Truant

Is it still considered truant if the kids in question are being taken out of school by their parents? So far this school year, our kids have missed over three weeks of school. Not here a day, there a day, but two weeks here, another week there, and soon to be, another three weeks all over the place.

Good thing it's just preschool, right?

In the fall when Megan starts kindergarten, we won't be doing this. That is what we keep telling ourselves, anyway. We missed those first two weeks because I really missed my family in Texas, in particular, my sister. We went for two weeks, because one week just really isn't enough time to make the airfare worth it. Then, last week we went to Salt Lake City. I had a writing conference (which will be in a different post) in Provo and my in-laws were wonderful enough to host us until that started and saintly enough to watch my kids while I was at the conference. Now we will be heading back to Salt Lake for my sister in-law's wedding. It's Nathan's youngest sibling getting married and of course we have to be there. Plus, his other sister will have just had a baby--bonus!

So, pictures will be coming soon. Because I'm lazy like that. The camera is upstairs and I'm downstairs and I have to go get Megan from school (she actually attending this week!) in a few minutes.

Photo Shoot in Kirtland

I had the kids' pictures taken on Monday. I think they turned out really cute. Here are just a few.

(Obviously we need to discuss looking at the camera. Apparently, they understand that cameras have eyes and since all three have trouble making eye contact, it was similarly uncomfortable for them to look directly at the camera.)




Thank you, Katie! I love the pictures!

I'm Tired of Finding Tooth Marks in My Deodorant

Emma has an obsession. She loves deodorant. She will often go to the upstairs bathroom, hoping that a sibling or father has left the door open. Quietly, ever so quietly, she will open all the drawers and rifle through them. Once she has found her treasure she opens it. If her treasure came out of Nathan's drawer, she tries to put it on. Her attempts are typically aimed on her neck and sometimes underarms. If her treasure came out of my drawer, she bites it. It looks like this time though, after getting a little taste, she painted the bathroom counter with it.

So far today she has

run away to our neighbor's house 2x
escaped the house numerous times
refused lunch and demanded candy
stood on my laptop
stood on me
thrown dirt all over the driveway
thrown gardening bagged dirt on Jeremy and a boy I was babysitting
brought ants into the house
spat milk out all over herself
stuck light brites up her nose
stolen toys away from every sibling and child I've babysat
drawn on one of my books
thrown crayons all over our computer room
made a mess in the basement after I cleaned it up
took all the books off her bookshelf after I put them all away

and now, ate my deodorant and drew all over the bathroom counter with it.

I can hear her up there again, so please excuse me.

Easter Eve Excitement and Easter Day

Easter Eve Nathan was at Church for a meeting and I was putting the kids to bed and thinking about ice cream. Emma wasn't staying in bed very well (as usual) and I didn't want to get any ice cream out until the kids were all asleep. Jeremy kept playing with the shadows on his wall and putting his legs up straight in the air--entertaining Emma.I finally got to a point where I thought it would be safe to get the ice cream out and when I opened it I saw slush. Nasty melted ice cream soup. I checked the juice--melted; chicken--thawed; ice--water; sausage--mushy; breaded okra--just sad, sad, sad.

I opened the fridge: milk--warm.

Great.

I called Nathan at church, luckily his meeting hadn't started yet, and told him what happened. So I got on the Lowe's website and found the fridge we'd been thinking about getting. We knew we were going to buy a more efficient fridge, we just weren't sure when--now we knew for certain when that purchase would take place--in half an hour.

I ran upstairs, got the kids out of bed (still not asleep), slapped some flip flops on them, and took them to Lowe's--pajamas and all.

We found the fridge, paid, left for the grocery store to buy four bags of ice to try to salvage what we could, and went home.On the bright side--Emma fell asleep in the car and Megan, Jeremy, and I had milk and Oreos together before they easily went to bed.

So now we have this wonderful new machine. Please don't look at the messiness on the side and the fact that the cupboards behind the fridge don't have doors. Nathan had to take them off and saw the wood under them to make the fridge fit. Our house was built before the now standard size fridges.It sticks out more than the last one, but the room inside it is worth it.

Lowe's was kind enough to delivery it on Easter, since it was an emergency and they usually guarantee next day delivery anyway. I felt really bad making people work on Easter Sunday--but I didn't know what else to do. The guys that delivered it seemed more worried about missing the Cav's game though. So I guess it wasn't a big deal to them.

Now on Easter Sunday (and actually Saturday before the dead refrigerator) we watched General Conference. Most of you who read my blog already know what that is, but some of you don't, so I'll explain.(This is the Conference Center)

Twice a year on Saturday and Sunday our Church holds a General Conference, once in April, and once six months later in October. At these meetings (which we watch over the internet) we get to hear from the Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, and the apostles, as well as other leaders of our Church, including sisters who preside over the Relief Society (which is the largest nonprofit women's organization in the world) and the Children's Primary. It's a great opportunity to feel the spirit of the Lord and be reminded of what's important. This conference was especially great since it happened to fall on Easter Sunday.

If you want to know more about it you can follow the link above. You'll also get to hear The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sing!
This might look a little more familiar to those of you who are only a little familiar with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That's actually Nathan and me on our wedding day.

Those of you who aren't familiar with our Church or maybe hear something and have questions, feel free to ask me anything and I'll answer anything you've got.

Of course we did Easter baskets for the kids, too. We don't have a picture of Jeremy finding his, because Emma was too excited and brought it out of its hiding spot in the fireplace as soon as she saw him coming down the stairs. She ran it over to him, too excited to let him find it. I'll get pictures of kids in their Easter clothes later, too. I still need to find Jeremy a new tie. . . .

Emma's basket was hiding behind her diaper box

Megan's basket was hiding in the pantry


Sorry for the incredibly long post. It was just such an exciting weekend!