Daily Reflections

Well, as of today our house is officially in Escrow! A lot has developed over the last few days. The last time I wrote we were still considering the yellow house.  Well, as it turns out, the owners didn't like the offer that we made!  They were being quite ridiculous.  The good news is, after exhausting all of our options (not many homes are for sale in Antelope Acres) we found another dream home!  Even better news is that it is practically move-in ready.  It needs a little help with the flooring, but aside from that it is picture perfect.  It's a dream home!  The front already has a circular driveway and mature trees!  It sits on a 2.5 acre lot.  It comes with a 1800 square foot shed!  The house is bright and beautiful and full of light.  The windows are my favorite part about the home.  It was built in 1991, so it's a bit dated, but it has been taken care of very well.  Over time it will need to be updated but i...

Again, I didn't take many pictures today. It has been so freezing here!  I can hardly wait for the weather to start warming up.  It even snowed off an on all day today!  Pretty much unheard of here in typically sunny southern California. I volunteered at the elementary school today.  I managed to make it through without making too much of a fool out of myself.  Honestly, I sometimes dread volunteering because I don't know what will be thrown at me.  I'm not prepared to help with every problem...it stresses me out. After school, the kids ate bananas with yogurt (a favorite of theirs).  They usually have granola on top as well but we ran out of granola. Picking up Bryce from tutoring today in the freezing cold! I'm so exhausted.  All I want to do is curl up in a ball under a blanket and go to sleep!  I am so glad that tomorrow is Friday!

I didn't take any pictures today.  So while I was folding laundry I asked William and Lizzie to come over and get a few pictures taken so that I had something to document for today.  Lizzie is such a wonderful big sister to William.  They adore each other and I love watching their relationship thrive.  I think William is always going to be a squishy baby.  I can't even imagine him any other way.  I know that he will grow up eventually...but for now I am so enjoying him being our little squishy "baby". Not much happened today, thankfully.  While Caitlyn was in preschool this morning Miah and Emily (her Mom, my friend) came over and we chatted for about an hour and a half.  It's always good to have some girl talk in the middle of the day. Bryce had math tutoring after school.  Have I mentioned that he is going to tutoring now on Wednesday's and Thursday's after school?  He seems to enjoy it.  I hope that it helps hi...

After dropping off the kids at school, I dropped the younger two off at Sarah's house.  She watched them while I went to the Dentist to get my tooth fixed.  I needed a cap replaced.  The kids had so much fun being babysat that it was a struggle getting them back in the car afterwards. Caitlyn really loves this toy that Lizzie has.  I can't remember the name of it right now, but it is a toy that includes a variety of outfits to trace and design.  She really spends a long time designing and coloring these outfits.  It's something that she genuinely enjoys...I wonder what her future will hold as far as a career is concerned?  Caitlyn has always  been drawn to the aesthetically pleasing activities. Bryce had pack meeting tonight.  I dread taking all five kids to these pack meetings if Jon is working (as he was tonight).  So I just took Bryce and William and left the other ones at home.  I figure that Lizzie is old enough to...

Today was President's Day, which meant that there was no work or school! I ran 6 miles at the gym this morning...felt pretty tired still.  I guess I hadn't fully recovered from the run on Saturday. We went out to breakfast this morning. Lizzie brought her notebook where she is writing yet another story in.  Her current story is a two-part story about a blind boy who wants to be a basketball player and a deaf girl who wants to be a dancer.  I can hardly wait to read it.  Lizzie is a writer at heart...she always has creative ideas streaming in her mind.  I love that about her. Mason was grumpy and sad this morning.  He couldn't make up his mind about what he wanted to order so Daddy chose for him.  He wasn't too happy about that.  We just let him have his tantrum.  First world problems. The food was delicious!  We gobbled it all up.  Personally, I think mine was the best dish of all.  I order...

I feel like I have failed this blog over the past few weeks.  I have missed so many days.  Life has just been so overwhelmingly insanely busy that not only have I not had time to blog, but I have barely taken any photos at all. Friday was a long day.  Bryce stayed home from school because he puked on Thursday at school and the school nurse told me to keep him home another day.  I really needed to go shopping and run some errands but I was trapped at home.  I had volunteered to bake some potatoes for a wedding reception that evening.  I also volunteered to help out in the kitchen for that reception.  A couple in our ward were sealed in the temple and were in charge of their own reception (they had no family who were able to help).  It was a very chaotic evening, but it was somehow pulled together. There was a mishap with the chicken, however, and there ended up being pounds of raw chicken thawing out in the church kitchen sink all day....

I didn't do as much as I usually do for Valentine's Day with the kids.  I usually get them little trinkets...which I didn't do.  I did make them the traditional heart-shaped rice krispy treats.  I was planning on making heart-shaped pancakes...but I started making them a little later than normal and I was running out of time.  So they got normal pancakes with sprinkles and ate them on heart-shaped plates.  It worked and it was good enough for them. I volunteered at the Elementary School today.  It was nice.  The kids were all hyper because of the Valentine's Day shenanigans. For lunch today, William decided to use the straw from his Juice Box to skewer his apples and peanut butter sandwich.  He was so happy about this! After lunch, I received 2 phone calls from the school.  The first one was informing that there was a river on the streets adjacent to the school so the kids were not allowed to cross the street. I...