March: A Baptism and.... a Heart Attack

At the beginning of the month Henry was baptized! We had a small group of people come, but they all love him very much. Henry took this decision very seriously and didn't want to just do it because that's what you do when you're eight. In his interview with the bishop, Bishop Lee asked Henry if he wanted to be baptized. Henry said, "I don't know. Why should I want to?" We talked about what a covenant is, becoming an official member of the church, and about obedience. When Rusty told Henry that Jesus Christ was baptized because it was a commandment from Heavenly Father, Henry sat up in his bed and said, "It's a commandment? Then I want to do it." He has such a sweet heart and spirit. I'm so proud of him for taking this seriously and for being willing to stick around after he had questions long enough for an answer.

I asked Henry to write down how he felt at his baptism so he could always remember. This is what he wrote, the little sweetheart!

Grandma Phyllis and Grandpa Kirk came out to visit for Henry's baptism, and then they got to stay for a couple of days! One night we went out to Chick's for dinner, which I was excited about because we've never been there. I got the fried chicken and mashed potatoes and it was so good! Rusty liked his Chicken Fried Steak too.

Weston got stuck in the Skidloader that he was borrowing and called Rusty for some help. Rusty went and got his tools and his coat and was all ready to go when Weston called back and said he figured it out. Poor Rusty was so sad! Haha he was all ready to go the rescue.

I signed Amelia up for gymnastics! She always loved watching Della at her classes, but she couldn't participate. The guy came over and told me that she was welcome to play on the things when the other kids weren't on them and he would even set some stuff up for her. Then he told me that he does classes for little kids! So I signed her up and she really loved the classes a ton, but no other kids came. It was kinda awkward because it was just me and Amelia and the teacher. She had four classes, and two of the times another kid came so that was nice. The first class Kirk came with us and watched her for a little!

Well.... it's still snowy here. And I'm about ready to move away and never come back. Hawaii at the end of the month is keeping me going! We keep playing in it but nobody is really that excited about it anymore haha.

We tried some new crafts this St. Patrick's Day! We painted shamrocks with marshmallows and also made yummy rainbows! Amelia LOVED sorting all the Froot Loops out while the kids were at school.

I love St. Patrick's Day! This year the kids got pretty excited and wanted to make a better leprechaun trap than last year. I found some things to print off and helped them cut stuff out and glue it. They were really excited and thought that for sure the rainbow walk would get him!

The next morning we had no leprechaun, but there were definitely signs of his visit! He left footprints on the table leading into the rainbow tunnel, and at the back we found two shoes, a hat, a note, and a bottle of gold! We'd never had a leprechaun leave anything like that before! The kids were so excited and then I told them to get ready for school. For breakfast they each had mini Lucky Charms that said, "I'm cereal-sly lucky to be your mom!" But as they started getting ready they found some strange things...

They each woke up wearing something green that they weren't wearing when they went to bed! Even Bailey! And then, they found out that their coats, backpacks, shoes, you. name it were all zip-tied together! The toilet water was green, and the toothpaste turned their teeth green! It was a crazy morning. I painted some things on their cheeks for school.

The kiddos got haircuts! Henry really needed one, but the girls usually get jealous so every once in a while I let them get a hair cut too. Amelia was particularly psyched about this!

We went to Bear Lake for our first stay! We invited the Cowleys to come, and afterwards I thought maybe we should have done the maiden voyage just us to make sure things all worked out. We weren't positive how much gas there was left in the tank to heat the house! Ahh. But everything was great once we got there. Getting there was a little tricky because my van did not make it all the way up the hill. So after trying a bunch of times and Della is crying, Weston came down and hooked us up to his car and pulled us up the hill. Haha. 

The weekend was great! We played in the snow, went sledding, played games and ate good food. It was so fun to spend the weekend with them!

This picture is going to be awesome for our kids some day! This is them on snow piled higher than our street sign for Saddle Up Circle.

Fell asleep on the way home!

It is seriously never going to melt here, so we spent some more time down at the duck pond park and at the park by the elementary school. We went sledding and played in the snow because, what else are you going to do, but honestly we're all pretty done playing in the snow so we mostly just walked around.

We started looking at boats this month for when it finally gets warm and we can go out on the water! This is a big deal for us because this has always been a big dream- to have a boat. This is the toy that I've wanted most (other than the trailer) and I am SO EXCITED. Rusty picked out a couple of stores he wanted us to look at and then we walked around with someone and asked questions. There were a few things that were important to Rusty and some that were important to me, and we ended up finding the most beautiful boat in the whole world. I'm so happy!

For one of Rusty's Christmas presents I gave him tickets to a Brian Reagan show! We'd never gone to a comedy act and we don't really do a lot of these kinds of things anyways, so it was a fun change! I bought the tickets last year with Bryndee but they ended up not being able to go so we gave the tickets to the Staples. We had dinner at the Copper Onion first and then went to the show afterward. The food was delicious (I got the stroganoff again) and the comedy show was hilarious! I also particularly liked the opener named Kermit. He was so funny!

Rusty and I got to go on a date to the temple! It had been so long for us since we had been able to go together, and it was wonderful. It's something that we're going to try to start doing regularly and just get a babysitter that will come every month at the same time so we can have a standing appointment with each other at the temple. The promises are beautiful and I love the new verbiage that is used.

We made some more good progress on the house! At this point it truly feels like this is just not really going to happen, and I feel like I have mentally checked out a few things with it. So it's nice to see it progressing, but I'm not holding my breath anymore.

I climbed in bed with Amelia because she was lonely and Rusty didn't want her to sleep in our bed. 

We went to Ruth's Chris to celebrate my birthday! This was the fanciest dinner I'd ever had, and I had been wanting to eat there for a long time! I finally got to and it was amazing. They greeted us by name when we got there, and told me happy birthday! The food was delicious and everything was so nice. It's a great place for a every once in a while treat!

Well, my dad had a heart attack. It was on Wednesday, March 22 when I got a text from mom saying that he was having a heart attack but they thought it was minor and everything would be fine. I called her to check in because, what kind of text is that, and she said that the doctor had changed her mind and now was saying that people needed to get there as soon as possible to say goodbye. I called Rusty and told him, he said he would leave work right away and meet me in Logan. I had to go get the kids, and it was so hard because I felt like I was going to throw up and I was bawling, but I didn't want to scare the kids. I got them checked out of school and then told them in the parking lot what had happened, and that it would be okay. We got to the hospital and Dad had already finished his surgery and was sitting up in bed like he was at home hanging out. He had great color, looked awesome, and I couldn't believe everything that had happened. We stayed with him for the day, and then Rusty went home to take care of Bailey and I stayed with the kids and Emilie and her family and Jessica and Mom. 

Amelia just snuggled up like this and never wanted to leave. She was so soft with him and stayed so still

Watching a show

Henry using Emilie's sun tanning goggles haha

Amelia in the goggles

The next morning Amelia was SO sick. I took her into Instacare but she tested negative for strep, which was almost worse because then I had no idea what she had. She wasn't sleeping at all and was coughing and dry heaving and just so sick. Instead of driving home the next day, I decided to just drive to the Bear Lake cabin and wait for Rusty to come. We were planning on going that weekend for my birthday anyway, so I just went on Thursday instead. I was also sick like Amelia, but I held on okay until I got to the cabin and then it hit me hard. I barely got out of bed, Amelia and I just watched Ferdinand on repeat.

Rusty was so kind and tried to make my birthday still special even with everything that happened with my dad, and with me and Amelia being sick. He got some yummy eclairs from a bakery in Orem, brought up balloons and a bunch of yummy charcuterie snacks. He's the best!

Rusty got me eclairs for my birthday!

Watching Ferdinand!

The kids did get to go outside with Rusty and play a little bit on the toys! Amelia started to feel better toward the end of the weekend.

Amelia fell asleep like this

On Sunday when we were going to drive home I went through Logan to stop at the Instacare. While I was there, I threw up and got a fever. I called my mom and asked if I could just sleep in the basement because I didn't think I'd be able to make it home. I got to her house, showered, took some medicine, and slept for about 14 hours. I woke up feeling better, but still sick. It did give us a chance to talk to Mom and Dad a little bit, because Rusty and the kids ended up coming the Logan way after I got sicker. It was absolutely amazing to see my dad like that at home, totally normal, after the day before I thought he was going to die. I'm so glad he is doing so much better!

Chandler sent Crumble cookies because he knew we were all sick!

Mostly that whole last week of March I was just sick. My throat was burning, not like a normal sore throat. I had gotten tested for strep and it was negative so I really didn't know what else to do other than wait it out. After a week had gone by and I was still really sick I went back into Instacare in Heber. The doctor on call had no idea what was going on with me, so she just gave me a steroid and hoped that would help. It really did help a lot, which was awesome because we left for Hawaii two days later! I was still sick there, but could get around so much better.

We were going to be in Hawaii on Easter, and I knew there was very little chance of us actually celebrating it there (we were flying on Easter). So I thought it would be awesome to do Easter the Saturday before, but that was April Fool's Day, which is one of Henry's favorite holidays. So then I thought that it would be hilarious to combine the two holidays and do some practical jokes for Easter! I got these eggs and did some things like gluing some shut, gluing some coins inside, putting bugs in them, tying a bug on a fishing line so it was clear and would go up in the air when they picked up the egg, and some stacking eggs that started with really big eggs and ended up only having a jelly bean inside haha. We also did some stuff with fake $100 bills. The problem was though, that I was still so sick there was no way we'd be able to do anything before Hawaii. So we ended up saving the stuff and doing it after we got back from Hawaii (it's in the next post).

Henry's Highlights:

• "It's magnificent to get an Ace!"
• "So help me if anyone was in that building when it collapsed!"
• Said “thrice” in a sentence
• He told Rusty that something he did “seemed excessive”
• Henry was talking about a toy and said that he was going to put it on Rusty's shirt and it would pierce his nipple
• I started my period on my birthday weekend and Henry came up to me and patted my hand and said, "I saw the blood in your toilet. I'm sorry, I thought to myself this weekend was supposed to be a relaxing week not a blooding week."
• Henry is still tearing through Harry Potter. He finished the second one and is halfway through the third one (it's March 12 today). 
• Henry has started a new journey to be the best brother he can be. He is working really hard on that!

Adeline's Adventures:

• Speaks Spanish all of the time. Pretty much refers to us as mama and papa half the time
• She was singing in the car and I said I had a headache and asked her to stop. So she started humming really loudly and I asked her to stop and she said, “YOU CAN HEAR THAT?!” She thought humming was just in her head haha
• She got in the car and there was a box where her feet should go. She got in and said, “Oh!  That’s a good piece of advice for my feet!”
• Loves the Mama Mia song 
• Della made a sign for her "workshop" but spelled it "Wuok Shop" because that's how she pronounces it haha
• She has started to like the name Adeline more than Della. She writes it on all of her school papers and drawings and asked us to call her that
• She's doing gymnastics again! She is loving it!
• Della has started reading so well! She reads to us sometimes before bedtime, and I am trying to get into the habit of having her read to us every day to help her get better. She has progressed so much!

Amelia's Updates:

• Calls popsicles "icicles"
• "I do it myself"
• “I go” means “I don’t know”
• “Just a little bit?”
• “You got to!”
• After we talked about Jesus she said, “I love Jesus!” I was so proud of myself for teaching her… and then she said “Can I beat Jesus up?” Oh man.
• Henry was naked and Amelia was standing there and slowly stuck her figure out and poked him on the penis haha
• Became absolutely obsessed with the movie Ferdinand at the Bear Lake Cabin. She kept asking to watch it and was singing "Rumba Si"
• "I'm not on a bone scavenger hunt"- I honestly don't remember the context of this one and it's all I have written on my phone haha. 
• Every song she likes she says, "Oh! It's my favorite!"
• She had a funny conversation with Rusty
• A: Can you fix cereal?
• R: No, I can't.
• A: Yes you can! You're strong and brave!
• R: You're strong and brave too!
• A: No, I'm teeny!
• R: Yes, but you're strong!
• A: NO! I'M TEENY!!
• R:  You're teeny and strong and beautiful!
• A: NO! I'M IN A SHIRT! AND PANTS!
• R: Lia, you don't have to be in a dress to be beautiful.
• A: YES I DO!
• She says "scuse you!" or "scuse me you!" and pushes you out of the way
• One night she woke up absolutely terrified. I ran and got her and calmed her down and then asked her what her dream was about. She said, "Socks."
• Always wants a turn when the kids get to answer questions at dinner or for scripture study. Once she took over the discussion and kept talking about her pretty bows and made me hold them up for her

Extra Pictures:

Yoga with the sharks at the Aquarium with Jess!

Amelia peeking out at the playhouse at Uncle John's

Della made some beautiful bracelets

Still SO much snow

I told Amelia to smile and she did these faces

Picking Ellie up from school to play with Della!

Della loves to video herself walking around the house explaining things

Amelia found some makeup

I was reading the scriptures to the kids and Amelia came down and took the book and gave me these two bows and told me to hold them up. If I put them down she reminded me to hold them up.