A Day in the Life...

We've been dumped on snow-wise this January but lots of rain washed most of it away.   Micah was student of the week a few weeks ago and took the poster-making job very seriously.  She did great!  Kota lost her first two teeth just a week or two between each other.  Luckily our tooth fairy remembered this time! Three girl cousins with matching shirts.  Yay for friends!

 Tim told me about this childhood game he loved so we looked it up on Amazon and Ebay only to find out it was about $200-400 for the original version.  So... Tim had this great idea to make it out of the frame of Dakota's old bed.  He mapped it out in chalk and spent hours and hours looking up images on Google of the playing cards and information.  We spent hours creating new cards and laminating them (I knew my laminator would be useful again one day).  We spent hours making paper money and painting wooden balls and beads (because we wanted a 3-D version).  It was sort of becoming this fun family project.  One day at Tim's mom's, he mentioned our efforts and his mom said she was pretty sure they still had it up in their game closet.  I think my jaw quite literally hit the table.  Sure enough, they had it and we took it home to play.  We used the game to finish mapping out our own gameboard and finally finished a few days ago.  I al...

Today I heard completely outrageous things from a new family I'm working with.  I've heard just about everything but today sort of stole the show with the layers and layers and layers  of crap.  My intern (Adrianne) (whom I just really love) and I left after spending half the afternoon with them and she said, "Wow, you're brilliant."  And I said, at the same time, "Wow, why did social work pick me?" Goodness.  Can't people just live life, love Jesus, be kind, and stop the madness?  I'm seriously on emotional overload tonight and my mind races.  Tomorrow's Friday and the first of a four day weekend.  I'm only working some of it and rest can't come soon enough! Here's a little humor for your day. Micah: When Jesus comes back can I get a tiger for a pet? Me: Yep. Sure. Micah:  But where will he sleep? Me:  He'll have to be an outside pet. Micah:  But we don't even have a shed for him!

I don't finish most things I start.  I have innumerable ideas and start a considerable amount of projects... then lose interest or time or energy.  I do finish some  things I start, though, and am quite capable if I put my mind to it.  I have many successes in my life so obviously I'm a gifted, though lazy, being. I have lots of things I'd like to accomplish this year that I will likely fail.  I'm not being pessimistic but it's a reality that my ideas are grand and, to a degree, delusional.  While I've not been into New Year's resolutions much anyway, I have a new idea I'm trying out this year.  I'm not making specific  goals and instead living my life by a phrase, motto, creed, etc. etc.  Some people have a word of the year they live by or some accomplishment they want to reach.  I decided to live by a scripture and it came to me when I was reading in Alma.  When Alma the younger is instructing his son Helaman to carry on,...

This sums up what we're very most grateful for this year... If I did anything at all productive this year, it's because of the blessings, forgiveness, and love that comes from my Heavenly Father and the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  Here's hoping 2017 will bring my family closer to Christ and to each other.

As it seems to always go, the kiddos got sick over the Christmas holiday.  Fevers, coughs, sore throats, headaches, some vomit, chills, and the likes.  The week off school and work turned into watching about ten million movies, lots of naps, lots of baths, and lots of crying.  Well, the crying just came from Dakota.  Bless her sweet, blood-sucking soul when she's sick.  The poor thing is probably the very most emotional, demanding, and unreasonable child when she's sick.  It took literally seven minutes to get her to swallow some Tylenol.  I finally started taking pictures because the dramatics were a little comical.  But in all seriousness, it's no fun when we're all sick.  We've become lazy, unproductive, cold beings.  Hoping for summer to come sooner than later... Micah: "What if she's dead?" Me: "She's not. She's just sick." Micah: "But what if she never wakes up?" Me: "She will. But it would sure be sad if y...

Night before: "Mom, we're only gonna open our stockings before church... then do everything else after." Wake up time: 6 a.m. All presents open by: 6:07 a.m. Santa brought Micah a Hulk remote control car... she's pretty stoked... Taryn got a polaroid camera... awesome that they're back in style! Santa brought Copper two science kits and a science book, to which she was delighted.  And posed with. Santa brought Dakota a vet kit and she seriously took care of all 24 of her stuffed animals... The great big stuffed animals were a hit! Micah was delighted we got her a skeleton, even if it's not full size...  Grandpa and Grandma made their rounds of seeing the grandkids and bringing their individual gifts.  They enjoy it much more this way rather than waiting until the chaos of everyone together! Tim and Copper getting ready for church.  Tim's painting her nails!  After church we headed to Grand...