Valentines Day

What a day it was to celebrate Valentine's Day. Matt and I went out for lunch and then I headed to the kids school to help with both of their parties. I just went back and forth from the classrooms. Good thing they are just down the hall from each other.

Carter's class learned about manners and how to escort a girl appropriately. They had to take their arm and walk them down the hall. Then, the boys served the girls some salad first before they could get their own. It was so cute to watch and there was some giggling going on around the classroom. Then they played some fun games. To end the party their class combined with another class and had a dance. The kids were paired up with a partner to dance with. It was so fun to watch. Carter just pulled his dance partner around the dance floor.

Ashlynn's class made passports that contained fun stories about how Valentine's Day is celebrated around the world.

We also had a quiet evening at home. It is very rare that all of us are home at the same time. Matt didn't have church meetings, I was off work, Carter didn't have scouts and Ashlynn didn't have Dance. It was so nice to just enjoy dinner together, exchange valentine gifts and watch our recorded shows. We had upside down pizza and chocolate volcanios for dessert. It was a great night!

Lost a tooth & added a feather

Parry's Perch

Parry likes sitting in the family room with us so Matt made him a perch to sit on. It has a swing and other fun toys to play with and some yummy millet for him to snack on while watching the TV. I can't believe that the bird just sits there and doesn't fly away. One morning we all the left the house and forgot to put Parry back in his cage. When we got back there he was sitting on his perch just taking a nap. I wonder if he is just scared for his life.

Parry the parakeet

Yes, I know most of you are thinking how a pet got into our house. I am the one that is anti-pet for just about every animal, but Carter has been wanting a pet for a while. Matt and I thought this would be a good time since Carter has been stressed about his new hearing aides that he has been trying out. We thought pet therapy would help him, since animals seem to make him happy.

According to his recent hearing test his hearing is continuing to decrease from last year. Although, others and we do not notice any hearing problems the test still shows he has moderate to severe high frequency hearing loss now in both ears. Last year it was just his left now it is both ears. Carter has been to several doctors, had a sedated MRI and several hearing exams and he seems to puzzle everybody. So, we are trialing hearing aides to see if Carter notices anything different. The poor kid was so nervous to look different.

So now you can see how I would do anything to make him feel happy so... We have been visiting pet stores quite frequently looking at all the pet options and I just couldn't bring myself to have an animal in the house. I like to look at them at the stores and then walk away, but the kids and Matt are the exact opposite they want to bring everything home with them. On a funny note, Matt has been missing a few times in the pet store and we can now always him with cats.

So, I had a softened heart and said yes to a bird. This was the best option because it is low maintenance, not that messy, small and can be kept in a cage when not being played with.

Carter named the bird Parry the parakeet and he is very docile, quiet and likes to hang out with Carter. The bird just watches Carter with what ever he is doing. Matt is confident that he is going to get the bird to talk because we learned that parakeets have the largest vocabulary than any other bird.

Carter is happy that he finally got his wish to have a pet.

Now for an update on the hearing aide trial: Carter doesn't notice anything different he is just annoyed that his and other voices sounds like their talking in microphones. He says they are itchy inside his ears and can only handle them in his ears for a few hours. Not sure if this is the result we were looking for, but he has them for a month and we will see how he performs with a hearing exam in a few weeks. Carter is doing very well and keeping his spirits up during this trial.

Finally a Snow Day!!

We were starting to wonder if we were going to ever get the white stuff. We went all December with a few small flurries but nothing to get too excited about. Then, finally we got a decent snow storm. We pulled out the snow gear and played until almost bedtime. The kids didn't even want to come in for dinner they were having too much fun.

Carter was making these huge snowballs and he just wanted to push them around the yard. He wouldn't let us make a snowman with the giant balls so, Ashlynn and I had to make our own. Carter went on his way pushing around the big snowballs.

We then had to wait for Matt to get home from work to help stack the snowman because it was too heavy to lift. Matt had to be funny and get creative with our snowman. The poor thing didn't last long because it rained and it was knocked down. Good thing we got pictures of our winter creation.

Off Track from School

The kids are heading back to school this week after being off track from school. We have enjoyed the last 2 weeks with not having to get up so early and enjoying more time together. The first week after Christmas we played with our new toys, cleaned out the kids rooms, and the kids had to be patient with me due to working my normal night shifts at the hospital and having to sleep during the day a bit. They did such a good job being so good and getting along with each other that I rewarded them with a day out of fun the following week. The kids have been wanting to go to Hollywood Connection for some time, but I was waiting for the perfect opportunity to reward them. So they definitely earned it!

I had a plan to spend an afternoon there while all the other kids were in school so it wouldn't be mad crazy with other people. We showed up a 1:30p in the afternoon and nobody was there because they didn't open until 4:00p. (It didn't even cross my mind that they wouldn't be open during the day) Now, I have to mention that this place is about a 45 minutes drive from our house so we were all bummed that we drove all that way to find it not open yet. So, we went back to the car and I was thinking of all the ways we could handle this. Options were: 1. go home and come back another day (not sure when that would be and the kids were very sad), 2. sit in the car until it opened (this was Carter's idea and I was not willing to that). So, I pulled out the Entertainment book and was searching for things to do near by and I stumbled on option 3. Go ice skating until Hollywood Connection opens. I had a coupon for half off admission for all of us and it was only a 10 minute drive from where we were. It was perfect! It gets even better, it was a very slow day at the rink so we had the whole ice rink to ourselves. The kids could skate where ever they wanted and didn't have worry about people crashing into them. It was great!

We have been ice skating a few times so Carter was his experienced self on the ice. It took Ashlynn a few runs before she felt comfortable leaving the wall, but she got the hang of it again.

Then, finally we headed to our intended destination...Hollywood Connection! This place is so fun it has miniature golf, rides (even a roller coaster), arcade games, laser tag and roller skating. I was so excited to use my buy one wristband get one free coupon. (I always love a fun place that I don't have to pay full price for).
We had a good time at golf. Carter lost his ball once in the water and Ashlynn's ball got stuck in the lizards mouth and Carter had to stick his hand in to get it.
The games and rides were very fun and the kids liked riding them over and over. As we were getting our tokens from the machine we got a lucky silver coin that got us an extra 30 tokens. Score!! Carter kept winning a bunch of tickets on one game that he scored 450 tickets to claim for a prize. Ashlynn liked playing the ski-doo game and it didn't give her tickets so she didn't fare as well, but she scored some fun prizes to0.

Towards the end of our time there Carter and Ashlynn wanted to go roller skating. So we ended our night with roller skating. Ashlynn has never roller skated before and lets just say she is much better on the ice than on a roller rink. Poor girl only made it around the rink twice with me holding her up before she wanted her skates off. Carter took his roller blades and mixed in the crowd of skaters like a pro. What a day! The kids were slightly sore from all the skating we did, but they are still talking about what a blast they had.

Now it is back to school on Tuesday and trying to stick with a decent bedtime and getting up early again.

Welcome 2012!

Welcome 2012!! What an fun year our family had in 2011. We had several events take place from Carter being baptized, birthdays, visitors from Idaho, our first niece/cousin got married, new callings in our church, new friends we have made and one of our most memorable event was taking a trip to the East Coast to visit the New Hampshire Peterson's. The year just went by so fast.
We rang in 2012 with our friends at their annual party that we attended last year. We had so much fun last year that we couldn't miss it. We had a white elephant gift exchange with some very interesting and nice gifts. We also played some fun games and ate yummy treats. Then all of the kids were being watched in another house down the street by some trusted young girls in our ward. Then to set the tone right for the new year..we set up my new chocolate fountain and dipped several yummy foods into the fountain. It was such a yummy way to celebrate the first day of 2012. I hope this means nothing but sweet things for the new year.