What have we been up to?

January and February seem to have pretty much flown by! We've managed to stay fairly busy and I thought I had better catch up completely before baby boy #4 arrives!

The Sunday after we arrived home from Christmas vacation, Madelaine graduated from nursery! She is officially a Sunbeam and has done great with the transition! Our ward held a little graduation ceremony and spotlighted each child. They introduced them to the rest of the primary by telling them their name, favorite color, favorite foods, favorite activities, favorite gospel story, etc, etc! It's always so fun to watch your children grow and move on to a new stage in life! Lainey loves singing time especially in primary and one of her first Sundays in primary, she was asked which song she wanted to sing. She responded to this question quite quickly by saying she wanted to sing "Mama Mia". The teachers all got a good laugh at that! You can't say she doesn't have great taste in music! :) Or that she isn't exposed to a great variety of music at home! We sure love her and she makes us laugh always! Congrats cute little Lainey bug!



On Friday, January 8th, Mr. Lennon went to the hospital to have tubes put in his ears. The poor little guy had had ear infections almost continuously since mid September. He had been on multiple antibiotics, but we just couldn't seem to kick them! So back in December we went to see an ENT and he informed us that tubes would help him a great deal. So the day of the surgery Mr. Lennon was pleasant as always, and really didn't know what was going on! But he was good with every dr., nurse, anasthesiologist, etc that came in to see him! The surgery itself only lasts about five minutes, but because you are required to hold completely still, anasthesia is used. So Lennon was gone from us for about 15 minutes. I will say it felt like a lot longer than that however!!! We missed our boy! When they brought him back to us he was just beginning to wake up from the anasthesia and wasn't very happy. You could tell he was in some pain and it just about broke our hearts! But I should also interject that Lennon is such a good boy and even not being happy, he is still pretty easy! We took him home shortly thereafter and our whole hospital stay was probably less than four hours total. The waiting at the beginning is what was the worst! Lennon rested on and off throughout the day and by the next day he was back to his happy self! We have since been back to the ENT and his tubes are doing well! We have noticed a huge improvement in his hearing and he is talking quite a bit more! It's nice to know that he won't have to suffer from all of those ear infections anymore!



In January we were treated with a visit from Granny and Grampy! We cherish every moment we get to spend with them! The two weeks prior to their coming, I probably heard the phrase "I want my granny and grampy!" about 20 times a day! :) The trip was kind of spur of the moment and we were ecstatic to find out they were coming! They were able to spend the weekend with us and we did all kinds of fun activities! We went out to eat, we went to the zoo, we played on the Wii, and spent some always wonderful quality time together!
The kids love to go with Granny and Grampy to the zoo! This time we went and saw the new Yellowstone exhibit, which is strikingly similar to the real Old Faithful lodge! The animals were all very active and the weather was beautiful the day we went! We got to have a little picnic while we were there as well! And we got some great pictures! I had to teach in Relief Society the weekend my parents were here and so my mom got to listen to me teach. It's always nice to have a super supportive face out in the class! :) We loved every second Granny and Grampy were here and we absolutely cannot wait until we get to see them again!!!!


At the new Yellowstone exhibit!


Some of the fun animals we saw that day!


Memories! :)

Granny and Grampy also bought the kids some new Valentines outfits and the kids looked absolutely adorable in them! They got LOTS of use out of these cute oufits and we couldn't resist taking some pictures of them!



Valentines Day was lots of fun, as usual! It fell on a Sunday this year and so we attended our Stake Conference in the morning. When we returned home we made some delicious bright pink, chocolate chip, heart shaped pancakes! Mmmmm....they were so good! Thanks Granny and Grampy for sending the mix! ABC Find Out Me also ended up finding the kids and bringing them their Valentines gifts! Aleece and Madelaine each recieved backpacks (Leecy's had the Eiffel Tower on it----she loves Paris and insists that someday she is going to live there!) with coloring books, crayons, chapstick, and candy inside. Mr. Lennon recieved a fun little easel where on one side you can color with water and the other side has stamps that you can press into this really cool gel material! Totally mess free and the kids don't seem to tire of it!
I was also spoiled this Valentines Day and my sweet hubby gave me some beautiful blue green pearl earrings (also from the kids) and a new makeup case (which I was in desperate need of!) I gave him a new shirt and the first two seasons of 30 Rock. For dinner we decided to splurge and we enjoyed a delicious meal of crab legs and asparagus! Yummy! It was soooo good! And we love that the kids love it too! They do have great taste! :)




In other news that has occurred over the past two months......

• Aleece has been doing AMAZING in school! Just in the past couple of weeks she has been taking several tests in the library on books she has read and has scored perfectly every time. She has also had the opportunity to read to the principal (the only one in her class) and her teacher informed me that she is working at about a fourth grade level! It is amazing to listen to her read! We were at the store the other day and she picked up an Alice In Wonderland book to look through, and it wasn't a kids book, and she just plowed through it! She didn't need any help other than on the word "guffah" and honestly who really uses that word anyways! :) We are so very proud of her and how hard she works and that she is doing so well!
• I have had several doctors appointments for our coming addition and he is growing very well! As of two weeks ago, when I had my last ultrasound, he was measuring at about 6 lbs 5 oz, which is a little ahead of schedule! So it looks like we will have a pretty good size baby on our hands! His heart rate is good and he looks perfect! We are anxious to meet him and if he decides not to make his appearance on his own, then we will welcome him on Friday, March 5th by c-section. We can't wait!
• Val is officially on his very last credit of his master's degree! Wahoo! He has applied for graduation and will be doing so on May 22nd! We are thrilled that he has done so well and that this journey for him is just about over!

That is only a glimpse as to what we've been up to, but hopefully it just about brings me current on this blog! I still claim major pregnant brain, so I know I've forgotten many things, but this will hopefully let ya'll see a little of what has been going on in our lives! We are continually trying to better ourselves and to spend as much time with one another as possible! We love our little family and are always trying to find joy in our journey!!!