Sarah is 4!

Sarah was so excited when she woke up on her birthday. She could hardly wait for the party to begin. It was difficult to get the kids off to school amidst her enthusiasm. She was thrilled to see Grandma West first thing in the morning, and absolutely loved the pillow/blanket/pet that Grandma brought for her. She immediately got dressed in her new outfit.


She waited by the window, watching for cousins to come over and party with her. She enjoyed helping me make treat boxes for everyone.

Sarah loved posing for her "4" picture! Now she can't wait to be 5. I think she is growing up way too fast!

She got lots of great gifts! Thank you to everyone! We had guests over all day, and it was just a dream party for this 4 year old!

Sarah is blowing out her candles with the cousins. I think there was a minor earthquake in the night that made the cake split in half. At 1:30 AM, It was complete. By 7:30 AM, it had a crack all the way across the top. It tasted good anyway!

Sarah asked for a wedding cake for her birthday. She also asked for an Abby Cadabby cake, a Little Bear cake, a Dora cake, any other cake she could think of, and also wanted cupcakes. Glad she wasn't picky! This was as close to a wedding cake as she was getting.

At the end of the day, I tucked in a completely exhausted and thoroughly happy 4 year old. She couldn't have had a better day if she tried.

Rockport in January (Yeah, that's what I meant)

Sometime in January, we woke up at zero dark thirty to go ice fishing at Fish Lake. They tell me that if we get up that early, we'll be there when the fish are biting the best. I think we came home with a grand total of 6, maybe 7 fish between the 15 or so of us that were fishing that day. I could be wrong. I didn't pay that much attention.

It got cold pretty quick when the wind picked up. My kids are lucky they have such a great Papa who put up the tent for them so we could hang out inside with the heater. It came in handy when Aaron put his boot through a hole in the ice and we had to dry out his socks.

I seriously can't believe I'm posting this picture on a blog, let alone keeping it at all! But here I am in the tent, fishing. The kids needed a little entertainment, so we took turns taking pictures with Hannah's camera. This is one she took.

I don't know what Hannah's doing here. Maybe she had a loose tooth that day. That will teach me to blog about stuff months after it happens!

This is Isaac being Isaac. Kinda shows you how cold we weren't inside the tent. Even if we didn't catch any fish in there.

Aaron's just waiting for the fish to bite. I think we did get one bite, but lost the fish. It was still fun though. Had some fun talks with the kids, and got to tell lots of 'old' stories about ice fishing when I was their age.

Oh you want a title too?

Ahhhh! It's almost 10:00 pm, and finally the quiet settles in. Don't worry, it won't last long. Pretty soon someone will be out of bed complaining that someone is bugging them by singing, poking, screaming, having stinky feet, or being too quiet for them to sleep. After that, the quiet will be interrupted by the dirty dishes screaming for me to clean them, or the sticky floors begging me to mop them. No worries. I can ignore them for another day.

Today was a late start Monday. I'm still undecided on my opinion of those. I love to be able to sleep in, and let the kids sleep in, but they expect a 5 course breakfast that morning, and then get bored and fight a lot before school. Today was slightly better though. Hannah got up and ready to go early, and went to Grandma's to play before anyone even woke up. When she left, I climbed into bed with the boys, and snuggled with them until it was time for them to wake up. They really need a new mattress. The springs on that thing are deadly, and I doubt there is any padding left inside.

Derek spent the day in the psych hospital. No, this didn't concern me. It's him, not me. Plus, they let him play volleyball, and eat lunch. He gets pretty good treatment there. I keep asking him to scope out the good padded rooms for me, but he keeps telling me they don't have those anymore, and that psych hospitals aren't like they are in the movies. I don't believe him. I know hipaa rules keep him from telling me the truth.

Oh! I should tell you about the excitement we had at bedtime last week! (even if you don't care) I was sending Derek off to work just before 9:00, and walked him out the door. When I stepped outside, I noticed that it smelled strongly of natural gas outside. After he left, I decided that I probably should make sure it wasn't MY house that was leaking, so I could have peace of mind the rest of the night. So I walked outside toward my gas meter, and the smell got even stronger. I thought "Of course" and went back inside to get a flashlight and a spray bottle of soapy water. When I sprayed the meter down with the solution, it started bubbling immediately. I really didn't expect it to be my house. I was just checking to be responsible. So I went inside and called my emergency number. My dad. I asked him what he thought I should do. He told me to call dispatch, and said he'd be right over. Well, I never would have thought that one little call to dispatch would bring what seemed like a hundred firemen, police officers, deputies, and whoever else was there that I didn't know. By then, the smell had dissipated quite a bit, so nobody was in any rush to do anything other than look at the meter with their big flashlights. I explained to some of them where the leak was, and how I found it. They decided that it wasn't important enough for the firetruck to stick around, so they all packed up and went home. However, the repairman from the gas company was on his way. About an hour later, he had the leak all sealed up, tested around the entire house to make sure there wasn't another, and we were all set.

There you have it folks. My very first blog post. Have a happy Toothache Day tomorrow! (who invented that holiday, and WHY??)