Weekly Happenings

When Eleanor is at her weekly ballet class, Adelaide and I enjoy a walk. These cute hearts have been placed around KC and we were surprised to find one in Liberty!

Monday evening my mom went to the emergency room with a pain in her side. Thankfully Steele was with her because my dad was out of town. Soon we received a text message that she was being transported to a bigger hospital where she would undergo surgery for a twisted intestine. I cried and worried all night. In the middle of the night as I prayed for comfort, this image appeared in my mind. This picture was in the hospital in Colorado when I went for my OBGYN appointments. As I prepared to have another c-section and I was so nervous, this picture appeared in my mind reminding me that heaven in close in the operating room. I felt so grateful that the spirit brought this picture to my mind as I worried about my mother. I was relieved the next day to learn that the surgery had gone well. She's now been home for several days and is slowly recovering. Oh how I wish I lived closer and could go and be with her and visit her. I'm grateful that Steele and Jenny live close and have been so helpful. My dad did make it home from his work trip in time to be with my mom before her surgery and he has been so helpful. When my phone rang and the name MOM appeared, I teared up feeling so grateful that I could talk with her and hear her voice. I'm grateful that so many of her neighbors and friends have appeared with food and visits as her recovers. I never realized how much comfort I would feel from the service of others. I want to do better about reaching out to those around me.

 I love my mom so much!

I caught these little girls reading books. Adelaide loves to say the word BOOK!

We had preschool at our house and we made rainbows for the letter R.

We took Adelaide's binky away so now when she wakes up, we hear Eleanor climbing into Adelaide's crib. They read and play together until we go in and get them. Cutest little sisters. 

I'm cleaning out our house and slowing getting rid of our baby stuff. A family in Maryland gave us this walker when Eli was born. Now all the kids have used it and we're done with it!

Adelaide looked so cute in this pretty pink dress on Sunday. Grammy and Grandpa Volk gave Eleanor this dress when she was a baby and now Adelaide is wearing it. So cute!!

During Relief Society on Sunday, a lady made a comment about a mother who had 9 children and one day she found the toddler in her closet with a pair of scissors and she had clipped the bottom of the mother's dresses. The mother realized that she needed to give her toddler something to do to keep her out of mischief. She then realized that at time it may feel like Heavenly Father requires a lot of us, but really, He's keeping us busy so we don't get into mischief. :)

SPRING BREAK!!

This week we had a relaxing, eventful Spring Break. Aaron took Thursday and Friday off and we loved having time with him on our adventures. 

I finished this book and we decided it was time for our boys to start a business. They are saving up for a Nintendo Switch. Aaron said he'll match their saving efforts. They started telling family and friends about their business goals and they have costumers! They started walking a friend's dog twice a week and cleaning up dog poop. 

Adelaide loves sunglasses more than any of my other babies did. I wonder if it's because she wears glasses already and loves putting the sunglasses over her regular glasses! On Monday we went to Edge gymnastics and the kids had a blast jumping and tumbling the morning away. 

On Tuesday we made peep play dough and played with friends. 

Tuesday afternoon was the boys' first dog walk! 

Wednesday we checked out a new park close to downtown. We loved it!!

Thursday we went to Shatto dairy. I laughed that we had to pay $40 for our kids to learn where milk comes from. 

Eleanor and Adelaide loved the baby calves. 

Our tour also included trying 8 different flavors of milk! 

Chocolate and mint chocolate milk were the winning flavors for us!

On Friday we went to the WWI Museum. We learned a lot about that war and our kids know more about history than I did at their age. 

We ended up getting a pass and we look forward to visiting another time soon. 

Dad treated us to Mexican food for lunch and it was delicious! 

We were so full from lunch but we decided to share two bowls of ice cream at Betty Rae's because the last time we tried to take Aaron there, it was closed. He hasn't had it yet and it felt like a perfect way to end our KC exploration day. 

On Saturday we went out to Grammy and Grandpa's house. With Eli having basketball every Saturday since January, we haven't been out to visit them for months. We loved our time out there. It's relaxing to breath in the fresh air. We checked on the honeybees and fish in the pond and they're doing great! 

Eleanor has had a love/hate relationship with Blue. At the end of the day when he was exhausted, I caught her petting him. She prays for him often that his hurt foot will get better. 

And now Spring Break is over. It's going to be so quiet at our house tomorrow when the boys head back to school and Aaron leaves for work. We're grateful for the memories we could make this week!

 

Snow time

Aaron bought me these flowers to celebrate Austin's birthday. I'm forever grateful my body was able to deliver four babies! 

On Monday the kids had a snow day. They did a little bit of school work and then spent the afternoon sledding with friends. 

On Tuesday Eli had his last basketball practice. For the last practice, the kids play against the parents. It was a fun memory for all of us.  

Prices of food have gone way up. I'm grateful we have an Aldi here and I can get all these groceries for $80.

Wednesday evening we had parent teacher conferences for the boys. This is the first time in 2 years when we were able to go into the school building for conferences. We loved seeing their classrooms and hearing about the good examples they are at school. We're grateful they're doing so well at school!

Adelaide is walking all over the place and recently started walking while holding things. I love this stage when babies try to see what they can pick up. We were playing Uno and Adelaide found an empty paper towel roll. She walked over to Austin, looked at his head, looked back at the paper town roll and bopped him on the head. It was hilarious! 

She's also started talking her diapers to the trash can. Everyone has chores around here. :)

On Thursday it was another snow day and Aaron's office was closed too! It was crazy to have two snow days in a week during the second week of March. 

On Friday, the boys officially had Spring Break! 

We went to the mall and checked out the Lego store. 

We also checked out the play place. Eli and Austin took off their shoes and started playing. I got tears in my eyes remembering all the times we spent at the play place in Colorado at the mall while Aaron was gone so much. These little boys aren't so little anymore. 

We also checked out Barnes and Noble and the kids wanted to buy all the books. I reminded them we can get books for free at the library. 

We ate lunch at the foodcourt and then the kids begged me to buy this treat. It's cereal with liquid nitrogen that makes you breath like a dragon. We all laughed so much. 

These two crazies got my phone and made silly faces. They're so funny!

On Saturday, Eli played in his last basketball game. He learned so much this year and had a great season! My favorite part of the kids' participating in a sport is when we get to cheer each other on! Way to go, Eli!

He played on a team with his friend Dax and it was great getting to know Dax's family better too. 

On Sunday it was our ward conference. Our Relief Society lesson was a General Conference Talk given last October by President Nelson - Pure Truth, Pure Doctrine, and Pure Revelation. I loved this reminder from our Prophet, "Contrary to the doubts of some, there really is such a thing as right and wrong. There really is absolute truth - eternal truth. One of the plaques of our day is that too few people know where to turn for truth." 

We're counting down the days until General Conference in April, just a few weeks away! Yay!