My boys go ice fishing

Travis has never been a fan of the idea of ice fishing.  Before today, he had been exactly ONE time.  I on the other hand, LOVE ice fishing.  My dad took us every winter when I was growing up.  I loved playing on the ice with my sister and the dog.  I loved having a little hole to keep the ice off of and pulling my fish up through said hole.  I've tried to get Travis to take my kids ice fishing over the years, but to no avail.
Today, however, the skies parted & he took them ice fishing while it was snowing!  They went out to Hyrum Dam (even though the Polar Plunge was taking place).  Took took Sam & Nash while I took Caleb to Instacare.  When I got back with Caleb Sam was ready to come home so he brought Sam home and took Caleb.  He said they missed a lot of fish but they had fun.  Caleb was the only one that caught anything AND he caught it on the spiderman fishing pole he got for Christmas!

Sam's Family Birthday Party

This year for Sam's 10th birthday cake she wanted a pink & black zebra cake.  I'm not going to lie.  I didn't think I could pull it off.  In steps Pinterest.

1. Make 2 cakes mixes.  Either make 2 white ones & color them or do 2 different colors.  I did 1 Devil's Food & 1 Strawberry.

2. Plop a cupful of one batter into your prepared pan.

3. Plop a cupful of the second batter onto the first batter.

4. Repeat until pan is filled.

5. Bake as directed.

I had seen the cake tattoos (sugar sheets) and figured I might be able to find one.  I found some that was pink & black zebra BUT it was pre-cut into 2 strips that were to go around the edges of a 9 inch round.  Sam didn't like the package we saw with the pink & black zebra.  Thus, we opted for a square black & white one.

Ta day!  Pink & black zebra striped cake!  Yea, I'm awesome like that.

We had family come over for pizza, cake & ice cream tonight.  Even though Caleb has pink eye we still had a good turn out.  

Sister was so excited to find out she got a kareokee machine for her birthday!

I can't believe my baby girl is turning TEN!  It really does feel like she was just born yesterday.

Some of the things Sam likes are:

*Singing (Brad Paisley, Taylor Swift, Hannah Montana, Carrie Underwood are some farvorites)

*Dancing (7 years at LaShars!)

*Reading (She will read any genre by any author - she isn't picky)

*Scrapbooking (Just got into it at Christmas time)

*Piano (Started lessons at 8 years old & still going strong)

*Playing dolls (She loves Torie still & treats her like she has real feelings)

*Crafting (Painting, creating, drawing - she loves it all)

*Playing with friends (She always includes everyone and never wants to hurt anyone's feelings)

*Snow Skiing (She had so much fun on ski day with her dad)

*TV Show favorites include: Full House re-runs, Victorious, iCarly, Spongebob

*Doing her own hair (Which includes brushing it & occasionally throwing on a headband)

*Hamburgers, Spaghetti, Pizza (Cheese or Pepperoni)

*Eating ice (Thank you Grandma Kris)

Super Bowl Sunday Ice Skating

Over the last five years or so it has become tradition for us to go ice skating on Super Bowl Sunday before the big game.  We go with Travis's parents, siblings and their families.  We always have a lot of fun and the kids always ask every day for about a week after when we can go again.  Usually we go again for Sam's birthday a few weeks later.

This year was a lot of fun.  We pushed Brookelyn in her stroller and she loved every second of being on the ice.  She cried when we took her off.  She also got to ride in the sled with her cousin Olivia.  She absolutely loved that!

We got Caleb a walker since he's still fairly small.  Turns out the kid did better than most of the other kids!  We was a little goofy at first because he kept leaning over the front bar and sliding around on purpose.  He also kept falling down until I told him that if he didn't let go of the bar when he slid he wouldn't fall down.  He finally got the idea and quit falling down.

Sam wanted to push the stroller or hold onto a walker.  If we took those away she stayed fairly close to the edge.  She did eventually come away from the edge a little but she was still kind of wimpy about it!

Nash had no fear this year.  He knew he might fall but he wasn't afraid of doing it.  He didn't even complain much when we took the walker away from him!  He fell a lot this year but he didn't cry and he had a lot of fun.

It wasn't until I took this picture that I realized just how long Sam's hair has gotten.  We got Brooke this hat a day or two before.  She loves it!  It's an owl.

Caleb learning over that front bar trying to figure out how to ice skate with a walker.

Fearless Nash

Sam and Prestin

Uncle Chad pulling Livi & Kash

Travis pulling Livi & Brooke

Brooke would lean back and look at the ceiling while she was getting pulled.  Eventually she figured out if she put her hands out on the sides she could scoop up ice and eat it....yum!

Livi & Brooke

Grandpa Scott, Travis & Caleb

Sam & Weston

Aunt Shanah pulling Livi & Brooke

Travis pulling Livi & Brooke

Pink Eye.....SERIOUSLY?!

Last night I noticed Caleb had goopy eyes and they were a bit red/pink.  I was hoping perhaps it was just an allergy thing but figured in the back of my mind that it was likely pink eye.  I texted his preschool teacher to let her know she had probably better lysol everything in the preschool.

This morning when I woke Caleb up not only were his eyes completely boogered shut, they were very swollen as well.  I got him upstairs and his eyes cleaned out so that he could open them.  Travis took one look at him and told me I'd better not wait to take him to the dr.

I took Caleb and Brookelyn and headed to InstaCare.  Travis took Nash and Sam out ice fishing - they've never been.  I was at InstaCare for about an hour and a half.  The dr. said he feels like it's pink eye.  The only concern he had was that his eyes were fairly swollen and the red around them extended quite a ways out.  He gave me the pink eye eye drops and told me that if he gets a fever, chills or his eyes don't get better to bring him back and they'd put him on an oral antibiotic.  In the back of my mind I'm thinking "Give me the rx for the oral antibiotics now.  I don't have the time, energy, patience or money to come back here in a few days!"

We went and picked up his eye drop prescription.  It says to do one drop in each eye every four to six hours every day for seven days.  That should be fun.  On the bright side, he should be ok to go to daycare and preschool on Monday.  Good thing because I'm pretty sure I've used up all my "sick days" and then some!