First Train Ride

This week, UTA did 2 free fare days. We had talked about taking the kids on FrontRunner so that they could have the experience of riding on a real train. Well, a free fare day was the perfect day to do it! Dad came home early from work and we went to that train station. P3 loved wandering around a little too much for my enjoyment. I was glad when the train finally showed up!

We rode the train to the next stop, so it was only a ten minute ride. P3 wanted to walk around the whole train and was mad that I wouldn't let him. The kids all seemed to enjoy the ride.

We got off at Station Park to look at some stores and get some dinner. P3 loved all the walking!

We went to Best Buy, and the kids enjoyed playing the Nintendo Switch there. P3 found a toy grocery cart that he dragged all around the store. He wandered the entire store without ever looking back to see if someone was following him.

 

We had dinner at Cafe Zupas. The food was delicious, and even P3 ate his sandwich (although he wouldn't eat his fruit which is what I thought he would eat!).

The train was a little behind schedule, so we had to wait in the cold. Probably not the best thing for my cough. But it was a fun adventure, and the kids enjoyed our outing!

 

Feb. 25 - March 3

After P1 came home from kindergarten, he was complaining about being bored. This is not normal for him; he is great at entertaining himself! Well, I was thinking about family home evening, and so I asked him if he would make a treasure hunt for FHE. Now, we are pretty simple when it comes to FHE. We read some scriptures and have a gospel discussion. I don't normally do visual aids or object lessons. But, we were going to talk about "treasures in heaven", and I knew P1 loved treasure hunts so I put in charge of the activity. I didn't even tell him what the lesson would be. 

Well, P1 left to start planning but shortly came back and asked if the lesson would be on "treasures in heaven". I was surprised, and told him that yes, that was the lesson. He then went on to tell me how he had a lesson on that last year in Primary, and he wanted to teach the lesson! He wanted to print out little books for everyone, so I helped him print out some images. He hid the images around the house as part of the treasure hunt. He also drew pictures of Jesus, and hid that as the final treasure (unbeknownst to me). And he made a key of faith to unlock the treasure chest. He was so excited to teach the lesson, and he kept asking if it was time for FHE. P1 did a great job when it was finally time. He read the scripture to us, and taught us about treasures in heaven. And then we went on the treasure hunt. I was super proud of him!

P3 loves to play on the top bunk. Fortunately, he can't climb up there by himself (yet). He is such a big kid at heart, and loves doing big kid things.

P3 loves to get on the computer. He watches his siblings do Upstart, and he really wants to do it too!

P1 and P2 had another visit to the dentist. Last time, P2 did great and P1 struggled. This time, they swapped, and P1 did great while P2 had a hard time. P1 was finally able to have the bitewing x-rays done. He has always struggled with these, and was never able to do them. So this time I bribed him. I told him I would give him $1 if he suffered through and did it. He still had a hard time, but he pushed through it and did it! Great job P1!

P3 loves to walk. He will walk forever if you let him. He tripped a lot on our walk, but he wouldn't let me help him at all. He would just pick himself back up and start walking again. He doesn't care where his destination is, he just loves to walk!

P1 and P2 collected "treasures" on our walk. At school, P1 was given a neat rock which he thought might be a dinosaur fossil. That day he really wanted to go on a walk and discover more things to collect.  

P1 lost his first tooth! And he accidentally swallowed it! It has been loose all week. Dad noticed it was missing during lunch on Saturday. Poor kid was a little distraught that he ate his tooth. But now he thinks it's cool to have a hole in his mouth that he can use a straw to drink through. 

P3 wanted to "talk" on the phone the other day, so we called my sister. He was adorable, and would jabber and then kiss the phone. He would wave his hand and say "bye". If you ask him to say "Hi", he will put whatever he is holding up to ear like a phone. We've been working on getting him to say "no", "yes", and "more". We know that he can say those words, he just normally chooses not to.

I've still been sick all week, but slowly getting better. My supervisor called during the week to talk about a project, and since I could barely talk, he told me to not worry about anything and just rest. I am grateful for my super flexible job!

Feb. 18-24

I am so ready for Spring! I have been sick all week and I would love some nice warm weather. Most of the cold has gone away, but I have been stuck with a nasty cough and no voice. And every time I had to venture outside to take kids to school, it would take me two hours to recover, and then I would have to go back out to pick them up! I haven't been able to yell at my kids this week, which you would think is a good thing, but it's not. Sometimes you just need to "talk loudly" to get your children's attention. Like when your child walks right in front of a car! Granted, he was on the crosswalk, but I wasn't 100% sure that car was going to stop. Thankfully it did, but I sure felt helpless.

The kids made it to school this week, but otherwise we just hunkered down. My dad came mid-week and dropped off some Costco dinner supplies. It was nice to have some easy meals for a few days. Thanks Dad!

The kids "forced" me to play a lot of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild this week. P2 is always asking me when I'm going to play Zelda. I probably overdid it, so one day I decided to not play the whole day. I stayed strong and resisted the temptation, even though I had 3 little munchkins begging me to play. It really is a fun game though, and I'm glad I can enjoy it with my kids.

This afternoon, we heard sirens and suddenly we saw a fire truck drive by. I looked out the window and saw a fire hose in the middle of the street. I figured that was not a good sign. So we rushed out, and the house two doors down from us was on fire! The garage was in a full blaze. The firefighters were just in the process of turning on the hoses, so we got to watch them put out the fire. You could feel the heat from our driveway. They put it out pretty quickly, but the garage was a total loss. The whole neighborhood turned out to see what was going on. A few people had heard that it was a single level house burning and they were worried it was our house. It sounded like no one was injured though. But that was a pretty scary thing to see so close to home.

https://kutv.com/news/local/firefighters-on-scene-at-fully-engulfed-woods-cross-garage

P2 and P3 playing with Play-Doh:

I love watching P3 play with dolls and action figures. 

Dad made muffins for breakfast, and the kids loved them. P3 tried to eat his using the beater, silly kid!

Sunday dinner at grandma's house. P3 loved the ice cream and kept begging for more.

The kids were playing London Bridges with grandma, but P3 treated it more like Ring Around the Rosie. It was pretty adorable.

Feb. 11-17

P3 likes to sit on the counter while I make breakfast.

P3 reading and/or destroying books: 

We enjoyed a much overdue play date with our dear friends. When we became friends, we each only had 1 child. Now there are so many, with more on the way! We enjoyed decorating and eating heart sugar cookies. 

Poor little P3 fell down a whole flight of stairs while we were there. He does well with stairs at grandma's house, so I thought he would be fine. But then we heard the terrible sound of a child crashing down the stairs. Poor kiddo had at least 3 goose eggs, and he was pretty inconsolable.  After an hour or so, he finally started playing again.

P2 wanting to share her artwork with the world:

P1 and P2 were really excited about Valentine's Day! We printed off Pokemon Valentine's cards for P1 and Princess ones for P2. We attached fruit snacks to them. They both had a fun day at school.

The kids enjoyed getting cards and treats from grandparents. We gave them each a toy. A red-eyed tree frog plush for P1, a Jasmine lego set for P2, and a Transformer for P3. I even made heart pancakes for breakfast, heart PB&J sandwiches for lunch. I even cut up a few cucumbers into hearts. For dinner, we had our traditional Stouffer's lasagna.

P3 and I went to P2's preschool party. The kids sang some cute songs for us, and then we had lots of activities to do. P3 loves coming to these!

 

The next day, P1 woke up sick. I'm glad that it was after Valentine's day, or he would have been so sad to miss school. Poor kid was pretty miserable, even with medicine. His head hurt a lot, and he had a pretty good fever. Well, I came down with it too, and it was awful! I barely slept Friday night because my head hurt so much. And it continued all day Saturday. I have never had such a bad headache before. My brain felt like it was going to explode. 

We had Cream of Wheat for breakfast, and P3 loved it. But I am sure the 3/4 of it went on his pajamas. And then he started to just eat it with his hands. So messy!!!

I'm glad P2 didn't get sick, because she was invited to a birthday party on Saturday. She has been very excited about it, because it was for a friend we haven't seen in a while. P2 was brave, and stayed at the party without mom or dad. She had so much fun and was telling us all about the rest of the day.

Kids playing games together on Sunday: