Sledding

Brooke and I went sledding with the youth from church today. She had fun playing with Dawson and having hot chocolate,

pulling Whitney in the sled,
going down the sledding hill,


and riding the snowmobile.
Unfortunately the fun had to end early when one of the girls got hurt and an ambulance had to be called. She'll be alright, they didn't think she broke anything. But her leg, back, and pelvis were hurting. We probably shouldn't have been sledding in the first place. A lot of the snow had melted and was iced over. But we went anyway.

When mom's away...

This is what happens when Daddy is put in charge of painting and mom leaves the room. Too much face painting, I guess.


Charlotte took the courtesy of painting Brooke's face too, even though Brooke said she told her not to. Daddy was busy on the WII.

The Tooth Fairy

The Dental Hygiene Clinic had a health fair today. We heard the Tooth Fairy was going to be there and Brooke was very excited to see her. I didn't realize she was going to be half naked. They also had face painting which the kids always love.

Hundreds Day

So Brooke had "Hundreds Day" at school today. What is "Hundreds Day" you ask? Well, it's the 100th day of school! I guess they have been counting up to 100 and had a big party and made hats and necklaces. If you can't tell in the picture, the crown says 100 and her necklace is made of fruit loops and lifesavers. I think there are 100 of them. Anyway, it's a really big deal at her school. Oh, we also had to take in a collection of 100 things that they can count out together. We took fruit loops as well.


Here is the heart attack we gave our neighbors. At the primary activity they went to on Valentine's Day they gave other kids heart attacks and were then given the materials to do it at home to someone else. We were also given a heart attack but I didn't get the picture. Don't mind Brooke's outfit. She was wearing a dress and I told her to get pants on and she just put them on under her dress.

We are all starting to feel better. Charlotte is still taking her medicine and has been taking naps and still going to bed by 8:30 so you can't beat that. Charlotte and Nathan still have coughs, but not as bad as they were. We're finally starting to get some sleep.

Do you like my new background? I am using a template from Simply Chic. I was having trouble uploading from The Cutest Blog on the Block. I was thinking "Spring". Too bad we're getting 2 feet of snow tomorrow. Grr...

Valentine Fun

We've had lots of fun doing Valentine activities this week. More cookie decorating with friends, crafts at the community center and ice cream for dessert, "heart attack" for daddy, candy making for the Young Women, and we got cards in the mail from grandmas and cousins. Lots of fun. And everyone's been sick so we did all these activities in between sicknesses. Charlotte didn't move from the recliner all day Thursday, except to go to the doctor. She had an ear infection. Nathan ended up going to the E.R. last night because he thought he had pneumonia. Turns out it is just bronchitis, which is what Brooke had. They gave him an inhaler, which is helping a little bit. He felt good enough to go out to dinner. I was glad, I really needed a date. Especially since the Primary at church was watching the kids and having some fun activities. We went to Applebee's. Yum! Then we went to some friends for dessert. I'm pretty tired. Hopefully everyone will be all better soon. Happy Valentine's Day!

Am I a horrible mother?

I like to workout first thing in the morning or else I won't do it. After Brooke gets on the bus. Sometimes Charlotte is awake, sometimes she's not. Today she wasn't and I was so excited. I could have a great workout without all the interruptions. It kept getting later and later, and I thought, this is weird, she's usually awake by now. So I come upstairs to check my email and then I hear it. The cough. Oh dear. It sounds like the croup. I go in and she just looks so sick. She had a fever and a bad cough. Not like Nathan's cough, who sounds like he's going to cough up a lung. Anyway, I feel terrible for not checking on her sooner and feeling great about working out. Does that make me a horrible mother? So we're off to the doctor for the third time this week. First it was Nathan on Monday, said he had a sinus infection, but now with his cough he thinks he has pnemonia. Brooke went on Tuesday, she had bronchitis. Charlotte's turn today, what will she have? Hopefully my turn will not come, I don't want it. I'm the one that takes care of everybody, who'll take care of me?

Girl Scouts!

Here are some of the things Brooke has made at Girl Scouts lately. Her leader is so crafty and comes up with the cutest things to make. Last time she made a yarn person. Today she made a bookmark with lots of cute stickers and a t-shirt that say's "I Love Bears". There were other choices, but that's what Brooke wanted to do. Then she tried to paint her name, but it wasn't really working out so all she could fit was the "B". 10 girls and that paint may have been a bad idea. Some of the girls went a little crazy with the paint. But it was still fun, just crazy for a minute.

AND THE BIG NEWS IS: WE CAN START SELLING COOKIES IN A COUPLE WEEKS!! WOOHOO!! I'M SO EXCITED. BUT DON'T GIVE ME YOUR ORDER YET, I GUESS IT'S AGAINST THE LAW OR SOMETHING. I'LL LET YOU KNOW WHEN IT'S TIME!!!

A friend in need

I have a dear friend who has been trying for awhile to have a baby. Her and her husband are so wonderful and will make great parents someday. Please take a few minutes to read what they have to say and pass it on if you wish! Thanks!

Dear Family and Friends,
As many of you know Rick and I have been trying for some time now to grow our family. We have always had a great desire to become parents. Through our journey we have learned many things and continue to grow from this experience. After much thought and prayer we have decided to use the miracle of adoption to take things one step further. We have been so blessed to have many friends and family that have been involved in this miracle and are excited to have it be a part of our immediate lives as well. One of the coolest parts about this process is that we can actually involve you, our friends and family! Below are many ways you can help our little ones make their way to our home.
WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP?
Forward this email to everyone in your address book.
If you have a blog (Blogger, Typepad, Facebook, Myspace, ect.) copy and paste this email to a post.
Place the following button (HTML code) on your blog, facebook or myspace:
http://www.lifewithrickandliz.blogspot.com"> src="http://www.gifninja.com/Workspace/d2a06b03-b5c9-4a09-924d-0d7938143fb1/output.gif"/>>

Link our Internet profiles and adoption blog on your blog accounts:
http://www.providentliving.org/ses/birthmother/viewsingleprofile/0,12272,2131-1-10431,00.html
or
https://www.beta.itsaboutlove.org/ial/profiles/21781236/ourMessage.jsf
Bookmark our online profile for future reference.
Contact us if you are willing to keep pass along cards on hand with our information on it.
If you know of a woman who is thinking about placing her baby for adoption, or doesn't quite know what to do, please give her our web address. You can also direct her to the LDS Family Services website: https://beta.itsaboutlove.org/ial/ct/eng/site/pregnant/ The website offers great information about all her options, about getting in contact with a counselor, and experiences of other women.
Also we have an agency we are working with directly. Our case worker's name is Eric Larson. He can be contacted at (972) 242-2182. He has been helpful to us and you can direct any one you know that are interested in contacting our family reguarding adoption to him. You can also give out the email account we have set up specifically for adoption. It is lifewithral@gmail.com. We have had so many blessings come to us in our almost four years of marriage. Many of them involve having all of you be a part of our lives. We appreciate all the love and support we have felt from you and look forward to sharing with you the many more blessings the Lord has in store for us. Please feel free to ask us any questions reguarding this process. We are very open about this and the more you know the more you can help.
Much Love,
Rick & Elizabeth

Decorating cookies

We had a fun time decorating cookies tonight. It made quite the mess, but it can be cleaned up. They had fun and that's what matters, right? Charlotte was really into the sprinkles. Daddy wasn't feeling well so he was taking a little nap in bed. They took some cookies to him in bed on a plate for when he started feeling better. (Excuse the mess on the desk, it's Nathan's and he won't let me clean it up). The nicely decorated cookies are from friends who dropped some off as we were decorating ours.

Nathan's broomball debut

Nathan signed up to play intramural broomball and today was his first game. We decided we would go and watch. It's pretty much like hockey except you use a ball and you wear tennis shoes. He's never played before, but he seemed to do ok and have fun so that's all that matters.




Brooke wanted to be right up in the action.

After the game, they wanted to walk out on the ice. They have open skating times, but they're really weird times during the week so maybe we can go during Spring Break.

We took a couple breaks and walked around. This is where the Ferris Hockey team plays and where you can ice skate. Charlotte was very intrigued by all of these steps and kept wanting to climb them all. I had to chase her down a couple times.


Brooke hasn't been feeling well. She woke up with a temperature of 103 the other night and she didn't go to church today but she seems to be feeling better now.
It has actually been fairly warm here the last couple days with temps in the 40's or 50's. The sun has been shining and the snow is melting which means we can see grass once again!! On the way home from the game, we stopped at the intramural fields where he played ultimate frisbee. This is where they dumped all the snow from the parking lots on campus. They wanted to climb up one. You can see all the mounds of snow in the background and there's even more than that.
Here is a random picture of Brooke. She has been obsessed with Superman lately and so I think this is her Superman outfit with her "cape". I think the underwear outside her clothes really make the outfit. (I promise she has underwear on underneath).


For once, I'm excited about Valentine's Day. The primary at church is having an activity, which includes the nursery age kids, so the parents can go out. I think that is so nice of them. We have a gift card to Applebee's from our neighbor's wonderful parents who were here to visit and were grateful for babysitting and rides places. So, we basically have a free date! Yay! Lots of fun things going on this week for Valentine's Day so I'll have more to update then!

25 Random Things Part 2

So I did a random things post on my facebook, but since then have come up with even more. So instead of bothering all my facebook friends again, I thought I'd bug all my blogging friends. So here goes. I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you want to do it on your blog, go right ahead.

1. I have 3 sisters. We are all under 5 feet 3 inches.
2. I have 2 brother who are both over 5 feet 10 inches. Apparently the girls got the wrong genes.
3. Speaking of genes, my brother's cross country coach told me when I was in elementary school that I should run in middle school, because running was "in my genes". I thought he meant "jeans" and asked my mom what my "jeans" had to do with it. Needless to say, I hate running and was never on the cross country team. BORING!!
4. I did play softball for 10 years, as well as basketball and volleyball. In Young Women's I was awarded the MVP of volleyball several times.
5. For some reason, it really grosses me out when someone offers me their extra lotion from their hands. I don't know why, but it does.
6. I enjoy watching the shows on the Disney Channel. Not the cartoons, but The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, Hannah Montana, The Witches of Waverly Place are all very entertaining and make me laugh out loud. One time I caught Lauren engrossed in an episode of That's So Raven that she insisted on finishing.
7. I was once robbed by a masked gunman when I worked at the bank. Truthfully, I saw him coming and hid in the back room and let my male co-worker give him all my money. It was still very scary though.
8. My husband and I have talked about owning a Bed and Breakfast one day in Nauvoo. We would name it "The Cozy Cazee Cottage".
9. When Nathan and I were dating I had a strange roommate. She didn't approve of him staying over so late (or early, depending on how you look at it)and one night accused us of "being in the shower" together. She told her dad, who told their Stake President who told my mom and dad's Stake President, who told my dad. She moved out because of this, I guess she thought I was a slut, although no mention was ever made about what we were doing in the shower. The funny thing is, we were never even in the bathroom. It is now an inside joke between Nathan and I.
10. I am afraid of big groups of birds ever since I saw the movie, The Birds. When I would cut my parents lawn, I thought they were going to swoop down and eat me.
11. I didn't have my own car until I got married. My other siblings at least had a car to share except for Lauren who got her own car. That's what you get for being the baby in the family.
12. My brother's called me "brain damaged" when I was younger because I was in and out of the hospital with pnemonia so many times.
13. I can beat my husband in ping pong any day.
14. We've had a boy name picked out since we starting having kids. The name would be Dallin Robert but too bad it won't be used.
15. I used to wish I had naturally curly hair. But Brooke has it, and half the time I don't know what to do with it. It gets too frizzy and staticky (is that a word?)
16. I had blonde hair until I was in 1st grade. I wonder if Brooke's hair will change soon.
17. I like to people watch. Put me on a bench in a mall or amusement park and I could be happy for hours.
18. During my teenage years, my friends and I enjoyed toiletpapering other friends houses. It was all in good fun. Once, I even toiletpapered my own house when some cute boys were staying there for Youth Conference. I was staying with some friends.
19. I took piano lessons several years. I regret not putting forth more effort. It is a talent that I really wish I had. One day when I have a piano again, I would like to take lessons again.
20. I can't go to the movies without getting popcorn with lot of butter!! Love it!!
21. I love playing Skip Bo and Phase 10 but refuse to play Euchre. Too many Euchre games played growing up.
22. I love Pampered Chef and have a kitchen full of it. I have had at least 5 parties and attended several more. Half of the stuff I don't even use.
23. I like to watch reality shows. Some of my favorites are American Idol, The Real World, The Bachelor, Jon and Kate Plus 8, and 17 and Counting. I recently started watching The Real Housewives of Orange County but don't understand why they are called housewives. They all have jobs and have nannies, maids, and chefs!!
24. I've always wanted to go on a reality show competiton. I used to really like the Amazing Race and thought it would be fun for Nathan and I to go on, but decided he would get annoyed with me for being so slow and it wouldn't be good for our marriage.
25. I tried out for The Wheel of Fortune once but didn't make it to the second round. I did solve a puzzle though and got a bag. If I ever did go on, I could win lots of money, because I'm really good at it.