Survival Skills For Healthy Families

If you know me at all, you know that I'm a do-er.  usually do things first, then think later.  So when I saw a flyer in one of my kids' school emails about a family communication class, I signed up for it!

It was a great program.  Davis County Behavioral Health was the organization putting it on.  The class was held every Monday night for six weeks (pre-planned Family Home Evenings!) It started with a catered dinner (free food that I didn't have to cook!) Then the younger kids - so really just Quinton - stayed with some volunteers and played (playgroup!) and the rest of us went to the library and had a lesson about some form of family communication and helpulness (free training!) And it always ended with a treat. (It just keeps getting better!)

Can I just say that the girls fought me tooth and nail over it!  They were NOT interested in taking counseling courses as a family.  They were too busy, blah blah blah.  But we dragged them with us and when we were in the classes, they actually added a lot to the discussions!  Josh was like the class clown - that kid... and Bronson really soaked everything up.  He loved it. David tolerated it because he knew it was important to me and he likes learning about nearly anything.  But, it was pretty clear after the first day that maybe it wasn't the best class for us.  Our family practically taught it. I mean - not really.  And it's always good to go through a class together so that you all have the same vocabulary and references when you talk about things at home.  But even David was like, "This is kind of a waste of time." I felt like it was good for us to be together and maybe we were supposed to be there for the other families in the class.  Maybe they needed to seee what a functional family looks like, etc. I would do it again in a heartbeat!

Huge Egg Hunt

By Easter, my blood count was back on the rise.  David and I took our boys on an egg hunt put on by the Catholic church in our neighborhood.  It's INSANE!

They separate the kids up into age groups.  There's Quinton waiting for the whistle.  Can you even see how many eggs and dolls and toys and full-sized Easter baskets are out there?!?!?

 Looks like Bronson's all ready to go. By the way, we had to get them all ready for their soccer games beforehand.

Josh is in the oldest age group. It will be sad for him when he outgrows the fun things like this. Especially while his brothers still get to do them. Oh well. At least he got to do it this year.

Okay! Let's do this!

About two second later.

 About 30 seconds later. You seriously don't want to be late!

I'm not sure why Bron looks so angry in this photo.  Maybe he didn't get what he wanted.

But he seemed to be feeling better later in the day. Chairs make excellent shade!

David caught the whole one-minute ordeal on video for your viewing pleasure.

Not Our Typical General Conference Weekend

General Conference weekend is usually a special time for our family.  We let the kids do what they want on Saturday (but conference is playing on every TV and radio). On Sunday, we watch the conference together and have created some fun traditions that make it a time we all look forward to.  Not this year, however.  I was terribly weak.  I just couldn't do what needed to be done on a daily basis to keep our house running.  So instead of a nice relaxing weekend...

David ran about 15 loads of laundry that I'd gotten behind on.

He and the kids worked hard to clean the semi-neglected house.

While I watched conference on my computer in bed.  All alone.

On Sunday, David got a picture of Alison being caught up in the spirit.  Hee hee. I'm teasing - I know I had a hard time staying awake too (of course, I was dying...) I think David has similar pictures of Alison from previous conferences.  See what I mean? We've got traditions... :)

Nicki Turns 14!

What would life be like without my Nicky girl?  She is smart, talented, beautiful, fun, responsible, hilarious, and let's be honest - sometimes a gigantic pain in the butt. But my favorite thing about Nicole is that she is so compassionate towards others. She treats others with kindness and respect and makes people feel welcome, wanted and important. She is a happiness-maker. Our world needs more Nicoles out there. 

As far as birthdays go, hers was kind of a dud.  I was at about my low point in terms of my blood count.  I had zero energy. In typical Nicole fashion, she was super cool about the fact that I wasn't the best mom.  She is so good to me!

For dinner, she chose to have David make his amazing hamburgers, a green salad, and sushi.  Doesn't get much better than that!!

She got some presents, I guess.  I hardly remember.  But it looks like she got an awesome throw blanket for her room, and a bottle of water (spared no expense). I can't remember what else she got.

She requested that I make a smiley face cake like I did when she was younger. I accidentally got the wrong size of peppermint patties for the sunglasses.  Nicky said it was fine, and offered to decorate it herself. 

Would you look at how beautiful this girl is?!?!?

Make a wish!

No! Do not pinch the candles with your fingers!  (she did, by the way)  Oh well. I guess it's her party and she'll cry if she wants to. 

Need a Lawyer? Call The Lawyer Dude.

I think I mentioned earlier that Bronson had to learn about a profession so he found out all about being a prosecuting attorney from our neighbor.  Well, on March 28th, the second grade taught us all about the things they'd learned.  Josh did it when he was in second grade. (He was a sheep dog trainer for his profession.)  I think it's really impressive how much work they put into this.  First of all, they do it for their schoolmates during the day.  Then in the evening, families are invited to attend.

When you arrive, the hallways of the entire school are lined with children in different professions.  Each child is dressed appropriately for their profession. They have posters explaining what they do, a full 10 page report they'd been working on, a pop up book, and a 3-D art project. The children are supposed to answer any questions people may have about their line of work.

As you can see, Bronson makes a pretty slick lawyer!

His 3-D art project was a lego replica of a courtroom.

After about 45 minutes of mingling with the students, they took their places on stage and we found some chairs for a program about the many occupations available to us all and how helpful they are! There were super cute songs in both Spanish and English, dances, and many of the kids had little speaking parts.  I loved it.  By the way, the little girl in the front row in the red and white shirt with headphones (she was a DJ) is our next door neighbor, Finleigh. Her dad is the one who Bronson interviewed.

Gotta love that picture of Bronson!  Fun fact: Bronson was sick that day.  He was running a slight fever.  But this was the biggest day of second grade!  He'd been working so hard for so long and he was so excited for it to come!  So, what could we do but give him some Tylenol and let him push through?

When it was all over, we celebrated at Dairy Queen. Then we dosed him up and put him to bed.

St. Patty's Day 2019

Let's just cut to the chase and talk about the food, okay?

St. Patrick's Day fell on a Sunday this year, so I was able to put on TWO festive spreads. For lunch, we had green mac & cheese, green grapes, spinach and avocado mozzarella melts, and a green salad.

 It looks like I assigned Nicole to make a delicious shamrock pie.

Dinner was glorious! That's "dilly bread" with green food coloring in it, green mashed potatoes, some sort of green beverage, and asparagus.  And that's not even all of it!!

There's my famous fruit rainbow!!! Oh how we all love it! And broccoli.  Ooh, and corned beef and cabbage!

And here's Nicky's pie. Yum!