Rough Week

This picture of Ben pretty much sums up our week:

We had to drop Grams off at the airport to go back to AZ Tuesday morning and seriously, how could we not all be sad and cranky!? She was the glue keeping us all together and sane! On the bright side, the drive to the airport was completely non stressful- no bad traffic, no bad weather. And the night before we had a nice last dinner with Grams at Culver's where I discovered the tastiness that is Twix ice cream. 

Since Grams left we have all been passing around some sort of virus- fever, chills, headache, drowsiness- super fun stuff. I got it the worse on Thursday and that was a really hard day. On the bright side I have a sweet friend who brought my family dinner that night and another sweet friend who offered to help with some things that I needed to get done for the baby shower I was co-hosting Saturday. And on yet another bright side, it meant we were home and available for someone to come fix our dryer so it no longer rumbles and shakes the whole house and I was also home for someone else to come and fix our sink so it now drains water instead of holding unto it FOREVER. So see, good things happened despite the bad things.

On Friday Penny was tired of being cooped up indoors with all us sick ones so we sat on the porch and got some fresh air:

Saturday was the the day of the baby shower I was co-hosting for my friend Laci. I still wasn't feeling great but I could not miss the shower that I had put so much effort into so I went (and probably shared my germs with all my friends, I am such a terrible friend). But it turned out super great. The decorations that my co-host was in charge of were super cute. I was in charge of the food and it all turned out yummy (thanks to excellent people who helped me out) and we all drew pages for an alphabet book for Laci's baby girl and that was a total hit (even though my late night diaper notes were not so much). Seriously a fun time and now I feel so relieved that it is all done. Steven's birthday, his baptism, this baby shower...finished! Now maybe I can just relax and get over being sick!

Snowy Days

On Sunday I made the grave mistake of giving a nude Penny a dry erase marker and not supervising her (or her brothers who were also in the room). When I came back into the room Penny had colored her whole body and her helpful brothers had colored her face. They gave her a Rudolph nose and angry eye brows. It was pretty silly! 

On Monday I totally goofed and missed my dentist appointment. I was out grocery shopping when I got the call. For some reason I had got it in my head that my appointment was on Tuesday even though the reminders and even my calendar all said Monday. Ugh, I am suffering from some major mommy brain, but thankfully it all worked out in my favor because they ended up rescheduling me for Tuesday :) 

So on Tuesday I suffered through 3 cavity fillings, and had a fun overly numb face for several hours. I will never like the dentist. 

That night Steven went to his first scout meeting (not counting the couple of months he went to our local scout troop). He was super cranky about going because he wouldn't be able to play Minecraft that night but he ended up having a blast. He got to make paper airplanes and other such things, perfect fun for him. He has a great scout leader and I am sure lots more fun is to come!

Steven also got a late birthday gift from his Aunt Tara this week, a super awesome Lego set:

Wednesday Penny had her 18 month check up. She now weighs 22 pounds and is 32.25 inches tall. At this appointment she was more traumatized by getting weighed and measured then by getting her blood taken. We also found out she had an ear infection. I was a little peeved because when we took her in to a different doctor a couple weeks ago he said her ears were fine. I am pretty sure they weren't because now that she is on medicine for them she is FINALLY sleeping good at night and she is so much less cranky!

After the appointment we decided to grab a bite to eat at The Cheesecake Factory. It was snowing and we figured that might deter people from coming. We were so right! There was no wait and the service was fast. Best most tastiest decision ever!

That afternoon the snow just kept on coming and when it was time to pick up the boys from school the roads were awful. It was stressful getting to the school and I was so worried I wouldn't be able to make it back home. I said lots of prayers and thankfully my prayers were answered. At least 3 cars got stuck in the snow trying to leave the pick up circle but thankfully I had no problems. I made it home easily and safely!

When the snowstorm finally ended, we had at least 12 inches of snow on the ground. That meant that school was cancelled Thursday. Grams and I spent that morning shoveling snow, it was quite the work out. Then we joined Laci, Wesley and our next door neighbors for some sledding. We went to a snow hill at the boy's school and the boys had a blast! The girls, on the other hand, did not. Lucy was just in a cranky mood and Penny did not enjoy it when the snow touched her face.

They ended up cancelling school Friday as well. I'm not sure why since we weren't getting anymore snow and the roads were all clear. All I know is it mucked up our plans to go shopping with the girls. We decided to go anyways since there was a fun play place there to offer as incentive to the boys. Unfortunately we only made it through 2 stores with the 4 kids when we were ready to call it quits. Double unfortunate, the play place was under construction. There were lots of tears and frustration and it was a long drive home. We did end up going to McDonald's which made things somewhat better.

That afternoon the kids played out in the snow. Steven found making a fort to be too much work and gave up after making only 6 bricks. Benny, however, did not balk at the task of making a snowman and he ended up making a pretty cool snow wolf:

Saturday the weather warmed and the snow was melting so we took a walk to the bakery. The kids all shared cookies and me and Grams had yummy muffins. That evening Grams and I went out to the Olive Garden. It was crazy busy but with no kids, the wait was totally doable. We stuffed ourselves silly and then walked it all off at Target. We scored some awesome things on clearance there, the best deal was by far the $3 jacket I got for Benny!

Steven's Baptism

Steven's baptism helped me to realize how blessed we are and how many good friends we have here. Leading up to the baptism I had so many people offer to help that I ended up having others to make the cookies that I had previously planned to make myself. That meant all I had to do was bring something for people to drink and since that felt like too little, I ended up making my bean salsa just so I could feel like I was doing my part.

We got there nice and early which meant I wasn't stressed out and it gave me time to mentally prepare myself for the talk I was giving. We ended up with a good turn out, not too many people that it was overwhelming but not so little that we felt unloved.

We kept the baptism simple. We were lucky to have Tyler's friend Chris Chappell presiding and conducting (he also works at GM). The opening song was "I Know my Father Lives", then Grams Hatch gave the prayer and then Poppy Hatch gave a talk on baptism. Poppy directed his talk at Steven. In the beginning he asked Steven what the purpose of baptism is and Steven said it was to wash away your sins and get the Holy Ghost and when Poppy asked for another reason Steven said, "That's all I got!" Poppy did a good job helping Steven to understand why he was getting baptized and what he was promising and he also did a good job expressing his love and pride for Steven. Made us all teary. 

Then it was time for Tyler to baptize Steven. His friend Mark Brandley and Poppy Hatch were witnesses. After he was baptized we all returned to the room to watch some LDS videos while we waited for Steven and Tyler to dry off and change back into their church clothes. The movies we watched: a depiction of John baptizing Jesus, "I am a Child of God", and "Families can be Together Forever." 

After they came back it was my turn *gulp* to give my talk on the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost definitely came to my aid and I didn't feel super nervous. Maybe it also helped that I had Steven come up to read some scriptures for me and Penny kept coming up insisting that I hold her.  Our sweet nonmember neighbors had come and I told a story about how she had been an answer to one of my prayers for comfort and I got her crying which got me crying. Despite my tears and troublesome Penny, I feel like the talk went well and I hope Steven got my message. If not he can read it here again sometime or maybe be reminded by the things I gave him during the talk: choose the right, know the Holy Ghosts voice and then he came help comfort (blanket), guide (lantern) and teach you (scriptures).

It was then time for Tyler to confirm Steven a member of the church and give him the Holy Ghost. In his circle he had: Poppy Hatch, Mark Brandley, Mike Hansen and Chris Chappell. He asked Heavenly Father to bless Steven with a good memory of this day and what he felt and what was spoken. He blessed him with a desire to get to know our Heavenly Father and to speak to Him and to do what is right. Tyler blessed Steven to have the knowledge that our Heavenly Father loves him and that he will turn to his Heavenly Father when he is in doubt.

Then we sang "When Jesus Christ was Baptized", and Grams Brady gave the closing prayer and it was time to eat and socialize and take pictures :)

Ben and Lucy claim they were squinting because the sun was in their eyes but the sun was not in their eyes...

And here are the Baptism pictures my friend took:

Fun Times

Last week the kids had off Monday and Tuesday for mid-winter break so after getting the grocery shopping and house cleaning out of the way Monday, we went and had some fun at Chuck E Cheese on Tuesday. Steven was obsessed with getting tickets and would play any game that gives him lots of 'em. I was quite impressed with how many tickets he made from skee ball. Penny loved riding on all the vehicles, although she always had a deadpan sort of expression, except in the picture below...

Wednesday school was back in session and that evening the kids got a visit from their Grandma and Grandpa Hatch, they were excited to have them here! Only the girls were a bit weary of Poppy Hatch. When he tried to talk to her for the first time she said, "Sorry, got to go!" and ran away from him. It was pretty funny. Thursday and Friday the boys ditched school so we could have some fun with their grandparents.

On Thursday I left Penelope with Grams Brady and the rest of us went to the GM Renaissance Center in downtown Detroit. We grabbed a bite to eat there. While getting food I dropped my wallet without even realizing it and someone was kind enough to use my driver's license to find me and get it back to me. I am so stinking lucky! After eating we went on a free tour of the building. The tour guide had a monotone voice and he tried to cram too much information into one tour. Needless to say the kids were not entertained (Lucy spent most of the time rolling around on the floor at every stop) but they did enjoy the view from the 71st floor, even if Steven was a bit nervous about the height.  

The kids endured the unexciting tour well so we rewarded them with some ice cream:

After eating the ice cream we took a ride on the people mover:

Despite the cold we took a look out over the Detroit river at Canada. The kids thought it was cool that their was a patch of ice on the river and Steven was desperate to try and break it with a rock, only he couldn't find a rock. When we got to the street he finally found a rock and he had to run back to throw it at the ice. He was very disappointed to find out his little rock had no affect on the ice.

We headed back to our house after that and Tyler's dad was so disgusted by the dirty state of our van that he and Leslie went and got it detailed. It really was disgusting, apparently so disgusting that the staff at the place fought over who would have to clean it. I must say though that I am quite enjoying driving in a clean van right now. I just wonder how long it will stay that way.

Friday morning we went to on the Ford Rogue Factory Tour. You take a bus to the factory and the first thing you do is watch a movie on the history of the factory. Penny was trouble during this movie but the rest of the kids did really well. Next there was a 360 all senses movie about the process of making the Ford F-150. It was really interesting and visually stimulating but it was also really loud. Lucy about fell out her seat at one point because a loud sound scared her and Penny got to crying over the loud sound. 

After the movies we went to the top floor of the building and got to look out at the whole factory and learn about their living roofs. Then came my favorite part, seeing the factory in action! It was cool to see the assembly line, how they have everything timed down to 1 minute tasks and the kids especially loved watching the robot arms put on the windshields. The only bummer was when we were halfway through we found out the factory would be closing down in 5 minutes for lunch so we had to rush through the last half.

Pictures were not allowed for most of the tour, except at the top of the building and in the lobby where they had some cars on display.

When we were done with the tour we grabbed a bite to eat at the Henry Ford Museum. This was not the most pleasant experience because it was Penny's nap time and she was cranky and she also decided to become part monkey and kept trying to do risky climbing moves on chairs and high chairs alike. As punishment we had Poppy Hatch hold her ;)

The weather was so nice when we got back home that we decided to take a walk to the bakery and then go to the park. 

That night Tyler returned from up North and so we celebrated all of us being together with some dinner at a local restaurant:

Birthday Fun

Last Saturday Grandma came to town! She came just in time for Steven's first ever Blue and Gold Banquet. The food was good and the company was fine but those are not the most exciting things ever. Tyler and I both were in charge of running a hero training course at the end of it and that was definitely the highlight and most fun part of the event. 

On Sunday the kids got in some good snuggle time with their Grams:

Monday and Tuesday were pretty uneventful but Wednesday Steven turned the great big 8! That morning he HAD to open his presents and could barely handle waiting until after he had eaten breakfast. Between both sets of Grandparents and us, Steven was spoiled: 

Benny, without any prompting, even made a sweet note for Steven (it says "I love you. You are cool.") and insisted on giving Steven one of his own dollars:

I volunteered in Benny's classroom that morning and then went and took Steven out from his class and out to lunch at Subway. He was not feeling very chatty and was super quiet but then he was introduced to emoticons and had a blast sending every single one to Tyler.

That night I made Steven's favorite "white noodles" and then Grandma took him to DQ for dessert. It was such a cold day that they were the only ones there. To reward them for venturing out in the cold, they gave them a balloon:

Thursday we took Penny to the Doctor, she had been acting super cranky, had a fever and a runny nose and was not sleeping well at all. I thought maybe she had an ear infection but she didn't. Turns out it's just a virus and we have to wait it out. I'm so tired of waiting it, I miss sleep :(

Saturday morning was Steven's Minecraft super duper party! 4 friends from church and 1 neighbor came (Max, Liam, Gavin, Coloton & Dallin). The beginning of the party was chaos! I had the boys make Minecraft faces to shoot with a Nerf gun and I was also letting them make Creeper faces on green balloons and doing this apparently made them cRaZy!

So when most of the kids had arrived I we played Minecraft BINGO to try and calm things down. Thankfully that worked perfectly! They all calmed down and they really enjoyed it so we played 2 rounds. 

After BINGO we did the Creeper bean bag toss and pin the tail on the pig. Steven had a meltdown when we did pin the tail on the pig because he didn't want to be spun around or blindfolded.When he finally let us blindfold him and spin him, he then cheated because he could see under it and then was upset when we called him out for cheating. The whole situation was aggravating but at least his friends still seemed to have fun.

After all the games the kids played with Minecraft Lego's and they played Minecraft on the XBOX. Steven was still being a stinker and was upset that he couldn't have a controller the whole time. I really hope his friendship skills improve soon....

 After play time was food time! Steven's favorites: Corn dogs and Cheeto's! 

And then cake and present time:

This kid was seriously spoiled rotten and he was not super appreciative of it all so this may be his last big bash for awhile... But despite his stinkerness, the other kids seemed to have a blast so...go me :)