35

I just celebrated my 35th birthday (this last Saturday). It is kind of not fun to have your birthday in March and be the wife of an accountant. Tax season, blek! But my hubs did his best despite the fact that he had to work and my kids were very stinkers most of the day. 

Hubs did make me breakfast in bed. When it came time to sing me happy birthday Mac through a fit about stopping what ever it was he was doing to have to come sing to me. And so I was a bit bummed with his attitude, but I still had my girl and my man. And a super yummy breakfast. 

After that Hubs went to work and I decided to take the kids to the store to buy them some summer shoes and Frozen. They behaved so horrible at the store that we walked out with nothing. And we came home and I put them both on their beds in their room and left them there for an hour. I was beyond frustrated. Then I decided that we were going to have some fun so I took them to the park. They were fairly good at the park. Then when daddy got home we went bowling.

We had fun bowling and I won! But Oak had a few tantrums while there.

Afterwards, ice cream at baskin robbins. I got the one and only flavor I like which is rocky road. I never eat it anymore since Mac is allergic to tree nuts and there are nuts in rocky road. Love Oak's face in the pic. 

When we got home the Bishops wife, who is also a member of the Relief Society presidency had left me these flowers. The kids have loved taking care of it. 

I was surprised that Hubs bought me some gifts. He got me a new cell phone case which I desperatly needed and an iTune card. And I thought it was cute that he wrapped it in some of the millions of pictures we have around the house that the kids have drawn.

The night of my birthday, my friend Camille offered to watch our kids so that we could go on a date. Which was much needed. We went to a southern bbq place and it was just okay. But it was nice to just be with Hubs. We had a lot of time to spare and there isn't much to do here in town so we just went to Fred Meyer and looked around. 

I first asked for brownies but then when I saw the yummy strawberries at the store I decided I wanted strawberry shortcake. We didn't get around to making it on my birthday so Hubs made it Sunday but we didn't get around to eating it until Monday because we were invited to dinner by someone in our Ward. So we actually ended up eating it for breakfast Monday morning. It was delicious. 

I thought that this was funny. I looked down at the kids' bowl and Oak had eaten all the strawberries first and Mac had eaten all the cake first. It totally fits their eating personalities. They both ended up all of it, but it just struck me funny. 

In all I had a very great birthday. I am so happy to be alive and to be another year older. 

Sunday Gratitude

I am grateful...

...for beautiful, sunny Sunday mornings.

...that my husband tried his best to make my birthday special and fun. It's hard to have your wife's birthday in the middle of tax season.

...for healthy kids. After they were sick this week, I was reminded how rarely this get sick and that there over all health is a blessing.

...for Mac's cute little Jack o'lantern smile with his missing tooth. Cutest!

...for the great park that is a two minute drive from our house. It's a sports park so it is wide open with not many trees and flat and the kids can run around and pretty far with out me having to stop them and I love the playground they can play on. The kids always find new friends and and could really play forever there. It's really nice since we don't have a yard right now. 

...for invites to dinner from Ward members. 

...for great friends here. 

...for the daffodils that I have seen all over K Falls.

...to be another year older. 

This week!

So last Saturday I took Mac to Immediate Care and Sunday during Sacrament meeting Oak was acting like she didn't feel very good. So daddy took her home and took her temp, which was low grade. He gave her some Motrin and then she perked up. For the next two days her fever would spike up to 103-104 and she would be miserable and we would give her some motrin and she then would be perfectly happy and her normal self except she started complaining just a little bit about her throat hurting. 

Monday Hubs had to drive to Eugene to drop something off and he took Mac with him so it was just me and Oak who was sick. And while she took a long nap I was able to get my kitchen scrubbed down. It rarely is clean wit hit being so small and all the meals I make. 

By Tuesday her throat looked terrible so I decided to once again make another trip to Immediate Care and sure enough after 30 minutes waiting in the waiting room, seeing a nurse for less than five minutes, another 30 minute wait for the doctor, seeing the doctor for less than five minutes, a written Rx for antibiotics and $230 later, we were told it was most likely Strep Throat. 24 hours after being on the antibiotics her fever didn't come back and her throat didn't hurt anymore. 

I bought a subscription to a children's leaning website called Starfall. Mac loves the learning games on there. We have been mostly working on math lately and this has helped especially since I haven't been very motivated to put toghether structured school days. 

The kids spent the afternoon putting together a pirate ship where they then ate lunch. Later we turned it into a movie watching fort. 

The kids were bouncing off the walls from not getting outside so we went on a scooter/bikeride on the walking path. It was much needed and a beautiful day.

Just a cool bridge and out turn around point.

Taking a rest. 

And Oak had stop by and see the horses and chickens along the path. 

This week I am not really sure Mac has eaten a single bite of dinner and he has been really tired by dinner time. We haven't been eating too late, like 6;30 because we have been waiting for daddy to get home from work. But I need to start feeding the kids earlier. 

I was really impressed with Oaks sounding out attempt at writing the word "activity" ATEVE. She also figured out how to draw hearts (inside the bodies) and she was really proud.

What Oak's bed looks like most of the time. She is a bit of a hoarder when it comes to her bed. I clean it off about once a week and it all ends up back in her bed and she doesn't like it when I try to move it to find her a place to sleep. 

Our science experiment was making Flubber. The kids were really excited to do this! And it was actually really easy to  make and really fun to play with. I ended up getting all of our playdough toys out and they had a blast for more than an hour. 

Afternoon snack was popcorn one day.

We went one evening and looked a few houses that are for sale. (We really liked one of them!) In the backyard of one of the houses was this tree. The kids had fun climbing it. 

Mac and I ended up going on a date Friday night. 

Loved that he was wearing shorts and snow boots. 

This week the kids have taken a liking to washing the dishes before we put them in the dishwasher. 

Oak wanted her nails painted rainbow. She has her one thumb back because that is her sucking thumb and it can't be painted if she wants to suck it. 

One day at the  park Mac decided to be brave and climb this. He almost gave up but after some encouragement he got to the top. He loved it after that and did it several more times. 

Love how Oak's is drawing things lately. This is a Unicorn, her bear and her. Love her curly hair. 

One of Mac's top front teeth has been loose for awhile and while he was eating apples it started to bleed so he worked on trying to get it out for awhile. 

On the night of my birthday before bed we made him work on it until it came out. He does not like the part of loosing teeth wear it comes out. It freaks him out, but he is a pretty tough kid and although crying and bit nervous he worked on it and worked on it and it came out. 

His letter to the tooth fairy: Dear tooth fairy I lulled my tooth I lost 5 teeth and I also went bowling love Mac.

The tooth fairy brought him $1.50 and first thing this morning he handed daddy the 50 cents and said this is for my tithing. Proud parent moment there. 

So Oak decided she wants to be a big girl and doesn't want to suck her thumb anymore. I told her if she can go two weeks without sucking it I would take her to the store to pick out a toy. She decided she wants and Elsa doll. She went to bed and I don't think she sucked her thumb at all but I found her like this when I went in to give her a kiss before I went to bed. At about 5:30 am the next morning I hear, "Mama, I know you said I could get and Elsa doll if I don't suck my thumb, but I really want to suck it." I went in and told her it was her choice. So she decided to suck her thumb. Then during the day she asked me to paint her sucking thumb nail because she was going to be a big girl and not suck her thumb. We shall see. I won't force her, but will try to encourage her. 

Sunday morning Oak wanted an Elsa braid. She was so happy about it she had this smile on her face all morning. And she just looked so grown up and adorable. 

Sunday Gratitude...

I am thankful...

...for these two amazing kids. They have been testing lately, especially Oak, but I love them so much and I am so grateful to be their Mama.

...for the beautiful, warm weather we had this week and all the time we got to spend outside instead of cooped up in our tiny apartment.

...for the beautiful daffodils that I saw this morning when we pulled into the church parking lot.

...to live in such a beautiful, friendly town. I can't get over how friendly people are here, and I don't just mean members of our church. Every time we go to the park it seems I strike up a conversation with someone.

...for open adoptions and the opportunity I had to help my kids put together packages for their birthmoms. Oak picked out all purple things for her birthmom's birthday and Mac picked out all green things for his birthmom's favorite holiday, St Patrick's day. 

...to finally have stamps to mail out Thank you cards and to mail pictures and notes to the kids' friends from our old neighborhood. 

...to healthy eating. We are getting back into more healthy eating again. Hubs cholesterol is back up so we are getting our behinds in gear to make sure we get it back down with diet instead of meds. 

...

Our week...

Our week actually feels like somewhat of a blur. We pretty much didn't do anything this week for homeschool except add to our bald eagle lap book. I am getting a bit burnt out on coming up with my own stuff so it has been hard to find the motivation to have school. I guess there was some learning done just not academic learning. The first half of the week was cold the second half was warm and beautiful with a little bit of sickness on the side. 

We woke up to this Monday morning and it was melted by the afternoon but still, I am so ready for spring.

The kids on their own wanted to make a bald eagle craft. They got all their own supplies and made these without any help or direction. Mac's above and Oak's below.

Mac built this car on his own. He is getting really good with his creativity with legos. 

Oak spends most of her time with a blanket wrapped around her for an Elsa cape and Mac wanted to join in like this the other night. 

One morning Mac wanted to make us all breakfast. I directed him the first day and the second day he wanted to do it all on his own. He can now make himself a bowl of homemade oatmeal with out any help at all. 

I promised the kids we could find them an art project at the store. I had a hard time finding something that didn't cost a lot. So I found these little perler bead packets that cost a dollar. Mac was great with them and could totally do them and Oak had a harder time and mostly made a mess. But we still had a fun afternoon doing this. 

Tuesday was a nice day but when we got to the park the wind was COLD. So we didn't stay long.

The next day we went to the post office to mail packages to the kids' birthparents and get stamps (finally!) then we stopped by daddy's work which is just a couple of block from the post office. After...

Since it was lunch time and we had no food at home (since I have been putting off grocery shopping) we stopped at Subway and then went to the park to play. When we got there we saw a new friend that we had recently met at one of the church playgroups. We had a great time chatting. Then just as she was leaving then a few other friends that I have met at the the play group (who are all in a different ward) showed up so we stayed, then as they were all leaving a friend from our ward showed up. So we ended up staying for FOUR hours!!! It was heavenly!

We all came home with our faces sunburnt!

The kids were so exhausted from all that playing. Oak who always has a hard time settling down to sleep zonked! She didn't move from this position for the entire night.

Mac on the other hand ended that fun day with a fever and so we stayed in the next day for the entire day and this is what my house ended up looking like. 

 I noticed tan lines on my feet and it made me happy!

Friday wasn't as nice, but Mac was feeling a bit better so we met some friends at a park and it ended up being too cold so we went to the Children's museum since we both have year passes.
Friday night our Church Stake had a family game night. So we went to that and it was so much fun and very well put together. They had rooms for different age groups for the kids and we helped out with the nursery age kids the first hour. Our kids were in the movie room watching Monsters Inc and eating popcorn. The second hour we just sat and talked with friends.

Saturday we headed to the library for their read to a dog program and Mac was hesitant to do it for some reason and he just sat and looked at books down one of the book isles. 

However Oak loved the dogs. 

Saturday morning Mac woke up with a huge sore on his mouth and few other bumps on his face. Later in the day his arm looked really bad so I ended up taking him to Immediate Care. 

Turns out he has Imetigo, which is an infection. So we got prescribed a topical antibiotic and it is doing much better but still looks bad. Doctor said it can only spread if he is kissing or rubbing his face on other peoples faces so she said we were fine to go to church and other activities.

Saturday was a beautiful and hot day. It got up to 72. When daddy got home from work we went to the park and there was finally enough wind we were able to fly the kite. 

After the park we headed over to the indoor sports field (which is at the park we always go to) and they were showing a free movie (Monsters University) and had vendors for buying food. So we brought our blanket and chairs and bought some hotdogs and watched the movie. It was fun.

On our way out from the movie the sky looked like this. 

So that is our week.

 Hoping for more school, nicer weather and better health for this coming week.