Courthouse Easter Fun

Easter Monday we had the Court crew out to our place for a little Easter fun. We started out with an Easter egg hunt and moved into a tasty wiener roast and BBQ smokies. The weather was beautiful and warm. When everyone had had their fill, the kids headed up to the park to work off all the candy they had already eaten from the egg hunt. It was a wonderful day, visiting with wonderful family.

Playing cards in the clothes line tent

Hanging out around the fire

I had made up lists of 15 specific eggs for each kid to find. Each list was different. When they had found their eggs they'd trade them in for a bag of candy.

Hanging out with Aunt Angela at the park.

Miracle on the hill

On Good Friday my siblings and I and our families gathered at my sisters house for our usual Forsyth Easter get together...although it wasn't all that usual since we were missing my parents and we were eating Mexican. It only seemed right since we weren't able to be all together at Christmas eating Mexican. We did the usual Easter Egg hunt and as always we planned to head to the local park to roll our Easter eggs down the hill. As we were just sitting around enjoying each others company after our Mexican feast, someone looked out the window to see some seriously dark clouds moving quickly in our direction. "If we are going to roll eggs, now is the time" the call rang out. So quickly we gathered up the kids and headed out to the hill. Luckily we were driving away from the oncoming darkness. When we arrived, the wind had died down a bit, and the sun was still shining on the hill. So we raced up the hill and the competition began, who could get their egg the farthest without breaking. Dozens of kids and adults kids at heart rolled dozens of eggs, and the rain never came. It wasn't the warmest Easter egg rolling day, but it wasn't the most miserable either. We watched the clouds darken on either side of us, but the rain never came, and the sun continued to do it's best to shine through. We all had fun, and we all left dry, but as we headed out and back toward my sister's house the rain did come, and it poured for a while. It was a wonderful day, as it always when we all hang out together. We even got to skype with mom and dad, we just set them on the table and they got to enjoy the crazy chaos that is Forsyth.

These cousins are all born with in a year. 

Charlie(Nov), Ella(Feb), Grant(Mar), Georgia(Oct)

And another interesting fact, they were all over 9lbs at birth. 

Beware of the Forsyth genes.

We should go somewhere

I just had this conversation with James:

James "We should go somewhere"
Mom: "Where should we go"
J: "We should go to a drink store...no a money store."
M: "A money store eh?"
J: "Yes, a money store to buy some more money. We need to buy more money."
M: "And what will we do after we buy more money?"
J: "We need to go out of the store and then go to the grocery store to buy groceries."

And there it is folks, all you need to a money store to buy more money.

I won't miss it.

Why is it, that when a mother is having one of her worst days, those kinds of days where the kids are fighting and yelling. Those days when your daughter yells that she hates you and that nobody wants a mom like you. Those days when that baby is just miserable, and nothing you can do will calm her. Those days when your toddler throws a tantrum in the grocery store and it takes all of your patience to make it out the door. Those days when you just want to lock yourself in your room and pull the covers over your head and pretend that it just isn't happening. Why is it that on those days, somebody will say to you "Oh, you'll miss these days!" Umm...No. No I won't. These days, in this moment of failure, I will not miss it. Not. One. Little. Bit.

But I will tell you what I will miss.

I'll miss the teary eyed I'm sorry's. I'll miss the heartfelt hugs where your daughter holds on tight and cries on your shoulder. I'll miss bed time stories and lullabies I'll miss my son asking me to stay and cuddle him. I'll miss him reaching for my arm and pulling it too him and hugging it like it's his favourite teddy bear and holding on tight until he falls asleep. I'll miss the middle of the night visits from my toddler, looking for a little cuddle time in mom and dad's bed. I'll miss my baby falling asleep in my arms and those little catches of breath that come after wearing herself out screaming. I'll miss doting on sick kids, and cuddling on the couch watching a movie instead of anything "productive".

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on about having hot chocolate ready when they get home on cold winter days, or freezies galore on hot summer days. How about those slow meandering spring walks, or the treasure hunting autumn escapades. Yes there are so many things that I will miss...but those really hard days? I'll be glad to put those behind me.

Funny things the Boy says

Today I made James sit in a chair because he wouldn't say sorry to Ella for hitting her repeatedly with a stuffed animal. He was mad at me and crying...no howling. When he was at his maddest he yelled at me "But mom, I don't know how to talk!" Nice try buddy, nice try.

But, later when I asked him to say sorry to Kymberly for hitting her or he would have to go sit in the chair until he did say sorry, he said sorry right away. Progress...right?

Valentines day...the rivalry continues.

I used to not make a big deal out of Valentines day. Then I had kids, and those kids started going to school. Suddenly Valentines day started to mean something. We have always made hand made Valentines for the kids to hand out at school.  Nothing overly fancy. Just something simple that the kids can do themselves. A few years back I decided that it would be fun if we made valentines to give to everyone in our immediate family. We made fancy Valentine pockets to put our valentines in. I made some home made valentines for the kids...daddy came home with helium balloons. And so the rivalry began.

This year when February hit the kids started asking me how I planned to out do dad this year. I told them that it wasn't worth trying, Dad is always going to be cooler than me. They agreed with that, and reminded me how last year all I got them were some Valentines pencils that I had picked up from our ward's Sweetheart Dinner the week before. Dad on the other hand bought them stuffed animals, chocolate and a gift certificate to Beaners to get their hair cut. In my defense I was 9 months pregnant and scheduled to be induced the very next day. I think I qualified for a year off.

While I played into there teasing and taunting, I secretly had a plan. I bought the girls some super sappy valentines cards and wrote super sappy messages about how proud I am of them and all that they are and all that they do, and how much I love them. Then I hid them among the Valentines that they would be handing out at school. I also spent the past few nights creating miniature stuffed animals. They turned out amazing!

I left them out on the kitchen table to be found in the morning. Daddy bought the big girls potted mini roses and chocolate. James got an angry bird pillow with chocolate and Ella a new super comfy blanket and pillow. 

The kids loved everything, and I think it's fair to say that I redeemed myself this year.

Going Shampoo-less

So the other day I saw a post of Facebook about not shampooing your hair. Instead you use Baking Soda as a wash and Apple Cider Vinegar as a conditioner (can't find the link for the life of me). I've read about this method before and thought about trying it, but I was a skeptic, and it sounded complicated...finding that perfect balance of baking soda and apple cider vinegar. At the time, I wasn't up for the challenge. But when I read this post the other day, it was so simple. Just put baking soda on your wet hair. Massage into scalp. Rinse. Put 1tbsp apple cider vinegar in a cup of water and poor over hair. Let sit for a minute or so. Rinse. Done.
 I haven't been happy with my hair for awhile now. I keep switching my shampoo, trying to find something that leaves my hair feeling soft and looking great, but just when I find one, a couple of weeks later, I'm right back to where I was before. I know some swear by salon grade shampoo, but I am just not willing to pay the prices. So when I saw this post I thought, what the heck, the next time I shower, I'll give it a try.
Now I generally only wash my hair every 4 or 5 days, keep that in mind. If you are use to washing your hair more frequently than this, you are likely to have a very different experience. I stepped into the shower, wet my hair, applied about 1/4 cup baking soda (I have A LOT of hair) massaged it in to the roots. Rinsed. Dipped the ends of my hair in the cup of water and apple cider vinegar and let soak for a bit and then dumped the remainder over my head, and let it sit while I finished washing the rest of me. Then I rinsed. I always let my hair dry naturally. I have dead straight hair that doesn't do anything but hang there and I am never in that big of a hurry to go somewhere that I need to have it dry right away. When my hair was completely dry, I was amazed! I can't remember the last time my hair felt this soft! I had read the warning about the "Transition Stage" and how you should be prepared for crappy hair for awhile, but that so isn't the case for me. It is a little more static-y than usual, so I plan on looking into what kind of solutions there are for that. But other than that, I am amazed. So far so good. I plan to keep at this. Imagine the savings!
In my searching for the post that inspired me to just do it, I came across this FB group called No Poo (no shampoo) & Low Poo Hair Care Group, which led me to this website, coderedhat.com. The website has tonnes of info about this method and other treatments to go along with it. So I'll file it away so that if I ever come across any problems, I can check back for what possible solutions there may be.