Polar Bear Plunge and Valentines

Polar Bear Plunge! 

This week I have been having spring fever!  When Derek and the girls came home from school today I told everyone to on their swimming suits on because I have a family challenge.  WE went out to the swimming pool and took turns jumping in without touching the water first. BRRR... the water was ice cold!  Can spring come any sooner?  

Each person dad a different reaction of screaming, crying, and laughing, but my favorite was Derek's He was trying to be all tough, but he had the most dramatic response trying to get out of the water as fast as he could. ha ha. Love how my family will go along with spontaneity. 

Then after the plunge, Derek challenges me to a plank hold.  I wiped his butt!  He hold his plank for 1 min 40 sec and I almost doubled it by holding it 3 minutes straight!

Ward Valentine Dance!

We had a blast dancing at the ward dance.  It was so fun to see the girls laugh, run around, and dance their little hearts out.  It was fun to see all ages dance together.  My favorites was when we would do the line dances altogether. 

We put tattoos on our faces!

Our Valentine Dinner

I want my kids to have fun memories with holidays.  I decided to spend $5-10 and make it special for the kids with the decorations.  It is fun to have a little bit of decorations change the atmosphere of ordinary to festivity and fun!  Thanks to Derek for the balloons and beautiful flowers (my favorite!) Thanks to my mom for all the gifts!  

It was hilarious because I decorated while the girls were at school and the look on their faces was so fun and bright and they were just so excited!  They saw that they had gifts on the table and Ashlyn asks excitedly, "Mom are these from you?" I told her that they were from Grandma Martinson and she said, "I could have guessed.  She always gives us gifts and you never do.  We always have to earn money to buy stuff."  I always have admired my moms special love language of gift giving.  She always made holidays so special for me growing up and I try to make better efforts to do the same for my kids. I am a work in progress! ha ha. I guess she forgot about the secret cupid we did a week earlier.

Breakfast: Pink Valentine Hearts

We had our friends the Hanmakers over for making holiday cookies.  

They were playing hide and go seek and Desi was hard to find. We found out that she fell asleep on the toilet.  

I listened to my favorite podcast called 3 in 30 takeaways for moms and they did an episode on Valentine Activities for kids. One of the ideas was doing a Secret Cupid which is like secret sister.  I had the girls draw names and they had to do service, say nice things, and give a gift each day for a week to their Secret Cupid in their Valentine mailbox.  I had the girls watch a show and they each had a turn to come into the kitchen to "shop" for their secret cupid.  They were beyond excited and looked forward to each morning finding a gift in their Valentine box.

 shopping for secret cupid

Brinley and I made this Valentine box!  She wanted a unicorn box and she got it!

We made Valentine pizzas for our family Valentine dinner!

We did a heart attack for our favorite babysitter Sable and her family.  Their family has been so sweet and kind to our family and we are so blessed to have them as our friends!

We decorated the door, left the chocolate dipped strawberries, knocked, and ran.  Then their dog found us!

Sunday walk!  I think Emmett likes the vibration.

I have had to wear these babies for the past 10 days in prep for my LASIK surgery!

I got lots of headaches because my prescription was so severe and my glasses had space between the glasses and my eye sight so it would make me sick. At the beginning of wearing my glasses all day everyday, I was tired and felt more lazy.  I guess that my mind made the association of wearing my glasses with sleep because that is the only time I would wear my glasses.

I didn't expect the emotions to be part of my Lasik experience, but it was truly amazing.  After the surgery was done I COULD SEE!!!! The nurse helped me out of the room and she noticed I was crying and so she asked if I was in pain and I just told her, "I CAN SEE!!!!!"  

She giggles and says that usually isn't the response she gets. ha ha.

I have been studying the New Testament and I gave a lesson on the Leper.  Their lives were known as The Living Death.  It was like they were dead to their families.  They had a law that no one could be within 6 feet of someone who was a leper, wherever they went they had to call out that they were a leper (how embarrassing), and these people haven't been touched in years.  

Despite the rules of lepers, one came up to Jesus and asked him to be healed.  Jesus could have healed him any way and he choose to physically touch this man.  After learning about this story, I put myself in this man's shoes.  I thought about the physical, emotional, and spiritual pain and fatigue this disease had on this man.  Then coming to Jesus and hoping to be healed and then after he is healed he is in unbelief- I can't believe this really happpened- I'm healed!  

I felt like that!  I can't believe I can see!  I know it is because of technology that I can see, but I still think it is a miracle!  I could see immediately after the surgery!  Wow!

I am tearing up writing this because it truly is amazing!  I have been in glasses since 1st grade and my eyes were super, super bad!  I have NEVER met anyone who has eyes as bad as me (except my mom). 

This girl has mastered the skill of vacuuming.  She is so excited!

 These two have been earning money by doing extra jobs and they bought mermaids.

Ashlyn got this bike from our good friends the Grisel's.  She is so excited!  Everyday after school and chores are done, she goes immediately outside to ride her new bike.  She could spend forever riding.

These girls love to pretend on Daddy's truck.

Hopscotch

Reading time

Painting nails

Ashlyn is so motivated to get her faith in God award.  She taught FHE about the 1st vision.

Derek and I bought a Vitamix!  For Sunday Sundaes we made blueberry ice cream!  It was better than the one on the cruise ship which was Brinley's and I's favorite.

This girl got to go to Activities Days for the first time!  She was so excited and a big plus is she gets to go to bed later than the other girls.  She was on cloud nine when she came home!

This girl drew our family!

We might have an artist in our household.

These two are becoming the best of friends.  Matchy-matchy

Brinley's Valentine's Party at school!

After all the Valentine School parties we went to the zoo park to walk around.  We are enjoying the weather when it is nice. (Right now as I am writing this the weather is 38 degrees!  We have been inside the past week and we are so ready for spring!)

He enjoys the swing.

Claire has been begging to go back to the zoo.  While we were there the hippos came out of the water.  Those things are huge!  We learned that they weigh at least 12 daddy's. ha ha

For Valentine's I cleaned Derek's car.  We went to the car wash and got a wash and did some vacuuming.  These girls had fun!

After the cleanliness of Daddy's car, I decided to pick up the older girls from school and we could go clean the van.  This was their first time in a car wash drive thru and they laugh, screamed, and were anxious.  It was funny to watch them.

When we go on family runs this is usually what I end up pushing.  I wanted to take a picture to remember this moment so I can tell my kids' kids, "When your mom/dad was little I would run with three kids and a bike in tow.  I have evidence."

 Love our family bike/run fun!

This is usually the smiley guy that I see when he wakes up from his nap.  I can't believe he is standing all the time.  He is becoming such a BIG BOY!

We love living right next to the church.  We love riding our bikes and running around the empty parking lot.  

She is absolutely adorable! I love seeing this little girl turn into a little lady.  I love seeing the oldest at home become so big and become the leader while the older girls are at school.  

She is really a big helper and super sweet to her younger siblings.  At MOPS this week we went around and said a one word adjective to describe each child.  The word I used for Claire is Caring!  She has such a BIG heart and is always so kind. 

The other day I was trying to make dinner and Ashlyn was in the middle of telling me a story and I was half listening and paying attention to the recipe that I was trying to follow.  All of a sudden she says, "Nevermind."  I apologized and told her I was listening, but we both knew I wasn't fully paying attention to her.  I felt horrible.  I could tell that Ashlyn was needing her mom to listen and show love.  So the next day I surprised her for lunch and we made a lunch date!  Subway is our place (it is the only place in Hudson to eat)! I absolutely love spending time with Ashlyn.  I feel like we can have mature conversations and she is likes to share stuff, ask questions, and she is a good listener.  I learned about what she was learning about in school, how she was super nervous about a play that she was in at school, and how she has been really focusing on being a better sister.  It filled both of our buckets and drew us closer together.  She is one of my best friends!  It is a hard act to balance all of my kids' needs, but I'm grateful for the opportunity that I make to spend one on one time with my kids (especially the lunch date with my olders). 

Painting

Ashlyn made a special bag for each of her sisters with special not saying how much she loves them and a Book of Mormon with a pencil.  Since then these girls have been marking their scriptures when the see references to Christ.  She is such a sweet sister.

We rarely let the kids eat in the living room and so we had a picnic while watching a movie on a cold day.  We watched How to Train your Dragon 2 in preparation for us going to the movie next weekend to watch the 3rd movie!

Daddy braided Desi's hair

Emmett loves to play with balls

We went to the store and an old man stopped us and gave each of the kids $2 bill.  It made their day!

 (Emmett is thinking, "What the heck is this?  Why can't I put it in my mouth?!")

Is this the man that I am married too?

He was trying to embarrass me by not picking his lunch from his teeth.

I was more annoyed than embarrassed.

We went to a place for lunch called Skyline Burritos and Claire calls it Upscart Burritos.  She has been begging to go their because she wanted to bring her money to buy from the machine.

This is how the doctor in the house changes diapers!

Got Gloves?

Ashlyn was a narrator for her 2nd grade music performance/play.  She has practiced and practiced and it payed off.  She did a great job!  All the 2nd graders were dressed as 100 year old people and the narrators were the caregivers.  The play was called something like Off their Rockers and it celebrated Elvis's birthday.  It was really cute and funny!

 After I workout on Saturdays, Ashlyn loves to workout too doing T25.

How to Train your Dragon 3!!!!

Dad did Ashlyn's hair and I told her that she looked like the lady in Monster's Inc.  The lady has snakes as her hair.

Twinners!

We went on a walk and there was an Bald Eagle nest with 3 baby eggs.

These girls love Mommy school.  We did a new game today called Find the Pets.

Practicing her colors

Emmett got Hand Foot and Mouth.  Poor little guy!

 Claire loves feeding Emmett

The girls love exercising with me.  I am so excited because I am getting stronger and stronger.  I am doing this program from home called 80 Day Obsessions from Beachbody and I am seeing a big difference with my strength.  On our date nights a few weeks ago I had to by 25lb and 30 lb dumbbells!  I have never lifted this heavy before!  

We got letters from Auntie Aubrey! 

Ashlyn's school Valentine's Party

 This kid is so loved!