Travis got Chaplain, Caleb's Birthday and other stories

We found out this week, that Travis got accepted for an active duty chaplain, we are so excited!  He will graduate in april, and then start Chaplain training at Fort Jackson, SC May 19th-Aug 17th.  We should know in another month where we will be stationed.  Next the kids and I need to figure out what we're going to do, and where we're going to live, since he is not authorized to bring us with him.  
The kids had a couple friends over, and the kids and I were dipping chocolates for about an hour and a half for Valentine's Day, which was fun, but tiring.  I ran upstairs to feed the baby, and when I came back downstairs, the girls had dropped a bottle of purple nail polish, and it broke on the kitchen floor, they had stepped in it, and tracked it all over the floor,thankfully not onto the carpet though.  So I started scrubbing spots, but realized I just needed to mop the whole thing.  I spread mop water all over the floor and let it soak for a minute.  The baby kept crawling into the kitchen and getting all wet, so I had to change his clothes 4 different times, I scrubbed and scrubbed and managed to get all the nail polish off.  Then Samuel came downstairs, and was naked, completey covered in white cream from the top of his head, down to the tips of his toes.  I gave a little shriek of suprise and shock.  He had gone upstairs while I was cleaning the floor, and used a entire bottle of creamy destin, stripped naked and rubbed it all over his body, except a small area on his back where he couldn't reach.  He even had it covering his face and in his hair.  As I went upstairs to take him to the bath, I realized he had rolled around on the carpet, so now I had a new mess to clean up.  I bathed Samuel about three times, and got the cream off, but he still smelled like desitin.  Samuel said his skin felt really smooth.  Then I cleaned the carpet as best as I could.  At this point it was 7:30pm and we hadn't had dinner yet,(Travis was in class, and at the library until 9pm).  I was grateful that travis had put some meat, carrots and potatoes in the crock pot for me while I was taking my test earlier, that was definatly divine intervention.  So we had our crockpot dinner, and I put the kids to bed.  I was exhausted, but very grateful that I didn't once yell at the kids or get upset with them, (I think that was divine intervention too).

Caleb turned 1 year old on the 17th.  I can't believe my little guy is already 1, it has gone by too fast.  He is feeling a little sick again, and I'm just not ready to overload his system with sugar yet, so I made him a whole wheat zucchini cake shaped like a lady bug,and covered in applesauce for his birthday.  We stuck a candle in it, sang happy birthday to him, and helped him blow it out, then let him have at the cake.  He had a great time playing in it, and eating it, and throwing it on the floor.  I will be happy when we move out of this house, and Caleb won't be sick anymore becuase of he mold problem.  Caleb is still crawling more than walking, but is quickly walking more and more.  He also loves to say "uh oh" when things fall down, and loves to jabber and talk about "da da" and "ma ma" and "au de"(austin), and we love to pretend we're having conversations about him.

On friday, Joseph was playing at a friends house, and was rough housing with one of the boys, and somehow he got hit with a plastic cart in the mouth, and it cut up the inside of his mouth/lip, and it was really big and deep, so I took him into the urgent care, and they said it needed stitches, so they put in 4 stitches.  When they numbed it up, it made it swell up, but it has gotten even more swollen, and I think he may have an allergic reaction or something to it, because his lip is really swollen, and painful.  I took him back in on Saturday, becuase they said he shouldn't eat until the swelling goes done, but it just got more swollen.  They said to just give him ibuprofen until the swelling goes down, and it went down some, but is still pretty swollen, and still bleeds every so often,so I'm going to take him in again tomorrow and figure out how to help his lip get better.  He has been pretty miserable, and was worried about going to church and telling everyone what happened, since it hurts to talk.  So I made him little business cards telling what happened, so he came to church, and would just give people a card, when they asked him what happened.  ( I wanted to take a picture of him, but he wouldn't let me)

I was in the kitchen earlier today and Samuel called urgently "help mom, help" and I came out of the kitchen and saw Samuel hanging by one hand, at the top of the stair railing, about ready to fall to the lower level of the house.  I quickly caught him before he fell, and he told me he wanted to slide down the railing but slipped, but caught himself with one hand.  Crazy boy

This video is of Caleb being a DJ.  Austin got this music maker toy for her birthday from her Grandma Kathy, and Caleb loves it

Austin and I made a deal with each other at the beginning of the year to try to be better about sharng our talents (after we had a lesson on "The Talents" parable).  We decided we would sing a duet together in church.  We sang a duet of I love to see the temple/Teach a Child.  We practiced every day, and even though we were both scared we sang our duet today in sacrament meeting.  It went really well, and everyone was quick to tell us they liked our song.    I'm really proud of Austin being so brave.

Caleb climbed on top of the treadmill

Caleb wants to get closer to the T.V.

Caleb got very close to the T.V.

Oops!  Caleb fell into the garbage

Mommy saying goodbye to Caleb before she goes to the Sweetheart's Ball with Travis

Austin looking Beautiful in the dress her Grandma Kathy gave her

I don't remember exactly how we got on the subject of different words for the butt, but Travis said "Hiney" and Betsy said "That's how you say it in french!"

This last weekend we had a big birthday party with Travis' Mom and her husband, and Travis' sister Maia and there family, and Travis' Aunt Nora and Uncle Nick, and his Grandma.  It was quite the full house, but it was fun seeing everyone and having a fun little birthday party.