The Simple Joys of Life

This seemed like a blessed week, despite the fact that Samuel was very sick and crabby four out of seven days (he's not better yet), and the fact that by around 5 o'clock every day, Tommy and Joey had stripped down to their pants and underwear and were running around calling themselves Nephites.  Yet, we enjoyed some pleasant moments:

On Monday, Joey started a week-long streak of spending an hour each morning coloring.  My favorite masterpiece:

"A toilet" by Joey

On Tuesday, Tommy surprised us by reading his first book!  We hadn't worked on reading with him for a couple of months and were stunned to watch him read sentences like this: "We can whack whack with the mallet and lift lift with the jack" slowly, but without help!  In that particular sentence, he made only one mistake--he pronounced "jack" as "hack," like it would be in Spanish. :)

Tommy's first book

On Wednesday, I got to play broom-hockey on ice with the youth--SO MUCH FUN!  No skates, just shoes.  No hockey sticks or puck, just brooms and a soft bouncy ball.  I ended up with two huge bruises on my knees, but they were worth it!

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On Friday, I started pulling Samuel's bangs out of his face with a bobby pin.  I know, he needs a haircut!!

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On Saturday, I finally got our house mostly cleaned up...a major accomplishment since the little boys...all three of them now...can make messes way faster than I can clean.

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Also on Saturday, Jon and I went to a totally relaxing, delicious, funny game night with our friends, and I laughed so hard during Catch Phrase that my sides ached.

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Other highlights for the boys included playing lots of playdough, playing a couple of games on Jon's kindle each night at bedtime (Joey's favorite is Fruit Ninja, a.k.a. "bananas," and Tommy's favorite is Angry Birds), and playing outside in the snow.