Yesterday we enjoyed a meal planned, shopped for, and prepared by Eric.  It was a requirement for cub scouts.  He planned for hot dogs and bacon to be cooked on the grill.  He planned a veggie tray, chips, and apples, and for dessert oreos and chocolate dipped strawberries.  It was very good and enjoyed by all of us including Brock.

Today is Fast Sunday as next week is General Conference and Easter.

Last week I missed an entry because Scott and I were on our way back from Moab.  Friday we took Samuel to Dan and Brandee's house.  Shannon Norton took Eric and Rubie home and then took them over to Dan and Brandee's that evening and Scott and I headed to Moab to celebrate our 11th Anniversary.  Scott had rented us a great, spacious condo.  We met up with the Buscio's, and Scott's Red Rock Running team.  As part of the team there was Kevin, Vince, Shauna, and a new-comer to us, Katie.  We all were there to run the Moab 1/2 marathon the next morning.  We had a delicious pasta dinner on Friday night at the Buscio's.  Saturday morning the race started at 10:00 a.m.  A late start for a race but nice because it was cold in the canyon.  Although by the time we started running, the sun was up and we all warmed up very quickly.  So much so I had to shed and lose a hat, gloves, arm warmers, and jacket.  The gloves and arm warmers were just the cheaper ones that I get for a couple dollars but my jacket was an expensive jacket that I have had for 10+ years.  Lesson learned there.  Next time I do a race like that I'll get a cheap sweatshirt that I don't care about giving up.  The race was good and I was mostly pleased with me time of 1:44.  I ran most miles give or take some around 8 minutes.  If I had someone to run with I might have been able to push myself a little more, but I felt like I had pushed myself and felt good with me effort at the end.  Scott came in after 2:30.  He ran a lot of the race with Vince and after a lot of walking decided to just go ahead.  After getting the group together and some recovery we thought we might go mountain biking (and Kevin had taken all of our bikes in a trailer).  But after we all showered and ate we ended up at the Buscio's and visited for such a long time that we kind of lost that window.  Scott and I wanted to have the night to ourselves going to dinner and just being in the condo.  So we went to this fabulous sushi restaurant that I hope to get again.  Sunday we wanted to sleep in late and hike or something in Moab but alas, Brandee had plans for Sunday and that didn't include keeping our kids all day.  So we had to get right back.  That was ok and I am so thankful she took our kids for all that time, but we then went as a family to Chuck-A-Rama for dinner.

So Scott removed one side of Sam's crib because he keeps climbing out and I'm afraid he will fall and hurt himself.  But just as my fears have confirmed, he does not want to sleep now.  He has gotten out of his bed very early each morning.  This morning he did get back into bed, but he won't take a nap.  He is ornery and he is DIFFICULT!  He better figure this out soon because this is becoming a serious life interrupter.  On a positive note he is becoming so talkative.  He is telling me very serious things that most of the time I cannot understand what he is talking about.  But it is fun to see that development in him.

I was really proud of Eric today.  We have encouraged him to fast at least one meal since his baptism.  Since Church is during lunch time he has breakfast and then begin's his fast.  Today he wondered why or what purpose he should fast.  So that allowed me to talk to him and some things that he could fast for.  On his own he chose to fast for better patience with Sam and Rubie and help in school especially remembering his math facts.  On his own he wanted to know how to end his fast, so after Church he went to his room and had a prayer on his own.  He is such a great boy.  He is really developing his own testimony.  Nothing makes me happier.

Abigail Adams celebration

Rubie's thoughts on the Abigail Adams celebration:

It was kind of fancy.  I like that James escorted me.  I like the dance.  I liked when we got to eat.  I liked that I got to dress up.

On Friday Mrs. Soderstrom's and Mrs. Sievert's 1st grade classes had their Abigail Adams celebration.  They had read a book about Abigail Adams.  The kids dressed in colonial style clothes.  Girls wore colonial costumes or nice dresses (but not halloween dresses and costumes).  The boys made their pants look like colonial style knickers and had a lacey collar.  We ordered a colonial style dress for Rubie on Amazon, with a matching bonnet.  She looked really cute and authentic.  She loved it and wore it all day.  Each boy was assigned a girl to escort throughout the day.  They were shown how to hold their arm and the girl placed her hand on his arm.  James and Rubie were paired together.  The mom's prepared a meal of ribbon sandwiches, fruit and veggies, and butter cookies.  They had been learning about manners and had a chance to practice them.  The teachers then taught them a colonial dance and let them practice the dance.

In Eric's class they had a store and got to spend their Davis Dollars.  Eric spent some of his dollars to shop for something for Rubie and something for Sam.  He is so thoughtful!  They still wanted to play with his other stuff when he got it out and he was annoyed by that.

There is not much else that happened this week.  I had visits with Natalie Rasmussen for a massage and Dr. Makin to help with the soreness of my whole right side upper body.  I don't exactly know where to pinpoint the pain, but it is getting bad.  Today I'm really sore.  I need to stretch it and do some foam rolling.  But the how is a disaster and people need to be fed and Sam won't nap and is outside on the driveway drawing with chalk.  We did go to Ben and Cassie's yesterday afternoon to celebrate Addie's 3rd birthday.  Rubie had been playing with Kiana and had a whole lot of toys out, outside.  She got so mad when I told her it was time to put them away.  Not only is the front room now full of all these toys but even more because she threw a fit and started throwing around more things.  That was very frustrating.

"Sam"

Samuel has been learning to talk so fast, and grow and do so many things.  I wish each day I would write them down so I can remember.  A couple days ago last week he started to say, "Sam.  Samuel."  "I Sam."  That is the first time he has said his name.  He went through the names of everyone that he knows.  I asked how old are you, he said, "Sam, 2 year old."  It was so cute.

Some other things that he says: obey, fight fire, park, doctor, cold cereal, cool new socks, show, movie, do-do (doritos or doughnut), ball, b-ball (basketball), Buzz, park, slide, swing.  He knows a lot of words now and is starting to put them together in phrases and short sentences.  The last few weeks he has shown that he really loves his daddy.  When Scott comes home he wants to be with him, wants Scott to play with him, carry him around, he wants to show him things.  It's cute.

He is conscious of going poo in his diaper.  He will run and hide somewhere and then come and tell me he has poo.  Maybe potty training isn't too far away.  He loves being with the kids.  He hates it that at night I don't let him cuddle with EE, Rubie, and Daddy.  He just won't lay still and lays on everybody and keeps Eric and Rubie awake.  He had now figured out how to climb out of his crib.  I have not seen it yet, but he just shows up in another room when I left him in his bed.  He wants to ride bikes but doesn't have the patience to learn yet.  I hope that this summer I can get him going on the balance bike.

He loves cold cereal and asks for it as soon as he wakes up in the morning and then asks for it all morning long.  He loves cheetos, crunchy ones and cheese puffs especially (cheesy dibbles--like the Penguins eat).  He loves M&Ms and often grabs a bag at the store before I know it  He also loves peas and sweet peppers and will eat broccoli and cucumbers, apples, pears, grapes, and melons.  He loves hot dogs and chicken nuggets and often wants to go to Yah, yah (McDonalds--I still can't figure out why he calls it that.)  He loves the nuggets and fries there.  He is a junk food eater, but will also eat most fruits and veggies too.

Burn, Instacare, sick girl, stick bug, Idida-read, Karate Tournament

I missed an entry last week due to a Young Women's board meeting and loads of homework and reading that the kids--mostly Rubie had.  And again, here we are on Saturday afternoon and Rubie still has some homework and reading to do.  Mostly the reading is because her class has started the Idida-Read.  Mrs. Soderstrom does this every March to match the Ididarod sled dog race in Alaska.  The kids are to read as many minutes as miles of the sled dog race.  I was actually very nervous for this with Rubie.  But so far she has had a good attitude about it.  What has helped is that from doing this with Eric last year, I learned do not try to read all your minutes in one sitting each day.  Break it up.  So right away I have been having her read 10 minutes in the morning before school and in between whatever is going on for the day.  Also, we can do some games or other type activities that Mrs. Soderstrom has suggested with spelling words.  That helps Rubie as well.

This week I have gotten derailed from my workouts and I have have really reflected on what my goals should be fitness wise for this year.  It is common for me to have to be really aggressive with my time in getting the workouts in.  It is hard when so many things come up and I can't get cleaning and laundry done and we are always scrambling to get homework in.  I like to be able to accomplish what is important and required and I get grumpy when that does not happen.  That is one of the hardest things about parenting for me is getting the kids to do what I think they should--mostly homework and 1 of 2 jobs around the house.

Monday we started off okay.  But when Samuel and I returned from grocery shopping he promptly burned his hand by sticking it on the tailpipe of the X-terra.  He just screamed and screamed.  I knew it was bad because of how he was acting.  He is usually pretty tough and calms down fairly quickly from getting hurt.  I ran his hand under cold water and put the doTerra oils on.  But he was still screaming.  I held him and turned a show on for him but he was not calming down.  I said a prayer asking for guidance.  At that moment our pediatrician's office called to remind me of our appointment the next for a physical for Eric.  After the reminder I asked her what I should do for Sam.  She asked a nurse and came back on right away saying to go to the ER.  What a tender mercy to have a prayer answered so quickly.  Again another testament that the angels are watching over my Samuel.

Samuel and I went to Instacare right away.  The wait was much longer that it needed to be.  I think we waited almost an hour to get in and they kept saying there was just 2 patients ahead of Sam.  A nurse did look at his had right away to determine if we should stay there or go to the ER.  She thought we were fine there.  She gave him some ibuprofen and after about 20 minutes of Sam crying in the waiting room brought us a cold pack,  That helped him calm down and he fell asleep in my arms.  The doc put some ointment on him and wrapped his hand up.  She said to take him to the pediatrician the next day to have them look at it.  She said we might have to go each day this week because of blistering and keeping it clean and wrapped.

The next morning we had an exciting wake up as we woke up police, ambulance, and fire department at the Platts/Adams.  Brother Adams (Josie Platts dad) had fallen.  They were all trying to get into the house and couldn't, I ran over to give them the garage door code.  We had to keep track of the dog, Spice.  Samuel quickly got his fire fighter hat and went to "Fight the Fire."  He was so cute!!  After they got Brother Adams all taken care of the firefighters, Cody Jolley and partner, came over to give Sam a badge and put him in the truck.  Oh my goodness he was in Heaven!!!  It was so cute!  All day he talked about the fire truck and fighting the fire.  He was so disappointed when he was taken off the truck and they had to drive away.

Then Carlee texted me to let me know she was on the way to the doctor because her incision was infected and she couldn't take Sam for the day.  I could still go to swimming class but by then I wasn't quite ready and Megan Parker in the ward needed a babysitter for her little girl and then Rubie called saying she was sick and wanted to come home.  So after Megan's little girl left we went to get Rubie instead of helping Mrs. Soderstrom in the classroom.  So for the next two days Rubie was home and that keeps me very busy.  And then the kids were out of school on Friday.  I tried to workout but of course Addie Huddleston comes over and then we met some other AHS families (Norton's, Rowley's, and Soderstrom's) at Kangaroo Zoo to play.  The Norton's were going to come over here but Eric and Rubie ended up over there.  That gave me about 30 minutes to exercise.  I have got to commit to eating really well because I am not getting as fit as I would like to be.

We went over to the Harrison's for dinner last night.  They just moved into a beautiful home on the other side of their ward.  It really is a big, beautiful home and I am really happy for them.

This morning Eric, Rubie, and Brock had a karate tournament.  Scott is gone to army today and tomorrow.  I tried to get me workout in early this morning and got in some of it.  Now I'm trying to clean and get some laundry done.  I had Rubie, Eric, and their friends Kiana and Brock out on the porch a few minutes ago cleaning the door and cleaning up rocks and dirt that Sam had made a mess with.  I'll be getting Sam up in just a minute and the friends are still here and somehow I've got to clean a few more bathrooms, get the kids to do more reading and pick up some toys.  "Sigh."

Oh, the stick bug.  Rubie got a stick bug from Mrs. Soderstrom.  She has named it Stick.  Today she and Kiana tried to sale tickets for people/kids to come and have a look at her baby stick bug.

We actually got some winter weather this week and it was weird.  I think it came on Saturday or Sunday the snow started.  But then today is beautiful and most the snow is gone and I keep making the kids go outside to play.  We even went to the park after karate because Sam wanted to so badly.