4 February 2011

 1. I feel I need to give a shout out to my mom friends. This week I was very aware of how nice it is to have people who reassure you that you're normal...even amidst the occasional unavoidable chaos. Two specific moments this week:

ONE: After last week's five, I got an email from my a friend who also has three kids pretty close together in age. Her email subject was “Hurray for couch trampolines!” and basically said that I made her day by letting my kids use my couch cushions for creative play. Believe me, I know rules are different at everyone's house...but my mom let us jump on our couch cushions when we were little and we still grew up to take care of and appreciate the things we have, and I have no doubts that my kids will too.   Thanks, Tracy, you made MY day!  I needed that.

TWO:  I ran into another friend in Target around 8:00 on Tuesday night.  She casually asked what I was up to.  I told her I was searching for a great lotion for my cracked hands...which wasn't a lie...that is what I was doing at that exact moment.  But then I laughed and confessed that it had been a super long day and told her I needed a Target run so that E could put the kids to sleep.  She laughed and then said she was doing the same!  She was on her way home from work, though, so I know she was only trying to make me feel better, but I still appreciate it.  Thanks, Jodi!

So I guess what I'm sayin' is...remind another mom {or dad!} that they are in fact normal and sane, even though sometimes it doesn't feel like it!

2.  Tate has never loved writing.   This is getting better, but last week we picked up his make-up work to do when he was sick, I wasn't too happy when I saw the packet he had started at school.  The handwriting was horrible.  Now, I am not one of those people who is going to go overboard with hours and hours of work and push my kids to be the point of hating me, but I expect them to try hard and do what I know they are able to do, which I don't think he is doing right now.  I made him erase and redo the packet and talked to him about showing his teacher what he can do.  He promised on Monday that he would try.  He came home with this on Groundhog's Day and I was MUCH happier!

Now, let's not comment on the fact that he made the groundhog into a serial killer.  Let's focus on the legible handwriting.  I will never understand first grade boys thinking...especially when they have each other for encouragement at school.   Seriously.  Poor groundhog.

3.  Speaking of Groundhog Day, I know I already posted this to Facebook, but since getting this blog printed into a book is as close to a scrapbook as I'm going to get these days, its worth telling again...

When E got home on Wednesday Avery yells, "DAD!  MRS. MONSON SAID THE BEAVER DIDN'T SEE HIS SHADOW!!"

Crack.  Me.  Up.  So close, Aves, but not quite.  Don't worry Emily, we're sure you said groundhog, but it got lost in translation.  I did get a kick out of wishing everyone from that point on "Happy Beaver Day!"

4.  This brings me to another thing I've been thinking about a lot.  It is a shame that when you're kids are the funniest that they get embarrassed and get mad that you laugh.  "Stop LAUGHING at me!!" We try to no avail to assure them that we LOVE them and what they said and that's why we're laughing.   They have no idea that someday they will WISH someone thought they were that funny! 

5.  I got to spend a bunch of time this week with my friend Mel and her baby, Lincoln, on two different days!  Now that the stomach flu plague is over at my house, I am allowed in their house.  =) You may remember from a previous post when I asked you to pray for them that Linc has had a rough start to life.

He is such a beautiful baby and I was SO encouraged to see him and all the things he can do and to see him interact with his mom and dad.  He LOVES his momma's voice.  I even got to see him wear his little hand splints and do his stretching exercises.

Melanie and Derek are still updating their CaringBridge site, so you can catch his entire story there.  Their days are still filled with lots of doctor appointment and apprehension about his future.  Leave them some encouragement...they are awaiting some test results.  They are so much stronger than they realize!

28 January 2011

1.  Last Saturday we had Tate and Avery's family birthday party.  We decided to save everyone a trip and combine their parties this year.  We had decided long ago decided to play kickball at the community center.

E admitted to me as we were driving back to have the rest of the party at our house that while he loved the idea of the kickball party, he was skeptical about how it would go when everyone from age 3 to 58 were playing the same game {including some seriously competitive twenty-somethings!}...but it was really fun!

Thank you to everyone for making the party a BALL!  {More pics coming to PDP soon!}

2.  Monday I had a workshop at school all day so E decided to take the day off to be with the kids.  T had the day off as well so after Aves was at school the boys headed to Wampach's {E's favorite grease hole...er...I mean local establishment} for breakfast.

This {bad} picture was probably about the last moment everyone in our house was healthy this week.  All three kids have had the stomach flu on separate days.  We are sick of both poop and puke over here.  TMI??  So sorry.


3.  Wednesday was E's 34th birthday.  We couldn't go out because Beckett was sick that day, so E got Buffalo Wild Wings to bring home and I went and bought a cheesecake for dessert.  Sorry, E for the boring b-day, but we sure love you!

4. I have decided this week that my kids are old enough that I will now lock the door when I go to the bathroom or take a shower.  They are mature enough to survive for a ten minute shower without killing someone themselves {or a sibling} and I could really use just a few minutes of peace.  =)

5.  The cushions in our house were scarcely on the couches this week.  Between being cooped up because of winter and cooped up because of being sick our kids turned our living room into a fort, into beds on the floor, and into an obstacle course several times each day.  I ALMOST have them trained to get them back on the couch with the zippers facing the inside of the couch.  The next step will be making sure the side of the cushion with the juice stain goes on the bottom!

21 January 2011

Last night I was thinking about what I would blog about today.  I have NOT ONE picture on my camera from the week.  It was one of those weeks.  As we were tucking the kids into bed (all in Beckett's bedroom lately which I LOVE...I've been trying to get them to sleep with each other for YEARS in hopes that it means they will stop crawling in with US!) I was thinking about all the funny things they've said lately.   So I snapped one pic and here are your five, Kids Say the Darndest Things Edition...

1.  Beckett:  Mom, why can't Tate scream like a girl?  

Me:  Well, probably because he's not a girl.

Beckett:  But Mom, JACKSON AND I can scream like girls!

Me:  Oh believe me, I know. 


2.  One night I came home and the kids were calling E by a new nickname.  After I heard them call him "Rapunzel Pits" about 5 times I finally had to give in and ask.  E said "Avery asked me why boys have hairy armpits.  I told her it was because that's just the way boys are.  Then she started calling me Rapunzel Pits."  Nice.  Please don't do that in public, children.


3.  As we were leaving ECFE on Tuesday night Beckett's teacher told me that he was playing house and pretending he had triplets (that were actually Care Bears).  She said he pretended to put them to sleep and then laid on the kids couch they have in their classroom and told his teacher he was "watching an ADULT movie."  EEEK.  I tried to explain that we often rent 2 movies on a Friday night...one the kids can watch in the family room while E and I watch an "adult" movie downstairs.  Beckett always comes downstairs and asks "Is this inappwopwiate?"  She now probably thinks E and I watch porn.


4. Tate recently lost one of his front upper teeth.

Tate, yelling down the stairs:  Awwww, Man!  Still a tooth!  No money, Mom!  The Tooth Fairy forgot again!

Me:  Oh no!  What is her problem?

Tate:  Yeah, seriously, what is her problem?!

Oh Tater.  If you only knew.


5.  Last night Aves asked the question every parent dreads...

How do babies come out of mommys' bellies?

Ummm...

Cricket...Cricket...

After a few mumbles under my breath to E about what was appropriate I decided to give her a modified truth that I thought was appropriate for her age.  Before I could say anything she said "I think they come out of Mommy's belly buttons" to which Tate interrupted "but sometimes they have to have surgery to cut them out!"  Avery burst into tears and said she never wanted to have a baby because she didn't want surgery.  So instead of Sex Ed 101 for 5 year olds I just tried to console her that Mommy, both grandmas, and both aunts who have had babies didn't have to have surgery, but that even if she did (I told her Kelley had Braxton and Brielle that way) that she would be just fine.

YOWSERS.  That's enough for a Thursday night.

14 January 2011

1.  Friday, 12:30.  Just getting to zee blog.  I was getting ready to take Aves and Olivia to preschool this morning when Avery started crying and said she didn't feel well.  After taking her temperature and seeing that she was ghostly white, I decided she would be staying home and that since E had a full day of meetings that I needed to stay home today.  I am 99% positive she is having a mild reaction to the Kindergarten booster shots she got at the dr yesterday.  I quickly dropped O off at preschool, drove Aves and Beckett to my school {of course Aves fell asleep on the 15 minute car ride} to get things together for the afternoon and to correct papers this weekend, drove home and wrote lesson plans and emailed them to school, wrote the nursery schedule for church, and am just now thinking I should maybe be cooking lunch or at least getting out of my pajamas and brushing my teeth instead of blogging.  =)  Oh well.


2.  I actually don't mind all this snow that much.  I don't drive during peak hours or very far, so most of the time it isn't so bad.  But I am officially sick of it being a plans-killer...you have something fun planned and then have to cancel because it isn't worth it with the weather.  That was until last Friday night...we were supposed to head to the cabin that night but the schools out there were canceled and roads were bad due to drifting, so we decided at the last second to stay here until Saturday morning.  Just about the time we decided to stay,  Tracie called and said they were having a last minute dinner party with a bunch of high school friends.  Rach and B volunteered to keep our kids overnight.  We had a great time with Tracie, Ryan, Brent, Cindy, Brian, Jan, Jason, and Kara...lots of laughter and is always so good to catch up.

3.  After our unexpected night here in Shako, we headed out to Hector for Grandma P's Christmas and then onto the lake after that.  Kara and Brad spent the night out there with us so we got plenty of one of my favorite things on earth...

I could honestly listen to Kip play and sing for days at a time.  She is very talented.  She always has a new song that puts my skills to shame...this song being our whole family's current favorite that she plays.

4.  The kids and E got to ice fish for the first time this season {Beck's first time ever!} on Sunday.  E had a case of the stomach flu but stuck it out anyway.  I went out to try to snap a few pics but Tate was mad that I was stomping too hard with my boots and scaring all the fish away {I don't think it was me...they didn't catch ONE all day!} and Beckett just wanted his snow pants off so this was all they would give me...

Thank goodness Aves would smile for me, but I had set the lighting wrong so she is completely washed out...

FAIL.  So I said screw it and snapped one last pic as I was running back to the cabin to play Yatzee with my mom...

5.  E's flu lasted through Monday night and Aves had it on Monday, too {yes, that's two times she was sick this week and two days of school missed in case we're counting}.  When she was home she wanted to watch Ramona & Beezus about a hundred times.  I have to say...I have read Ramona Quimby books many times over the past 25 years, both as a 3rd grader and TO my 3rd graders... and in all that time I never imagined Hobart Kemp to be hot as Josh Duhamel.  Yum.  In fact, maybe I'll go fix us some pb&j and put it in one more time for my sicky this afternoon.  I MAY even get that last Christmas tree in the basement put away.  Have a good weekend!

7 January 2011

1.  We spent the last night of 2010 with our besties as usual.  We take turns with the Pankakes hosting every New Year's Eve.

While we were pleasantly surprised that E made it until midnight this year, we realized that we are getting old...I was drinking soda and Gary, Kelley, and E were drinking coffee by 11 pm during our game of cards to stay awake.  We forgot to take our annual picture until 1 am when they were ready to leave...can you tell the excitement was gone by then?  =)  Overall a great night...it was the first year all 5 kids made it to midnight with us and there were lots of laughs as usual.

2.   I always take all the Christmas decorations down on New Year's Day if not sooner.  Usually we have Avery's family birthday party to get ready for and get them out of the way by then.  This year we spent New Year's day playing games, putting together puzzles, napping, and watching movies.  There are still 3 Christmas trees up in my house.  Kind of makes me itch thinking about it, but still haven't had the time to take them down.  We have decided to act like this was a choice, so we have still been lighting them every day.  I think they are reaching the end of their run.  Anyone else have their decorations still up?  No?  Alrighty...point taken.  I will get them down.

3.   Tate got a game for Christmas from Great Aunt Becky called "Loopz".  At first he didn't know what it was and didn't know what to think.  Once he tried it he was hooked and so were the rest of us.  One day when Roger and Becky were over we had left the kitchen and when we came back we didn't know where they were.  We found them in the dining room having a Loopz contest.  On Sunday night Kasey and Brady got into a Loopz throw down as well.  I love how serious their faces are in these pics...

4.  I had to teach my husband how to open the child locks on our cabinets in the living room this week.  Equally frustrating and hilarious.  I am going to add it to our list of things that needs to be done every night.  Tate: practice piano, do spelling, read us a book, do math homework.  E:  practice opening child locks 5 times. 

5.  It has come to my attention that in my rush to get out the invitations for Tate and Avery's family birthday party that I forgot the date on the invitation.  DAAAAAAAAAANG.  I hate it when that happens.  After the crazy late-night week this has been and seeing that the party is in two weeks, I decided NOT to reprint them and am just sending them out as is with a little "Oops" insert.  If you get your invitation in the mail...please just forget that it doesn't say "Saturday, January 22nd, 2011" mmmkay? Thanks and we hope to see you then!

31 December 2010

1.  We were so lucky to have been able to spend time with our families for the holidays.  First up was Christmas Eve at the farm with my family.  We attended church at Swedlanda and then went back to the farm for our traditional Swedish meatballs and Swedish sausage.

2.  Then on Monday, we celebrated with Eric's family with our traditional soup meal.  

3.  Once the holidays were over, it was time to get ready for Avery's dolly & me par-TEA!  It was her first kid birthday party.  It was SO SO fun...thanks if you brought your daughter and their dolly.  They were all so polite and we had tons of fun.

More pictures on the PDP blog!

4.  We date traded with Rach and Brad the past two nights.  Finley totally cracks me up and this picture epitomizes why I don't miss cleaning up babies after they eat spaghetti and how much I love having a dog who cleans up under the table! 

E and I got to eat at Redstone and catch a movie. Perfect date night!

5.  If you are the praying kind, please pray for my friends Melanie and Derek and their baby Lincoln.  Mel is my best friend from school.  I have had a blast sharing her first pregnancy with her, which ended a bit early when Lincoln was taken by emergency c-section on December 20th.  After experiencing some trouble after he was born, they have found that Linc suffered oxygen loss sometime during those last few days before birth and has brain damage.  My heart is breaking for them and their new little cutie.  http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/lincolnhendrickson/

While you are at it my grandpa is also in the hospital and E's grandma is still in the nursing home recovering from a broken hip...they could use your prayers as well.  Lift them up for us, will you?

We hope you all had a great Christmas with your families and we hope to see you in 2011.

24 December 2010

1.  Merry Christmas!

Now that all the hustle and bustle of Christmas preparations have passed, I am finally getting around to posting and using the family pics we had taken this summer.  I have been toying around with the idea of changing over to colored pics...sometimes black and white tells the story better...sometimes it completely misses the point.  I like the continuity and style choice of all b&w, but sometimes I miss colored pics. 

When talking to my mom and sister about this, my mom said "Why don't you just have some of both?"  To which I said, "Mom, because I have a problem.  You know this."  She's also the one who laughed and rolled her eyes when I told her if I die to tell everyone to wear either apple green or hot pink to my funeral {with black pants of course because they're "slimming"}.  I can't help it.  Color coordination makes me happy.  There are worse things, people.  But really, that is probably what we will do....some of each.  But because I am crazy about things like this I will probably go back to the past few posts that will be included in the same blog book {I get them printed by season} and change to colored pics. Eventually.  Not tonight, but someday.

Anyway, back to the family pics.  Too too many we loved to share them all, but {more than} a few of our faves...

2.  The kids had their Christmas Program at church last Sunday.  Tate was a shepherd and Avery was an angel.  Cute cute.

I LOOOOOOVE how loud Jacks is singing in that last one.  Ha!

3.  After the program Grandma Becky hung around to bake cut-outs with the kids.  They had a blast and did end up with quite a few cookies even though at the beginning they were eating them as fast as they were baking them!

 

4.  We had our own little family Christmas as we traditionally do on the 22nd.  We had a candlelight steak dinner, opened gifts, then watched a movie together.

E and I decided this summer that this Christmas we were only going to make it "Summer Christmas"... with kids that have only fall and winter birthdays we always find ourselves with gift ideas in the summer, but by Christmas those things aren't available or we've forgotten.  We started buying a few things as they went on clearance at the end of the summer.

I was a little worried that they would be disappointed they didn't have toys they could use right that second {they did pick out gifts for each other that they could play with right away} but they totally surprised me by being super excited about it all!  The bikes were a hit instantly.  After we were done opening and were watching the movie the kids disappeared for a bit and came back down dressed in their swimsuits and spread out their towels and told me they were tanning.  E and I just burst out laughing. They were so excited I even let them sleep in their new suits.  Bikini for bedtime...sure!

5.  Yesterday was Avery's 5th birthday.  Proof that I let them sleep in the swimsuits is that while she's opening her gifts from us they are still wearing them!

She is one happy girl with her Tangled dress and wig from her brothers and an American Girl doll from us {which her daddy realized yesterday was JUST as much for me as her}!

We try to always find something to do as a family on Ave's birthday since we are always out of school and work.  We have a year's pass to Underwater World and had some free points at Nickelodeon Universe so we headed to MOA for the day {complete with a stop at American Girl...which may or may not have been a good idea...every single thing was "SO CUTE!"} and finished out the night with Punch Pizza and put the kids to bed early.  E said after they crashed "I feel so bad...I just realized we didn't give Avery a cake or let her blow out candles."  I am not worried...she never missed it and she will have candles to blow out next week at her party.

....................................

I overheard Beckett telling Aves when they were riding bikes and playing Rapunzel yesterday morning "Avery, I am just trying to get through the holidays!"  My sentiments exactly, Beckett!  A great reminder they remember EVERYTHING they hear.  We are off to the farm today.  We hope you all have safe travels and a Merry Christmas!