!!!SWITCHING TO WORDPRESS!!!

Blogger keeps putting restrictions on things like picture size and I keep ending up with odd text in the background of my page, so I'm switching to Wordpress. Here's our new link. http://andynadellransom.wordpress.com/ It's the same except for the wordpress at the end instead of blogspot.  Wordpress uploaded all of my blog posts and now my food posts and Elizabeth and Olivia's Specialty Sewing are on this same blog as well.

Also, if you used Google Reader, you probably already know that it's being discontinued in July.  I switched to Feedly and it let me transfer all of my subscriptions I had in Google Reader right over seamlessly. I can still use Google Reader now if I felt like it, but I like feedly better.

Tell me if you're confused by all that.  If you want to, you could click over to my blog and just sign up for posts to be emailed to you instead of worrying about all the rest of it.

Goal Update #3

It's time to update on my goals for the year since March is done.  Here's how I did in January and February.

NaDell's Goals for 2013
1. Read books and magazines that inspire me spiritually as well as intellectually.
I'm up to December of 2012 in my Friend and Ensign reading catch up. Just finished the last conference issue and just in time for the next one.
I finished the last in the "Emily" series that L.M. Montgomery wrote after her "Anne" books.  I liked the last book the best.
Elizabeth and I are going to start our next mother daughter book group book, "Everything on a Waffle" by Polly Horvath soon.
Andy and I are at the letter H section in our reading of the Bible Dictionary one page a night.
Need to work on more family scripture study time even more.

2. More family exercise.
I walked to the school a few times with Vincent riding his trike and Abby in the stroller and Elizabeth and Olivia join me sometimes on fast walks when I need a buddy.
No more weight lost this month, but I just have 13 pounds to go, so I need to focus more on what I'm eating and it'll work out.  More people have been noticing (even a few fit inlaws at dinner!) and I feel pretty good.
I started training for some 5K's I am signing up for this year too.  My routine right now is to run a fifth of a mile and then walk a quarter mile or so.  I'm working on my stamina and I'll get better as I practice.  It's already better after doing it three or four times.  I don't run every day because I need a rest day between.  It's hard work.  Right now with my walking/running I can do a 5K in 40 minutes.  I'd like to chop ten minutes off that time.  Do you think I can do it?

3. TEMPLE with Andy monthly.
Andy went to the Temple this month on a Wednesday night for baptisms with the youth, so I went alone last Saturday morning, but we both went.

4. Catch up my family scrapbooks.
In January I scanned old pre-digital scrapbooks.
February's goal was to organize the pictures and papers (invites, cards, etc.) that I already had ready to go. I also renamed the picture files on the computer from the end of 2012 so that when I have them printed, they will have the file name (date) printed on the back (Winkflash does that.)  I still need to work on the pictures from summer 2012 and then I'll be about ready to print them all. I didn't do much with all of this in March because I was busy throwing a party and doing other things, but in April, I'll rename those pictures from last summer and hopefully get started on the scrapbooks from the summer of 2011.

How are your goals?

Cross-stitching, Chalk, Walk

Olivia and Elizabeth have been begging to learn how to cross-stitch.  I decided that Spring Break would be the perfect time to do that since we are hanging out at home for the week.
Olivia chose a rose pattern and Elizabeth picked a Pepe Le Pew pattern.  They worked on them all afternoon on Monday and woke up Tuesday morning asking to do more.

Vincent wanted to cross-stitch too, but he's not quite ready for that, so I found some plastic canvas and yarn with a plastic needle for him to try out.

Vincent drew a chalk ladybug family with his Easter chalk.  Cute, huh?

We cleaned up a bunch of leaves Monday morning that were against our back fence and cleared off the patio.  Some of the kids ate their lunch out at our table in the backyard for fun.  It was a beautiful day.  Abby slept until 10:30am!  I slept until 9, so it started out pretty great too.

Tuesday we walked to the library for storytime.  We were a little late because Abby slept until 9:20am and we wanted to leave at 9:30 to be there for the 10am start.  We walked the two miles in just less than 40 minutes on the way there and a little more than that on the way back (uphill and against some wind).
Olivia is a pretty casual walker.  Do you like her one long sock?

Abby gets pushed in the stroller by her sisters and I.  She's living quite a luxurious life.

Time to go and teach Elizabeth how to sew on my mom's beginner sewing machine now.  Those crafty kids!

Exciting Easter Events

Friday after school while Elizabeth and Olivia continued to play across the street with our neighbor and I was making pizza, this little squirrel ate some seeds from Elizabeth's sunflower from last summer.

The neighbor girl joined us for pizza and then she and her mom stayed to have game night with us too.  It was extra fun.  So fun, in fact, that all of our kids slept in and wet their beds.  (Just keeping it real.)  They were tired!
I got up early and went to the Temple.  Andy went on Wednesday with the youth and I wanted to keep my yearly goal and it's always nice to get away there.  It was beautiful with all the blooming trees.

We decided to go to Walla Walla to go to an egg hunt there, but left a little late and didn't have the right address and still couldn't find it with additional directions and by then it was started, so we just met my mom at her house instead.  She said ten minutes after the time it was supposed to start, she saw people walking back to cars with empty baskets anyway, so I think we would have been disappointed anyway even if we had found the right building.  The kids were a little sad, but Grandpa Paul came home from work just after we got there and took them all to the park while Andy and I went to the store and my mom ran an errand. My dad was gone with them for quite awhile, but they all arrived back to their house safe and sound and thirsty and hot.
Vincent found a fun car to play with and rolled around outside.

Abby was not deterred from this peg board game for probably an hour.  I guess we need to find one (or should we just keep it as a special Grandma's house toy?)

Ransom kids with Grandpa Paul and Grandma Mary.

All of us smiling, even if we aren't ALL looking at the camera (well, she was looking at Grandpa's camera...)

Elizabeth running around the yard trying to stay away from the camera.

We got home, read some books with the kids, ate some dinner, started a bunch of laundry (see above), did some dishes, and started to dye some eggs.  Unfortunately, the dye kit I've had for a few years was all out of dye and only had the wands and stickers left.  We didn't want to go out just to buy an egg dying kit, so we improvised with markers for Elizabeth and Olivia.

Abby and Vincent used crayons and stickers. Vincent wasn't thrilled about that.

Abby really liked putting each little sticker on her eggs though.

Elizabeth's colored eggs.  Her crayola markers went through the egg shell and made a design on the hard boiled egg when she ate one later.

Olivia was too cool for her egg.

I sent Andy out to the bank afterall because I needed to go grocery shopping before the end of the month (coupons), so I bathed the kids while he did that and got them all ready for bed.  I went to Dollar Tree and Winco and got the best deals on things on my list (and just a few that weren't) and still have some money leftover to buy some craft supplies for our Ransom Made Spring Event coming up (April 19th and 20th).
After putting away all the groceries, doing more laundry, reading scriptures with Andy, and making some muffins for the kids so they wouldn't just eat candy, I finally went to bed.
The Easter Bunny visited our house too.  Elizabeth arranged all of her things. Candy, candy, and more candy, along with a rose ring and some Easter Egg chalk.

Vincent loved the Milky Way Egg and Snickers Bunny and his duck bubbles.

Olivia was extra excited about the egg chalk.

 Abby was barely awake in time to get ready for church.  She was still wiped out from playing so hard with Grandpa Paul during her normal naptime.  I like this picture mostly for her morning hair.

Here's where our day got really exciting.  A friend of mine posted on facebook Saturday night that her four and a half year old son swallowed a penny from an egg that he got at an Easter Egg hunt at church and was going to the hospital with his dad.  Luckily, her son could still breathe, but it was uncomfortable and stuck in between his mouth and stomach.  Our local hospital sent him by ambulance to the hospital in Spokane three hours away with his dad, since his mom was due to have her third baby anyday.  She also said her contractions were then ten minutes apart from all the stress (and she was ready). I told her on facebook that if she needed help at the hospital or with her two year old daughter, I could help.  Well, her mother in law called our house at 7:30 Sunday morning and asked if she could bring the two year old over.  Of course!  At that point the grandpa was on his way to trade his son places in Spokane so he could make it back for the baby and the son with the penny was supposed to have a procedure done at 8am.  The grandma dropped the two year old off at our house and she went to church with us after eating some breakfast.

The grandma called just before we left for church to let us know that the baby girl was born just before she got to the hospital to help her daughter in law and the baby is healthy and all that.  

The little girl wore one of Abby's dresses to church with us.

Here are my kids all dressed up.  Right before this, I fixed hair, but Abby thought her bangs needed more water...

Andy went to church early to practice with the choir for the songs they sang in Sacrament meeting.  We managed five kids on our bench.  Andy and I then went to the nursery, assuming they'd need some help and because we took two kids in there.  Turns out, the nursery leader was in a different hospital trying to have her baby too!  A lady from our ward came in with the snacks, so we got to sub which was sort of expected when she had her baby, but I didn't know about it....I guess I knew I needed to be there to help (and that's why I wore a long skirt to church today.)

After church we all went home, ate some lunch, Abby laid down for her nap, and I took Brittany over to the hospital to visit her mom and new baby sister.  I tried to call, but the phone in her room wasn't ringing right, so I just showed up.  They fixed the phone.  My friend's cell phone was in Spokane with her husband and was all out of minutes anyway. The new baby was cuddling her mom, so we just talked for a little bit and then the grandma came back from her lunch break.  The little boy's procedure went well and the penny moved to his stomach, which is great because he'll just pass it.  They were waiting then for him to be released in Spokane so the grandpa could drive his son and grandson back to town to meet the new baby.  I took the two year old back home so she could have a rest at our house (and the rest of us all rested too).  Then it was time to go to Andy's parent's for Easter dinner, so I called the hospital and everyone was there visiting the baby.  We met her grandma and brother in the parking lot and shifted the carseat and bag and wished them all well.  It's got to be nice for them to rest tonight all together!  What a crazy day they had!

We had a great dinner with Andy's parents, two of Andy's aunts, two of Andy's sisters, Grandma Ellen and Grandpa Paul, and a bunch of cousins.  Then we sang to Grandma Ellen who turns 85 April 1st.

I put Vincent and Abby to bed after we prayed and then I went on another 5K training run/walk around the school nearby.  I shaved a few minutes off my previous time, so I'm feeling pretty good and I needed to walk after eating so much Easter candy, cheesy potatoes, and chocolate cake!  Burned off 400 calories and it felt great!
Quite an exciting Easter, wouldn't you say?