Countering the cabin fever

"I've got cabin fever it's burning in my brain.  I've got cabin fever, it's driving me insane!  We got cabin fever, we lost what sense we had.  We got cabin fever, we're all going mad!"  ("Cabin Fever" from Muppet Treasure Island)  

We have been trying to stay busy around here to avoid the cabin fever that is kind of setting in!  Since we've moved here, we've just kind of done our own thing for preschool.  We call it "Mommy Preschool".  The kids enjoy activities and here are just a few of their favorite things we've done recently.  We try to read books, do a song/or dance to music, do a worksheet of some sort, a science experiment or math exploration, and make something.  Emma is in "big girl school" now, but is sad she misses out on our fun and still enjoys doing stuff with us, so I'll save some supplies for her for when she gets home.  

We've been using our imaginations around here a lot!  I love that about kids!  Cal's favorite thing to play lately is Conan.  Thanks to Daddy, these kids love the movie "Conan the Destroyer" (only PG, unlike the other Conan which stars Arnold Schwarzenegger) and he and Lucy play Conan and Cone-lady for hours on end.  My favorite is how they put their swords in their underwear since "that's how Conan does it".  Ha ha!  Future date blackmail material right here!  They go around quoting the movie and getting the bad guys.

Lucy likes to pretend like she's an indian baby.  Emma and Cal are always wrapping her up.  Cute little papoose!

One night, Cal hurt his leg (not seriously, but he fell and it hurt) and Emma tried to help him.  She made this nice "cast" out of a couple of baby blankets and some rubber bands and got him a "cane", which was a stick horse.  She is very caring and helped him out and made him feel better.  I think we have a future doctor on our hands!  Em takes such good care of her siblings!  Lately, Lucy will ask for Emma instead of me when she needs something.  

We've been going to play group and getting together with friends.  Interaction with others helps battle that cabin fever, since I think sometimes we get too use to being together and kind of get sick of each other!  :)  Emma and Cal asked me to take this picture of the tower they built at play group one day.  

Emma had a little playgroup over here with some friends from school.  It was a winter tea party and the girls had a wonderful time.  It's nice that Emma includes Cal and Lucy when her friends are over to play.  The had spiral cream cheese and jam sandwiches, cheese and crackers, fresh veggies and blueberry lemonade.  They made paper fans, then we decorated snowflake cookies for their families to take home, played with their dolls, made little flower craft, and they had a dance party. They all had a fantastic time!

It's been super freezing here (we're talking highs in the single digits and lows of -20), and winters are long.  So we haven't made it out much.  But since the temperatures hit over 40 degrees one day, we decided to hit the park!  We all had a blast and it felt good to breathe in fresh air and feel the sunshine.

Funny random story.  So one day I was feeding Covey and when I moved him to burp, I saw his ear looked like this!  Poor kid!  It freaked me out at first but then I realized quickly his ear must have folded up against me and got stuck there for a minute.  He looks like a little elf!  :)

How lucky am I that I get to hang out with these three (and four when Emma's home) all day.  But sometimes they can get me going a little nuts!

Coverton recently started solid foods.  He did not like the rice cereal the first day we tried it, but liked it more and more each time he ate it.  Emma and Lucy were so excited to help him!  Since then, he's had peas and cauliflower, which he really likes!

Daddy's been avoiding the cabin fever by working out.  He has been watching a movie on the new tablet we got and going on the treadmill almost every night/  He also recently had a walleyball tournament for work at the rec center.  He sported this nice afro and sweat bands and the A-Team (the administration's team) kicked some serious booty.

I recently started watching two of our neighbors boys for half the day three days a week. They are cute boys and Cal loves having that mini testosterone around!  That's been fun.  Because in Spokane, most of those he was around were girls.  So he has lots of pals to play with now, not just little brother.  

When we got the Valentine's decorations out the other day, the kids decided to get the summer box out too and had their own little patriotic luau party.  

We've had some catastrophes lately, which I think are in connection with their feeling bottled in.  Oi!  Lucy and Cal are always in cahoots and scheming together.  When Emma and I were decorating for Valentine's day, Cal and Lucy were in the bedroom, I thought they were just playing.  But then the came in the room looking like this!  Ahhhh!  They got the thick Eucerin lotion and rubbed it all over themselves and their bedroom!  It got all over and it is hard to get off.  I was not happy with those two!  Especially because it seemed like these types of things were happening all day long for the last few days before this.  Lots of messes, funny behaviors and attitudes, and they broke a few things.  I was telling Dave that night, that if I were the swearing type, this would have definately got me going.  I am just hoping that someday we will laugh at this.  Because I'm still not laughing as I write this about a week later.  :/

We got everything cleaned up and moved on!  Though Lucy's hair was greasy looking for a week though I scrubbed and washed several times.  But we're good now!

We've been trying to do lots of arts and crafts to keep their hands busy.  One of their favorite things was painting peg dolls.  Lucy made a little doll (top left).  Emma made Niya (from Ninjago), a zombie (not pictured) and an unnamed girl (top right), and Cal made these Ninjago guys (his favorite show) and I helped him a little with their faces and little features.  They love playing with these guys and it has provided lots of entertainment.  They also have been getting into perler beads a lot lately and we've been making tons of things with those!

Another thing, I lost the big diamond from my ring!  So looking for that has been taking up lots of my time.  It's been almost two weeks now without any success.  :(  Waaaahhhh!  We have been looking everywhere, but I've heard lots of stories about people finding their missing diamonds.  I'm not counting on it, but if I do find it, that will be happy!

After a jam packed day, the kids usually crash.  One night, Emma and Cal made a fort on Cal's bed very quietly (I was downstairs I think) and slept with him.  It was very cute.  And another night, Emma gave Cal and Lucy "heart attacks", she put paper hearts she cut out previously all over their beds and even on them.  She taped a heart to Callahan's forehead!  So cute!  I love watching my babies watch.  Sometimes the days can be crazy, stressful, emotional, non-stop, upsetting and I am so happy to finally have some peace and quiet after they go to bed.  But then when I go check on them at night, I am renewed in my determination to love them just a little bit more the next day.  And when they wake up in the morning, I'm so ready to try again to be a better mom and love them more.  Because I make so many mistakes.  But each morning, when they greet me with a huge smile and hug, it's like they never remember what a horrible job I did the day before being their mom.  I sure do love these people I live with.  If we're going to go insane with cabin fever, at least we get to do it together!

Loving Lyman

We went to Lyman, to go see Amy, Kolby & Boji the other weekend and we loved every minute!  When we got there, the kids were so excited to see their aunt, uncle & cousin!  It's not Amy & Kolby's house anymore, it's Boji's!  When Cal saw Kolby come in with Boji, he said excitedly, "Hi, Boji!" and I asked him to greet Kolby, but he didn't seem to think that's as important.  They love their newest little cousin so much! 

We made pizzas for dinner, then we were off to the Lyman High School basketball game.  Kolby's little brother, Drew is quite the basketball player and did very well!  It was fun to go to a game, it's been a while since I've been to a high school game.  And I don't think I've taken kids to the bathroom more in one sitting than that night...it seemed like someone always had to go!  But it was fun, especially because the whole town showed up and I got to know the mom sitting next to me, we chatted quite a bit.  

When we got back to the house, we snuggled (see picture above) and made skookies...mmm!  They were so good!  They are cookies baked on a skillet in the oven and we had them with ice-cream, caramel and whipped cream.  Amy is the ultimate hostess with the mostess!  And then we put the kids to bed and the adults stayed up chatting until too late!  :)  

 

Saturday {too early} morning, Dave & Kolby met up with some of Kolby's family and friends to go ice fishing for the day at Big Piney.  The girls and little boys slept in, which was nice!  And then we played and  had a tasty breakfast cinnamon rolls, eggs from the coupe (we tried our first ever turkey eggs, too!), and hash browns.  

After we got ready, it was out to the pond to do a little ice-skating.  Emma and Cal loved it!  This was Aunt Amy's first time skating on their pond, they recently bought the skates.  The skates were a little big on Emma, but still worked.  And Cal just slid on his shoes, which he got a kick out of.  I stayed in and watched the littlest ones, but loved hearing about their adventures on the ice.  Emma kept asking Amy to do tricks...ha ha!  Amy can do a figure 8 and fishies, thanks to the ice-skating lessons we took at the Bubble back in the day.  But sorry, Em, no triple lutzes around here.  But Aunt Am is an ice-skating star in our eyes!  Thanks for taking them, Am!

We took a break inside to play and warm up for a bit.  We played a game called Blokus and Emma had her second violin lesson with Amy.  We're trying to do lessons over Skype to see how that works out!  :)  But so far Em is loving the violin and so excited to learn from the best!

Cal and Emma loved riding around on the 4-Wheeler, but Luce wouldn't touch it!  

Lucy, however, loved the horses!  She enjoyed watching them, and trying to feed them their food.  "He/She's looking at me!" she would squeal with delight!  The kids also helped with the chores, giving the horses their food and water, and collecting eggs for the day.  

.

Emma enjoyed "working" on the farm.  When she pulls the "it's no fair, I have so many chores and so much homework and practicing" I tell her we should move to a farm.  She said she would love that, but I think she might change her mind if she knew she would have to wake up at 5 a.m. to milk the cows!  But she enjoyed it for the day here!  

The littles were really looking forward to sledding on the snow, but there was no snow.  No snow?  No problem!  We got poop!  Am hooked a little plastic sled to the back of the 4 wheeler and away they went in their field, which worked out pretty well actually!  They were all smiles, until Cal fell off and into some of the poop!  He was so traumatized and wanted to go wash his hands right then and there (I guess he gets that one from me!).  Am told him not to worry.  "You know what horse poop is anyways?  It's just hay!"  The look on his face was pretty priceless!  Ha ha!

Then, back at the ranch, we had a little photo shoot with the babies.  Grandma Di made them both these rootinest tootinest cutest felt cowboy boots you've ever seen, since they're both Wyoming boys (though, we all know who the real cowboy is...us Ryerses are just cowboy wannabes)!  At first we took pictures with the onsie on, but we thought it would be funny if they had no shirts on and went for the Chip and Dales baby look.  He he!  And then Cal decided to pull his shirt off and jump in too.  

Then we made some Navajo tacos for dinner, and Kolby and Dave came back and we ate dinner and heard fishing stories.  They all caught at least one fish and had a great day. What an awesome weekend!  Amy and Kolby, thank you so much!  We loved every minute with you and love you all so much too.  I admire Amy and Kolby so much, they are some of the neatest people I know! And it's nice that we are pretty close now and that we can visit each other more often.