Daddy Came Home! And Caleb's Birthday Party!

Malachi kept hugging things, and cuddling them, because he missed his Daddy.  He was soooooooo happy to have his Daddy home again!

Caleb eating pizza at his birthday party at chuck e cheese

Singing a song!

Blowing out his candles on his birthday cake!

Caleb with Chuck e cheese and some of the friends who came to his party.  

Samuel being "Superman"

Caleb being "Superman"

Samuel helping Caleb in the ticket blaster

Samuel and Caleb collected over 1200 tickets in the ticket blaster 

Caleb loved dancing with Chuck-e-Cheese and going in the Ticket Blaster

It was a rough week with me feeling pretty miserable, but we made it, and Travis got home!!  Yeah, we were so excited for him to come home, we really missed him.  We found out that we are moving to Ft. Riley, Kansas this summer.  We're excited for a new adventure, from what we've heard it is a nice family friendly place to be.  So On Friday we spent the day going through our books and toys, and trying to figure out which ones we don't need anymore.  We've decided that we are going to get a smaller house when we move to Kansas, in hopes that it will be easier to keep clean, so we're going to have to get rid of a lot of stuff.  Saturday we had Caleb's birthday party at Chuck-e-Cheese, he was so excited!  He loved every minute of it. He had 9 friends come, plus many of their siblings and parents, so it was quite the party.  Malachi slept through almost the entire party, laying on a bench in a nearby booth.  He finally woke up at the end and got to play a little bit.
That afternoon Travis and I went on a hike around the red rock area, and then walked around the shops of old Colorado city, and had a lovely dinner for two at an Italian Restaurant.  We had a wonderful time for valentine's day, I sure do love my sweetheart!

nicer weather

Caleb in his carseat

Malachi in his carseat

Malachi discovered how much fun playing in the fireplace can be

Austin decided she needed some exercise and put Malachi and Caleb in the Wheelbarrow and pushed them up and down our hill

Caleb loves climbing trees

Malachi wants to climb too

Samuel drew this awesome self portrait of himself at school.  I love the grin

Malachi enjoyed playing outside

Austin helping Malachi at the trampoline park

A little boy decided he liked Caleb, and kept putting his arms around him.

Malachi loves cake and ice cream

Caleb was helping me fold laundry and decided to hang up an envelope

So, Travis has been out in the field all week, and won't be back until friday this week.  On Friday while his soldiers were doing their training exercises  one of the tanks carrying six soldiers went over a cliff and rolled several times, killing one man instantly and injuring the rest, some severely.  Two more soldiers were injured during the rescue.  It is very sad, as Travis knows each of these men, and I also knew the man who was killed, as he and his wife attended one of our marriage retreats we did.  Travis is still in the field, and is when he returns will probably need to spend all of his time preparing for the soldiers funeral and memorial.  I'm just grateful that Travis is safe, and the kids and I have been praying for the families involved.
The kids and I had a busy week as usual.  The weather was really good this week, and we've spent a lot of time outdoors and going on walks.  Joseph got his boot off on Monday and the Dr. said he should be good now, at first he walked a little like a duck, and his foot has been sore, but he is getting back to normal now. Caleb is feeling mostly better from his cold and was able to go to preschool this week.  Malachi is still fighting it, and I started getting sick on Thursday.  Samuel had a birthday party to go to at the trampoline park, so we all went, and the kids had a great time playing.

I don't like peanut butter

Samuel with his spelling bee participation award

Malachi "helping" with the dishes

The peanut butter jar broke my spatula

yummy, monster cookies

So tonight after dinner, I asked Travis if he needed anything before he leaves for the field tomorrow (he'll be gone 10 days)  He told me he needed me to make monster cookies for him to take to the field.  So I started making the cookies, I realized that I needed to open a new jar of peanut butter.  I use the kind of peanut butter where you have to stir in the oil and then you can use it.  It is one of those things that I find really annoying and hate to do it, but I still keep buying that kind of peanut butter.  So anyway, I saw on facebook that a friend of mine, her son had the idea to use a hand mixer with one beater to mix up the peanut butter.  Well, I thought that was brilliant and got out my hand mixer to try it.  So I stuck the beater in and turned on the hand mixer.  Instead of it mixing up wonderfully, the peanut oil sprayed all over me, the counter, and everything within a 4 foot radius.  So not only did it not work, but the oil that I need to mix into the hard peanut butter was basically gone.  Travis told me just to throw it all in the kitchen aid and mix it up with the cookie dough.  So I was trying to use my spatula to scoop out the peanut butter, and it broke it.  Man that peanut butter was hard.  So I threw that away and got out a knife, and was able to get out the rest of the peanut butter.  Now Malachi was up on the counter with me, because that is where he insists upon being while I am baking.  He picked up my second jar of peanut butter and dropped it on the counter and it broke.  So I had to throw all that peanut butter away and clean up the mess.  By this point, I really don't like peanut butter.  But the cookies were made, and tasted good so it all worked out.  I'm just completely out of peanut butter, which doesn't bode well for making school lunches tomorrow.  Also while travis was putting some pans away, my glass 9x13 pan fell and shattered.  Let's just say the kitchen floor was swept many, many times tonight.  In other kitchen mess news, yesterday I was baking some cinnamon rolls for a friend in the ward who broke her ankle, and Caleb was helping me, and was adding a cup of flour into the mixer while it was mixing.  The mixer hit the measuring cup he was trying to dump in, and it sprayed flour all over me, from head to toe, I even had my mouth open (ewwww), I wasn't too happy about all the flour everywhere, but Caleb said he was sorry, and helped me clean it up, and we finished making the cinnamon rolls.
So Caleb and Malachi have been sick with bad colds all week long.  And now Travis, Betsy, and Joseph are also sick, so Austin, Samuel and I were the only ones who went to church today.  I took Caleb and Malachi to the dr. on Wednesday, because Caleb has been having high fevers, and complained of ear pain during the night.  The Dr. said that Caleb's ears are fine, and to just keep doing what I'm doing to take care of them.  I've had to cancel a lot of appointments and other things during the week, so I am looking forward to the time when they are feeling better, and we can go back to our normal things.
Samuel won his class spelling bee, and participated in the school wide spelling bee, and out of 12 people, made it to 5 people left, before he was eliminated.  He was pretty cute, spelling his words, and he did a good job.
The last couple of days, I have been thinking a lot about how blessed I am, and feel grateful for my family, church, and friends.  

Breckenridge Retreat

Caleb got an owie on his forehead, Samuel hit him with a ball, and he hit the edge  of the fireplace with his face.  (OW!))

This is the soap we found at the Breckenridge retreat

Malachi playing min golf at the resort in Breckenridge

Daddy and Malachi playing mini golf

Caleb happy to be playing mini golf

Austin riding the cow

Austin, Betsy, Samuel, Caleb, and Malachi on the Trolley

Travis holding a sweet little sleeping Malachi who fell asleep in the pool

My little Malachi all dressed for church

We had a great time in Breckenridge, CO this last weekend for a strong bonds retreat.  We had a really nice room that was a 2 bedroom suite.  Malachi was so cute, he loved this trip, he was so excited about everything.  He was even fine with going to the childcare, while Travis and I were doing the classroom portion.  After the classroom stuff was done, we were able to explore the shops, they were awesome, my favorites were the candle, socks, and spice shops.  We also went swimming, and played in the arcade.  Travis and I also got to have a nice date night, which we thoroughly enjoyed.  Caleb is finally potty trained!  I'm so excited to only have one in diapers again.

Happy New Year, we made it three whole days before a trip to the ER!

Samuel and Caleb sledding

The snowman we made while waiting for Joseph to be done with his appointment

Malachi fell asleep while shopping at Wal-mart

Austin making her catapult 

Joseph making his catapult

Caleb making his catapult 

Joseph, Austin, Betsy, and Caleb with their finished catapults

Joseph's broken toe (the middle one)

Joseph wearing a boot and walking with crutches

So I ended up taking Joseph to the ER saturday night for a broken toe.  Normally with broken toes, they just get taped together, but when Joseph got home from swimming at the YMCA with Travis and Betsy and showed me his toe, I knew I had to take him in.  I should have taken a picture of it then, but the middle toe was completely crooked and overlapping the toe next to it.  Joseph says that he jumped into the pool, and accidently kicked a persons ankle (splitting and jamming his toes apart).  So I quickly made dinner, we ate, and then I took Joseph to the ER, they took xrays, and then waited two more hours to see the dr.  The dr. said his toe had been fractured at the base, right on his growth plate.  He numbed up Joseph's toe, and tried to manipulate it back into place, but it would not straighten back out.  The dr. finally taped his toe to his other toe, and gave him a hard soled "shoe" to wear, and told us it might need surgery, but the podiatrist would be able to tell us better, and to see the specialist first thing monday morning when they open.  So I took Joseph home, gave him Ibuprofen, and put him to bed.  He still managed to hobble around enough to go to church and pass the sacrament, but by the end of church, was in serious pain, and I practically carried him to the car.   I took him to the podiatry clinic first thing this morning, and the dr. was able to set his toe properly, so he won't need surgery.  He will need to wear a boot for four weeks, and use crutches for the first few weeks.  Also since the fracture was on his growth plate, his toe won't grow anymore, so he will probably have a stubby toe on