Homeward bound

My Little Sweet Heart
Monday, February 6, 2012
Day 253

The day that Harrison got his kindergarten shots the Dr. told me that she also heard a heart murmur. She asked if any of our doctors in the past had mentioned that to me because murmur's are quite common and if I was already aware of it then he was likely born with it and it is simply an innocent murmur. But I told her nobody had mentioned it to me before so she said that may indicate that it is a newly developed heart murmur and that we should have him looked at by a Pediatric Cardiologist just to confirm it is an innocent murmur. So today was our day to visit the cardiologist and Harrison, at the age of just 4, got his very first EKG.





Cardiologist said his EKG came back unusual but not abnormal. (Whatever that means.) He said it sounds to him like an innocent murmur but to come back in a year for another EKG just to be certain.

Bread of Life
Tuesday, February 7, 2012
Day 254

Spring colors are starting to show up in the stores and I found this awesome breadbox at Target and just HAD to have it.



Never had a breadbox before because I never had enough counter space to put one. Until now. And I love it!

Junior Achievement 
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Day 255

I am the Junior Achievement volunteer in both Adam's and Zoey's classrooms and today was our first lesson.




Moose
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Day 256

Not to go into too much detail but my sister and her husband suffered a loss recently so I flew to Utah today to spend some time with her. We made a stop at Costco and they had this HUGE stuffed Moose.



I honestly don't even know what you would do with a moose that big!

I need a fix
Friday, February 10, 2012
Day 257

As many of you may already know I have a little diet soda habit. Well I'm staying with my parents this weekend and they don't stock my caffeine in their house nor did I rent my own car. So while we were out today on our way to the memorial service I begged my dad to go through the drive-through so I could get my daily fix.




Aw, now I feel much better!

A Princess and her balloon
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Day 258

My niece with a princess balloon. Tough to say which is cuter!





No Snow Man
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Day 259

This being our first winter in AZ it's also been my first winter without snow. So I came to Utah for a whole weekend thinking I'd see some snow. But in my 4 days in town this is the closest thing I saw to snow.

We caught the Germs

Flu
Monday, January 30, 2012
Day 246

The nasty flu but that has been going around hit our house. I suppose it was inevitable. Schools are one big giant petri dish.

Zoey stayed home from school today.




Run Adam, Run!
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Day 247

Today was the first Running Club multi-school race. Zoey has been sick so she was not able to participate. But Adam did! The race was a mile and a half long and he ran the whole time!

Here he is approaching the finish line.



And this is him enjoying a popsicle afterwards while holding his number. He finished 149. And this was with 4 schools there and racing along side all the other grade levels. I don't know for sure how many runners there were total but we were super proud of his 149!



Plants galore
Wednesday, February 1, 2012
Day 248

Finally been getting around to potting all the plants we bought on Saturday. I really love the way live plants makes my house feel!







Hibiscus
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Day 249

I know I've been showing a lot of plant pictures but after getting my hibiscus potted yesterday several blooms appeared overnight and I was just so excited I had to take a picture!




I stink at getting actual food to grow but am having a very good time trying to figure out how to get flowers to grow.


Playground blues
Friday, February 3, 2012
Day 250

The playground at the school has wood chips for padding. And kid shoes are the perfect receptilce of transporting wood chips. Which means I always have wood chips in my house.



The worst part is the way they hide in the carpet just waiting for you to walk across it barefoot. Ouch!

Fountain Hills
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Day 251

Have had sick kids in the house all week! Zoey was home sick Monday-Wednesday and Adam was home sick Wednesday-Friday and so we needed to get them OUT of the house. Took a drive to Fountain Hills.

Here is our family picture watching the fountain.



And just so you can really appreciate how high this fountain goes, here is one of the kids in front of it.










And my kids rarely ask me to take their picture-I think because I do it so often. But they saw this tree today and actually asked if they could take a picture by it. So of course I had to oblige.




Technical Difficulties 
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Day 252

Had a special multi-ward meeting for church today because they were realigning some ward boundaries. So they had projectors set up for those of us sitting in the back. But I just can't understand why the people running audio visual at these kind of meetings never seem to know what they are doing.




I snapped this quick pic to show how the display settings were turned on the entire time for all of us to see. What you don't see in this picture is that the red battery warning was blinking right in the middle of the picture the ENTIRE meeting. (my pic just  happened to take right as it blinked off.)

Also at one point the camera started cycling through the demo mode showing a simulation of all the camera settings. Very distracting I must say. Next time find somebody who actually knows how to use the camera.

Blooming

Purple
Monday, January 23, 2012
Day 239

Yesterday was Zoey's teacher's birthday so today when I was at the store and saw these I thought she needed a little birthday surprise.



Oh, and I bought one for myself, too.

Gumballs
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
Day 240

Today was Art Masterpiece in Zoey's class again. Seems like we just finish one lesson when it's time for the next already!

I always swear that this time I'll remember to take pictures as the kids are actually doing the project but let's face it, when you are in charge of helping 27 kindergarten students it's all I can do to keep the room in one piece. So, once again, I had to settle for a few pictures of some of the completed projects.






Believe
Wednesday, January 25, 2012
Day 241

Got an unexpected and much appreciated package in the mail today.






It's a simple reminder to believe in magic. If you want know what an elephant has to do with magic you'll have to read The Magician's Elephant.

But here's a little taste:

"Magic is always impossible," said the magician. "It begins with the impossible and ends with the impossible and is impossible in between. That is why it is magic."


Shot
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Day 242

I took Harrison to get his kindergarten shots today. I always hate taking them for shots. They are so sad the rest of the day.

But this brought at least a momentary smile to his face.





Fever
Friday, January 27, 2012
Day 243

Since my baby got his shots yesterday I of course wasn't surprised that he had a fever today.





Mazda Greenhouse 
Saturday, January 28, 2012
Day 244

I decided that I NEEDED plants. Outdoor plants, indoor plants, flowers, trees.....I needed plants! So we made a trip to the Nursery (okay, really it was Lowes....I'd love to support a local nursery in the future but I had a 10% off my entire purchase coupon that expired.....don't judge.)

Felt like an atrium on wheels driving home!





Simple Pleasures 
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Day 245

Sunday afternoon walk with the family. Just a quick pic to remind me why I love my community. (Because it's easy to forget when the construction vehicles are rumbling down my street at 5:30 in the morning.)

Birthdays and doughnuts and ice-Oh My!

Oh grandma
Monday, January 16, 2012
Day 232

So is it just me or do grandmas love to give the gifts that moms hate? (To all the grandmas reading this, I mean that in good humor.)

My grandma gave the kids quacking duck whistles for Christmas. She gets the satisfaction of giving the kids something that they REALLY like but is nearly 1000 miles away, and thus misses out on the loud, constant quacking.

Mike's mom gave them these melty beads for Christmas. A gift that results in lots of tiny little bits of plastic in my carpet. As well as burned fingers for me as I tried to iron them.



Tiny fingers trying to work with tiny plastic melty beads.






YES! Please!!!!!
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Day 233

Somebody PLEASE give me some ideas as to what to do with these because I LOVE them!!!!! I mean REALLY LOVE them.






Wind chimes? Bird feeders? What do you think?

Someday
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Day 234

Tomorrow is Zoey's birthday, so of course I spent tonight wrapping. Someday I won't be doing everything the night before.




The Big 0-6!
Thursday, January 19, 2012
Day 235

The birthday girl!





And the bed canopy I made. Yes, me. I made it! Be impressed! Because I am not crafty.





Doughnuts with Dads
Friday, January 20, 2012
Day 236

This morning was the PTO Doughnuts with Dads. And the cars were lined up clear up and down the street.

This is the view from my laundry room window.



Here is the view standing in my driveway. You can see the cars were even up around the corner, too.



I'm just sayn' that's a lot of doughnuts.

Disney on Ice
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Day 237


We don't do birthday parties at our house. Instead we do a big family activity. So for Zoey's birthday we went to Disney on Ice. It was Toy Story 3 and despite the pained look on Harrison's face they all did have a great time!




And yes, we were the only people sitting in our section. It was a Saturday matinee. Once the show started we actually moved up several rows. Free seat upgrade!





Washer won't go
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Day 238

My washing machine started having problems yesterday, so Mike set to work today tearing it apart to see what the problem was.



Thankfully in the end it was only a $35 part. But it did take 4 days to ship. So I was without my washer for a little over a week.

Full Speed Ahead

Settling for less
Monday, January 9, 2012
Day 225

I'm a little bit of a perfectionist. And a chronic cleaner. My house never feels clean enough. But frankly trying to keep up appearances is getting exhausting. So these days I'm trying to clean a little less and play a little more. And here is the proof.



See this popcorn on my carpet. It's been here since Saturday! Yes, we ate popcorn on SATURDAY and I haven't vacuumed it up yet. What you may see as regression I call progress. I'm learning to lean into imperfection.

Kindergarten
Tuesday, Januray 10, 2012
Day 226

After a lovely winter break the kids are back in school this week. Which means back to my normal Tuesday volunteer hours. Today while I was in Zoey's class she read her story to the class. Of course her whole story  was only 3 sentences......



And these are the self-portraits I did with them before Christmas but I forgot to take pictures. So when I saw them hanging up on the bulletin board today I snapped a quick pic.



It's great being 4
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Day 227

I love that when the characters on PBS say to get up and move with them that Harrison still gets up and moves with them.





I also love that he still wants to do this EVERY time I am doing laundry.





Color is in season
Thursday, January 12, 2012
Day 228

I am so in love with all the fun colorful things creeping into the stores. The only problem now is trying to figure out where I'd put them all so I can justify buying them!







Friday Night Lights
Friday, January 13, 2012
Day 229

This is a typical Friday night for us.




What's for Dinner?
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Day 230

When I don't want to cook, we have popcorn for dinner. Don't judge.




I'm Quacking up
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Day 231

My grandma sent the kids these duck whistles for Christmas and they LOVE them.



They are cute, but man do they make a LOT of noise!