2019 chapter 43

Friday night I thought: we're having good weather, that's not going to last, we should take family pictures, so on Sunday we did. The joys of being a photographer. The difficult part - doing it yourself. Had someone come press the button, and I didn't check enough, so they didn't all turn out amazing  - most of the good ones of us just looking at the camera there was a weed in Jac's face and they're not sharp. Oh well. Other great part of being a photographer, we can do again next month! And, Stella decided to join our family again this year, so she got to be in our picture. 

Love this tickle shot (even thought it's blurry) cause it's us! We have a family tickle fest a few times a week. When will they be too old for this? Never. We will always force them to be tickled, just maybe not in a family picture in their teens. And I love the shot of us playing pato, pato, ganso (duck, duck, goose in Portuguese, or duck, duck, grey duck here in Minnesota). Bryan played this witht hem for over 45 minutes last night - he is so good at playing with them, it's impressive.

Stella had to ride with us in the car (duh) and she was the biggest celebrity. Fights broke out. She was a little mauled.

If you want more proof of Stella being in our family:

Jac and her have a bond. This is in the garage, Stella comes out to greet us and Jac has to stop right there and give her loves. I cut Stella's hair today. I did it. Last time I did it she looked very chemo patient, did better this time...still room for improvement.

Girls also got their hair cut this week!

Cut off their baby hair and 70% of our tangles mess. Also, room for improvement, but who's ever jealous of a 4 year old's hair cut anyway? Good enough. And fewer tangles.

Folded laundry. Yeah, that's making it in the week update. It had been probably 3 weeks. I don't know. Time doesn't exist in a black hole. It got to the point where I'd look in my underwear drawer, then the folded basket of clothes, then the pile of whites on the bench in our room, then the fresh washed load in the floor. Took me 2.5 hours to fold and put it all away - I did clean up my closet and refold the drawer too (cause since they were basically empty they had turned into chaos).

Went to put Wade's folded clothes away and I thought he was sleeping, so I'm quietly putting them away and he says hey and I asked him why he was still awake and he said, "Cause I just counted to one million. Want to know how I did it? 100, 101, 102, 103, 104, 105, 106, 107, 108, 109, one million. Did I miss any numbers?"

Girls made pictures and put them on the wall to make our house "Pooky!" 

And Wade made a "Pooky" house that has bats on it and witches and people and furniture. He might have caught my dollhouse obsession! 

And Wade made everyone "Pooky" masks. 

 It was MEA this weekend (Minnesota education association....?) Thursday, Friday, and Monday off. How have I had Wade home with me his whole life and now 5 consecutive days together was so hard? We've got a new dynamic during our days, and throwing Wade back in was fun for the girls for day one, but then they were all kinda done trying to get along. It was cool. We went to parks (hooray for good weather!!) and they'd all throw a fit when I told them we had to leave after being there for more than an hour. We'd go to stores and they'd be fighting 2 minutes in. Every time we got in the car they'd all have to fight over their seats. But, it was still fun. And he was so glad to go back to school.

We made cinnamon rolls (WITH BACON!! I don't think they will be made without bacon ever again). The kids have been asking for them ever since. At least they'll be extra excited for them Christmas morning. I also shared them with a few friends as thank you's for some help I've gotten, and now I'm know for my cinnamon rolls - people who didn't try them have brought them up to me, cause in a week apparently word has traveled around. I'm not surprised.

The girls came down in the mornings and Blake said in the sleepiest voice "Baacoon" as she gazed lovingly at the cinnamon rolls.

Wade told me about how he and his friend sang the wheels on the bus, while on the bus! To tell me this he had to sing the song, only way to tell the story. Then he had to go back to sing the verses about specific things their bus driver did while they sang, but again, had to sing it - "when we sang, 'the horn on the bus goes honk honk honk,' then Nancy honked the horn! And we sang, 'the wipers on the bus.' And so on.

One of the parks we went to. Second of the day. Stayed 1.5 hours. Whined when we left. But, it was super cool. Had a zip line, that Jac wouldn't try it, while Wade and Blake figured that if they went together they could go more.

And they had cool climbing rocks. 

Wade figured out how to sound out and spell CAT and DOG! And now he write it on everything. And he write's his C's backwards. 

Cut down the sunflowers and trimmed all the leaves off so the kids could build with them - then I left them out for them to "discover" and they were so proud of themselves and their clever, clever idea. Why isn't Jac wearing shoes? And Blake's face is so good. 

I've hosting another craft night tomorrow night (several people have said they can't make it last minute, very annoying!) and Trunk or Treat on Friday (I need to make 5 dozen treats). Decided to order the girls dresses and I need to alter them a bit, and make Wade's costume (recycling bin. He's so weird). But the chaos of this month is ALMOST DONE! And I'm already thinking of all kinds of project to start next week.

Started the Book of Mormon again - I used to keep track of how many times I've read it, but I lost count. Very first chapter I was reading how Lehi praised God so much, and I thought, "do I do that?" The answer is no. I really don't. I do say what I'm grateful for and I try to be specific in my prayers and through out my day, noticing my blessings - but when my prayers are full of passion, it isn't when I'm praising God, it's when I'm pleasing for His aid. Made me think of how I am very much a teenager in my relationship with my Heavenly Father, which, isn't the worst thing - through experience I know I can rely on Him and trust Him and expect His support, but it's all very me centered and there is great room for maturing.