March Madness

Alien eyes

Christian's volcano

This month has been crazy! And not with basketball. Well, a little with basketball. Scott has been working about 70 hours a week lately (tax season) and then he has school on top of that. We rarely see him. But he did take Wednesdays off so I could go to YW. Camp has overrun my life. We had about 5 or 6 meetings this month along with all the other YW meetings I've been "invited to attend" (aka if you want to fulfill your calling you'll show up). I'm also in 3 book clubs again and heading up two of them so that's been busy. I started volunteering at the school also as it's almost the end of the year and I still have half my hours to get.

Alyssa has been enjoying piano, Activity Days and book club with mom. She's become my right hand as I have no husband around and I don't know what I'd do without her. Christian had basketball and soccer this month for a total of 4 games a week and a practice. Amber's getting really excited for her dance recital. I was worried when I started watching the practices, but the whole class has come a long way and it's going to be so cute. I've been taking Alivia to story time which she just loves. We take my nephew, Jacob, who always livens things up. She copies Amber a lot. Last night Amber was mad at me and said, I hate my mom. A couple minutes later Alivia whispers the same thing from her crib. It was funny. But I told Amber she doesn't get to say that anymore. I fill the rest of my time is cleaning up after Soran. She's hit the stage where she pulls everything out of the cupboards and opens all the bottles. She is pretty small still and I just love to squish her and kiss her cheeks.

My two older kids had a week off school this month because there was not enough money in the budget so the teachers took a voluntary unpaid leave. And of course they weren't going to work for free, so I got to have my kids home with me. Christian drove me crazy enough the first day that I had to come up with some stuff to do. So we decided to do some science experiments. We made a volcano, a chemical pie, playdough and went to a fun park with lots of things to try out (concave dishes you whisper into, a xylophone type instrument, different types of rocks, etc.). It was nice to have some time with them.

When tax season ends we are taking a break. Two more weeks!

I DO believe in fairies

All the pretty little fairies

Fairy Princess Amber

Mother of the fairy

Amber showing her friends how to use their best fairy etiquette.

I was at the library a few weeks ago and saw an advertisement for a Fairy Tea Party. I thought that sounded like a lot of fun for all my girls, but knew Amber would love it most. A couple days later I was trying to figure out what to do for her birthday. It took me awhile, but I finally put two and two together and we did a fairy birthday party. Everyone came over for dinner and birthday cake I decorated with pastel sugar sprinkles (fairy dust) and then we went over for the tea party. The ballroom was all decorated with lights and trees. We went to our table and the fairy king arrived to greet us and then some ballerinas danced. The girls got a lesson in etiquette--use your napkins and take small bites. They ate their fairy feast and then they got to go up on stage and pirouette and curtsy to the king. Amber got to go up and talk to him and he said he loved her freckles.

Overall, it was really cute and I think they had a good time. Although I think some of the ladies throwing it were a little too into the fairy thing (you wouldn't believe some of the costumes--and accents!). I think I'll take Livi once and we'll call it good.

Happy Birthday, Amber!

Amber holding the Easter bunny.

Craaaaazy hair!

3rd birthday. So cute!

Wha's up, bro?

Tomorrow is my Amber's 6th birthday. I can't believe it. Of all my children, I really feel that her life is the one slipping through my fingers. She was born in Bullhead at about 8:30 p.m. She came out with so much red hair--we were shocked. And she was such a calm baby. The nurses ran out of the room after she was born to take care of another delivery and left her under the lights naked and dirty for about 45 minutes. She just laid there and looked around. She hardly even cried.

She is such a joy to our family. She is my most social kid and loves to be with friends. She is probably also the most girly, although that may be tough to tell. She lived in her princess dressup clothes for a couple years. People actually mentioned that they wondered if she had any real clothes. I hope the next few years will slow down so I can enjoy them a little more. I love you, Bubba!