Part 2 of the Update

Easter

We did nothing for Easter this year, owing to the crazy home project, and it was fantastic! We didn't feel like we missed out on anything, and it helped us be calmer and more focused on the real reason for the holiday (sorry, guys, it's not all about the candy and colored eggs). We got Elijah candy for his birthday party, just a few weeks before. My mom sent the kids all an Easter gift. And we had an Easter feast with R&C, which was lovely. What's not fantastic about that?

I did promise Miciah that we could dye eggs another time: Mother's Day. I think that's a good idea, and we might just have to continue that tradition in coming years.

One thing we DID get to do for Easter is sing a duet in church. Rob and I sang "Did You See Him in the Garden?", which is one of the most powerfully moving Easter songs I've ever heard. I really connect with it, and we performed pretty well, I guess. Everyone liked it, anyway, and I LOVE sharing that song with people.

ty.com
My Mom got Miciah a beanie baby duck named Quackly (Miciah is obsessed with stuffed animal ducks, for some reason. She already has 5 or 6 and wants more and more and more) for Easter and it came with an online play. Like webkins, I imagine. She has already spent a lot of time playing on the site and she thinks it's the best thing ever. She has been able to earn enough "beans" to purchase her duck a bed and toys and all that. Weird.

The kids playing on ty.com:More Book Fun

Miciah continues to write us stories and books and such. What a fun stage! Here's the text for her latest book: The Happy Easter Book. (The book was fully illustrated with stickers and everything, but I'm only including the text.)

By: Miciah Thacker
The Happy Easter Book

One day a hen was sitting on her eggs when c....r....a....k! crakaly crak! c..r..a..k!

An egg craked open! The hen flew out of her nest! When the chick was four years old, the chick couldn't wait for Easter! I can't wait!

She couldn't wait for the Easter Bunny to bring her eggs!

Then mother hen called her. It's time to go! Go where? she asked.

Suddenly, mother hen led her chick out of the barn for a Easter egg hant! Is it Easter? she asked. Mother hen said yes!

This is the best Easter egg hant ever! she said as she picked up eggs. Relly!

Thee End

(the back cover says:
Becuause she is vary sweet and kind!
for M$. Lyon$
for M$. Lyon$
from: Miciah
(Ms. Lyons is her school teacher.))

Rob was reading the book with her and he said, "Miciah, if the chick was 4 years old, she would be a full-grown chicken." Miciah, with perfect logic, said, "Elijah is 4, and he's not a man." At this point in Rob telling me the story, I started laughing. What a good point! Rob went on to tell Miciah that it's not the same with chickens. But still, I think that's a tally mark for Miciah.

Miciah also wrote us this riveting book: Not Ugen! (This book was illustrated, too, of course, and I'm including the 2 that cracked me up.)

To: Mom and Dad
Not Ugen!
By: Miciah Lynn Thacker

Hi! I am painting a picher! Do you like it? Oh, No! Not ugen!

I Have't to take a bath when that hapens. But I don't know why.

My Mom says that It is Because I got drty ugen! How? I ased. You wer painting! And wut? I asced.

The paint splaterd you! Oh. I said. Just take A Bath! said Mom.
The End

Elijah

Elijah is still a sweet, sweet boy. Spastic as all get out, now that it's warmer outside. Which has made me think a lot about March and April weather. We despise April because it's not warm enough, but April is warmer than March, and we have nothing against March. I have decided why that is. March is our savior from winter. March is when we get to say things like, "It's finally warming up!" And April gets a bad rap because we want it to be warm like RIGHT NOW. For April we think things like, "Aren't you May already?" Poor April.

Anyways, fact remains that Elijah is a spaz. It'll be warm for a few days and then it's rainy and cold-ish for a week. And all of the kids are being almost intolerable.

But Elijah still melts my heart by saying things like, "Mom, I love you, and I like your eyes." Aw. Who can't love a boy like that?

He also is widely recognized as being the boy with a ton of expressions. In fact, a couple at our church, whom we hardly ever talk to really, just recently said to us that they refer to him as The Boy With a Thousand Faces. Elijah is always winking and smiling this cute little shy smile and nodding and raising his eyebrows. He's very expressive.

He's also very good at compliments. We had a friend come over and he said, as she was leaving, "I like your slippers." She said thank you, but they were sandals, not slippers. He thought about that for a minute and then repeated, "I like your slippers." Elijah is one of the best geniune complimenters that I know. It's adorable.

Other things that he's complimented of mine: my shirt (he's actually wearing it right now--the Mighty Mouse one), my dresses for church, and my hair. "Mom, do you know why I like your hair?" Why, Elijah? "Cause it's getting big." Elijah is excited that I've decided not to cut my hair for the rest of the year (Not growing it out, mind you. Running a social experiment and taking journalistic notes along the way). Elijah has decided that he wants his hair long, too. "Like yours," he says. I haven't talked to him about growing mine out, he just wants his long. I just shrug my shoulders. Who really cares, right? But his hair is getting really shaggy, as you can see in this picture:
I just can't see why I should turn down his request to grow his hair out a little.

Teancom

Still the most addicting child on the planet.

The other day I was lounging about the house, reading a book (this is mainly what I do these days. Lounge and read. Read and lounge. It's great.), when it dawned on me why I've been enjoying this so much. 1 - I have the time to read. My boys let me have some "me" time. Miciah NEVER let me do that. And 2 - Teancom will just come, curl up beside me, and sit with me. For hours. Literally, hours. What's not warm and cozy about that? Get yourself a cup of hot chocolate, enjoy a good book, and cuddle with your calm 2-year-old.

I have decided, though, that the drawback to Teancom and his addictive cuddling, is that he's an obsessive cuddler. He HAS to cuddle A LOT. If he wants to be held, you have to hold him or he freaks out. And he'd prefer you held him most of the time. I still carry him a lot, even though he's old enough that he should be walking everywhere. ... About this time in his life is when I should be popping out baby #4, right?, so then he would HAVE to stop being held cause I'd have a new one to hold. But as there isn't a baby #4 in the near future, we'll deal with a clingy, cuddly Teancom.

Rob and Work

I haven't written about Rob and work for a while because his work has ceased being a stressful thing. It was all Rob would talk about for months, and now it's not really a stressor for him. It's WONDERFUL.

We have realized, as Rob returns to his normal self, that he hasn't been his normal self for YEARS. We're talking years upon years. Really, almost since we got married. While he was in school and so stressed and busy that he could hardly see straight. Having Rob back is fantastic. I told him he is never allowed to go away again. I feel like he's been re-born this year. His joking around and easy smile are commonplace again.

I also told Rob that if one of our kids has his disposition, and they're thinking about higher education like a PhD, I will tell them it's not worth it. I'm not sure Rob being Dr. Thacker was worth losing Rob for 7 years. Perhaps time will change my mind on that, though, since time does things like that.

Rob and Church

Rob's calling is also no longer very stressful. Actually, a few weeks ago we had a stressful day that revolved around his calling, and it was weird, cause we haven't done that for a long time. It was a reminder to us that we need to still be diligent about our committments to each other and that if we're not mindful about balance, things won't STAY balanced.

The Temple

We went to the temple last Friday, and it was a stressful day because things didn't go down as they were "supposed to" in my planning brain. I realized, later, after I was so stressed about this that I almost cried, that this is why I rarely plan anything more involved than dinner. Cause I have a hard time adjusting to things if they don't go how they're supposed to.

Anyways, it was great to go to the temple with Rob and the kids. Rob went through a session with his parents (to correlate with Mandy going through the temple for the first time. She was in UT, we were in OH), and I took care of the kids on the temple grounds. Elijah has been BEGGING to go to the temple, and how do you tell a 5-year-old no? You don't. You take them to the temple!

Funny enough, for all his wanting to go (and he really wanted to go, cause a friend offered to watch the kids for us so we could go through together, and I mentioned this to Elijah and he said NO! He wanted to go to the temple), he had a really short attention span while we were there. He liked sitting inside and being in the garden area, but he was just your typical spazzy 5-year-old most of the time, too.

While we were there, we had some adventures like Teancom falling in the stream (he was far enough away that by the time I could have reached him, he could have been in big trouble if he hadn't gotten himself out) and saying, "I choked." Great. And Elijah saying he had to go potty and then running off in an odd direction and out of sight. I found him inside the temple waiting room (which was the OPPOSITE direction of the way he started running, of course), with a temple worker helping him go potty.

It was a wonderful night, but when Rob got out of the temple, I said, "Rob, you just got a dose of spirituality. The kids are YOURS."

April and Service

At our church, the women's group focused on Service for the month of April. April isn't over yet, but I have spent a good amount of time and energy this month on service stuff. It's been fun and interesting and I've learned a lot about service and what it is and isn't.

As part of my service efforts, I learned how to make bread. No, I never knew how to make bread before. Rob and I made 3 different recipes, all of which are very good, and I can now say that I can make bread! Hurray for me!

Losing Weight

Rob and his family are doing the 12 week Health and Fitness Challenge that Rob and I did a year ago with my sister-in-law. It's great to be back in the swing of healthy living. Our motivation this time is to be in shape enough to enjoy Yellowstone at the higher elevation, and to be able to hike Mt. Timpanogas when we're in Utah. I'm excited about that! I've never hiked it before.

And after almost 2 weeks of the challenge, Rob has already lost 7 or 8 lbs. He is now at the lowest he's been since our first year of marriage. And total weight loss, from his peak, is 70 lbs. He hopes to be able to lose another 15 lbs. during this challenge to put him actually below what he weighed when we got married. One thing I love about Rob: he has shown he can do it when he puts his heart into it. So, hurray for Rob!

And that's our update from this end. Hope you're all doing well and that life is as good to you as it has been for us.

It's November? When did THAT happen? (an update)

My new favorite photo of Teancom. Taken at Miciah's birthday party.

Well, the last of October was eventful in all the right ways.

Miciah Turns 7!

Miciah's birthday was on the 16th, but we didn't do much for it that day. It was a Thursday night, and Thursday night is our Dave Ramsey class, so we didn't do any cake or party or anything. Miciah knew that would happen, so she wasn't upset by the lack of activity. We did let her have her birthday gift: Barbie and the Diamond Castle. That's a movie for those of you who aren't on the Barbie scene. She loves the movie and sings the songs all the time. I have to admit that some of the songs are kinda catchy.

The next week we had a birthday party for her. We let her invite a friend, but through some half fluke, half crafty design on Miciah's part, that turned into 2 friends. We wrote on their cards, "There's no need to bring a gift" and Miciah said, "Mom, add that they CAN bring a gift if they want." I thought that was cute. The party was just the 3 girls having a good time playing together, and then the 3 of them, plus 2 little boys, decorating a cake with WAY too many sprinkles. Really, with that many sprinkles and stuff on the top, it's almost gross to eat. But they had a good time. Miciah is the one that wrote "happy birthday" with the blue frosting. I was actually quite impressed that it turned out so well.

Newport Aquarium

The next day, Saturday the 25th, B&R took us on a family outing. We were supposed to go to an orchard-type place, but it was cold! so we opted for something indoors. B suggested the aquarium because we'd never been there and it would be a special treat for the kids. And it certianly was. The kids all loved it! and so did we.

Rob with the kids. We've been to the Monterey Aquarium in California many times, since my parents live close to it and have passes. It's a world class aquarium and the kids love it. So if we can do that for free, why pay for Newport? Plus, I'd been told that the Newport one is smaller and if you've been to the Monterey one, it's not that impressive. But the Newport Aquarium gives you a unique look at the fish. You get to "walk through" the tanks by a series of tunnels, and it's like the fish are swimming all around you. It was really cool.

I was holding Teancom in one of the coolest tunnel sections. He would say, "Here it comes!" as each big fish came our way, and then watch it intently as it passed over us. Very cute.

Teancom checking out a tank of fish.

Miciah and Elijah comparing notes.

Miciah found her sunglasses in the van (she loses them every other month--she "lost" them for about a year once, and they were in the van the whole time) and put them on her head. We tried to convince her to leave them in the van for fear she would lose them, but she said she would keep them on her head all day. And true to her word, that's exactly what she did. I thought it was adorable to see her with those glasses on her head.

Miciah intently looking in the tank for different kinds of fish. She would see each label and then look in the tank for each kind of fish. Very rarely did we find them all, and we were lucky to even find 1 from the label! But she had everyone looking for them with her. ... In the picture you can see B's hand in the photo. He's poking her and telling her that if we wanted to go to the live show, we had to go RIGHT THEN. He'd already told her a few times, but she hadn't found all the fish in the tank! :)

The live show was kinda cute. We were in small movie theatre type of room, and then they pulled up the screen and we were looking straight into the large tank. They had all the divers in pirate costumes for Halloween. And while that's kinda cute, I couldn't help but thinking, "Oh, poor divers. Where's the dignity?" I was humiliated for them. But perhaps they have a better sense of humor than I do. If I were one of them, I can only imagine thinking every morning, as I put on the diving suit and then costume, "Only 6 more days till Halloween. Only 6 more days till Halloween." :)

One of the coolest parts in the whole place (second only to the tunnels) was something they called the Shark Cage. You walked into a small room designed to look like an underwarter shark cage. You know, the kind that divers go into when they want to dive close to the sharks. The kind that the sharks attack and you think as you're watching the TV show, "What are you divers doing down there? Are you idiots?! Get out of the water!" So you walked in and one whole wall was a large movie screen showing sharks swimming around. And then the sharks would bump the cage! The neatest part (and a little creepy) was that every time the sharks would bump the cage, the floor would vibrate like you'd really been hit. Woah! The kids liked it, but thought it was a little scary (they post that it might not be appropriate for small children).

Rob had Teancom in with him and had Teancom stand on the floor next to him. Teancom got a little scared and Rob told him that the sharks weren't real. This calmed him down. After Teancom came out, I held him as we rested for a minute and I asked him if he liked the sharks. He said, "Yeah." I asked him if the sharks were scary, expecting him to say they were. He looked at me and said, "They're not real." :)

Elijah relaxing in the stroller. Teancom and Elijah would fight over who got to sit in it.

Teancom shaking his hands dry after petting the sharks.

This is Elijah walking over the part of the bridge that has a glass bottom. Underneath him, if you can tell (and you can, just barely), is an alligator. They weren't very big, and the glass, I'm sure, is very stable. But I wouldn't walk over it! :) I walked around.

After the aquarium we stayed at Newport on the Levee and went to a fun pizza place. Dewey's Pizza, I think it was. It's not your normal pizza place. Think ultra-gourmet pizza and fabulous salads. Plus, you could watch them make the pizzas, and the kids thought that was fantastic!

By the end of the day we were all beat! All of us, that is, except Miciah. It was a good insight into her personality when we came home and Teancom and Elijah were asleep before we got to the house. Teancom slept from 5:00-ish until 8 the next morning. Elijah slept for all of that except for about an hour and a half. Rob and I laid down for a nap, too. He slept for about an hour, and I took about a 2 hour nap. What did Miciah do? Who knows, but she wasn't tired at all! She colored and watched movies and in general wondered why we were all tired, I'm sure. She suggested, on the way home, that we find another activity to do and go as a family to that! I thought, "Are you seriously not tired? Wow." That's our Miciah!

So a nice thank you goes out to B&R for the lovely family outing. And to E for going with us, too!

A few random highlights.

Date Night and Helping Friends Move

Rob and I got a fun opportunity to go on a date a few Fridays ago. This usually isn't news to report--usually we go on dates all the time. But for the last 13 weeks we've been calling the Dave Ramsey class our date night. Normally that works good enough, but we needed a REAL date. So we did a date swap with our friends, the S's. So the S's had our kids overnight on Friday. Friday is my soccer night, so we went out to eat, then to the soccer game (where I played really really well, actually, despite having a stomach ache beforehand--which always goes away the minute I start playing). Afterwards we headed home. Rob had told me we could do whatever I wanted and I wanted to make brownies! So lame, but we just got this recipe for the BYU mint brownies and they take like 2 hours to make. So we got home and I was sick! For the next hour and a half I was on and off the toilet (mostly on). What a way to spend our date night! :) But I was determined to make those brownies and they were SO WORTH IT. Yumm!

The next Monday we went to a friend's house to help them move some boxes and stuff into their new home. It was fun to see them again, but as we were leaving their house, T got really sick and vanished into the bathroom. He came back out like half an hour later whiter than a sheet! He looked like he was going to fall over. He told us he was sick (which we could already tell!) and had to go lay down. And he apologized for being sick! :) Clearly there was no need to apologize, but I told his wife that I had been sick the Friday before. Not that I passed it on to him, obviously, but obviously something was going around. But for me, it was Friday night, then my tummy didn't like me Saturday, and it was done. Not bad for a sickness like that.

Sickness

At the start of last week Rob came home early from work because he wasn't feeling well. It was obvious he wasn't feeling good, but he didn't have any harsh symptoms, so I wans't too sympathetic. He stayed home from work and church meetings on Tuesday, but was well enough to go to work on Wednesday. And then, mid-day on Halloween day, I started going, "Ugh." Obviously I was coming down with the same lame cold that Rob had all week. It hit me hardest on Saturday and Sunday. I felt just like he'd described: not horrid, just icky and tired.

I stayed home with the boys on Sunday morning, because although Elijah said he felt fine, he had the same cough I had. By Monday morning I was feeling much better, though. The cough is worse, but finally productive, and I could feel like this the rest of my life and not complain about it.

On Tuesday Teancom was fussy. Teancom is NEVER fussy. I spent all day wondering what was wrong with him and why was he acting so weird. And then bedtime came and that nasty cough surfaced. Ugh. Consequently we didn't sleep well. I spent part of the night holding him on the couch so he could be propped up. I have my cough too, still, so I was sucking a cough drop all night and trying to not hack up my lungs. The rest of the night I spent holding him in my bed. ... I slept in, off and on, Wednesday until around noon. Getting no sleep while sick = not so good. ... But at least there was a reason for Teancom's grumpiness. The next day he was fine, and you can't even tell (until bedtime) that he's sick at all.

The Dentist

Rob and I went to the dentist the other day for the first time in years upon years. I have many many issues with dentists, and I walked into this guy's office waiting to find a bunch of reasons to never go back to him again. But he was delightful. Definitely grooved with my style. He found one small cavity that I'll have to go back for. Ugh. But for me, only finding 1 cavity is good! :)

Mostly I mention this because it's lovely to have dental insurance!

The Kids

The weather has been lovely, so the kids have been playing outside a ton. Elijah was outside on Saturday riding the trike with his Superman cape on! Totally cute. I mean, check out this picture:

Classic, right?

We spent all that Saturday finishing up the winterizing of our garden. Planting spring bulbs (we've never had spring flowers, so it'll be fun!) and stuff like that. Then we got free mulch from a friend, and our garden looks great. We won't winterize the roses yet, since they're still blooming like crazy and looking fantastic! (Thank you, again, Pop!) I love my roses like they were my own children. So beautiful.

Anyways. Elijah would ride around on his trike and then invite Teancom to jump on the back of it. There's a slight incline to our driveway, though, so every time Elijah would get to a certain point, Teancom's weight would be too much for him. He would dig down deep and put his all into pedaling, but Teancom would have to get off for him to keep going. Then, after getting past that spot, Elijah would say, "Get back on, Teancom!" It was really cute.

Teancom riding on the back of the trike.

Elijah

Elijah has just started becoming very chatty. We went to an appointment and Elijah was gabbing to this nice lady. And he told her this story (which we've since captured in a video, cause it cracks me up): "Once I was a little baby and I said my first word." At this point he got this high-pitched baby voice with a lisp and he said, "Ice cream." She looked at me and said, "That's pretty advanced, to have 'ice cream' as your first word." I just chuckled and wondered where in the HECK Elijah got that story from. His first word was NOT ice cream, but it cracked me up, that little fake baby voice.

Today was a fun one with Elijah. Elijah is still into making tracks out of chairs and movies and books and all that, and I still have a good time watching him do it. But in the last few weeks he's also been upping his making of complete messes. He's trashed his room three times this week. I didn't take pictures, but you can imagine what it looks like when you take all the belongings in one room and shove it all into the closet (I've taken pictures of similar things before). Plus, he's been wetting his pants just a little, and that's annoying.

But he's still a fun kid, despite these latest few annoying things. Today he was making a recipe, which is something he's been wanting to do a lot lately. He informed me that I needed to buy bananas so we could make banana bread. I didn't buy bananas, but apparently I should have, because he was intent on making a recipe. He grabbed stuff from the kitchen: a bowl, some spoons, some hot pads "for when it gets hot", etc. None of that is unusual--he does this a bunch. Then I gave him some Halloween candy and I assumed he was walking off to eat it. Nope. It became part of the "recipe." Later I came into his bedroom to find the bowl full of slightly wet (and therefore ruined) cheese-its, animal crackers, and pieces of chocolate. I moved it into the kitchen so he wouldn't continue to make a mess and when he came back to the bedroom he was upset that I'd moved his recipe. It made me giggle.

Teancom

Teancom is 2 and doing all sorts of fun things that are fun to take pictures and videos of. It's just a fun stage! I'll post some of the videos and stuff. Teancom is still extremely cuddly and cute and addictive. My latest favorite thing that he says is, "That's not dood, Mommy. That's not dood." :) (dood = good) Oh, so cute when they're learning to talk.

Miciah

Miciah lost another tooth this morning. That makes 6 for her (not counting the one that was pulled). Losing teeth is apparently traumatic for her and I don't understand it at all! This last tooth was so loose that the night before she turned it around completely several times. Then in the morning when miraculously it was still in, you could see the entire tooth. It must have been just barely hanging on. So we tortured her and pulled it out. ... I thought of taking a video of it, but I thought, "This could be evidence against us later on," because she really did act like we were torturing her! I don't get it. ... I did get a video from the night before where I was just asking her about her tooth and should we pull it out and by the end she ran away screaming, "No! No!" Wow. The trauma.

A traumatized Miciah showing off her backwards tooth.

If anyone understands why losing a tooth would bring about this level of trauma, please feel free to share your insights with us. I always thought it was cool to lose teeth. I would twist my teeth around and around and gross out all the other girls in school. I remember being sad when that last strand finally broke and I couldn't twist it all around any more. :)

Otherwise Miciah is doing very well. Her behavior has improved dramatically since we've been charting her progress. It continues to be amazing to me how much a sticker on a chart can motivate.

Dave Ramsey

Tonight is our last night of Dave Ramsey! It's been fabulous. We've learned a lot. And we're glad it's finally over. 13 weeks is a LONG time. So worth it, but glad it's wrapping up.

Rob

A quick note on Rob. We are almost done with our second round of the Health and Fitness Challenge. It's 12 weeks of really focusing on trying to eat better and exercise more regularly. We haevn't done that well this time around--we've actually super slacked, especially compared to the intensity we pulled out last time. But the little we have done has really paid off. Rob has lost another 10 lbs. in the last 10 weeks, which puts him at 210 and only 5 lbs. off the "ideal" weight he's been shooting for since 2005 when he started seriously trying to lose weight. We have realized, as he approaches this weight, that he still has a ways to go, but man he looks FINE at 210! I'm really proud of him and thought his weight loss deserved a mention in this update.

Here's a current picture with an older comparison picture.

Picture from Wednesday night:

Picture from June 24, 2005:

That's a 65 lb. weight loss! Go, Rob!

Have a good one, everyone!

The Last Month (an update)

Things have been eventful since my last update! Only a month's gone by but things feel drastically different. Miciah's in school, Hurricane Ike hit Cincinnati full-force, Dave Ramsey has taken over our lives, and Rob's calling is under control. Life is Different here. Here's the month in a highlight reel (though a LONG highlight reel, like usual).

Coney Island

Children's pays for all their employees and their families to go to Coney Island once a year. We've gone in the past because people have provided us with tickets, so this year we returned the favor and invited the Bs to go with us. There were many other families that we know and like that were there, too, so the day was a blast. I have a lot of pictures from the day.

Coney Island has lots of rides for little kids, so the kids were happy. The first ride Rob, Miciah, and Elijah went on was that spinny tea cup ride. I'm not a fan of the tea cup myself, so I sat it out with Teancom. Right next to the tea cup ride, though, was this like 50 foot slide. I thought Teancom would love it, so we hiked to the top. He was excited and excited until we got to the very top, when he started clinging to me and saying, "No, no, no, no, no." :) We went down anyway (how else do you get down?), and the whole time he tightened every muscle in his little body. I don't like the feeling of my stomach jumping, either--he must be my kid. We got to the bottom and I asked him, "Was that fun?" and he said, "Uh-huh." Funny kid.

After that, Teancom would go on no rides. Not even the train going around in a circle ride. The so-not-scary-it's-ridiculous rides. He wouldn't do the airplanes. He wouldn't do the rockets. He wouldn't do the trains and tugboats. (How do kids miss the fact, by the way, that all these rides are EXACTLY THE SAME RIDE. Pick an object, and make it go around in a slow-going circle.) We got to a ride that I thought for SURE he'd go on, though. It was turtles. How non-scary are cute turtles?! We put him on and he did the monkey-cling don't-put-me-down thing. So RB held him while everyone else went on the ride.I thought I'd take a picture of the ride, since I thought it was hilarious he was scared of a TURTLE ride. So I'm taking pictures of Miciah and Elijah and their friends, A and L, when the ride starts, and this was A's reaction:Apparently A is also afraid of turtles. Who knew they were such fearsome creatures, eh? ... A thought the trains and tugboats were much less scary, and went on that ride, at least. He had nothing to do with airplanes and rockets, though. His little sister, L, however, is fearless and wanted to go on every ride. This is her and Miciah on the turtles:
I imagine they're thinking something like, "Umm, can we get a little more action here, please? Come on!"

Elijah on the rocket:
Elijah and Miciah on the airplanes:

Miciah was only slightly fooled into thinking that all the rides were different. She's definitely growing up. She still had a good time at the park, especially with her friends there, but I think pretty soon she'll be thinking, "Do we HAVE to go to Coney Island? It's so LAME." :)

Coney Island has a little play town area for the kids. They love it and it's a nice place to rest a little. While we were playing there I found this chair and fell in love with the beat up green against the red and white background. Something about it caught my interest, so I took a picture of it.
And then I took pictures of the kids sitting in it.I dunno. Something about that green chair, red wall.

I didn't get a picture of Elijah in the chair, but I got these pictures of him and Miciah instead. Miciah in a loft area in the play town:

Miciah on the carousel:

The best part of Coney Island is the free paddle boat rides! I recommend going right when everyone else wants to eat lunch. It's been a good strategy for us. Of course, right when we're about at the front of the line, Elijah says he has to go potty. And when little boys have to go potty, I've discovered, it's not a wait for 5 minutes type of thing. So Rob took him to the restroom as quickly as possible. A few people got to jump ahead of us in line, but we got on the paddle boats eventually.

Elijah in his quality lifejacket. The top of it was riped, so if he'd fallen in the water, those floaty things would have just come right out.
We like to pretend like we're going to ram other boats, and we actually did ram the B's boat a little. At slow, slow speeds. Our other friends, the H's, were there, too, and we tried to ram their boat, too. Here's them narrowly escaping our ramming efforts:
And the B's, trying to ram us after we rammed them a little:

They got caught in the ropes for their efforts and sprayed by the nearby fountain. Ha, ha! We won!

Our kids now know how to say, "Ramming speed!"

At the very end of the day the kids were exhausted. Teancom and Elijah both fell asleep on the way home, and Miciah threw a 20-minute fit because she wanted to go on the ferris wheel and we forgot about that.

Stricker's Grove

One of the funniest parts about Teancom not going on any rides at Coney Island, is that about 3 weeks before that we were invited to Stricker's Grove, which is a smaller park with rides almost identical to the rides at Coney Island. And Teancom went on all of those. Whatever.

We also played miniature golf and I beat everyone handily. We found a toad while we were playing and saved him from some 9-year-old boys. I think that's a ticket straight to heaven just for that act alone.

Stricker's Grove also had two rollercoasters for the kids. Miciah was tall enough to go on both of them if Rob went with her, and Elijah was big enough to do one of them. They loved it. Teancom and I went and rode the train again. The train was his favorite part, and mine, too. It takes you all the way around the park, through a tunnel and over about a 2-foot bridge. It goes right by a little creek too, and it's just a fun little train ride.

I did take Teancom on a Dumbo ride where Dumbo goes in the air and down at relatively high speeds for a kid who's scared of a 50-foot slide. He clung to me for dear life the whole time. The kid is a scaredy cat, no doubt about it. I am, too, but he's worse. :)

First Grade

We are now into the groove of 1st Grade. Miciah had a hard time for the first week or so. After her second day of school she came to me and asked if she could have something or other. I hesitated for a minute and then said sure. She gave a sigh of relief and said, "Thanks, Mom. It's been a long day." :)

A few fun stories about her and school. She's doing well in school, as we were sure she would. Miciah isn't a genius, but school isn't a struggle for her, either. She came home one day and told me about a little test they took. Something about knowing all the numbers 1 - 20. Something really basic for her. I said, "Did you know them all, Miciah?" She gave me this look like, "Are you CRAZY?" and said, "Of COURSE I knew them all!" I am confident that she isn't cocky at school, but she knows what she knows and she knows that we know it, too.

She got back her first paper that had been graded. It was a math test. It was her first paper EVER that got sent home with a less than perfect grade: 19 out of 20. I was looking over it and she pointed to the grade and said, "What's that?" I told her it was 19 out of 20. She looked at me blankly. I said, "You missed one." Again she looked at me like, "I don't get it." She doesn't miss things often, and when she does it really bothers her. She's a perfectionist and doesn't like to make mistakes. I showed her where she missed the point: She forgot to write down the 9 in 19. A silly, sloppy mistake. I didn't even explain it to her yet and she said, "Oh. I forgot to write down the 9. I knew it was 19." ... It was just interesting to watch her react to her first not-perfect paper. We don't have to say much to her in terms of schooling--we know that she's going to try her hardest because any less than that is just not acceptable to her. And it's not that we're pushing her--we're not. She just wants to do it and do it right. And she can (and she knows it).

Often while waiting for the bus, Miciah will ask the boys to come out and sit with her, and to further entice them, she offers to read a book to them:

Elijah in particular loves for Miciah to read to him. He's just starting to follow plot lines and things like that. He's grown up a lot, too.

Miciah thought this page was particularly funny and so she wanted me to take a picture of it.

A few weeks ago Rob and I went to the temple with Rob's family. It was really nice to get away from the kids for the day, and to spend the day with Rob's family. Super nice. Anyways, the woman who babysat for us, Lynn, used to be a professional clown and is one of the best kid persons I've ever met. She just loves kids and is always prepared to have a good time with them. The kids had a BLAST with her. Anyways, the point is that when she first showed up, she asked Miciah, "Are you about as smart as your mom?" Miciah thought for a moment and then replied, "Well. Maybe a little smarter." :) That's probably true.

I hope no one things I'm bragging about my daughter. We're just happy that she does well in school and that she enjoys it so much.

Elijah

Elijah has started taking an interest in books and reading. He will now tell me which letter things are and even sometimes what sound they say. He will also count with me sometimes (when I catch him off-guard).

He has also started coloring a lot. A few funny things about that.

First is this:

It's a bag of crayons that he took outside and left out there for a day or two. The crayons melted in the sun and then melted TOGETHER. I thought it was awesome and I had to take pictures of it:

The other day he was coloring on a piece of paper with a dry-erase marker. I came in and gently said, "Oh, Elijah. That marker isn't meant for paper. Let me get you another one that is." I immediately got out another marker meant for paper, same color, and gave it to him. He scowled at me and was so mad. He is the most EMOTIONAL child. I don't even have to tell him no for him to be upset. Just a qualified no that actually is a yes. Like this situation. You can't use that marker but you can use this one. This technique is SUPPOSED to work with kids. Anyways, I walked into the other room and pretty soon he came to me with a fully colored-in piece of paper. He said, gruffly, "Look, Mom!" I looked at it and said, "Elijah, it's beautiful!" He said, "No! It's ruined!" and crumbled up the piece of paper and threw it away, scowling the whole time. I don't get it. His emotions are a mystery to me.

Other fun Elijah stories (he's at the right age for them):

He likes to say his own prayers now, and he'll say long, long, long, ... long prayers that seem to take forever. :) We'll try to help him close it up by feeding him the next-to-last line: In the name of Jesus Christ. If he's not done, though, he'll say, "No!" and go on. He used to say, "I need to say grateful for red Spider-Man." Now every prayer ends with, "In the name of red Spider-Man, In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen." So he has 2 dieties: red Spider-Man and Christ. :) I'm assuming this is a phase and that soon enough he'll grow out of it, so we're trying to chuckle about it and not turn it into a big deal. Plus, it's kind of funny.

We were at a stop light the other day and when the red light turned to green Elijah informed me that the lights changing colors was "amazing magic." That's a phrase I'm trying to incorporate into my everyday speech: amazing magic.

Rob and I are again doing our health and fitness challenge, and with Miciah being gone at school, I've been exercising during the day. I often do Tae Bo cause I love it. I turn it on and the first thing Elijah comments on is that Billy Blanks is chocolate (he's black). And he'll ask, "Do you want to look just like him?" No. Not just like him.

He also asks me if I'm exercising so I can be "big like daddy." The thought of me being as big as Rob makes me chuckle. Man, would I look weird! But for Elijah, every move he makes is so he can be as big as daddy. That's why he eats dinner (especially vegetables). That's why he runs and plays and exercises. So that someday he can be big like daddy. So I thought that the only appropriate response was the response I gave him: "Yes. Yes, I am."

He's also in the fun age of cute grammar. My latest favorite incorrect phrase of his: "I didn't did it."

Teancom

What can I say, the kid is a gem. Spoiled as all get out, I've realized, but cute as can be.

A couple funny Teancom stories:

I was sitting at the table reading a book when Teancom walked up to me very casually (he often will come up and just lean against me--like he wants to know I'm there--and then go back to normal. It's very endearing). For no apparent reason, this time he had both fingers in the sides of his mouth, like he was making that face where you stick your tongue out. Except he wasn't making a face, he just had his fingers like that. And he was trying to talk to me. By the end of a minute with him trying unsuccessfully to talk with his fingers in the sides of his mouth like that, I was dying laughing. He abruptly took his fingers out of his mouth, looks at me sweetly and asks, "That funny, Mommy?" :) Yes. Yes, that's funny.

Duing one of our lovely No Power Days (a very brief sum-up to follow), the kids made a blanket tent in the living room. They were playing in there and I heard Elijah tell Teancom to shut up. Now, Rob's very against the word shut up, and I don't like it much, so in general it's a rule that we don't say that word in our house (I use it more than anyone, hands down). I said, "Hey. Elijah, we don't say shut up to our brother. That's not nice." Teancom turns to me, points his finger at me and says, repeatedly, "Shub up!" I almost cracked up laughing right there, but I stayed composed and even managed a, "That's not very nice and I might just get you in trouble for that if you're not careful" scrunched up face at him. But I've started saying "shub up" to Rob when no one else is around, just cause I think it's stinkin' hilarious.

No Power For You!

Hurricane Ike came through Cincinnati and left us without power from Sunday - Wednesday evening, which seems like a long time until you consider people who had their power off until Sunday morning. Miciah (and the rest of Cincinnati) was off school for 3 days. Those were a LONG 3 days. I've written up a Catalog of events (which I told you not to read, so hopefully you didn't) and I intend to write up more of it soon. The whole thing was fascinating and I'm grateful we were a part of it.

On Friday of that No Power Week we went to eat dinner at a friend's house. We got home around 9 pm to find that our power was back off again!!! This was very distressing. Apparently, a squirrel got fried on the powerlines and that wigged out the lines and left our street without power. What?! I had a soccer game that night. After getting dressed by lantern light I drove to the game. I was livid. In my head I was cussing at the squirrel, grateful he'd already gone down in a ball of flames (literally, he went down in a ball of flames! They had to put him out. There was a scorch mark on the grass), or else I'd have hunted him down and killed him. ... A guy at my soccer game, as we're starting, says to me, "You look tired. Are you okay?" I said, "No, I'm not okay," and proceeded to tell him all about power being off until Wednesday and then tonight, TWO DAYS LATER, a STUPID SQUIRREL took out my power AGAIN! I seriously yelled. I bet everyone in the building knew all about the squirrel. I was mad. Consequently, I played my best game yet. I scored once and assisted once, and I was all over the place. My team played a lousy game (we lost 6 - 2, or maybe worse--the ref might have stopped counting), but I was on fire. The next day my body finally was feeling it, but that night I ran myself into the ground getting out my aggression towards that cursed squirrel. :)

The next morning, miraculously, Duke Energy had the power back on. That saved our day, because we were just about to take our food BACK OVER to the B's house. :) Instead, our power came back on, we could do all the stuff we needed to do that day, and we got to go to the park and play as a family, too. Yea for power.

Not that I couldn't live without power. I could. We all could. But it's nice to have power, and we're used to it now. If it was going to be a permanent arrangement, we'd have to make adjustments to our lives, for sure.

A picture of Miciah from Monday, the day after Ike:And the cursed squirrel:

Rob's Calling

Happily, we are figuring out Rob's calling. For a while things were pretty stressful around here. It took us a while to figure out which stresses were coming from where. Some stresses were legitimately from his calling. Others from his work. And still others from financial changes. But the changes we've made in our lives lately to try to help make his calling run smoothly have made a HUGE difference. Still Sunday mornings can be a struggle, but we are light years ahead of where we were just a month ago. The worst part now is that Teancom is spoiled and he won't allow Elijah to sit on my lap at church. And Elijah will for some unknown reason start throwing one of his emotional tantrums on the church floor (they're not disruptive, they just need to be dealt with). So I have to hand Teancom off to someone else (and he doesn't like that) so I can deal with Elijah. I don't know why Elijah is throwing the fits in the first place! But it's getting better.

I've realized that I must look exhausted every week. People will ask me repeatedly how I'm doing and if I tell them fine they look at me like, "Right. Now tell me the truth." :) I saw someone on a Saturday and she said, "You look very relaxed today." I realized about a week later that really that comment meant that normally when I see her (on Sunday mornings) I DON'T look relaxed. :) So I'll have to work on that. ... However, this is somewhat my fault, I realize. A while ago I was praying that Heavenly Father would show me that I was noticed. Me, Tamra Thacker, who gets no special attention because I'm not NEEDY. :) I didn't tell anyone this desire--not even Rob. But suddenly there are people noticing me left and right. I am grateful that the Lord answered my prayers and that I'm no longer able to say, "No one notices me anyways." People do notice. And, truly, they probably always have.

Dave Ramsey

Last, but certainly not least, is Dave Ramsey. Rob and I are now 7 weeks into Financial Peace University, which is a Dave Ramsey financial class. It has changed our view on finances completely--and for the better! The principles we are learning and applying have already given us focus and direction and determination to DO IT RIGHT! We're excited about all that. And it's finally starting to not be all-consuming like it was when we first started out on this. Like most change, changing our finances has been about changing behaviors. And that's always difficult. But doable.

It seems like we've changed a lot of behaviors lately. We're getting our finances under control. Rob's calling is under control. Our household is almost always clean and under control, too (and this has NEVER really happened). And most importantly, I am finally feeling like I am IN control. Not that I haven't always been in control of myself and my life, but finally I feel like I'm embracing what it is that my life is about. This has been a process for me and it's been a fabulous ride. And the older I get, the more I think, "Man. If 27 can be this much better than 26, then bring on getting older!" Each year I'm more of who I want to be and I'm less apologetic for it. :) Yea for the starts of maturity!

2007 was the year the pine trees died.

We love you all. Thanks for reading this far. I think my brain died about halfway through this update, so I hope this was all still read-able. But maybe I'll re-read it tomorrow and go, "Ah. THAT'S when it happened." :) Time to bed for me!

A picture of Miciah from today. Love the no front teeth smile:

Tamra and family

It's Spring!

And I can tell it's Spring because I've cleaned every room in my house, top to bottom, in the last 2 days. It helps that Rob is out of town and I have nothing better to do with my down time. I've cleaned things that haven't been cleaned all winter. Wiped down walls, mopped the downstairs, dusted in corners. ... It feels about the same as the homestretch of pregnancy. When the baby's coming in 3 weeks and I suddenly feel the urge to clean everything in sight, whether it's dirty or not. And since I'm clearly not having a baby in 3 weeks, this current cleaning spree must be related to the warm Spring weather!! The sun is warmer and brighter. The kids are playing outside. Every window in my house is open. Lovely, lovely, lovely.

Health and Fitness Challenge

Well, Rob and I finished our Health and Fitness Challenge last Sunday. It was a wonderful 12 weeks of pushing ourselves to do better with our bodies, and make better choices. The challenge included putting in $25 per person into a pot at the start. The pot will now be split 2 ways: 2/3 to the winning team and 1/3 to the winning individual. From the beginning, I was pretty sure Rob would win the individual category. I don't know why I thought that. First off, because he had weight to lose, and that gives you points. Second off, Rob is insanely dedicated. He put in a near-superhuman effort and it paid off. He lost 23 lbs. and over 11 inches in 3 months! That's incredible. I also assumed when we started that I would win nothing. I have no weight to lose, though I did lose 3 inches. But apparently having a near-superhuman partner forces you to put in at least a really good effort. I did really well, too, and it ended up that Rob and I won the top team. That was actually shocking to me, but what a nice payback! Rob and I are pretty happy with the results, including the lifestyle changes it's helped us make.

We've made up our own type of challenge, including other areas of our lives. We've cut back on the exercise and eased up on the stricter eating plans, and added scripture reading and prayer. There's no money involved this time, but it's suprised us both that simply writing down what we've been doing is helpful to us. So on to more adventures!

Rob in San Diego, Miciah at Miami

Rob is in San Diego for an Immunology Conference until Thursday morning at 1 am when he should plop back in bed here, exhausted. I went to this conference with him last year, but it's kind of fun to be here with the kids, all by myself. I probably think it's fun so far because I'm 1 kid short. Miciah went up to be with ML (soon to be Thacker) at Miami U for Kidfest. It's a little sibling weekend and since M has no little siblings, she asked Miciah to come as her stand in. Miciah was SO excited, and she's loved it. I go to pick her up soon.

Then it'll be all of us at home. :) Sometimes it's not too easy for me to be alone with the kids. But it's funny how easy it can be to step up when needed. Though I should probably hold my opinion on all this until Friday. I think the hardest days will be Thursday and Friday, when Rob is home but has to go in to school.

No real news to share, so we'll do more stories.

Teancom

Teancom is talking up a storm and it's really cute it's the learning to talk stage where they say things half right and half not. One of my favorite things he says is "bird". It sounds something like "burd." He also decided for fun yesterday that birds should be scary, so he'll say "bird" and then do a fake scream as he runs away.

Teancom is also obsessed with dogs, though he's scared to death of most of them. He doesn't like things that bark or move quickly or unexpectedly. However he loves dogs. How does that work?

We've just had to move Cleo's food and water bowls onto the freezer because Teancom made a daily game of dumping her food into her water or her food and water on the floor or any other wonderful combination.

Elijah

Elijah is now a very capable train track builder. Well, he's always been pretty capable, but it seems like his skills have vastly improved lately. I'll include some pictures about his latest non-train track track. You know, the kind made out of the stuff from my living room. The last one was pretty impressive and included the dining room chairs that he made into a "bridge." Nice.

Today Elijah and I built a train track. He decided we should both be Thomas trains while we played. He was the big Daddy Thomas train and I was the kid Thomas train. I got to call him Daddy and he got to call me Sweety. 'Cept he can't say Sweety very well, so I was Fweety. And that's dang cute.

I realized, as we were playing, that I call him Sweety a lot. All my kids. "Are you hurt, Sweety?" Because he was saying just that to the Fweety train. "Are you okay, Fweety?" and "Fweety, I'll be right there!" It was comforting to know that it was a positive word and not something like, "Loser" or "Idiot." Not that I call my kids those things. I don't. But it was just nice in an unexpected, reassuring sense. One of those, "Oh, I'm doing things alright. That's nice" moments. Everyone can use a few of those.

Elijah has taken to saying, "That's it, Mom!" He'll get upset at me for telling him the way things are. You know, something like, "No, Elijah, you can't watch a movie right now." He'll scowl at me, stomp his feet, and say, "That's it, Mom! I'm taking a nap!" I respond how any mother would to such a threat: "Okay, Elijah." Then he'll stomp off to his room and slam the door. He'll spend a few minutes in his room, then come out and move on with his life. It's pretty funny. Alternate threats are, "I'm going to bed!" or "I'm never watching a movie again!" or "I'm throwing my toys away!" Empty threats, but it makes for an exciting day.

On Friday night Rob took Elijah to the store to buy a treat just because. Miciah wasn't around, so it was a fun daddy-son thing to do. On the way to the store, they passed McDonald's and Elijah asked if he could go. My kids typically call McDonald's "Old McDonald's" or something like that, but this time Elijah decided to call it "Chicken Noodles." That makes me laugh for some reason. On Saturday morning I had decided I would take the boys to McDonalds for lunch as a special treat. I asked Elijah if he would like to go. He said, "Yeah! Hey! I was just thinking about that last night in Daddy's car!" Then, "I'll go eat chicken noodle. No! They don't have chicken noodle." And then he laughed. It cracked me up.

Elijah is also very into pretend these days. He's still obsessed with Spider-Man, but thankfully he's moved on to include just about any superhero. He'll be Spider-Man or Super Man or the Avatar. Sometimes all of those at the same time. We had to buy Elijah new pants because he's grown, and while we were there we "had" to buy him a Spider-Man T-shirt. He doesn't actually have a Spider-Man T-shirt, just pajamas. He also saw Spider-Man swim trunks, so he got those, too. So all he wore for the first 2 days was those trunks, that shirt, and a hat we bought him. We were sitting down to dinner (where he has learned he can't wear his hat, and we've had no fights about this) and he was excited about something and telling me to call him Spider-Man and let me tell you this and what about all that. I turned to him in the middle of all his talking and said, "Spider-Man, would you like some green beans?" He stopped talking and got this big grin on his face. Then he giggled a little and said, "Thanks, Mom," like me calling him Spider-Man just made his year.

Elijah is still rambuncious, but as sensitive as ever. He's hard to discipline when he needs to be, so it's good that he only needs it about once a month. After disciplining Miciah, I never thought I'd think it was hard to discipline a child who was sensitive (why would that be bad? I would have paid MONEY for that with Miciah!). Turns out it's every bit as hard, just in different ways. Thankfully, Elijah isn't as full-time as Miciah was, but that's about the only difference.

Now that it's warmer, Elijah thinks he should be visiting all our neighbors. It doesn't help that R & C are 2 doors down, so he thinks he should be able to walk to any house on the street any time he wants. :) He has spent some time with R these days, which both of them have missed, I think. Elijah will walk down there and, once they open the door, he'll walk into the house like he owns it. The other day he walked down and R played with him for almost 2 hours. R said, "I fed him balogney because "it's his favorite." Then I fed him crackers because "it's his favorite." Then we played a hunting game." He also mentioned to Elijah about his pajamas. Funny enough, I never even notice when Elijah's in pajamas these days, he's in them so often. Someone will say, "That's cool Elijah's in his pajamas," and I'll typically respond with something like, "He is? Oh, right." Anyways, on that day R said, "Nice pajamas, Elijah," and Elijah said, "Yeah, they're AWESOME! But they're a little itchy," and proceeded to scratch his bum. And while that's funny, not sure how I feel about that.

Miciah

I don't usually have stories about Miciah, cause she doesn't say or do cute things any more. The things she does are now more sophisticated compared to the little 'uns. The other night her and Rob had a cute moment where he decided to tell her some real jokes. Usually the jokes we tell are lame stupid kid jokes. But this time Rob adapted some adult jokes a little and told them to her. She was laughing her head off and it was the cutest thing ever. She relayed one joke to me, or at least the jist of it, and said, "And I got it, Mom. I really did get it." :) She's been asking Rob to tell her more jokes ever since.

She's reading like a madwoman these days. It's awesome to send her off to reading time before bed and have her come and report what she read. She'll tell us her favorite parts. Rob suggested she take a pencil with her so she could mark any words she didn't know or couldn't sound out herself. So she'll come the next day and ask about a word or two. It's a fun stage to be in.

She's also spelling creatively. I wrote down some examples, because they were cute:

She loves doing chalk drawings on the front porch. On some morning, I walked out the door and looked over at what she'd drawn and this was written: "I hope you like my pikshrs. I like my pikshrs. Do you? Miciah"
For those of you who can't sound out phonetically, pikshrs is pictures.

She wrote herself this note to herself apparently to remind herself that she was going to the Children's Museum for a field trip. (I helped her with spelling part of children's and museum.):
"I am going to the childrin's museum today. from Miciah to Miciah." (then in a box:) "I rile am going to it."
Rile is really.

When I was cleaning the toy room downstairs I found these paper "pillows". They were pieces of paper folded over and stapled on the edges, with paper inside them to make them like pillows. They had things drawn on them from a stencil and then things written beside it. Like so:

A picture of a cat. "This livs in Egipt."

A picture of an owl. "I like ols becus thay go hoot hoot."

A picture of a butterfly. "This livs in r stat. I like butrflis."
(This one I wondered about for a while. It says This lives in our state.

And lastly, she drew a picture of a character from Avatar. Honestly, I don't know how to spell his name. Haru, maybe? Anyways, she drew the picture that I've attached to this e-mail (if you know the show, you'll recognize the character), and then on the back she wrote in a big heart:
"I love you To Hroow From Ktra."
Ktra is Katara, another character from the show.

Miciah does more artwork than I can keep on top of or reasonably save. It's fun to have her be doing so much.

Oh, I thought this was cute. She always does a calendar at school. For March, they put on the calendar a list of things to look for as signs of Spring. She misplaced the calendar for a while, and I found it when I was cleaning yesterday. Miciah called from M's because she was feeling a little homesick. Her voice sounded so pathetic as she told me she missed me. I knew she was having a good time, of course, so I wasn't too concerned. To try to get her mind off the topic, and to try to cheer her up, I told her I'd found her March calendar. She replied in the same pathetic I miss you voice, "Mom?" And I thought she hadn't even heard what I'd said. "Mom? Can you put a check mark next to "buds on trees" and "flowers"? Because I've seen those." :)

Now I am off to pick up Miciah and bring her home!! Yea!

Enjoy the pictures. There'll be a series of them.


Teancom in Miciah's fuzzy winter hat. Since Elijah got his hat, Teancom's been wearing hats non-stop, too. Funny.


Here's Elijah blowing out the candles on his cake:

We buzzed the boys heads. They look pretty cute. Rob now calls Teancom his bald little monkey.

After we buzzed the boys' heads, Elijah chased Teancom around saying, "He looks funny! He looks funny!" We reminded Elijah that he had the same haircut. But Elijah said he didn't. Elijah had an Aang haircut, and Teancom looked like Conner (their cousin who does indeed have the same haircut). After a day or two, though, Elijah decided that Elijah looked like Aang and Teancom was "Aang baby." :)

The other day Elijah played hard with his best friend, Andrew. We came home and I had to make dinner. Elijah was sitting on the kitchen floor being whiny, but I wasn't really paying attention. Suddenly, I realized he wasn't being whiny any more. I looked down and there was Elijah, fast asleep, in his coat, face down, on the kitchen floor. I got out the camera and not only took pictures, but took a video, too, because the situation was so funny to me that I was in full dinner prep, stepping around a sleeping little boy.

Tamra and family

Oh, if anyone needs any baby guppies, we now have 9 of them. Rob says we need a big fish to eat all the babies. :) If only the babies weren't so dang cute!