Sunday, February 26, 2012

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!

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