Weekend Simple Pleasures

Once in a while my cousin ,Mindy, shares her simple pleasures on her blog and I think it's a great idea. In the grand scheme of our hectic zoo here, it's nice to recall the things that made us smile vs the things that made us want to run and hide and possibly pull out our hair. So here's my list from this past weekend:

*Glitter toes and some new hair bling with the girls on Saturday

*Taking Mike to my new favorite burger joint and having him love it as well

*Zaden getting super excited while shopping when he figured out that his finger does indeed fit inside one of his nostrils and going through the whole store with him sticking it in and taking it out of his nose and smiling like he was the proudest boy in the world. Then showing his new skill to Grandma Braska while Skyping later that day

*Buying some new totes to organize the play area, devoting one of them to just balls and having Zaric climb into it and throw each and every ball back out on the floor. He did this multiple times after I cleaned them back up

*Watching reading really start to pick up with Caleb and watching him try to read things while we are out and about

*Going furniture shopping with the kids and while walking around with the salesman have Caleb telling him very loudly on some bunk beds "That's a high high price!"

*Planning a little more of the twins 2nd birthday party for April. Cowboy theme this year

*Having Caleb think he's a grown up and telling me, "well there's nothing I can do about that" when I was complaining about something.

I am sure there are others, but I'll save those for another post. What were your simple pleasures from the weekend?

Happy Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day! We hope that you have been having a great day with your sweethearts. We have been having a pretty good heart-themed day spent at home here. We started off with our traditional pink heart-shaped pancakes.

Then of course the Mom had gotten a little gift for each of the kids. Both of the twins got these Mr. Potato Head Sweetheart Spuds. They were too cute to leave at the store. He makes a little cupid and in his hands he's holding a Valentine that says "Cutie Fry".

The boys liked them. Of course they like anything they can demolish. Zaric didn't take long to figure out that throwing it was the fastest way to get it to come apart. Zaden spent more time examining his.

And Caleb got the over the door Utes basketball hoop that he'd been eye-balling in the store. He is pretty excited about it.

After breakfast and gifts Mom blew up a bunch of Valentines balloons and just let the boys play away.

And then later in the afternoon it was getting a little bright in the house, so they all needed some cool Valentine's Day shades.

We currently have our other tradition (a heart shaped pizza) cooking in the oven for dinner. What a great day!

Mandy Update #2

Mandy got released from the hospital yesterday evening. I have been battling ear infections and strep throat so I hadn't been able to make it back up to the hospital to see her. She is not still fully recovered and there are still some issues they are working out and waiting to see what the long term brings. She's far from being out of the woods, but we are so happy and relieved to have her going home. Thanks everyone for all of your concern and support. You're the best!

Superbowl Sunday

Superbowl party was again at our house this year. We ended up with a menu of Chili dogs, 7 layer dip, chips, veggies brownies and football shaped cupcakes. It was a smaller gathering than in the past years but we still had a good time watching the game and cheering on the commercials. And I won my bet with Mike. Way to go Saints!

Cupid Came Early

Cupid came to visit me early this year. After iceskating on Saturday we stopped by the mall and Mike let me go to one of my favorite stores and pick myself out a couple of things then later that day when he was out taking care of an errand he came home with my flowers early. I think I'll keep him :).

Noah's Iceskating

Our friends Garrett and Laurel and little Maddie invited us to an ice skating event on Saturday at a place called Noah's. They have a small ice skating rink on the 3rd floor of the building. We had a lot of fun. Thanks again for the invite.

Pee Wee

Saturday morning was signups for baseball. Mike took Caleb expecting to sign up for his last year of Tball but after they got there, it was decided that he should move up with the bigger kids to Pee Wee since he's already done 2 years of Tball. Of course it costs more, but it also means he'll get to learn more about the game and even had try outs in March to be drafted to a team. I can't believe I have a kid big enough to be in Pee Wee league. He's pretty excited about it though and was pretty proud to come home and let me know that he's a Pee Wee now.

Mandy Update

I got to go up to the hospital last night and see Mandy. She is doing better and continuing on the path to recovery. They have removed the treach and the ventilator and she just has oxygen flowing through her nose now. She is responding to questions with a thumbs up or thumbs down which is a good sign neurologically. She was awake for part of my visit and I got to talk to her a little. From what I hear she has been trying to climb herself out of bed several times and is unhappy about them asking her to use the bathroom in a pullup versus going to the potty. Again all very good signs. They are trying to assess her pain level right now before they remove the neck brace.

She still has a ways to go but I am very happy about the progress. Way to be a fighter Mandy!

Vacation Plans

You'll remember in a previous post that I was suffering from a case of vacation fever. I am happy to say that has passed because we have made some plans. While we were discussing our ideas and possible Disney trip. We had concerns of taking the babies there with them being so young and would it really be worth it if they won't even remember it? I jokingly said to Mike "How about we have your Mom fly out and stay with the boys and you and I just go to Hawaii for a week?" I never in a million years thought he would agree. But his response was "sounds good to me, why not?" And so I thought about it and he's right, "why not?" It's something we've always talked about but never gave it a definite answer of when. It was always just "someday".

We called Grandma Braska and got her on board. And started looking at rates and found some that fit the budget we had in our heads for Disney. So this fall we are going to Hawaii! Our plane tickets and hotel rooms with an ocean view are booked. We'll be deciding on activities as we go. We are staying the entire time in Oahu, however I've been looking at some inter island flights to do a day trip to Maui as well. I am so excited!

And not to worry, we did think about the kids too and made some definite plans for future trips. Next year will be our Seattle trip that was postponed this year, and then Disneyland in 2012! Caleb will be 8 by then and the twins will be 4 so it seems like a more reasonable time. So assuming everything is going well at that time, it's on! No more excuses. So anyone interested in a little Disney 2012 trip, let us know and we'll plan together!

Grizz Game

After the accident on Friday (see last post) we decided that it was best if we carried on the night as planned since there was nothing that we could do but sit around and wait either at my house or at the hotel. And it proved to be a good distraction for everyone I think. I took the new camera along to take some shots of the action.

There was only one fight for the night :(. Boooo! But the Grizzlies guy kicked butt :)

And a group hug after a goal.

Of course not everyone made it through the whole game. It had been a very long day.

Zaden had more fun feeding Papa Popcorn than watching the game.

And of course after a good mouthful of popcorn, what could be better than a nice kiss?

The Grizzlies ended up losing the game but I am glad we made the choice to go anyway. Thanks fam for coming up to join us.

Accident

This past weekend my whole family came up for a visit to see a Grizzlies game and have some fun. They all got hotel rooms at a nearby hotel and were ready to do some swimming. The boys and I went down to join them and were having a good time.
My brother and his crew arrived a little later and jumped on in. However,there were a lot of people in the pool and it was very loud. We somehow we lost track of his girlfriend's 5 year old daughter ,Amanda, and she had a terrible accident. The next thing we knew a woman had pulled her from the water and they were doing CPR on her little body. It was such a tragic and terrifying accident. None of us saw what happened and none of us could do a thing to help, we just stood there helpless while help arrived and she was lift-flighted to Primary Children's Hospital.
She has been in a drug induced comma since Friday night due to many things going on caused by the accident. They are working right now at slowly taking her off her ventilator to see how she does breathing on her own and will wake her up when they feel it's safe and assess more things that could possibly be wrong.
We are all pretty shaken by this accident and are keeping her in our thoughts and prayers while we do what we need to do in our own everyday lives. Please cross your fingers for Amanda and her family. We are all rooting for a full recovery. I will keep you posted as I know more.