Saturday is a Special Day

Since we were all quarantined today, we went to play (just our family) beach volleyball. The kids really had a lot of fun hitting the ball back and forth, but I think we need to rearrange the teams next time. Joseph and I were on one team with Mary and Sam, but Mary and Sam were more interested in the sand. Robert's team, however, had Rebekah and Rachel and Benjamin, all highly interested in the game and where the ball was.

We then decided to do our family cleaning after lunch, so once our quarantine was over, they would be free to play. We also had the missionaries over for dinner tonight. We really enjoyed our time with them.

We All Have It!

While all of their quick cultures for strep were negative, the nurse called me this morning and informed me that their overnight cultures were all positive. Oh Joy! We now have a whole shelf in our fridge dedicated to antibiotics (at two bottles per kid). By the time our round of treatments is through, we should have no germs at our house!

It's not too bad. Nobody has any symptoms, it's just been a lot of back and forth to the doctor's office and the pharmacy. I did, however, forget to get myself cultured yesterday, so I had to go in today and get cultured. So far my quick is negative...

I got home and lined everyone up for medicine. They all love the pink stuff. Poor Ruth has the white one (Augmentin) for added protection and it's not supposed to taste too great, but she still likes to take it. Sam is disappointed that he only gets one syringe full (2 teaspoons) but Rachel gets two syringes (3 teaspoons). "It's not fair." Joseph has the easy way out. Since he's allergic to penicillans and cephalosporins, he gets to take azithromycin which is only once a day for five days.

Strep

We have had a very full week. Moroni had strep in the diaper area, and Ruth had it around her mouth. It took a few days to figure out what was going on and after several trips to the pharmacy, we're all starting to feel better.

Rebekah had a sore throat kick in yesterday, so we took her to the doctor's office today to have her throat cultured. It came back positive, so the doctor felt it best to bring everyone in that hadn't been tested yet. That was 5 out of 8 of the kids. I kept getting comments like, "Brought the whole family in?" If they only knew.

Ruth put one of the k12 boxes on her head and walked around saying, "I'm a robot." I believe Rebekah has cut holes in boxes and had fun walking around. We never know who is going to watch us and follow our example.

WIVA Social

Wednesday we went to Token Creek County Park to meet the kids' new teachers for the year.

One of the kids found money in the sandbox and all of the kids crowded into the sandbox and started digging. Someone had buried all kinds of change in the sand.

A Teenager!

We finally have a true teenager! Joseph turned 13 today. Although, I have to admit, it's felt like we've had teenagers for a while now.

It's kinda funny how being a mom of older kids is what's making me start to feel older. Half of my kids are now baptized, Joseph is a deacon, passing the sacrament, and Rebekah will be starting in Young Women in December!

Mom always said that it seems like you're a mom of toddlers for forever and then you blink and they're all grown up. I think it's still having toddlers that is making my older kids' lives go by so fast.

I should just try to enjoy them all where they're at now!!!

Birthday Bash

Friday was Robert's birthday. We went out for lunch at Red Robin, and I really overate!!! Talk about nummy!

When we sang happy birthday, we had to light the torch. We wanted to see if he could blow out all of his candles in one breath. Guess he's not as full of hot air as we thought.

The kids had a lot of fun wrapping Robert's presents. They even wrapped one present, put it in a box, wrapped it again and then put it in another box and did a final wrapping. However, when they said that he would be surprised at one of the presents they wrapped, he said "You wrapped it again and again, huh?" Rachel then said, "who told you!" He's so good at getting them to give away their secrets.

Robert's best present was Wii Fit. It got played all day long today. He's so worried that we'll knock off his high scores. We'll have to see.

Dirt Boy

Okay, so while Rachel was writing the last post, I was holding Moroni while sitting next to her. I had given him part of a white chocolate cookie. By the time she was done with her post, he had abandoned the cookie for a fist full of dirt from a potted plant that was sitting behind me. The irony was that he was wearing his "Note to self: Don't eat dirt (It's not food!) shirt that Aunt Cherstin got him after he kept eating the dirt at great Grandpa's house. It's even funnier that the last time he wore this shirt, he ate dirt out of the garden while I was weeding. Guess it 'just looks like something he should taste.'

Achievement Days

Today in achievement days we made cookies. They tasted really good. We had cookie paint and we painted them. Then we read the book Mrs. Piggle Wiggle! Then Rebekah and I sat in the car waiting for our mom for a long time.
--Rachel

Sleeping

Elder Ballard said (April 2008 General Conference) "recognize that the joy of motherhood comes in moments. There will be hard times and frustrating times. But amid the challenges, there are shining moments of joy and satisfaction."

Team Husted

Today, after breakfast, we went to the city park and played some softball. After we played some frisbee football. It's so nice having our own 'team.' Dinner was the High Priest's social at the Richards' home. The picture is Ben just before getting on the trampoline.

Sleeping!!!

Let sleeping babes lie.

Dirt

What can I say? It's Moroni with a cup of... dirt!

At the Pool

I thought I would post a picture of Mary, since most of the pictures are of Moroni or Ruth. What can I say... we just have cute kids.

Last night was MISERABLE!!! Moroni tossed and turned the whole night. After Ruth ended up in our bed, he kept climbing on her and pulling her hair in the middle of the night. She couldn't sleep through it either. Teach her to sleep in her own bed? We wish.

While most of my morning was in slo-mo, I did manage to get the bathroom clean. WooHoo. What a statement that is when I'm excited to get the kids' bathroom clean?

Later on I made cinnamon rolls (talk about excited kids) and we went to the pool together.

Hopefully tonight we sleep better since tomorrow is full of meetings for both Robert and me.

Church with 8

What a morning! I had a meeting at church at 8am, so Robert brought the kids by himself. When Rachel brought Ruth into the chapel, I was impressed that her hair was done. Rachel had helped with it. My awe ended there when Sam hurried in, still with Cocoa Pebbles all over his face, Mary's hair I don't think had been brushed since yesterday morning, and it was all topped off when Robert sat down with Moroni in jeans and a black T-shirt that said, "I still live with my parents" in bright blue letters. Ha!

Things were kept lively as when Joseph was passing the sacrament (water) in the foyer, he had to run to the restroom to throw up! Guess he was sick. The other deacons, not knowing what to do, stood in line for quite some time (Joseph was supposed to be number one). After a while, they all headed to the front and someone went back out for the tray that Joseph had left on the end table in the foyer. Needless to say, Robert took Joseph and Moroni home.

While in church, I peeked in on Ruth in the nursery and she was talking on the play phone to Grandpa. I guess we need to call him.

When the rest of us got back, Robert had dinner almost done. How sweet! Moroni was quite unhappy. I guess he'd only had a short nap on the way home and he was absolutely miserable. He did however learn how to drink from a cup at dinner time. I figure Mom, Desi, Cherstin and Felicia will appreciate this picture! *wink*

Softball Practice

We took the kids down to Blue Mounds Park today for softball practice, including Joseph's friend Ben (distinguished as "Big Ben" vs. our own "Little Ben"). All the kids got to hit and they all got at least one run in. Afterwards, we had soda and then some of us played Frisbee Football.

Tower Hill State Park

The kids had a great time today at Tower Hill State Park - we hiked up to Tower Hill, saw the film on how they made lead shot (they heat lead, pour it through small holes to create little droplets that become round as they fall down the tower and then cool instantly when they hit the water. Only about 10% of the shot is usable, the rest is taken back up to the tower and recycled. (I never considered that "recycling" was a wartime advance.) The mosquitoes fed well today as we walked around the park - we're just happy to be doing our part for the environment.

S'mores

Tonight we had a fire in the back yard. We roasted hot dogs and marshmallows. Joseph made some double- and triple-decker s'mores. Ruth loved the s'mores, especially the ones without the graham cracker and marshmallows.

Doin' the Dishes

When do the dishes become a chore?

Dirt for Breakfast

I was so pleased this morning. For breakfast Moroni kept refusing the egg and milk once he had a piece of my homemade bread. I told the kids, "Moroni only wants to eat my bread, he won't eat the eggs because he only wants my bread."

My kids, sensing my pride decided to take me down a few notches by replying, "Yeah, but Moroni eats dirt!" After a good laugh by all, they tried to make me feel better with. "That's okay mom, it was probably good dirt. It just means that the dirt is better than your eggs."

Movie Time

We still can't upload photos. Our newer machine has always refused to upload the photos, and now our older one won't upload them either. I finally got the virus cleared off of it, though!

Robert and I went to see Iron Man at the cheap theaters with Phil and Hannah. Our kids were wonderful and watched little ones so we could all go out together. They love to play with Orion and as soon as he got here, off they went.

Virus

This picture was originally titled "Robert and his Mistress" since I caught him on the computer when we were supposed to go to bed. But it seems an appropriate picture since last night Robert installed a virus on our computer by accident. I spent the entire day trying to remove it from our computer. Robert and I agree that the Telestial Kingdom is reserved for anyone who writes computer viruses.

We helped the three oldest children (Joseph-12, Rebekah-11, Rachel-9) set goals for the coming week. Joseph will focus on German while the girls will focus on Latin and they will all start focusing on their Faith in God Awards (Rebekah & Rachel) and Duty to God Award (Joseph). Our goal is to help them set their goals. *wink*

Sunday Potty Training

At church today Ruth indicated that she had to "go potty". Ignoring Wanda's wise warning to ensure that I had a spare diaper, I went into the bathroom, removed her wet diaper, and she went potty. I put her pants on her diaperless bottom and headed out to the van where, I was certain, there was a diaper. There was not. Heading back inside, I decided that it would be unwise to return to the chapel, so we sat in the foyer and naturally, Ruth wanted to sit on my knee. So there I am - sitting in the foyer with a diaperless 2-year-old on my knee, knowing that at any moment something terrible could happen. As luck would have it, Sister Romney came into the foyer a short time later and fortunately had a spare diaper. So I whisked Ruth into the bathroom to correct my error.

Joseph was called and set apart today as the Deacon's Quorum President - he's very excited about that. Rebekah bore a short but sweet testimony during Sacrament and gave the opening prayer in Primary. Mary gave a wonderful talk on the 5 B's in Primary and I taught her class today as Uncle Philip went home sick.

Scout Camp

Joseph caught a Leprechaun at Scout Camp (Ed Bryant Scout Camp) today and named it "Matt Wiltbank". Joseph had a great week doing archery, shooting, and boating with all of the other scouts in the Stake. Joseph and Daddy slept in the van last night - which was SO much better than the hard ground in a mosquito-infested camp. Both of us are itchy from all the mosquito bites, but Joseph and I had a lot of fun last night and today - so it was worth it.

Currants

This morning Robert and I got up early to harvest the red currants and the black currants. Red currant jelly is Robert's favorite. I do, however, have to find something for the black currants. I have a recipe I'm going to try for black currant jam. Apparently black currents have more vitamin C and antioxidants than blueberries and pomegranates. Who knew?

I'll be making jelly and jam with the kids this evening.

Robert is off to scout camp for the night. He'll be bringing the scouts back tomorrow. We'll see how Joseph fared after being up with the mosquitoes all week. I wonder what Robert will come back looking like tomorrow. He's just now starting to recover from feeding the mosquitoes on Sunday.