Weird Day

I don't know what it is about today but it's been awful so far.  We woke up late, got all ready for school, daycare and work, opened the door and noticed it was a blizzard.  After sliding to school, dropping off day care, I headed to work to teach my morning class which was fine but I still am not used to driving in snow. By the time I got out of class and had to head home to wait a few hours, gather materials for the next class which is at the end of the day and eat...the snow had dropped four inches on my car.  I cleaned it off and drove home at 10 miles per hour taking me much longer than usual.  Upon arriving home, I was texted that Miles had thrown up at day care, so I went to pick up the kids while making a million phone calls to find out how to cancel my afternoon class.

Canceling is highly discouraged (though I'm sure no student would care) so someone offered to cover it, thankfully since I know I couldn't make it back down with the roads not even plowed yet and a sick kid at home.  I need a plan B for when the kids are sick and I have to go to work anyway.

So as I was leaving daycare holding the hand of my sick three year old who was holding his puke bucket, following my five year old complaining of how hungry she was for lunch, and I was holding the one year old baby, I slipped down the stairs full of snow and landed on my back on the front walkway, knocking over the two kids in front of me, clinging to Louis who didn't get scratched but cried his head off from the scare, and I landed on my left elbow and back with my full weight.  Immediately I worried about being 7 months pregnant and hurting the baby by falling.  We made it to the car and then slipped and slid home to get in our PJ's at 1:00.

I found a ride home for Carter from school so I wouldn't have to leave sick kids or drive in the snow any more today.  I'm so thankful for helpful people.  I like to be the one to help usually but I've been finding out the past few months that I'm the one with four kids, and one on the way that needs the help these days.

I'm sitting here now with a hugely swollen and cut left elbow, a sore back, a headache, and aching body almost like an aftershock of a car accident.  There were a few contractions but they've stopped.

I feel so bad about missing my afternoon class.  It's a new job and I want to make a good impression but I honestly didn't know how it could happen today.  Sigh.  Two more hours till Doug comes home and I can take a hot bath, and just rest.  Looks like cereal for dinner, cause I'm not planning to move!

Funny Things I've Heard Lately...

Michelle:  "Now that we are back to school, we are not going to be going to friends' houses every day to play.  We have things to do...chores, homework..."
Carter:  "Yeah,  I only go to a friends house every week like once or... nunce"

Doug:  "Come on guys!  We don't put cookies in the toilet!"

Doug:  "I'm proud of you Miles, you are getting so old!  You're such a big boy for going to sunbeams...get your finger out of your nose while I'm talking to you!"

Doug:  "Haleigh, For the fifth time, I would like you to go to your room right now and clean it up!"  Haleigh:  "Hmmm..(while rubbing her chin thoughtfully)....  That IS interesting.

New Year's Eve

To our delight, Doug had planned a special Family Outing for New Years.  I had been stressing out with planning all I needed to for my new job and so to help me unwind, and to have some family fun, he whisked us to Salt Lake City to the Marriot Downtown.  We arrived New Years Eve Day and got settled in.  For two dollars more, they have valet parking, a bell hop and we were overall really impressed with the hotel and service.  A ton of people were there to hit the nearby ski slopes.  

We spent the day exploring the hotel, swimming in the indoor pool, sitting in the huge indoor hot tub and the boys hit the sauna.  The kids had so much fun and I got to sit with a huge pile of magazines and snacks and put my feet up.  It happened to be one of the coldest days of the year, about 5 degrees and we were in swim suits having a ball!  Outside our city window was a perfect view of the city party with snowboarders who showed off their skills for over 5 hours.  We set up some games near the window and kept our eye on our favorite boarders.  I think some of them were kids!  

I was in charge of ordering the pizza for dinner and told the nearby pizzeria to send the "biggest size pepperoni" thinking it would be what was a normal size large.  You can tell there's a college nearby because they sent over the hugest pizza I've ever seen.  The six of us couldn't even eat a fourth of it.  It had a diameter of over three feet.  Doug wasn't to happy with that mistake.  

We also faced the cities fireworks show right outside our window but by then the kids were sound asleep.  Doug and I managed to stay awake till midnight to welcome the new year in warmth.  

We had a wonderful time and I hope we do it again.  Maybe it can be our new New Years Tradition!  Thanks, Doug!

Museum Exhibit

There is an art exhibit at BYU with portraits and depictions of Christ painted by Carl Bloch (1834-1890), a Danish artist that is often used in some of our church's magazines and books.  Doug got us tickets and we got all dressed up for a day at the Museum of Art.  The kids were given I-Pads with earphones with a self-guided tour which they thought was very fancy.  Each painting, especially the altar pieces were large scale.  About 10 feet high and quite wide.  It was impressive.  

Here is our artistic interpretation of the exhibit with our favorite pieces:

Miles's favorite was Manger Scene "because that's baby Jesus."  

Haleigh's favorite was Gethsamane "because it's very beautiful and pretty."

Carter's favorite was Christ and Child "because it reminds me of Jesus and kids." 

Doug's favorite was "Down from the Cross because the use of light.  It had a lantern right in the middle and it illuminated it just right.  There was also a reverence and respect to the way they took him down.  You could see the nails and the crown of thorns also.  I had never considered how that would look like in my mind before."

My favorite was Mary and Elisabeth because of the happy tone of the phase 

I'm currently in...with child. :)

Other one's we really liked were:

Cleansing the Temple

Sermon on the Mount

Teaching in the Temple

Christ and the Children

We learned that Carl Bloch uses oil on copper plates a lot as his medium.  That his pieces are on display in museums and churches around the world.  He often sketched first, then painted.  He was commissioned to paint 24 pieces for a castle which in the 1900's had a terrible fire, but his work was untouched.  We loved the castle tour pictures depicting scenes from Christ's life.  We were impressed and felt honored to see the exhibit.  Of course, the kids reminded us on the way out that they still were kids as they begged us to buy them the pencil sharpener from the gift shop shaped like a nose with nostril  sharpener holes.  

Jesus Wants Me For a Sunbeam

My little man, Miles, has finally reached the ripe age of 3 and is able to leave nursery at church and go to Primary with the big kids.  He was very excited about it, although you can't tell from these pictures.  He got a new bag for his scriptures.  I love how he snuck in Buzz, which fell on the floor for these pics.  He was the only kid not screaming and crying and did a great job.  He kept looking at the other kids like, "What's your problem?  This is fun!"   His class sits in front of Haleigh's class, which helped him to not be too nervous.  He even got to make a sword on his first day that said, "I am a child of God."  which he has proudly played with for days.  

Carter's Blog

After begging me for days, I gave in and helped Carter start a blog of his own.  He's anxious for comments if you have the time. Check it out at http://carterinthedell.blogspot.com

Chocolate Tasting in the Classroom

Before the break began, I was a guest reader in Carter's classroom on the last day of school.  I choose to read the new Christmas book by David Shannon and showed a picture of when I met him last summer.  Then we did an experiment with the varying degrees of cacao in chocolate.  The kids got a quick lesson on percentages and then we did a chocolate tasting with the different kinds of chocolate.  There were a few who liked the darker chocolate (70%) but it was agreed collectively that 90% was GROSS!  Kids were racing to the water fountain.  One weird fact is that no where is it revealed how much cacao is in a hershey's kiss.  We predicted due to taste and the research we did find that it has between 30-35% of cacao.  

Christmas Break Fun

Some things we did to pass the time over Christmas break were:  a ton of christmas movies; the favorite this season was Home Alone 2 and Prep and Landing.  We visited a nearby castle park where the kids played until we were too frozen to move and then went out for an ice cream cone.  Ice cream in cold weather is the best.   No melting!

The kids also played with all their Christmas loot.  Carter built his lego in a record two days and Haleigh learned how to cross stitch.  There was more snow and we thought it was cool when our front door and stairs got blocked one day.  The kids decided to try to shovel snow one day and decided that it is really hard work!  Carter offered to donate his savings towards a four wheeler with a plow.  I told him I'd keep that in mind for next year, maybe.  

We had lots of cookies and treats and stayed in our pj's for days at a time.  Now that's what I call a vacation!