Weekly Letter -- 2/13/12-2/26/12

This is going to be a two-weeker since I failed to write a letter last week.  The week of the 13th was a busy one, as predicted.

Lyla had her 4 month check-up on Monday the 13th.  Her weight is in the 25th percentile and her height the 89th.  She got shots and of course was quite upset.  We did grab some Chick-Fil-A for lunch on the way there.  It had been too long since I'd had my nugget fix.  After the doctor, I decided to go to WinCo.  I'd never been and had heard great things about it.  Lyla started crying not long after we got there so I had to hold her for most of the time while pulling the cart.  Kate wanted to run around like crazy, so I had quite the time trying to keep her close.  It was not a fun trip but I did get some really good deals on food.

On Tuesday morning I got to go to Ada's class to help with the Valentine's Day party.  I was in charge of a snack and, with the help of another mother, decided to do something different than the traditional sugar cookie decorating (especially since I wasn't allowed to bring homemade stuff).  It didn't have anything to do with V-Day, but I cut up pieces of string cheese and got grapes and let them make their own kabobs on toothpicks.  I think they mostly had fun, though I was surprised at how many kids didn't like cheese!  We don't like trying to fight crowds on Valentine's Day so I made a nice dinner at home.  It took quite a while and made my day pretty stressful, especially since we were also taking dinner to a neighbor.  We ate manicotti, heart-shaped breadsticks, and salad.  For dessert we ate chocolate fondue with Rice Krispies Treats, cake balls (leftover from the week before), and strawberries for dipping.  The kids had fun with that, and Kate made a huge mess!  Tyler and I just gave each other cards and that was about it.  Not really how I envisioned the day to be, but it was fun nonetheless.

I hosted book club on Thursday and made berry sorbet with cookie cups to put it in.  It was delicious, but I struggled with the cookie cups.  The recipe said to bake the cookies on wax paper and then quickly take them off to shape them before they hardened.  It did not work.  I could not get them off the wax paper, so I tried spraying the paper and still had the same problem.  They were ruined.  Amazingly, Tyler then walked in the door, unprecedentedly arriving home early from work.  He jumped on the 'net while I whipped up a new batch of cookies.  We tried these ones on parchment paper and it worked like a charm!  I didn't have time to dip them in chocolate like I had wanted, but I was just happy to have something to serve the sorbet in.  It was lots of fun hanging out with my friends.  I love book club.

On Friday we left for Southern Utah for the weekend.  Tyler's family goes down every President's Day weekend to stay in a house in La Verkin that his grandpa owns.  We had a fun weekend filled with swimming, eating, games, relaxing, hiking, and playing at an indoor trampoline place.  The kids had lots of fun with their cousins.  Lyla had a few bad moments in the car on the way there and back and she ended up in my bed a lot at night since she kept waking up, but otherwise did pretty well.  Kate peed her pants twice; the second time, unfortunately, was on her cousins' bed and it wasn't discovered until they were ready to hit the sack.  Kate always keeps things interesting!

This past Thursday we went to dinner at Rodizio Grill with Tyler's parents since we had a gift card that was about to expire.  Kate didn't eat much besides the fresh pineapple but Ada ate a ton!  I was impressed.  After dinner we went to the Utah basketball game and saw the Utes fall to Cal.  Tyler took Ada and Kate to the game on Saturday night where they beat Stanford in a thriller.  He was glad to see them end the season on a winning note.

Nothing too exciting happened last week, so I'll do a quick recap on the kids:

Ada started bringing home little books from school to practice reading.  Her teacher determined that she is on Level D (whatever that means).  I have been genuinely impressed with Ada's reading skills!  She blew me away with her first book.  These books have many more words (and many unfamiliar ones) than the ones for her homework.  She does so well with sounding out the words and figuring them out all by herself, especially since most of them aren't necessarily spelled how they sound.  I also finished reading Ramona the Pest to her and she loved it, so we started Ramona and her Father and she's been listening to Ramona the Brave at night on CD.  It's been fun to remember these books that were such a big part of my childhood.

Kate got an invitation to her first friend birthday party by herself.  It's not until March 5, but she is so excited.  Every day she thinks she's missing it, so we had to make her a calendar so she can get an idea of how many days she has to wait.  Other than that excitement, she has just been Kate, always making us laugh but also wanting to pull our hair out.  She was very excited to see Jimmer at the BYU game that I was watching yesterday.  She cracks me up.

Lyla has been a bit fussy the last few days.  Well, she's always fussy (when she's not smiling), but has been upset when I try and feed her.  I don't know what's wrong but I feel bad for her.  She's been waking up more than normal at night too.  I don't think it's an ear infection, so I'm not sure what to think.  She is just the sweetest thing though.  I just adore her.

This week should be another good one since Tyler, Lyla, and I will be going to Houston.  I can't wait to get away!

Weekly Letter -- 2/6/12-2/12/12

This week, overall, hasn't been too bad.  After a meltdown on Tuesday night, my attitude has been a bit better and I've been working on showing more patience with the kids.  I think I've just resigned myself to the fact that three kids are hard and will be for a while.

The week didn't start out too great.  As Tyler was leaving work on Monday, he discovered that his car had been broken into.  A window had been broken and his stereo was gone.  He had been listening to a book on CD from the library and one of the discs was unfortunately in the player.  The window has been fixed and he purchased a phone mount for his car so he can listen to music sans CD's (since he won't be replacing his stereo).  He was pretty upset that night, so the girls and I went to Grandma Dickson's birthday party without him.  We enjoyed a delicious spaghetti dinner courtesy of Lee.  I was shocked that Kate ate three servings!  Granny (as she insists that her great-grandchildren call her) got gifts for the little kids and they loved them.  It was a good night.

After school on Tuesday, we went to hang out with Emily, Sally, and Austin before they flew back to Kansas.  Emily made some tasty tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for lunch and the kids had fun hanging out.  We didn't get to hang out for too long, but it was fun to have them in town for the week.  Hopefully we can make their stay more exciting when they come next.

Nothing special happened the next few days, except that we got a fun surprise on our doorstep on Wednesday night.  The Young Women in the ward left us some sugar cookies and hearts.  It made the girls (and, quite frankly, me) happy.

Ada's school had an event on Thursday called Dads, Donuts, and Drums.  Tyler took Ada (and Lyla) that evening so that Kate and I could have a little one-on-one time.  I let her pick any treat she wanted and she picked doughnuts!  We went to Dick's since there aren't any doughnut shops in the Bountiful area.  I hope she had fun with her Lyla-less mom!

Speaking of doughnuts, Tyler decided to pick some up for breakfast on Saturday.  I ate two in the morning and two that afternoon.  Yowsa.  Let's just say that I've been doing a terrible job on the healthy lifestyles challenge.  I got a good nap in that day.  I hope that Lyla starts sleeping through the night again soon!  We went to look for carpet for the toy room that evening.  It's almost done!  Tyler had previously looked at Lowe's and we decided to go down to R.C. Willey.  By the time we got out of the house it was dinner time, so we just stopped at the IHOP close by.  The service was poor and the food just okay.  I don't know why we keep going to places like that!  I seriously felt ill afterward and I didn't even eat much (this may or may not have had something to do with the fact that I ate four doughnuts earlier).  I guess you can't always eat where you want to when you have kids.  We had no luck at R.C. Willey so we went to Lowe's and picked out our carpet.  It will probably still be a few weeks before it's installed, but it's nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  I had no idea how much work it would be to get that toy room finished!  Tyler and I watched 'True Grit' after the kids went to bed.  It was an interesting show.  Tyler thought it was stupid.  I liked it, though I do somewhat agree with his assessment.

Kate has been sick the last few days so she stayed home from church today.  I have felt like I'm on the verge of illness all week, but I think I'm going to escape unscathed.  Since Kate was sick, we stayed home from Sunday dinner.  I was thinking about making chicken noodle soup and rolls for dinner but Dude called and offered to drop dinner off to us since Korrin was cooking for the rest of the family.  What do you know--she made chicken noodle soup and rolls!  We are very rarely home on Sunday nights but it was fun to spend time together.  We helped Kate make a Valentine "box" for her  preschool party tomorrow (if she's well enough to go).  She decorated a bucket and we attached a floating balloon to the top so it looks like a hot air balloon.  It was all Tyler's creative idea!  Then we decided to make sugar cookies.  I make them every year for Valentine's Day, but it was nice to have Tyler around to help this time.  He rolled the dough and the kids helped cut out the shapes.  Most of the cookies were heart-shaped but Tyler made sure to add a few angels and stars, just because he's Tyler. 

We have a lot going on this week so it should be a good one.  It's always nice to have stuff to look forward to.  Hasta la vista, ya'll!

Family Letter -- 1/30/12-2/5/12

Last week really wasn't much better than the week before.  I'm still struggling with lack of sleep and dealing with naughty girls.  The Petersons came into town on Tuesday, so that was something to look forward to.  Tyler and I won the healthy lifestyles contest for January (we tied), but as soon as February hit I really let myself go.  I pigged out on sweets for three days in a row and only exercised once.  Sometimes you just need some sweets to help you feel better!  On Wednesday night, Lyla and I met the Petersons and Dicksons (the Dudes) at Letherby's.  Tyler and I had both decided that we would eat sweets that day.  I had been eating them all day and he forgot to, so he decided to stay home.  I ordered my usual Allan's Black and Tan, which everybody got a kick out of.  It was good, but I decided that my days of the Black and Tan are over.

Korrin came to the rescue again and threw a tea party on Thursday.  I made cake balls to bring.  It was my first time and they looked pretty awful.  I didn't have time to freeze them before dipping so they didn't quite work out.  At least they tasted good!  Korrin made cute heart-shaped sandwiches and had lots of fruit and chocolate-dipped berries.  It was all delicious.  I stayed for quite a while and let my girls just play with Ella and Grace.  It was a nice break for me.  I was quite tired that night but still stayed up to watch the BYU/Gonzaga game.  I am so glad BYU won.

I wasn't going to eat sweets on Friday but then I ate leftover treats from the tea party.  They were worth it!  That night, Emily and Neal came over and brought dinner.  The kids had fun playing while we ate and hung out.  They got to try out our Kinect before they left.

Tyler made bagels on Saturday morning, something he'd been wanting to do for a while.  They took a long time but they were yummy.  I think I ate 2 1/4.  I was so full and then I started feeling ill.  I woke up with a headache and then my stomach started hurting and my body felt achy.  Tyler took Ada and Kate to a Utah basketball game while I opted to stay home and take a nap with Lyla.  I felt a bit better afterward but still didn't feel like eating.  I think I had just eaten too much crap.  We went to the grocery store and then to Mom and Dad's, where Abby was throwing Alice's birthday party.  I can't believe she's one!  Tyler and the girls met us there after the game.  Abby made some delicious Cafe Rio-esque food.  She had cute decorations, a cute Elmo cake, and a pinata for the kids.  I actually refrained from sweets all day, but mostly because I wasn't feeling well.  We all had lots of fun.  I enjoyed listening to the Jazz game on the way home and hearing David Locke go crazy about them beating the Lakers. 

I still didn't feel great on Sunday but I went to Sacrament Meeting.  We had a Super Bowl party at the Squires' that night.  There was a ton of food, of course.  We brought cake balls (I froze them this time and they turned out much better) and a black bean/corn salsa that I made.  I was able to eat a bit more (I'd hardly had anything the last two days) but I still refrained from sweets.  Big accomplishment in my book!  I wasn't excited about seeing the Giants and Patriots but I decided to cheer for the Giants and I was glad they won.  It was fun watching a close game.

Kate continues to drive me crazy.  I've always heard that three is a tougher age than two, but I didn't believe it until Kate turned three.  I really need to work on being more patient and giving her more attention.  I suspect that her new role as the middle child has something to do with her behavior.  Lyla is so sweet and smiley.  Tyler and I both got her to giggle last week.  She hasn't been sleeping great, but she always makes me happy.  We went to Ada's parent/teacher conference on Wednesday and Ada is doing very well in school.  It's no surprise to us. 

Well, that's about it.  Ciao until next week.