We celebrated Easter!

We had a lesson on Monday before Easter to emphasize that Easter is about Christ, the atonement, and the resurrection. I am so grateful for my Savior! I'm grateful for the chance to do as we teach our children--Say I'm sorry and try again. What a blessing the knowledge of the Gospel is!

We decorated eggs later that night.

On Saturday before Easter, we had an Easter egg hunt in the yards of some friends. We all decided the city hunt was overcrowded and crazy and not worth the effort. We put together a hunt for our kids. They had a great time! They got quite a bit more than they would have with the city and didn't have the same madness. 

 On Sunday, the kids got their baskets. I give them simple baskets. They each had a book and a bubble set. They all got plenty of candy.

Yes, Audrey's hair always looks this awesome in the morning.

We hope you all had a wonderful Easter! What a blessing it is to be forgiven of our sins so that we can be clean and pure and live with our Savior again!

soccer

Richard is playing spring soccer. Let's just say it's a lot colder than falls soccer! He's having a great time and learning to be more assertive. He doesn't just chase the group of kids but is learning to get the ball and kick it down the field.

First time for everything

We went to Richard's soccer game last night. We had to be there 45 minutes early for pictures. Audrey, Marie, and Peter wanted to go play on the park equipment while we waited. So, I stayed with Richard, and Scott took the other kids. After about 15 minutes, I saw Audrey sobbing and coming up to me with some strange lady. The lady said she found Audrey crying and that Audrey said she couldn't find her Dad. They wandered around until Audrey found someone she knew. I was glad she knew I was at the picture location. I looked at Audrey and saw blood on her jacket and looked under her chin to find a deep gash. I left Richard with some neighbors and went to find Scott. He was just sitting there by the park where he'd always been. We think Audrey got disoriented and that's why she couldn't find him. She says she slipped off some stairs or a ladder or something like unto it and hit her chin on the way down. I brought Scott and Audrey back home so he could take her to the instacare. I went back to watch the rest of Richard's game. 

Audrey's holding the rag I had in the diaper bag. Scott said she was too upset to look at the camera.

The nurse cleaned up her chin and put some topical numbing medication on it so the shot wouldn't hurt as much. Later when the MD came in, he said a chunk of skin was missing and so he couldn't just glue it closed.

Scott said Audrey was very brave. She held very still. she had a tear come out, but she didn't full out cry. She ended up with 5 stitches.

Afterwards, Scott brought Audrey to the store to get a doughnut for her bravery. She's been very cautious with her stitches and even questions what she can do. She was worried she couldn't put a cup in the dishwasher because it might hurt her stitches. I assured her the stitches would be fine.

I'm sure this is not the last set of stitches we'll be having in our house. I'm amazed we've lasted this long.

Education

We have decided Richard spends way too much time playing video games. That's all he wants to talk about. Scott has also decided that we need to more proactively teach our children. He doesn't want us to have lazy kids that don't know how to do basic things and don't know stuff.
So, "we" are teaching them extra stuff. On Monday, we had a cooking lesson. I taught them how to measure ingredients and what the ingredients are actually for. I taught them about reading a recipe. We made a chicken marinade and peach cobbler. On Tuesday, I taught Richard how to clean a bathroom and how to make macaroni and cheese. Today, we had a lesson on fractions. Hopefully they're actually learning something. If not, then I guess we're spending good mommy/kid bonding time!

Potty Training Part Uno

I potty trained Audrey at 22 months thinking I would have her all done by the time the "baby" was born. That completely backfired once Marie and Peter were born and she struggled with accidents for months and months. I tried to potty train Richard at 2.5 and it took until he was 3.5+ before he cared. Let's just say that potty training has not been the highlight of mothering for me.
Marie and Peter are now 2.5+ years. I decided to venture into potty training again. Marie would let me know whenever she needed a diaper change. I figured she is 8 months older than Audrey was when I tried. We had spring break, and so I knew I wouldn't be going out as much (i.e. bringing kids to various activities). I put Marie in underwear, explained what was going to happen, and I hoped for the best. I had her sit on the potty for long periods of time in hopes she would accidentally do something. The first day she finally did something on the potty and not in her pants. She was a little panicked until she saw how excited we were and she realized that she was SUPPOSED to go in the potty.
The next few days were 50-75% successful. Part of the problem was we went to the park a couple of times and we went to my parents house. Both are locations where there is so much fun to be had that stopping playtime for something as menial as a potty break was no where close to the front of her mind.
However, Sunday was a great day. She even told me in church that she needed to go, and she kept her diaper dry. Monday was 100%. Yesterday was 100%!
Yea, I have another potty trained child! It took only a week! Not months. And months. And months. She even has kept her diaper dry at night about 5 of those nights. So, she might even be night trained soon as well!
Peter has shown interest in SITTING on the potty. However, he's never done anything. I'm not sure if his interest is real or if he just wants the chocolate chips I was giving Marie as a reward. I'm not excited for a repeat of Richard who would tell me he wanted to wear underwear but made zero attempt to keep himself clean. I'll put him on the potty if he asks. Otherwise, I think I'll give myself until the summer when I don't have to bring Richard and Audrey places.
So, stay tuned for "Potty Training Part Deux."
1 down, 1 to go...

New beds

My parents brought up an old set up bunk beds from their house that they no longer need. When we had the chance, we started to take apart the cribs and get the rooms ready for the new bed. Marie seemed really excited. Peter was hesitant and told me, “Daddy broke my bed!” We had moved Richard and Audrey to a twin bed when they were two, and so Marie and Peter are six months older than they were. They can both get out of their cribs now, anyway. So, keeping them confined is no longer possible.

We put together the bunk bed in a trundle bed setup. The ladder is falling apart, and there is not a quality guardrail for the top bunk. Since it can be set up trundle-style, we opted for that. Audrey will sleep on the top bed since she's not fallen out of bed for a very long time. Marie gets the bottom trundle. We moved Richard to permanently sleep on the top bunk of the bed we already had and Peter will sleep on the bottom. 

This way, we have a girl's room and a boy's room. Hopefully that will help with modesty. 

Once we got things set up, Peter seemed excited about things. I was glad. Marie and Audrey were really excited and very spazzy. In fact, all the kids seemed really excited once we got things mostly put together.

Richard seemed disappointed to be the only one who didn't get a “new” bed, but I tried to make him happy by emphasizing that he gets to permanently sleep on the top now.

Bugs

I did a bunch of yard work yesterday to clean up the dead growth from last year and prune the bushes. The kids came out to play while I was working. Marie kept throwing a FIT every time she saw a bug. She got especially upset when she saw the wimpy old potato bugs. (Do you call them potato bugs, pill bugs, or roly-polys?) We saw a ton because they were hiding under the dead leaves and branches of the perennials. She weeped and wailed like she was being stung even though she was a few feet away. She freaked out even more when she saw Richard and Audrey playing with the bugs. She finally got so upset she went inside. I don't know how to help her! I'm hoping that by not making her be by the bugs, but by not coddling her either, that she'll grow out of it. Also, hopefully seeing Richard and Audrey not being bothered will also help. We'll see.