january.
its always a hard month for me coming off of the holiday high.
not to mention that its constantly cloudy and cold.
I've never really liked january and to make matters worse, it seems like every january since being in arkansas I've been super sick. luckily this year i didn't get any bugs, but the kids sure did and thats almost worse. almost.
poor owen. hes still getting ear infections even after getting tubes last summer. luckily we have ear drops on hand so we can start fighting it as soon as the symptoms start, but its still a rough couple days.
right after owen had his last earache, ellie got slammed with strep throat.
and it.was.bad.
her tonsils were so enormous, they almost touched.
poor little one.
she stayed home from school for two days. it was so painful for her to swallow that she didn't eat much for a few days. so when she said "i think i want some panera mac n cheese and some sprite today", you better believe we packed up and headed straight for the drive thru!
after a week of antibiotics she was feeling fantastic.... until she had a reaction to the amoxicillin.
jack and i literally watched the rash spread from her back, all the way up to her neck and up on her face during sacrament meeting on sunday. when she looked over at us, my chin dropped and i had to quickly pinch jacks leg so he wouldn't laugh... she had to give a talk in primary and was already nervous about it (it was a wonderful talk on agency that she wrote, btw). of course one of the kids in her primary class blew by saying the second she walked in the door "What the heck happened to your face?!?"
she itched and itched and itched! monday was really hard for her to go to school. she was nervous of what the kids in her class would say. we talked about how being brave (our family theme this school year) is really hard to do when it comes down to it. she said she knew that kids in her class were going to make fun of her and she was afraid she'd cry. i told her a few things she could tell them and then said, "if it gets bad enough, you have my permission to tell them to shut up even though we don't usually say that. and, if its really bad, call mama and ill come get you, but only if its really really bad"... that seemed to do the trick. she walked to class with her head down and kept it that way for most of the day. the kids did tease her, but she toughed it out. by the end of the day the rash cleared up on her face and she felt much better. i am so, so proud of her for being so brave. kids can be mean. happy to report that most of it is gone now except a tiny patch on the small of her back, where the rash originated.
besides doctors visits and kids staying home from school, january was super busy and not with anything really fun, just the usual stuff. charlie's class got to do all of the announcements one friday and it was in front of the entire school. they gave charlie the longest part with the hardest words. he practiced it over and over and absolutely nailed it!
he's also leading the class with AR reading points! super proud of this kid!
even with the cold temps, owen and i are still bundling up and going on our 2.3 mile uphill hike each morning with our friends.
owen hates it.
i love it.
I'm not ashamed to say that i bribe him because i really need these mornings outside. we've been doing this since august. our last stroller was so worn down by december that one of the wheels literally rolled right off the stroller mid- hike. chris was very good to me and ordered me a BOB jogger to replace it. this thing (besides taking up so much trunk space) is an absolute dream! we decided to splurge because we know we will be able to sell it really easily once owen outgrows it.
on this particular morning i bribed owen with bubbles. it worked for about 2 minutes.
this is his angry "i hate you" look he gives me most mornings on our way home:
chris and i were recently put in as webelos den leaders together! (along with our other callings). i was over the bears and he was over the webelos, but they made a bunch of changes, including having the leaders host the meetings in their homes each week. so having us both be over different groups was challenging. its only been two weeks, but its really fun working with chris. and the boys love him.
this past tuesday we had to come up with a patrol name, emblem, yell, and flag. the boys decided to call themselves the Beastly Baconz. after their cheer they wiggle and shake and say ZZZZ pretending to "sizzle". its hilarious.
jack started playing chess after school on wednesdays. he got beat 4 times by girls on his first day. that was a pretty big blow to his ginormous ego so he is determined to become a master. we'll see how it goes! he did end up beating one of the girls this week and felt pretty good about it ;)
are "pickle sickles" a thing anywhere else in the world or is it just a fort smith arkansas thing??? not sure, but its nasty.
chris decided to introduce the kids to Indiana Jones one night while i went to book club. man oh man! they thought it was crazy intense. charlie couldn't stay sitting and jacks nails were pretty much nubs by the end of the show. they can't wait to see another!
last night we had to make the hour drive up to fayetteville for chris to sell our old camera. i say "had to", but "wanted to" would be more accurate :) while there we tried out a burger place called Hugo's. holy crap. i havent had a burger or fries that good in a long, long time. we had to wait for the food for a pretty substantial amount of time, which is always tricky with 4 kids, but after the first bite ellie said it was worth the wait. so glad i blew my diet on it ;)
owen was being so silly and giving kisses and the music was loud and the restaurant was packed and we sat under a bright pink neon light and we got home late on a school night and it was just one of those nights that i think we all will remember for a long while.
oh, plus owen got gum stuck in his hair on the way home while dancing to coldplay and we had to cut out a chunk of his bangs. that was fun too.
