Girl Scout Cookies

Today Lara and I went and picked up our troops Girl Scouts cookies. We had 68 cases to pick up with equals 816 boxes of cookies. We went to an elementary school in Coralville to get them. It was awesome the amount of boxes of cookies there. Our cookies were in the gym along with lots of other troops orders. It took 3 semi loads to get all the cookies for our area!







We got our cookies home and divided them by type. Simeon & Corrine had a great time carrying them in and helping to sort them. They were so eager to help sort the cookies for each girl and then for each of Corrine's orders. Thank goodness Lara helped sort the cookies for each girl. When we picked up the cookies Corrine had sold 184 boxes, but that # is sure to grow as the weeks go by.


We've had to put the front room "OFF LIMITS" so no cookies would get harmed, but that didn't stop Ammon from sneaking in to hid between boxes!

The Ultrasound

Before we left for the ultrasound-the kids made their predictions for the baby. They have been feeling this way for a while.



Lastnight as I was putting Ammon to bed I was talking to him about the ultrasound. He told me earlier in the day that he would be sad if it was a boy. He has been wanting his "Lucy" since he found out we were expecting. They like to play Narnia and we have Peter, Susan and Edmund-but no Lucy. I told him that we didn't get to decide what the baby was, that Heavenly Father already made the decision of what to send our family. After I told him this, he said "He knew before there was ground." It took me a minute to realize that he was talking about the creation. He was telling me that Heavenly Father knew way back then what this baby would be.

At the ultrasound the tech took me back by myself to do all the measurements, then went and got Johann and the kids. Everything looks great and my due date is right on: July 13th. The heart rate was 144 bpm.

She showed the kids the different parts of the body, then went to look for gender. She said here's the bottom, here are the legs, this is the imbilical cord and I don't see anything else there, it's a GIRL.


Our DAUGHTERS profile, with HER arm up on HER forehead.

Ammon & Corrine were so excited to hear that they were going to have a sister. Simeon was slightly dissapointed, but then quickly said "This makes us even, and the next baby is the tie breaker." Next baby!?!?

We went shopping for the babies 1st outfit and blanket right after the appointment. I was amazed at how many people we saw while out today, and got to share our exciting news with.



Here's Corrine holding the very soft PINK blanket (I picked it out months ago, but needed to wait to get the right color) and the dress she picked out for this summer.

The tech sent us home with a cd with 2D pictures, 3D pictures, a 2D video and a 3D video. What a fun thing it has been to watch the baby again.

LOTS of new updates

I put on ALOT of new updates. The farthest back one is from Feb 8th and it's a long one about Dance Marathon. I have more to do, but when you erase more then you write it's time to stop and go to bed.
Enjoy reading!

Halfway to baby

Today I am 20 weeks pregnant-halfway through to meeting our little one. I'm feeling comfortable with my belly, and am now big enough that people now realize that my growing midsection is baby.

Playdoh

Corrine was given an Ice cream Sundae Playdoh set from Uncle Justin for her birthday and the kids all LOVED it!! They made ice cream for at least an hour. The set comes with 3 types of "ice cream"-chocolate, green mint and sprinkle (sparkly pieces in white playdoh).


The kids were working so hard on their ice cream creations and their faces showed it.





Ammon was pretending to eat the ice cream and we really thought he was going to eat a bite, so I told him not to, to which he replied: "I'm just pretending mom. I'm not really going to eat it!"

Hawaiian Luau Party

Kambry, Becca, Janie, Mia, Corrine & Ashley


"Beach on a cupcake"


Outside there was snow, inside it was a Hawaiian Luau


Kirana, Maya, Lauryn, Olivia & Jaelynn
Nawshin, Cassie, Corrie & Dakota


Our lei cups

This year Corrine wanted to have a Little Mermaid party, but I was having a hard time finding anything for the party, so we modified it and had a Hawaiian Luau. I wasn't up to having alot of kids over at once, so I split the party into 2 groups-her church friends, and her school friends.
Friday night her church friends came over. Each girl got a lei necklace and a hula skirt. We played the limbo and hula danced. We ate pizza, fruit kabobs and had "beach on a cupcake" cupcakes. The girls all LOVED the little umbrellas that were in their cups and cupcakes.
Saturday the school friends came over. I ended up not making a hula skirt for each girl after the 1st batch too so long to make, so they each got a lei necklace. We played games, ate goldfish and fruit kabobs and also had "beach on a cupcake" cupcakes.

This morning Corrine also went to sibling group and brought High School Musical 3 cupcakes with her. She loves going to sibling group and to have it be on her birthday made the day even more special. Today from group she brought home a Bratz Doll.

Tonight we went to Hu Hut which is a Mongolian barbecue restaurant for dinner. The kids had never been there and Corrine loves Chinese so we thought she would like it. You go down a salad bar type thing and pick all your meats, noddles, vegetable and sauces, then they cook it for you on this HUGE table. Corrine was tired when we were there and only made herself one very small plate of food. Our waiter knowing it was her birthday brought her out cream cheese ragoons that had coconut and chocolate sauce drizzled over them. They were beautiful and very tasty. I couldn't find the camera while we were there and thought I had left it at home, but it was actually in my jacket pocket the whole time, so I didn't get any pictures at dinner.



After dinner we had her family party.

She had received so many fun presents that she didn't want to go to bed that night. We put her to bed, but then she got up and started opening and playing with her new things.
Some of her many favorite presents were a jump rope, a paint yourself jewelry box, a sweater, playdoh set and outfit.

The DRAMA of Goldfish

Sept 22nd, 2006 Great Grandma Riddle brought over a fish tank and 3 goldfish. Simeon named his 'Luke', Corrine named hers "Goldie" and Ammon named his 'Fish'.
Fish didn't make it past a year, and Ammon never really noticed.

Then 3 days ago Goldie died, along with the 2 other fish we got to replace Ammon's and to have one for the baby. Corrine was heart broken over Goldie.


Luke swimming in his temporary home, while his tank is cleaned.

We took Luke out and cleaned the tank out really good, then put Luke back in. Right away he started to look bad, then after a few hours, he seemed like he has doing good. But that wasn't to last.
We went to the pet store on Thursday and bought 3 new 25c gold fish to add to the tank, because Corrine had told her friends she had fish, so we needed fish.
Yesterday morning Simeon told me "Luke is swimming sideways." That wasn't a promising sign. I told Simeon he might want to tell him goodbye because he probably would be gone before he got home from school.
I was wrong. Luke swam sideways in a circle for over a day, then he laid on the bottom for another half day before giving up.
Simeon was crushed. He knew what was happening, but he didn't want anyone to say the "D" word.
When he got home from his friend Birthday party this afternoon, we told him about Luke. Johann suggested flushing him-and man did that get Simeon upset with him. Simeon wanted to bury him-which if you think about it, it's hard to do in Iowa in February. Luckily I found one pot that wasn't frozen, and Simeon buried him in there.

Our new fish are named: Yoda, Annikan and Goldie.

I never thought 25c goldfish could hold so much drama!

Happy 6th Birthday Corrine

An interview with a our 6 year old Corrine:

Favorite color-pink and purple
Toy-Princess dolls and baby dolls
Food-Top Ramon, cheese pizza, salad, grapes
drink-white milk, lemonade
Treat-brownies, peanut butter cookies
Game-Spinning Wishes
Place to go-the hospital area at the Children's Museum
Restaurant-Hu Hut Mongolian Barbecue
Song to sing- I am a Child of God
Animal-rabbit, giraffe, pig
Movie-Sleeping Beauty
Book-Belle, Pancakes for breakfast, Pinkalicious
Clothes to wear-dresses & skirts
Girl Scout cookie-Thin mints
Holiday-Christmas & Valentines Day
Subjects in school-Art and Playtime


Cuddling with one of her favorite baby dolls

Least favorite
Food-onions, bell peppers
Place to go-
movie-Star Wars



Color of room-pink
Activities-tap/ballet and Daisy Girl Scouts



Corrine LOVES to draw pictures and write books. She really likes school. She likes to copy words that she sees on papers and things Simeon has drawn. She is becoming a very good reader. She likes to dress up and get her makeup and hair done. She is a very good mommy to her dolls-she dresses them and gets them buckled into the car seat to take with us. She doesn't like to clean her room, and has a hard time getting rid of papers that she has drawn or written on. She still loves to suck her thumb and touch her nose with her finger. She says her favorite things to wear are skirts and dresses, but I think she really likes to wear jeans-as she wears them nearly everyday. She is very afraid of dogs and cats and won't go near them. She will run into the house if someone walks by the house with a dog.

Corrine is a great sister to both Simeon & Ammon. She is very protective of Ammon and still likes to treat him like her baby or even her pet.

Birthday meals
Breakfast-cinnamon rolls, sausage, scrambled eggs and store bought chocolate milk.
Lunch-cheese pizza, grape juice, & Highschool Musical cupcake at Sibling Group at the University of Iowa Hospital
Dinner-Hu Hut with Cream cheese ragoons for a special birthday dessert

"PLEASE MOM PLEASE

Can we buy this dog? He looks just like Max from '8 Below'. He's so cute and nice-PLEASE mom?!"


"Mom, look at him looking at me. Can we PLEASE buy him?"



"Look mom, I can hold him all by myself."

Corrine meanwhile is sitting on the bench in the little petting room that we're in watching the dogs every move and silently pleading "PLEASE say NO mom."

This sweet soft, cute puppy stayed at the pet store, and we didn't even find out how much he cost. The last puppy we pet cost $1,000. Way too much for me!

Hives

Today after eating lunch Ammon's hands and wrists were swollen and covered in hives. After some benadryl it went away. In my freak out I didn't even think to snap a picture of them.
Then this afternoon his cheeks got hives on them, and I took pictures.


As you can tell he doesn't seem bothered by them.

(Note-I'm writing this 7 days after this originally happened. He ended up getting a mild case of hives on his hands once a day for the next 3 days after eating. Then they went away and came back on the 24th while playing outside. Cause unknown-maybe a virus?)

A Butter waxing

Today I was catching up with emails on the computer while Ammon sat at the kitchen table right behind me within arms reach playing with some random things. It was cute listening to him talk about random things.
THEN he got quiet.
I turned around to see what he was doing and he was rubbing the table. I looked closer and realized that he was rubbing butter all over the table. He said he was "cleaning it".


I will be honest-it gave the table a nice shine:)

I got the table cleaned up and was cleaning his hands when I realized what else he had been doing-he had been drawing all over himself.

He looks surprised to have been caught "black handed".

Ammon keep me on my toes everyday and I love him for it!

HEARTS, LOVE AND PINK

Today for Valentines Day I made pink heart shaped pancakes for breakfast and fruit kabobs.

Ammon took one look at the pancake batter and said "That looks yucky mom!" Then he went on to eat 4 pancakes-so they really tasted good.



I was going to make cookies for them to decorate, but Ammon has been sick with a stomach bug for a few days and didn't want to have to tell him he couldn't eat his masterpieces.
Simeon had basketball practice this morning, then he and I went to the Ronald McDonald house to help with a Valentines Day party. That evening Johann and I went to Texas Roadhouse with Kjell & Linley Aamodt, and Grandma Smith watched the kids.

I couldn't help myself

Tonight we got a beautiful snowfall. The kids went outside to play in it. I decided to shovel the sidewalk to the house, when all of the sudden I was getting snowballs thrown at me by Simeon. He was laughing thinking he was so cute. (Ok so he really was cute. Tongue out, big smile on his face!)



So I retaliated with dumping some snow on him with the shovel. That ended his laughing really fast, and turned it to tears.



Mom had to apologize and promise not to dump snow on him again.

He was suppose to be brushing his teeth...

But when I checked on him, this is how I found him-


writing in his journal.

Simeon has really gotten into writing lately and sometimes it's hard to ask him to stop.

Melting snow means MUD

The last few days we have had some warmer temps and the piles of snow have been melting. Because the ground is so saturated, the melted snow doesn't have anywhere to go, so there are lots of puddles on the sidewalks and in the grass.
Today we went out to play and Corrine & Ammon seemed drawn to the mud! Simeon did a good job staying clean-but not the others.



The only reason his hands are so clean is because he cleaned them in a puddle. Corrine on the other hand left a trail of muddy hands on the way to the bathroom!


Corrine was showing off today how she can hold a ball between her legs and jump with it. Way to go Corrine!!

Feeling Accomplished

Today Simeon came home from school with some GREAT news. He only missed 1 word on his pre-test so he brought home the alternate word list-which has harder words. He was so EXCITED!!! This is the 1st time he has done this this year.


Then this evening, Simeon and Corrine sat down to work on valentines. I was thinking"if he can get 8 done tonight, that will be great." He surprised me by working really hard and getting all 23 done tonight!! We have the candy hot glued on, and ready to go to school. Corrine also got all of hers done tonight too!


Then because they were on a role and having a great time, they both made one for everyone in the family-including themselves!!

Lately Simeon has been having a hard time staying on task for long periods of time, so for him to get all his valentines done tonight was AWESOME for him. I am so proud of both Simeon & Corrine with how hard they are working to get their jobs around the house done and their school work.

Wonka look alike

This afternoon Ammon grabbed these goggles and put them on. I took one look at him and it reminded me of Willie Wonka and the Chocolate factory, when they get on the white suits with hoods and goggles. I think they are looking at Wonka Vision when the little boy, whose dressed like a cowboy, goes through the air in a million pieces then gets reassembled tiny. Now I really want to watch that movie again-the original one!
Here are some other cute pictures of Ammon from today too. He got tired of the camera and started hiding from me.







I just LOVE being home with Ammon-he keeps me on my toes, and teaches me so much!

Dance Marathon 15

This weekend we had such a blast at DM. The theme of the family room this year was "At the Carnival". The kids had such a good time playing the games, eating cotton candy and snow cones, and dressing up.

A quick run down of the "BIG Event" for those who have never been:
Friday afternoon you check in to your hotel and get your shirts. (Families pay for nothing all weekend). We stayed in the new Coralville Marriott.
We ate dinner with all the DM families. This year it was catered by Olive Garden!
Then @ 7:00pm the families are introduced on stage. Each family walks across the stage, their name is read and how many years they have been coming. (3 years for us)

Walking down the path to the stage. A friends husband who works for a newspaper took this picture and emailed it to us!

Then they have an opening ceremony that is so full of excitement and SO LOUD!!!
The main ballroom is where the dancing takes place-DM families can come and go.
There are LOTS of activities for the families to do- like the family room (which is a ball room where we eat, play games, talk or just hang out), they have a room full of big screen tv's and gaming systems that Best Buy donates, they have tv's with movies playing on, a movie theater, and then there are the students who LOVE to play with the kids.

The Family Room





Corrine got to meet Miss Iowa. Simeon also got to meet the Iowa football players and get their autographs Saturday.


Johann and Simeon playing in the Best Buy Room.

Friday night/Saturday morning and afternoon it's non stop dancing and playing. The dancers CANNOT sit down, except for certain times, like when they have a meet up with a family, or if they have earned a sit down time. Friday night some of the dancers were able to come to the pizza party @ 10pm with the families and sit and eat. Otherwise they stand while they eat-all chairs for the students vanish for the weekend!!

Our family meet up with students from the Newman Center.

Saturday morning-we were treated to a pancake breakfast, and lunch was tacos. All very YUMMY!
Saturday there are more people that come as spirit dancers. They can be there for 4 hours and they have to raise $100 each. The 24 hour dancers have to raise at least $400. This year there were 1,700 dancers signed up. It was the biggest turnout ever!
During the event they have people cutting hair to donate to Locks of Love, and this year they had a booth where you could sign up to register for the Bone Marrow Registry. (I signed up.)

A firetruck and ambulance were outside the IMU-and Ammon was so excited to see them.

Chair derby-alot of fun until someone got hurt!

Saturday at 5pm POWER HOUR starts. They music is the most active songs you can imagine. The students dance with arms raised with so much energy after being on their feet for 23 hours straight. They gave out glow sticks that just added to the mood.
At 6pm they have the closing ceremony, and the families sit up front and the students sit behind them. A family speaks, then they read the names of all the kids who are Forever "Dancing in our Hearts", and show a video of them. It is a very emotion time.

This candle burns during the entire marathon and the quilts have the names of those who have earned thier wings.

The very last thing they do is have students come on stage with cards, they turn them over and reveal the amount that was raised this year. $1,030,428.15
It's an amazingly powerful experience.
During DM this year a 18 year old boy was added to the list. Our 1st year a 10-12 year old girl was added during the marathon. Cancer doesn't stop, so neither do the students.
FTK-For The Kids is chanted during the Marathon.

Simeon's pillowcase-he has gotten a new one made by our AWESOME DM family Rep Annalisa Sawick each year. She's been our rep for all 3 years, and she's graduating this year.

This year we were given the chance to have our pictures taken through a group called Flashes of Hope. This is a group that has professional photographers come and take pictures of the kids and their families, at no charge to the families. We will be given a portfolio with some 8x10 and some 5x7 pictures in black and white and proofs of all the pictures taken. We had our pictures taken 3 times during the event-hopefully we'll get some good ones. Simeon wasn't the most thrilled to get his picture taken.

This year Simeon had the goal of staying up all night. At midnight we went to the theater to watch High school Musical 3. Ammon fell asleep during it, but Corrine & Simeon stayed away. When the movie got over @ 2am, I took Ammon & Corrine back to the hotel to sleep. Johann thought he and Simeon would be coming to the hotel soon after us. I woke up at 7:15 and they hadn't shown up. When I called Johann he said Simeon had fallen asleep at 6:30 am on a couch. He slept until 8:00 am. Johann didn't sleep at all. For getting such little sleep Simeon was in a good mood.

We left the IMU at 7:30pm Sat night and headed back to the hotel. We got stuck in basketball traffic and it took us 30 minutes to go about 2 miles. It took alot to keep Simeon awake. He really wanted chicken nuggets from McDonald's for dinner, so we went there as soon as we got to the van. We got home @ 9pm, and everyone crawled into bed and were asleep within minutes.

As you've read this if you think it sounds like a crazy and even overwhelming 24 hours-it kind of is. It's a celebration like no other. We celebrate the victories, celebrate the lives of those we've lost and celebrate the future. Dance Marathon is something we will always participate in and look forward to. Simeon asked if he could go to DM when he is married and had kids-that is how much this group means to him.