March definitely came in like a lion and left like a lamb (sort of). At the end of February my family discovered that my mom had uterine cancer. Luckily it was caught quickly and could be taken care of through surgery. My sister, who lives in Alaska, flew down during her recovery and I went out as well. Brooke had school so she stayed home with Blake, but the boys and I drove to my mom's house and stayed there for a week. Thankfully, mom's recovery went well so Nicole and I got to do some fun things together, including reconnect with cousins. Porter even got to sit on a horse at our uncle's house! It had been almost 2 years since Nicole and I had seen each other so we really enjoyed our time together.
Then, a few days after I got back home, Blake decided we needed a pet goat. We adopted a baby goat not really knowing anything about how to take care of one. It had to be bottle fed and we made a pen for it in a section of our garden. The kids loved it. Brooke named her "Snowflake" or "Snowy" for short. Unfortunately the goat ended up not being a good fit for our family. For starters, I am not an animal lover. Period. Yes it was cute and pretty low maintenance as far as pets go, but I did not like having to bottle feed it three times a day when I'm also nursing a baby of my own. Secondly, I started getting these hives on my wrists and elbows and I thought I might be allergic to the goat (I still don't know if that was the case). So after a week, we talked to the kids and took the goat back to the farm where I'm sure it's much happier.
Spring happened! We are loving this very warm and early spring. It's been so nice to be outside and not have to worry about coats and boots. Blake's dad made us this birdhouse for Christmas and we love watching the bird family come in and out of it.
The sandbox was opened and we've been sweeping up sand particles from the kitchen floor and out of the kids' hair ever since!
Brooke outgrew her pink barbie bike and we hated to get rid of it, but Blake couldn't bear the thought of Porter riding on a pink bike. We were able to give it a spiderman makeover (Porter is suddenly obsessed with being a superhero, especially spiderman) and Porter was very happy to finally have a big-boy bike.
There were several days where Porter didn't want to take off his helmet at all:
Brooke finished indoor soccer and it was Porter's turn to do an activity. I signed him up for Itty-Bitty-Ball at our rec center. It's just an overview of basketball, soccer, tennis, golf, and Tball. The class focuses on one sport per week. It's been a fun way to spend some one on one time with Porter and do something out of the house. Because of Blake's work schedule, he occasionally gets to come with us to class and I was able to take pictures during the soccer week.
Brooke got stitches in her foot! We were walking into the church building a week ago and Brooke raced ahead to open the door for us. As she opening it, the corner of the door scraped along the inside of her left foot. She started screaming and crying and I kept telling her to hush and be quiet. Then I bent down to look at it and her foot was bleeding all over the place. Blake was at work (he always is when there's an emergency like this, why is that?) and I wasn't sure what to do, so I asked a doctor in our ward to come look at and he recommended going to the ER for stitches. Poor Brooke, she was traumatized by it. She hated them cleaning it and hated them numbing it and hated them sewing it up. Thankfully after a couple of days, she was back to her old self and doesn't even act like they bother her at all. Hopefully when we go to take them out in another week she'll handle it okay.
After the trauma, we got cheered up with icecream cones and strawberries.
Brooke's best buddy E. moved away. E. lived across the street from us and they got used to just running back and forth between our houses to play. I don't know what we're going to do with E. this summer!
I can't believe how big my oldest is getting. She is smart and helpful and just full of life! She wrote this note for me and I'm always so pleased to see how well she can read and write.
It says: I love my dad. I love my mom. I love Porter. I love Grant. I love Brooke.
