My Birthday and Mother's Day

 I had a wonderful Mother's Day today!!! I just love this troop of mine.
 

 

 I loved all the special notes I got from them today. My first note of the day was from Rhaevyn. I love manatees, and she drew me a manatee on the front of the very sweet note she wrote me.


This was the front of Aeva's note. She said she couldn't decide between this picture and one about cellophane being fantastic and useful with a stork carrying a baby in cellophane. She ended up going with this one. I had to giggle because I detest V8. Her note was very touching.

Elsa made me a note and a bookmark.

 Meg could not be outdone, so she made some pencil scribbles for me. Love it!!

Chris, this year, outdid himself on my gift. While on his lunch break at work he made me this rose for my flowerbed. It is absolutely beautiful and amazing!!!!

 He also made me breakfast in bed, and Meg shared it with me.

 We have had a little visitor in our yard lately. Myles took this picture and video, but last night Rhaevyn caught this little guy just lounging in the yard all stretched out.

 Molly got her hair cut on Thursday. We just love how clean she looks when she comes back all trimmed up!

 Wednesday the kids and I walked the path between Fort Vancouver and the Pearson Air Museum. It was so beautiful out. The kids picked some wild flowers and then we walked around the museum.

Tuesday while waiting for Rhaevyn to get done with class the kids ran around under the shade of the trees. Myles also hid two of his rocks as we strolled Officer's Row.

But before our stroll we worked on Mother's Day cards.

Monday was my 45th birthday. I had a really fantastic birthday!!  

Rhaevyn made me an egg, bacon, and her wonderful crazy potatoes for my birthday dinner.
Absolutely scrumptious!

I had three friends stop by with birthday wishes, sweet cards, a gift card, hugs, balloons, and treats.

I opted for no dessert. I didn't want anything hanging around because I have no willpower. So, Rhaevyn took me out for one slice of coconut cream pie. It was perfect!

Yesterday, just before my date with Chris, Meg started screaming that she had hurt her arm. Rhaevyn had been in the middle of doing her Meg's hair when Meg decided to get up. Rhaevyn went to sit Meg back down, and I think Meg lost her balance and fell backwards with her harm in back of her. At first we could not understand where she was hurting. I thought it was her wrist, but it was more at her elbow. After 20 minutes of blood curdling screaming, every time we tried to move her arm or get her to move her fingers, we decided perhaps we should take her in. I didn't take Myles in when he had hurt his toe thinking he was fine, and then the next day realized his foot was all swollen due to a fractured toe along the growth plate. I didn't want to take any chances this time. We had to use a booster seat instead of her regular car seat because she screamed from pain every time we tried to move her arm. Luckily, Urgent Care at our clinic was open, and only one person was head of us. We asked Meg to try and not scream when the doctor tried to move her arm. Half an hour after the initial snap at home, miraculously the doctor was able to move her arms and have her move her fingers, as well as have her do all kinds of movements with her arm. Chris said "It's a miracle." In that voice of "You have got to be kidding me!" The doctor asked if we were grandparents. Ummmmm what????? Chris laughed good humoredly and asked if we looked like we were. We assured him that indeed we were not grandparents currently.............just had a lot of kids and Chris grayed prematurely. At least we could laugh all the way home about the whole situation, and then we enjoyed a wonderful evening out 😊 We did tell Elsa that thanks to her power prayer Meg had made a full recovery.

And that was our week in a nutshell. It was pretty awesome 👍

Hello May 2018

 I can't seem to fathom how we are to May already. My birthday is just around the corner. I joke that just like fine wine and cheese I just keep getting better with age. As a young whippersnapper it seemed like it would be forever until I got to 45, but here I am. I may look my age, but I certainly don't feel like it.😉


Tuesday, for the youth activity for church, I got to attend a Vocal Point fireside. I haven't really ever  listened to Vocal Point, but I really enjoyed the fireside and their singing. Each member of the group had to pick one word and then go off of that to share their testimony. My spiritual bucket was filled for sure!

Wednesday we dropped the girls off at school and then went to pick out flowers to drop off to our favorite nurse and wonderful friend, BJ.
We decided on tulips, and Myles picked out the color scheme while the little girls picked out the actual flowers. We ended up making two bouquets.

Ready to deliver the bouquet of tulips.

We normally do a birthday run to BJ in April, but I somehow forgot all about it this year. I happened to remember last week that we hadn't done anything for her birthday. Luckily, she was in on Wednesday when we dropped by. I think she stopped four people in the hall, while we were there, that she works with to explain "This is my family" and why we are "Her family." It made us feel pretty special because she has been a part of our family for the past 19 years. So, nineteen years ago this past February I had to go in for observation for preterm labor. She was the nurse that monitored me. Because Heavenly Father works in such wonderful ways, she was also the labor nurse I was assigned when I actually  had Rhaevyn two months later. We've gone every April and December for the past 19 years to drop her off gifts, cards, and pictures. The older girls have gone and had lunch with her at the hospital in the past. We both chuckled that still, after 19 years, I cry happy tears at the wonderful memories of having children there at that hospital and making such a wonderful friend. She's been there for everyone of my babies whether it's been for labor or right afterwards. She is truly a blessing to our family.

Once we were done with our short visit the kids asked to walk around the waterfall on the grounds of the hospital. As we were trying to find our way out to the waterfall we ran into BJ again, and she led us down the authorized personal only hall; a shortcut to the front grounds of the hospital. It's great when you have the right connections. The kids thought it was awesome to get to walk where ordinary people can't normally go.

 Then we went up to the eighth floor and looked down where we had just been.
We actually rode the elevator three times.

 We still had time left before picking up the girls so we went to the gardens at Fort Vancouver.

 Meg held her very first ladybug. She has always refused before, but she was excited this time. It's right on the side of her hand near her wrist in this picture.

 Myles learned about a plant while we were at the gardens. We learned about the cardoon. We also learned that what they plant in the gardens at Fort Vacouver is what they have a record of being planted in the 1800's. At the time, settlers boiled the leaves of the cardoon plant and used it in soups.
It was the precursor to the the artichoke plant. 

 

 I loved how this vine was twisting around itself.

We finished up our walk through the gardens just in time to pick up the girls and their friend Marina. Here is where our second bouquet comes in. I told the littles that they could decide who to give the second bouquet to. The only requirement I had was that they needed to think about who they thought might need a little cheering up, and if they couldn't come up with anyone to say a prayer that they would be inspired as to who they should give the bouquet to. After much thought and discussion they came up with Marina's sister, Terra. She has a lot of health issues, and they thought she would really like to have some flower to brighten up her room. After Marina went into the house, Elsa and Myles, holding the bouquet, walked up to the door, knocked, and handed them to Terra. Her smile made Myles and Elsa's day.  💕
 
 Myles has been busy this week. He cleaned out three of the four garden boxes and planted some flower seeds. He now has two avocado seeds growing. "Taco" is really growing a long root. "Bob" is the really huge avocado seed, and when that splits open I'll take a picture of it. He is also growing a fern, a tree that blossoms, and something else of which I do not know, and violas.

 Molly just chilling after her bath.

 I finished my latest quilt top and will have to wait about three weeks for it to go to the quilters. This should give me time to figure out what I will use for the backing and the binding.

Myles went to the store with me the other night, and when we got home he kept trying to sneak up on me when we got out of the car and take funny pictures. However, I was wise to him and kept giving him funny faces or poking my  head around the car door really quick and surprising him.

 

 Here he is pretending to sneak towards the house. We joked that he looked like a hoodlum.

I was not pretending to "sneak" towards the house......................my happy go lucky pose.

Elsa has been practicing away and trying to memorize her violin finger exercises.

I had Aeva figure out her graduation announcement. She is so low maintenance. She really didn't want any professional pictures done. She just wanted to use the pictures Rhaevyn took while the cherry trees were blossoming. Aeva picked out the style of card she wanted; we had a coupon for Walgreens, hooray. We are busy trying to get those mailed out. So, if you'd like one shoot me an email, and we'll make sure one gets sent out to you. That brings us to the end of the week. Next week the girls are going to start driving themselves just about everyday to school. I decided to discontinue my taxi service for another student who is in our ward. I couldn't justify the gas when the girls can drive and the girls aren't allowed to drive any other teen per Washington State law and our rule (technically Rhaevyn could; she is 19 and Washington State law would not apply to her).  It is nice to have that off my plate though. The girls have really enjoyed being able to go places on their way home from school, take Myles and Elsa to the used bookstore and feed store in town, and the two of them even ventured into Vancouver to a Goodwill the other night together. I think they are liking this new found freedom. Until next time.................