Well Hello :)

 Last Saturday Myles and Elsa wanted to get their hair cut. Elsa wanted to go short.
Her hair had gotten pretty long, and while I was hesitant to go so short, this is so much easier for her to take care of. I love that she can actually brush all of her hair. Best part is, she loves her new "do."

Aeva was invited to go on a field trip with her friend Bailey.
They went to the new Portland Aquarium. She had a lot of fun and loved that she got to take the camera with her. She wanted to take pictures for her dad who loves to take the kids to all the fish shops around here. There were a lot of hands on exhibits. Unfortunately the manta rays never got close enough for her to touch. Here are just a few of the pictures she took.

 So, I've stopped wearing anything on my nose. I think it is as good as it's going to get.While I could go in for dermabrasion to try and remove it or have it less noticeable, I don't think I will.
I know my nose is not,  nor will it ever be, the same as it looked before surgery, but I've decided to look at it this way..........
While I could try to hide or erase the one scar on my nose, I'm going to wear my scar as my badge of honor. It will be my visual memory of what I endured and what I survived :)

And on the lines of that, I'm thankful for the Easter holiday that is coming up. I'm thankful to know that Jesus Christ, my Savior, loved me enough to suffer, not only for my sins, but for all the pains that I will know in this lifetime.

Wishing you all a blessed Easter :)

So, What Exactly Have the Lindsays Been Up To?

Where do I begin?
Well, let's start with Rhaevyn...
Rhaevyn has been busily working towards her goal of finishing Personal Progress by her birthday.
It looks like she'll actually finish before her birthday. During the month of February she indexed 1004 names. She has been learning to crochet, and she made herself a scarf. She is still loving the violin and learned to play two of my favorite songs "If You Could Hie to Kolob" and "Ashokan Farewell." We learned that she is outgrowing her violin, which doesn't surprise me as I seem to be shrinking next to her :) When did my baby get to be so tall? She just finished two weeks of cooking dinners for us. Man was I spoiled! One of the dishes that we loved was lasagna made in the large muffin tins.

Here is an experimental project she was crocheting.

Aeva is getting accustomed to her new set of ivories (piano). She just got her last set of piano books, which is pretty exciting. Her teacher said she's never had a student make it this far, so it may be uncharted territory once she finishes up these books. She tried her hand at crocheting, but being left handed it was a bit hard to learn from a right handed person. Aeva thought she would instead try knitting, and she has really taken off with that. She is currently making a dishcloth. She even bought herself her own set of knitting needles. Both girls are learning knitting/crocheting from a sweet lady in our ward (who used to be my RS Secretary). They get together every few weeks, hang out, eat chocolate and knit and crochet, laugh and visit. Fun is had all around. In January Chris and I took Aeva to the temple to do baptisms. What a very neat experience that was. Aeva is babysitting now too, for us. She has also been hired as a mother's helper by my best friend. This has been fun for her and a way to earn some extra money for camp.

Here is the dishcloth Aeva is working on.

 

 Myles just lost his second tooth. He didn't want to pull it out, so he said he let his tongue do the job for him. Myles is quite the reader. While he likes to say he doesn't like to read, he reads everything! He is getting so big and so tall. He is currently trying to learn to roller blade. 

Myles missing his two front teeth.

Elsa is getting bigger by the second. I think she is keeping pace with Myles and Rhaevyn. Last night we had a fun trip to the ER, as she was running 104.5 -- 105 temp. Low and behold she had a nice bright red ear. Our second ear infection in 10 years and four kids. She is feeling much better today.
She still entertains us with her ballet dancing and her singing. I love how she makes me laugh!

Chris, after growing his curls out for me, just cut them all off again. He was looking very "Cary Grant"-ish. Oh well. He's training to ride in the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic which takes place in July. It's a 200 mile bike ride over two days, but he's doing it in one day with a group of guys from church. It is funny to see all the planning they are doing: meetings, google calendar, scheduled and calculated bike rides..........Should prove to be fun.

And then there is me. I've taken some pictures of me post surgery. It's been two months since my procedure. You can't tell much in the pictures except that one side looks a bit puffier than the other.
Unless you are right up close to me you can't really see the scar. After three months pass I can decide if I want dermabrasion done or not. Every day is a bit better..............the feeling is starting to come back. I will be glad when it has totally healed (which is about a year long process) and my incision site doesn't feel like it is going to rip apart when i move my face in different positions. Really all is well. I can't complain, and I'm still keeping busy with life :)

I found these pictures I had taken up at the barn we go to on Fridays.

This is Elsa with Tucker. He is also affectinately known as 

Tuck-Tuck. He is a dwarf.

Here is Myles trying to help with the wheelbarrow.

Rhaevyn scooping the poop from the wheelbarrow.

All three putting in their muscles to dump the wheelbarrow.

This is Harvey.

 

Aeva having some trouble with the wheelbarrow.

Rhaevyn making a nice face for me :)

In a nutshell, that's what we've been up to the last couple of months.

A Mini-Mini Vacation

 We planned a very mini, we're talking 36 hours, vacation, and what a great vacation it was.
We made some really great memories as a family.


We headed up north on Thursday (roughly 2 hours away) to the Great Wolf Lodge.
It's a hotel with a humongous indoor water park. Fun with a capital F!
We decided to be thrifty, so we brought up Lunchables for lunch, a pizza and soda for dinner, Oreos for dessert, popcorn and hot cocoa for a snack just before bedtime, and cereal and milk for breakfast.

We were able to check in three hours earlier than expected, which was super sweet. We spent about four hours in the water park after we dropped off our bags and ate lunch in our room. Then we headed back to our room for dinner, a slight rest, and to warm up in front of the fireplace. Then it was off to the water slides again.
Elsa and I came back early to the room Thursday night, as she had a bit of an accident and cut open her eyelid and just below her eye. She got a free stuffed animal out of it from the first-aide person.Chris, Aeva, Rhaevyn and Myles lasted until the water park closed at 9:00 pm.

The next morning we were up early to eat and then we headed off to play in the water some more. The little ones and I played for an hour and then went up to get ready to leave. The big ones stayed a half hour more.
While it is possible to actually hang around the entire day until the park closes at 9pm, we decided that it would just be easier to call it good at 11 am. Besides Chris was beat. We got quite the work out walking up all the flights of stairs to go down the big slides.
After checking out  we went to Cabela's and ate lunch at Red Robin before we headed home.
Great times, lots of giggles, smiles and laughter............Yep, it was success with a capital S!!
Sorry the pictures are a bit out of order.

Elsa enjoying just one  of the four slides she was tall enough to go on.

She thought they were great fun. Sorry the video is sideways.

She kept whipping of this hat at Cabela's and yelling "yee-haw!"

Myles wanted a picture that looked like he was running 

away from the Rhino.

Elsa posing like she is a Sea Lion.

These are the stairs that go to the four big water slides.

Elsa and Aeva pose after going down these slides.

Way to go, Aeva!!

She wasn't sure she wanted to attempt the slides at first,

but after trying them, she thought they were thrilling.

We had a fun themed room.

There was a small cabin like area within the room

 that slept three.

Elsa's battle wounds.

She was a trooper.

Here is her stuffed animal she was given.

In the wave pool with Daddy.

Chris and Aeva warming up by the fireplace.

The kids are ready to go play in the water.

This was the view from our room on the eighth floor.

Those two slides would light up at night.

The red and yellow one is the Tornado. I think we

all (Chris, Rhaevyn and I) screamed going on that one.

Eating before playing.

Chris, Elsa and Rhaevyn catching some wave action.

Lost Tooth

 Myles lost his first baby tooth!
 He had been working at it for quite some time, but it just wasn't coming out too easily.
During a school day over at our friends house, while eating pizza for lunch, his tooth decided it was time to come out.  His little friends helped him up the stairs. There was lots of blood and crocodile tears. I will say that I am usually pretty good with wounds, but teeth.................well let's just say I was not blessed with the stomach or nerves for such things. His tooth was kind of dangling. My best friend took one look at me and said "would you like me to take this for you?" She was great and helped pull the tooth out, and Myles was a trooper. And by the next morning was a whole dollar richer:)

 Here he is a few days before loosing his tooth. He was really trying to pull it out himself.

"Cheese"

Myles's first tooth is out!

 

Now he is working on the next tooth...........

The tooth fairy is just dying to have that next tooth!!