We needed this like a...

We had a new experience yesterday. Having three kids and no major injuries was pretty miraculous, especially when one of the kids is a human cannonball. But yesterday we got our frst taste of running into the emergency room dripping blood. OK, she wasn't dripping blood any more, she was pressing a washcloth to the hole in her head. To start at the beginning, I was upstairs when Felicity started crying. I wasn't worried, she is our drama queen and I figured Caleb was teasing her again. But then she came upstairs with blood everywhere. I know, logically, that head wounds bleed alot, and blood doesn't scare me (unlike some of the men in my family, hee-hee, Dad and Rob), but the first time you see your child..anyway, no gross details. I grabbed her and a washcloth, put pressure on it, and realized that I had no idea where the ER was, and the boys had no shoes on(Joseph's could be anywhere), and I was starting to panic. I left Felicity pushing on the washcloth and called around until I got our friend, Jenny. She calmed me down, told me where the ER was, and I dropped the boys off (no shoes) at her house. And, of course, it was snowing. Felicity was a little better now, just worried that the doctor was going to give her a shot. I told her about when I cut my head open, but I didn't tell her about stiches. If she was afraid of shots, the idea of stiches would really freak her out. When we got to the hospital I was calmer,and the nurses and doctor were great. I called Farris, which was good because he had come home early, saw the van was gone but Caleb's shoes were still in the kitchen and there was drops of blood coming up the stairs and down the hall. He was pretty worried. Felicity was feeling lots better, they had deadened the area with some topical stuff, and gave her coloring stuff, book, and stickers. Then they had to deaden the area more with a needle, by the time she was recovered from that, the doctor came an stiched her up. It was pretty deep, they had to stich the muscles together and then five stiches on her skin. She was ok, and when they gave her a teddy bear, she told me that it was the great day. Stuffed animals make everything better, even a hole in the head. So, the drama was over, and Felicity has a great story to tell the kids in her class today. And now the kids can do their worst, 'cause I know what to do. At least until the next time I see one of my kiddos with blood all over.

A call for help!

I'm asking for help! I'm the secretary in our primary here, and for an upcoming activity we're learning about the Good Samaritan. We thought we could have the kids put together a simple craft that they could take home to so they could be secret helpers around the house. Like, they make their sisters bed,then they put this flower or whatever on her pillow, and it has a little poem attached to it that says something about how a secret helper did something nice for you, so now it's your turn to do something for someone else. And then it keeps going around the house. I volunteered to find a poem, and after googling several different phrases (I'm not sure if "secret service" is a good thing to Google or not), I haven't found anything. Any ideas? Please comment soon, the activity isn't until May but we wanted to start getting things put together soon. Thanks!

Our week

Sorry I haven't written in here for awhile. Here's an update on the kiddos:
Caleb has a list of four heros, completely his own make: Daddy (of course), Superman, Captain Moroni, and Bob the builder. Maybe Bob is his practical choice, his fall-back guy. I do think he needs to learn a little bit more about Cap. Moroni, yesterday he wacked Joseph in the face with his sword. I can only hope he thought that Joseph was trying to take away his religion, his liberty, and his peace.
Joseph, meanwhile, is talking a lot more. Felicity taught him to say awesome. I tried fiddlesticks, but I'm afraid he'll pick up "dang it" alot quicker. He's enjoying the warmer weather, and has been helping his siblings dig a deep hole in the back yard. No reason, it's just fun. Maybe they're trying to make in to the Olympics?
Felicity is glad to be back in kindergarten after spring break, by friday she was telling me that she hadn't been to school in weeks and weeks. She's planning her birthday party now, she has a theme(Fancy Nancy), list of guests (everyone she's ever met) and her presents (mostly my little pony stuff) all picked out. This will probably change, as her birthday is not until August.
My sisters came for a visit on sunday and monday, we went to some gardens not far from here for the tulip festival. Not quite like Holland, but it was really pretty and lots of fun. The kids loved the children's garden, especially the bear statue that growled. They've had a good time the last couple weekends, Grandma Child and Aunt Charitie came up last weekend, they had loads of fun. No one's coming this weekend, if anyone would like to fill the time slot so our kids won't get bored.
It's graduation week for the university here, so Farris was busy this last month making sure the kids who want to gradute actually deserve it, and getting everyone else ready to come back for fall or summer semesters. Hopefully next week will be slower so he can actually start eating lunch again.
Yesterday was my fourteen week visit to the doctor, everything's good, no two heartbeats despite Felicity's prayer for twin sisters. Whew. And I think that's everything for now. I just heard the door open, which means two little boys are escaping...

My favorite song

This is one of my favorite songs at the moment. The video is a little wierd (not graphic, just odd), so if it bothers you, just close your eyes!

Insects or bugs?

Bugs seem to be a theme in my house at the moment. The small black ants that we inherited with our house have moved back in, and Saturday night our babysitters helped the kids catch a couple and put them in sandwich bags with a handful of grass (Caleb's was named George). The poor ants got prodded enough that I think they were gone before they could even starve to death. Yesterday Caleb's sunbeam lesson was on insects and the saintly teachers took a small herd of four-year-olds outside to find bugs. Now Caleb is really excited and this morning he caught a couple more ants in sandwich bags. He named one Jacob, after his cousin, and poor Jacob was thought to be asleep (I thought he was suffocated in the bag) and so the bag was opened and laid on Joseph's bed so he could sleep. Now Jacob is lost...the devious little guy was pretending so he could escape. So now Joseph has an ant in his bed. Meanwhile, Felicity is setting traps for the ants, consisting of sandwich bags filled with (you guessed it) grass tied to the legs of my kitchen chairs. I asked Caleb what the difference between bugs and insects were yesterday, he thought about it for a minute, and answered, "I don't remember." When I have surprise visitors today and they see the baggies tied to my chairs and ask why, I think I'm just going to say the same thing. It will be easier than telling the story about George and Jacob.

Potty not-so-humor

O.k., so Joseph, who will not be two until the end of June, has recently decided that he needs to be like everyone else and use the potty. We decided to jump right in and put him in underwear, cold turkey. That lasted about two days. After about 15 changes and a nice little puddle on the floor of the city library, I gave up. I still encourage him to use the toilet, and he has gone a little bit, but diapers are my friend. There's a definite difference between the desire to be grown up and the ability to know what's coming.
And in passing, it's still snowing outside. My daffodils haven't bloomed (my crocus have!), and I'm getting twitchy for summer. I have a yard this year, hurrah! I can't wait to plant and weed and actually try out what I learned five years ago in college (I spent my tuition learning about plants, which was more fun than you probably think). Anyway, I'm getting used to the weather here again, which is warmer than Logan or Rexburg or Idaho, but colder than Rough Rock, Arizona. Yes, Amy and Kimberly down in warm Phoenix area, I am a little jealous, but I will let you come visit us any time this July and August that you want to (anytime you want to, really). So, we'll see how this spring turns out.

Beginning

Well, thanks, Missy! I've now been pressured to start a blog. Since my life is fairly centered around my family, that's what I've named it. And for our first blog...da-da-da-da! We're announcing baby #4, due October 21st. I'm about 12 weeks along now, and I feel worse than I did with any of the other babies! But I am better than a few weeks ago, and I really can't complain because I haven't thrown up yet. It's the going around for a month and a half feeling like I'm going to throw up any second that's not the greatest. But I have a great doctor (thanks, Christy!), I'm only 20 minutes from the hospital--that's a switch from 2-2 1/2 hours that we were when we lived on the rez, and my parents are overjoyed at the prospect of grandbaby #12. So, alls good here. I'll write more later and flesh out the blog.