The New Year

I am not going to make a resolution to post more because I know that I will not.  I am already behind and I don't not need any more personal pressure for myself to do more.  So I am not going to do that.  I am posting for myself, for my family and for my few friends that read this blog.  My frequency of blog postings definitely reflect how much free time I have and throughout last year my free time decreased, as you can see from my postings.  But that is alright, I am still keeping up with this and still documenting our life for our kids, so that is the most important thing about keeping up this blog.   

Our Holiday season was great.  We had a great Christmas with family and extended family.  We also had a lot of snow so that was great to have around the holidays.  The kids enjoyed it even if it was not specifically on Christmas.   I will tell the rest of the story with the following photos.

We went to visit Santa with cousins and had a great time talking to the "talking tree".  

Unfortunately, Santa's ear piece was a little loud and Julianne could hear it and questioned if this was the real Santa or not.  So after this year we will probably have to have the talk with her so that she knows what really goes on.

A week before most of the holiday festivities began we had a week where the family was sick.  It started with Lindsay when she had high fever and then got this rash.  I think she had Rosella.  Then Mallory threw up during the middle of the week and missed a few days of school.  After a few days of not getting sick I thought I was in the clear but Friday night was my turn.  I threw up for 6 solid hours and was completely exhausted the next day.  Now I throw up almost every year but this year was different because I slept all day.  I was barely up for an hour before my eyes kept wanting to shut again.  It was great to be able to sleep all day but obviously I was not productive.  Saturday night I sweated in my bed and Sunday morning I felt 100% better.  So it must have had some flu virus in it because it was more then just the stomach bug.  It was the stomach flu.  I don't think that exempts me from the real flu but maybe it will.  Julianne also threw up once or twice and of course D did not get it at all.  For some reason he rarely gets the stomach bug.  I am so jealous.  I am not a big fan of vaccines but if they had a vaccine for the stomach bug I would definitely get it.  

Our first snow came while my mom and Rick were in town so I think they enjoyed it.  We then had Christmas over at Dad's house.

 

The kids all enjoyed hanging out with their cousins and family.  Mallory got a new bike, Julianne got a new guinea pig cage, Nathan received some Playmobil sets and Lindsay received a doll house.  So it was nice to hang out with everyone.

Christmas morning...all the kids slept together.  It was so cute.  

      

D figuring out his new coffee machine.

The kids in their Coca-Cola polar bear hats.

Lindsay in her Christmas Grandma dress.  I was impressed that she let us put it on her.

It also snowed after Christmas so we had a good 6 to 10 inches of snow on the ground.  The kids had a blast playing in it and we were able to go sledding a few times.  

This was Lindsay's first real time playing in the snow.  She did not enjoy that the snow stuck to her mittens, but loved being pulled around in the sled.  

She did not enjoy sledding but instead just really wanted to pull the sled around by the rope.

 Nathan attempting to snowboard.  He did pretty well on the plastic kid snowboard.

It is funny because at any sledding hill there is always a handmade jump.  The kids always take advantage of these and I avoid them because they always give me a headache if I land just right on it.  

D and Julianne's team also played in a winter basketball tournament so that was a distraction from the snow.

She is like an emotional rollar coster when she plays.  She could have one game where she plays really well and is aggressive and then the next day she will not want the ball, cries on the court or just is not that into it.  So she is working on it and we think she has turned a corner of her not getting into her mind too much when she is playing and just enjoying it.  She puts a lot of pressure on herself and gets upset when the ball is stolen or she messes up but as much as she plays we keep telling her it is OK to not do it perfectly all the time as long as you are trying.  So she is currently working through this and will hopefully succeed in the end because she is a really good player when she is in the right mindset.

The following pictures are a great insight into Lindsay's personality.

  

Lindsay pushing her way in, Nathan falling over because he was pushed by his little sister, then Lindsay noticing that she pushed him and talking to him.  

Then she tackles him and sit on him.  Is she an alpha female or what.

Here she is in her persistent mode.  I will not pick her up but she keeps trying.  I think I have a similar picture of Nathan at this age doing the same thing.  I sometimes love to tortured them for a good picture.

This was from a different sledding experience at a different hill but notice again there is a man made jump.  The kids got great air out of this jump.  There were also woods at the bottom of this hill that they sledded into so that was also fun.

 

Lastly, we had Nathan's birthday.  I can't believe he is six.  That is so crazy but he really is a great kid.  He tries hard at school and sports, is easy to be around, is sensitive and caring while still making us laugh everyday.  He has had a hard winter with his asthma.  He had an episode at Christmas and he just had one a week ago.  So I don't know if it is just because of the viruses going around or it is getting worse.  We are going to go see a more natural/homeopathic pediatrician soon to see if there is anything else we can be doing for him to ease his asthma episodes.  I don't really want to put him on a steroid everyday but it is so hard to really know what to do and what not to do since every case is different.  So hopefully she will help us out, if not we will continue to do what we do and see how it goes.  

Things I am grateful/thankful for:

-large amounts of snow that stick around for awhile

-having time to write in this blog

-Yoga

-the holidays with our extended family

I am so behind on my blog postings, I don't even know where to start.  I guess I wish it was easier to just post simple messages instead of putting my photos onto one webpage, copy the link to this webpage.  It is kind of a pain and I am sure there is an easier way but I barely have time to post on this blog much less figure out a different method.  Oh well, that is life and even though I love it I would enjoy a little more free time for myself.  Well I do now so I am taking advantage of it.

Well since my last post lots of activities have occurred.  Julianne had her birthday, which just seems so wired that is getting so old.  She had her friends go to a movie without a sleepover so we were thrilled because she is getting too old for us to host anymore big group sleepovers.  Last years sleepover was a disaster because she had a few unruly friends who did not want to go to bed.  This years group probably would have been fine but we were happy that she choose to not have a sleepover.  Julianne recieved two guinea pigs as her birthday present.  She is doing a great job taking care of them and in general they are pretty low maintenance.  Once they get bigger we will probably have to get them a larger cage but for now is it sufficient.
 




The kids soccer season was great.  Mallory and Julianne had a great year being on new competitive teams.  We are especially happy with Julianne's experience.  Her new coach is great and she pretty much played center midfield the entire season.  Mallory also had a great season with her team.  She really wanted a trophy but did not get one in their tournament.  She scored two goals in their tournament so that was exciting for her.


This was the other teams coach and he was great.  He was so excited, passionate, positive and loud.  He made all the parents crack up.  He also tried to take pictures as he was yelling at the kids.



They have both moved on to basketball.  Julianne made the local competitive team and D is coaching it so that is great.  Mallory is playing at a local school and has a few classmates on her team.  The official season starts in early December so it will be great to see how they all do.

Nathan also had a great soccer season with his two favorite coaches, mom and dad.  We had a lot of fun coaching his team and it sure takes a lot of work and patience coaching 4-5 year olds in soccer.  I solo coached a few games and one practice by myself and it is more fun when we are both together.  Nathan did great and had fun.  He is definitely knows his soccer skills so we will look for something different for him next year.

Nathan is choking on some leaves.

Lindsay is great and I can't believe she is 20 months old.  She is a very determined, passionate, distractible, head strong child that spends quite a lot of time in timeouts lately.  I think she is that way because she has to be in order to survive in our house.  She is also very sweet with others are crying, when she is by herself with us and when she is tired.  She makes me laugh and our house would not be as fun without her.

This is a horrible picture but she now hides when we say we are leaving.  The first time she found this spot in our mudroom closet, it took me forever to find her.

We have a similar picture of Julianne around this age and they look a lot alike.

Halloween was great despite the cold, rainy weather.  The kids were excited and we had fun in our neighbors warmer garage.





Lindsay's buddy.

Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-Having free time to write in my blog
-My family
-beautiful sunrise this morning
-Our upcoming Thanksgiving

The Dog Days are Over...

Well the kids are back in school and in the swing of things. Before the kids started school we went on vacation to the beach. The beach was great. It was relaxing, fun and we had tons great family time. It was great and we were sad to leave but we knew that school was just around the corner. Lindsay was fun but also a handful. She was not afraid of the waves and her motto was the bigger the better. If we were not helping her she would have been washed away. She was also funny because she would have some manic times where she was in the water for a long time and running along the waterline then she would stop and go back up to our spot and play in the sand. We were much better equipped this year. 

As you remember from last year we stood out like a family from Ohio traveling to the beach for the first time. Our tent was a disaster and hot and our chairs collapsed in the sand and our plastic shovel bent the first time we used it. So we bought a pop up tent, which was probably not suppose to be used in the sand because by the last day the legs would barely fold into another. The paint was chipping and I could of used some WD-40 to add some lubrication to the legs. Anyway, it worked much better then our tent. We also bought a plastic shovel with a wooden handle from the grocery store on day one so that helped with finding sand crabs. We also knew to set our tent out in the early morning so we would have a waterfront spot. So it was great to be better aware of what we were doing. I think that next year we will just us an umbrella because most of the time we did not sit in the tent and like I said it was a pain to put up and take down every day. So I think and umbrella will work better and be easier. Anyway, we had fun and the kids enjoyed the beach and undivided time with us.

 
Crazy Lindsay enjoying the waves. She was fearless and like I said the bigger the better for her.
Oh good she is sitting down.
  Mallory and Nathan wanted to bury themselves in sand. Nathan did not want to go up to his chest so he just got his legs burried.
Sweet picture of D and Lindsay...
 
We had one night where Lindsay was cracking us up. We were cleaning up after dinner and took it upon herself to help herself by eating the rest of the food. Here is her eating the leftover mac-n-cheese and dipping a piece of bread in Mallory's ketchup.
 
We loved Mallory's hair. It was long and curly at the beach.
 

 School and soccer season has started and it is good to be back in a routine and have the kids involved in activities. I do not like all the paperwork, fundraisers, etc. that comes along with having three kids in school and activities. Julianne and Mallory switched soccer teams this year and we both think it was a good move. For Julianne it was a chance to change teams and coach and to learn some new skills from a soccer coach. The atmosphere on the team is much different and the games are a lot quieter. I think she is enjoying it. She has not had as many breakdowns as she did with the other team but it still new so I am still hesitant to make that prediction. She is also playing a lot of different positions so we are also happy with that instead of sticking her in defense for the entire game she is moving between offensive and defensive positions. She is liking her grade and she was worried about all the homework she was going to have but it has not been that bad. She is also very efficient with her flex time at school so I think she takes full advantage of that time to get most of her work completed.

 Mallory's teacher is the same teacher that Julianne had for 3rd grade. She is very funny and outgoing and I think Mallory really likes her. She is getting into non-fiction reading and I remember that this was the year that we had the hardest time with Julianne because she was still not a great reader and they bring home a non-fiction page of reading every night. Mallory is struggling a little because, frankly it is not very interesting to read about these non-fiction short stories. So Mallory is doing much better at coping with the boardem of these passages then Julianne but it is still a struggle. I think it will get better and giving her a little background on what she is reading helps her get into the story a little better. 

Nathan is enjoying school. Like we predicted he did not have any adjustment issues nor did he shed a tear. That is completely different for us then Mallory and Julianne they had such a hard time going to kindergarden. So it is nice and Nathan gets to see them at school once in awhile so that helps. He has the same teacher that the girls had so that is great. The teacher just sent something home today saying that he qualifies for extra help, meaning he can go to school for the entire day and be in a special classroom when he is not in kindergarden. I have mixed emotions about that since first of all it is kindergarten, and secondly I like having him home during the morning.  The assessment was taken the first day of school which just seems wrong.  Mallory's and his preschool did not really drill down the alphabet/sounds as much as it probably should nor did we really practice with him. To me it seems like he knows a lot more than Mallory or Julianne knew going into Kindergarden.  Did they increase the kindergarden requirements or does he not really know more than they did?  Mallory needed extra help but they did not have this program when she was in school so she just went to a tutor in school.  So we will see what we decide, but come on it is kindergarden and he will be fine.
 Things I am grateful/thankful for:
-going on vacation for a week
 -writing in my blog (when I get a chance to)
-Experiencing school through my kids (Mallory is studying rocks and Julianne is studying Geography, both my favorites)
-Lindsay and her drive/desires/persistence.
-My great husband who is working hard to be where he wants to be and still makes it a priority to spend time with his kids and his wife.