At the River

That will take awhile for the sand to come out of that hair!

Day 2

Everyone woke up happy:


We ate breakfast for about 3 hours. Eating pancakes, hot chocolate, smores, bacon, apple cider, left over chocolate, and I am sure there were some Oreos in there too. It was great fun!

There was even snow on the ground

After we cleaned up camp, we headed back over to the river.

We Are Crazy

I'll be the first to admit it:

Here we are leaving to go camping! Yes it is February.
We drove to **** and set up camp while we still had daylight. Then we headed over to the river to go fishing. 
Although, I don't have a fishing license, so I was on Lucy duty.

And act as resident photographer:

He looks good even holding a pink fishing pole:


Then we headed back over to our campsite. There was only one other man occupying a campsite, so we had a lot of space. 
We enjoyed eating and eating. Grant prepared well and had all sorts of food for us. Trevor enjoyed cooking top ramen and hot chocolate. Eventually people started getting tired:

So we headed into the trailer. We fit 8 of us plus a dog in there! I love our set up. Grant and I got a new mattress (well new to us) this summer and so we put our old mattress in the trailer. So the 4 of us slept quite comfortably. And with so many people in there, we stayed pretty warm (and dry when it rained). 

Dear OT People:

Dear Athena (Piper's Occupational Therapist),
You have changed our lives. And so rapidly too! Piper went from last year not being able to write a thing (and just forget about using scissors), she was deathly afraid of getting her hair cut, she slept with us about 98% of the time, and I could go on and on. But then you came into our lives. In the last month, Piper has started letting us brush her teeth, can write her name, only comes into our room during the night about half the time, has started to play with toys, and the thing that was probably the biggest accomplishment was this:
She first of all sat in the

chair, then she even let them lay her down, then clean her teeth. And then...

she was brave and let them take x-rays! And she didn't have a melt down.
She is tolerating smells, she does more than just sitting around looking at books (not that we don't encourage that--it is just that now she is moving!), she helps with dishes, and she has actually gotten into trouble this month. And I take that as progress because again it means she is doing something. I love it! I love this happy girl! I am so so thankful for your help in her progress. You. Are. Amazing.

Before...

Piper has never wanted to cut her hair. She wanted to be Rapunzel for a very long time, and then after that it just turned into a fear of getting it cut. I actually snuck a haircut on her last year because I knew that if I could just trim it, it would make brushing it so much easier. While she watched a movie and I was "brushing her hair" I got about and inch and a half.
Well, on Saturday, Lydia wanted to get about 5 inches cut off so it would be easier to brush. Piper decided she wanted her hair cut too, but she wanted it like Clara's hair. Clara is a girl at church that has a short bob and her hair is bone straight. I tried to explain to Piper that her hair would not look like Clara's because she has different hair, but she wouldn't budge. I was so worried that I would cut her hair and she would freak out that it was too short or curly or not what she was expecting. We compromised. If she remembered on Monday about her hair cut, then I would do it. She didn't mention it on Sunday, so I was sure that she forgot. Which was great because I have really enjoyed her curls just going everywhere and doing there own thing. But....Monday came. She woke up, and asked to get her hair cut. And the after....I think it actually turned out pretty cute.

A Little Girl

Today we got Lucy dressed for church and she definitely didn't look like a baby anymore. She looked so old!

Crazy!

Today was crazy hair day at school---and Lydia actually let me do her hair! This is a first in our home! (Karmin's crazy hair was two braids with bows at the bottom!!)And she took crazy hair day to a whole new level. She had a crazy outfit and crazy shoes too. Oh this girl keeps us on our toes!

Preschool

Piper has been learning about different jobs in our community. She got to go to the dentist as one of her field trips. I am hoping that she saw that it is not scary going with friends, so it won't be scary in real life. Fingers crossed!

Ripped

These two are enjoying working out together at nights! Trevor is amazed at how light things are to carry now! He loves this time with Grant. 

Home Teaching

Ben and Grant are home teaching companions. They go at least once a month to visit a few families from our church. They teach them a lesson about the Gospel, and make sure all their needs are being met. Tonight they visited Anne. We love Anne! When she comes to church, she sits with us an helps out with the kids. I love that!
That happened to find the missionaries out tonight as well, so they joined in on the visit too.

Core Strength

Grant's sister, who has a daughter the same age as Piper, put her daughter in gymnastics and asked if Piper would like to join this small class. Grant and I thought it would be a great idea for now to build her core muscles. It is a lot cheaper than occupational therapy (although she still goes to it). Hopefully this will help push her along though. She had her first day today and loved it! The teacher is a young girl who is super strict, but happy. The kids do exactly as they are told, and there is no cutting corners with her. If I had her as a teacher, I think I would cry, but Piper loved it! 

It's Official: I Hate School Buses (& hate is a bad word in our home)

This week our regular school bus driver is gone, so we have a substitute. And he has been 10 minutes early. So we missed the bus this morning. I drove Lydia down, but instead of driving her to the valet lane, we parked at the park and walked the rest of the way. The weather was beautiful. My kids have always been jealous of the other kids that get to walk and ride bikes to school. So this actually was quite a treat. (I had to document the moment.)

When I went to pick her up from the bus this afternoon, she was not on the bus. Ugg. I still feel sick about this. The bus driver said that he was given the all clear at the school and that all the kids were accounted for, but Lydia was not one of them. My heart sank right out of my toes. I couldn't even think clearly. Luckily Ben was with me, and I sent him home to watch the other kids while I drove down to the school. I didn't know what else to do. As I was driving to the school, my mother-in-law was calling in on the other line. But I didn't answer it because I was focused on finding Lydia. I got a couple minutes down the street and I saw her car and she was honking at me. She had Lydia. She found her about 2 miles away from the school. Lydia had missed the bus, so she was walking home. Just thinking about all the bad things that could have happened....

As I was talking to her tonight about why she missed the bus, and why she didn't go into the office and tell someone, or call me, or something--I remembered our family prayer the night before. Last night, I gave the prayer before bed. Before I started I had this clear thought that I was being given the opportunity to pray for my family...and that is a blessing. When I prayed for safety for us all for the next day (like I always pray for) I felt specific words come into my mind of what I needed to pray for. I remember thinking that I wouldn't necessarily know where everyone was the next day and what they would be doing while they were away from home. So I prayed that whatever happened we would be protected. I was a little baffled by those thoughts because I always know where everyone is. I didn't think about it again, until this conversation with Lydia. She was protected. She made it 2 miles without any person harming her. Without any animals getting her while up closer to our house. Without getting lost. Without getting hurt by cars since there are no sidewalks. She was protected when no one knew she was even missing. She was protected when I didn't have any idea where she was. I am thankful for prayer. I am thankful for Heavenly Father watching over her.

When I was in Kindergarten, I fell asleep on the bus and woke up all by myself in the bus garage. I walked through the town until I found a lady who could help me. So I've never been fond of buses. But this seals the deal. They are awful forms of transportation.

Our Valentines

After about a thousand tries, we got this picture out of the bunch:

My Valentine

Grant planned a fun date for us on Valentines Day. Even though he planned so much that we needed a couple of days to accomplish everything, it was still so much fun. I love this man!

We started off by going ice skating. 

We went to Starbucks and played Scrabble--(I won!)

Then we went over to Grant's parent's house because they made us dinner. So we got a little double date. 

Then we headed to Barnes and Nobles and played Guess Who. We never got to finish our game because we had to head home to carpool all the kids to the Stake Dance. It was such a fun night. I loved every activity. It is so much fun to hang out with him!