Swimming Lessons x 4

 In April I signed all four kids up for swimming lessons.  Bree was so excited to actually have a class that she got to participate in like the big kids.  I was excited to see her from a distance, taking directions from someone other than me.  This was the first time all four kids were participating in something at the same time and I could just sit back and watch.  I actually got a half hour to myself twice a week with no one touching me.  It was total bliss.  Until Bree decided she was going to act up.  She and Darcy were in the same level 1 class which had a girl teacher for the first lesson but then a boy took over as the permanent teacher.  She whimpered through most of lesson #2 and was straight up bawling through all of lesson #3.  It was funny though because she would do exactly what the boy asked her to do, she just cried while doing it.  I didn't want to pull her out, I was hoping she would suck it up and be OK but she wasn't.  The lady in charge switched her into a class with a female teacher and she was just fine for the remaining lessons.  It was really fun to watch her interact with her teacher and the other kids.  I don't give her enough credit for being the big girl she is.  She is way more functioning than I usually believe her to be.  But then there were times that the teacher would ask her to do something and she just stared at her blankly.  She kept me smiling the entire time.  Darcy was not thrilled at first when she realized she was stuck with a boy teacher but she composed herself and she ended up having a good time with him and even said she liked him!  That is a big step for Darcy.  She showed some improvement in her water skills by the end of the session, whereas Bree was just there so get wet.

 Drew and Mason were both in the same level 2 class together.  Drew finished advancing to level 3 and Mason stayed in level 2.  Drew is a decent enough swimmer that I won't worry about her in the water by herself, and I doubt I will pay for more lessons for her next year.  She can improve on her own.  Mason finally jumped into the deep pool at the very last session.  He also went down the small slide they had set up on the last day.  Those are big steps for my cautious Mason.  He did great but isn't quite as driven as Drew.  She approaches things with a business like attitude and tries her hardest to master things as quickly as possible.  Mason likes to have a little fun along the way.  Two very different kids.  We only did one session this year, last year we did three.  For three weeks, four nights in a row we had activities at dinner time along with Mason's baseball and it got very old very fast.  We got the basics down and the older kids got a good reminder of swimming mechanics before we set out on our summer trip.  Hopefully we will find lots of opportunities to use their new swimming skills.

Happy 9th Birthday to Drew!

 Drew's birthday always seems to play second fiddle to Mason's baseball.  This year was no different.  We decided to celebrate Friday night instead of Saturday so we could avoid conflicting with Mason's game.  My parents were able to come and celebrate with Drew and then attend Mason's game the next day so I think it actually worked out well.  Drew chose Angel Delight for her birthday cake, which is what I always have on my birthday.  But, since we will be on the road this year on my birthday and I won't be able to make it, I was more than happy that she chose it for hers!
Last June Drew started reading the Harry Potter books.  She just finished the series about a week ago.  Her room is all decorated in things she has made from the books, including a very long paper chain Nagini slithering along her wall.  So for her birthday I got her a Hogwarts Banner, a couple chocolate frogs, and Bertie Bott's Every Flavor jelly beans.  The beans were a hit.  I tried a soap flavored, Paul had black pepper,  Mason ate grass, and Darcy said she loved the vomit flavored bean.  Yuck.  No one else would try that one.  She also got a new bike since she had outgrown the one she got on her 5th birthday, and also an area rug for her bedroom.  On Saturday, her real birthday, we went to Mr Fultano's so she actually got to party for 2 days straight and she wasn't complaining.

Drew is one wonderful kid.  I am so proud of her.  She is the biggest sweetheart, cares so much about others, always willing to help her siblings, always willing to give something up if another wants it, she is a great student, enjoys church, sports, reading, playing with siblings, camping, and playing computer games.  She started playing the piano this past year and is pretty good at it.  She is a driven young lady and I rarely have to remind her to do her homework or practice the piano.  She is able to manage her time well and freaks out, just like me, if she can't be somewhere 10 minutes early.  I love my Drewsy so much and I love watching her grow and become the wonderful person she is.  What a blessing!

Home Away From Home

 This is our home away from home this summer!  Its huge!  Much more than we need for camping around here but it will work nicely for a home for two months on the road.  Paul flew to Wisconsin to buy the Excursion and then drove a couple hours to Iowa to pick up the trailer.  For some reason trailers are very cheap in Iowa so we are hoping to not lose too much when we sell it at the end of this summer.  And we will sell the Excursion too.  This whole scenario goes against everything I was brought up to believe in, but we are sure it will work!  We have sold many vehicles on Craig's List in the past, this shouldn't be any different I hope.  While Paul was on the road, we were out of contact for 14 hours.  I was sure he was dead, even though I knew he wasn't, but my mind was sure coming up with some bad scenarios.  I woke up at 4:30am determined to call the Nebraska State Police (where I last heard from him) but fortuitously enough, I received a text message from Paul right at that moment.  He had driven through the night hoping the next town in Wyoming would have cell service, until he got there and realized he should try for the next town.  He crossed the Utah border and had service for long enough to get me a message.  I think Wyoming needs to bring back pay phones.  All is well now though, and we can't wait to get out of here and go exploring!  I just made reservations for camping outside of Zion National Park and the Grand Canyon in the first week of our trip.  After that, we will see as we go.  We hope to follow pretty close to the Mexico border and then the Gulf Coast.  I want to see alligators in the Everglades but that is at the very tip of Florida so I'm not too sure about that one.  We will travel north along the eastern states, seeing more National Parks and hopefully fun stuff for kids along the way.  We plan to visit D.C. again, and Philadelphia which we missed the last time we did our crazy cross-country trip.  We will be in Philadelphia on my birthday where I hope to spend my 40th watching the Braves stomp the Phillies!  We plan on catching the Hill Cummorah Pageant, Niagara Falls, the St Louis Arch, family farm in Michigan, Mt Rushmore, and all points in between.  Paul has 8 weeks of paid sabbatical time and we hope to use every single day of it on the road.  I know people think we are crazy taking such little kids, but if we wait 7 years till his next sabbatical we would have a bunch of teenagers, and I for one think little kids will be much easier to manage than a bunch of surly teens who don't want anything to do with us.  Hopefully I will be able to update this blog as we go, but it won't be a daily thing I'm sure.  I am sooooo excited for this opportunity!  What an amazing country we have been blessed with and this is an amazing opportunity for my family!

Not Our Normal Easter . . . Hopefully

The Monday before Easter Paul's mom had a stroke and ended up in the hospital.  While there, they found a few other things wrong which led them to believe she would need an extended hospital stay.  Paul and his sister Carmen were able to be with is mom that night and the next day and then they figured out a way to share visiting duties.  Paul was able to come home for a day but then went back to Corvallis to be with his mom for a few days, with one of those days being his birthday.  This was all during Spring Break so I planned to take the kids down a day early to visit with my parents before our annual Easter family gathering. Friday morning, the day we were heading down, I called Paul (who had spent the night at my parents' house) to say happy birthday and he informed me that my dad was taking MY mom to the ER for shortness of breath and dizziness.  I am so thankful that Paul was there as they decided to admit her for testing so he could get out all the information we kids needed because dad was a little overwhelmed by it all.  So my poor Paul spent his birthday running between his two moms who were on the same floor of the same hospital!  Paul's mom got a spanking new pace maker on his birthday.  My mom just had a ton of tests and they were never able to come up with any diagnosis for her.  She was able to come home Easter Sunday and they are still in the process of running tests on her weeks later.  My sister Samantha made Paul a birthday cake and just to make sure it was his worst birthday ever, we ate his cake without him while he was giving my mom a blessing that evening!  We hopped in the car that morning so we would visit my mom, see Paul on his birthday, and take over the party preparations that my mom insisted still be celebrated.  Good thing we dyed our Easter eggs on Thursday night.

 The annual family party was now in my hands, though my mom had it all pretty much ready to go, I just had to get it all out before everyone else came over.  With the help of my brother's girlfriend (YEAH!).  We had the normal sandwich fixings, egg hunt, egg toss, and egg drop off the roof of the garage.  It turned out to be a beautiful day and a good party.  I was able to visit my mom twice in the hospital and Paul's mom was released on Saturday so we visited with her too.  Silly grandmas, making us all worry like that!

 Bree and Darcy LOVED the Dollar Store hats Grandma had as party favors.  Bree still wears hers around.

 Don't they look angelic?  Yah right.

Mason was working hard at the gunnysack race.

We came home Saturday night and made it to bed before the Easter Bunny came that night.  Sunday morning the kids woke up and got their treats out of their baskets and had the egg hunt.  Hopefully the excitement of this Easter was an anomaly and we can have a boring old time next year.

Lots and Lots of Basketball

When it came time to sign kids up for basketball in November, I thought I would sign up to be Drew's coach, but only if they really needed me.  Well, they needed me.  I had tons of fun coaching Drew's 3/4 grade girls team!  It was fun to get to know the girls, help them become better basketball players, and hopefully better teammates.  We were not without our internal issues, which I guess every team has, but I think and hope I handled them OK and we were able to move on.  We had practices every Tuesday from 5-6:30, which meant I had to have all 4 kids with me until Paul could pick up the 3 younger ones when he got home at 6.  That was fun.  I'm sure there were many times the parents of my girls wondered just what the heck I thought I was doing.  I found that bribing Mason with babysitting money, and a bag full of fruit snacks and roll-ups helped, but it sure was nice when we saw daddy walk through the gym door so I could concentrate fully on my team.  The Yellow Jackets ended up with a record of 3-4.  Our last game we came back from down 5-12 in the 4th quarter to win it 15-13!  That was one exciting game.  We got blown out, we blew out a team, and one game was so awful I raged about it all day afterwards.  I tried to remind myself I was dealing with 9 year old girls but that didn't help much.  My competitive juices were flowing just a little to much that day.  Overall I had a great time and I hope to coach Drew's team again next season.  I mentioned to Paul that I will be able to coach my girls 8 years in a row now, won't that be fun?  I don't think I got a verbal answer, just a withering look.

 Drew had an awesome season.  She was the youngest and shortest on our team but she didn't let that stop her.  She started the season kind of slow, but ended it with a bang!  I would say she was one of our top 3 players in the end, and that's coming from a coach, not a mom.  She was much quicker than most girls out there and she would get the rebound and take off down the court in a fast break.  She missed more lay-ins than she made of course, but she ended the season with 14 points, 6 of those being vital to our comeback in the last game.  She played her heart out every time and it was so cool to watch her out there with that determined look on her face, not letting her size get her down.  I think she had fun and liked having me as a coach.  She said she did anyway.  I hope she sticks with basketball because she is pretty good.  Yeah!  Happy mom!

 

 This year was Mason's first time playing basketball.  He hit the court with all the gusto he possesses!  His practices were Thursdays from 5:30-7 so once again dad would come to the rescue after work and take the girls home.  I ended up with an hour to myself!  What luxury!  I think Mason had a great time playing.  He always had a smile on his face when he was on the court.  There were 2 games of his I had to miss because Drew's game was scheduled at the same time, but I was able to see quite a bit of his playing time.  Luckily I was at the game when he made his one and only basket of the season.  You would have thought he just won a gold medal!  He was jumping around and high-fiving teammates and they were hugging him.  It was awesome.  I was so thrilled for him.  Though I told him next time act like you've been there before ;)  He was great on defense and getting open for the pass, but not so good at catching the pass.  His mantra for the season was "Gecko hands" because geckos have sticky fingers and I was trying to get him to catch the ball with his sticky fingers too.  Not sure it worked, but that's something we can work on before next season.  He enjoyed basketball so much he is trying to convince us to put up a hoop in our driveway.  Once again, I'm a happy mom.  I love that my kids love something I love too.  I had so much fun this season, even though there were so many Saturdays taken up and so many fend-for-yourself dinner nights.  It was just two months and it was a great time.  We celebrated the end of the season as a family at Mr Fultano's pizza.  I gave the girls on my team a certificate and a basketball key chain they can attach to their backpacks.  I wasn't in to the whole after season party.  Mason has a party this Saturday where he will receive his first trophy.  I am so proud of both Drew and Mason and their willingness to work hard and have fun, and also grateful for Paul, Darcy, and Bree and their willingness to be so flexible and in the case of the girls, turned into gym rats for 2 months.  Next up for Mason is Farm (coach pitch) baseball.  He should technically still be in T-Ball for one more year but he is so much older and bigger than T-Ball players that I convinced them to let him play Farm.  I'm secretly hoping he doesn't like that ball heading straight toward him and he is done after this season.  We'll see. 

 

 

Bree is 3!

 Bree turned 3 on January 31st.  Its hard to believe my baby is such a big girl now.  There is nothing baby about her anymore.  She is potty trained during the day and mostly at night, and she is now trying to give up naps, much to my chagrin.  She has wonderful manners and a true concern for everyone's well-being in our family.  She has a smile that lights up the room and also attitude that she throws around at will.  She is my Sweet Cheeks and I love her dearly, though I know her independent streak is going to test that love in the future :)  That's what makes her so fun I guess!  This year she wanted a Nemo birthday, and started talking about it probably the day after Christmas when I was dumb enough to mention her birthday was next.  We searched the stores for Nemo but I guess his time is passed.  There was nothing to be found.  So I unwillingly convinced her to have a Rapunzel party.  I don't get into all the princess stuff, nor do I want my girls believing they are princesses, but Bree seems to like the stuff and its everywhere so we went with a Rapunzel/Nemo party.  I think we were all happy when it was over so we didn't have to hear about it anymore.  I have never seen anyone so excited for a birthday before!

 Things got pretty silly quickly as you can tell by this picture of Paul.

 This picture of Mason with a princess hat on can be used as blackmail material later on I think.

 Like I said, things got pretty silly.

 And even sillier.

 Mason decided to go his dad 2 further by blowing one out his mouth and 2 out of his nose.  Pretty impressive trick!

 All the kids attacked me at once.  We had a pretty good party I think.

Bree got a Little Mermaid toy, Nemo book, different paints, and unicorn Stompeez which she doesn't weigh enough to activate unless she really stomps but she loves them and that's what matters!  We are so thankful for our Breezy and the sweet spirit she brings to our family.  What a great kid!

Holidays 2012

Thanksgiving 2012 was spent with Paul's side of the family this year.  We had a delicious dinner and great visiting at Aunt Carmen's house.  This nice little set-up was right by the big people table so I was actually able to sit with the adults this year instead of in the kitchen catering to my childrens' needs.  Thanks Aunt Carmen!

A week after Thanksgiving we set out to get a big Christmas tree.  We were thinking maybe 13 feet but we ended up with an 18 footer!  The lady at the tree farm said we took the prize, its the biggest tree ever taken from their farm.  We had a heck of a time carrying it up the hill to the car.  We had plenty of people on the road point to our car and laugh at the huge tree on the top.  I guess we do look a bit like the Griswolds!  It was a chore getting the tree in the house.  We had to take a section of the front porch railing down so we could shove it straight through the front door and into the living room.  Once there, Paul got under the tree and I used a 2x4 to help push it up to standing.  It was big!  Bigger than we needed and we will never go that big again, but it was fun to try once.  Here it is on Christmas morning all decorated with gifts underneath:

And here is how Paul took it down on the 27th:

 

Christmas eve we had our family program which was a bit different this year since Drew was able to play a few songs on the piano for us.  I loved it!  I love having the piano in the house and Drew is competent at it so it was a fun addition this year.  The kids acted out the nativity scene while Paul read from the scriptures and we sang songs.  Poor Breezy had a double ear infection she went to the doctor for that morning and her meds hadn't kicked in very well yet so she was pretty miserable all day.  Thankfully she was functioning Christmas morning.

 

 

Drew, Mason, and Darcy all got Lego projects from Santa this year.  Drew was ecstatic when she saw hers, Mason was OK with his though he really wanted the Black Beard pirate ship (but the Black Pearl was on clearance and Santa went with it instead), Darcy opened hers and said with a stricken look on her face, "but I asked Santa for a Dream Light."  Good thing mom bought Dream Lights for all 4 kids so Darcy was eventually happy.  Bree got a Little People princess castle and a necklace and bracelets she wears constantly.  As hard as I try to dissuade her, I think she is going to be a girly-girl.  Everyone had a great Christmas and got lots of new fun stuff to play with.  At least I hope that's how they felt.  Later that day we drove to my parents' house and had dinner with my side of the family.  We had a slumber party at Aunt Sammy's, where Mason promptly lost his brand new watch, and we had lunch with Paul's family on the 26th.  We came home, I tried my hardest not to take down Christmas that evening, and by about noon on the 27th I was about to go insane so I took everything down.  I think my family would like it if I left Christmas decorations up just a bit longer but the mess and chaos of it all just drives me crazy and I have to get rid of it.  Sorry guys.

New Year's Eve day we were treated to snow!  I don't remember it being in the forecast but we weren't complaining!  Darcy liked hanging out on the trampoline.  Drew and Mason built a wall to hide behind while they threw snowballs at me, and Bree was having fun just walking around.  That evening we all stayed up till 9pm to watch the ball drop in Times Square on CNN and then 5 of us went to bed.  I woke up to fireworks at midnight but was so tired I fell right back to sleep.  Happy New Year!  New Year's Day I, of course, watched a lot of football and ate lots of Chex Mix and drank lots of Dr. Pepper.  I was in my happy place.  So goodbye 2012, you were a decent year for our family, and here's to 2013 and the hopes that we will be blessed with health and happiness!