April Tidbits

While we were in Iowa City, Grandma sat Ireland down to learn Heart and Soul.

The girls always want to pose by this statue outside the mall. I'm not sure why but I have to give Sydney props for trying to fit her head in that little space!

These girls sure love their Aunt Whitney. They can never get enough time with her.

 

Sydney: I like Miss Piggy. I feel like we'd be friends.

During General Conference I decided to finally tackle the photos. They were in all kinds of envelopes and then the dvds were in a separate box and it was just a mess. Oi. This took so much longer than I could have anticipated! I went through an entire roll of tape on my label maker. Now they are divided by year (turquoise folder) and then by photo shoot (interior folders). Brent helped me determine dates and then I used yellow folders for school photos, blue for dance and red for Christmas photos with Santa. This has been on my to do list for years and I'm so happy it's done! 

Ireland: I don't like it when Liesel comes out to play with us. 

Me: Why?

Ireland: Because she takes over and makes everything all teenagery.

As part of our Easter advent, the girls did charades for the parables Christ told during Holy Week. This is Liesel and Ireland acting out the Good Samaritan. I told Liesel I don't think anyone kicked the guy- they just didn't help.

She did eventually portray the Good Samaritan by helping Ireland up.

Ireland reported that while babysitting, Liesel called her the "B" word and she said the "F" word. Later, Liesel admitted to saying the "F" word but said she didn't call Ireland the "B" word- she said she was "B"-ing. If you are a fan of Cobra Kai, that's even funnier.

Add to my list of talents the ability to perfectly comb hair when a child insists on wearing fairy wings right after her bath. This little imp had just asked me if we had tv's growing up. 

Ever determined to not waste, Brent often uses the butt of bread in sandwiches even though the girls don't like it. To trick them, he turns it around so it looks like a regular, middle slice but so far he hasn't fooled anyone. Brigitta discovered her Oreo was flipped to the wrong side and immediately dubbed it a Dad Oreo.

The logo was pressed into the cream center which looked pretty cool when she pulled it apart.

Liesel said the boys at school are calling her Lysol and I couldn't help but laugh. When we named each of our children, we ran through possible mean nicknames and we missed that one so I have to tip my hat to their creativity.

Sydney made herself a fort house on her bed which was pretty darn cute.

I had a fun conversation with the 3 youngest girls on the way to school. We talked about getting a job as well as having a side hustle and minimum wage. They started calculating how much they could pull down in a year and then I had to break the news about taxes. "The government just takes your money?!? Is that even legal?!?"

Liesel is really into the hoodie look and she realized her favorite hoodie is so big she can actually put it on with her hair wrapped in a huge towel. That made her happy.

While out on a date, we drove by a Dairy queen with a lot of traffic. Brent said, "Check out that line. Go Dairy Queen!" I had to laugh and he insisted that nobody thinks of going to Dairy Queen and here was one that was super busy. 

This cracks me up. I love Gita's self-confidence. I love Sydney's eagerness to keep her humble. I love how at the end of it everyone is just feeling themselves. Oooh yeah baby, oooh yeah.

Me: Sydney, this is the third time I've asked you to pick up your d@^^# shoes.

Sydney: What d@^^# shoes?

On a trip to Culvers, Ireland showed me this hack. Instead of trying to hold a juice box and then getting the juice squirted on you, pull the tabs out and hold it by those. Brilliant!

There are, however, no hacks for getting a large hamburger in your mouth- you just have to open wiiide!

Liesel is intent on uncovering her bus driver's racism. Her friend is Latino and gets in trouble a lot so Liesel started doing things like putting her feet on the seats, stepping into the aisle, talking loudly... while I'm all for social justice, it cracks me up that she is possibly going to get herself written up in the process.

Love the shock on Liesel's face when she discovers she's not aging as gracefully as her little sister.

I was helping Sydney tidy up her closet when she busted out dancing. I hope my girls always dance like this- so much joy and so little care about what the world thinks.

Ireland was pretty thrilled to find a heart-shaped flake in her cereal one morning.

I used to detest the trees surrounding the fire pit. Over the years I've come to love the way they transform from blooms in the spring into the fiery leaves of fall. This year's blooms were particularly spectacular. This is the window over the bath:

When I lay in the water it almost feels as if I'm bathing beneath the trees and it's so peaceful and beautiful! We also get a spectacular view from our bedroom window:

Covid vaccines finally opened up to all adults in Illinois so Brent and I got our first jab. The autocorrect on my phone kept taking over as I signed up. First it changed Dairy Ln to Fairy Ln and then to Sauron Ln. I was worried I was going to lose the appointment because my stupid phone things we live somewhere in Middle Earth!

Due to my fear of needles, I wanted to get it out of the way but once I sat in front of the nurse we realized we hadn't been given the little form we needed. Brent ran back to get it while I sat there in a sea of people getting the shot. To control my anxiety, I stared at the floor and explained to the nurse how this scenario is kind of my own personal nightmare. For some reason the form was taking a while and I ended up just blabbering away about how I wasn't trying to be rude by not looking her in the eye and how I was going to just breathe and I might need to sit there for just a minute afterwards and I'm so sorry for that because they are clearly busy and she's probably pretty good at this by now but I'm not worried about the pain- it's the needle, not the pain and I'd prefer she punch me in the shoulder as hard as she can than have a needle that doesn't hurt at all sticking in my body... Brent arrived and immediately recognized the panicked look on my face. he stood right in front of me to block everyone else out and offered his arm as we walked away. In the waiting area he led me to a discreet corner and we took an extra 5 minutes just to be sure. Man oh man I hate shots.

One down, one more to go!