A New Year

It seems like after the mad rush of holidays at the end of the year, once January and February hit, I don't even think to get out the camera or write much about what we're doing on the blog. I kind of enjoy having a long, cold month of staying in the house to recover from all the festivities. We had about six really rough weeks of sickness ranging from fevers to stomach bugs to colds and back again. The kids never seemed to be able to completely shake it off until the end of February. Now I've been trying to really stress washing hands more often and eating more fruits and vegetables.

Here is a little bit of what we've been up to:

Sawyer learned to sit up on his own and has 6 teeth now! He got his incisors in first so he was our little vampire baby. It was pretty cute. He's also eating more solids, but he's kind of picky about it.

Barry took Quinton and Clara on a trip to Washington one weekend for Uncle Kirby's funeral. They had an intense ride up, traveling for 11+ hours in snow having to reroute because of accidents when it normally only takes 5-6 hours to reach Pasco. When they got there and were able to see a lot of family and celebrate Kirby's life. He passed away while serving a mission in Peru. While they were gone, the little boys and I had a quiet weekend at home. The picture of Warren on the elephant was at Wal-Mart. He wasn't too impressed.

After that weekend was when all the sickness started. We had kids rotating in and out of our bedroom to sleep on the floor depending on who was sick that day.

Clara had fun taking a tennis class in January and February. She got pretty good at hitting the ball at the end. The racket is almost as big as her! 

Then we were very excited to have Aunt Jeni come and visit for a couple days on her way to a conference in Boise. The kids love to talk and play with her. We had some ice cream cones one night and the next night we had a cookie dough ice cream "pizza" to celebrate her upcoming birthday. Then on Monday night I got to drive to Boise and have a sister dinner with her at The Cheesecake Factory. I have never tasted anything so divine as the cheesecake there!

 

Grandma Packer sent some treats with Aunt Jeni. The kids were happy to eat them.

It sure is fun having four kids and seeing how they interact. Some moments are filled with a lot of love and kindness as they play, talk, or read together. Some moments are filled with crazy intense fighting, yelling, and crying, but we try to forget those ones. One funny moment happened while we were reading scriptures one night. I was holding Warren in my lap when he showed me his finger and said, "Booger!" Not only was he kind enough to show me, but before I could grab a tissue, he proceeded to put the booger BACK UP his nose! Haha.

 Quinton is getting really good at reading. His teacher told me that first graders are supposed to be reading at 52 words per minute and he was already at 79. It's so fun to see him read big words during scripture reading. Clara is also doing really well at her sight words and sounding out new ones. 

Quinton and Clara for pink/red day at school close to Valentine's Day.

Sawyer at 8 months old.

Quinton stayed busy with learning to play basketball during January and February.  He got really good at dribbling, passing, and shooting.

We had more visitors in February on Valentine's/President's Day weekend when Grandma and Grandpa Packer, Shari, Triston, and Connor came to visit. We went to the mall in Boise (technology is a wonderful things when kids are feeling wild or grumpy), and swimming at the YMCA. It was a really neat swimming pool. We also spent time playing games like Twister, going to church, and the kids thought up all sorts of fun games. Warren cried and cried when they left.

Sawyer is growing up so fast. No more baby bath tub for him! Warren loves to have a bath buddy.

Church has also been a little hectic lately. At the beginning of the year they separated the Spanish branch entirely on its own so we don't send the kids to another ward's primary anymore, stretching our numbers pretty thin. Along with playing the organ, I'm also the 1st counselor in primary and so on a typical Sunday I play the organ, teach singing time or play piano in primary, conduct or teach sharing time, and watch the nursery kids. Barry is still the branch mission leader, but was also called as the Elder's Quorum 1st counselor and also helps on occasion in nursery.We usually have about 12 kids in primary and maybe 20 adults that come. It's a little crazy, but hopefully we can get some more people in the branch soon.