Mallory's birthday

Well once again it has been a long time, over a month. Wow, that might be my longest stint away from my blog. Work has been crazy, life is crazy what else can I say. I know I always start this way but if I had more time for everything I would blog more. Oh well. Our month of April was great. The kids were all busy with activities and it is just now coming to an end. This upcoming weekend is another crazy activity weekend but after this weekend things settle down (thank goodness).

Nathan just finished soccer and he did really well. He is really talented and good at soccer. I can even tell that he just gets it. He can take the ball and score, he sees the holes within the kids and gets through them with the ball and just moves really well. He coach said at the last game that within 15 years he will see Nathan at the local professional soccer stadium. Nathan did really get what he was saying but it was nice.

Mallory is progressing in her soccer. She is not very aggressive or possessive during the game but she can have a lot of fun and try. She is getting better at that and D is helping her with that. He said that if he can help her improve on her aggressiveness then that is great. She has the drive and most of the skills but sometimes could care less if the other team takes the ball. That sounds somewhat familiar to how I was in sports. So I understand. She also has her first dance recital this weekend. We are excited to see her. She really likes tap and is going to try ballet this summer. Mallory is also playing softball this spring. It is her first year and so far I think she likes it. I played softball for one season but really did not enjoy it. I remember playing catcher and I hated that the ball came right toward me. I also broke my arm that spring so I ended up not finishing the season, which I was OK with. Mallory just had her friend birthday party this weekend and had a great time. D and I both had a great time because it was not a sleep over. We had the girls over from 5 to 8 pm. and they mostly played outside. They made their first initial of their name so that took up some time but other than that they played outside with each other. She is supper sweet friend and did a great job of playing with everyone.

Julianne is finishing up with soccer this weekend. She has a tournament this weekend that I enjoy watching but I think the coach puts too much emphasis on it. The last tournament the girls were in tears after their third game because they did not win. We are looking at switching her teams this upcoming season to give her a new coaching perspective. So hopefully she will make the other team, but if not she has this team she can continue to play for. Julianne is also playing softball this year for the first time. She does not love it but is trying it. So her first game is tonight and I think her perfectionist self is worried about how she will do. So we will see. She is doing great in school and loves trying hard in school. She is also going to try ballet this summer which will be interesting because she really wants to jump around and to leaps and dances but I keep emphasizing that beginning ballet is all about positions and the details of the positions. But taking it this summer will be great because she can try it without it becoming a big commitment.

Lindsay is in an interesting phase. She is supper grouchy most of the time. She wants to do everything that she wants to do and definitely throws a fit when her way is not our way. Myself, her lovely or anything else does not easily soothe her. She is not a snuggler or a lover, but I think Nathan was this way for a while and now he is. So hopefully that will change with time. She is definitely a hoot. Her stink faces make me laugh and her inability to laugh makes me try harder to get her to loosen up. She also acts like is about 2 going on 4. She goes up the big playground equipment and really wants to go off the edge like bigger kids would when they go down the pole. However if she did it she would drop 10 feet. Then she gets mad when I take her off that equipment. Crazy. Anyway, it is all normal behavior but very tiring all the same. We are having fun with the kids and I know that D is enjoying all the kids sporting activities. It will be great to have a break this summer and to slow down our crazy pace. I miss hanging around our house.
 
My quilt I finally finished for D's office. Now I am working on Nathan's.
Stink Face
 
Nathan and his mad soccer skills
 
Our local family baseball game, where we always somehow always pick up another kid or two from the park.
 
Mallory's party with friends
 

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
 -Watching the kids enjoy their activities (or semi-enjoy them)
 -Seeing Mallory interact with her friends
-Lindsay's stink face.
-My wonderful husband and his great Mother's Day activities

It's been awhile

Well it has been awhile. We have been really busy with the kids and work has been crazy. So my free time has been spent working and keeping the house organized. I know when I have been busy when my quilting is on hold. Nathan's poor quilt is still in pieces on our dining room table. I worked on it this weekend for about 30 minutes. So I keep plugging away but as my time is consumed with other priorities my sewing takes a back seat. That is OK because I am still doing things I like to do so I am not really complaining but sometimes I feel like I could use an entire week to catch up on everything that I want to do personally. As parents our hobbies and interests take a back seat to the everyday activities our kids lives take up. I know that at some point in the future I will have time to do the things I always wanted to have more time to do, like sewing, photography, house and lawn projects, walking the dogs, and develop other hobbies. For me it is worth it to have less time for me right now knowing that it will come at some point. Our choice to have four kids limits our free time for now and sometimes it is hard but most of the time I know it is worth it. So my point for going on and on is that the less free time I have less often my blog posts become. I would like to write more but like I said there are a lot of things I would rather be doing then cleaning up the kitchen for the 5th time today but it is all worth it.

We had a great Easter. The kids had fun and Julianne is still gung ho on participating. I noticed that our neighbor, who is the same age, was not participating in her families Easter egg hunt. So that is great. She did not even question it. She is definitely a late bloomer and is not afraid to be young.

We also had a great time skiing in Utah. We had a rough start getting there since our first plane ran into a bird and had to come down 5 minutes later but fortunately they still got us to Utah with all five of us traveling together. The kids enjoyed skiing and Nathan skied for the first time and loved it. He went down a few blue and we got stuck on a double blue but he still plowed through it. He only lasted a few hours but we took the girls and ended up skiing the rest of the day with them. We had fun doing the moguls and skiing through the trees. Lindsay was not too happy that she was spending the day at the local daycare. She was grouching before that so that did not help. She refused lunch and when she took a nap she wanted to stay in her bed and not go with the caretaker. So that was hard but I knew it was temporary and she would have been a grouch at home so I was kind of glad I did not have to deal with her. She is feeling much better now. I think her ear infection is gone and she is no longer screaming "die, die" at the top of her lungs. I did not take any pictures with my camera but I did have my iphone. So if I can figure out how to easily upload those I will share them soon.



Lindsay was not cooperating...



Mumm...lots of chocolate. I can't keep it in my mouth.




Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-being able to go skiing with the family
-making it to Utah after our plane adventure
-Having Lindsay back to her sweet self
-planting lettuce
-time to myself.

My walking and getting into everything one year old

Well we finally celebrated Lindsay's birthday with the family. She did not dig into her cake. She had a few bites but was mostly annoyed that the icing would not come off her fingers. She kept trying to get it off and even tried to rub off the icing onto Julianne's shirt. So that was probably the funniest part and her reaction to the icing clumps on her fingers. That may be a little foreshadowing into her personality. Nathan is really particular about stuff on him but I can't really remember his cake eating experience. I guess I should go back to my blog and see how he reacted. She liked her gifts but like most one year old's did not really understand the older kids experience and was done with the first package.

She is checking out everyone and wondering why they are all staring at her and singing.



I can't get this icing off.


Here are some other pictures of Lindsay and her Santa doll that she loves but weighs too much for her right now. And her adventures outside since she is now mostly walking.





Julianne had a wax museum show at her school for all the 4th graders. She was Toni Morrison and she did an excellent job. So all the parents came to the wax museum and when you put money into their cups the kids came alive as their characters. We had a great time and the kids were very informative.



Mallory also had her class production. They had an open house in their rooms showing all the work they have worked on and it was followed by a singing production. She had a great time and it was great to see her with all her classmates.


Love her face in this one.

Well this past few weeks everyone, except for the adults, have been sick. It started with Julianne getting strep on a Sunday. D took her to the local clinic. She got medicine. Mallory and Nathan took a bath that night (the point for this comes later). Tuesday Mallory came home from school not feeling well so I took her into the doctor. Sure enough she also had strep. Nathan had a skinned knee that was looking a little funky. So during this week I was keeping my eye on it and putting medicine on it. On Thursday morning it was not looking any better and was actually spreading and looking pretty gross. So I took him in and he has impetigo which is a skin infection caused by the strep or staph bug. With four kids I thought I have seen it all but this was one that I was not aware of. So we got oral and topical antibiotics for that. So at one time I had 9 bottles of amoxicillin in my fridge. It gets better. Monday I took Lindsay in for her 1 year appointment and I thought that she may have an ear infection and she did. So she was also put on antibiotics. So everyone at my house is taking the pink stuff. I just took Julianne to the clinic this past Sunday and her strep is back so now she is on penicillin. So hopefully that takes care of all this strep. Julianne always gets strep so hopefully this will take care of it. Nathans leg is so much better and is really healed. Hopefully Lindsay's ear infection clears up because we are leaving for spring break soon and I don't really want to spend my time in a clinic there.


More pictures of the one year old.






Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-antibiotics-I would have a lot of misserable kids right now
-nice winter weather (70's this week)
-My comfy bed and quiet time to myself.

Lindsay is walking

Well Lindsay has been testing out her legs recently. She now walks around 5 to 10 steps at a time. She still walks on her tiptoes so that kind of prevents her for taking off and going longer. I don't know why she does that and I think she is the only one that started walking like that.





I love when the kids sit like this. I love their little toes and I wish I could sit like this longer than a few minutes.

I checked on Lindsay one night, which I don't always do, and I was surprised when I noticed that her bottom was exposed. So I took a closer look and noticed that her leg out of her pajamas and her diaper was off her rear. So of course I had to grab my camera to capture this moment. I am glad that I did go in that night because who knows what I might have found in the morning. Definitely a wet bed and hopefully not some #2's in her bed, yuck.




Here is Mallory loving on her much neglected dogs. So I took a few pictures of them since they do not get as much attention these days and they are getting older.


Mel's extremely large tongue.





Some more basketball pictures. Julianne had a great season in her first year of basketball. She really pushed herself and definitely came out of her comfort zone. She was point guard most of the time and ended up having a great season and she learned so much. I even practiced with her some nights and she would teach me about protection dribbling, screens, and left handed layups. So I am even having fun learning about the game and practicing with her. She still had days that she did not want to be the point guard because "it is too much pressure", but she really is the best person for that position on both teams. The local team, with all girls, was tough but not as tough as her co-ed league. She was good and really competed with the boys. She had really upsetting times in the game where she was frustrated with people blocking her or her not being able to protect the ball. I am just really proud of her for trying and staying strong. Basketball is a tough, aggressive sport. I know she puts a lot of pressure on herself so we tried to emphasize that she does not have to do that and it is about fun. Anyway, she had a great season and she really pushed her comfort level.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Lindsay accomplishing walking
-Lindsay's crazy stage where she tears up my kitchen and never puts anything back. :)
-Julianne and all her hard work learning the tough and aggressive game of basketball
-D coaching Julianne in her two leagues and growing as a coach and a father in those times.

I am reflecting on Lindsay's birthday in a few weeks. I can't believe that our baby is almost one. It just seems like yesterday she was weeks old. I went to Mallory's school for a presentation yesterday and I saw a newborn, like a few weeks old. She was so tiny and pink. Then I looked at Lindsay and she was big, cruising, laughing, blabbing, and full of happiness. It was just so surreal to see the difference a year makes. I know that the nine months they are in the womb is nothing compared to the growth that occurs within the first year outside of the womb but it is too bad we can't see that as well. She is a happy, somewhat serious child. She still prefers to be held but has times that she crawls around the first floor and explores on her own. She likes to interact with the kids and sometimes wrestles with them. She is only posessive of me when another sibling is on my lap. Then she comes over and demands that they move. She loves her dad. She loves for him to carry around and for him to hold her when he comes home from work and eats his dinner. Within the past week she is showing her frustration by either putting her head down or arching her back in frustration. I know that more of that will come. She is not much of a snuggler, she is too busy with everything else. I remember that at this age Nathan was not a snuggler either but he is now a big snuggler. So hopefully that will come back to her. The girls still love her and still want to get her up from her nap. They also like to pick her up and move her away from their playing space. Nathan loves to tackle her at the basketball games when she is getting too close to the court. This year of growth is amazing and I am excited for the next year of her life. She will learn to walk, begin her tantrums, playing with the kids, talking more. It is such a fun age for kids.

Last night we had our first official no TV night. The kids watch about a half an hour to an hour of TV from 7 to 8 before bed. This has been their ritual for many years: they clean up their toys, get their desserts (if they get one) and watch TV. This either entails watching TV or playing an electronic devise, or both. It is not every night since we are so busy but if we are home during this time the TV is usually on. So on Sunday night I watch an Oprah show and it was about Hasidic Jews. it was very interesting and I really learned a lot about this group of Jewish community in New York City. I love how Oprah interviews different populations, cultures, religions. I think it opens my eyes up to different experiences and really in the end all we are all the same. That was even mentioned in this episode that even though this religion is strict in their dress, food separations, Faith and beliefs they are still people who love their children, want the best for their family and their community and really want to experience life. Anyway, from the show I learned that they do not watch TV, ever. Their kids help around the house, cook dinner, play games, read, sing songs with their kids, dance, etc. I loved the innocence of not watching TV. The older kids had no idea about all the pressures other teens go through with all the images of sexy clothes, games, violence, etc. While I am not advocating giving up our TV it is a great reminder that the kids can enjoy other things beside their beloved nighttime TV. So we went to the library and borrowed books they were interested in and looked at those books during that time at home. Nathan kept asking when are getting our treats and watching TV and I reminded him that we were not watching TV tonight that we were going to look at our books and explore different things we were interested in. So we did, we read a karate books, a book on figure skating, Julianne read a thumb sucking book to everyone, and Nathan looked through his Iron Man picture book. No one complained that they were not watching TV and it was nice. Nathan asked me this morning if we were going to watch TV tonight and I said we probably would and he said good. I asked him if he had fun last night and he did say he did. So I think I will try to do it every Monday, since I usually don't work and I am not cleaning up, catching up on house stuff or just exhausted, and make sure we have interesting books or learn about new things during this time.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Learning about different cultures, even if it is through watching TV
-Lindsay and her growth
-Snow
-Julianne getting a 100% on her math test after having gone to school early to get some help
-Experiencing Julianne's mental growth with dealing with her emotions