January

It seems like all I ever talk about anymore is how busy I feel. 

 I'm looking back on what we did this month, and it was a lot of little things.

I had a birthday. I turned 39. 

My friend made that cake. Can you believe that beautiful cake wasn't bought at a store? She is a magician. 

Earlier in my life, I was the only one in our marriage who ate food off the floor of my vehicles. 

Once upon a time, when us and the Kelvingtons lived in Las Vegas and we didn't have any babies yet, I confided that sometimes when I vacuum my car, I eat stuff I find on the floor. 

Things like: rogue hot tomales. 

I remember Jim told Jamie and Andy about this thing I do, and they all made SO much fun of me. They were horrified and incredulous. 

Cut to a decade or so later...and all four of us have admitted to eating stuff off the car floor. 

This text is my favorite text.

Do you see the sleeping ninja? He is using his ninja mask to filter any flies that might land in his mouth. 

The other day Jim went biking and I went running, and I came across this scenario on the trail. 

This is on one of Jim's favorite trails - Atomic Dog - and he's never noticed it. 

Basketball has been a fun winter activity. Tomorrow is the last game. 

Even though I'm "so busy", it seems like basketball is a welcome distraction - definitely because I don't have to be in charge. I just go and sit and visit with my mom-friends. 

I've been subbing a lot this month. 

They are low on subs, so I get talked in to doing multiple days in a row, and it wipes me out. 

In one of the Time For Kids mags, we read about Banksy's art that self destructed after the buyer bought it for 1.4 million. 

A student handed me this, and I love it. It's hanging on my fridge. 

This. 

is what I've been working on that has taken all my spare bandwidth for the month: 

Young Women in Excellence slash New Beginnings.

I love the scripture. I love the message. I love the girls' talents. It was all great and successful and beautiful.

But I just don't like throwing parties. 

A few of my favorites things that we discussed: going along with how small and simple things lead to great things - we talked about monarch butterflies and how small they are and their even smaller antenna can navigate them from Canada to South America every year. So much power in such a teeny thing. 

Also chain mail. The idea of this defense is that it's not made of one giant piece of metal, but thousands of tiny little links in a chain to create such an effective way to protect one's self.

I guess it's just a poignant message to me currently because all I can handle is small and simple things. Small, small, small things. 

To Vegas, To Vegas, to Buy a Fat Pig

Home again, home again, 

jiggady jig.

I'm in such a place right now where blogging seems like an impossible task. I guess it has finally come to that. Which is super sad because writing is such a processing sesh for me, usually. 

But I am sitting here with the water up to my nose, and if I make any sort of movement, the water may rise up and over my head and I will be drowned. So, don't make any sudden movements, please.

For example, the last time I exercised was Saturday when me and Jamie did a "Gluteus Maxout" class at her gym, and my gluteus is just barely done being sore. But that was 5 days! in a row of no exercise. Unheard of for me. 

To blame: I'm subbing a lot for some dumb reason, Young Womens, sick kids. 

I need to get a grip though, because soon I'm gonna be the fat pig that we bought at the market in Vegas. (we didn't buy a pig. it's just the title of this blog post for no reason)

Anyway. What I mostly want to remember about this trip to Vegas is end when Andrew was puking. That was super fun.  

Evan loved wearing this wig a strange amount. He loved to toss the long strands over his shoulder. 

I wonder if he was being like Christopher?

haha

The kids (Evan and Damon) got along best when they were playing Nintendo. Mario Kart is so fun. 

I thought I'd be better than the kids at it. I'm not. 

#larsingtons rolling. 

Sunday morning hike.

Jim was taking his big test right about now. 

Oh! The night before Me Jamie and Andy went out to eat dinner and had Avery and Sammy babysit! We came home to Evan bleeding all over the bathroom with his 20 hundredth bloody nose. 

What do you do when you get a bloody nose? Pinch it so that the blood doesn't get everywhere? 

Not Evan. He just thrusts his chin out and bleeds and snorts blood all over everything as he grabs for some toilet paper in the bathroom. We left blood dripped all over their bathroom rugs, and garbage cans full of bright red toilet paper. 

I wiped up so many dots of blood this weekend. 

Reese got a ride on Avery's piggy back. 

Alright, to get to the meat and potatoes of it all:

In the middle of sacrament meeting Andrew started getting really droopy and fevered. I kept him with me during Sunday School, laying his head on my lap, he slept through the whole thing.

After church, Jim was all done with tests and joined us for some football and snacky things. 

I made a bed for Andrew on the floor in front of the TV with a giant bowl in case he needed to puke. He kept saying "I don't feel so good". 

Then he puked right into the bowl - good for him. 

We would pause the game, watch him puke, resume the game. 

It was such a good game, but "puking sick child on the floor with a flight home the next day" sat heavy on my shoulders. Plus Avery has major throw up anxiety lately, so this did not help. She was a bit of a basket case. 

Anyway, the football game got over, and Avery had been begging all night for us to play "Telestrations", so we played one round - taking a break in the middle to watch Andrew puke into the bowl. We just sat there paused and watching the kid puke, emptied the bowl in the toilet, then resumed our game of Telestrations. haha. 

After that we packed up all our stuff and went to Jim's hotel to sleep so that we could puke through the night not in a Kelvington bed. 

Avery stayed with Sammy, but we could tell she was tied in knots - giving herself a stomach ache about the possibility of having a stomach ache. 

Back at the hotel, poor Andrew was miserable. He would try to drink water or ibuprofen but then he would throw it up. I was so worried that he would never ever feel better. 

Then Avery called from Sammy's saying she felt sick - but she's been feeling "sick" a lot lately because she's afraid she might throw up...so how am I supposed to know if it's the real thing or not?

FYI it wasn't the real thing. Just puke anxiety.  

Then Evan got another bloody nose. I cleaned up more blood splatters from yet another bathroom. 

Avery went to sleep -nervous- at Sammy's,

Evan went to sleep with tissues beside him for night bleeding,

Andrew went to sleep with the ice bucket beside him for night puking. 

Around 12:30 he puked and it got all over the bed, but I didn't really know what to do so I laid down towels and flipped the comforter around and went back to sleep (it was mostly water). My standards of sheet dryness goes down when I'm super tired in the middle of the night. 

2:30 was the last time he threw up, thankfully.

In the morning he was so miserable with a fever. 

He kept moaning, "mommy! I don't feel so good.  How do I get rid of this?"

I was nervous to give him ibuprofen because I thought he would throw it up...but he was keeping water down, so I gave him some meds and just hoped it would stay down. At this point I was really fretting. He seemed so sick and I was just letting my mind run wild, as mothers do. 

I asked Jim to come lay with him while I went out to get some gatorade.

Me and Evan got some free breakfast and a 3 dollar gatorade, then headed back to the room. 

And then: standing at our room door fiddling with the key card, I heard the most wonderful noise coming from the other side: Andrew was telling Jim something about the Ninjagos in a happy, normal voice: 

"Daddy! Lloyd something something Sensie Wu something something spinjitzu..."

While I was away the ibuprofen kicked in and Jim turned on some ninjago netflix, and there he was standing on the bed feeling better. 

So much relief. 

He didn't puke again. Not in the airport, not on the airplane. 

Andrew is 6

We had some brownies and ice cream on Andrew's actual birthday. Jim had to work. 

Then Saturday we had little friend Ninjago party. 

This is abstract cupcake art. 

The m and ms are the ninja ties, the swords are swords. 

So Andrew is such a hoot. 

Every two seconds he is cracking us up. He is so pleasant and fun to be around. He is at a fun stage of kid hood. 

 We always go and visit Jim in the clerk's office after church. Today the 2nd Councilor was in there with him, and Andrew just went in there and pretended Jim was John and John was Jim.

(to John): Daddy when are you coming home?

(to Jim): Whatcha working on John?

One day he asked me, pensively: "Is it obvious that I'm a ninja?"

Whenever he poops, he yells "I need to wipe!"

So I go in there, and sometimes it's a false alarm and he still needs to go (and I grumble about it),

so I usually say "are you sure?"

and lately he replies "Yep, I won't let you down."

One day early in December, the kids had just got off the bus. It was pouring rain, and Avery and Evan hurried home. Andrew was taking much longer than I thought he should, so I said "where's Andrew?"

Jim stuck his head out to see, and there was Andrew, walking slowly down the street yelling to each house, "Merry Christmas!" 

in the rain! He was so wet by the time he made it home. 

He pronounces Evan "Evant" with a t at the end.

There is a boy named Shannon at his school that has some handicaps, so on the playground Shannon can get a bit rough with other kids without meaning to. Andrew is a bit afraid of the situation and usually hangs around the teachers/adults just to be safe. One day we were discussing how it is ok, Shannon just doesn't understand, but we still be nice and just avoid him. 

After a few minutes of introspection, Andrew said "if Shannon has issues, he should stay home".

lol. that one was funny to us because Andrew has never used the word "issues". He often just throws out these big vocabulary words and uses them in the correct context. 

 For Christmas he got some legos and he is really good at putting them together. During the first set he worked on, I sat near him to see if he could do it. 

After every step, he would hold it up and ask "is this correct?" except he pronounces it "collect".

so: "is this collect?"

Lately he has gotten lazy with the R sound. He used to say it perfectly well, but sometimes says it with the L sound. I correct him, and then he says it the right way - laboring the R sound. It's fun to see his mouth work so hard at the R sound. 

For his birthday he got more legos. This time instead of me sitting there and watching, I was up doing chores and exercising in the garage. Every time he needed me, he would put all his fingers in his mouth and "whistle" twooo ite! 

For hours he would whistle and I would come running. haha. 

I just love him. We all love him. I think he's extra special because it's the last of the innocent humor in our family.

2018 In Review

Every year before I do this year in review, I think "this is redundant. I'm not going to do it anymore."

But then I go through the year and see all that we did and saw, and I've decided that even though it is way redundant, I love the ritual of summarizing my year. 

I had forgotten so much of what happened in 2018.

We flew to: 

Vegas twice, 

Houston, 

San Fransisco,

St. George, 

Fallon.

We had vistors:

Sharley, G and G Larsen, the Kelvingtons.

Ran a triathlon and a trail half,

took lots of selfies with mountains. 

PS I am posting this from bed on the first day of 2019. I have spent 80% of the day in bed with a cold. I am positive I will get better quicker if I lay in bed all day. This is how I am starting the new year. 

::JANUARY::

Andrew's birthday is always the first thing we celebrate in a new year.

An upgraded room.

Vegas trip number one: Jim's yearly training while we tag along for some sun.

Basketball season.

::FEBRUARY::

Evan is baptized! 

Vegas trip number 2: to see the Knights.

::MARCH::

The trampoline life!

March is always a month of getting excited about the sun and getting outside, but we are usually put back in our place with continued rain. March pictures are always pictures of us outside randomly enjoying some sporadic sunshine. 

::APRIL::

Spring Break trip to Houston. 

Gators and cousins!

April is the month to really get stoked on spring and flowers and the end of winter. 

Yard work is SO fun in April. 

 ::May::

May is one of my very favorite months. 

Sometimes May allows for beach days.

This field trip to Western breaks my heart. 

Why does it break my heart? I don't know exactly, except that I just think about how excited Evan was for this field trip and how excited he was for his lunchable and for some reason it makes my heart break apart. 

This field trip with Avery to whale watch also swells my hearth to pieces. 

Avery loved her 4th grade year and class. 

5th grade is a bit more harsh. I wish they could stop growing at 4th grade. 

Whistler!

What you don't see is the sign that says 

"don't climb on this thingy please".

Avery's birthday on the beach. 

She is going through a rocky patch with her best friend Bea. 

5th grade, you see. 

::JUNE::

The end of preschool.

Who knew that Andrew would shape up to be the smartest kid in his kindergarten class? He is so smart and everyone's favorite. I'm not even saying that because I'm his mom. All the teachers agree. haha

San Fransisco!

First day of Summer Vacation.

The next few months of summer pictures are going to kill us all. 

Summer is the pot of gold at the end of rainbow. 

Summer Solstice. 

Padden Tri.

::JULY::

The Kelvingtons at Friday Harbor.

The Kelvingtons at war - I mean at Birch Bay fire works and high tide. 

The yellow house!

I will always remember this rainbow in 2018. It was one of my favorite moments,

as well as hiking to the top of the mountain with a whack of kids.

This day was my favorite kind of summer day - I watched the sun rise and the sun set, and everything in between.

The island! 

We explored a lot of Canada this summer. 

Kids got wore out from so much Canadian exploration. 

::AUGUST::

The month of goggles and forests and hikes. 

Camping in Rainier.

This was one of our last summer nights, beside the Starbucks fire, watching the sun go down. 

And here we go! The beginning, the end. 

::SEPTEMBER::

The Prophet comes to Seattle.

Mt. Baker without kids!

Crab Fest

Mt Shuksan

A farewell to Morgan! 

::OCTOBER::

One last Baker trip before winter. 

::November::

Thanksgiving in Fallon. 

This was a highlight of our year. Cousins are the answer.  

We took our Christmas card picture right there on Corkill Lane. 

::DECEMBER::

Basketball season starts. Andrew loves talking to Jasino's mom the whole time. 

Christmas season went by in the biggest blur. 

I blame young women's. 

Our favorite activity during the no school days after Christmas was swimming at Grandview pool.