel like I have been on some sort of emotional roller coaster this year. I have felt so many different things including grief, sorrow, gratitude, and peace. In general I haven't really felt like myself for awhile and I miss that. I was talking with Rob yesterday and was trying to put my feelings into words and it's as if my heart doesn't have room for as much happiness or joy that I can usually feel-- like there is too much sorrow in it's place or something. I know it takes time.

I am grateful for supportive friends and family members--especially Rob for his love and patience with me. I know I haven't been easy to live with. I also want to express my gratitude for the gospel message of love and peace and the wonderful promise of the resurrection. I believe that the Atonement of our Savior is real and know that things will all work out.

Happy Easter!

it's that time of year again...

Yep, it's really warming up outside and we figured it was time to shave off the curls again.

Tosh before:

And then after (we gave him an ice cream cone for doing so well during the haircut--he laughed in the mirror for most of it):

We forget how handsome he is under all that hair!

A few pictures outside to show the new (have actually had for several months) trampoline pads we finally put on:

This shadow is pretty cool:

To rewind a bit and wrap up Spring Break, we met up with some friends and had a great time at the zoo last week. We went on one of the last cool days of the season:

(did you see the cute baby bobcat sleeping in the rock?)

The kids climbing around and being, well, kids:

We also went to a few different parks, the library, and (my personal favorite) rented the new Muppet movie--loved it! We certainly stayed busy with Rob out of town. I also finally got around to reading the three "Hunger Games" books.

On Saturday we biked from our house to Tumbleweed park (about 4 miles from here) and had dinner there with some friends. Tosh went about half way on his scooter until we insisted that he climb in the bike trailer to speed things up a bit. We had a great time and are enjoying the perfect outdoor weather right now.

This next thing is totally random, but I had a funny conversation with Burke this weekend when I found his "proof" photo from third grade:

This is why I don't buy school pictures. They took these after lunch when Burke was all hot and sweaty from playing soccer. I asked if he had purposely messed up his hair and he smiled and said, "Possibly." Ha! We laughed about how it totally looks like a mug shot with the number and name at the bottom. Right?

Although I must say that I totally regret not buying Burke's first grade photo:

So cute! I love it (gosh, he seems old now--and getting tall!). Thankfully we have a couple of mini pics and a Christmas ornament he made in class with this photo on it.

Well, to get back to this week again, Hewitt did our Family Home Evening lesson all on his own. He made several footprints (took one of my shoes to make an outline) to show things we can do to "Come Unto Christ" and colored pictures that he pasted on them. He did a great job.
Liv is usually exhausted and asking to go to bed by about 7pm. She was totally *done* by the end of Hewitt's lesson on Monday and went up and got her jammies for us to put on her. She stripped down and was whining for us to put on her pajamas and take her to bed "right now." I couldn't resist taking a photo of her while the rest of us were singing our closing song, in the buff, covering her ears! What a little turkey she can be. :)She has discovered salad, and I caught her coming back for seconds after dinner last night. She helped herself as you can see. How 'bout some salad with that dressing, Livvy?:

This afternoon as I was working on this blog (cough, cough), she got into my things in the bathroom and dropped some nail polish that shattered all over the floor. Just thankful it was tile. Love my busy little girl.