Danny Turns 8!

Wow...been awhile again! We had a fun day yesterday! Danny had breakfast in bed, serenaded by his family of course!



He got The Little House on the Prairie CD's and was pretty excited about it. We had school time punctuated with some fun little neighbor visits to wish him a happy birthday. Later that day, we had homemade pepperoni pizza for dinner and then headed off to Tunnel Voyage to play. Unfortunately, they closed an hour earlier than what they had told us on the phone, so when we got there, they were wiping things down and getting ready to close. Sad! But they were so nice and felt so bad that they had given us the wrong info that they let the kids go on some of the rides for free and gave us a bunch of half off coupons to use another day! So, it turned out. I got some funny pictures of them. They have a ship that is a small version of the Tidalwave at Lagoon.



They were all SO EXCITED to get on it until they realized what it was going to do once the gal got it going. Mary had the funniest face! I'm awful...she and Joseph looked so cute and funny. They were fine...until the little teacups that go in an oblong circle.



Mary was into her little cup chair in no time...smiling and saying, "Daddy, look at me!"



In 30 seconds, she was off. It really whipped them around the corners. Joseph wouldn't even get on it. Danny and Nate loved it though! Then they all got a free ring pop! Can you beat that? They were very happy.
Then we came home and had cake and ice cream.



Danny got a mousetrap game and was THRILLED.



He didn't really even want to play the game. He just wanted to put the things together and watch it work.
Definitely, a happy day in the Vance home! Now looking forward to his baptism!! (which will be on the 20th)

The Yuck!

Wow! I don't think I have ever seen such an amazing amount of expelled bodily fluids in such a short period of time! My energy for cleaning up after sick kids that didn't make it to a designated barfing recepticle is waning. The time allowed for movies is increasing...and I just hope Danny doesn't get it (the yuck)!!! Of course, he'd be the easiest to handle since he's older.
Jon just got home from Utah yesterday. The Yuck started two days after he left. He got a lovely reception with seemingly healthy kids...but then Nate lost it in the car on the way home from the airport. Then this morning, Mary pretty much exploded all over him, just as he was about to leave for a work meeting. Then, later today, Jon and I were relaxing a little and catching up on things while the boys played outside when Mary had an episode from the other end of her little body. Unfortunately, her diaper had not the strength for containing such a flash flood and Jon's quick efforts at transporting her to the tub were not without casualties!
I just read up on rotavirus and other "viral gastroenteritis" (stomach flu) type joys and I found out that 1-2 weeks is pretty much the norm on getting over the back end side of things. The doctor said probiotics and a bland diet are all that you can do to help the symptoms until they're over it.
So, if any of you were planning on coming to visit this or next week :) maybe April would be better! Bring on the Clorox!

Valentine's Day Gift

Last Saturday was a beautiful, serene day! We went to the St. Louis Temple without children!! It's the first time we've done it! Don't get me wrong...we've enjoyed taking them along for the road trip and we've done some fun things along the way. But usually Jon or I go into the temple while the other of us goes to the park, or somewhere for lunch with the kids, then we switch.
This time, some dear friends of ours agreed to have them stay at their house. So we dropped them off a little after 6am and carpooled with some friends who were also going and we had a QUIET, calm, enjoyable drive. Then at the temple, I was able to go in with my dear husband! Wow, what a sweet blessing. The best Valentine's gift ever.

Dear Sisters...

Please excuse my blog absence. I could use lots of excuses...camera issues, pregnancy barfness issues, don't want to do my laundry...that sort of thing. The guilt has piled up and really, when you don't want to do laundry, this really is a great alternative.
So...a lot has happened since I last wrote. Mary turned 2. She's so cute (but I think she's also the most terrible 2 I've had)! I guess that's awful to say that about my little pumpkin, but lately she's taken to having daily temper tantrums. We put her in her room and she screams so hard it sounds like there's going to be mushroom cloud in there when we open up the door. Before I put her in I try talking calmly to her, singing to her, distracting her, whatever I can think of. Putting on a movie usually works but we can't be watching movies all day at the whim of the 2 year old!
Then we had a lovely Christmas! I think the Serpent Spiral K'Nex set was the most exciting gift of the season. Jon and the boys built the roller coaster (as tall as Nathan) and it graced our front room for the next week and a half!
Danny and Nater stayed up past midnight on New Year's Eve (Jon however didn't make it).
Then we found out we are expecting #5 baby!!!
Followed by my birthday (#34), Jon's birthday (#33)(yeah, I'm the older woman), then Natey's birthday (#6). We had a great pirate party!! Jon was the pied piper and led the very eager children around the yard looking for secret treasure map clues and finally the hidden treasure chest. What a great dad!

And now, I guess you could say I'm pretty much in early pregnancy blah land! It's all part of the bliss I guess!
I love you gals!
Toodle-oo!

Nursery, nursery, nursery...

Three weeks ago I was released from my calling as Relief Society teacher and was extended a calling to be the Nursery Leader. I have to say that for the first few moments I felt disappointed that it wasn't a "greater" calling, but that initial vanity left me quite quickly and was replaced with a happy, excited, grateful feeling.
For a while the previous nursery leader had no "official" helpers, only parents who would sit in. As a result, it was very difficult for her to have an organized program since there were sometimes over 18 children in there.
We have since started using our new stake center (which is joyfully a maximum of 5minutes away), had a ward split and a new one created, and had some serious reorganization. Now there are 3 of us called to work in the nursery and I think we are really clicking! We still have up to 16 kiddos in there, but in January almost half of them will be sweet little Sunbeams. For our lesson we split and I take all of the Sunbeams-to-Be (plus Mary Jane because well, you know my girl). Man they are so cute! Today we were learning about how we can pray to Heavenly Father.
We switched around our schedule so it goes like this:
Check In/puzzles or coloring
Circle Time (that's get the wiggles out game/song time)
Lesson Time (split)
Snack Time (always a favorite)
Music Time (Beth did it with puppets today which they LOVED!)
Free Play Time
Clean Up
Story Time/Check Out
I love the new nursery manual, "Behold Your Little Ones." It's perfect for Family Home Evening with small children and is so simple that the bigger ones can help with the lesson planning. It really directs them towards their Father in Heaven.
Anyway, now I'm home and I am pooped! I've got all the kids down for Sunday quiet time and Jon's asleep already. Ringers are off--and I'm going to take a much needed nap!

Homemade Bread!

OK, so when Jon saw me staging and taking the bread photo, he said, "Wow, that can only be a blog picture!" Right he was!
Well, we finally got a wheat grinder! I'm probably more excited than I ought to be, but I've been wanting one forever! We did a group order with some people in the stake and were able to save $50 (a penny saved is a penny earned!) It's a Blendtec Kitchen Mill and it grinds up loads of other stuff...dry beans, rice, popcorn (for cornmeal), etc., etc.
I mainly want it to grind up wheat though. Now I just need to get some since I ground up the wheat from one of my two cans! That's our next home storage installment!
I made four loaves in loaf pans and then did the other four on cookie sheets.




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And I had LOTS of EXCELLENT help! (Yes, Lib, I purposefully made sure the blue dough cutter was in the picture...thank you, I love it!)

Good ol' Halloween

Two Sheriffs, Dorothy, and a Red Dinosaur...

Our little pumpkin carvers.



Last night, I took the kids out trick-or-treating while Jon manned the door. We never go any further than around the block, patroning both sides of the street naturally, and we ALWAYS get SO MUCH candy! Of course, it is the only time I see a few of those neighbors. By the time we got within 5 houses of our own...Joseph and Mary Jane would sit down for a while on the neighbors steps and required some prodding to get up. They like to walk but aren't used to carrying (ie dragging) heavy bags along the way! I offered to carry them or their bags but they (especially Mary Jane) WOULD NOT have it! They only let me hold their little hands and Toto (Emily) in his basket. This morning, Joseph informed Jon that he wanted to go out trick-or-treating again today! (No, thanks!)