Word to YOUR Mother's Day!!

Have I mentioned how much I love being a mom?  Well, I LOVE it!  Have I mentioned what charming and sweet children I have?  Oh, I haven't??   Totally meant to......   I'll do that next time!  Have I mentioned how much my heart warms when I am presented with homemade gifts from those charming and sweet children?  Well, it DOES!  Warms to a big 'ol puddle of valves and ventricles!!   Here are some pics of the sweet things my kiddos made for me on Mother's Day.  Which, by the way, is the BEST day of the year.  Even better than Christmas.  Know why?  HU? DOOYA??  It's cuz I get the WHOLE DANG DAY OFF!!!!  

E's kindergarten class hatched chicks.  This chick just happened to hatch on his birthday.  I sincerely want to believe that he washed his hands immediately after taking this picture.......  Yeah, sure!  I'm sure no face touching or nose picking took place before the hand washing.  I'm gonna keep telling myself that.......

E's tribute to ME!  I can't actually read what he wrote, but I totally appreciate the time he took on the pic.  He was spot on with the eye color.  And, the nose!  Yay E!!!

B made this vase and the paper flowers in his regular ed class.  He presented them to me during my breakfast in bed.  He was so anxious to keep them a secret.  The huge smile on his face when he gave them to me was even better than the flowers.  And I am keeping the flowers.  FOR.EV.ER! 

This is what B made in his special ed class.  Double the Mother's Day gifts.  Almost makes having to buy Christmas and End of School Year gifts for  1 special ed teacher, 3 class aides, 1 speech therapist, 1 occupational therapist, 1 gym teacher, 1 regular ed teacher, 1 bus drive and 1 bus aide, worth it.  ALMOST!!

You may notice that a gift from a certain girl is missing.......  Yeah, me too.  K was supposed to make me a card in YW yesterday.  Still don't have that.  BUT, she did reorganize my kitchen last Saturday.  So I am totally counting that.  Cuz organizing is NOT my forte.  She also hugged me today at her track meet.  In public.  So, she doesn't need to get me anything for the rest of the year.  I'm good!!! 

Whatcha Doooooin??

So, since our lives are utterly boring, I decided that I would do some recapping of our last year.  Most of you know that we moved from Utah to Illinois last May.  And since hardly ANY of you have been out to see us (yep, talking to YOU), I thought I'd back track a little.  You're welcome!  It may seem odd to know that we have NEVER taken our kids to Disneyland, or any theme park of any kind. Unless you count Lagoon, which I don't.  On account of Lagoon stinks on ICE!  We have taken the kids to historical sites and National Parks.  Part of this decision is because of the Autism, part of it is because we don't want to pay for theme park food, and the rest is because Trent and I are HUGE history dorks.  SO with that lead in,  I know you're DYING to know how we spent our Spring Break!  Well, wonder no more!!!

This year for spring break we went to Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri.  Which seems odd to those of you who know me well.  Since I LOATHE the water, (isn't loathe such a great word?  So descriptive!) we don't own a boat, and none of our kids can swim.  But.....  We have a timeshare there, so off we went!  We actually found stuff that was non water related to do....

We started out on our 6ish hour drive by getting stuck in a lovely snow storm just outside of St. Louis.  Which added about 2 hours to our commute time.  And a weight to the already "whine burdened" shoulders of Trent and I.  By the time we got to our condo, we were all more than happy to be there.  We shelled out some of our points to upgrade to a top floor 3 bedroom penthouse.  We also discovered that we had a hot tub on our deck!!

We went on a cave tour.  I won't bore you with the myriad of pics I took from inside the cave, but here are a few.

Us at the end of the tour.  The smile on my face was forced.  The claustrophobia was kicking in big time and I couldn't WAIT to get out of there......

On the upper right of the water you can see a ladder.  A "mystery" ladder.  Our guide says that they don't actually know who brought it in or how they got it in there........

We got some fantastic custard.  Chuck full of crushed Thin Mint cookies.  Oh, it was HEAVENLY!  We also got some mediocre local pizza.  Think we'll stick with Chicago style.........  We also went to a couple of state parks in the area. We did a little hiking.  Just enough to tire out the kids, but not enough to stop the whining completely.  We went to Ha Ha Tonka (bwahahaha funny name) State Park.  Someone back in the early 1900's had built a castle there which was burned down in the 1940's.  They let you walk around it and we took lots of pics.  The kids thought it was cool.  Especially B.  He likes fire.  Another story for another time. 

We found a park.  And swang.  Swung? Swinged? For 2 hours....  And no one threw up!  Miracle of miracles!!

Kaity.  Isn't she pretty?  And puffy?  She'll hate me for that.....

Good trip.  Good times.  Sorry, it's not more exciting.  We had a blast.  That's just how we roll (hahaha)!!!!  I should have taken pics of the custard.....

I'm Bloggin!!



Sooo, I'm entering the world of blogging.  Which terrifies  me.  People keep telling me to do this, as they think my Facebook posts are "SOOO FUNNY".....  I say it's an entirely different concept. Sure, I'm ok at the witty one liners.  Quite another thing to try to come up with enough fodder for an entire blog...  But I'm gonna give it a shot.  If only for the sake of my in-laws, who have used the fact that they are going to be serving a mission on a remote island for the next 2 years, to guilt me into this.  Rod and Betti, this is for YOU!  Love you!!!

So, for my first post, I wanted something BIG!  And with our Blake, we can't get much bigger than Abraham Lincoln!  All 4th grade classes get to take a trip to Springfield to visit all the Lincoln historical sites.  It is approx. a 16 hour day trip.  7 hours of which are spent on a bus.  With 25 4th graders.  Yeah.  Good times.  I got to go with B.  Which is an experience I'll never forget.  In a totally good way!

B and his BFF Abe

We started our trip at Lincoln's New Salem.  Which was a very Nauvoo-like experience.  B was particularly enamored with this statue, which was a gift to the historical site from the Sons of the Utah Pioneers.  It was cold.  But we didn't get rained on, which we definitely counted as a blessing. 

Lincoln's Tomb

Our next stop was Lincoln's Tomb.  Which is something B has wanted to see since we moved to Illinois last year.  I actually got all tender while we were in the tomb.  Blake was so quiet and reverent, and that alone is worth getting all tender for......

B rubbing Lincoln's nose for good luck

This was by far, my most favorite moment of the trip.  B couldn't reach Lincoln's nose, and was having a hard time trying to climb up the slippery granite.....  So one of the cute girls from his regular ed class came and lifted him up so that he could participate.  Once again, I got all kinds of choked up!! 

Blake could have stayed here all day.  Seriously.  Maybe I can get one of these for our back yard.  I'd always know where he is!

The statue in the front atrium.  The final prototype for the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D. C.

From the cemetary, we went to Lincoln's house.  They had a gift shop.  And showed movies in the "The-dee-ater".  The house he could have cared less about.  The gift shop was FUN!!!!

Lincoln's Home

B was hitting the wall by this time.....

From the Lincoln's home we went to the "New" State Capitol.  The pictures are below.  Yep.  Our tax dollars at work.  Glad someone has a pretty place to work......

The Capitol Rotunda.  Ok, it IS really really pretty...

The Senate

I took this pic as we were walking down the hall.  A VERY VERY bad man.  Can you guess?  B knew who he was!!!

The Old State Capitol Building

 From the "new" capital building we went to the "old" capital building. Seriously, if you EVER go to Springfield, this place alone is worth the drive. Our tour guide was INCREDIBLE! The guy had 25 4th graders hanging on his EVERY WORD. And me too, which being the history geek that I am, goes without saying. It was awesome! I can't wait to go back........ The whole time we were at the old capital, B was completely in awe that we were in a building that Joseph Smith had been in. Never mind the fact that we've been to Nauvoo twice since moving here, B was SO excited that the Prophet had BEEN TO THE OLD STATE CAPITAL. He said (yelled) it repeatedly on our tour.

B with his regular ed class

Can I just tell ya how much I LOVE this boy?  With all his quirks and issues, he really is still the sweetest, most honest, and kind boy I know.  It was an absolute priveledge to spend the whole day with him doing something that he (and I) love!!!