Such a hard winter

I think this was the year when I wanted spring to come more than any other year. I usually enjoy winter but not when everyone is sick and your baby has to be in the hospital twice in one month. Poor baby Michael being the youngest he was affected the most. He got RSV right after Andrew's birthday at the beginning of February but after having some albuterol treatments at home with the nebulizer his breathing improved greatly. The follow up doctor visit confirmed that he was doing better and just when we were starting to get back into a sleeping routine he started to struggle breathing again at night. We took him to the ER where the doctor told us that he had pneumonia. It could have been due to the RSV. Not sure about that though. Sweet baby Michael was trooper and after two rounds of antibiotics he was his happy self again. They let us take him home after a day and we continued the antibiotic treatment for eight more days. Two weeks later I got very sick with body aches, chills, and fever. It was the worst I have ever felt with a cold. I said a cold because they tested me for the flu and it came back negative. Anyway my sweet Michael started being sick also and again he struggled breathing at night. Jeremy took him to the ER Saturday at 2am and they told us that he had bronchiolitis and he was going to be hospitalized. We only stayed one night there and because he improved and did great through the night we were home on Monday. Unfortunately for Jasmine and Andrew they got the same virus I had and went through some miserable days with chills and fever also.

We are all doing great now and for that I am extremely grateful because nothing is more important than being healthy. I think we all realize that when our loved ones are sick.

Prince Andrew is 5 years old!

February is our birthday marathon month. We start with Andrew's birthday, then Michael's 5 days later and we close the month with Jeremy's birthday. My favorite boys get to celebrate all month long.

I surprised Andrew with an Angry Birds themed party. Angry Birds is a game that he loves to play on my phone. The goal of the game is to defeat evil green pigs(they stole the eggs of the birds) by using a slingshot and throwing birds at them. I made the angry birds cake the night before the party just so he could only see it the morning of his birthday. He loved it all as soon as he got to see it. The cake was fantastic and the decorations that Jasmine helped me out with were amazing. Several friends came and celebrated Andrew's birthday with pizza, games, balloons, cake and ice cream.

Andrew is a brilliant boy! He is so smart and well behaved that at times I forget that he is just 5 years old. We sure have been very blessed! This fall Andrew is going to start kindergarten and he is very excited. He knows how to write his first, middle, and last name. He can do addition up to ten and can count to 100 by ones and by tens. He has learned the days of the week, the seasons and most of the months in the year. We are working on the sounds of the letters so we can start reading this summer. Oh I don't want to forget that he is also getting the hang of the value of coins. I think he will do great in kindergarten. At his 5 year old well checkup Andrew weighed 50 pounds (93rd percentile) and was 45 inches tall (84th percentile).

We love Andrew with all our heart ! He always puts a smile on my face with his smarty pants comments. Happy birthday big boy!

Snow, snow and more snow

We have had way too many days of snow this year. It has brought lot's of joy to our children since schools have closed for several days but it has made it hard for Jeremy to get his business accounts serviced due to the weather.

So, when life gives you lemons you must make lemonade! The days we had canceled school and work started with a delicious breakfast made by daddy after which the older kids got bundle up for playing in the snow while daddy cleared our driveway. One of those days for family home evening we decided to go and surprise some of our friends by clearing their driveways also. The kids were very excited to help!

Jeremy used his snow blower and the kids helped by clearing the snow off the stairs. It was wonderful to see everyone working together and our friends came out and thanked us for bringing such great helpers to clear their snow. After we were done doing service for others we took the kids sledding. Even Michael got a quick ride with daddy. Jasmine and Andrew had a blast going down the hill. We did not stay very long because of the cold weather but the time spent there was sure fun.

I have to post just a little more about the snow clearing because I have an amazing husband who did not just clear our friends driveways once but he took the time to do it every time it snowed. I sure love how thoughtful he always is and loving towards everyone.

New Years Eve Party

Growing up in Romania we always celebrated New Year's Eve with an all night party. I remember all the delicious food mom would cook the entire day so that we would have plenty to enjoy as we waited to greet the New Year . We were dressed in our best party clothes and were allowed to toast with fancy crystal glasses. But the best part for me as a child was being allowed to stay up as long as I would like. It only happened one night a year and that was New Year's Eve.

We are keeping some of the same traditions with our little family and Jasmine and Andrew seem to love the same thing I did when I was their age...staying up late. Maybe because their bed time is always 8 o'clock.

For our New Year's Eve party we invited almost 40 people and more than half were children since most of our friends have big families. It took a little prep work to fit so many people but by switching the furniture in the living room and taking some pieces of furniture out in the garage we were able to manage. It all worked out great and we had plenty of seating for everyone. There were board games, finger food, sarmale, chatting, dancing and lot's of fun games for the little ones. The XBox Kinect was a huge hit and everyone from young to old had at least one turn. A couple of families were not able to stay until midnight but there were plenty of us who did. We got out the paper trumpets and crowns and close to midnight we all counted down the minutes until we entered the year 2011. Screams of joy, hugs, kisses and best wishes followed soon after. It was such a great party and I look forward to the next one.

First steps and potty training

On November 29, 2010 my 9 1/2 month old boy Michael took his first two steps all by himself. He has been walking holding on to the furniture since he was 7 months old so we knew that he would walk soon. Andrew also started at the end of his nine months if I remember correctly and by eleven months he was running. Same with Michael now. I have a hard time keeping Michael out of the kitchen long enough to load the dishwasher. He is so fast! As soon as I open the dishwasher door that kid is right next to me even though a second ago he was in the toy room playing with his siblings.

Michael is also in underwear at home during the day and he is doing amazing. For several months now he has pooped in the toilet without any accidents. The peeing is a different story because we still have some days with accidents. I am confident that soon enough he will not need diapers at all. I am grateful to be a stay home mother as it has allowed me the time to potty train all my kids by the age one and saved us lots of money.

We love Michael with all our hearts and I can't believe that he will be 1 year old in February.

Celebrating Christmas 2010

I love and enjoy everything about Christmas. The music, the beautiful Christmas cards received & displayed in our kitchen, the sparkling lights decorating the city, the pretty festivities all around and most of all I love that we celebrate the birth of Christ.

2010 was my first year in the primary presidency. I received the assignment of picking a present for each child in our primary. The gift had to focus of Christ and the budget should stay around $50 for 51 children. After some research I found a beautiful advent calendar that instructed the children and their families to read a scripture about Jesus a day for the 25 days until Christmas. The calendars got laminated and then I included 25 golden stars with each calendar. This way the kids were able to mark the scriptures they read and after they were all done they could take the stickers off and use it again next year. If any of you would like a free copy for your family for the coming Christmas let me know and I can email you one.

On Christmas Eve we read the birth of Christ from the Bible as is a tradition in our house. After which everyone is allowed to open one present. The children were very excited with the presents they received! We closed the night with prayers as always and after the children were asleep Jeremy and I finished getting the last details ready for Santa. Christmas morning was perfect! I think that I am more excited now as an adult than I was as a child. I love seeing my little ones reactions, their happiness on Christmas morning makes the holidays magical. It is better than you can imagine! Jeremy recorded it all while I made sure to take as many pictures as possible with my camera. The presents were beautiful and everyone seemed happy with their new gifts. One family gift stood out as a favorite, the xbox360 Kinect which has been great fun. River rush seems to be the kids favorite game.

Later on Christmas day we had the elders over for dinner. It was a great Christmas! I feel so blessed to have so much and I thank Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ for all the wonderful people he sends in our lives to help and enrich our days.

Obositi dupa o zi plina de cadouri si joaca

Holiday decor

2010 was the fist year when we decorated a 9 1/2 foot tree. We set it out the day after Thanksgiving and with a ladder plus everyone's help it was done in parts in about 3days. It sure took a long time to finish due to the large size of the tree but also because three little cuties need me constantly. Anyway, the final result was stunning and we received many compliments from everyone entering our home, the best one I heard was: Wow this is the most beautiful tree I've seen!

I decorated a little all throughout the home and I will share some pictures with how cozy and inviting it all looked. Above the entertainment center I made a little village where I incorporated 2 gingerbread houses with our collection of figurines. You can see the crafts that we made in some of these pictures too.

Let's not forget all the sweets that get consumed around this time of year. I have not baked any of the ones in the pictures. They were all delivered to us by friends and this is just a part of it. Thank you dear friends. We all loved them but now I am paying dearly for them. Jeremy and I starting doing P90x to burn off all we gained over the holidays and it is killing me slowly every day.

Christmas crafts 2010

I love making crafts especially with my children. Several weeks before Christmas I noticed some cute snow globes in a Martha Steward magazine that looked easy enough for us to make as a family. The children were excited to help make them for one of our family home evening activities and then deliver them to friends. They turned out super cute considering we used baby food jars from Michael's past meals, figurines from the dollar store ( 6 for a $1), water, glycerin drops and glitter. Very inexpensive.

We also painted a store bought wood nutcracker. The vibrant colors that the kids used makes it pop on our mantel.

To go with the nutcracker on the mantel I made some Christmas trees out of card board paper and fabric. I have seen them in expensive stores and they always look so good in groups of different sizes or just by themselves. The only problem is they cost more than I would ever pay for things that I can make myself. The one on the mantel is put on top of an old lamp base. It really is just a cardboard cone dressed in fabric. They only cost me $3 total and that was for the fabric, so much better than $80. The rest is just stuff I had already in the house. I think they turned out so whimsical. Enjoy!

Oceans

I was able to teach another fun lesson to my preschoolers at the beginning of December about oceans. Andrew loved it so much that he played with the sensory table for hours after the lesson was done. Jasmine joined in after school and enjoyed playing just as much as the little ones. Here is the outline of the lesson.

Oceans

Arrival to 9:30 Welcome and Gather

Sharing time

Coloring sheet – Games / letter L

9:45 – Story/ Lesson time

All about oceans. What is an ocean? How many oceans are there in the world?

What does ocean water taste like? Who lives in the ocean?

Books : Look who lives in the ocean!

           The Rainbow Fish

10:00-Activities

Science -- Salty Ocean

Discuss with children that sea water is salty. Have two plastic containers filled with water, and discuss how they are same. Show children the salt. Then add large amounts of salt to one of the containers and stir until dissolved. Are they the same? Why or why not? Let the children smell and taste the difference by pouring into small paper cups and use craft sticks to taste.

Egg Float experiment

Fill two containers with water; add generous amounts of salt to one and stir until dissolved. Place a raw egg in each container. The egg in the unsalted water should sink and the one in the salted water should float.

Sensory table(sand, water, ocean animals, etc...)

10: 20 -Snack

10:30 – Craft

Make your own jellyfish

10:55 - Singing time (if there is still time)

Fish Story

One, two three, four, five (hold up fingers while counting)

Once I caught a fish alive,

Six, seven, eight, nine, ten (hold up additional fingers)

Then I let it go again.

Why did I let it go?

Because it bit my finger so.

Which finger did it bite?

The little finger on the right (hold up pinky on the right hand)