New Church Duds

Yesterday we took the kids to see the new movie Monsters vs. Aliens (I about had a heart attack when they told us it was $9.75 each for the matinee price!!!). The kids loved it, I would have loved to save the extra 3-D fee and watched it on video and seen something else. We then took the kids to Kohl's to do some shopping. We once again realized why we never take all 4 kids to the store at once! The boys picked out their own Easter clothes this year, they both requested a tie. Here's a picture of them with their new duds. (On a side note, Denise actually tied their ties this morning, not bad for someone who's never it done it before and who didn't grow up with brothers!)

Sam's Shiner

(Unfortunately the flash drowned out how purple his eye really was.)

Sam had a rough week last week. Really we all did. Last week was our spring break (way too early in the spring if you ask me!). It didn't start off so great and didn't end so great either. Last Sunday Joseph, Charley, and Ronny stayed home from church due to a pretty icky cold. It sent Joseph to the emergency room later that day. He was diagnosed with croup, upper respiratory infection, and double ear infection. With Joseph's asthma it made everything worse and so we came home after a frustrating trip to the E.R. with 2 more prescriptions to add to what he is already taking and the instructions to stay indoors for the next 5 days. (Can we say cabin fever!!!!) We wanted to visit some friends in Bend, so much for that.

That same day Sam walked into the door knob of the bathroom door and got a nice shiner! The next day he was walking behind me and my watch caught him in the same eye. Poor kid! By the end of the week Ben had the same cold and Ronny is still trying to recover from the same one that we started with. We need a vacation from our vacation!

Mudwarts

Another experience we have while living in the rainy part of the country! Mudwarts, need we say more?

Big Mac

Do you remember having your first Big Mac from McDonald's? I do, I was 9 years old and I was with my Dad and I was soooo excited to eat a big person's hamburger. Ronny says he remembers the first time he had one too. I asked a few other people and they remember there's as well. I think the was some right of passage, at least for my generation. Well last night we went to McDonald's for dinner. (Let's just say it was a stressful day!) Both Charley and Joseph asked if they could have a "big" hamburger this time. Apparently they are now past the happy meal stage (thank goodness for that!). Big Mac's were on sale so we agreed. We told them both to remember how old they were when they had their first Big Mac. Someday they will be a part of buying their kids their first Big Mac too. If you remember your first time, let us know.

Happy Birthday Benjamin!

Ben turned 3 yesterday! Can you believe it?? Where did that time go? As many of you know Ben is obsessed with letters. For Christmas Santa brought Ben a small magna doodle which turned out to be a big hit. So much so he treats it like many young children treat a blanket. He takes it everywhere and of course it has a place next to him on his pillow at night. He calls it his "letter pip" which we assume is because all he writes on it is letters. When we asked him what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday he first said he wanted a letter cake but quickly decided that he
wanted a "letter pip" cake.

The two of us with the help of his brothers worked on his cake all day yesterday. Due to a distraction, mom forgot to put the required oil in the first cake so we had to start all over. We had lots of fun making this, too much as we ran out of time and my friend had to come over to help me get it finished in time. We had dinner over at a friend's house last night so we were under a deadline which is why its not as "clean" as I would have liked. Ben of course couldn't wait to get his hands on it.

When it was time he dug into it like a champ. As did the rest of the kids. Between the two families there were 8 kids together last night. We had so much fun which is what matters on a birthday right? We love you Ben and are so happy you are part of our family!

PAPER #2 IS ACCEPTED!!!

Ronny was notified today that his paper was accepted to the IAAI 09 conference. This is paper number two for him and one more big hurdle passed on the road to graduation. This also means that he will be in Pasadena in July and that Denise will not be able to attend Girls Camp. However, she is happy to stay home with the kids if it gets us closer to graduation! Congratulations Ronny!

Charley's Selling Tips!

Many of you know that it is Girl Scout Cookie time. Charley of course is doing her best to set a new personal record this year. She has been doing pretty good as she has sold 236 boxes so far. Saturday was their troop's big booth sale. Since I am the cookie manager for the troop we were there all day. Charley sold cookies from 10:00 am to 6:00 p.m. She was a trooper and certainly outsold everyone in her troop hands down! She was so much fun to watch. She talked people into buying a box for the Food Bank if they mentioned they couldn't eat the cookies. She also talked many people into buying more cookies who had previously bought from others. There were two doors that the girls sold at. One door sold 3 boxes to every 1 box at the other. When we were at the slow door we would set goals to try to reach in half hour increments. She almost met every goal she set, and this was a tough door. She would help older ladies with their carts and make sure customer's carts didn't role away while they were deciding what they wanted. At the end of the day their troop sold 401 boxes of cookies, I have no doubt that Charley sold at least half of those! She was amazing! Uncle James if you are ever in need of anymore salesman, Charley's your girl!

The Great Shift and Family Rules

Ronny and I have noticed our kids have been fighting a lot lately. So much so that we are ready to pull our hair out. We have been trying to figure out what is going on. We aren't exactly sure why this is, but we sure are not going to sit around and wait for things to get better without doing something. So we decided to enact a new family rule. If Mom and Dad catch you fighting, then chores you will be a doing! Starting this last Saturday we started to implement this new rule. We can't yet say that there is less fighting, but we sure do have a cleaner house! What is more amazing to us is that when we tell them to start cleaning they don't argue back about it, they simply start doing the job. I'm sure this is still in the honeymoon stage and the arguing will start in due time, but for now we sit back and watch them get to work. Hopefully the fighting will end soon, or at least be less of it.

We also decided to move bedrooms around again. Joseph has lately started to throw huge fits at night when we take him to use the bathroom. He is completely asleep but he sure does put up a big stink that is loud enough to wake the neighborhood let alone his brother just feet away. Of course he remembers none of it the next morning. We also realized that when Joseph and Sam get sent to their room for arguing the fight just goes from downstairs to upstairs, so splitting them up may help things there. We also figured since he gets up earlier than the other two boys we would try to let them sleep a little longer while Joseph gets ready for school. We made the move today and will see if this makes the morning a little bit smoother. We'll keep you posted.