Random Acts of Kindness!

 This last month we were the recipiants of some random acts of kindness.  We have had some stressers in life this last little while and what a reminder to me and more importantly to my kids that all it takes is something small to help make a difference in a persons life.  My kids were in such disbeleif that a person would do such a nice thing for us.   They in return talk insesently about doing these same types of things for others!!  

We stopped at a bakery before Liams speech therapy and a man bought the kids these cupcakes!  They were so excited!!

Barrick had a dentist appt and  we went  out to lunch afterwards.  That lovely couple in the top left paid for our food!  Such kind people.  They had left before I found out but I had taken this picture to send to Scotty and found them in it. 

The third act was by my neighbors.  They are such great people.  They are both busy and work full time and quite often have grand kids over.  I had been trying to clean up my yard for a couple of days before it snowed again.  We had leaves all over our front yard and just couldn't get it done.  I would get a pile then run out of bags, then have kids come out fighting or crying or run away.  I just could NOT finish it!!  Then I came out one morning and sure enough all of our leaves were gone. 

Such great examples to me and my kids.  I am so grateful for people like this who think of others and taught my family so much!

Stomach Flu!!

 (Do not read if you dont like to hear about throw up.)

 Most years we have one or two kids and Scotty get the stomach flu and that is it.  Not this year.  I cant complain too much because the 2 times we got it, it lasted about 24 hours and was done.  Liam and I escaped it both times!!  (KNOCK ON WOOD) 

The second time Briony and Barrick got it, it was pretty nasty.  You know when Zofran doesnt help it is pretty nasty bug.  It started with Briony and it was the kind where it is non stop!!  After her third bath and waiting for a couple of hours in the middle of the night to see if it stops and never does.  So to spare more cleaning I put her in bed with me and held her with a bowl in one hand and her in the other.

 It went on all night long, then this is what I woke up to in the morning!  Amazing, seirously how resiliant are kids!  Yes she was sleepy because who wouldnt be after throwing up all night, but so happy!!

 Then it hit Barrick!  Poor thing was at school and threw up in front of all his friends as recess:(  Seriously I felt so bad for him.  He didn't seem to care very much though.  He followed suit just like Brionys epsiode, but WOW what a difference it makes when your children can make it to a bathroom or a bowl!

 I think Briony knew exactly how he felt because she would not leave his side all day long!!  She even would grab his throw up bowl and pretend to throw up in it.  CRAZY girl!!

Swimming Lessons!

We had a month of swimming lessons in February.  This was a really successful month for Lilly and Liam they finally realized that swimming is fun.  It was a perfect month to get reacquainted with the water and they all gained a lot more confidence. 

 Barrick on the other hand loved it for the first ten minutes then spent the rest of the time shivering uncontrollably.  Eyeing us from the pool the whole lesson saying how he DID NOT LIKE THIS!!  Yes the pool is kept warm but not warm enough for this skinny little boy.  Seriously this poor kid needs some fat on his body!  So in hopes of making this month and future months of swimming lessons better we bought him a wet suit, which helped quit a bit.

So here is to getting these kids closer to being independent swimmers!

Winter fun!

 When we get family time we LOVE to take advantage of it.  Here are some of the fun things we have done over the last couple of months.

The kids LOVE bowling!!  Every free day we get they ask to go bowling.  

Here are the kids happily awaiting their turn to bowl!

Some action shots of Liam.

Barrick missing the pin he wanted.

Briony was crazy and all over the place.  She just wanted to run!

Our little Lilly Milly.  She did much better this time!

Barrick has been doing a lot of Lego's.  He has become quite obsessed.  He got some pretty awesome Lego sets for his birthday and Christmas and it has kept him very busy. 

We also decided to try out Scene 75.  We went on a slow day so we got to do everything by ourselves.

The kids loved the glow in the dark miniature golf.

The mini bowling was quit a hit!

Also a couple of fun arcade games. 

I have saved a couple of my toys when I was little to give to my kids.  Scotty was on call so I decided to pull out one of them.  My Littlest pet Shop toys were quit a hit.  They played at the table like this for almost two hours.

We have had some pretty epic light saber battles.  Along with many nights of watching the Star Wars movies. 

We also went and saw the Lego Movie.  Lots of fun times!

The Love Holiday!

 I love Valentines day, and celebrating the people that I love.  I am one blessed person to be surrounded by so many amazing, loving people.  We started out the day with pink heart pancakes, and little gifts for the kids.  The day and week was full of Valentines parties and lots of candy!

 

 Here are the twins at the church playgroup Valentines party!  Decorating cookies, lunch, and friends, what is not to love about that!

Later that night they had a ward Valentines dance.  The youth in our church watched the kids why the adults enjoyed a kid free night of dancing and food.  Of course as the night was coming to a close we brought our kids out because like I said in a previous post our kids are dancing maniacs!  Yes during that 30 minutes of dancing two out of the four had bloody noses by falling or running into people but wow can they bust a move!

It was such a fun night!  We also had a big snow storm that night and while heading home found a young teenage boy stuck in a snow bank.  Scotty stopped to help and Barrick was insistent that he help too.  Such a sweet little boy!

 Since we didn't have a night with just the two of us, the next night Scotty made a nice dinner.  He knows I LOVE when he cooks.  Food always tastes better when someone else makes it, so he planned a nice evening with food and a fun movie to watch.

 I also got these beautiful flowers from him.  Roses and Lillie's my favorite!

And who doesn't love getting mail!!  The kiddos were so excited to receive some fun Valentine's in the mail from Gma and Gpa Nelson.  Thank you, you guys are the best!  Like I said before we are so blessed to be surround by such amazing people!

Scotty's Birthday!

Scotty's Birthday came and went and it was such a fun day!  He had the day off of work so he got to choose everything we did that day.  For someone who is gone all the time and doesn't see his kids nearly as often as he wants to, he decided his ideal day was to stay in our pajamas, play Skylanders, board games, watch movies and just be at home with the kids.  So that is what we did.   

Of course that night we had a fun date planned.  We went to Red Lobster for dinner, and went and saw Monument's Men.  It was nice to get out, and Scotty loves his seafood and movies!!

It was such a great day and so nice to be able to celebrate Scotty!  He is a pretty amazing person and we are so lucky that he belongs to us!

Busy Daddy!

 Scotty has been pretty busy with work lately, and just going to get busier with two months of ICU coming up.  Even though he is gone a lot we try and keep ourselves busy too.

  One thing we try and do is go visit Scotty as often as we can.  One of the kids favorite things is go to the playground in the middle of the hospital.  It is right by the cafeteria, so we get food and go play.  

 So with a nice weekend we decided to go visit him and get our first playground day for the year!

  It had been slow at the hospital all morning, but of course the second we go out and play there was a code so Scotty had to leave, but we stayed and played for a while.

 Here are the girls going on the slides.  Briony could not get enough of this slide!!  She could have played all day!

 We also like to go see him at night when we have enough time.  The kids LOVE going to the hospital to see him.  We take dessert, play Foosball and watch tv in the residents lounge.

Of course we do some fun things on our own too!

 Dance parties are a daily affair at our house.  The KIDDOS go crazy for dancing!  I am one lucky mom, they are pretty darn fun!

 Wrestling/Karate/ battles in the basement.  Another favorite tradition is to get Chic fil a,eat it in the car, then let them climb all over the car like monkeys.  We started this when I was pregnant with Briony.  One of the few things I could eat when I was pregnant with her, and the kids love it.  We always do it on a night when Scotty is going to be late or he is on call.  An added bonus is not making dinner, and no clean up!! 

 

 

  Like I said Monkeys!!

 At least once or twice a month on the weekends the kids love to have sleepovers in the basement.  We go and rent a couple of free movies at Family Video, add popcorn and M&Ms and these kids are HAPPY!!

We are in the last stretch of residency!  It is a little unbelievable these three years are about over, but we are ready to do some more of these fun things with daddy!!

Completely unrelated just had to add a couple of pictures of this little munchkin!!  She is the funniest little thing ever!  I am so lucky to have this little buddy of mine with me all day.

 She is getting so big and makes everything better!  Everyone in our house thinks she does no wrong.  Yes she can get a little feisty sometimes, but give her a little tickle or  play monster with her and it is over.

She is fast approaching two and I look back and cannot believe how fast she has grown up.  I do not blog nearly enough about this little one, so here is a few pictures!