Korea 2014: Week Three - getting the hang of this

This week has been a lot better than last week.  And I'm totally going to give credit to the fact that we've managed to do scriptures and prayers every night.  There was one night where I honestly had all four kids sitting/laying on me and three of them were crying (Derrick was happy and trying to snuggle with me).  I was laughing because it was such a ridiculous situation. I told myself that I would at least read one verse of the scriptures.  The kids calmed down as soon as I started reading.  Charlotte was even asleep before the chapter was over.  It was really cool.

It also helped that I had my Valentines Day Party to look forward to.  I'm planning on doing some sort of get together once a month.  My neighbor, Ange, and I have already started putting our heads together for what the theme of the March one should be.      

So lets take a look at the picture highlights from this week.   

Lydia wanted me to take this picture of her with the webcam.  It's kind of a big part of our lives right now.  

 On Tuesday Lydia fell (or was probably pushed) off a stool onto the corner of our window sill.  She got a pretty nasty puncture wound and for a few minutes I thought I might have to go to the emergency room instead of grocery shopping like I had planned.  But by the time my neighbor showed up to watch the kids, the bleeding had stopped.  When I got home from the store Lydia announced that she had sticky tack up her nose.  Again I thought I might have to take her to the emergency room, but luckily the sticky tack came out when she blew her nose.  She was pretty accident prone the rest of the day and I was very happy when she fell asleep and took a long nap.

 I was also happy she took a nap because it meant we could go to the Relief Society meeting that night.  The kids had a great time playing with toys and other kids while I got to see my friends.  At the very end we all had chocolate and talked.  My friend Camie let the kids take home the balloon decorations.  The girls were so excited.  They kept giving Veronica the strings to play with.

 They tied their balloons to their beds.  After I put them to bed I could hear them playing around. Later, when I went to check on them I was SHOCKED to find both girls in their beds with blankets covering them.  I am so used to finding them in strange places and positions.  I think this was the first time ever that they played around and then got into their beds on their own.  Balloons are amazing.

 The balloons continued to inspire more fun the next few days.  The girls set up this play ground for their baby dolls and incorporated the balloons.

 Here is Lydia nursing her baby at the "park.'

 And here's Charlotte on her "motorcycle."

 One of the girls took this picture of me and Veronica.

 And this one of just Veronica.  I can't believe how big Veronica is compared to how small the girls were.  She will be five months old on the 24th and she is wearing clothes that they wore at 9 months.  She has pants that have knee marks from when the girls learned to crawl.  We have pictures of Lydia learning to walk wearing the same jeans Veronica is wearing here.

 This next picture is actually of something that happened last week.  We were coming home from story time and I saw FLAMES and SMOKE coming from the power station that is in the middle of this picture.  That spot happens to be only about 500 feet behind my house.  I quickly called 911 and reported the fire.  They sent out the MP's (Military Police) and the fire department.  I was happy to be at the right place at the right time.  I wouldn't have been able to see the flames from my back window until they were a lot closer to my house.

When I got everything ready for my Valentines Day party I wasn't able to get my floor mopped.  I decided that was okay because there were probably going to be spills anyway.  And there were.  So I mopped the floor on Saturday.  The girls created this obstacle course out of all the chairs.  Derrick is crying in the movie because he'd just slipped on the wet kitchen floor. (It happens every time I try to mop while he is awake.)

 Last night Charlotte stayed up with me while I got every thing ready for Sunday.  She was really cute and helped me pick up toys in the living room.  Then she fell asleep on the couch while I did the dishes.

 She also put this balloon on her little wagon where she put her baby to bed.  I though it was so cute.

 Today we opened a Valentine's Day present from Brandon's mom.  She sent chocolates. The girls loved the little heart shaped boxes they came in.

 Charlotte made this little "house" for our toy rhinoceros out of the boxes.

After Derrick woke up from his nap we all drove out to the children's hospital in Temple.  My Ange's son is there and so I thought visiting the hospital would be a good Sunday appropriate activity.  Plus is got us out of the house.  

I told the kids to expect to see our neighbor in a hospital bed and hooked up to wires.  I told them there would be expensive machines that they couldn't touch.  in reality the hospital had a really great kids toy room that we were able to visit in.  There were shelves and shelves of toys.  

 It was great!  The only problem is that the kids are all going to be severely disappointed when they visit someone in a normal, boring hospital.

That was pretty much it for the week.  There were some other things that happened that actually deserve their own posts.  So I'll be posting about those things during the next few days.