OtterPops: Kid Update and Cait's Birthday

Shortly after New Years we jumped head first back into the school routine. With Jared ending his current round of steroids we are both a little nervous how he will feel and how the adjustment will go, but we are still plugging away at life. Packing lunches in the mornings, doing the homework battle in the afternoons and trying to get enough sleep and down time for everyone.

Jocelyn received this dress-up for Christmas and, upon visiting Target over the break, decided she wanted a bow and arrow to compliment the ensemble. She didn't have quite enough Christmas money to buy the weapon so she was basically slave for one weekend. Scrubbing the silly string off of the concrete, helping Jared pull out the dead garden, scrubbing windows and blinds for me, selling some of her toys on my mom-swap site, etc. to get enough money and tickets to earn a date night. She finally succeeded and was able to put this together. Nana helped her out by sewing a cape that matched the outfit. I guess when you buy things on Halloween clearance, the whole costume might not be intact :) Lillian and Jocelyn also recently re-discovered the "queen of sheba" towel heads for bath nights and came walking downstairs linked arm-in-arm the other night requesting a picture.

Jocelyn in dress up with bow and arrow

Lillian was very excited to lose her 1st tooth last week. She came home from school with the exciting information that her bottom tooth was wiggly and we confirmed that it was, indeed, loose. We have gone through this several times with her...She cries wolf and we have to inform her that it actually isn't loose, much to her chagrin. You can hardly blame the poor girl. She is 6 1/2 and so many of her friends (and esp. her older sister) have been losing teeth right and left and she hasn't even had a loose one! Well, finally it was her turn! She, with Jared's help, had it out that night to turn in for tooth fairy money. The next day she told me her 2nd bottom tooth was really wiggly as well and by that night had another deposit for the tooth fairy. She has been very thrilled with herself and has even tried to emphasize words that are difficult for her to say to prove she has two teeth missing! My mom sent me a copy of this picture for my birthday of when I was in 1st grade. Lillian was very pleased to see that we were almost twinners. Then asked me: "Did you really have to wear a dress like that? Hmm..." Jared responded: "Yes, she did... It was the 80s."

Lillian continues to be a very generous girl and, in preparation for Christmas, Jared and I told all the kids this wouldn't be a very big Christmas in terms of gifts, but reminded them throughout the month of the REAL reason for the season and that we had the best gifts already since we had each other and our savior, Jesus Christ. We also had them get little gifts for each of their siblings so they could focus on the joy of giving. It must have impacted them because on Christmas morning Lillian was opening her "santa" gift and found that it was a Frosted Flakes box. She put on a smile and said very genuinely "Oh fun! I love this cereal!" It melted my heart. We encouraged her to open up the box, that Santa was probably just short on boxes and they most likely have a lot of "frosted flakes" in the north pole. She discovered that she, indeed, had a real gift inside but she was grateful no matter what.

Lillian loses her 1st tooth

Tic Tac Toe. Two in a row

Caitlyn in 1st grade

At the beginning of the year Jonas Bonus was so thrilled to enter his new primary class at church: CTR 4 (meaning choose the right, 4 year old class). Jared and I were moved up with our same class so now we are his teachers again. As a rite of passage, we distributed to our class a CTR ring for each of them to wear. We talked to them about how wearing a ring can remind you of important things as you see it throughout the day, which is why we wear wedding rings, etc. Jonas took this very seriously and would not take his ring off for a solid week. He kept telling me: "Mom-I have to make good choices at preschool because I am the only one wearing this ring" It was pretty cute. Even when he would take it off for his bath, etc. he was very responsible with it and put it right back on afterward. Until the inevitable happened. His 10 cent ring was turning his hand funky colors. He isn't quite so enthused with it now, but I told him he can still make good choices even when he isn't wearing his "super" ring as he called it. So much for a quality picture...This is the best I could get out of him.

Jonas has been telling Jared and I "no" when we ask him to do simple things like putting on pajamas, coming to dinner, etc. and I am getting a little done with it. One night he did this when Jared's brother was here and I think it was Greg that told Jonas "You know, superheroes brush and floss every night right when their parents ask them to." Jonas thought about that for a second and responded quickly "I don't think so. Superman's parents died and Batman's too." We went on to think of more superheroes and their luck wasn't much better . So much for trying that avenue!! Good grief.

For Jonas's preschool field trip this month we went to the local library and had a personalized story time, tour of the sorting machine in the back, and tour of the library when we were the only ones there. It was really fun and I learned a couple new things even though I have been on that same field trip a couple times before! I jumped in and taught Jonas's preschool the first week back from vacation because the mom who was scheduled to teach had a house full of sick kiddos. It went surprisingly well for being last minute and now I am down to only 4 days of teaching for the rest of the year!

Emma girl is definitely 2. I could probably just write that and sum it all up!! She is loving singing and will spontaneously start singing "twinkle twinkle little star" or "Old MacDonald" and "I am a Child of God" while we are driving in the car and tells anyone who tries to join her (besides Jonas-he is an exception with cool big brother status) "Not you sing! Only Emma!" She also says "Not yous!" if we have something that she thinks rightfully belongs to her, or just that she wants to claim as hers.
She continues to be a favorite attraction for a lot of the Girls' friends and neighbors and just eats up the attention they give her. This is one night when the neighbors had eaten dinner at our house and the kids were reading a book together. Emma has "privileged" status and gets to hang out with them.

Last week we had Quentin L. Cook a church apostle come visit our church congregation which was pretty exciting. He lived for 33 years in this area and was back visiting his kids and some friends from what we could gather. Well, we had one huge meeting with the surrounding congregations in the area so, therefore, limited seating. We had come early to claim some decent seats so Jared was walking Jonas and Emma around the building to get some wiggles out before the meeting began. Emma was half running around the corner and basically almost tripped Elder Cook as he was turning the corner. Jared had to help get her out of the way. A lot of people can say they "shook the hand" of an apostle but not many people can say they almost tripped an apostle!
Emma is also doing a little better (some days) with letting me do her hair. She is, by far, the most resistant of my girls. By this age Lillian was letting me do much more elaborate hair dos. But if I can bribe her with Monster's Inc. or Jake and the Neverland pirates, she will sometimes let me get away with hair like this.

I had a wonderful birthday and Jared made me an amazing chocolate cheesecake complete with ganache and chocolate whipping cream. Just what my new year's resolutions needed ;) He also took me out to Chevy's for dinner and asked his brother and SIL to watch the kids for us. They went above and beyond, taking the kids to the grocery store and letting them pick out any TV dinner they wanted to have for dinner. They told the kids this in advance and the kids turned to us and asked "What's a TV dinner?" We explained and they were quickly on board! They even got to eat their dinners while watching TV which they were thrilled about. We can't thank them enough for taking such good care of the kids and letting us have a night out on the town!