July 20 - July 26

July 20 – July 27

Sunday, July 20: Dinner at David and Marie’s to celebrate Cindy’s birthday! I felt pretty sneaky; I baked a cake she’s always wanted, the Salted Caramel Malted Vanilla Bean Cake. This thing is a monstrosity! Cindy saved the recipe about a year ago, and even bought all the supplies for it, but never had time to actually bake it herself. I snagged the recipe and have made it a few times, but never managed to get a piece to Cindy.

Mischief managed! It always surprises me how far a little bit goes; it’s so rich and delicious. The collective birthday present for Grandma was a big stack of envelopes, one from each member of the family containing a goal that that person will accomplish this year.

Our little family has pledged to run further in running club (Tyler), to learn to read at her new school (Jamie), to learn to start IVs (Katie), and to run a 10K, and the Komen 5K in honor of Great Grandma Hinckley (McKay).

Monday, July 21: We watched Ruby and Jack in the morning.

There was some significant grumpiness, so the girls and I made pumpkin cookies. They lost interest in the middle of mixing the batter, and Jack was super mad whether I held him or not, so I set him down to wander the house while he cried, and let the girls play in the front room so I could finish mixing the cookies. This is the moment McKenzie returned, and I was mortified at how neglected the kids looked while I was singing "Do You Want to Build A Snowman?" in the kitchen. Luckily she thought it was funny, and I guess Jack spends enough time crying at home that it wasn't a big deal :) Tyler, Jamie and I took a plate of cookies to McKay at work, and then picked up Tyler’s T-Ball pictures, which were FINALLY ready.

Cute, cute boy! I love this little collection we're building :)

Tuesday, July 22: Tuesday was McKay's turn to visit Hypnotic donuts with the kids while I studied EKG nonsense all day.

Later, McKay took the kids out in turn to spend some one on one time with each one; haircuts, downtown visits, and the splash pad.

Wednesday, July 23: The kids spent the morning at the Slade's while I went to class, where we had a guest lecturer on the Pediatric EKG. It was really interesting! McKenzie took all the kids to the park, and Tyler must have got a bug bite because later that afternoon, his poor eye swelled shut.

I got to use my fancy new nurse assessment skills to evaluate it; it was nontender, and didn't obstruct his vision when I performed the whole range of vision tests. Yay for useful skills! I went to YW that night and we had a fun combined game night with another ward, and said goodbye to Sister Bagby, who is moving this week to Galveston, and we'll be sad to see her go.

That night, Michelle had her baby girl, Arya!

Thursday, July 24: After a quick stop at Tiff’s treats to pick up a dozen freshly baked cookies for Michelle and a dozen for us ( :) ) we hurried up to Plano to visit the new mama and baby in the hospital. Cindy watched all the older grand kids while Marie and I went to the hospital and fawned over this teeny little sweetheart.

Michelle forbid me from taking pictures of Michelle, hence the zero pictures of her here :)

McKay and I were supposed to feed the missionaries that night, but we had to reschedule; I just couldn't tear myself away from this face to get home to start dinner in time! McKay didn't mind too much; this way, he got to come up to Plano to see Arya too :)

Friday, July 25: Friday was an epic battle with Tyler to get him to take Benedryl for his poor eye. Our kids are pretty distinct in their personalities. Tyler is our easy going one, and Jamie is our feisty one, except in one situation: taking medicine. Tyler will fight us tooth and nail to avoid taking medicine. Jamie will down hers like a shot and then ask for more. After two hours, Tyler finally took his first dose of Benedryl, and it was wonderful to see the swelling start to go down within hours. I went out that night for dinner with some fun ladies from the ward.

Saturday, July 26: After making the kids clean up all morning (so mean!) we went to a Lego Party at the library.

There were building challenges and prizes, and Tyler and Jamie had such a good time. That afternoon, Grandma and Grandpa dropped off a few bookshelves and McKay's old turntable. Grandma is craving a clear garage, and he's alerting his grown kids that the free storage is at an end :) McKay ran in the Zombie Run in Forney that night with a big group of friends from work.

He said it was a really fun run; it was a 5K course in a cornfield with obstacles AND zombies. He had to get through both with one flag remaining on his flag belt to still be in the running for the prizes. Most unfortunately, his flags were all stolen by zombies, and at the end of the race, he got this medal:

After he got back home, I went out myself to meet up for dinner with our old friends, Megan and Spencer Peacocks! It was a fun night, and I really enjoyed feeling like a normal, social person this weekend :)

Funny:

• Tyler was asking why his ouchy was hurting. McKay tried to explain:
• McKay: "Well, Tyler, there are these things called nerves that are in your skin-"
• Tyler: "Aughhhh!"
• I overheard this in the other room, and apparently the two sentences were unrelated, but I laughed for like ten minutes at the idea of scary nerves invading your skin.
• Jamie got a fun birthday present from her friend Garrett, this ice cream patterned apron. She wore it all afternoon, demanding to make cookies.
  
• While I took pictures of Tyler's swollen eye, Jamie wanted to take a "scary" picture too: 
  
  
  
  
• There has been a Where's Waldo renaissance in our house this week!