Last fall I was super busy and didn't end up doing Alana's birthday movie. My computer was having a hard time uploading imovie and I needed Sean's help. I decided Christmas break was the best time to do it but we ended up playing with family so much and I was still having technical difficulties. As Lizzie's birthday is coming up in April I needed to start working on her birthday movie and I didn't want to start hers until I did Alana's. I finished Alana's and now I need to get to work on Lizzie's but I thought I would update our blog before I dive into another movie project.
The second half of February was a lot of fun!
We went to lunch at the Porcupine Grill for my dad's birthday. Its a restaurant Sean would often go to with the residency when they would go on ski/interview days. He loved it a ton and everything he had there was good. We finally all went together and the food was delicious. We had a lovely lunch celebrating Dad and then we went bowling. My dad brought his bowling ball and shoes and he was in heaven!
Here's Lizzie at the bowling alley:
Mimi joined us for all the birthday festivities:
We got the porcupine dessert which was a chocolate cake ganache covered in chocolate and almonds to make the quills. It was super rich and not my favorite, but it was so cute! The other dessert we got was a bread pudding that was so good! It was like a french toast caserole.
Alana has learned that she really likes to make pudding from Mimi. She does a great job!
My sweet Oreo:
Alana earned her green belt in Karate and is now in the advanced class with Brett. She is so proud and works really hard at it!
My mom and dad are going on an Alaskan cruise in May and my mom got my dad binoculars for his birthday.
One of the kids took this picture and I love it!
This is the look he gives when he is crouched down ready for us to throw the ball:
We went to Chili's one Saturday with Mom and Dad Z and Brett and Lizzie were playing a fun game blowing bubbles in their drinks.
These are pictures Sean took at the porcupine grill, moments like these are what makes parenting worth it!
We splurged a bit, and Mom P helped with birthday money, and changed the lighting in our dining room. We had this chandelier that looked really awkward. It wasn't place where our table was and would provide light for one side, but the other side would get really dark. We had an electrician come out and remove the chandelier and put in 6 can lights instead. It is SOOO much brighter and I really love how much more open the space looks.
March was a fun month! As a primary we wanted to provide a special meeting where we talked with the 7 year olds turning 8 next year about baptism. We went over the covenants they would make as well as talked about all the logistics of how our Stake runs the baptisms. I got some good ideas from Michal and we had the meeting during the second hour of church. It turned out really nice!
One of the ideas Michal had was to buy these fun cardboard frames and print off some pictures of Jesus being baptized. I brought markers and let the kids decorate them.
I also made temple sugar cookies that were delicious! I used a recipe for the frosting that Michal also shared for a buttercream that hardens up so its not squishy when you bag them up.
After several attempts at trying to figure out a time for Sean to take these two skiing, we worked out a day and found out that kids ski free at Brighton so we only had to pay for Sean's lift ticket. They had a great time! Brett is completely independent and Alana had a great time skiing assisted with Sean. She isn't ready to try on her own yet. She got tired after two runs and so she took Sean's phone and watched a movie in the lodge while Sean and Brett went on a blue square course. They had Brett's gabb watch so Alana could call them if she needed. They all came home very happy! Lizzie missed them a lot so we made some cake batter cookie sandwiches while they were gone. Even though we bought her skis this year, she didn't end up wanting to go. I don't blame her, but maybe she will want to try next year.
March always brings super warm sunshiny days as well as snow days. The kids have thought that was so funny this year. Alana found this icicle hanging from the trampoline. She loves to be outdoors, no matter the weather!
We gave my dad this fun "Yoda best grandpa" shirt for his birthday, Alana loves to rough house and tease with him!
My best friend since 4th grade Melanie texted me one Wednesday night and asked me if I would like to go see Treasure Island with her the next night. I said of course! Not only did I want to spend time with her, I had heard the play was really good. I was able to get my blankets all delivered and the kids had decided to skip karate that night so that Brett could do his therapy at home. So it all worked out for me to go! Melanie picked me up and we drove to the theater. It was so fun to chat and catch up on life. I haven't seen her since September. The play was so well done and the special effects were incredible, but oh my goodness I had no idea how violent it would be. Melanie and I just kept staring at each other in horror after so many murders kept happening from such evil pirates. We truly had a great time!
I know I have mentioned a bit that Brett has really really been struggling this school year! His class is pretty rambuctious and disrespectful of the teacher and rules in general. It is hard for him because he really wants to learn and obey. He LOVES school and loves learning and has a really high sense of whats right and wrong, so its been hard to see the kids swearing and watching media our family doesn't accept as appropriate. Its been interesting trying to teach him how to be a good friend and accept others differences while still teaching him to stand up for what he believes in. He has come home many times because he just can't be in the classroom. We have met with the teacher and principal and have some strategies worked out for him to go to the copy room for quiet when the class is too out of control. He has a Gabb watch that his teacher is great about letting him use to contact me when he needs me. We have discussed changing schools or classes, but he is adamant that he doesn't want to change anything! His therapist has also been working with him a lot on strategies, although she agreed that he might just need to be removed from the situation. We established care with a new pediatrician and went in for a med check and well child check. The Doctor was super knowledgable and kind and he suggested we increase Brett's zoloft dosage. It has helped!! Although his class hasn't necessarily changed, he is more able to handle it and use the strategies he's learned to help him get through the overwhelming moments. He was even asking me to set up some playdates with kids other than Eli this morning, this is huge!!
Alana has also been struggling a lot the last few months. I had started to notice a stinky smell in the mud room and had noticed that when the kids came home and took their shoes off it was petty potent. I bought some shoe inserts to help with the smell, but then I realized that the source of the smell was Alana's socks. She had been wearing the same pair for weeks. She really really didn't want me to wash them because she was afraid they wouldn't feel good after, but I finally convinced her to let me hand wash them. She was wearing the same pants and shirt as well as long as she could get away with it, and I had to hurry and wash them at night while she slept so that she could wear them again the next day. Its is so exhausting. Alana was also feeling more and more sad and anxious in all kinds of situations. The pediatrician says he thinks Alana has OCD and that is why she struggles so much with her clothes. He recommended going to a treatment center specifically for OCD and anxiety to get some targeted therapy. It was surprising how nice it felt to have some sort of a label for what we have been going through. Alana has an appointment in the second week of April with the therapy admissions team. We also decided to increase he dose of zoloft a bit too and that has been really helpful. I often feel very lonely in these issues of parenting. They aren't the ordinary and I know many go through it, but its just not talked about a ton. I especially have a hard time sharing about these struggles because it feel like I am invading Brett and Alana's privacy.
Lizzie is healthy and happy and ready to turn 6! She can' t wait. Her reading skills have just exploded recently and is constantly learning and growing.
The new doctors office has murals in each room and the kids got tokens for a token machine. It was a huge hit!
Neil and Rebecca invited all the Utah Petersons over for a Saturday afternoon movie in their theater. We watched the new Disney/Pixar movie Turning Red. We got all snuggled up, got popcorn, candy, and drinks. The movie wasn't my favorite. It was just a weird story for me and I really didn't like the portrayal of the relationship between the mom and daughter. It story just wasn't consistent. It was a lot of fun to be all together though! Rebecca made us BBQ chicken sandwiches after and we all just visited and played for a few hours.
These boys were singing "We don't talk about Bruno"
My mom has been having a lot of problems with her hands lately. The arthritis has gotten really bad and she just had a surgery last Monday. Before he surgery though she was starting to feel the limitations to quilting from her arthritic hands. They decided to take the plunge into long arm quilting. They bought the machine, table, frames, and lots of accessories. Its really fun and she let us all try it out! They have a class coming up to teach them even more.
Sisterly Love:
The kids had 2 Fridays in a row off in March because of Parent Teacher Conferences and report cards. The first of those Fridays I took the kids to the zoo. Our pass expires the end of March so it was perfect timing. We watched the lions, zebras, and Monkeys. Then we rode the carousel and had lunch at the Beastro. I tried candied bacon on my sandwich and I was in love! I even got a compliment from a nice lady about how good of manners my kids had while we were eating! We met up with the Ellis family after lunch and went to the pirate ship and slide area. The kids played for awhile, then we went to see the polar bear. It was swimming laps which was super fun! After the polar bear, we hiked up the hill to head home.
Alana found a dead potato bug that had been there for awhile, it looked like a fossil so she brought it in and asked for a picture to be taken =)
For Christmas Mimi gave us tickets to see the Carnival of the Animals at Abravenel Hall. Brett had visited the symphony with school this past year, but it was a first for the girls. It was a lot of fun to get all dressed up and go listen to such superb music! We saw the Salt Lake Temple covered in scaffolding and then enjoyed a fun Harry Potter trivia game with Mimi that afternoon.
Sean wants to plant a tree in the yard. We decided to switch things up a bit to make the tree fit better and make the whole thing work a bit better. Here is the before. We have that fence up in the back because Oreo eats the woodchips and would jump into the garden boxes and dig. It made it really hard to get to the garden, but was worth it not to have a muddy dog and dead vegetables. We think he has grown up enough to not do that (cross your fingers!)
So we took the fence down, moved one garden box across the yard and moved another over to make more space in the corner. We took all the soil out of the square planter box and plan to turn that into the new sandbox. We moved the rubber edging and pulled out a ton of sod. Sean realigned sprinklers and drip systems. Next we need to level the ground, add in weed barriers, add rocks, add sand, and plant flowers and a tree.
The area in the corner will now be filled with rocks and the trampoline will go over there, then a peach tree will go in the middle of the grass on the right hand side of the picture. Sean and I spent about 6 hours working on Saturday and we still have lots to do, but it was a lot of fun to work in our own yard!
Heres the other side of the yard with the planter over there.
Our music leader brought this fun elephant for the kids to use while helping to conduct the music. Both Brett and Alana got turns.
Brett made a peanut butter oreo pie and it was delicious!
Oreo loves to help me wake up Alana:
Primary activities were a hit this past week. The boys played cookie face and the girls had a get to know you activity.
Lizzie loves to do an online reading program called Lexia, she is so obsessed with it she is already on the same level Alana is on. She plays it for hours at a time and is rapidly learning her reading skills. She likes to play at martial arts while Brett and Alana go to class.
I had a serviceman come to the house to give my sewing machine a tune up. It was soooo caked with minky fuzz and he told me that sewing minky is hell on machines and I need to have it serviced every 6 months instead of every year. I agreed with him. I have been sewing around 20 blankets each week the last few weeks and it has been a lot. The paychecks are nice, but its hard to keep up with everything!
Sean came home with pizza, flowers, and ice cream on Friday night! He is the BEST!
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