Monday, March 25, 2013

Media Fast

I think the Lord has been trying to talk to me lately - to get a message through... and I think this is the message he's been trying to send:

Turn off the computer/phone/Kindle and be in your life.

Yesterday in church, our bishop read a letter from our stake presidency asking our stake to have a "media fast" the week before General Conference. And then, today, I ran across THIS post. Yup - he's been trying to get through to me. I am actually looking forward to the media fast. I think it will be harder than I anticipate. I hope to help the kids fulfill this as well & get creative & have more fun & get more done, though I admit that I am a bit worried about nap/quiet time when the girls usually watch a movie while I try to get a little nap in after being up multiple times in the night with the baby or one of the girls.

And, yes, the irony is not lost on me that at this very moment I am using a computer to type this blog post. But I wanted to document this & also let people know that if they want to reach me next week the best way will be to call :)

The fast starts this Sunday & goes till conference. Wish me luck!! :-)

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

February Newsletter & Slideshow

Slideshow:


A couple cute videos:




FAMILY:  February was a great month. Here’s what we were up to: Ireland & McKinley completed their tumbling classes & did terrific! Jason & Heidi continued to switch off at sacrament meeting with the girls. Our good friends, the Dixons, moved to Oregon this month & it was sad to see them go, but we wish them all the best of luck in their new dental practice. Valentines was a lot of fun. That morning daddy gave mom some red roses and the girls each got a white rose and a card from dad. Mom also made love notes for everyone & wrote out Jason & Heidi’s love story. And Heidi decorated Jason’s mirror with chocolate kisses and streamers. Daddy made pink pancake and we had strawberries & pink smoothies. At school, Ireland & McKinley passed out My Little Pony Valentines with chocolate hearts inside. They brought home a LOT of candy, too J That night, Hannah Blackwell came over to babysit while Heidi & Jason went to Rusty’s & had a fabulous steak dinner. It was wonderful. On the 17th, we headed down to St. George for some family time & fun in the sun. Patrick & Kiersten & their family were at the Hamiltons & we all enjoyed a yummy BBQ and then we slept over and went to the park the next day. We all got a little sunburned – the weather was so perfect J On the 18th, we all went over to our new neighbors, the Vogt’s, for Mahina’s 6th birthday party. They painted Hello Kitty masks & cupcake magnets & we all even got to make our own pizzas & have some cake. It was fun to be able to get to know them a little more. On the 23rd, all the girls went to Ella Strand’s cowgirl birthday party. They had a lot of fun making horse necklaces & eating cake & ice cream.  On the 24th, Grandma & Grandpa Devenish & Hayden stopped by on their way down south & we had a good visit. On the 25th, Jason did a wonderful FHE on the Plan of Salvation. It ended up taking over an hour, but was really good and neat & the girls learned a lot.  The27th was our appointment with Mary Murray, the Pediatric Endocrinologist who came down from Primary Children’s to St. George. It went great & Link looks to be free & clear & shouldn’t need any more follow-up appointments. Hooray!! Our other big news is that we got an annual family pass to the Cedar City Aquatic Center! Yay – lots more working out and swimming in our future J  The girls also found a lizard in the basement & brought him up. We named him Leonard the Lizard & he was fun to have around, but ended up dying after a few days.  A funny thing that happened:  We were all in the girls’ room saying prayers. Ireland was saying her prayer & Kezia whispered to her to bless her can foot. It just such a funny request that mommy started giggling & before we knew it, we were all laughing & having a very hard time finishing prayers & being reverent. It turns out that Kezia means to bless her toe that had been smashed by a can a couple months ago J A few bummers this month: Our water heater was leaking & we had to replace it. Thankfully, most of it was covered under our home warranty. Also, our clothes washer stopped working & we had to order some new springs & install them. Sweet Diane let us come to laundry in the mean time. It works, but still leaks L Snow blower also has had some issues.


JASON:  February was Jason’s month for teaching Young Men’s & the topic was the Plan of Salvation. He really put a lot into it & many nights stayed up past midnight preparing his lessons. Jason also had fun on an overnight trip with the young men to Ruby Inn, near Panguitch. They had fun hanging out and going cross-country skiing in the morning. 

 HEIDI: Heidi finished the Biggest Loser program at the end of the month. She didn’t win the money, but she lost about 15 pounds, so all is well! She intends to continue to eat real foods & exercise. A lot of the month was spent preparing our home for Link’s baby blessing the first Sunday in March – she cleaned windows, baseboards, organized closets and cupboards, etc. It was nice to have our home so clean & organized.  She was sick for the last part of the month – congestion, sore throat, sore ears, She’s feeling much better now, though.  She is reading a book called Walk Two Moons & has really enjoyed it. When they were in St. George, she went on a 6 mile run in a t-shirt and it felt great. Looking forward to warmer weather! She also had fun getting her craft on at the end of the month & made a St. Patrick’s wreath for the door and some shamrocks and a banner for the fireplace.

McKINLEY:
-At the beginning of the month, McKinley had the opportunity to give a talk in primary. She talked about the plan of salvation and how we each have trials. She talked about how Nephi had trials and she talked about Link and the trials he went through. That same day, she was able to sing “I’m trying to be like Jesus” in Relief Society with some girls from her primary class – Kiersten, Olivia, and Brenna. Everyone said that she did a great job!
-McKinley really had a great time at tumbling. Now she’s deciding if she really wants to do gymnastics or try something else – like girl scouts.
-For our book to read at night, McKinley picked “The Little Princess.” Mom & McKinley have had a wonderful time reading it together. We’re almost done!
-One day mom was frustrated & said “McKinley – why are you being so disobedient? You were so helpful this morning!”  McKinley said “Well, I used it all up!”
-Link was jabbering & McKinley said excitedly “Mom! Link said his first word! He said ooooooh – like oooooooh, I like your dress!”
-When we went to St. George for Link’s appointment, McKinley complained that her ear was hurting. We gave her ibprofin & that seemed to help, but she woke up about midnight saying it was hurting really bad & was up till about 2am just sobbing & saying “it still hurts!” We took her to the doctor the next day & she did have a bad ear infection in one ear and almost one in the other ear as well. It was still hurting her for the next few days & she took ibprofin a few times. She missed a couple days of school, but is now feeling lots better.
-McKinley earned a date this month & decided to go roller skating with her dad. They had a great time & stayed out late getting ice cream & going to Walmart to buy soil & seeds. They bought carrots and flower seeds & they have been growing really great!
-She was SO excited to have all her family here from both sides for Link’s blessing. She could be heard to say multiple times a day “Mom… I’m just SO excited to for Link’s blessing to have everyone here! I just CAN’T wait mom. I just CAN’T!” She did do a countdown chain to help with her excitement.
-McKinley still struggles with the desire to go to school. Most every day she complains about not wanting to go. After a lot of discussion from mom & dad, we decided to sign her up for North Elementary next year, where they are doing the STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) program. It’s definitely going to be a sacrifice on our part because she won’t be able to be bussed, but we might be able to do some carpooling & we feel like it will help her desire to go to school & be challenged.
-McKinley also struggles with fear at night –and for some reason she has a hard time talking to her dad about it. She will come into our room at night & only want to talk to mom. She fears that with all the windows, someone will be looking in and she is scared of “bad guys.” Mom has tried to comfort her and even read her scriptures about fear, but she continues to be afraid. One of the only thing that helps her is when Ireland lets her cuddle with her.

IRELAND:
-Ireland is just absolutely obsessed with her baby brother. She really is. We are still constantly trying to help her understand that even babies need some “personal space” once in a while. In most of her prayers, she prays that Link’s pancreas and leg will get better, and when Camri was playing with Link, Ireland said “be careful of his pancreas, Camri!” She did a paper at school that listed the things that she loved & she said she loved her baby, her mom and her dad and her dogs, but mostly she loved her baby. And she has said a few times “Mom – we have a REAL baby, right? He’s a REAL baby!”
-Ireland did GREAT at tumbling & at the end was REALLY close to doing a cartwheel all by herself!
-Ireland earned a date, too, and wanted to go roller skating like McKinley. She went with mom & they had a great time. She fell down a lot, but she was one determined girl & kept getting back up. She did great! Then mom & Ireland went to Dairy Queen for dessert!
-We went to the library & mom told Ireland she was just taking Kezia to the bathroom & would be right back (she was reading a book). Well, apparently, Ireland didn’t hear mom & panicked when she couldn’t find her. She went wondering around, crying & just broke down when mom finally found her. Mom will do better next time with making sure Ireland is listening.
-We had playgroup at our house one day in February & there were a few babies. Ireland went up to one of the moms & said “Do you wish your baby had as big of cheeks as ours does?”
-Ireland is so hilarious when she’s watching McKinley play the Wii. Mom videoed it the other day. She never plays it, but she loves to cheer on McKinley & will be jumping up and down & shouting “Watch out! Go the other way! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! I can NOT watch!”
-One day at lunch, Ireland asked “When is Heavenly Father’s birthday?”
-After President’s Day weekend & we went to St. George, Ireland started to feel yucky. She had a temperature of 102 & when we looked at her throat, it was incredibly swollen & yucky. We went to the doctors & sure enough the strep test came back positive almost the second she started it. We decided to go ahead & get the penicillin shot. Ireland was so brave & only cried for a second. Then she walked around for the rest of the day, pulling down her pants & showing everyone the band-aid on her bum from her shot J  She missed a couple days of school, but is feeling much better.
-We just really appreciate how great Ireland is at getting ready. She usually gets ready so fast & willingly for school in the mornings & she is usually the first to come when she is called. She is usually really good at playing with her siblings, too.
-Ireland still is so cute with her I LOVE YOU notes & stick pictures. And she REALLY wants us to see them every day, so she tapes them to our wall for us.
-Ireland earned FIFTY penny points (“yes mom”s) and decided she wanted to use them to go on the merry-go-round at Walmart. She had a lot of fun J


KEZIA
-One day, Kezia shouted from the bathroom “Look mom! It’s a J for Jason in the toilet!”
-At Walmart, Kezia said she had to go potty, so we headed to the bathroom, but Kezia got there before us & we couldn’t find her. She wasn’t in the girls bathroom, so mom called into the men’s bathroom & sure enough, there she was!
-Kezia has had a hard time staying in her bed at night. She comes into mom & dad’s room at random times of the night – usually at least a couple times a week. One night, about 4am, she came in and said “There’s a HUGE whale in my bathroom!” She was really scared & mom had to take her to the bathroom & show her that there wasn’t a whale. She picked up a killer whale toy from the tub & said “it was this one! It was HUGE!” Another time she said she dreamt that she fell off the back deck L
-Kezia is getting really good at taking off all her clothes AND getting dressed completely by herself, too!
-She is still working on figuring out how to buckle herself into her new carseat, but she’s getting close!
-Kezia still LOVES playing with her My Little Ponies. Mom won’t hear from her for over an hour & she’ll find her upstairs, just happily playing with her ponies. The second Ireland comes home, it’s “C’mon Ireland! Let’s play ponies!” and they are so cute when they play.
-We had some time, so Kezia got to ride on the merry-go-round at Walmart. She had so much fun!
-She still is working on using a big girl voice instead of going straight to a scream or whiney voice.
-Everything seems to be a contest to Kezi to see who can win first. She will run to her bedroom & try to be the first to get her jammies on. And at the table, she will shove the food in her mouth & say with a full mouth “look mom! I win!”


LINK:
-Link continues to grow and do so well! According to the Pediatric Endocrinologist, unless he gets super-super sick, he shouldn’t have to take ANY more steroids! Yay! She also explained some of symptoms of diabetes, but we are still hoping that we won’t have to deal with that & it probably wouldn’t happen till he was around 10.
-Sometimes when Link is fussing, it SURE sounds like mama!
-Link is really getting to be a pro at his jungle gym. He can make the sounds go & grab & hold them. He’s getting great at the bumbo, too, and will just hang out while mom cooks. We also bought him an exersaucer this month & he is loving it! He can really play with the little toys & hang out! We also tried the jumper this month & he likes it. He hasn’t quite figured out the jumping part yet, but he loves to just hang out. He still struggles with tummy time, though. He can lift his head quite a bit, but he gets really mad after only a few minutes.
-Link loves to hold his hands together and suck on his fingers. He’s also gotten good at grabbing hair J
-He still is eating every 2-3 hours and naps every hour and a half to 2 hours. He doesn’t have a BM for a few days and then wow!! He explodes and ruins whatever outfit he is wearing!
-He does pretty good in the car, but on the way back from St. George, he was really overtired & screamed for about 30 minutes L
-He does love his binki!
-Link still sleeps okay at night, waking up a couple times, but there were a few nights that he was up about every hour & that was a bit rough!
-He is getting good at rolling to his side – we think he’ll make it all the way over pretty soon!
-He is really smiling a lot and laughing a lot J He loves his baths, too!
-Link’s birthmark has really gotten dark! It’s on his left leg & at birth, it was barely visible, but it’s REALLY dark now.
-Link was congested a lot of the month & had a really hard time breathing while he was eating L
-Link’s right eye continues to be clogged & goopy L