Other January

Someone got a little creative with all the snow-

Still lots of sledding going on around here:

Dallin's ear drained for almost ten days...

 Surprisingly, with the countless number of ear infections and ruptured ears that my children have had, I've never noticed hearing loss with any of them before, but Dallin had a really difficult time hearing for a few weeks- I'd be talking to him and he'd just walk away or completely ignore me and it took awhile for us to realize that it was because he couldn't hear!

Jace rockin' the helmet 😊

Since Jace and Dallin have literally handed off the ear infection baton every two weeks since Thanksgiving weekend, we got Jace's hearing checked- it was adorbs

He passed with flying colors... so it's official, he can hear but just doesn't listen *snort*

 Jace found one of his brothers watches lying around and quickly commandeered it- "Mom!  It's my video watch!"

He's drawn to wheels of all kinds:

Above the clouds one evening:

He's getting pretty creative with his cubes:

Cub Scouts

Dallin and Eli's last pack meeting was a series of relay races- it was so entertaining to watch the boys, and they had so much fun!

Eli and Eli in the wheelbarrow race:

 

Hailee had wanted to participate, so this sweet boy from the other ward (who isn't even in cub scouts anymore) partnered with her- he was so patient and fun with her =)

 

 

Dallin and Parker:

 

He was such a good sport!

 

 

 And he's adorable.  They should totally get married someday *wink* 

Backseat Driver

We haven't seen the ground since Thanksgiving weekend.  And December was crazy crazy cold with consecutive weeks where the temperature didn't rise above 20°.  And the snow just kept coming.  And piling up. And Snowing.  As a result, I've driven very slow for a long time.

The "warmer" weather this week has brought some melting, especially on the roads- Monday morning, the main roads were clear, so I was driving normal speeds on the way to school-

Jace:  MOM!!  Swow {slow} down, swow down mom!

... I explained that the roads weren't snowy and icy so it was okay, but he wasn't convinced and continued to admonish me to "swow down".

A little down the road, a car pulled out in front of me and proceeded to go about 2 mph so I had to slow way down...

Jace:  Dat's wight mom, go swow, dat's bett-oh, dat's bett-oh mom.

I just had to laugh.  Jacey knows best!

Princess Buttercup

Mimi surprised Papa with a puppy for their {fiftieth!!} anniversary 😊  They named her Missy, but I call her Princess Buttercup.  The kids are all in love (except for Hailee of course!) and ask daily if we can go see her...

Again?!?

Sunday morning, Dallin complained that he didn't feel good.  *sigh*  He still had a residual (but impressive) cough from being sick most of December, but I wasn't super convinced that it was something new.  Nathan told me that when snowmobiling the day before, he did spend a lot of time just laying in the snow... as evidenced by the picture below:

Dallin is the horizontal lump 😡  

Sunday night around o'dark thirty, he came to my room in tears... his ear was killing him.  Ear pain is intense, but there is so little you can do for it!  After being miserable for a few hours, it finally ruptured and he had a brief respite... until the other ear started hurting... Obviously, he was in no condition for school that next day.  He spent most of the day on the couch like this:

Waiting and hoping that his other ear would rupture already so that he could have relief from the pain!

Since he had missed 2 weeks of school in December due to anemia, pneumonia, ear infections and such, I called his teacher to let him know Dallin would be out for another day or two or three.... he was as disappointed as I was that poor Dal was sick again.

Back in December, with his spleen acting up and lots of blood draws and doctors appointments, we talked a lot about how eventually he'd have surgery to have his spleen removed... we have a very open dialogue and he asks really good questions.  Upon the course of discussing his enlarged spleen, we discussed why he can't play contact sports (because it could rupture his spleen and cause internal bleeding) and how important it is for him to tell mom or dad immediately if he has abdominal pain- not to wait until school is over or until mom gets home from work, etc because if his spleen ruptures and we don't do anything about it, it could be life threatening.  He seemed pretty alarmed by this (obviously), but I reassured him that IF his spleen ruptures, it won't kill him instantly 😌  but that it's a serious thing that shouldn't wait.

So anyway, fast forward to Sunday night, his ear ruptures.  He came to me several times, very concerned in the wee hours of the morning because of the drainage out of his ear.  His concern increasing each time.  I kept reassuring him that it was fine, that the drainage was what happens when your ear ruptures, there was nothing I could do about it, to just keep some tissue or cotton in his ear, etc. By the time I got the other kids off to school, his level of alarm had reached panic level- he was near tears and not sure why I wasn't doing anything!  And then it occurred to me- he's aware that his spleen rupturing is a very serious thing- does he think that an ear rupturing is as critical?  He was so relieved when I told him that the drainage is just the infected fluid from inside his ear (and the reason why his ear was hurting!) and that the copious loss of ear fluid in no way endangers his life.

He was out of school until Wednesday.  Just in time for Eli to start up...

*sigh*

He ended up with pneumonia on triple antibiotics and was pretty miserable for several days.

I've lost count on how many rounds of antibiotics my kids have had in the past month and a half...

Snowmobiling

While mommy's at work, the kiddo's will play... Nathan and the kids all went snowmobiling at Perry's Saturday while I was at work- they had a blast!!

 Hailee and Daddy:

Bryson was able to drive himself, which he though was amazing:

Jace with Daddy... and Dallin on back:

Jace's Reading Lessons

My last little one to teach to read... it's all so bittersweet.  My copy of Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons has certainly seen better days- it's in about 5 peices, but it just has to make it through one more kid *grin*

Jace showed the same initial interest, followed by resistance when it gets challenging that some of my others had shown... I know I don't always remember all the details of my past experiences, but it did seem like a bit more work for a while... like he just wasn't getting it.  At all.  He couldn't remember sounds, he couldn't hear what he was sounding out, he had next to no reading comprehension...

And then one day, whalah!  He just got it.

I am blown away by how quickly it just clicked- especially with how sporadic my efforts have been...  We're maybe on lesson 30(?) and he flies through the lessons more independantly than my others at this point... I think *grin*

Most importantly, he's enjoying it (the treat he gets afterwards I'm confident is a motivating factor)- he excitedly tells me it's time to do his lesson and brings me the book- he see's letters in his world and sounds them out- and he is getting a great start for kindergarten next year!

And on a related note... as an update, I still can't confidently say he's fully potty trained (#2) yet- mostly because as soon as I do, he'll have an accident.  Seriously.  But he's maybe 90% there.  It's progress.  Way to make me work for it Jace and ensure you're my last *snort*

Adding to His Repertoire

Of the many facets of his personality, Bryson's love for music was one of the first to shine through.  From the earliest of ages he loved music and musical instruments- much more so than with my other kids.

So he started out playing the trumpet in 5th grade band.  He wanted to switch to french horn, but I wasn't going to pay to rent an instrument when I'd just bought a trumpet and we already had a sax (and I pay for piano lessons!)... so he switched to saxophone.  Half way through 6th grade, he added the baritone sax, or "bari" as he refers to it.  It's huge.  But the school had one he could play.  So Wednesday night, he told me that his band teacher wants him to try to pick up the bassoon.  Seriously?  The bassoon?  Squirrel!

But then I remind myself how much he loves music, and so hey, why not?  Maybe it'll grow into something amazing!

He brought it home the next night and as usual, paraded it for all to see *grin*

He seems pretty motivated to learn the fingerings and embouchure and has actually surprised me by how much he's been practicing!

A New Low

N.E.G.A.T.I.V.E NINE DEGREES

As we leave for school every morning, the kids count down the temperature as it drops from the garage temp (somewhere around 35 degrees) to the outside air temp... This particular morning, when the reading was somewhere around +5 degrees, Bryson confidently stated that there was NO WAY the temp was below zero... he was way off *wink*

Brrrrrr.

A thick layer of ice has formed on the roof under the snow....

Snow Days

The snow just keeps on falling.  This year was our first real experience with drifting since we moved out of town- THAT was fun *sigh*  but we made it through.

The dogs love to attack the snow as it shoots out of the snow blower- it's hilarious to watch *grin*

 

They end up with snow plastered all over their faces!  

Hailee and Jace discovered a 'snow fort' of sorts-

Rubik's Cubes

Bryson asked for a rubik's cube for Christmas.  What's better than one rubik's cube?  Nine rubik's cubes!  I may have gone a little overboard, but the kids (and I!!) are having so much fun with them *grin*  Word to the wise, don't take apart a rubik's cube unless you absolutely have to- just sayin'...

Dallin has absolutely been the most motivated to solve the cube... we've spent several hours online looking up different algorithms and the different steps to solve the puzzle.  They are way more complex than I ever realized and would never be solvable without a guide for me!

On more than one occasion, Dallin almost had it solved, when a long algorithm completely messed up the block- he was SO SO frustrated!  Almost to the point of tears.  But he just wouldn't quit!  And then, finally...

He is relentless- he's almost always got a rubik's cube in his hands nowadays- even when he's doing tech, he'll have one nearby and switch between the two...