Keeping up with the Ellefsen's

Here it is Valentines Night, with all the kids tucked in bed and my Valentine is 3 hours away in Omaha. He went to a music concert with his friend. The original plan was for our whole family and the friend's family to go to Omaha together for the whole weekend, to play and visit the temple before the guys went to the concert. But . . .my primary calling has changed some of our recent plans. We had a Primary activity yesterday that's been taking all my time lately. The activity went . . .well, it went. It wasn't great, but I learned a lot about what to do/not to do next time! Ryan and I celebrated Valentines Day yesterday. Every year since we were dating I have decorated his apartment/classroom (when he was a teacher)/office. So this year I took all our kids (there was no school yesterday) and we spread candies all over his office. The kids had each made him a giant Valentine that said what they love about their Daddy. I made him a Valentine also, and wrote "Sometimes I-PODer how much you mean to me (and then wrote a bunch of cheezy, gooshy stuff that I won't repeat here =) and I bought him the latest Ipod that will hold about a zillion songs. He always loves his decoration "surprise" and I love to figure out how to be sneaky and do it when he won't expect it. This year I had to call his assistant and have her schedule a meeting with him at a certain time, in the other end of the building. Last night Ryan and I went to dinner together after the Primary activity. We love our time alone, and I have never been so grateful for him. He is such a hard worker and tries so hard to make me and the kids happy. He is my best friend and I'm so grateful for my life with him. Our road has been bumpy at times and we've definitely taken some detours along the way, but we've learned some great life lessons and love each other more than we ever thought possible. I can't wait to see what the rest of the journey will bring.

I thought I'd get a little caught up on a few of the fun things we've been doing.

First off, Logan-berry. This kid is a whole different breed than the other three. We all love him to pieces, but oh my, he sure is difficult. Do you think there's a such thing as anger management classes for toddlers? Some of his current words are: "bite," "poo," "mom," "owie," "bonk," "wee!" "bye," "mine," "boo," and "hi!" He can also say shoe, but he says "oosh" instead.

Any of you who get offended at naked pictures of babies should look away now. This is how Logan prefers to be . . .naked with shoes. This day it was one boot. He walks around the house so proud of himself, hands on hips and strutting his stuff. What a ham!

Logan is so full of energy, it amazes us. Back in the day (when I only had a kid or two) I was pretty good at keeping to a daily "schedule." Now my life consists of running from here to there in my van all day, and my poor baby just can't always keep up. There are many days when he finally gives up and falls asleep somewhere in the house because I haven't put him down for a nap yet. Here's one day when he fell asleep in the middle of the stairs.
And here's a day when he gave out on the comfy chair in the family room. Last night (I didn't have the camera handy) he fell asleep in his high chair. His head fell right into his applesauce. What a silly boy.
The girls wanted to dress the same as me one day, and then we walked around showing Ryan our best "sassy" poses. Brynlie's sassy pose cracks me up, because that girl doesn't have a mean bone in her body. Lindsey's pose is . . .well, classic Lindsey. My birthday was last Wednesday. I took Lindsey, Logan and Brenda's kids to a puppet show during the day, and then Ryan got off work early to take me to dinner. We took the kids with us this time and got some delicious Wabash BBQ. Ryan bought me some new perfume as a present. I'm now officially 32 years old. How did that happen?
Brevan won 2nd place in the Pinewood Derby a few weeks ago, with a car that he made almost completely by himself. He was pretty proud of himself, and (shh, don't tell him this) I was just happy that he didn't win the whole thing or we would have had the "pleasure" of going to the Regional Pinewood Derby.
David got 3rd place, Brevan was 2nd and Jack Thorne (on the right), a Down Syndrome boy that I adore, got 1st place.
Besides that, we've had fun playing outside on the warm days (some days have been in the 70's!), going roller-skating as a family, attending baptisms and keeping up with the daily grind. I did get a FABULOUS pedicure today, so my toes will look beautiful while I'm in Mexico this week. Only 5 days until I leave!