Introducing...

the newest member of our family.

Star Renee Wright

I'm a sucker and let Tessa open her birthday present early - an American Girl Doll.  I couldn't take it anymore!  She had picked out the doll and knew that it was on it's way.  What she didn't know was that it arrived a full three weeks before her birthday.  I thought we'd get away with hiding it until May 3rd but then she started asking me to check my email to see where it was.  As it had already been delivered and was currently residing in the back of my closet, I just clicked around my email a bit and said, "it's really close!" 

Anyway, we caved on Saturday and let her open her gifts from us (Star) and Grandma (an AG doll outfit).  She was giddier than I've ever seen her.  Her doll from Christmas, Lizzie, now has a sister.  Star's middle name is Renee since all the girls in our family have the middle name of Renee.  She went to dance class with us today.  They are best friends already.

Little girls are fun!

Two Down...

Notice anything different about William?

Another child who inherited my stellar vision.  I think they look snazzy.

I would post pictures from Easter but we were in Ogden and I left our camera at home (again) and although Jay took some pictures with his fancy phone he has never forwarded them on to me.  Suffice it to say that lots of candy was ingested and the kids loved Nana Bunny's Easter Egg hunt.  She has started putting money in the plastic eggs so the kids net a few dollars for their efforts.  It paid off for Henry and William, as they had not had a good behavior week and they had a few bucks to pay for their fuzz balls.

Spring is progressing.  It's been a nice, warm spring.  We aren't doing soccer so our evenings are freer than is typical this time of year.  School is winding down and we're all looking forward to having a summer break to play a little bit.

I wonder if we'll make it through the summer with William's glasses intact?  I wouldn't place any bets on it. 

Mission to Mars

Stinking Henry.  If he wins, it's all about skill.  If he loses, it's just luck.  This year he won - for the 2nd year in a row!  I woke up to him waving a sign around that said 3-Peat.  He's already gloating about next year's tournament!  That is all I have to say about the NCAA Tournament.

This week is Spring Break.  It's been nice.  The kids have played with friends alot.  On Tuesday Nana came up and took them to lunch and to see The Lorax.  They had a great time and ate way too many treats.  But that's what Grandmas are for, I guess, so we compensate with light dinners.

Today we took a little road trip to Salt Lake City.  We went to the Clark Planetarium and saw a movie called Perfect Little Planet, about a group of aliens who take a tour of the solar system looking for a place to vacation.  It was cute.  The exhibits at the Planetarium are free and we had a good time looking at them.  Tessa spent some of the money she had saved at Build-A-Bear Workshop, buying clothes for the bear she got last summer. 

A few pictures, since for once I remembered to take the camera on an outing with my children:

Here are the kids on their mission to Mars:

 Henry is trying so hard to pick up asteroid - he is apparently not as strong as he thinks he is:

 Tessa couldn't wait to see Perfect Little Planet:

March Madness

March feels like it has been super busy.  Honestly, I'm not sure why.  The calendar looks pretty full, but most families with kids have the same kind of schedule - Scouts, dance, piano, sports, school, church, friends, etc....  The list goes on.

I've gotten myself roped into quite a few school committees for the rest of the year into next year.  I'm on the School Community Council, PTA board working with the librarian on encouraging literacy, and on the Technology Committee.  If you know anyone wanting to donate money or sponsor a technology purchase for Summit Elementary School, send them my way!

Anyway, March has seemed mad but in reality has been good.  Plants are starting to come out of the ground and the leaves are starting to come out on the trees.  The NCAA tournament is almost over.  Thank goodness!  I have once again abstained from creating a bracket this year but our family bracket competition includes Uncle Philip, Emily and Sydney so there are plenty of people to give Henry a run for his money.  I hope anyone but him wins.  Maybe that's mean but, as I've said before, he sucks the life out of stuff like this and it'll serve him right if someone else wins.

Another reason that I love spring, apart from the improving weather, is Easter candy!  Easter is the absolute best candy holiday and I have a bad habit of buying and hiding Easter candy so that I can enjoy it.  My favorites are Cadbury Mini-Eggs, but I ate my weight in them at Christmas (they're not just an Easter candy anymore) so I'm a bit burned out on them.  I get my chocolate fix with M&M's and these yummy caramel eggs and bunnies that I've found.  I'm not a huge jelly bean fan, but I've found Sweettart Jelly Beans - so good.  This year I may have to make a run to the store the day after the holiday and buy up a stock of Easter candy to last me a few more months. 

Spring break is next week and I'm cautiously optimistic that the weather may, at long last, cooperate.  Usually we have crappy, cold, rainy, snowy weather during spring break but the forecast calls for sunnyish and warmish (mid-50's to 70 or so).  We'll take it and enjoy it. 

Happy Spring!

William's World

William is such an awesome kid.  He is smart, funny and clever.  We love him so much.

He can be exhausting.

Today he is sick.  Not terribly sick - woke up with a headache that was a low grade temp.  No nausea, no coughing, no anything else.  In the interest of trying to make him feel better, I offered Tylenol.  You know - the yummy, candy tasting kind.  And he cried and swooned and basically gagged it back up.  Sigh.  So I told him that he better not complain about his headache too much since he was basically refusing to take anything to help make him feel better.  I know, I'm mean.  When I offered him something to eat, he said he guessed he'd have toast, since he was sick.  I informed him that he could have anything he wanted to eat, as long as he wasn't throwing up and he looked at me like I was trying to kill him or something.  I'm not sure if he wants me to baby him a little - I'm guessing yes - but I kept him home from school and am letting him watch Star Wars so it's not like I'm not sensitive to his plight.  I just don't see the need to restrict his diet at this point.  He's probably just still holding a grudge from the Tylenol debacle of this morning.

Yesterday Jay went to have lunch with him at school.  Honestly William didn't seem too thrilled with the idea, which was kind of surprising.  Anyway, they were walking to the playground and William said, "You know, Dad, school is different now than when you were young.  It's the modern era."  Ha!  Way to make you dad feel old and confused at the same time, William.  We know all about the modern era, thank you very much.  Then, at recess, he proceeded to run around playing Cops and Robbers with some other kids.  Like that game was invented in the 21st century.

Modern era, my foot.

The Hangover

Last summer when Tessa had surgery on her arm, she had a tough few days.  She didn't react well to either the anesthesia or medication or both and she spent a fun filled 36 hours throwing up and just sick.  It was hard for her and, frankly, for me as well, since there wasn't anything I could do but hold her hair and keep her stocked with towels.

Yesterday she needed to have a few cavities filled so we went with something called conscious sedation, where she drank a medication to relax her so she could get the required work done with little fuss.  She did great during the procedure - she didn't cry or fuss much, even though it took a while.  But once again she came home acting like she had just come off a bender.  She literally threw up every hour or so.  She could tolerate small sips of water and that's about it.  She went to bed at 7 pm and was restless throughout the night, finally throwing up for the last time about 4:30 am.  It's kind of pitiful but a lesson to me that Tessa really can't handle that kind of medication well.  William had the exact same thing done a few years ago and, other than feeling a little woozy until lunch, was fine.  Not Tessa.

She's definitely perking up today.  She has eaten a popsicle and some toast and is ordering me around like a pro.  I'm hopeful that she'll be back to school tomorrow - how sad is it that she will miss two days of school for a few cavities?  Let's just hope she follows my advice and avoids drinking when she is older - something tells me she won't react well at all.

The Bee

Last week Henry participated in his last elementary school Spelling Bee.  He did quite well this year; there were 24 kids participating and he made the top 3.  I think he was disappointed not to win but he did much better than last year, where he was eliminated in the 2nd round.

It was kind of funny, actually.  He had never been in a Spelling Bee before.  He was chosen to represent his class in third grade but the Spelling Bee was the same day as his RAI treatment at Huntsman Cancer Hospital so he had to miss it.  I think he still resents me for that, but whatever.

Anyway, last year I asked and asked him when he wanted to study.  He kept putting it off. Finally, the night before the Spelling Bee, he dug out the word list and asked me to help him.  And it was horrible.  The words were much harder than he anticipated and he didn't have much experience spelling aloud so he missed alot of them.  I don't know what he thought would happen - I guess he expected the correct spelling of all the words would just seep into his brain overnight or something - but I know it was a bit of a shock to him.  So I wasn't too surprised when he was eliminated quite early.

This year he took it much more seriously.  He has practiced spelling aloud all year.  Once he got the official word that he was in this years Spelling Bee, we practiced spelling every single night.  And he did really well.  I lost count of how many rounds he made it through.  He ended up being eliminated for the word banal.  Not the most difficult word to spell but not a word used too often in conversation.  Anyway, he spelled in incorrectly, narrowly missing the final two. 

It's been interesting watching Henry this year in school.  He's always done just enough to get by in school.  Oh, he makes good grades and is one of the top students in his class but he doesn't put too much effort into it.  Until this year.  His teacher has somehow found a way to motivate Henry into putting extra effort into everything.  It's been so fun to watch. 

Just the other day, I was telling him that if he chose not to go on the 4th and 5th grade ski trip to Beaver Mountain that he still had to go to school that day.  His reaction, "That's OK.  Maybe we'll just do math all day."

That's my boy!