Pre-Spring Break Break.

Today was the third day in a row I have received a call before six in the morning saying school is canceled due to inclement weather.  This is a picture of the ‘inclement weather.’ When did we get so wimpy Kansas! It is cold, and we have had some ice, but the roads are dandy. My kids have been out of school for a week now (parent teacher conferences…President Day…three snow days).  My kids have been loving the bonus spring break. Ryan and I have both worked this week so it has been a little tricky figuring out who can watch our kids last minute. Luckily we have awesome Aunt Lauren to help us out in a pinch. It is looking like there should be no reason to cancel tomorrow but I thought that the last two days. Fingers crossed!

Last weekend was the final basketball tournament games for Matthew’s season. We wanted to keep him busy through the off season for baseball so we just signed him up through the city of Olathe sports. His friend Finn ended up on the same team. The first practice looked a little rough but they had a great coach and they did really good. Their end of season record was 7-1. They were the winners for their division, and were bumped up to the next division for the tournament.  The trophies they are holding are for winning their division. They won the first game but lost the second game of the tournament. Matthew played pretty good. He is great at the steal and break away for a layup because he is so fast. He made a few threes too. He needs to work on his dribbling so he is more comfortable with his left dribble but he had a good, fun season.

Emilee is finished with her three basketball practices and has had her first two games. The first game she would run down and shoot the ball if she got it on offense, but when it was time for defense her and Reese went and SAT against the wall until it was time to run down the court again. Game two was better. She stayed on the court and held her hands up wherever she was whether she was standing by someone or not. We have been working on dribbling this week for her last game.  I love watching little kids play sports. It is so ridiculous if you sit back and take in the whole scene but it is a lot of fun for them. She is so proud of herself when she is done.

Alli's famous

A few years ago Ryan had Allison come to his work and take some pictures for some brochures they were making and other advertising stuff. They just redid some of it and added a video on their Facebook page. The last part ends with this picture. We showed Alli the video and I said, “Look Alli, you’re famous!” to which she replied in her best ‘mom you just don’t get it voice’, “Ya, I’ve been famous for years.” I hope she holds on to that confidence.

Ryan and I went on a group date with some of our friends to an Escape Room this last weekend.  We have done it once before a while ago. It is a fun time. The room had a 34% pass pass rate and we were able to figure it out before our time ran out. That made us all feel smart. Then we all went to KC Joe’s BBQ and had some delicious BBQ. I am becoming a BBQ snob, which is easy to do in  a city known for its BBQ. It is probably my favorite type of food too now.

Conferences and the violin play off.

Last week was parent teacher conference time again. I met with each of the kids teachers and their music teacher.

Alli’s teacher is on maternity leave so she has had a long term sub for the last six weeks with three more to go. Her regular teacher is nice but Alli seems to click with her substitute a little more. Her name is Mrs Hathaway but she goes by Mrs Happy. She is a boisterous person with a large personality which fits Alli well. The first thing she said to me is when I walked in was, “Hi Sugar! Your Alli is a little spit fire, she doesn’t take any guff from anyone, and I love her for it.  She is a future leader.” I was expecting a bear hug the way she was approaching me but instead got a hand shake and a hand on the shoulder. We talked for about 40 minutes and I am glad Alli has the opportunity to have her for a few more weeks. She is kind of like Alli’s own Mary Poppins. Mrs Happy has noticed and seems more aware of Alli’s traits and strengths and weaknesses more than any other teacher she has ever had, and she has been actively focusing on her to help her improve. Alli is doing well in school. The two biggest areas she  struggles is her spelling tests and the comprehension portions of her reading tests. Mostly for lack of effort and rushing. Mrs. Happy has  made an effort to call Alli out and give her strategies and processes to improve in those areas.  After some eye rolls from Alli (sigh) and some of Mrs. Happy’s own ‘no guff policy’,  Alli has improved steadily in both areas the past few weeks. She seems to be more willing to do her homework too. Mrs, Happy also pointed out she loves Alli’s friendship with her new best friend this year named Carly.  She described them as serious, no drama, solid foundation, riding the same wave length friends. They are quite a pair, and they seem to get each other. I am proud of how hard Alli works at school and the effort she puts into her work. I agree with her teacher. She is a born leader and she is a force to be reckoned with.  She has amazing potential, Ryan and I just hope and pray we can help her channel it in the right direction.

Matthew’s teacher said he is doing really well too.  Matthew really spoils me when it comes to school. He has always been good at getting his homework done and turned in without being asked. He is pretty self sufficient with everything and responsible. I’m crossing my fingers that his organization and self motivation will continue and be a permanent trait. Math is one of his best subjects, he says he doesn’t like it but I think he does.  He is getting a little streak of the beginnings of a teenage boy silliness and cockiness but he is a good kid. I can count on one hand the number of times he has forgotten an assignment since he started kindergarten and he has never just not done it.  Than remains true for this year too, until orchestra.

This year HE decided that he wanted to be in the orchestra and picked the violin to play. He has orchestra twice a week for a half hour.  This makes the progression through lessons fairly slow.  The first semester was a little ridiculous, over the course of four months they learned six notes and were supposed to pluck them (they don’t learn the bow until after Christmas) for 100 minutes a week.  ‘Mind numbing boringness’ is what Matthew called it, and I couldn’t blame him. As a result he became pretty lax with his practicing and I let him. After Christmas they started learning the bow and a few more notes and playing more songs. After some reminding, nagging, prodding, incentivizing and more nagging his practicing habits stayed pretty much the same as first semester. So by the time conferences came around last week he had a nice F for his music grade.

When he told me about his F he said it with the attitude of that was just how it was and it was out of his hands. I asked him how much he had been practicing and he said, “A lot its just to hard .” The ‘just bad at it’ excuse.  I told him he was full of crap and all he needed to do was practice consistently and he would get better. His grade was a result of his lack of practice not his inability. Then to prove my point I challenged him to a violin play off.  Basically I spent about half an hour learning how to play ‘Twinkle Little Star’ on the violin, then we went in another room where no one could see us and each of us played it without telling those who were listening who was playing. The results… Ryan, Alli, Emilee, and his friend Carson could not tell who was who.  Matthew was a little embarrassed to be bested or at least matched by his mom who until thirty minutes before had never touched a violin and decided he would put more effort into practicing. He now has a B in orchestra.

The hand bells are back!

About four years ago I asked for a  set of hand bells for Christmas. I can’t remember what started the idea but I got it in my head that our family could be a little bell playing family. It could be a fun little hobby all of us could do together. Who doesn’t like to add to their  list of unique and quirky talents right?! So I got some bells and after about ten minutes of trying to get my kids to follow any type of instruction with them I put them back in the bag and hid them in my closet before me and every other adult within hearing range went crazy.

Later that same year we went to Florida for a Jones family get together. My parents asked everyone to share a talent for part of our family home evening together. I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to try our bells again so we practiced an easy song like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star a for a few weeks before. It was a little rough but I didn’t think it was to bad. We took the bells with us to Florida and when it was our turn to perform we did…and it was awful. You couldn’t even tell what song it was. Everyone was nice and clapped and we moved on. I decided that we weren’t quite ready to be the Terry Bell Band…yet.

Fast forward  four years to about a week before Valentine’s Day. I decided to try again! So I got out the bells and found a few songs to play and we practiced. It was much better! We decided to play the ‘Happy Birthday’ song but sing ‘Happy Valentine’s’ instead and record it and send it to our Grandmas and Grandpas for Valentines. It was still a little rocky but after practicing a few times each day for a few days it sounded pretty good. On Valentine’s Day we decided to record it. The first few times did not go well. Twenty plus tries later it was going even worse. We decided to play it one more time and record it and send whatever we got. We did and once again, it was pretty bad. We must have stage fright issues…or general listening skill issues. 🙂 We still sent it and the Grandmas and Grandpas were very generous with their praises. My ears are ready for a break again so I think I will put the bells away and hopefully in another year or two we will be able to really start the Terry Family Bell Band. 🙂

The video below is one of our attempts, Ryan was at work but Emilee’s friend Reese was here so she filled in for him. Notice how Emilee just rings her bell through the whole song whenever she feels like it. Lol!

Bell Band Beginnings

Valentine’s is coming…

Aaahhh Valentine’s Day… I have mixed emotions about this holiday. Sometimes I get into it and it is fun, other years it is more of a hassle. This year I have been a little more into it.

For the kids I usually get them a little stuffed animal or something. My kids LOVE stuffed animals. They are going to take over our house someday. It really is something all three of them like though so it works well.

This year I am doing something fun that they have really liked. Each day I leave a little note with a treat or gift for them to find in the morning. I started on the 1st and the last one will be the 14th. Some of the favorites have been a balloon that says pop me on it with a note inside, or ones that have a cheesy note, like ‘I love you smartie pants’ with some Smarties.

This is the last weekend before Valentine’s Day so it has been full of Valentine festivities for the kids getting ready for the party coming up this week for school. They can make a box for their valentine cards and bring it if they want and then of course making the Valentine’s for each person. It made me chuckle how each kiddo did their stuff.

Emilee got an appropriate size bag to color and decorate with stickers and had fun sticking the candy on each card for her preschool friends. Took about half an hour.

Alli made a robot that opens it mouth to receive her cards. It is made from three cereal boxes, four 2 liter bottles, all covered with tin foil then colored to look like different colors of slime because it says “I love slime” all over it. She has been working on it for three days and still has some finishing touches. She also spent a few hours making her valentines and organizing them and checking and rechecking her list.

Matthew asked to have little individual bags of Skittles which he wrote ‘from Matthew’ on each one then put them in a plastic grocery sack which he said can also be his ‘box’. Took him a total of maybe five minutes.

Side note. In fifth grade I remember spending lots of time wondering and thinking about the perfect card for each boy. I stressed about the ‘meaning behind’ each one and wanted it to be very clear that I didn’t like them, or if I did like them then I had to make it obvious but not to obvious. Then after everyone handed them out at school I would come home and poor over the Valentine’s from the boys and try and figure out which ones were sending me a hidden message that they liked me. Haha! I now know that these boys (if they were anything like my boy) spent about two seconds doing their cards and had no idea that this was serious business and I would be agonizing over them wondering what they meant by giving me the one that said “you are the best!’ on it.

Ryan and I usually  keep it simple and plan a date somewhere close to the 14th and have a nice evening together. The last few years I have also given  him a homemade thoughtful, sweet, but slightly cheesy gift.  For example one year I made a little book with a picture of us from each year we had been married and decorated it over the top with hearts and glitter and flowers. One year I hooked a deck of cards together with an o-ring and mod podged a different reason I love him on each card. Another year I made a picture collage with pictures from the last 15 years we have been married.  He is getting a nice little collection for his dresser. 🙂 Ryan always makes sure I get a yummy supply of dark chocolate too, which I am already looking forward to.

 

The house…

This afternoon I was sitting on the couch and Matthew came up and asked if he could sit in my house. It made me smile.

When Matthew was little I was laying on the couch and he came up and sat in the little space behind my legs made from pulling my knees up and started looking at a book.  I said it was kind of like a little house for him and from then on he would ask to sit it my house. When his sisters came along he told them about the house and now they all ask to sit in my house. It is a reading spot or snuggling spot for them, and I usually get to take a nap too. 

Emilee’s first talk in primary…

Just a quick little story about sweet Emilee. Her and dad wrote her talk about how Heavenly Father made the earth for us to enjoy. She was excited and said she was going to do it. I teach a primary class during the time she was giving it so I missed it but dad went to help her say it. She stood up to the microphone and then decided she didn’t like everyone looking at her so she buried her head in dads shoulder and held up her picture as best she could without looking. The song leader read her talk for her.  Ryan told me what happened describing it as a complete fail. After church I asked Emilee how it went and she said, “It went great! Except I didn’t say it.” Hahaha! I’m glad it was a success in her  mind. She has a little bit of a shy side to her like her brother.

Sister weekend

My family is pretty spread out. I have a sibling in Utah, Florida, Virginia, and parents in South Dakota. It is kind of hard to see each other obviously so when we have a chance we try to get together. The last weekend in January I used our southwest points for a free flight to see my sister DeAnna in Utah. It was a wonderful long weekend. I flew out early Thursday morning and stayed until Monday morning.  DeAnna and John are always gracious hosts. John took Friday off so he could take care of the kids while we played together.

Thursday we spent the afternoon visiting and hanging out while we played and snacked with the kids. That evening we went to an art painting class that DeAnna had signed us up for. My analytical brain had a hard time figuring out how to ‘just paint’ with general guidelines instead of specific directions but about half way through I started figuring it out. It was a lot of fun. I think I will make it a new hobby every now and then too. I came home and got the supplies to paint at home and have a few things I want to try. I’m not amazing at it but they are good enough that my girls want to hang them up in their rooms.

 

Friday DeAnna had another new activity planned for us. We went snow shoeing in the mountains to a place called Doughnut Falls. It was pretty awesome. It was quiet and peaceful. When we got to the falls we walked right over the  water in a few places. You could see it running underneath us in places but it was cold enough the snow had packed down and iced up enough to walk on.  After our hike we stopped for lunch then went home to play some games. After dinner we went to the rec center and played racket ball together. I took a class in college and have played occasionally since then but it has been a while. I still really like it though. I told Ryan we need to start playing more now that our kids are older. There are a couple courts at the place Alli has gymnastics. It is good exercise and I like that it is contained so I don’t have to chase after a ball half the time.

Saturday we went and got our nails done and did some window shopping and ate lunch again. We played a game with John that afternoon. It is a good one-Isle of Skye- I will have to get it for Ryan to add to his game collection. John helped me get my blog figured out and organized too. It was nice to spend some time with my niece and nephews too. DeAnna and John are very good parents. I always feel inspired to be a better parent and more motivated after I have been around them. I usually pick up a few ideas too on how to ‘manage the masses’. The one I have liked this time is when they read scriptures they have everyone bring their own scriptures and follow along. Then take turns reading. We have everyone read but I haven’t had them have their own scriptures. We started trying that and it has made a huge difference on keeping everyone focused, which means less irritation from me and Ryan and more understanding and discussion on what we are reading. Woohoo! Saturday night the three of us went to a play at the Hale Theater…I am drawing a blank on the name right now…I think it was Dear Ruth. It was pretty funny. I really enjoy going to plays like that too. Afterwards we raced to make it to Kneaders before they closed, and I am glad we made it! I had never tried it before it is a little deli/bakery shop. I took advantage of the bakery part and it was delicious. They had one of my favorites- chocolate mint brownies. I told a friend of mine about it her in KC and she said they are actually building one not to far away here. It is probably good that it isn’t really close to me.

Sunday we went to our Grandma and Grandpa Jones to visit with them a little while. Her sisters husband had passes away earlier that week so several of my aunts (Melody,Julie, Mary) were there as well for the funeral the next day. It was a nice visit. My Grandma’s memory is starting to not be as sharp. She is still the same person though.  She was nervous to play the trumpet (she is in her 80’s) at the family dinner for the funeral, her sister asked her to play ‘Danny Boy’. My aunt posted her performance though and it was amazing of course. My grandma had played her trumpet and the piano all over the world for all different events.  It was a quick visit but I’m glad a got to see them. Grandpa seems to be doing well too, a little slower but still busy and always doing something. After our visit we went to church and then hung out and played the rest of the evening at DeAnna’s. Ryan sent me this picture bragging about getting to 8am church with time to spare all by himself.  I guess he was implying I am the one that makes us late-we both know that isn’t true though.  Even a blind squirrel will find a nut sometimes.

We stayed up pretty late Saturday night talking , but I am a light weight and couldn’t stay up Sunday too. I loved getting to spend some time with my sister though. I am glad that we like each other and like to spend time together. I hope someday we can live closer to each other so we can see each other more. Monday morning DeAnna took me back to the airport and I headed home.

A little side note. I love family trips and vacations but I really enjoy traveling as an adult with no kids too. I can sleep or read or sit and stare into space. It is a nice opportunity to have some peace and quiet. The flight was nice. 🙂

January came and went…

I plan on writing more than I have this past month.  Once I got my blog started I somehow locked myself out and it took awhile to figure it out.  I went and visited my sister DeAnna and her husband John helped me get things figured out so I should be good to go now! Woohoo! There is a post that I wrote that I can’t seem to find but forward from here.

So January is always a bit of a let down for me to be honest. It is hard to follow the fun and excitement and Spirit of Christmas. New Years is exciting and I always feel a bit refreshed and ready to head into the year…but then it is just cold and gloomy and back to the same  old routines- and stays that way for far to many weeks.

With my kids getting a little older and their schedules getting busier that does help the month go by faster.

Emilee is 5 and when you ask her if she wants to learn to do or play anything she always says, “Yes! But not until I’m older.” So we told her she was older now and she can try basketball. Her and one of her besties, Reece, are trying YMCA Bitty Basketball together.  She seems to really like it. Ryan is hoping she will like it and they can share the love of basketball together for years to come. She has the height-she is estimated to be 5′ 9″, and she seems to have a bit of natural coordination which Ryan hopes will translate to athleticism. It is hard to say,  a good 25% of practice is still spent practicing her cartwheels, but that is way better that the 75% of soccer practice she spent doing somersaults last Fall. Emilee is giving her first talk in Primary this Sunday too. She is excited about it but has a little shy side to her so hopefully she will actually say it when the time comes.

Allison is our social butterfly. She keeps us up to date on all the happenings in the 2nd grade and 5th grade (they sit across from each other at lunch, much to her delight). She has been playing the piano for about a year and a half now. Before Christmas she was struggling and not really loving it and begging to quit. Over the break her teacher gave her and Matthew a duet to learn. It was the first “real” song she ever learned and it was a break through for her. She realized she can pick out songs she likes and learn them and it is fun, and she is good at it. She practices on her own or with little reminding now. I hope it lasts! She is still doing gymnastics too. She started with a general gymnastics class, they rotate through the floor, bars, beam and a few other things. She was not feeling challenged enough with that and getting bored. She seems to have a knack for gymnastics too. I talked to her coach and he suggested she take another class that does floor work only. She loves it! She is getting close to being able to do a back hand spring on her own. She achieved the flexibility to do the splits completely this month too which she is quite proud of. She joined Girl Scouts this year too. This month she and her dad made a pine wood derby car to compete with. She did a good job and almost placed in the top three for speed but not quite. Alli has an artistic side and she had fun painting and blinging out her car with glitter.  January is cookie season for Girl Scouts. Selling door to door is one of the last things I want to do but Alli (being the polar opposites we are) is all for it. She dragged Ryan out with her a few times (I was always busy…) and 85 boxes later she was not even close to done but Ryan was. They have cookie booths that the whole troop will sell cookies at too so she can look forward to selling more that way.

Matthew has not shortage of activities to keep him busy either. I told him he had to play the piano for one school year minimum. He also decided that he wanted to join Orchestra and play the violin too. He is currently looking forward to dropping the piano as soon as I will let him, but plans on continuing with the violin.  He is in a year round baseball academy. Ryan and him share a LOVE for baseball. When Fall Ball was over the coaches told everyone  to rest their arms and not even play catch until after Christmas. In the mean time the academy has a strength and agility class called Boost they want him doing as much as possible. He has been doing that a few times a week and working on his hitting. I’m excited to see him hit this coming season. He has improved a lot. I love that he is working out on a regular basis too, hopefully that will instill a habit in him to continue in the future. While he was waiting for regular practices with his team to start again-which they did this month- he played basketball with an Olathe Rec team. Matthew is naturally athletic so any sport he tries at he will be at least decent. He has not been practicing basketball very much though so he has lost a lot of his dribbling skills…and shooting skills…but he has been enjoying it, even though he says he  just tolerates it until he can play baseball again.  His baseball team has several kids that play indoor soccer together too so he is trying that out. It isn’t very time consuming, not even a practice and game every week, but it is one more thing to keep him distracted from video games and stupid You Tube.

Well, I will pause for now. I still have lots to say! My next post will be about the awesome trip to see my sister in Utah that I just got back from.

 

Here we go!

About six months ago I started mulling over the idea that I wanted to start a blog for our family. I don’t really know much about blogs. I can get by with my computer skills but I’m not the most tech savvy person.  I have friends that I know use it as their family journal/scrapbook and print it out each year, and that is what appeals to me.  When I was about 10ish one of my aunt’s gave me a few scrapbook supplies. I started doing it and really like it. When I got married I kept doing it and created many volumes of books.  Right after I had Matthew I remember thinking, “I might as well pack  all this stuff away for the next 20 years because I will never have time to do this again.” After I adjusted to being a new mom and juggling everything I was able to get back to it.  Three or four years ago I switched over to doing everything online through Shutterfly instead of by hand. It was much easier and faster, and less messy. I love having the books to look through and remember. My kids like them too. I hope someday their kids and so on will enjoy them too. I think a family blog will let me add a little more substance to my books instead of just a brief caption with the pictures, but still have pictures too.  So… here goes the launch of the Terry Family Blog!