Student of the Month

Jane received the student of the month award this morning at school. She was so proud, and so was I. Her teacher really thinks highly of Jane and loves that she is self motivated and always well behaved. The school provided a little breakfast for all of the kids and parents.

Here she is shaking hands with the principal.

Jane with her teacher, Mr. Philips.

We're so proud of our Jane!!

Bruce's Last Pinewood Derby

Last night was Bruce's last pinewood derby. He moves up to 11yr. old Scouts in August. His cousins, Brodey and Sayre, and Aunt Jill helped him out with a cool car. What was even cooler was that his cousin Ethan has recently moved to town so they got to run their last pinewood derby together.

The result, Ethan got 1st place and Bruce got 2nd place!! Last year Bruce came in last place so he was really excited! It was fun.

Jane's Health

So a few weeks ago Jane said there was blood in the toilet when she peed.  She continued to have blood in her urine each time she peed that day. The next day she had a lot of pain when urinating. 

 So I took her in to the Dr. They did see traces of blood in her urine and they assumed it was a urinary tract infection and started her on antibiotics. A couple days later I got a call saying the labs said it was NOT a urinary tract infection so to stop medication and just let her know if it ever happens again.

 So, last Sunday she was peeing a lot of blood again. The next day she had pain when urinating. Today we are doing another urinalysis and getting kidney ultra sounds done this afternoon. Depending on results she may refer us to a kidney specialist.

RESULTS:

Yesterday I took Jane down to San Diego to talk to a Urologist that had reviewed all of her test results. He didn't seem overly concerned, but he also still has no idea why there was blood in her urine. It could possibly be her body just working something out on its own. The ultrasound of the bladder showed that there were blood clots floating around in her bladder. There really is no explanation for it right now. He'd like to have her do an ultra sound again with a full bladder and one more blood test, just to be on the safe side.

I'm not too worried about it anymore. I don't think we'll ever really know why that happened. In the meantime I'm trying to help her eat better and drink more water and maybe that we'll help.

Growing Up

My kids are growing up and it is so fun!

We NEVER have to take a stroller anywhere,

diaper bags and baby toys are a thing of the past,

I can now take all 4 kids to the beach by myself without being completely stressed,

we can ride almost all the rides at amusement parks because everyone is getting tall enough,

we can sit through movies at the movie theatre without ever having to stand in the back with a kid that can't sit through it,

we make it through sacrament meeting with all of the kids EVERY week and never have to take out a crying child,

everyone goes to school now,

everyone can read,

all the kids have slept through the night for years,

they kids can all make themselves breakfast and snacks,

this summer we'll only have one kid left in a booster seat,

the big kids can sit in the passenger seat,

they're getting old enough now that Robert and I can leave them home alone for short periods of time,

and all of the kids can pump their legs on the swings without me having to push!

It's fabulous and having all of my kids so close in age, I really am just loving it all! Robert and I have worked hard to get to this point! :)

But, there is one thing I never counted on missing as my kids grow up. The other day Bruce fell down and got hurt. I went to pick him up and realized that I couldn't pick him up and hold him! He was just too big for me to lift. So, the thing I'm discovering that I really miss as the kids continue to grow, is holding them. You'd think I'd be tired of holding kids after all of these years, but I really have loved it. I hold Claire as much as possible now since she is my last and when she outgrows it those years will be gone. Hold you kids, and enjoy it! It won't last forever.

Happy Valentines Day!

The kids had fun making their Valentines for their school class. Well, the girls did anyway. Bruce wasn't very into it this year. Guess he's growing up. This will be the last year he'll make Valentines for school because he will be going to middle school next year.

Claire was excited about all of the Valentines she received!

Jane's favorite Valentine was this cool mustache. :)

Bruce may not have been very in to making Valentines, but he loved all of the candy he got. :)

Linda's favorite Valentine was a BFF necklace from her friend. She's been wanting one of these forever.

When I got home from getting the kids from school I found roses and my favorite candy bar on the mantle. We were confused because Robert was supposed to be at work still. The kids searched and searched the house to find daddy hiding in the closet. He parked his car around  the corner from our house and surprised us!! :)

This Year, So Far

Had a fun, but very quick trip to Gilbert, Arizona for the temple open house. The kids were so excited. The temple is 4 stories high and larger than the San Diego. Very beautiful. Bruce rushed ahead of us so that he could be the first kid in our family to enter the temple. It was a great experience. Bruce said he had all of his questions answered. :) On the way home they all sang, "I love to see the temple, I went inside today!!" It made me look forward to when they're all 12 and we can be in the temple together again and makes me pray even harder that we can all make it to the celestial room together one day as a family when they're grown.

Our landlord is having someone come out to completely redo our backyard and also some of our front yard. We're really happy about that. He raised our rent a bit so that he can have a gardener come and take care of the yard. It's worth it to me to never have to worry about the yard again. We're signing on for another year here.
Robert just got called as 1st Counselor in Elders Quorum. His toilet cleaning days are over! Still an aspiring body builder.
I gave a talk a couple weeks ago. So happy that's behind me. New Beginnings is also over. It went really well. I'll get some pictures up one of these days. It was really cute. This past Friday was our camp fundraiser. We did a dinner, dance, babysitting and silent auction all in one. It was so much work!! But, we raised all of the money that we needed so I THINK it was worth it. :)


Bruce is a busy kid. He does a JAVA computer programming class before school on Mon. and different class before school on Wed. He also plays basketball and is learning all the rules. It's fun to watch.

Linda likes being Vice President and helping plan school activities. Her speech has improved so much this year. The R will be mastered my middle school. I know it. She has been playing tennis. She likes it and it's a good fit for her.

Jane plays for her school soccer team. Turns out she was the only girl from 2nd or 3rd to sign up. The first game went really well and she even got a goal. Jane wants to do every sport. Lately, Jane wants to be a ballerina. She talks about her baptism a lot, even though it's pretty far away. She always wants to look at the Pinterest board I made for it. :)

Claire is really doing well at reading. She loves school and holidays bum her out because she doesn't want to miss out. She started gymnastics and goes on Fridays. She is sad she can't go more than one day. It's a great sport for all of her endless energy and strong body. She continues to make Robert and I laugh. She has a big personality and is very confident in herself, wherever she is.