My Dad's the Greatest Dad

It's true that my dad is the greatest dad, but today we're talking about my girls' dad.  Their dad is the greatest dad and made this past week and a half AWESOME for them! 

The day before my birthday, we had a snow day.  The girls and I had a blast playing in the snow.  On my birthday, Braden came home early and took the girls outside and played for 2 1/2 hours.  It started with pulling them on sleds around the yard...

 ...and ended up with making the greatest snowfort ever!

After I took those pictures, he added a slide, which made for a ton of fun the next day when we had 14 kids in our home!  I loved seeing my friends!  And a few days later, he made a recliner and foot rest.  Fun!

 We had Spring Break this past week (early, I know) and it was his goal to do as many fun things as a family as we could.  We went out to dinner, went swimming, went to the Bounce Depot, and on Friday night, he created an in-home movie theater for the girls, complete with movie bucks so they could buy from the concessions stand...

 ...that he set up and made this awesome costume for.  The girls loved it!  We had borrowed a projector from our friends which he set up in the basement, blacked out the windows, and put Christmas lights down the stairs to make it feel more real.  While we watched "Lady and the Tramp" he made s'mores for everyone because after the movie...

 ...it was an indoor campout!  He set up the tent for Keara and Taryn and hung out with them until they fell asleep.  It was a dream come true for Keara.  And they loved having the tent up for 2 days so they could play in it!

But the best part of the week, for me, came today, when I saw the best part of Braden.  This morning, I had to get to church early to practice a musical number I was participating in.  I left a little after 8:20 with Mazie, leaving Braden to bring the three older girls by 9.  When church started and progressed all the way to the speakers and he still wasn't there, I was a little worried that maybe someone got sick and they were going to have to stay home.  Pretty soon it was time for my musical number and they still weren't there.  After we were done, I went into the hall to call him.  I noticed I had missed his call at 9:30 but I called 4 times and never reached him.  At that point, I thought maybe someone had split their head open and he had to take them to the ER.  So I sat down for the rest of the meeting, and as we stood up to leave for class, they walked in!  Their cheeks were red, their hands were cold, but they were smiling, and they had a tale to tell!

After loading the girls in the car (and doing their hair in beautiful braids...impressive), he noticed that we had a completely flat tire.  He tried to get the spare off the bottom of the car, but it was rusted on, so no good.  After a half hour of trying to figure it out, he finally decided they would just walk to church.  Thankfully it was only 18 blocks, but hey, it was 18 blocks!  With three little girls!  Keara and Taryn rode their bikes and he and Avery walked.  But Avery couldn't keep up, so he had to carry her.  Keara's training wheels kept shifting, so she finally gave up riding, which meant he had to push her bike along. 

I was SO impressed and SO grateful that he didn't just throw in the towel and say "Oh well, guess we're not going to church today."  Instead, all 4 of them had to sacrifice to get to church.  He set a great example to me and to the girls of the importance of attending our meetings, and doing whatever we need to to be where we need to be.  I am so grateful for that. 

Over dinner, he decided that next time, he'll take my bike and the bike trailer and get there in less than 45 minutes...

Oh And...

We still haven't gotten any snow.  We've had gorgeous weather, trick-or-treated without coats, and went for a walk around the lake tonight.  I love it!  And I check the weather every few days to see the status of the snow forecast, which keeps changing.  A couple days ago, we were predicting snow on the 6th and 8th.  Tonight, it shows no snow in the next 10 days, but instead 40s and 50s during the days and 20s and 30s at night.  At least we're getting a longer fall to make up for our long winter last year!  It has now been over 6 months since we last saw snow.  I'll take it!

There it is...

I checked the 10 day forecast and there it is...the first forecasted day of "snow showers".  Of course it is in 6 days (on the 26th) so a lot could change between now and then, but we're really entering this new season.  Are we ready!?!

We Love Family Visits!

My brother's family drove out here from Colorado for the week before Memorial day and we LOVED having them! They have 3 teenage sons and 2 younger daughters (6 and 3). Keara and Taryn were in heaven, both with the girls AND with the big boys. They love their cousins. And I absolutely love how my teenage nephews play with their little cousins. They are great guys.

We took them to the lake on a very windy and not so warm day (too bad the gorgeous weather came the day before they left).  My brother brought his human rubberband to play with.  It is SO fun!  Kai got the girls together to play with them after the adults had their fun.

Such great girls and fun cousins!  We definitely miss them!

On Memorial Day, we ran over to the splash park between the rain episodes for some water fun.  I was surprised that the big boys wanted to come along, but we all had a GREAT time.

Of course, the big boys enjoyed the water gun sprayers...even if their opponent was 1/3 their age and 1/2 their size.

They also tried to see how they could affect the water pressure in different spots by covering up holes.  Hours of endless entertainment.

Can I jsut say how much I love ruffle bums!  That, and curly hair!

Keara loved splashing around in her rainboots at the splash park and thought it was hilarious when they filled up all the way.  What fun sounds and feelings that made!

Keara and I found a dead baby painted turtle at the beach.  She thought it was awesome (and it was).  Too bad it was dead.

Talon kept Keara entertained by doing that silly hand game with her.  You know the one, where you cut off the blood supply to the hand, squeeze it, rub it, and then "pull" something out of the middle of it?  She loved it.

Avery loves everyone and sure thought it was great to have a playmate who didn't beat her up!  Lily is 3, but Avery didn't care!

Memorial Day means making ice cream!  So Braden and I stayed up way late on Sunday night making pistacho, rocky road, and white chocolate oreo.  Delicious!

Avery definitely agreed.

And so did Lily...who is just too cute!

It was a busy, crazy, fun week and it went by WAY too fast!  We miss you guys and can't wait to see you next summer!  Thank goodness for family reunions!

Playing Catch Up

I have been SO busy and just haven't taken the time to update from the last couple months.  So lucky you...you get a summary in picture. 

Last year, at the end of April, our home and street looked like this.  It was STUNNING!

This year, spring decided to take its time, so we had 2 feet of snow covering the ground until the end of March, and then got hit with another 6 inches in the middle of April and a slight dusting on May 1st.  Boo.  At the end of April this year, our home looked like this:

Thankfully, it suddenly decided to warm up and May was STUNNING!  We now can spend all our time at the lake, the splash park, in the yard, at the playgrounds, on bike rides, and outdoor concerts!  It's also yard sale time and ice cream time!  We also get lots of thunder storms, which I love!  The girls get to play with the hose in the backyard and help daddy with the yard work at the same time.  Hooray for summer!

What Would You Think?

The other day, I took the girls to the lake to play in the sand.  Keara asked me to check what it was she was feeling under her hair, so I took a look.  What I found was a clump of dried blood.  Strange.  I looked at Avery and she had one too, in about the same spot.  Double strange.  Then I looked at Taryn and she had one too, but on her temple, under her hair.  Triple strange.

I didn't think too much of it until the next morning, when my sister in law came to pick up the girls for a play date and I noticed Avery was dripping blood all along her hairline on her neck, around her ears, and near her side burns.  What the heck!?

 It was SO bizarre.  I had no idea what could be suddenly causing all these sores, but I did know that 30 minutes before this, when she got out of the shower and I did her hair, none of these sores were there.  So what was happening?  What would you think?

I called the pediatrician later in the day because I thought maybe there was some sort of bug infestation going around that many parents were calling about.  Sure enough, there was.  GNATS.  Nasty gnats.  I never knew those little suckers (literally) could work this kind of damage this quickly.  But apparently, they bite and the bleeding starts immediately.  Once it bleeds out a little bit, it stops, clots, and dries.  End of story.  As long as the bites don't get infected, its no big deal.  None of the girls have complained about them itching or hurting and usually, they don't even realize they're there.  It just looks a lot worse than it really is.

I realized that the girls had been playing outside in the yard during those 30 minutes before my SIL picked them up, which would explain the sudden attacks.  I checked the other two girls and sure enough, they had dried blood all thru their hair too.  Avery's show the worst because of her blonde and short hair.  I've counted at least 25 bites.

This afternoon, as we sat down for lunch after the girls helped bring in the groceries, I noticed a gnat in Avery's hair.  I flicked it then squished it.  Blood spurted everywhere so I immediately checked her head.  Sure enough, a little bubble of blood started to appear right where the little bugger had been.

It's been 36 hours since they played in the yard and now Avery's sores look like tons of moles.  Just blood spots all over her head.  At least they aren't scabbing or raised or pussing.  And at least the gnats life cycle is SHORT!  We really want to get outside and play again.